Apocalypse Gachapon Chapter 2268: Kunzuo's treasure

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Previously on Apocalypse Gachapon...
Ye Zhongming discovered strange patterns on Kunzuo's bony hand, possibly indicating a soul artifact. He was unable to open Kunzuo's spatial ring directly, but enlisted the help of Qiuqiu and later the Star Spirit. Qiuqiu retrieved a valuable wood-marrow worm, while the Star Spirit managed to retrieve an ancient bronze token and a few other items, though the coveted Fallen Saint Bow remained elusive.

Siwu Calamity Token!

On the back of this ancient bronze token were written three characters, and Ye Zhongming felt that this should be its name.

He flipped it over a couple of times and tried injecting his mental energy and power into it.

A phantom of a fierce beast appeared beside him and let out a silent roar toward the front.

Ye Zhongming's face flushed slightly because he had just exerted extreme control over the beast to prevent it from launching an attack.

After that, the Cloud Peak King experimented a few more times and roughly figured out what the Siwu Calamity Token actually was.

It was a very high-level support combat equipment.

Its function was to store the abilities of certain lifeforms and then activate them when needed.

Judging by the patterns on the token, it could store up to four abilities at most, because the front was evenly divided into four sections, three of which had patterns on them, with only the lower right corner empty.

The three patterned sections corresponded to the three phantoms that Ye Zhongming had just summoned, and the abilities they could unleash were the strongest skills possessed by the lifeforms represented by those three phantoms.

These three lifeforms were respectively the "Void Fox," the "Jingyan Spineback Beast," and the "Deep Space Phoenix," and their abilities were their signature moves: "Spirit Folding," "Massive Scorch," and "Falling Nine Heavens."

The lifeforms represented by the three phantoms were all super-level-nine lifeforms, and their abilities were each equivalent to a full-power strike from a great expert.

This token was pretty much useless to Kunzuo, but to Ye Zhongming, it was definitely a trump card. Even the strongest attacks he could use after his transformation were at best on par with these, or even slightly inferior.

Setting the token aside, Ye Zhongming turned to the second item.

This was a clamp.

It looked extremely similar to the common mousetraps found on Earth. But Ye Zhongming, who was already very familiar with the equipment of the cosmic races, immediately confirmed that this was a Raini-grade item.

On its not-too-large metal structure were carved extremely intricate patterns, and between its components were no fewer than several hundred exquisitely crafted micro-mechanisms, all filled with energy.

Ye Zhongming studied this thing for quite a while, but since he could not test it, fearing it might be single-use, his final conclusion was not certain. It was probably some kind of very advanced trap, and even if a peak expert stepped on it, they would be affected to some extent.

As for the degree of effect, the damage, and whether there were any other negative side effects, Ye Zhongming had no way of knowing.

This thing was also quite good excellent for setting people up, but it had too many restrictions on its use.

Ye Zhongming put the two items into his own space and picked up the third.

This was a scroll-like object.

There were many of these in the Library Palace, but they were rare among the cosmic races; probably only a race's own library would have them.

An ancient-looking beast-hide scroll, tied with a golden silk cord.

Ye Zhongming opened it and found a painting on each side: the front half was a landscape, and the back was flowers and birds.

If not for the fact that these mountains, waters, flowers, and birds were vastly different from those on Earth, he would have thought it was an ink-wash Chinese painting.

Ye Zhongming was not quite sure what this thing was for. Could it be a treasure map? There were no markers on it at all—the landscape and the flowers and birds. Ye Zhongming could not see any connection between them.

Could it be a work of art? But Ye Zhongming did not think Kunzuo would carry something like this around with him. He did not know Kunzuo personally, but the Su Clan had very detailed information on him, and he had never heard of Kunzuo being an ancient painting enthusiast or having a collecting hobby.

Could it be equipment? But Ye Zhongming could not sense any energy from it, and attempts to activate it produced no response.

What exactly was this thing?

Ye Zhongming looked at it left and right but could not figure it out.

Something a peak expert carried with him should not be an ordinary item, but what was its use?

Ye Zhongming examined this thing, which was neither quite a painting nor quite a book, dozens of times without finding anything, and in frustration, he set it aside.

He did seem to want to retrieve more items from Kunzuo's spatial ring, but Qiuqiu could not do it; the Earth Spirit was in a dormant recovery state, and the Star Spirit had also expended most of its energy and was resting. For now, there seemed to be no way.

Ye Zhongming decided to spend some time digesting the remaining energy in his body, then return to the spaceport. The matter of retrieving more items could wait.

As he began to refine and absorb the energy, something surprising happened.

While digesting Kunzuo's remaining energy, Ye Zhongming first purified his own energy, then used Kunzuo's energy to replenish his own consumption. The process was a bit slow, but fortunately, the amount of energy left to digest was not large.

But just as he finished purifying his own energy, he suddenly sensed a surge of energy that did not belong to him being directly transmitted into his body. Unlike Kunzuo's energy, which was distinctly foreign, this energy was gentle and steady, almost identical to his own. It was easily absorbed without any complications.

Ye Zhongming traced the source in surprise and found that it came from that beast-hide scroll!

The half-opened scroll was leaking energy, which traveled through the ground and connected to him, transferring energy to him.

The Cloud Peak King, astonished, picked up the beast-hide scroll, unfurled it, and placed it on himself, then began purifying his energy again. Sure enough, with contact, the energy transfer became even smoother; almost as much as he consumed, the painting replenished him immediately.

During the process, Ye Zhongming kept observing the changes in the two paintings and finally noticed something unusual.

After transferring energy to him, both paintings were overall becoming paler, more "ink-wash" in style.

So that was it!

It replenished energy, and at a very fast rate. At least at Ye Zhongming's level, he could not test its limits.

Ye Zhongming still had one question: judging by the depth of the paintings, if he drained all his energy, the scroll could fully replenish him, but after that the paintings would probably be almost white. How would they be replenished?

Could it be single-use?

Ye Zhongming thought about it—that seemed unlikely. A peak expert would not carry around a single-use energy replenisher like this; it contained too little energy to even be a snack for them. It would be simpler to just bring high-level potions.

So how was it replenished?

Ye Zhongming tried inputting energy into it again, but it failed once more—even purified energy would not work.

It seemed there was still some key point he had not figured out.

Ye Zhongming reluctantly set the item aside again.

With an energy source to replenish him, Ye Zhongming did not hold back. After feeding purified energy to the Star Spirit, he had it go in three more times and bring out three items. He specifically instructed the Star Spirit to retrieve the Luosheng Bow, but the feedback was that it could not be brought out.

It seemed that retrieving a Lie God-grade piece of equipment was beyond what a growth-phase Star Spirit could accomplish!

Though disappointing, it was only a matter of waiting a little longer. Ye Zhongming temporarily set aside his obsession with the Fallen Saint Bow and began examining the three new items.

The first one made him happy—he recognized it: a cheating stone!