The storage area of the city was in the form of a large cove.
This cove was attached to a lake that extended further out into the border of the city before merging into the ocean. It was a stunning sight to find a lake and cove under the ocean.
Inside this cover were several sections that were being used as a warehouse. One of the warehouses was used as the Immortal stone storage, while several others were used as Immortal Qi storage and condensing sections.
They were even located in a row, acting as a 'production line'.
The first warehouse would first gather the immortal Qi and would start transferring it to the next one after it was about 90% filled. The second one would do the same and transfer to the third upon reaching the 90% mark as well.
But from the fourth warehouse onwards, there was no 90% limit. Instead, the immortal Qi was allowed to flow freely between the fourth and tenth warehouses, forming a large buffer space.
The Eleventh warehouse situated after the tenth had direct channels to all the warehouses in the buffer section, and would absorb immortal Qi and condense it. After it was sufficiently condensed, it would pass onto the twelfth warehouse which would then condense it further into immortal stones.
Once an immortal stone was formed it would be pushed out into the thirteenth warehouse which would store them indefinitely.
It was a systematic storage line and had a large array monitoring it. In fact, the moment Elder Niji, Lin Mu, and Lanbao landed, they saw a screen made of runes appearing in front of them.
It showed them the status of each warehouse as well as the overflowing loss on the side.
"This… just how much is it leaking?" Lin Mu was confused as there was no specific number there.
"If we condense the amount of immortal Qi that was lost in the past year alone, it would form at least a thousand high grade immortal stones." Elder Niji answered.
Similar to the Spirit stones, immortal stones had grades too and they were the same as before, ranging from low, mid, high and peak.
Each grade had ten times the amount of Immortal Qi as the previous grade.
If one converted it to numerical values, Low-grade immortal stones would be 1, Mid grade 10, high-grade 100, and Peak grade 1,000.
A loss of 100, high-grade immortal stones was a big loss. Many Immortal cultivators might not even gain that many immortal stones in a thousand years.
Not to mention, even one high-grade immortal stone was enough to buy a mid-grade immortal tool. And one hundred high immortal stones would be enough to buy 1 high-grade immortal tool.
All this was just a year's loss. There was no telling how much immortal Qi had been lost over the thousands of years this overflow had been going on.
"How would this overflow even happen though? Isn't there some sort of a mechanism to keep it from happening?" Lin Mu questioned.
"There is. But it involved the stones being used by the members of the tribes or being used for trading. With no one in the city, nothing could be done and the immortal stones continued to accumulate." Elder Niji answered.
"No wonder…" Lin Mu understood.
"I don't know how to best make use of this though. We can obviously take out all the immortal stones, but the buffer storage of immortal Qi would still continue leaking. The Immortal Qi condensing array isn't capable enough to keep up with the fast supply." Elder Niji stated.
"Hmm… Why don't you use it for your own cultivation?" Lin Mu asked.
"Even that won't be enough. There will still be continued leakage." Elder Niji shook his head, knowing his current limits.
Lin Mu too wondered what could be done additionally to solve this and soon heard Senior Xukong's voice.
"You can just use this to establish a stable channel to the minor plane where the Great Ocean Hippocampus is slumbering," Xukong suggested.
"Can I do that at my level Senior?" Lin Mu asked doubtfully.
Since he was in an immortal world, the spatial fabric and laws were harder to overcome. He couldn't do everything with the same ease that he had in the Xiaofan world.
"You've learned the formations and runes enough to do it now. For any other difficulties, I'll guide you." Xukong replied. "Besides, there is no better way to learn and progress other than to actually apply your knowledge." He added.
"That's true." Lin Mu nodded his head before turning to Elder Niji.
"I know what we can do with this Elder Niji. And I think it should use up most of the buffer storage if immortal Qi." Lin Mu spoke.
"What?" Elder Niji was interested and so was Lanbao.
"I'll do what I told you about before, the spatial channel to the Great Ocean Hippocampus." Lin Mu answered. "The Haima tribe will be able to make use of it as a sacred land for cultivation."
"That would be perfect!" Elder Niji agreed, but Lanbao had a look of confusion on her face.
"The ancestral beast? You know where it is?" She was surprised.
"Yes, we were there just a few days ago." Lin Mu replied before narrating their experience.
"Wow! I wanna see the Ancestral beast too. I've only ever seen its statues before." Lanbao said with excitement.
"That might be possible." Lin Mu said, not wanting to give false hope to the artifact spirit.
"What do I need to do, Noble Lin Mu?" Elder Niji asked.
"You'll just need to channel the immortal Qi out of the storage once I've established the spatial Channel." Lin Mu replied. "Though before that, we need to find a suitable place for that. Some place at least a kilometer wide and as flat as possible." He stated.
"I know a place like that!" Lanbao responded. "Come, I'll take you." She said forming another water platform and dragging them away.
