My Scales Can Make Equivalent Exchange
Chapter 393 - 366: First Sight of the Spirit Stone Mine?

Chapter 393: Chapter 366: First Sight of the Spirit Stone Mine?

Wang Zijia extended his senses, swiftly moving through the air, searching for any abnormalities in the area.

After a moment, Wang Zijia furrowed his brows. Upon his initial investigation, he failed to discover any big demon monsters.

The kind of demon that could swallow the entire Six Royal Sect should at least be at the Perfected Realm, cloaking this mountain range in demonic flames. It should’ve been easily detectable by him. He had cultivated several top-grade Mind magic doors!

"Master!"

Despite making a wide sweep of the area, Wang Zijia found nothing. However, a message arrived through the communication charm in his hand.

Knitting his brow, Wang Zijia transformed into streaming light and hurried back along the path he came from.

Shortly, led by the guidance of the communication charm, Wang Zijia arrived at a small mountain range that had been completely cleared. Here, several makeshift wooden houses could be seen.

"Venerable Ancestor!"

"Immortal Venerate!"

"..."

When Wang Zijia descended, the gathered disciples all around him greeted him in unison.

Wang Zijia nodded in acknowledgement, turning to Li Lexin, who was leading the group. "Have you found anything?"

"Please come in to take a look, venerable ancestor!" The team leader, Li Lexin, gestured towards one of the main wooden houses, inviting Wang Zijia in.

Guided by him, Wang Zijia stepped into the house.

Inside the simple wooden house was a large hall, and in the middle of the hall was a quite sophisticated illusionary array.

The illusion formation had been activated, creating a 3D virtual topographic map that floated half a meter in the air.

You could also see various marked map scrolls hanging around the room.

Obviously, this was the Six Royal Sect’s base of operation in the development of this territory.

Despite the other things being in place, there was no sign of any living soul.

Upon further observation, Wang Zijia noticed that a particular location on various maps had been emphasized. There also was a red mark on the topographic map at the center of the room.

A lead disciple lightly tapped on the topographic map on the location of the red mark, causing detailed information to emerge.

Reading the information recorded by the other party, Wang Zijia was taken aback.

"Is this... a dead spirit vein?"

Li Lexin nodded solemnly, "Based on the information, it appears so. If it wasn’t, they probably wouldn’t have concealed the news. It’s unclear why they disappeared suddenly after discovering such a treasure."

According to Wanyu spirit vein records, spirit veins can roughly be divided into two categories.

The most common one is known as an active spirit vein, which is what most monks look for when establishing their Cave Mansion.

Besides the active spirit vein, there’s an even more precious kind known as a dead spirit vein.

While an active spirit vein discharges spiritual power, a dead spirit vein... produces spirit stones, spirit milk, spirit springs, and other spirit essences!

These things are considered second-class currency in the Shen Hong Realm, but in this Qinglian world, they’re considered to be massive treasures.

Even an empty dead spirit vein can be considered as valuable as an active spirit vein! It is the best place to nurture Raw money to Mature money!

To put it in a more visual way, an active spirit vein is like a volcano that is constantly discharging. From the mouths of the spirit veins, spiritual power will spurt out and bless a region after gathering through the earth veins.

While a dead spirit vein is like a dormant volcano. Spiritual power also gathers through the earth veins, but it doesn’t discharge.

It accumulates, forming spiritual pressure over millions of years and eventually transforms into spirit minerals. The powerful spiritual pressure also speeds up the maturation of Magic Money.

In ancient times, spirit minerals could easily be found everywhere, and these dead spirit veins were only regarded as fairly rare.

Now, in the Sixth Era of the Cultivation World, newly formed spirit minerals have become extremely scarce.

That’s also an important reason why Magic Money has replaced all spirit objects and become the basic currency in the early stages of the cultivation world.

Surprisingly, even after moving from the End of Dharma, not a single dead spirit vein was found on the Xianling Continent in the Qinglian realm!

Of course, it is not ruled out that dead spirit veins are too difficult to explore and therefore not discovered.

"This Six Royal Sect really dares to take a risk. Look at this information, they have known it for several days, and have kept the news hidden, wanting to take it for themselves." One disciple, who was following the group and inspecting the information, said in a serious tone.

If Wang Zijia’s memory served him right, this person should be Li Lexin’s eldest disciple, who had just made a breakthrough to the sacrificial wine cultivation level.

Li Lexin also didn’t look too good. He considered himself fair in dealing, and during this decade of development, he hadn’t oppressed other sects and factions. He had distributed resources according to contribution, even slightly favoring and helping others.

Now, seeing that a sect underneath him was attempting to embezzle such a treasure, it would naturally not make him feel good.

But Wang Zijia didn’t care much, if he were them, he would also try to hide this. After all, the dead spirit vein was the hardest to discover and could easily be concealed.

Even if they were discovered after preliminary development, the Six Royal Sect could still argue that they hadn’t found it earlier. It was a perfect excuse that was faultless, and the benefits involved were too large.

