Chapter 60: Soul Core? Inner Pill!
"Eat it… for me?"
Qian Renxue stared at the pinkish-white bead in Fan Chen's hand, her face filled with confusion.
"Yes, it's for you. The situation is like this…"
Fan Chen had spent the entire night pondering whether he should give this thing to Qian Renxue. In the end, he still decided to hand it over to her.
The reason was simple—Xiao Bai had told him that he couldn't use this item at all. It was something specifically meant for Qian Renxue.
The item had been pried off the inner vault gate of the Spirit Hall. If that was the case, then it having some connection to Qian Renxue was perfectly reasonable.
It might even be something deliberately left behind by the Angel God or by Qian Renxue's ancestors.
Since he couldn't use it himself, keeping it served no purpose.
At worst, it would just add a bit more pressure. He could always think of another solution later.
"Is that really so? Then what about you, Fan Chen? This is your reward."
Qian Renxue knew very well that this item was Fan Chen's prize for winning. If he gave it to her, wouldn't that mean he ended up with nothing?
"It's fine. At worst, next time we compete, you can deliberately hold back and let me win. Maybe I'll get another chance to enter the treasury. Then I'll have Xiao Bai search for something else."
Fan Chen spoke casually, calm and indifferent on the surface.
But he knew very well that after this incident, he had probably already been put on some sort of blacklist.
"..."
After hearing Fan Chen's words, Qian Renxue fell silent for a moment. The hand she had just reached out with slowly retracted.
"Then I don't want it. I don't want to hold back."
Fan Chen was momentarily stunned by Qian Renxue's sudden reaction. Then he noticed something was off—deep within her golden eyes, there was a trace of worry and fear.
"I was joking. Just take it. How could I ever ask you to hold back?"
Fan Chen reached out and rubbed Qian Renxue's head, then directly stuffed the bead into her hand.
Qian Renxue instinctively tried to resist, but Fan Chen firmly held her down.
"If you don't accept it, I'll just throw it away later anyway. I can't use it regardless."
Fan Chen said this in a slightly irritated tone.
Clearly, this tactic worked extremely well on Qian Renxue. The moment she heard him say that, she immediately stopped resisting.
"Don't—I'll take it. Fan Chen gege, don't be angry."
Qian Renxue wasn't actually afraid that Fan Chen would throw the item away. What she feared was Fan Chen being angry with her.
The mental defenses she had built up instantly collapsed under a single sentence from him.
"That's more like it."
Seeing her reaction, Fan Chen returned to his usual demeanor and released Xiao Bai from the soul imprint.
Xiao Bai's previous act of betraying his master had earned him half a day of confinement as punishment from Fan Chen.
Now that his sentence was served, it was time to let him out to do something useful.
"Get to work. How exactly do you eat this thing?"
Fan Chen had no idea how this item was supposed to be used. Xiao Bai had only told him that it could be eaten.
But how to eat it—he had no clue at all.
Fan Chen had already used the White Ze Eye to inspect the bead's interior. All he saw was a dense sphere of energy light; there was nothing else noteworthy.
"Just eat it directly."
"Raw?!"
Xiao Bai nodded, then looked at Fan Chen with confusion.
The expression on his face clearly said: Isn't that how you're supposed to eat it?
"Doesn't it need to be cracked open or roasted with fire or something?"
"No. Big Sister can just eat it directly. But she can wash it first to make it cleaner."
After all that, the method of consumption had only changed from "eat it raw" to "wash it, then eat it raw."
Qian Renxue held the bead tightly in her hand, carefully pondering Xiao Bai's words.
In fact, the moment Fan Chen had stuffed the bead into her hand, the soul power within her body had already been stirred—and the bead even felt slightly hot.
This was the first time she had ever experienced such a situation. If the item hadn't come from Fan Chen, she would have probably thrown it away immediately or rushed to find her grandfather, Qian Daoliu, to identify it.
"What exactly are you planning to feed Xiao Xue?"
At that moment, Qian Daoliu suddenly appeared behind Fan Chen like a ghost.
His gaze fell upon the bead in Qian Renxue's hand, his eyes narrowing slightly.
In truth, he had heard the entire conversation between Fan Chen and Qian Renxue just now. He was somewhat surprised by it.
He hadn't expected that this item wasn't meant for Fan Chen himself but for Qian Renxue instead.
Linking the bead back to the inner vault gate, could it be that this item had originally been intended for someone from their family?
That possibility wasn't impossible. After all, the inner vault had been constructed by their ancestors.
It had existed for far too long, to the point where the circumstances of its creation were no longer traceable.
There were no relevant records in their ancestral archives either. But since this item had been embedded into the inner vault's gate, it couldn't possibly be just a decoration.
"Do you know what will happen after Xiao Xue eats this?"
Qian Daoliu stared intently into Fan Chen's eyes.
Although he trusted that Fan Chen wouldn't harm Qian Renxue, who knew whether this kid might conceal its true effects?
For safety's sake, unless he fully understood the item's function, he would absolutely not allow Qian Renxue to use something with uncertain effects.
Faced with Qian Daoliu's question, Fan Chen was put in a difficult spot.
It wasn't that he didn't want to explain the item's effects—it was that he didn't know how to explain the concept of a soul core to him.
After all, this was something that shouldn't exist at this point in time. Could he really just say that absorbing this would allow one to condense a soul core? Would Qian Daoliu even understand that?
And even if Qian Daoliu did understand, how was he supposed to explain how he knew all this?
He couldn't exactly say that this knowledge was something he was born with, could he?
After thinking for a long time, Fan Chen finally managed to explain the principles and effects of a soul core to Qian Daoliu using the simplest possible language.
As for how he knew—it was all pushed onto Xiao Bai. After all, the item was pried off by him, and the usage method was taught by him.
"Compressing soul power… condensing liquid soul power into a solid…"
After listening to Fan Chen's explanation, Qian Daoliu didn't question why he knew these things.
Because it felt like he had heard of—or even seen—something similar before.
"Soul core… inner pill!"
As if something suddenly clicked in his mind, Qian Daoliu's tightly furrowed brows instantly relaxed.
He finally remembered what Fan Chen was talking about.
"I think I know what this is."
"What is it?"
Fan Chen asked curiously. He also wanted to know exactly what this thing was.
"This is an extremely rare supreme treasure. It only forms within the bodies of a very small number of soul beasts. The rarer and more powerful the soul beast, the higher the chance of it being born."
"When I was young, I once had the fortune of hunting a high-tier ten-thousand-year soul beast. Inside its body, I obtained something similar to the bead in Xiao Xue's hand—though its grade was far inferior to this one."
The one Qian Daoliu had obtained back then was only the size of a thumb.
But the one in Qian Renxue's hand was as large as a fist. The two clearly weren't on the same level at all.
"There are also similar records in the ancient texts of the Spirit Hall. It's referred to as a core, and its effects are very similar to what you described as a soul core."
"However, I'm familiar with the effects of a soul core. After absorption, its effects are basically no different from consuming natural treasures. It doesn't have the kind of effects you described."
Faced with Qian Daoliu's doubt, Fan Chen could only feel helpless.
There was no way he could argue with him. This man was practically a walking database.
The more he said, the more problems would arise. It was better not to say anything more at all.
"But if it's not some kind of soul beast core, then what could it be?"
"An inner pill—an inner pill of an ancient spirit beast."
End of Chapter