"After using up the medicinal soup, which had completely lost its effectiveness and couldn’t be reused, Ji You looked at the bathtub full of medicinal soup and felt an unbearable pain in her heart. That was 100,000 credit points, 100,000! Not long ago, that was a number she wouldn’t even dare to dream about."
Ji You sadly said, "Dump it."
Immediately, the self-cleaning system in the room was activated, and the bathtub full of medicinal soup swiftly disappeared without a trace.
"Money really burns a hole in the pocket."
"I need to earn money quickly."
After pacing around the room for a bit, Ji You spotted her entire set of Bead Turning tools and, with a glint in her eye, dashed over to them.
At the workbench, there were still about a dozen grass seeds and a small bunch of discarded Iron Pear Wood silk threads. She had been busy gathering Iron Pear Wood lately and hadn’t had the energy to pick up trash, so there wasn’t much stock of grass seed. After using up these, she would have to quickly find more grass seeds.
"Or pendants perhaps?"
After thinking it over, since she had previously made 9 pendants, all of which were soul artifacts, it showed that her success rate at making pendants was very high. Wanting to verify this, she soon decided to make pendants without much thought.
With that decision made, Ji You sat by the workbench and started working silently.
Firstly, Bead Turning; she needed to grind off the hard shell of the grass seed. This was a job requiring patience and precision, absolutely no carelessness was allowed. Since the grass seed was very fragile, any inattentiveness might ruin the whole grass seed.
Ji You bowed her head, eyes firmly fixated, hands deftly rotating.
Ji You’s basic skills were solid; after peeling off the shell, smooth and lustrous beads were formed.
"There are 12 in total."
"If all are soul artifacts, that would be how much?"
Thinking of this, her eyes slightly narrowed with joy brimming from the corners of her eyes and eyebrows.
Next, it was time to design patterns on the grass seed. Peeling off the shell left the grass seed not completely transparent, its color more akin to milky white, but clearer still. If she didn’t design some patterns on the body of the seed, it would appear a bit too plain. The theme this time for Ji You was still the flora and landscape patterns she used before.
Ji You held an engraving knife in one hand, a grass seed in the other, concentrated, and recalled the details, then began to carve.
Ji You furrowed her brows, put down the carving knife, and rubbed her forehead: "What’s going on? Before, when I was carving, it was like clouds flowing through the sky, done in one go, but this time it’s always halting, non-continuous, lacking that seamless feeling like a fish in water."
"And, I’ve ruined 2 grass seeds."
Now, these grass seeds were no longer worthless. In Ji You’s mind, they were already equivalent to a fortune of 1 million each.
To ruin 2 of them at once, one can imagine how much it pained Ji You.
Ji You pursed her lips: "Where did the problem arise?"
After thinking for a long time, she couldn’t figure it out. Maybe it was just an accident? Last time, my mind had no plan, and I carved all those fine flora and landscape patterns based on a vague notion. This time I have a clear image in my mind, how could I not carve it out?
Ji You took a deep breath and picked up the carving knife again.
Half an hour later, looking at a pile of ruined grass seeds in front of her, Ji You was on the verge of madness!
"Can I not even carve out a simple little grass pattern now?" Clearly, she had a complete image of a small grass in her mind; all she needed to do was pick up the engraving knife and carve it out following the image.
After struggling for quite a while, Ji You was not only mentally exhausted but her body and mind were also weary. She had no choice but to stop.
"My head kind of hurts."
The problem lies with my spiritual power?
A light flashed before Ji You’s eyes. She felt she was on the verge of grasping the root of the issue. Last time, she didn’t feel any physical or mental exhaustion at all; on the contrary, she felt full of energy, almost wanting to jump up and dance right then and there.
"My spiritual power is only at F level..."
"How did I manage to maintain such abundant energy back then?"
"It’s the Iron Plate!"
What exactly happened back then?
The Iron Plate appeared, and I caught a glimpse of it, seeing the ancient patterns on it. It was during that fleeting moment that I saw the intricate designs on the Iron Plate. Ji You only glanced briefly and didn’t get a clear or complete view. She didn’t pay much attention at the time, but afterward, she found herself unconsciously recalling those patterns.
These patterns must have a function.
The Iron Plate is all rusty, those lines and patterns are obscured by the rust, completely unrecognizable.
A lightbulb goes off in Ji You’s head:
Does she need to work hard to charge the Iron Plate, to restore its luster, make those patterns clear again? Is this the only way her crafting of a Soul Device could be successful?
Something else she hasn’t discovered?
Ji You calms herself, goes through the memory of those patterns carefully, but—despite her best efforts, there’s no specific image of the patterns in her mind; she just knows they are all ancient, majestic, and rather stylish lines and patterns.
A trace of bitterness surfaces on Ji You’s lips: "???"
Has my Golden Finger gone offline again?
Maybe it’s just temporarily offline? After all, the Iron Plate saved her life once, overexerting its energy.
The immediate plan is to figure out how to earn money to buy Butterfly Honey, a lot of Butterfly Honey, to charge the Iron Plate?
The problem arises again.
Without being able to make a Soul Device, how can I earn money quickly?
I knew there was no such thing as a free lunch.
The idea of effortlessly waving a hand to create a Soul Device just like that, it’s impossible.
"I thought I was the darling daughter of the Sky, that I wouldn’t ever need to work hard to earn money in this lifetime."
Prostrate on the workbench, after a bout of wailing, Ji You regains her spirits, wracking her brain for ways to earn money quickly...
After hanging up the call with the advert sycophant, Cheng Yu feels refreshed and does ten sets of Gravity training in one breath; when he crawls out of the training room, Cheng Yu gently strokes the pendant around his neck, his expression full of tenderness.
This Grass Seed Fruit Soul Device has such a great effect on improving spiritual power; his spiritual power has been stuck at A-level for 5 years, with no signs of progress in that time.
Not only has he touched the barrier between A and S levels, Cheng Yu also faintly feels his spiritual power has improved a bit. Though not much, any increase is the greatest effect.
This is a low-level soul artifact.
What if it is upgraded to Intermediate?
Perhaps, by that time, his spiritual power could quickly elevate to S-level.
In order to achieve this goal, Cheng Yu has suffered endlessly, yet after many years of effort, there is still no hope.
Cheng Yu faces bear a hint of bitterness.
Notification sounds keep coming into his ears.
[Don’t tell me those advert dogs are making a comeback]