Just a high-quality site for maturing Magic Money could make the Six Royal Sect wealthy.

"Let’s go and take a look at this place." Wang Zijia took one last look at the information and turned around, "It looks like they disappeared due to this."

Hearing this, the disciples nodded in agreement and followed suit.

The team flew across the territory and arrived at an ordinary-looking mountain range.

This was Wang Zijia’s first encounter with a dead spirit vein. He carefully sensed for a moment but felt nothing unusual. There was no gathering of spiritual power, nor any other phenomenon in the vicinity.

’No wonder the material said that Dead Spirit Veins are tough to find, even for professional miners.’ Wang Zijia thought this to himself after inspecting for a while without finding anything.

The group, guided by the topographic map, floated to the central spot of a range of mountains, standing in front of a nondescript peak.

Li Lexin, who had led the way, glanced over the information and said to Wang Zijia, "Master, this should be the place!"

Wang Zijia nodded; he had already sensed traces of human concealment below.

Without uttering a single word more, he floated straight down, reaching a canyon at the base of the mountain.

There lay an inconspicuous cave, three meters high and several meters wide, appearing to be a natural cave.

Ordinarily, it should be completely uncovered, but now, someone had specifically used a spell to foster overgrowth of weeds and bushes, covering most of the cave entrance.

It didn’t seem an overkill either; ordinarily, you wouldn’t have noticed anything out of place unless you knew something was amiss.

Wang Zijia, staring at the weed-laden entrance to the cave, had his thoughts wired.

The mana under his feet subtly rippled, and the dirt at the entrance of the cave moved as if it was alive, burying the plants and revealing the cave entrance.

Wang Zijia lifted his hand, and a paper figure floated out, walking into the cave ahead of everyone else, following Wang Zijia’s cue. Wang Zijia followed closely.

Li Lexin looked around, and said to a few disciples behind, "You guys stay outside, if anything happens, send a message immediately."

"Obey the decree!" the disciples replied in unison.

After making arrangements, Li Lexin, along with the remaining two disciples, hastened to catch up to Wang Zijia, who had already entered the cave.

······

Surprisingly, the cave was shaped like a pot’s mouth and the space within grew larger as they moved deeper.

The passage was not straight, rather winding and twisting.

The paper figure probed the road ahead, with Wang Zijia and the rest following closely.

"Thud Thud!"

The cave was eerily quiet; even the faint sounds of footsteps could be distinctly heard.

About a quarter of an hour into their steady advance, Wang Zijia’s expression changed.

He finally sensed an unusual spiritual power fluctuation and subconsciously quickened his pace.

The disciples trailing behind him also appeared somewhat pleased.

After advancing a little farther, a vast underground cave suddenly came into view.

The cave was semi-spherical, at least the size of a football field.

Giant natural crystal clusters quietly grew on the ground, around, and on the dome of the cave, each appearing like a massive crystal.

What’s slightly different from ordinary crystals were these rhombus-shaped crystal columns, colored milky white. The faintly transparent material exuded spiritual light, casting a faint fluorescent glow in the entire cave.

The thick spiritual energy circulated within the cave. A single breath of it would intoxicating anyone ordinary.

This shocking scene even left Wang Zijia stunned.

The disciples behind him were even more flabbergasted and murmured, "Is this a spirit stone vein? It’s incredible!"

"Weren’t spirit stone veins supposed to be mined underground? Why are they so freely formed here?"

"Is this called an open-pit mine, or is it that the vein is too rich that the spirit mineral vein layer protrudes out?"

"Are we wealthy now?"

······

A few disciples subconsciously stepped into the cave and wandered between the gigantic crystal pillars. They felt lost and unconsciously started discussing.

Wang Zijia was also in a trance. He walked into these crystal clusters that looked like crystal flowers, reaching out to touch them unconsciously.

In the next moment, Wang Zijia’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.

His inner mana was unusually active.

Surrounding them were wilderness and many demons, causing his mana to be slightly active.

Wang Zijia didn’t pay much attention, but the moment he reached out to touch the crystal cluster, he clearly felt the difference as their bodies made contact.

This was...the feeling of being in direct contact with sinners!

A rush of surprise surged in his heart, and his pupils shone slightly with golden spiritual light. He looked at the surrounding crystal pillars but found nothing.

Wang Zijia, frowning, hesitated. The magical power fluctuated, and a powerful mind-wave emanated from his eyes.

"Demon Eye Chapter: Heart of Confusion, God’s Light!"

A special mind spiritual light burst out from his eyes, directly aiming at the two-person high, thigh-thick crystal pillar next to him.

This sudden fluctuation of mana woke up the dazed disciples around, all of them looking puzzledly at Wang Zijia.

"Master, are you..." Li Lexin tilted his head, about to ask something when...

The surroundings abruptly froze momentarily, followed by a sudden change in the landscape.

The cave around turned blood-red. The surrounding crystal pillars remained unchanged, but were no longer milky white, but transparent like glass, with dark red blood flowing within.