Chapter 138
There were seven entrances to the vein, and each entrance was guarded by three cultivators of Qi condensation. A bamboo basket was placed in front of each of them, and a lot of small iron pieces were already in them.
Perhaps it’s due to the influence of Qilian family, a small market was formed at the entrance of this mine. However, most of the things sold in this market were mining-related tools. There were not only mining shovel and pickaxe, but also a kind of “spiritual needle” invented by some cultivators, which was a tool for finding spiritual stones.
Xu Ziyan didn’t know how effective this tool was. Anyway, their goal was the five-element prismatic crystal, and the other spirit stones were less important.
“Ah, are we going to buy a mining shovel?” Jiang Ying suddenly remembered that they came here almost empty-handed, and they even forgot to prepare the necessary tools.
“No.” Xu Zirong shook his head.
The main purpose of calling Jiang Ying and the others was to dig the five-element prismatic crystal, it’s not about digging the spirit stones, so they didn’t need any tools.
Jiang Ying shrugged. Since his master said no, then there must be other ways. As a little brother, he only needed to follow his master’s pace, and he didn’t need to care about the rest.
After throwing the iron pieces into the bamboo basket, they obtained permission to enter the hole. The three of them followed behind Xu Zirong and soon disappeared in the winding tunnel.
“They are in the mine.” A man with sharp cheeks lowered his voice and said to his companion.
“Mine? Well, that proves that they have to stay in it for at least a month.” The companion replied happily.
“But I’m worried about what would happen if they go out from other holes. There are only the two of us, and it is impossible to hold all the holes.” The man with sharp cheeks said helplessly.
“Uh…” His companion, a strong man, was also worried, “then what should we do?”
The man with the sharp cheeks scratched his head, it looked like he couldn’t think of anything for a while.
“This elder Yumo really made a mistake by not saying it clearly. He only mentioned about the people coming from the Ghost Mountain Ranges, there’re so many people over there, how could we distinguish them?” The sturdy big man complained.
“Shut up.” The man with sharp cheeks suddenly looked more cautious, “do you want to die? How dare you say bad things about the elder!”
“What are you afraid of? He can’t hear it.” The sturdy tall man stopped but he looked unconvinced.
The man with sharp cheeks slammed on his head, “idiot, how many times have I told you that Yumo is the elder of the Hehuan Sect, and you know which people around us belong to the sect –” Speaking of this, he couldn’t help but look around, “I mean the concubines of those monsters? If they send our messages to the ears of elder Yumo, you will not even have an easy death!”
“Okay, okay, I know, I promise I won’t say it again, okay? But this time, it’s really strange. Why did this elder Yumo get the information of those people by trading the guide of ‘Return to Nothingness’?”
“Isn’t this easy to understand? It’s because the people he’s looking for are not going after the matters of the Hehuan sect, but for his own matters.” The man with sharp cheeks sneered, “I heard that this elder Yumo has accepted a new disciple lately, who had greatly fascinated him, even the most favored Liji was sent to this disciple for refining. It’s possible that this group of people had offended his lover and Yumo is simply looking for revenge.”
“Really?” The tall and sturdy man seemed to be a little skeptical and he muttered. However, these were just gossips for them, and looking for his target was the right thing to do.
This area of “Return to Nothingness” was considered a very special place in the Xuanyu Realm, which was opened every three years. The “Return of Nothingness” was located in the Day Devouring Mountain Range, it’s usually shrouded in black mist. Anyone who walked into the black mist could only turn around in it a few times, no matter what positioning method they used, and they usually walked out feeling confused.
Someone once suspected that a huge array was set up in this black mist, but over the years, countless cultivators who were proficient in arrays came here to study, but they never found any nodes.
All arrays require nodes to be supported, the more powerful the array is, the more nodes there are. This is the common knowledge of the cultivation world, but when the cultivators couldn’t find the nodes in the black mist, either there was no array in the black mist, or the person who set it had a high cultivation level, and those nodes were hidden too well.
Regardless of the reason, the black mist could not be broken, and it’s a fact that everyone must accept. Fortunately, every three years, the black mist would dissipate for a month, and in this month, the cultivator who had the guide to “Return to Nothingness” could enter it to find their own opportunities.
There were many guides for the “Return to Nothingness”, but there were also many big and small sects of demon cultivation. After some “negotiation” among the alliances of demon cultivation (that is, by fighting), a total of 120 guides to the “Return to Nothingness” were distributed to all sects.
