First to greet the eye were two “mountains” that nearly touched the vault’s dome!

One was piled from countless angular energy crystals, their interiors flowing with a hazy glow.

The energy fluctuations from such a quantity warped the surrounding air.

A single energy crystal might not be a world-class treasure, but they were hard currency across planar barriers.

Whether used to replenish consumption, power facilities, or as trade currency, their value was immense.

The crystals before them were of extreme purity, with vast internal energy capacity—far beyond ordinary goods.

The other mountain was even more tantalizing: composed of countless irregular crystals, their interiors swirling with mist, exuding a chilling allure that acted directly on the soul.

Soul crystals!

For a wizard civilization specializing in souls and mental power, and massively employing constructed lifeforms, elemental beings, and modified cannon fodder, the value of soul crystals was exaggerated.

They could directly elevate mental cultivation, repair soul wounds, and were key materials for crafting high-tier cannon fodder, construct cores, and even certain special wizard tools.

Though wizard civilization craved soul crystals, they rarely mass-produced them.

In wizards’ values, a living being could continuously generate value—far more than condensing into a single soul crystal after death.

Aside from planar wars like this, where intense battles naturally collected vast scattered soul forces into crystals, only high-tier wizards controlling entire planes had stable sources.

This soul crystal mountain, roughly estimated, was worth nearly one hundred million military merits!

A fortune enough to drive any low-to-mid-tier wizard mad!

“Hiss…”

From behind came the irrepressible gasps of the three third-level wizards.

Their eyes locked onto the two mountains, especially the soul crystals, breathing heavy like bellows.

For them, with assets typically in the hundreds of thousands or millions of merits, this vault’s wealth could instantly clear their massive debts, vault them to “tycoon” status among peers, and pave the way for future ascension!

Jie Ming’s keen senses clearly caught the trio’s suddenly turbulent mental forces and gazes thick with struggle and greed.

He even felt a sliver of unstable agitation in their mental power.

The air seemed to freeze for an instant.

Yet when their eyes inadvertently swept over the black giant standing like an iron tower beside Jie Ming, radiating fifth-level pressure and bone-piercing chill, that rising dangerous impulse was doused like ice water, swiftly extinguished.

Reason regained control.

Flipping against a logistics wizard who controlled a fifth-level elite cannon fodder, with unknown methods of his own—especially in this sealed underground space—was suicide.

The heat in their eyes rapidly faded into helplessness and resignation; they silently looked away.

Jie Ming nodded inwardly.

This was the benefit of displaying power.

The black giant was not just a weapon but a silent deterrent, sparing him much unnecessary trouble.

He feared no one, but preferred peace.

He did not rush to divide the two most eye-catching crystal mountains, instead turning his gaze to the vault’s other areas.

Beyond these “hard currency” hills, the vault held piles of variously shaped rare materials: metal ingots, fossilized biological tissues, unknown crystals—all emitting strange energy fluctuations.

Unfortunately, wizard civilization’s study of the Giant Spirit Realm’s material system had only just begun; their exact value and uses could not yet be accurately assessed.

What most drew Jie Ming and the three wizards’ attention were the several rows of heavy bookshelves at the vault’s deepest point, forged from unknown metals and a leather-like material!

The shelves were neatly lined with books, some thick, some thin.

In a highly advanced technological civilization like the Giant Spirit Realm, common knowledge was surely stored in virtual networks.

For knowledge to be solemnly preserved in physical books and hidden in such a secret vault…

The importance of the knowledge they carried was self-evident!

Seeing these books, the eyes of all four wizards—including Jie Ming—lit up.

For knowledge-seeking wizards, this might be more attractive than the two crystal mountains!

The three wizards were eager but looked to Jie Ming, awaiting the “hero” with priority selection to choose first.

Jie Ming wasted no time.

He first approached the rare materials, activating the All-Purpose Eye; runes flashed ceaselessly in his pupils.

Sweeping the All-Purpose Eye over the materials, Jie Ming soon selected those with unique energy reactions, complex structures—even he could not fully discern them at a glance.

Such unknowns held greater research value for him.

Then, without hesitation, he took about one-third of the high-purity energy crystals and soul crystals, storing them in his internal space.

Seeing Jie Ming finish, the three wizards’ faces bloomed with irrepressible ecstasy.

Like starving wolves, they swiftly and efficiently divided the vault’s remaining resources.

The two crystal mountains shrank at visible speed; rare materials were categorized and loaded into spatial equipment.

Finally, all eyes refocused on the bookshelves.

Knowledge was priceless, but the beauty was it could be shared.

One wizard quickly drew a prismatic crystal from his robes—the Star Ring Federation’s standard information collection terminal.

Carefully, he took down the books one by one, placing them under the terminal for scanning.

The terminal emitted a soft glow, fully recording the text, diagrams, and even faint information in the materials themselves.

This process took some time.

Predictably, during this, several waves of foolhardy Giant Spirit Realm natives attempted to breach the vault via hidden short-range spatial jump devices, launching suicidal assaults.

But under the black giant’s absolute power and the interference of its temporal chaos domain, the attackers were crushed before they could even approach.

The concealed jump devices were casually destroyed by the black giant, cutting off any follow-up reinforcements via the same route.

Soon, all book information was fully recorded in the terminal.

The three wizards were satisfied, their faces sincere with gratitude as they solemnly thanked Jie Ming once more.

Had Jie Ming not aided in time and cracked the seal, they would have lost not just the harvest but their lives.

More importantly, they thanked his mercy in sparing them.

After all, with no contract binding them, Jie Ming could have monopolized everything by silencing them.