Chapter 10

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He had felt a change in the ring! This time, his spirit energy felt a slight resistance to dissipation that it had not felt before, varying across the ring!

He exhaled excitedly, and looked down closely at the dull-looking ring once again, his eyes shining. There truly was something special about this thing!

‘Alright, from here, I just have to slowly vary this layer,’ Zairen thought to himself, closing his eyes and focusing.

Shuu… shuu…

Inside of the ring, he had sent in a layer of spirit energy, and in some areas of the ring, it had been slower to dissipate. Thus, he was now working on expanding his spirit energy throughout this area, trying to find further areas where the spirit energy wouldn’t dissipate as fast.

Slowly but surely, he sent in steady streams of spirit energy, altering his spirit energy layer based on what areas required a slightly thicker layer and what areas required a slightly thinner layer. Inside the ring, a slightly lopsided layer of spirit energy began to form, dissipating less and less.

It was like moulding a sculpture! The more he added to the right areas, the less it would dissipate.

Breathing a bit heavier, Zairen sat in a meditative position, looking much more focused. Receiving this challenge, he was more than eager to take it on. He had seldom seen anything this fascinating!

For a lengthy period of time, Zairen painstakingly adjusted the layer of spirit energy within the ring, slowly adjusting here and there so that the sculpture could take shape.

Slowly, it formed into a unique thin blob.

Time slowly passed. The task was much harder than it sounded! Finely controlling spirit energy and sensing for such minute changes for so long was taxing. However, Zairen, who had treated countless patients in this manner, was not too taxed.

He suspected that even among the greatest experts, only few would be able to have the experience necessary to ‘pick’ such a lock.

Even him, who had used such a technique on countless patients in the past and possessed one of the finest controls, even amongst spirit doctors, found it a bit challenging.

‘Finally!’ Two whole hours later, he suddenly opened his eyes excitedly. ‘ It’s finally done… It formed a shape! It’s longer dissipating!’

After extensive effort, he had finally finished creating a perfectly moulded yet greatly varying layer of spirit energy that did not dissipate any longer.

Suddenly - sssss! There was a sudden shift in the ring.

Zairen looked down. “...” His mouth gaped open.

The ring had unlocked! An entire hidden region of the ring revealed itself to his spirit energy.

Zairen was stunned for a moment, but then quickly took some deep breaths. His eyes glistened in fascination. ‘There’s actually a secret region inside of the ring! No wonder everyone thought this was just a useless item - the secret region only be uncovered through using spirit energy in a specific manner as a key! To anyone else, even someone with spirit energy, it seems like a completely ordinary item.’

‘I wonder what’s inside the secret region…’ After preparing himself, he unhesitatingly sent his spirit energy into the newly uncovered secret region.

A moment later, he gasped out loud. “That’s… That’s impossible!”

The secret region was actually an interdimensional space, used to store items!

Yet, this was not what shocked Zairen - although interdimensional space objects were indeed rare, they could still be obtained for a large amount of money. Zairen himself, before he had died to bandits, possessed his own interdimensional ring that contained a cubic meter of space.

What shocked him was… this interdimensional space actually contained ten thousand cubic meters of empty space! That’s right, ten thousand cubic meters! Heavens, was this still considered an interdimensional storage space?!

Zairen was so shocked that his face turned numb. ‘Ten… ten thousand cubic meters… How is that possible?’

Back in his old continent, the greatest quality interdimensional ring a person could buy, no matter how much money one had, was ones with two or three cubic meters of space. Ones with greater space simply didn't exist on the market! Even the greatest hoarders were only rumored to possess interdimensional rings with five cubic meters of space.

But now, he had a ring that actually contained ten thousand cubic meters of interdimensional space. How could he not be in complete disbelief?!

Zairen looked down at his ring in incredulity, eagerness, and apprehension. Although he was ecstatic to own such an amazing ring, he soon began to think realistically.

He could only imagine what kind of expert would own such a ring. Would that supremely powerful person really abandon such an object? Wouldn't he come back for it? When that happened, how could Zairen possibly explain himself before he was blasted to pieces?

Zairen almost impulsively threw the ring out of the window, then and there. Wouldn’t such an amazing ring have some sort of tracker? Was he already doomed?

However, he quickly calmed down. Within moments, he resumed a tranquil state that he exhibited every time he treated a patient.

There was never a use in panicking.