As a large sect of demon cultivation, the Hehuan Sect also obtained more than ten guides. As the elder of the Hehuan Sect, elder Yumo naturally had the right to obtain several for his apprentices, and when he took out one of them as a reward, no one could say anything about it.
The man with sharp cheeks and the tall man were dying for this guide, that’s why he’s trying so hard to find the target of the elder Yumo. It’s also because this man with sharp cheeks had a rat-like spiritual pet, which had a very sensitive sense of smell, it could smell things that ordinary people couldn’t.
The tall trees growing on the Ghost Mountain Ranges were a kind of plant called shady wood. This kind of plant emitted a very light scent in these few months of the year to attract other monsters to spread pollen for it. This special scent could be attached to human bodies for a long time, and the spiritual pet owned by the man with sharp cheeks could easily smell this scent.
Ever since the elder Yumo issued the wanted warrant, the man with sharp cheeks had been guarding the west gate of the city. Anyone who came from the Ghost Mountain Ranges must enter the city from the west gate unless they made a detour. And he relied on this method of standing by and successfully spotted three people, which were Xu Ziyan and the others.
These people carried the scent of dark wood. According to the intensity of the scent, he could guarantee that these people must have been in the Ghost Mountain Ranges ten days ago.
However, the conditions given by the elder Yumo were too vague, so this man couldn’t determine which batch this group belonged to. In the end, he could only report these three people to those of the Hehuan Sect. As long as the person that the elder Yumo wanted to find was in there, then Yumo would definitely give his reward accordingly!
Xu Ziyan and the others, who had gone deep into the mine, didn’t realize that a Nascent Soul cultivator had already his eyes on them…
At this moment, they were closely following Xu Zirong’s back, following the path in his memory, looking for the mine tunnel where the five-element prismatic crystal was dug out.
After the shock caused by the unearthed five-element prismatic crystal, this mineral vein of the Qilian family got famous almost in the entire Xuan Yu Realm in a short time. Although they later blocked the mine, they still couldn’t stop a large number of cultivators coming.
There were even cultivators who went crazy digging in the mine tunnel next door, trying to punch through from there. However, later they were discovered by the guards of the Qilian family, which stopped them from continuing this stupid behavior.
At that time, Xu Zirong was just a cultivator in the middle stage of building base, and he had expectations for this lucky mine tunnel. Unfortunately, there weren’t satisfactory results. He only dug a thumb-sized fire spirit, barely returning the cost.
“It’s here.” Xu Zirong stopped suddenly and said softly, pointing to a narrow intersection.
Xu Ziyan looked at it, then he understood why the poor cultivator managed to find this five-element prismatic crystal.
This abandoned mine vein stretched for hundreds of miles. After so many years of excavation, the mine tunnels inside were densely covered like spider webs. However, most of the mine tunnels in which people could dig out spiritual stones were often relatively large ones. Like Xu Zirong had pointed out, this narrow tunnel in which only one person was allowed to pass through, people usually thought that they’d probably get nothing inside.
Come to think of it, because of his lack of strength, the poor cultivator dared not try those places where he could easily find treasures, that’s why he chose such an unobvious mine tunnel. Unexpectedly, in such an area with weak aura, there’s a treasure which even nascent soul cultivators would die for…
“Let’s go, don’t waste time here.” Xu Ziyan walked in first, and Xu Zirong followed him closely, while Jiang Ying and Fang Tianrui were left near the entrance to prevent anyone from entering by mistake.
All the sites in the mine were open, but there were sometimes cultivators in groups who would occupy places with a high probability of producing spiritual stones.
In a narrow mine tunnel like this, no one would actually compete with them, but Xu Ziyan still kept Jiang Ying and Fang Tianrui near the entrance just in case.
“Brother, let me find it.” Xu Zirong smiled slightly, flicking his fingertips, and a blood arrow shot out. After the blood arrow landed, it immediately turned into a large number of blood lice, and they drilled into the rock walls on both sides of the mine tunnel.
Xu Ziyan was silent. Well, it’s true that his younger brother seemed more capable, but wouldn’t it be crushing his self-esteem as an older brother?!
The blood lice did the job of finding the five-element prismatic crystal, but no one knew how long it would take to find it.
This mine tunnel was still several hundred meters long. When Xu Zirong went there, the place where the prismatic crystal was dug out had already been filled, and they could only look elsewhere in the tunnel.
“Brother, time is precious.” Xu Zirong’s eyes sparkled.
