The reason Zhou Ming rushed into the qiankun bead so quickly was that the moment he broke out of the Formation, he faintly sensed a powerful, suffocating pressure appearing above his head.

That pressure was as vast as the sea, so profound that it felt as if it would crush the entire sky.

Even the slightest ripple leaking from far away was enough to make the hair on a Soul Transformation Stage Cultivator stand on end.

If he had been just a moment slower, even a delay of a snap of the fingers, Zhou Ming might very well have been discovered by the owner of this pressure.

With his current cultivation level, in front of an existence of that level, he probably wouldn't even have the chance to hide in the qiankun bead.

Logically speaking, it would be absolutely impossible for him to detect the appearance of a Cultivator whose cultivation far exceeded his own.

Under the shroud of a high-level Cultivator's Divine Sense, a low-level Cultivator is like an ant, not even qualified to be discovered, let alone perceive the other party's existence in return.

But Zhou Ming felt it, albeit vaguely.

Before that pressure had truly descended, he had already reacted a step ahead.

This was likely because he had long inherited the Divine Soul power of countless people from the Causal Chain.

Consequently, his Primordial Spirit was far stronger than that of Cultivators at the same level, and his Divine Sense's sensitivity had long exceeded the normal range of the Soul Transformation Stage.

Returning to the stone cave inside the qiankun bead, Zhou Ming had just steadied his footing when he looked up and was instantly dumbfounded.

The stone cave, which should have been filled with a dazzling array of treasures piled like mountains, was now completely empty.

The sandalwood shelves were gone, the mountains of Spirit Stones were gone, the Spirit Medicine and Ore sealed in crystal covers were gone, the Magic Treasure floating in mid-air was gone, and even the pile of junk in the corner that had gathered hundreds of years of dust was gone.

Not a single thing left, completely clean.

The floor of the stone cave was reflective, without even a speck of dust, so clean it looked as if someone had wiped it three times with a rag and rinsed it five times with clear water.

He stood in the very center of the empty stone cave, opening his mouth, then closing it, opening it again, closing it again, his head buzzing.

Those were the treasures from a treasury spanning dozens of miles in radius; they were his entire fortune, which he had risked being discovered by a powerful expert to slice open the Formation and snatch back.

Now they had just disappeared without a sound, leaving not even a stir behind.

"Where are my treasures? Where did they go?" Zhou Ming could swear to the dear readers that he had truly pulled all the treasures into the qiankun bead.

Refusing to believe it, Zhou Ming spread his Divine Sense with all his might, scanning the entire world inside the qiankun bead in detail.

Mountains, rivers, cities, battlefields, everything was as usual, only the batch of treasures he had moved in left not even a trace.

Slowly turning around, Zhou Ming cast his gaze toward the qiankun bead core in the center of the stone cave, which was still emitting a soft light.

"Could it be...? Is it you?"

The information the qiankun bead had previously given him included that it treated people who arrived through Transmigration as nourishment, including the things they carried.

This meant that this thing could swallow treasures that entered the qiankun bead.

Zhou Ming reached out and grabbed the warm, smooth sphere.

The moment his palm touched the surface of the sphere, a feeling of joy and excitement, clear beyond clarity, surged from within the core.

This was a more primitive, more instinctive emotional fluctuation.

It was like a child who had been hungry for who knows how many days suddenly eating a full meal, its belly bulging round, contentedly burping.

Zhou Ming was stunned for a long while.

What he felt was truly an emotion, not some magical power fluctuation or Formation reaction.

A Magic Treasure core could actually emit emotions like a human.

Some top-tier Magic Treasures would indeed give birth to artifact spirits under specific opportunities.

Either formed by the Fusion of a fallen Cultivator's Divine Soul, or naturally conceived after the Magic Treasure itself had experienced long years.

This qiankun bead was born from Chaos and had experienced the baptism of who knows how many tens of thousands of years; it was not impossible for it to give birth to a faint trace of artifact spirit consciousness.

Having figured this out, the confusion on Zhou Ming's Face instantly turned into anger.

He grabbed the sphere and began to shake it vigorously, shouting at the top of his lungs:

"Where are my treasures? Where are my treasures! You actually swallowed them all by yourself?"

