Leaving the Ghost Market was even smoother than entering it.

Su Ming hurried along his way, deliberately sticking to the shadows.

It wasn't until he had completely left the area of the Supply Camp and returned to the familiar patrol route of Bing Battalion that the prickling sensation of being watched on his back finally dissipated.

Returning to Stone Hut Number Seven, the first thing Su Ming did was activate all the defensive formations.

"Minor Heavenly Cycle Water Rhythm Formation, rise."

"Spirit Response Spider Web, activate."

As streaks of spiritual light lit up one after another, the small stone hut was tightly wrapped in layer upon layer of restrictive spells.

Only then did Su Ming let out a long sigh of relief, plopping down on the stone bed, feeling the cold sweat on his back had already soaked through his clothes.

"Master, what did that Old Blind Man's last sentence mean?" Su Ming took out that grayish-white stone from his storage pouch and carefully placed it on the stone table.

"Exactly what it sounds like."

Lin Yu's figure materialized in the Consciousness Sea, his tone unusually serious. "This stone indeed carries a very faint trace of murderous aura. It's not demonic energy, nor ghostly energy, but a kind of... more ancient, more chaotic aura."

"You mean... the bugs?" Su Ming frowned.

"Very likely." Lin Yu nodded. "Void Stones are usually found accompanying spatial rifts or extremely deep earth vein faults. And such places are often also the nesting grounds where ancient aberrant species slumber. There are a few extremely fine scratch marks on the surface of this ore. They don't look like they were left by mining tools, more like marks from being gnawed by some kind of sharp teeth."

Su Ming leaned in for a closer look.

Sure enough, on the grayish-white stone skin, there were several extremely shallow scrape marks.

If you didn't look carefully, you wouldn't notice them at all.

But if you probed with divine sense, you would discover a trace of a heart-palpitating, violent aura lingering at the site of the scratches.

"Even Void Stone gets gnawed..." Su Ming felt a toothache coming on. "Just how good are the teeth of the bugs down there?"

"So, your premonition was correct." Lin Yu said gravely. "Those things underground might be more active than we imagined. The fact that this stone could end up in the Ghost Market indicates that someone—or some force—has already disturbed their nest."

Su Ming fell silent for a moment, then stood up and scooped a basin of clear water from the water jar in the corner.

"Regardless, we have the stone now."

Su Ming tossed that priceless "broken stone" into the water basin.

Plop.

The stone sank to the bottom, sending ripples across the water's surface.

Su Ming formed hand seals, circulated the Like Water Art, and shot a wisp of dark blue spiritual energy from his fingertip into the water.

"Cleanse!"

With his low shout, the clear water in the basin began to slowly rotate, forming a small vortex.

Wisps of grayish-black mist were forcibly extracted from within the stone, dissipating into the air.

"Master, how should we handle this stone?" Su Ming asked while maintaining his spiritual energy output.

"Soak it first, to get rid of the murderous aura." Lin Yu stretched lazily, returning to his usual indolent demeanor. "Tomorrow night, we can use the 'water grinding' method to slowly grind out the Void Stone powder inside. It's a bit slow, but the advantage is safety—it won't explode."

Su Ming gave a bitter smile. "Master, you're practically turning my Like Water Art into an 'all-purpose menial post technique.'"

"More skills never weigh you down." Lin Yu chuckled. "Besides, after you finish processing this stone, your divine sense control will definitely level up."

Hearing this, Su Ming's eyes lit up.

"Alright, I'll listen to Master."

Su Ming looked at the continuously swirling water in the basin, his gaze gradually turning resolute.

In this perilous Iron Wall Pass, every bit of increased strength was a bargaining chip for survival.

...

Early the next morning, as the sky was just beginning to brighten.

The training ground of Bing Battalion was already echoing with the sounds of drilling.

Su Ming, sporting dark circles under his eyes, pushed open the door of the stone hut.

He had guarded that water basin all night, fearing that stone might pull some trick, and only dared to rest a little after that grayish-black murderous aura had completely dissipated.

"Brother Su! Up so early?"

Zhao Tiji was just returning from outside, carrying his giant hammer, drenched in sweat, clearly having just completed a patrol on the city wall.

"How are things, Brother Zhao?" Su Ming yawned and asked casually.

"Same as usual."

Zhao Tiji wiped the sweat from his face.

Su Ming's heart stirred.

The words of the Old Blind Man last night, and that Void Stone with gnawing marks...

"Brother Zhao, I want to further reinforce the formation in our defense zone." Su Ming suddenly said.

"Reinforce it again?" Zhao Tiji was taken aback. "Didn't we just lay down that spider web thing last time?"

"It's not enough."

Su Ming shook his head, his gaze falling to the hard frozen ground beneath his feet, as if seeing through the thick soil layer to that surging dark golden river moving in the darkness.

"I plan to bury another layer of 'Vibration Sensing Stakes' three zhang underground." Su Ming's voice was soft, yet carried an undeniable firmness. "I'll cover the materials myself. I just need you, Brother Zhao, to put in a word with the logistics department for me, so no one thinks I'm sabotaging things."

Zhao Tiji stared at Su Ming for a good while, then suddenly grinned, reaching out to give Su Ming's shoulder a heavy pat.

"Alright! When you handle things, I'm at ease! Even though I don't know what you're worried about, following your lead is definitely the right move!" 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Zhao Tiji turned and left. "I'll go find Old Wang right now!"

Watching Zhao Tiji's hurried, energetic back, the corner of Su Ming's mouth lifted in a faint smile.

...

The frozen soil in the C-Seven defense zone was harder than wrought iron.

The cold wind swept up snowflakes, cutting into collars like blades.

Zhao Tiji, bare-chested, had steam rising from his bronze-colored muscles. Every time his fine iron pickaxe struck down, it sent out a shower of sparks.

"Brother Su, how much deeper does this pit need to be?" Zhao Tiji wiped the ice crystals from his face, his booming voice causing the surrounding accumulated snow to rustle and fall.

Su Ming squatted by the pit's edge, holding a formation stake carved from wolf bone. Dark blue spiritual energy flickered at his fingertips as he carved the final rune pattern onto it.

"Three chi and three cun. One fen less and it won't connect to the earth's energy; one fen more and it might be disrupted by the murderous aura in the frozen soil." Su Ming didn't even look up, his fingertip movements as steady as a rock.

"Got it!" Zhao Tiji chuckled, swinging his pickaxe with even more enthusiasm. "Listening to Brother Su is definitely the right move."

Behind him, Chen Chuan, Old Liu, and a few other veterans from Squad C-Seven were scattered in various corners of the defense zone. At each of their feet was a pile of seemingly insignificant "junk"—these were the formation nodes Su Ming had cobbled together from discarded formation plate fragments, low-level demon beast bones, and cheap ore scavenged from the Ghost Market.

"Master, will this 'Seven Stars in a Row' layout really work?" Su Ming handed the carved wolf bone formation stake to Zhao Tiji and asked within his Consciousness Sea.