He reasoned it out in his mind, and soon realized that he was overreacting. If the previous owner of the ring really did want the ring back, wouldn't he have already come back for it? It had been sitting in the pawn shop for a long while, so why hadn’t it already been claimed?

The previous owner of the ring either must be dead, imprisoned somewhere, or doesn't want to ring anymore. Either way, there was no use thinking about it.

Zairen swept through the expansive area inside the interdimensional space, looking for anything the previous owner might have left.

Suddenly, his face changed.

“What?!” He couldn’t help but exclaim.

There was actually a person inside of the space! Yes, a living person!

The person was a beautiful, alluring fairy-like woman with pitch black hair, a slim oval face, and pale skin, wearing an exquisitely designed kimono-like dress. Looking to be about twenty years old, she was lying down on the floor, unconscious and her face writhing in pain.

Zairen couldn’t help but gulp. He could feel the power of the woman! An immense invisible pressure in the space pushed on his spirit and caused it to be harder to breathe!

As he thought about it, Zairen’s jaw unconsciously dropped out of shock.

There was a living being housed inside of this interdimensional space?! What kind of ridiculous notion was that?

If he hadn’t seen it for himself, he wouldn’t have believed it. One of the written rules of interdimensional spaces that always seemed to hold true was that no living beings could stay inside. Yet, this ring clearly broke that rule!

But that wasn’t even the shocking part... What was this woman inside there? Who was she? How long had she been inside of this ring, and why? She looked to be around twenty years old, but Zairen knew when that the more powerful a person was, the harder it was to judge their age. Oftentimes, people would get more youthful as they got stronger.

He sucked in a breath. Even when unconscious, she emitted a fierce pressure that caused Zairen to feel like he was being crushed by a boulder!

Zairen quickly inspected the woman once more, and his eyes suddenly widened. The woman was poisoned!

As a medical Saint, Zairen could tell with just a single glance that she was poisoned from the distinct spots and wrinkles on her skin.

And from this cursory glance… he could already tell, this was no normal poison. Further examination was required to make a complete diagnosis… But he suspected that it was one of the top fifty deadly poisons. Nothing below that could possibly cause a woman this powerful such an injury and to fall into a coma!

Zairen suddenly came to a realization. This woman was probably the original owner of this ring! Most likely, she had gotten into a fierce fight with someone else, and after she had been poisoned, she had escaped into the interdimensional space in her ring, which could apparently house life.

What kind of an insane high-level battle was that? Zairen couldn't even imagine it.

Most likely, however, that was a long time ago. From scanning over the progress of the poison, and comparing it to his knowledge of poisons, Zairen estimated that this beautiful woman had most likely laid in the space, poisoned, for at least tens of years, perhaps a hundred. A hundred years! He almost couldn't believe himself! If he hadn't been completely confident in his knowledge of poisons, he would have instantly disregarded this conjecture.

What kind of absurd amount of time was that? Even living to a hundred years was amazing to him, yet to lie unconscious, poisoned in this space for that long...?

It also gave Zairen another sense of awe and fear toward the woman. Able to resist such a powerful poison for possibly a hundred years, the woman couldn't be someone ordinary!

As Zairen glanced over the woman, he couldn't help but feel an innate desire to help her. As a medical Saint who had treated thousands of sick and injured people, Zairen already felt that it was a second nature to help treat others’ illnesses and injuries in order to get them back on their feet.

Even though he didn't know whether the woman would be hostile or not, he would still try to heal her.

However, he currently had no equipment. At minimum, he needed his silver acupuncture needles and some basic herbs to refine and create medicine. Without those, against such a potent poison, Zairen couldn't do too much. He could use the Heaven Divine Healing massage technique to ease the pain and somewhat alleviate the situation, but Zairen wasn't prepared to touch the woman yet as he didn't know what kind of powerful defense mechanisms she had on her, and against a top fifty deadly poison, it wouldn't be able to cure it. Furthermore, his current spirit energy only allowed him to use the technique for only a few hours, which was certainly not enough against a monstrous poison like that!

There was nothing else inside of the space, only the woman, but that was enough to completely stupefy Zairen and send him on complicated train of thought.

He decided that he would gather the tools required to treat the woman and would return later, once he was ready.

For that, he needed money.

His lips unconsciously curled into a sly smile - it just so happened that he had something in mind to take care of that.

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