hhnovel Chapter 122 Killing Three Birds with One Stone
Chapter 122 Killing Three Birds with One Stone
Arriving at the very heart of the Mount Heng spirit vein.
The first thing that came into view was a stone door covered in green moss.
The tall and wide stone door, built at an unknown time,
had become particularly weathered and dilapidated under the erosion of time.
But even so,
the runes on the stone door still glowed brightly, nourished by the spiritual energy.
Separated by several arrays,
Li Lan could still clearly feel
a terrifying aura lurking within.
"This is where Senior Brother Dou meditates. This stone door hasn't been opened for a long time.
Senior Brother Dou said that he would not take half a step out of the cave dwelling until he broke through the Foundation Establishment stage."
Junior Brother Huang, seeing everyone looking around curiously, explained in a timely manner.
"These spirit gathering arrays were drawn too long ago. Their effect in gathering spiritual energy is probably not ideal."
Mo Gongcheng took a look at the runes on the stone door and came to a conclusion.
"According to the Foundation Establishment elders in the clan, to successfully break through the Foundation Establishment stage, it's not just about the high requirement for the compatibility between the cultivator and the cultivation technique.
Spiritual energy, elixirs, environment, and so on are all indispensable.
Just taking spiritual energy as an example,
the magic power consumed during the breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment stage is extremely terrifying, almost five or six times that of a normal Qi Refining Great Perfection.
If there isn't enough abundant heaven and earth spiritual energy around to be refined in time, no matter how high the talent, trying to break through would be like a fool's dream.
Although this place is a low-grade spirit vein, due to over-exploitation, the density of heaven and earth spiritual energy is no longer what it was before.
In addition, the effect of this spirit gathering array is too poor. If this Senior Brother Dou wants to break through here by sheer willpower alone, it will probably be difficult even in another ten years."
Li Lan became interested upon hearing this.
"I didn't expect Junior Brother Mo to be not only incredibly skilled in puppet techniques, but also so proficient in mechanisms, arrays, and breaking through bottlenecks. I am truly impressed, Senior Brother.
Junior Brother Mo, if you have time in the future, could you give Senior Brother some pointers?"
Mo Gongcheng was still young and his understanding of social etiquette was limited to knowing about it but not being proficient.
Being praised by Li Lan like this, he immediately felt a bit flustered.
"Senior Brother Li, please don't say that. Junior Brother is only at the early stage of Qi Refining, while you are already at the seventh level of Qi Refining. It should be Junior Brother asking you for guidance."
"Alas, in learning, there is no age limit, and the capable come first.
Then it's settled. If Senior Brother encounters something he doesn't understand in the future, he will ask for your guidance. Junior Brother, please don't make excuses to brush me off."
"Okay— okay."
Mo Gongcheng finally stammered his agreement.
Seeing this, Li Lan felt a slight joy in his heart.
Such a naive and knowledgeable intelligent young man is rare in the world of cultivation.
To be honest,
Li Lan was indeed only half-understanding the late Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stages.
Mo Gongcheng came from an immortal family clan, and having been immersed in it since childhood, he must know far more than a rogue cultivator like him. Now that he had this rare opportunity,
he had to get more useful information out of the other party no matter what.
After chatting for a while, the few people did not stay here for too long.
Under the guidance of Junior Brother Huang,
Li Lan and his group passed through a narrow stone staircase,
and quickly entered the interior of the spirit stone mining area. A dark and damp aura assailed their faces.
On the walls of the mine tunnel, traces of the mining from the past could still be seen.
In the corners, some translucent spirit rocks were specifically placed for illumination.
It is said that the entire mountain body of the Mount Heng spirit vein has been hollowed out.
Li Lan only truly believed this rumor after reaching the bottom.
The mine tunnels here extended in all directions, like a huge spider web, reaching out in every direction. Under the illumination of the translucent spirit rock flames,
the walls of the mine tunnels presented a peculiar sight.
Some places were uneven, which were the marks left by excavation tools,
and some places shimmered with a faint ghostly blue light,
which were the residual veins of spirit stone ore that had not been completely mined.
Under the feet of Li Lan and others,
this place had been mined to the extent of a small square.
On the surrounding walls, simple cave dwellings were densely carved out,
It was clear that their resting place in the future would also be underground.