“Then…” Xu Ziyan raised her eyebrows in surprise, why did Zirong suddenly come up with this sentence?
“So, let’s cultivate.”
Xu Ziyan, “…”
He slapped Xu Zirong’s head and cursed in his heart. No matter how hard Xu Zirong tried to look serious, it still couldn’t hide his filthy mind!
“Be more serious, can you?!” Xu Ziyan cursed and his face turned red. Can this kid be more serious? How could he propose cultivating under these circumstances?
He understood what Xu Zirong was thinking. The kind of “cultivation” that he’d mentioned wasn’t the usual kind, when someone just meditates and absorbs aura!
“Oh.” Xu Zirong lowered his head in disappointment, and the dark cloud above his head almost turned into a real object.
Xu Ziyan slapped on his head, “can’t you act more like an adult? How can you just think about those kind of things all day long?”
“What kind of things?” Xu Zirong said with an innocent expression, “I’m talking about cultivation. If we do it, then we must pick the best kind.”
Xu Ziyan was speechless at once, well, in this kind of environment with thin spiritual energy, it was indeed efficient to use dual cultivation, but the problem is that there were two people near them! So what could he do? Should he just ask them not to look?
Damn! Whose kid is this, really? Can you please return to me that obedient and lovely little brother?!
“Okay…” After knowing that it was impossible to get his brother’s approval, Xu Zirong finally gave up, but he wrote on the notebook in his heart, “the location is not a problem. The main problem is there mustn’t be anyone around us!” Afterwards, he marked down all the best dating sites that he’d heard of in his two lives…
The group was digging in this barren mine tunnel day and night. Jiang Ying and Fang Tianrui had even doubled the width of the mine tunnel at the entrance, and they still did not find half a piece of spiritual stone.
The reason why the aura in this mine tunnel was so thin was that the five-element prismatic crystal required a huge amount of aura to nourish itself before it was formed. Although it was a vein of spiritual stones, the existence of the five-element prismatic crystal would naturally stop any other spiritual stones from being formed.
If it weren’t for the characteristics of the five-element prismatic crystal, the place would have been dug up by those cultivators who were looking for spiritual stones and dreaming of getting rich overnight, and it would never be Xu Ziyan’s turn to discover the treasures.
For twenty days, the blood lice controlled by Xu Zirong died batch after batch. On the morning of the 21st day, he found out something abnormal of the blood lice.
“Here!” Xu Zirong pointed to a huge rock near the end of the passage and said, “it should be below this.”
“Okay, I’ll dig it! You can rest for a while.” Xu Ziyan immediately clenched his fists and prepared to dig, but Xu Zirong shook his head and smiled unexpectedly, “how can I bother my brother for this kind of small things? I’ll do it.”
Afterwards, he dropped a few drops of essence blood, which turned into a few rats with sharp claws, and they started digging.
Xu Ziyan was depressed, although his thunder-type spells were not as good as these blood monsters, since Xu Zirong completely exposed his true colors, he felt that he’s becoming less and less useful…_(:3∠)_
Naturally, Xu Ziyan would not do things that he wasn’t good at. Also, with the existence of Xu Zirong’s blood lice, there’s no reason for him to do such hard work.
The two waited quietly, Xu Ziyan also carefully set up arrays to isolate the fluctuations of spiritual power. When the five-element prismatic crystal was dug out, there was a strong wave. It was still a myth as to how the cultivator brought the prismatic crystal back to Day Devouring City.
As the place where the prismatic crystal was dug out was very deep, Xu Zirong had to control his sharp-flawed mice and dig for seven days and nights.
“Found it!” Xu Zirong, who had been keeping his eyes closed and rested, slowly opened his eyes and jumped down the big hole dug by his mice.
Xu Ziyan was naturally unwilling to be left behind, and he jumped down behind him.
Since the soil of the veins was very hard, there were still some wasted spiritual stones that were formed before having absorbed enough aura. These wasted spiritual stones were very hard. In order to save energy, the mice all skipped these places when they dug the passages.
There were many twists and turns in the passage, and they were extending down about a hundred feet, and from time to time, they found one or two pieces of relatively good ore on both sides of the passage. If that poor cultivator knew more about them, he could definitely take away these associated ores as well.
“Get the five-element prismatic crystal first.” Xu Ziyan knew very well what the focus of their trip was. These associated ores were certainly valuable, but it would become a useless trip if they couldn’t take the prismatic crystal because of this.
Xu Zirong nodded, and the two continued to move forward.