"That was my entire fortune that I traded my life for! You didn't leave me a single piece?"

"So many Spirit Stones, so many Magic Treasures, so many Spirit Medicines and Ores, you even swallowed the shelves I put things on! You didn't even leave me the shelves! Give me back my treasures..."

Zhou Ming grabbed the sphere and shook it for a long while.

The core's light flickered with his shaking, but apart from that initial feeling of satisfaction, there was no other reaction.

No matter how flustered and exasperated he roared, the only response was the empty echo in the stone cave.

After a long time, Zhou Ming finally let go and sat down on the futon with a thud.

He sighed; besides holding his nose and accepting it, what else could he do?

This broken bead was now his greatest treasure; he couldn't just smash it.

Besides, even if he wanted to smash it, he might not be able to.

Moreover, although those treasures were valuable, in the end, they were gained for free.

They might have been stolen from a powerful expert he didn't know, or snatched from the treasury of a Sect whose name he didn't even know.

Treasures gained for free were swallowed by his own broken bead; no matter how you calculate this account, the fat water doesn't flow into outsiders' fields.

It was just that this field didn't give him, the owner, any Face at all, not even leaving him a sip of soup.

After being angry for a while, Zhou Ming decided to continue refining the qiankun bead.

Why did that pile of treasures disappear? It was just because his control over the qiankun bead was too weak.

He had only refined a mere one out of the 129,600 Restrictions, which didn't even count as scratching the surface.

When the core wanted to swallow his things, he didn't even have the qualification to stop it.

Instead of cursing and swearing here, it would be better to refine a few more Restrictions and firmly grasp control in his own hands.

Zhou Ming took a deep breath, calmed his emotions, placed his palm back on the surface of the sphere, and circulated his magic power to pour it into the core.

As soon as the magic power entered the core, Zhou Ming instantly felt something different.

Originally, infecting the Restriction array patterns inside the core required consuming a massive amount of magic power, and the resistance was not small.

Each array pattern was like a rusted iron gate; he had to force the magic power to squeeze through the cracks, grinding bit by bit, rubbing bit by bit.

But this time it was different; the moment the magic power surged in, it was unimpeded within the core's array patterns.

Those originally rusted iron gates seemed to have been oiled, opening at a gentle push.

In less than an hour, Zhou Ming completed the infection and refining of the second array pattern.

When he first refined the first one, he had spent over a whole year.

Zhou Ming opened his eyes, stared at the sphere emitting soft light in front of him, and suddenly threw his head back and laughed out loud.

"So that's how it is! Hahaha... What a good treasure! Hahaha..."

After absorbing that batch of treasures, this core used the massive spiritual power contained within to repair its own damage.

While repairing itself, it actively opened the array patterns to Zhou Ming.

Allowing Zhou Ming, this master who had initially gained its approval, to complete the refining faster.

The more it swallowed, the better it recovered, and the less resistance there was to refining.

This meant that Zhou Ming was not struggling against a dead object, but cooperating with a supreme treasure that was gradually recovering.

After laughing for a while, Zhou Ming composed his mind, closed his eyes again, and continued to infect the array patterns.

The third, the fourth, the fifth... Magic power surged and circulated in the array patterns, encountering almost no decent resistance, and the refining speed of each Restriction far exceeded his expectations.

Zhou Ming refined eleven array patterns in one breath; added to the first one, a total of twelve Restrictions were successfully infected by him.

When he started trying to refine the thirteenth one, that smooth feeling suddenly disappeared, and the array patterns returned to their original resistance.

The spiritual power released by the core after absorbing that batch of treasures could only support it to this extent for the time being; next, it needed to further digest, repair, or swallow another batch.

Zhou Ming slowly withdrew his hand, looking down at his palm that had been pressed against the sphere.

The lingering warmth from the core remained in his palm, warmer and softer than before.

Counting the first one, he had already refined twelve Restrictions; although he was still far from fully refining it, it was at least some progress.

The artifact spirit of this qiankun bead was smarter and more snobbish than he had thought.

It wouldn't work without benefits; only when fed full would it be willing to open the door.

Zhou Ming gritted his teeth, silently calculating in his heart where to go next to get another batch of treasures to feed this insatiable little ancestor.