The next vein was hidden behind more solid rock and soil, which was quite easily removed by Lin Mu and Jing Luo. Since they did not need to be careful like with the spirit stones or other materials, they just used all their power.
"Boulder Collapsing Fist- First Form: Impact!"
~KABOOM~
The entire cave shook as Lin Mu's fist hit the rocky wall, shattering it in one hit.
~Crack~
~Crack~
The wall crumbled as more and more rock fell. The next vein was about twenty meters further from the previous one and thus they needed to remove all the rocks blocking them.
Of course, had it not been for Lin Mu being able to use Phase, they may have taken longer to find the vein. But since they already knew the location, they could easily make a straight path to it.
Reaching the next vein, Lin Mu and Jing Luo saw an even bigger cave than before. And just like before, there were spirit stones embedded in the walls along with the floor. Some parts were even large enough to form pillar of spirit stones.
This showed that they were getting closer to the core of the mine. The core of the spirit stone mine was the reason why the mine could keep on producing spirit stones, year after year. If the said source was removed, the mine would stop existing.
Even when the sects mined spirit stone mines, they ensure that they did so in a sustainable manner. As a rule of thumb, no more than ten percent of all spirit stones in a mine should be removed in a single year.
This ensured that they would be replenished year after year. Many times sects would not even reach the core of the spirit stone mines. Most of them would just mine the outer veins which would keep in regenerating.
The only time when the sects actually went deeper into the spirit stone mines was to get higher grade spirit stones. High grade spirit stones were found in the veins closest to the source of the spirit stone mine, while the peak grade spirit stones were exclusively found next to the source itself.
That was one of the reasons why even if someone had a low grade spirit stone that were equivalent in spirit Qi to a higher grade spirit stone, very few people would trade them for it.
Most people would rather use twice the amount of low grade spirit stones rather than half the amount of high grade spirit stones. This led to the high grade spirit stones becoming an extremely valuable commodity, while the peak grade spirit stones directly became a resource of strategic value.
Peak grade spirit stones were one of the basic requirements needed in the manufacture of pseudo immortal weapons and tools and without them making them was impossible. Peak grade weapons and spirit tools could be made with high grade spirit stones but not the pseudo immortal weapons.
Right now, what Lin Mu and Jing Luo were doing was certainly not sustainable at all. They had already gone past the recommended ten percent harvest limit and were quiet likely to be at about forty percent now.
No sect would mine spirit stones like this as it would literally mean damaging the foundation of the sect. Spirit stone mines not only provided the sect with a form of currency but they also provided the sect with a large amount of spirit Qi that was naturally concentration by the mines.
As a secondary effect of the increased concentration of spirit Qi, other treasured materials would also have a greater chance of forming around it. The same could be said for spirit herbs and other such natural materials.
That's why for a sect, it was much more beneficial to reduce the number of spirit stones they mined, and use its passive effects than to increase their direct wealth by accumulating them. By doing all this, Lin Mu was making himself filthy rich.
At the expense of another party, of course.
"Lot's of spirit stones here too… we'll do the same?" Jing Luo asked.
"Yup. You take the left, I take the right." Lin Mu replied.
The two men got to work and became engrossed in it. Five days passed like this and they had finished up clearing out this vein as well.
~phew~
"I'm tired, but excited at the same time. For the first time in my life, I feel like not stopping at all, despite the exhaustion!" Jing Luo spoke while wiping the sweat off his brow.
"Why don't you do what I'm doing?" Lin Mu said, pointing to the chunks of spirit stones he had stuffed in his robes.
"Uh… why didn't you say that earlier!" Jing Luo spoke, feeling flustered.
He had forgotten that he was literally surrounded by spirit Qi and was also mining it in a way. All this time he had been using his own spirit Qi, along with the natural regeneration that his body had.
Lin Mu just shrugged in response and let the man copy him. Jing Luo strapped a few large chunks of spirit stones to his back and got ready again.
"Next vein?" Jing Luo asked.
"I'll go check." Lin Mu replied before entering the walls using phase. Due to the extensive amount of spirit Qi that was dispersed in the ground here, even if Lin Mu could use his spirit sense, it didn't really give him an accurate picture.
It was like swimming in a pool of muddy water. Thus he needed to be close to something to actually sense it, even with his spirit sense. Using the spirit sense was like trying to find a coin that was at the bottom of a pot, using only one's touch.
It would be easy if there was only one coin or even a couple of coins in the pot. But if the entire pot was filled with coins and you were supposed to find a coin of a specific type, it would start to get difficult. That was the kind of situation Lin Mu was currently in.
