Time flowed swiftly. Another half year passed.
By day, Wang Teng went to school to absorb scattered mental strength, while also using the opportunity to meditate and cultivate magical energy.
Within the void, Space Element magical energy was truly scarce. Compared to elemental magic, it lagged far behind to an unknown degree. As a result, he had remained at the Commander Level for an entire year with little visible progress.
His Space Element magic had already reached Initial Tier complete mastery, while the Psychic Element continued to show the greatest improvement, advancing significantly beyond Intermediate Tier Level Two.
He was confident that before the second-year outdoor training expedition, he would be able to complete Psychic Element Intermediate Tier full mastery.
But the most critical breakthrough was this: the demon art Void Tresuary had finally achieved a qualitative leap.
After half a year of development and refinement, he had successfully opened a circular internal space with a ten-meter radius within his body.
This was his greatest gain.
With this ability, it meant he could finally begin entering demon territories!
Night.
Inside the living room.
"Are you really going alone?"
Tang Yue, drenched in sweat, leaned against Wang Teng's chest. Worry filled her eyes. Her face carried a rich, mature femininity—after half a year together, all traces of youthful shyness had completely faded.
Wang Teng reclined on the sofa, his gaze firm.
He knew there were decisions that had to be made. He hadn't spent all this time developing himself for nothing—wasn't it all for this moment, for resources?
"Mm."
"Don't worry. I'm confident."
"And it's not because of magic."
The moment she heard this, Tang Yue understood.
That was the demon art—even she was unaware of its secrets. Despite having become his woman, she had never probed into it.
"Alright. I'll wait for you to come back."
"There are still a few months until this year's outdoor training. Don't miss it."
She understood Wang Teng's personality. Once he made a decision, no one could change it. Otherwise, he wouldn't be Wang Teng.
Besides, she didn't want him staying outside for too long. For him, the school's outdoor training was becoming increasingly optional—he could even enter Pearl Institute through special recruitment.
Wang Teng smiled at her words. He lifted Tang Yue in his arms and carried her toward the bedroom.
Truth be told, he was liking her more and more.
Tang Yue wrapped her arms around his neck and let him do as he pleased.
…
The next morning, Tang Yue drove Wang Teng to the Safe Boundary.
Sitting in the car, she watched with her own eyes as Wang Teng stepped out—and then vanished directly from her sight.
"So this is the demon art you mentioned…"
She murmured softly, focusing her mind and pushing her spiritual perception to its maximum.
Yet she detected nothing at all.
Only then did she finally relax. She turned the car around and headed back the way she came.
After entering Void Stealth, Wang Teng completely let himself go.
It was as if he had entered an uninhabited realm.
He passed openly through the Military checkpoint, then continued deep into demon territory.
Void Stealth only consumed demon power at the moment of activation. At all other times, the consumption was nearly nonexistent—just like a Space-type demon strolling home.
"This is the right direction."
Wang Teng casually pulled out a specially made map.
It recorded demon distributions within several hundred kilometers around Bo City, along with locations of previously exploited resource sites.
His objective was clear: enter areas that had once been mined.
Demons' sensitivity to resources far surpassed that of human detection devices.
It wasn't that humans had completely exhausted these resource sites. Rather, deeper layers often went undiscovered—or were simply impossible to extract. Demons, however, might move in, uncover them, and even exploit them.
Humans took resources away once mined. Demons were different. Resources tended to accumulate in a single location—typically the territory of a demon leader.
This was precisely why demon gathering grounds often yielded resources, sometimes even extremely rare ones.
Wang Teng moved forward with steady steps. His figure flickered within deeper spatial layers, each step carrying him over a hundred meters.
This was merely the mobility aspect of Void Stealth. If he later developed Void Movement, the distance covered would be truly astonishing.
Of course, this was also heavily dependent on his own strength. At Commander Level, what he could currently do was still quite limited.
The complexity of demon territory far exceeded his expectations.
Mobile phone positioning was essentially useless—precise location tracking was impossible. Certain special terrains formed fields that completely disabled positioning functions. Worse still, they could attract demon hostility.
Only after losing reliance on navigation did he realize just how troublesome it was.
Holding his map, Wang Teng wandered for over half a month before finally locating a former Magical Stone Mine site, more than a hundred kilometers from Bo City.
"…Damn it."
Wang Teng looked exhausted as he sat cross-legged atop a mountain peak to rest.
The resource site had been far harder to find than he expected. The traces of past excavation were almost entirely covered by vegetation. If not for the presence of Bloodsucking Bats, he might not have noticed it even at close range.
Below him sprawled a vast demon tribe.
Bloodsucking Bats were everywhere. Some were large, some small. With wings fully spread, many exceeded ten meters across—like buildings flying through the sky!
"Let's rest first. I'll act tomorrow during the day."
Night had already fallen. The Bloodsucking Bats had begun to stir, flying out one after another to hunt.
Along the way, Wang Teng had encountered many demons—some solitary, some in groups ranging from a few to over a hundred.
But for pack-type demons like Bloodsucking Bats, their numbers were simply incalculable.
Demons also required cultivation resources. Since they had chosen to settle here, there had to be something inside. Otherwise, such a demon tribe would never have chosen this location.
This wasn't a lone demon or a small group that could roam freely. Those rarely possessed any resources to speak of.
Time slowly passed. Night gave way to dawn.
Only when sunlight grew strong did the entire demon tribe finally quiet down.
"This should be around nine in the morning."
After a night's rest, Wang Teng was full of energy. He headed toward the mine at the base of the mountain.
Before long, he entered the dark mine tunnel.
Bloodsucking Bats hung densely from the ceiling. What had once been a spacious passage had become oppressively crowded.
But none of this concerned him.
Wang Teng walked openly through the tunnel, passing directly through the swarms of bats. Even when their bodies overlapped, nothing unusual occurred.
He advanced unobstructed all the way to the depths of the cave.
Fortunately, as a demon himself, he could see in this environment. Otherwise, nothing would have been visible at all.
The pitch-black tunnel contained no light whatsoever. Only demon vision allowed him to distinguish the surroundings.
After advancing several hundred meters and passing multiple branching tunnels without discovery, he finally reached the deepest point—and saw something different.
Human excavation traces ended at a karst chamber roughly fifty meters high and wide.
But in one corner of the chamber was a narrow passage nearly thirty meters tall, its walls covered with claw marks left by demons.
"This doesn't look like human excavation…"
"It looks more like demon claw marks?"
"And those claw prints are enormous…"
At this sight, unease crept into Wang Teng's heart.
Those claw marks were larger than any Bloodsucking Bat he had seen the night before.