A Sect from a Spirit Vein

Chapter 340 - 300: The Secret of Lingsha City

Back in the city, Lu Qian first retrieved Han Wen’s corpse. At this point, the enemy’s bodies were just gathered together, ready for cremation. If Lu Qian had been a step later, it would have been difficult to tell who was who.

"Thanks to you having a good wife, otherwise you’d be feeding fish in the river." Lu Qian thought silently, adding, "Of course, you were a good husband as well."

Outside the city, he found a secluded mountain forest, carved a giant wood into a coffin, and buried Han Wen and Third Lady’s bodies together.

Han Wen died after exhausting his lifespan, once a great mass of flesh, now turned into a shriveled old man. His body was placed with the equally gaunt body of Third Lady, covered and buried under heavy yellow soil.

No matter how great the empire one establishes, no matter the kind of legendary figure, like the rolling river flowing eastward, in the end, everything returns to dust, buried in the sands of time.

Thus, the most precious thing is not the past, nor the future, but the present.

At least when Han Wen died, he could be with the love of his life.

Jiang Qingfeng looked at the new mound and sighed softly. She suddenly remembered a poem Lu Qian once quoted.

"In this world, what is love, that it binds life and death together?"

Guh Niqiang pondered silently, Han Wen gave his life so Third Lady could live. But what he sacrificed wasn’t what Third Lady wanted. She only wanted him to live well.

Lu Qian once said that the word "love" is the hardest to part with; without love, life loses its joy. Today, indeed, it’s proven true.

Standing before their graves, Lu Qian picked up the jade scroll Third Lady had given him.

"Sect Leader Lu, if you see this letter, you must have promised to return my wife to the city’s underground. Your immense kindness, I won’t forget for lifetimes..."

Lu Qian sighed slightly, wishing the couple to companion each other well in the Nine Netherworld.

He continued to read carefully and then lifted his head: "Let’s go, call Senior Brother Yang and Senior Brother Wang, we’ll explore the underground of Lingsha City."

Moments later, the five of them were standing in a corner of Lingsha City, where there was a black Qilin statue.

Lu Qian extended his spiritual power, according to the letter, and pressed the mechanisms at the Qilin’s tail, back, and head.

There was a soft clicking sound, and the Qilin slid to the side, revealing a circular cover on the ground.

Wang Yu sighed, "Han Wen’s mind was truly meticulous. This trap uses purely mechanical techniques, without any spiritual power fluctuations, so ordinary cultivators wouldn’t notice anything unusual here. The material of this cover plate is unknown, it can shield divine sense, without inside knowledge, it’s hard to find this tunnel."

Lu Qian nodded, lifted the cover, below was pitch black, the depth unknown, only at the deepest point, there was a faint blue light.

"Senior Brother Wang, Senior Sister, the light below is harmful to people, only the Foundation Establishment can somewhat resist it. So, I’ll go down with Senior Brother Yang and Elder Guh, you two wait above."

Jiang Qingfeng looked tense, but had no option but to remind Lu Qian to be careful.

"Protect with divine sense to isolate the blue light," Lu Qian told Guh Niqiang and Yang Jiye.

The three Foundation Establishment cultivators descended one after another. The passage was not wide but very deep, they flew down a hundred zhang before touching the hard ground.

Just after landing, Lu Qian, following Han Wen’s records, cast a series of spells to unravel layer upon layer of restrictive traps.

Looking up, he saw another relatively spacious passage. After walking ten more steps, it suddenly opened into a huge irregular space.

Yang Jiye was about to step forward when Lu Qian stopped him, deciphering five layers of arrays in a highly concealed place.

"The Shahe Gang set up a lot of protection here. Without knowing the acupoints, it’s indeed easy to get hurt."

Lu Qian gestured them to proceed, and as they moved forward, dazzling blue light was everywhere.

"Enhance divine sense protection," Lu Qian cautioned once again. Since earlier, his divine sense surged from the Niwan Palace, forming a strong protective layer around himself.

He could clearly feel the blue light’s strong corrosive power, constantly eroding his divine sense.

Most critically, this blue light was extremely strange, impervious to spiritual power or spiritual artifacts, only divine sense could resist it. Also, an ordinary Foundation Establishment’s divine sense could resist for no more than an incense stick’s worth of time.

Guh Niqiang, sensing it, was somewhat surprised: "Soul-Rotting Dark Iron?"

Soul-Rotting Dark Iron Ore is greatly damaging to cultivators’ divine souls but is a rare mineral, used to forge exceptional magical artifacts and spiritual artifacts.

However, due to the difficulty in shielding its harm to the divine soul, it’s hard to transport and cannot be sold in large quantities.

"Indeed, it is Soul-Rotting Dark Iron Ore," Lu Qian nodded, having learned all secrets from Han Wen’s jade scroll, "but it’s just an accompanying mineral."

Accompanying mineral?

Yang Jiye was puzzled, accompanying minerals are only derivative products of a certain ore vein, if Soul-Rotting Dark Iron Ore is an accompanying mineral, then the main vein is—

He looked intently and saw under the faint blue glow, clear bright stones faintly appearing on the rock wall, the familiar fluctuation made Yang Jiye’s eyes almost pop out.

"Spirit Stone Mine,"

Guh Niqiang said slowly.

This is a Spirit Stone Mine!

And the reserves are vast!

Han Wen mentioned in his letter, they’ve been mining for over a hundred years, extracting millions of spirit stones, yet it shows no signs of depletion!

Lu Qian approached a cluster of ore, amidst sporadic but dazzling Soul-Rotting Dark Iron Ore, used the Flounder Sword to knock off a block of spirit stone raw ore.

This irregular raw ore was clear and transparent, emitting a bright glow, with few impurities visible to the naked eye, and continuous spiritual qi oscillation.

Superior quality!

Spirit stone raw ore is the crystallized condensation of spiritual qi between heaven and earth. It is speculated that the creation of a spirit stone vein is likely due to a spirit vein directly appearing deep underground, with no escape for the spiritual qi, thus condensing into ore.

When a spirit stone vein emerges, it reversely obstructs the spirit vein, causing it to gradually shrink and vanish.

From this logic, the larger the spirit stone mine, the higher the grade of the spirit vein that once appeared here, only then could it support the development of a large vein, eventually disappearing.

Yet, since spirit veins are inherently mysterious, only Void Refining cultivators could research them, all this is merely speculation.

Spirit Stone Raw Ore possesses a unique property; although imbued with spiritual qi, it cannot be directly used.

After mining, it must be transported out, melted in a special furnace, impurities removed, cooled to form usable spirit stones.

And over two millennia, for convenient carrying and counting, cultivators have standardized molds to condense spirit stones into one-inch square small blocks.

This is the origin of "one spirit stone."