"That's certainly a big Immortal Stone." Lin Mu looked at the large crystal which was entirely composed of High Grade immortal stones.
They had grown so much that they had now fused into a single entity.
"Just a thousand years or so and they might have turned into Peak Grade immortal stones perhaps." Xukong spoke up seeing the large chunk.
"Mmhmm… if this place was left untouched it might have really become a Peak Grade Immortal Stone mine. But for us, even this is enough." Lin Mu replied.
He closed his eyes for a moment before activating Spatial perception. With that, he gazed directly at the large chunk of High Grade Immortal stones. Or more accurately, Lin Mu was trying to see where the source vein of the entire mine was exactly.
He wished to take it out in a single cluster, instead of cutting thus it was important for him to know its exact shape and size. But with the high concentration of Immortal Qi that was within these crystals, it was hard for Lin Mu to observe.
It was like trying to look at something through dense mist. Even with Spatial Perception, it was quite difficult for Lin Mu.
"Hmm… I can barely see the edges of it." Lin Mu furrowed his brows.
"Chip away from the sides bit by bit. That way you should be able to find the core of it." Xukong advised.
"I'll try that." Lin Mu nodded his head.
Lin Mu then focused on the upper layers of the crystal chunk and used meld on the parts he was sure about being High Grade Immortal stone.
Even when cutting, he didn't make a wide cut, but rather a straight deep cut that wasn't even a centimeter wide in size. His allowed Lin Mu to reduce the area that he affected, as well as keep the quality of the Immortal Stone chunk.
It was a well known fact that larger sized chunks maintained their Immortal Qi well and could also be used for many applications. The only reason they were even carved was to make them a lot more convenient. But this came at the cost of reducing their quality by a bit.
Even among the same grades of Immortal stones, the size could determine their value.
A raw chunk of uncut Immortal stone was usually worth a lot more than smaller standardized versions. These were even auctioned off many times since they were needed for large scale arrays and more.
Lin Mu could use it for the same reason as well, and thus wanted to keep it intact for later if he could.
"Hmm… It's deeper than I thought." Lin Mu muttered, realizing that he had still not sensed the Peak Grade Immortal Stones nor the Source Vein.
He careful controlled Meld and cut deeper, making sure that he didn't go more than a centimeter at a time. After a few more repetitions, Lin Mu finally felt the change in the density of Immortal Qi.
'I've hit the peak grade Immortal Stone!' Lin Mu was excited.
This was the first time he was seeing Peak Grade immortal stones. They were considered a rare resources so much so that they had a tactical advantage. After all, not only were they needed for large scale arrays, they were the chief component of Peak Grade Immortal weapons.
And any Peak Grade Immortal weapon was highly valuable and difficult to make.
Their numbers were also limited and only Peak immortals were capable of using them to the full extent.
While Lin Mu couldn't make a Peak Grade Immortal Weapon, he could very well use it for an array if he wished to. It would certainly help him in improving his skills with formation arrays as well as improve his control over the more complex Qi circuits.
Such circuits needed Peak Grade Immortal stones to power them, thus practicing them was simply impossible unless one had them. This was also the reason why formation masters could hit a ceiling if they did not have resources to progress further.
'I still need to look deeper.' But this was not Lin Mu's aim after all.
What he had come here for was exponentially more valuable than the Peak Grade immortal stones. It was the very source vein of this entire mine.
"I need to make the cuts even smaller." Lin Mu reduced the size of the incisions to barely a millimeter.
He did not wish to nick the surface of the source vein. The more intact it was, the better effect it would have. Lin Mu thus began cutting in tiny increments until finally he felt a gust of pure Immortal Qi hitting his face.
~huu~
Lin Mu took a deep breath, feeling refreshed from the burst of Immortal Qi. It was so thick that vapors of it actually settled on his face!
"That's enough!" Xukong warned Lin Mu to stop.
Lin Mu immediately stopped and reassessed the situation. Now that he had a baseline depth to go along with, using Spatial Perception became a bit easier. He could now see the outline of the source vein a lot more clearly.
At the very least, he could estimate where the edges of it were. Which was important as the source vein was irregularly shaped.
'It's almost like a deformed spindle.' Lin Mu thought seeing its shape.
There were ridges and bulges along its long body that swerved around its axis. This made the peak grade immortal stones fuse with it deeply, thereby making Lin Mu's task more difficult.
~Sigh~
"This'll take a while to grasp… but it'll help as training too." Lin Mu muttered.
Whenever Lin Mu used Meld, it was usually in the form of a fixed geometric shape like a square, rectangle or a cuboid. But now he needed to adjust it according to the shape of the source vein.
This was not a simple task and Lin Mu had to utilize his spatial perception along with Meld in order to get the right shape. By the time Lin Mu finally managed to adjust it, his forehead was covered in sweat!