Throughout the ground, many discarded mining tools were scattered around.
"All you fellow disciples, this is the core spirit stone mining area of the Mount Heng spirit vein.
Everyone can find a place to mine spirit ore on their own. You only need to hand over a certain amount of spirit stones to Huang each month,
which will be considered as completing a sect mission.
Those who fail to hand in the required number of spirit stones within the stipulated time will have their magic artifacts and elixirs of equal value confiscated to make up the difference.
If you have no questions,
please come to me to collect your spirit splitting picks and prepare to begin completing the sect mission."
After reaching the destination,
Junior Brother Huang skillfully introduced all the precautions for mining spirit stone ore.
This was not the first time he had done this, and he was already well-versed in it.
"Junior Brother Zhao Qilin, right? Second level of Qi Refining. Hmm, Junior Brother, you only need to hand in forty spirit stones each month to be considered as completing a sect mission."
"Next, Junior Brother Wang Yikun, fourth level of Qi Refining. Junior Brother needs to hand in fifty spirit stones each month—."
Junior Brother Huang compared the roster,
and for each cultivator's name he read out, he distributed a specially made spirit splitting pick to the other party.
Li Lan quickly realized that
the number of spirit stones that needed to be handed in each month was different for cultivators of different cultivation levels.
Take a cultivator at the second level of Qi Refining as an example,
excluding the time spent sleeping and resting each month,
a cultivator, putting in all their effort, could at most mine about forty spirit stones.
And the standard set by Junior Brother Huang for completing the sect mission was clearly precisely at this line.
This was definitely intentional.
Guangji Sect has stood in the cultivation world for thousands of years and must have long ago calculated how many spirit stones each level of cultivator can mine at most.
The reason they set such a strict limit is to prevent disciples from being lazy or pocketing public funds.
These registered disciples, who had never mined spirit ore before, clearly did not know this at the moment.
After happily receiving their spirit splitting picks one by one,
they couldn't wait to randomly enter the mine tunnels and start mining spirit stone ore.
"Li Jiangchuan—oh, Senior Brother Li, you are at the seventh level of Qi Refining, and you need to hand in sixty-five spirit stones each month.
This rule was set by the Inner Sect of Guangji Sect a long time ago, and it's not that Junior Brother is deliberately making things difficult for you.
You also know that mining spirit stone ore is a lucrative job, and the Inner Sect is afraid that someone will abuse their position for personal gain, which is why they are so strict. Don't worry, with your strength level, mining sixty-five spirit stones each month is more than enough.
Moreover, if you can't sleep every night, you can also use the abundant spiritual energy here for cultivation, can't you?
This is a good job that other cultivators can only dream of—
Junior Brother Huang was afraid that Li Lan would not understand the situation and would be angry with him.
When handing him the spirit splitting pick, he specifically explained the reason.
To cooperate with the other party, Li Lan's expression also changed from black to red and then to white,
fully faking the entire process of a person going from not understanding to being angry, and then to understanding and accepting.
Of course.
If viewed from Li Lan's true thoughts,
he didn't care about these things at all.
Whether there were other cultivators secretly supervising during the process of mining spirit stone ore
was what Li Lan truly cared about.
After all.
Under the condition of sufficient rest, a cultivator at the seventh level of Qi Refining could only barely mine sixty-five spirit stones each month.
But the spirit bean soldiers summoned by Li Lan using the spell of Scattering Beans into Soldiers didn't need to rest at all.
Without rest,
they could mine about sixty spirit stones each month.
If one spirit bean soldier was like this,
Li Lan only needed to summon two spirit bean soldiers at the first level of Qi Refining,
and he could easily complete the monthly sect mission, and incidentally obtain fifty-five spirit stones for free.
What's even better is that
Li Lan's main body only needed to expend a little magic power and spiritual sense during this period.
He could completely use this free time to fully utilize the abundant spiritual energy here, which was no weaker than a normal spirit vein's Cultivation Cave No. 2, for cultivation.
This was simply a good thing that killed three birds with one stone.
This was also something Li Lan had planned long before coming here.
If the benefits were not far greater than the risks,
he, who wouldn't act without seeing a rabbit, would have been too lazy to run this far to take risks here.