A line of Chinese characters instantly appeared on the light screen: "Incorrect password, please re-enter."
Clinging to a sliver of hope, Li Xiangdong quickly tried entering strings like eight 6s and eight 8s, following his usual habits, but every attempt resulted in "Incorrect password."
As the saying goes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. A wave of frustration washed over Li Xiangdong: no matter how advanced a treasure might be, if it couldn't be used, it was nothing more than scrap.
The rollercoaster of excitement, tension, and multiple failed attempts finally left Li Xiangdong feeling dizzy and lightheaded. While blindly guessing passwords and trying his luck against the blank light screen, he absentmindedly sat down right on the side of the path. To his surprise, he landed squarely on a small, sharp stone, giving his backside a painful jab.
"Ouch..." The pain made Li Xiangdong jump up, both hands clutching his rear end.
Thank goodness! His backside wasn't pierced.
While rubbing his injured rear, Li Xiangdong raised his left hand... and this time, the light screen changed.
"It looks like I accidentally hit the confirmation key just now. Turns out there wasn't a password set at all. I'm going to be rich!"
Feeling the pain in his backside vanish, Li Xiangdong quickly began to read: "Storage function of the Time-Space Ring has been activated. Access items?" The next line displayed two buttons: "Store" on the left and "Retrieve" on the right.
"It's actually the legendary storage ring, and it's even a 'Time-Space Ring' I've never heard of before." Overjoyed, Li Xiangdong—being an avid web novel fan—was naturally well aware that storage rings were dime-a-dozen equipment in Xianxia novels.
"I never imagined storage rings actually existed in this world, and that they're high-tech products operated just like a touchscreen smartphone."
"Aren't legendary storage rings supposed to be controlled by willpower or Divine Sense? It seemed like they usually required recognizing their master with a drop of blood, too."
"Still, I'm just an ordinary person with no such thing as Divine Sense. It's a good thing this can be operated just like a phone."
"Let me see what treasures are inside."
...
A flurry of chaotic thoughts flashed rapidly through his mind. Li Xiangdong took a few deep breaths, patted his chest, and tried his utmost to calm his violently racing heart before gently tapping "Retrieve." Lines of text quickly appeared on the light screen.
The first line had a format similar to the homepage of the Hua Nation Baidu search engine, with a blank space and a "Search" button on the far right.
The second line read: "Please select from the following items directly."
Starting from the third line, each row represented a category name. For instance, the third line was "Electronics"; the fourth line was "Machinery"; the fifth line was "Transportation"; the sixth line was "Pharmaceuticals"... One could say all kinds of item categories were fully covered, and every category had a drop-down arrow next to it, clearly indicating there were plenty of things inside.
Li Xiangdong's eyes swam as he stared in disbelief. Could this tiny ring really hold so many items? Just how massive must that space be?
Holding a trial-and-mindset, Li Xiangdong tapped the arrow next to "Pharmaceuticals."
The light screen shifted once more, displaying rows of text:
"Primary Genetic Potion 100 million boxes"
"Intermediate Genetic Potion 100 million boxes"
"Advanced Genetic Potion 100 million boxes"
"Energy Recovery Potion 100 million boxes"
"Common Antidote 100 million boxes"
...
Not only was the quantity measured in hundreds of millions, but the varieties were so numerous that they clearly couldn't all fit on a single screen.
Suppressing his violent heartbeat to the best of his ability, Li Xiangdong tapped on "Primary Genetic Potion." The light screen immediately prompted: "Please enter the quantity to retrieve: boxes." Li Xiangdong carefully typed "1" into the blank space and pressed "Confirm."
Immediately, the light beam on the screen condensed into a single ray that swept around the surroundings, pointed at the ground, and then vanished as the beam dimmed. Suddenly, a rectangular box about half the size of an ordinary suitcase appeared on the ground.
"There really are sci-fi things like genetic potions inside! And 100 million boxes of them at that. Just how much space must this require? It's simply incredible!"
Leaving everything else aside, Li Xiangdong eagerly began examining the box that had materialized out of nowhere. The material of the box seemed akin to plastic, feeling cool to the touch. Two latch clasps were set on the front of the lid; with a gentle pull from his hand, the clasps snapped open. Lifting the lid revealed rows of soft, recessed grooves holding small, fully sealed glass vials of potion. The size of the vials was roughly comparable to the common nutritional oral liquids we see every day.
He gently picked one up. It felt ice-cold in his hand, a pale blue color, crystal clear.
A line of dark blue text was printed on the glass bottle, but unfortunately, Li Xiangdong was slightly nearsighted, and with the bamboo grove blocking the sunlight, he couldn't see it clearly. It looked vaguely like a string of numbers.
Counting them, there were exactly 100 vials of potion in the box. After further inspection, he discovered a liquid crystal flat panel roughly the size of a five-inch smartphone built into the lid of the plastic case, though Li Xiangdong didn't take the time to flip through it carefully. Seeing that it was getting late, he carefully placed the potion back and closed the lid. He pressed the character "Qin" on the ring face once more. After the light screen illuminated, he bypassed the password, clicked "Confirm" directly, and then selected "Store."
A slender beam of light split off from the edge of the light screen, and Li Xiangdong carefully aimed the beam at the box on the ground. The moment the beam touched the box, it expanded instantly, enveloping the entire container. At the same time, a question popped up on the light screen: "Collect items?" followed by two choices: "Yes" and "No."
Li Xiangdong tapped "Yes," and with a flash of light, the box of potions instantly vanished.
It seemed this was an extraordinary object! Forcing down his inner excitement, Li Xiangdong realized this world was far from simple. To think such a magical treasure existed—heaven knows where it drifted from, but he had stumbled upon it by pure luck. He was going to be rich.
Li Xiangdong had been a daydreamer since childhood. Soaring through the blue skies, swimming across vast oceans, and exploring deep mountains had all been wishes from his early years. As he grew older, these pleasant aspirations slowly became buried deep within his mind, but today's fantastic encounter caused those childhood dreams to burst forth with life once more like wild grass.
Glancing up at the sky, he saw that dusk was fast approaching. Li Xiangdong quickly packed up his bamboo shoots, hoisted his hoe over his shoulder, and excitedly headed down the mountain for home.
Back home, he washed the hoe in a few quick steps, cleaned the soil from the soles of his shoes, and peeled and washed the freshly dug bamboo shoots. After a simple cleanup, he handed them over to Grandma in the kitchen to cook, while he himself couldn't wait to return to his bedroom on the third floor to carefully examine the ring.
Contemplating the ring on his left hand, he felt today's events were utterly bizarre, completely shattering his lifelong understanding of the world.
"Whose ring was lost? How long has it been buried here?"
"Just how vast is the space inside such a tiny trinket?"
These were all questions Li Xiangdong longed to figure out, yet had no way of solving.
A sudden thought struck him: who knew how long the ring had been buried in the earth? What if its energy had run out, and when the time came, he wouldn't be able to retrieve a single thing? That would make for a bitter disappointment. It would be much better to take out some practical items first.
Thus, Li Xiangdong repeated his previous operation, retrieving ten boxes of Primary Genetic Potion, along with one box each of Intermediate and Advanced Genetic Potion.