Chapter 389: The Land of Breath

As Ye Feng’s voice faded, a bronze door appeared out of thin air before him and slowly opened.
“Come in to trade!” said a deep voice from above.
Ye Feng glanced up at the sky before stepping through the door.
Once he entered, the door closed and vanished as if it had never been there. The square where they had gathered was now empty, arousing envy in those watching from afar.

At this moment, Ye Feng found himself in a strange place. He looked around and realized he seemed to be in a cellar. Though the decorations inside were old, they were kept clean. Not far in front of him was an old wooden counter.
“Take out all the crystal cores you want to exchange,” a voice suddenly spoke. Ye Feng turned toward the source of the voice—behind the counter—but saw no one there.
Just as he was puzzled, a head emerged from behind the counter.
Ye Feng then saw that it was a person, though barely over a meter tall. The person was standing on a stool behind the counter but was still half a head shorter than Ye Feng. After a brief pause, Ye Feng’s surprised expression vanished, and he took out all the crystal cores he had obtained from the ring.
“So many?” The short man looked up at Ye Feng in astonishment. Then he bent down to count carefully. “Hmm, in total, they’re worth 556,163 points. What would you like to exchange for?”
“I want to know what items you have here,” Ye Feng replied calmly.
“Hahaha…” The short man laughed at this. “You’re only at the Divine Realm level. If top-tier divine artifacts aren’t within your reach, surely items from the Holy Realm will do! I doubt you’d even know how to use them!”
With that, he handed over a tube of jade slips. Ye Feng took them and sent his mental energy into them.
“1. Legacy of the Secret Realm!”
“2. Eye of Truth!”
“3. Heart of Molten Fire!”
“…”
“21. Divine Essence of the Emperor God!”
“…”
Ye Feng scanned the list from top to bottom. The first few hundred items listed no points, only their names. He couldn’t even see any detailed information about them.
“How is this list arranged?” Ye Feng couldn’t help but ask.
“By point value!” The short man climbed onto the counter, sat cross-legged, and waited patiently.

“That means the first 152 items on this list all require more points than I have right now?” Ye Feng asked.
“That’s correct!”
“Why isn’t it shown how many points are needed to purchase them?” Ye Feng asked, puzzled.
“You don’t have enough points, and showing it wouldn’t let you buy them anyway, so it’s better not to show it. You just need to know you don’t have enough!” The short man’s hearty laughter didn’t match his stature at all.
“The number 1 is shown after them—does that mean once an item is exchanged, it no longer exists?” Ye Feng guessed.
“That’s right. All items are limited, just in different quantities. Some may only have one left, while others have tens of thousands.” The short man said nonchalantly. “There were originally over 500 items here, and after all these years, almost 100 have been taken away. After each item is taken, its rank moves up by one. So, some of the items ranked higher actually aren’t of the same tier, yet their ranks are close to each other.”
Ye Feng continued to look. With his over 500,000 points, he could only see items after the 153rd, and in fact, there were only about 430 items on the entire list. Moreover, most of the remaining items had very limited quantities.
“The top-tier divine artifacts are ranked in the 200s.” Ye Feng quickly detected their rankings using his mental power. A few of these top-tier divine artifacts required over 10,000 points and were ranked in the 230s. There were also over 70 items with points between 10,000 and 550,000. In other words, there were over 70 items worth more than the top-tier divine artifacts that he could purchase now.
Ye Feng narrowed his focus to this range and examined each item one by one.
Most of these over 70 items were things Ye Feng had never even heard of before.
He read through their descriptions one by one. If he had enough points, he could see the relevant product descriptions.
After looking for a long time, his gaze finally stopped on one item. The image in the jade slip showed a grain of sand, completely red in color, priced at 330,000 points. At first, Ye Feng was puzzled—why was such an unremarkable grain of sand priced so exorbitantly? Out of curiosity, he scanned the description: “One unit of Xirang, evolution level: third stage.”

“Xirang?” Ye Feng narrowed his eyes slightly. He had also read about the legends of Xirang in various classics. Xirang was the first piece of soil between heaven and earth, possessing infinite magical power; it was the source of life. Moreover, this peculiar substance could be used for crafting weapons or even as an ingredient in alchemy.
“That’s the one!” Ye Feng pointed at the item’s number.
“Number 172—Xirang. Are you sure you want this?” The short man looked somewhat puzzled.
“Yes, that’s it!” Ye Feng nodded without hesitation.
“But there’s only one unit of this, and it won’t be enough for anything,” the short man warned kindly.
“It’s okay. I’ll find a way! I have a premonition that I’ll need this someday!” Ye Feng said firmly.
“Very well. This costs 330,000 points. Do you need anything else?”
“Not for now!” Ye Feng shook his head.
“Remaining points: 226,163!”
As soon as the Xirang, the size of a grain of sand, came into his possession, a strong fluctuation arose in Ye Feng’s mental sea.
He sent his mental energy inside and discovered that the white ocean within the pseudo-void treasure used to nurture plants was turbulent. The pseudo-void treasure emitted a faint, indistinct voice, “Xirang… needed…”
“It wants Xirang?” Though puzzled, Ye Feng still placed that single unit of Xirang into his mental sea.
The grain-of-sand-sized Xirang was thrown straight into the white ocean, and the turbulent waves finally ceased.
“What exactly happened?” With a puzzled expression, Ye Feng carefully explored the pseudo-void treasure in his mental sea with his mental energy, but found nothing. He only noticed that the small plant seemed to have grown significantly since four days ago.
When Ye Feng reappeared in the gathering square, everyone stared at him with envy.