The closer they were to the prismatic crystal, the more associated ores were exposed on the surrounding rock walls. These included the most common fire spirits, wood spirits, then red fire spirits, green melting wood spirits, and even water spirit crystals. They were numerous, and their combined value might even surpass that of the five-element prismatic crystal.
“It’s here.” Xu Zirong stopped, and Xu Ziyan followed. They saw that not far ahead, several sharp-clawed mice were making noises around a large rock.
“Is this the prismatic crystal?” Xu Ziyan asked curiously, as he’d never seen one before.
“This should be the original ore of the five-element prismatic crystal.” Xu Zirong had seen the prismatic crystal once in his previous life. It was owned by a nascent soul cultivator, which was smaller than a fist, but that cultivator treated it like the biggest treasure.
This five-element prismatic crystal was wrapped in a thick rock shell. If it’s viewed from the outside, the diameter was a full foot, even if the shell was removed, it should have a considerable size as well.
This trip’s really worth it. Even though Little Square couldn’t use this treasure, they could still use it to trade with other high-level cultivators when they got a certain amount of strength.
“Can we dig it now?” Xu Ziyan didn’t know what the taboos were for digging the prismatic crystal, so he asked Xu Zirong first.
Xu Zirong thought for a while, “I only know that there will be a big wave when we dig it out, but I haven’t seen it yet.”
“Well, I’ll do it.”
Xu Zirong had no objection. So far, he hadn’t heard of anyone getting killed from digging out the prismatic crystal. He just heard of people getting killed from the fight for it.
Xu Ziyan took a deep breath, and in order to prevent any accidents, he also covered his hands with thunder-type spiritual energy.
Facts have proved that it’s an unnecessary act.
In his last life, the poor cultivator managed to remove the five-element prismatic crystal without any accident. It’s obvious that there were no traps set on this thing.
After being dug out from the ground, the huge rock gradually cracked. Pieces of shattered shells fell on the ground, gradually revealing the transparent five-element prismatic crystal inside.
“It’s so beautiful…” Xu Ziyan exclaimed when he looked at the five-element prismatic crystal in his hand. It was indeed a spiritual source that can replace the five ultimate treasures of the five elements. In this transparent five-element prismatic crystal, there were five streams of different colors flowing back and forth along a mysterious trajectory.
Those five streams of colors seemed to have a special charm, making people curious to find their traces. After looking at it for a while, Xu Ziyan felt a bit dizzy. He felt his head getting heavy and he soon fell into Xu Zirong’s arms.
After someone took the five-element prismatic crystal away from his hand, Xu Ziyan still felt a little weak. He rubbed his forehead vigorously. Just when he wanted to say something, he heard Zirong’s voice, “cross your legs and meditate, and move your Purple Night Nine Changes once.”
Xu Ziyan did not hesitate and immediately followed his instructions. As soon as he entered the state of cultivation, the five-element prismatic crystal in Xu Zirong’s hand immediately emitted a faint light, slowly rotating around Xu Ziyan’s body.
Xu Zirong smiled when he saw it. He sat cross-legged, placing the five-element prismatic crystal on his knee, and entered the state of cultivation as well.
This cultivation lasted three days. During these three days, the two were immersed in a strange state. The spiritual power released by the five-element prismatic crystal was not wasted a bit, and it’s all absorbed by the two brothers. They’d made a leap forward regarding their level of cultivation.
Ever since Xu Ziyan swallowed the Purple Night Divine Thunder, the spiritual power in his body had reached a bottleneck. After the dual cultivation that he was forced to do, Xu Zirong managed to break through the bottleneck of Qi condensation, so he would also benefit from it.
After thoroughly refining the remaining spiritual power of the Purple Night Divine Thunder, he had completely reached the middle stage of Qi condensation, and this time, through the perception of the five-element prismatic crystal and the absorption of its aura, he even skipped the middle stage and reached the later stage of Qi condensation.
Although Xu Zirong also had some gains, he had already felt the prismatic crystal in his previous life. The effect was also ideal on him this time, and he also broke through the middle stage of Qi condensation.
After opening his eyes again, although he was still in a dark cave, Xu Ziyan seemed to have a different perception of the whole world.
“Is this… golden care?” he whispered.
“Is brother feeling it too?” Xu Zirong absorbed less aura than Xu Ziyan, and naturally woke up earlier.
“Yeah.” Xu Ziyan lowered his head and said nothing, trying to keep a firm note of the moment of insight.
