Humanity's Great Sage

Chapter 486: Spirit Stone Ore Vein

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A Spirit Stone was an indispensable type of cultivation resource. Besides the obvious fact that it could be used for cultivation, it functioned as an excellent currency as well. Given enough Spirit Stones, there was almost nothing a cultivator could not buy.

Of course, Spirit Stones could not be used in the Vault of Providence. Any transaction conducted in that space had to be done with Contribution Points.

Lu Ye had not expected to find a Spirit Stone ore vein when he followed the copper plate’s guidance. Suddenly, he remembered finding nearly ten thousand Spirit Stones of varying quality when searching the Divine Freedom Sect cultivator’s body. He even mused how wealthy the dead man was at the time. With this new revelation, he strongly suspected that his Spirit Stones had come from this ore vein.

Ten thousand Spirit Stones was a significant amount of wealth to any Cloud River Realm cultivator, not to mention that he had other valuables in his Storage Bag.

Lu Ye was currently enveloped in a sheen of golden light, but it wasn’t the color of his Spiritual Power. The copper plate had shone a beam on him after he entered the hidden space, and since then he had been shining like a golden buddha. Lu Ye had probed it with his senses but could not find what it was used for. It didn’t possess any defensive qualities, but it wasn’t disruptive either. It just existed for some reason.

Lu Ye scanned the Spirit Stones exposed on the walls. He didn’t even need to probe them with his Spiritual Power to know that they were all Middle Grade Spirit Stones. There were at least hundreds of Spirit Stones in the wall.

He was still admiring the view when suddenly, Amber leaped off his shoulder and manifested its true self. It then growled menacingly at the impenetrable darkness ahead of them.

Lu Ye grabbed his saber and gazed into the darkness as well. He couldn’t see the threat yet, but he could hear what sounded like rustling noises approaching them at high speed.

Yi Yi was already waiting in position underground.

The noise grew closer and closer until suddenly, a creature the size of a calf abruptly leaped out of the darkness and attempted to gore him with its singular horn. It had the horn of a deer but the body shape of a rhino. Its body was also covered in thick shells.

Amber rushed in between Lu Ye and the strange creature. At first glance, it looked like the white tiger was planning to take the enemy head on. At the last possible moment, it dodged out of the way before landing a swipe on its flank. Unfortunately, it was like trying to attack a hunk of refined steel. Although the attack was strong enough to knock the creature off balance, it did not look like it took any damage at all.

Amber seized the opening to bite down on what it perceived as the creature’s weak spot, but once again, the shell greatly hindered its efforts. Despite repeated biting, it was flung into the air before it could get through the shell.

Lu Ye wasn’t idle while Amber was keeping the creature busy, of course. By the time Amber was sent flying, Lu Ye had already unsheathed his saber and wreathed it in fiery Spiritual Power. An inch of pure energy peeked out the blade before cutting through the creature’s head as easy as pie. There was a death cry before the creature hit the ground with a loud thud and spilled aquamarine liquid everywhere.

Lu Ye immediately recognized the creature for what it was. [An insectoid! Is there anywhere in this world where this species doesn’t exist?]

He had encountered insectoids in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, the Cloud River Battlefield, and even the Rift of Illusions. He didn’t think he would run into them again during a random treasure hunt, and so soon after the previous encounter too.

At first, Lu Ye thought that the creature was some sort of Spirit Beast. It wasn’t until he killed it that he confirmed that it was really an insectoid; a Cloud River Realm insectoid too. To be specific, it was probably as strong as a First or Second-Order Cloud River Realm cultivator, so it was never a problem for Lu Ye. Even Amber could’ve taken it out all by itself given enough time.

However, individual strength had never been the species’ forte. It was its ridiculous numbers and reproductive potential.

Lu Ye flicked off the blood on his saber before returning it to its sheath. He and Amber then stood in place for a bit.

Yi Yi emerged from the walls and said in a low tone, “The tunnels here are extremely complex and full of Spirit Stones, but generally speaking, the deeper we go, the Spirit Stones increase in quantity and quality. However, every tunnel is guarded by a single insectoid, and their strength seems to increase in proportion to the depth of the tunnels.”

“I see. We must take out the insectoids first before we can mine the Spirit Stones,” Lu Ye nodded in understanding.

This was really starting to look like a treasure hunt or a trial with a huge bounty of Spirit Stones as the reward. As for how it was possible for an unnatural ore vein like this to exist, it was because it wasn’t natural, of course. The Heavens must be behind it all.

Lu Ye had just spent most of his Spirit Stones a while ago. This was the perfect opportunity to replenish his stock.

Without further ado, he and Yi Yi began mining the Spirit Stones in the tunnel.

The Spirit Stones weren’t difficult to mine because they were exposed. It took them just an hour or so to mine everything that could be mined. As he had estimated earlier, the tunnel contained between six to seven hundred Spirit Stones in total.

They moved on. They arrived at another tunnel after rounding a corner. This time, Lu Ye illuminated the room by lighting a torch instead of Radiance.

