Seven thousand spirit crystals remained, a significant surplus compared to Lin Yun's original plan of having only a few hundred left.
He decided not to rush into buying other items yet and first tested the professional device meant for absorbing and refining spiritual energy.
There were many types of devices designed to absorb and refine spiritual energy. The one that Star Blue had sold him was a regional device—precisely the kind that he intended to buy.
It worked similarly to the Cosmic Trading System where it could absorb and refine the spiritual energy around wherever it was.
Just like that, this device did the same within a radius of thirty kilometers.
"Thank goodness for the thirty-kilometer radius, or else, even if it could absorb and refine the spiritual energy of twenty million people, it might not be able to cover all twenty million..." Lin Yun sighed.
A radius of thirty kilometers was already enough to blanket Shen City, including its most remote areas, and even some beyond. Long ago, Shen City's officials had claimed the city housed twenty million people. Now, it was time to put that claim to test.
Although referred to as a device, it was merely an item, roughly the size and shape of a jade pendant.
On it was a small protrusion. As soon as it was pressed, the device would be activated.
It didn't require external energy to function. It fueled itself by absorbing spiritual energy.
"Beep!"
Before operating, it was necessary to pair the device with his Cosmic Trading System. This way, the spiritual energy absorbed and refined by the device would automatically be credited to the balance on his Cosmic Trading System.
As long as this device was not destroyed or turned off,
no matter where he was, it would consistently deliver spiritual energy to him.
Just like Star Blue, while he journeyed across galaxies, he could still receive spiritual energy generated by his civilization.
If anyone turned off this device and then restarted it, it would need to reconnect to the Cosmic Trading System.
In order to prevent any abnormalities during the transmission process in a trade, this type of device had to be disabled.
This precaution also helped avoid situations where the owner of a Cosmic Trading System sold their second-hand device, which, after reaching another Cosmic Trading System owner, continued absorbing and refining spiritual energy from the new location.
First, Lin Yun turned off the Cosmic Trading System's ability to absorb and refine spiritual energy.
"Hum..."
Then, he pressed the protrusion and immediately felt a unique disruption emanate from the "jade pendant," spreading quickly in all directions.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."
Simultaneously, Lin Yun "saw" the spiritual energy balance on his now inactive Cosmic Trading System begin to rise swiftly once more.
"Prior to integrating with the second-level spirituality, this device could only absorb and refine the spiritual energy of ten million people. Covering ten million people within a thirty-kilometer radius is more than enough, let's see how quickly we're acquiring spiritual energy now..."
Lin Yun closed his eyes, muttering to himself.
Earlier, he hadn't had a concrete idea of how many people the Cosmic Trading System's range for absorbing and refining spiritual energy could cover. So, he wasn't quite sure about how much spiritual energy an individual could provide to the Cosmic Trading System per day.
Integrating Spirituality into the device was quite simple. Lin Yun simply had to place his Spirituality atop the device which innately possessed the ability to absorb Spirituality.
"Hum—"
As the Spirituality integrated, Lin Yun instantly felt the device undergo a tremendous change. It seemed to come alive and a wave even more intense than the one just now suddenly diffused in every direction.
"Whoosh— Whoosh— Whoosh—"
Lin Yun instantaneously "saw" his spiritual energy balance in the Cosmic Trading System skyrocket.
This speed was hardly double that of before. It nearly reached... triple!
"So much spiritual energy..." Lin Yun's expression changed again.
Only then did he remember that another significant benefit of integrating second-grade Spirituality into the device was that it could enhance the device's efficiency in absorbing refined spiritual energy by thirty to fifty percent!
"According to this speed, I can obtain almost seven hundred spirit crystals every day!"
"This means, not only does the device cover a area with a population of 20 million, but also its efficiency in absorbing and refining spiritual energy has increased by fifty percent!"
Lin Yun quickly concluded two pieces of data.
This fifty percent boost didn't directly increase this device's efficiency by fifty percent. The original efficiency of the device was sixty percent. To increase it by fifty percent would mean reaching one hundred and ten percent... There was only so much spiritual energy. No matter how it was absorbed and refined, it could not possibly increase. Lin Yun knew this all along.
This increased efficiency was an addition of fifty percent based on the original sixty percent, leading to a total efficiency of ninety percent!
Such a boost, under the influence of Spirituality, could be deemed the maximum. It proved that Lin Yun's second-grade Spirituality had excellent effects!
Now, the efficiency of this device in absorbing and refining spiritual energy could compete with the efficiency of the Cosmic Trading System!
"The effect of this Spirituality is truly powerful! Fortunately, I sold it to Star Blue earlier. If I had sold it to someone else, the loss would have been tremendous!" Lin Yun took a deep breath and mentally commented.
If it hadn't been infused with this Spirituality, despite the device's ability to absorb and refine the spiritual energy of twenty million people, he could only obtain around four hundred and sixty spirit crystals every day!
Every day would lack almost two hundred and thirty spirit crystals!
Even over just a few days, the number of spirit crystals that had been sacrificed was massive!
As for long-term losses, they were even more colossal!
If initially he had sold this second-grade Spirituality to someone else for barely a thousand more spirit crystals and never buy it back, he would regret it deeply!
Once such Spirituality was missed, regaining it was uncertain!
As far as he knew, despite Star Blue's rule over their civilization for over thousands of years, even after scouring their civilization, they had not obtained a single second-grade Spirituality. They only found a few first-grade Spirituality!
With that in mind, he was even more grateful for Star Blue's assistance at that time!
"It seems that when possible, I need to find more of this Spirituality. Otherwise, solely relying on the device to absorb and refine spiritual energy would be too inefficient..." Lin Yun murmured.
Now that he had tasted the efficiency of a device infused with Spirituality, it was hard for him to accept a device without such integration.