Lu Ye had a massive stock of torches in his storage space. Barring those with supernatural night vision, practically every cultivator would carry a cache of torches with them. Although cultivators could see in the dark, their night vision was hardly perfect. A torch could alleviate that weakness tremendously.

Just like when he entered the first tunnel, a ton of Spirit Stones reflected the light of the torch and filled the tunnel with light. But unlike the first tunnel, he had just stopped in his tracks when he heard a series of rustling noises once more. Clearly, the insectoid guarding this place had awoken to the light and was making haste to kill the invader.

Lu Ye did not meet the insectoid immediately. Instead, he looked sideways and stared at Amber on his shoulder.

Since the beginning, Amber had rarely taken part in Lu Ye’s battles. Most of the time, it simply lay on Lu Ye’s shoulder and spectated the battle from the best seat. If the time was right, it would roar out and stun his enemies.

The reason they had an arrangement like this was because most of Lu Ye’s battles were beyond Amber’s ability to interfere. Over time, the white tiger learned to stay out of Lu Ye’s way unless the situation called for its involvement.

Of course, it could also just be a lazy bum.

Earlier, Amber had broken character and attacked the insectoid of its own accord. It was probably because it wanted to test its newfound strength after ascending to Champion-class. Unfortunately, the insectoid turned out to be harder than it thought both figuratively and literally. It had nearly broken its teeth against its shell.

Amber completely lost interest after that. Despite Lu Ye’s look, it continued to lie quietly on his shoulder while flicking its tail left and right. Lu Ye could almost hear it saying, [Why are you looking at me?]

Knowing that he could not depend on Amber—not that he expected Amber to contribute anything knowing its personality—he faced the end of the tunnel once more and waited.

Thankfully, not everyone in his group was a bum. A massive fireball abruptly appeared out of seemingly nowhere and hit the insectoid squarely in the flank, knocking it over. It was so hot that the insectoid looked distorted from where he was. It was certainly screeching like the fireball was literally warping its shell.

Yi Yi wasn’t done though. Crescent-shaped wind blades appeared right behind the fireball and slammed against its shell. The resulting impact sounded like a woodpecker pecking away at a tree trunk and caused the insectoid to screech even louder.

Lu Ye did not need to lift a finger. Yi Yi would continue to bombard the poor insectoid with all kinds of spells until it was completely dead. By the time she was done with it, he couldn’t even recognize what type of insectoid it was anymore.

As expected, Yi Yi had become much stronger after Amber’s ascension. Her spells were way more powerful compared to before. She had always been an exceptional spell cultivator, but now she definitely qualified as a Cloud River Realm spell cultivator. Not only that, she was capable of unleashing spells of any Attribute because she was an apparition, meaning that she was not restricted to a physical body’s natural affinity.

After the insectoid was dead, Lu Ye and Yi Yi proceeded to mine the Spirit Stones in the tunnel as before. They were still Middle Grade Spirit Stones, but their quantity had increased a little. In total, they had mined over eight hundred Spirit Stones.

They moved on.

Suddenly, Lu Ye noticed something concerning. The golden light enveloping his body was slowly but surely fading over time. They had only conquered two tunnels, but the golden light was already visibly diminished. At this rate, it would disappear in a couple of hours at most.

He wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing. Even now, he still had no idea what the golden light was for because as far as he could tell, it neither empowered nor hindered him in any way. He would probably have to wait until it was completely gone to finally figure out its function.

The third tunnel was the exact same as the second tunnel in the sense that it was filled with Spirit Stones and guarded by exactly one insectoid. It was looking more and more that the mine was designed this way by the Heavens, and any cultivator who wished to mine the Spirit Stones would have to overcome the trial by defeating the insectoids first.

The insectoid Lu Ye killed was comparable to a First or Second-Order Cloud River Realm cultivator. The one Yi Yi had killed was a little stronger. The insectoids’ strength would continue to increase with each successive kill.

Six hours later, Lu Ye entered the eighth tunnel. By now, he had collected nearly ten thousand Spirit Stones.

This time, the insectoid that charged him was a praying mantis. It was almost as strong as a Fifth-Order Cloud River Realm cultivator.

The insectoid proved to be a difficult opponent as its twin blades were as swift as lightning. Lu Ye felt as if he was fighting against a true blademaster. Alone, he would’ve had a harder-than-usual time to defeat it especially because its shell was incredibly tough.

Thankfully, he wasn’t fighting alone. Yi Yi forced the insectoid to split its concentration by blasting it with spells again and again. Amber didn’t join the battle, but the Life Energy Art and Beast Pact Art allowed it to strengthen Lu Ye without even lifting a claw.

An ice spell hit the insectoid and coated its surface in ice, slowing its speed and reaction for an instant. Lu Ye immediately seized the opportunity to fire a few crescent-shaped energy blades into its neck and forced it to bend backward, exposing its soft belly. Without hesitation, he launched himself forward with both feet and stabbed the Inviolable completely into its stomach. One Explosion later, the praying mantis’ internal organs were turned into mush, and it collapsed on the ground with a death screech.