Chapter 76 - The Appearance of the Spirit Fountain
Just like Yuan Xuemei expected, there were some demonic beasts hidden in the basin, such as the fist-sized Deadly Bees, Shape Shifting dragonflies, Iron Birds that always hid and slept in the trees, and the Rock Pigs that were easily provoked.
Luckily, all these beasts were not very high ranked, and there were not many of them. Therefore, only a few people were injured by them, and no one lost their lives.
During this, Ye Chen’s Pure Jun Zhen Qi had proved its effectiveness. Its Qi sword could attack targets from a hundred steps away, with power equivalent to that of an Early Condensing Reality Realm warrior. With it, he was able to easily save people in danger. He could also attack different places at the same time.
Shoo!
After he shot down the last two Deadly Bees with his Qi swords, Ye Chen looked like he had a lot going through his mind.
As they got closer to the center of the basin, the chances of coming across demonic beasts kept increasing. Also, those Deadly Bees that came out of the deepest parts of the basin were bigger by a third than the normal ones, and their speed could even compete with the birds flying in the sky. They were really hard to escape from.
“Everyone, you should start collecting from the outer part of the basin. When we are done here, we could go to the deeper parts.” As Ye Chen used his Zhen Qi, his voice spread across miles, everyone heard it clearly, as if he whispered in each of their ears.
Lin Xiaoxue spoke after him, “Ye Chen is right. You guys should start from the outer area of the basin. When you are done, gather over here.”
Actually, most of the members of the herb collecting team already knew that the deeper parts of the basin were not safe, even before Ye Chen’s reminder. Even though they knew about it, sometimes they could still not resist walking over when they find some valuable medicinal plants in the distance, and they would eventually walk deeper and deeper into the basin where it was extremely dangerous.
Yuan Xuemei’s patrol area was right next to Ye Chen’s, so every now and then, they would have chat for a short period of time. Right then, Yuan Xuemei suddenly said, “Don’t you think the density of the natural Yuan Qi here in this basin is a little too much?”
“Yes, a little, maybe it is due to the medicinal plants and this basin creating a Yuan Qi circulation cycle which was beneficial to the both of them. This probably increased the density of Yuan Qi in the basin.” Ye Chen thought about it, and he could not think of any other reason for it.
Yuan Xuemei shook her head, “No, it is different. It is normal for a basin full of medicinal plants to have thicker Yuan Qi. However, I have seen a basin larger than this, with even more medicinal plants, but the Yuan Qi was nowhere as thick as this.”
Ye Chen stared at her, “So you mean that there is another reason for this?”
“Probably! Let’s wait until we go a little more deeper, then we could check around.”
Ye Chen nodded. If it was really like what Yuan Xuemei had said, then it was necessary to check it out, as they might even find something valuable.
Time passed rapidly. It was almost noon by the time they finished collecting all the herbs in the outer parts of the basin.
Lin Xiaoxue put all the baskets filled with medicinal plants in her storage ring. She took out some pre-prepared food and distributed them to everyone.
“Miss! How was the harvest?” The second-in-command, captain of the herb collecting team could not help but asked.
Lin Xiaoxue smiled “I roughly estimate that the medicinal plants that we had just collected were worth more than three hundred silvers each. If they are made into pellets, then it will not be hard to make about three or four million silvers.”
“Great!”
The Lin family’s main business was manufacturing pellets. So, the more medicinal plants they brought back, the more money they could make. If they did not take enough plants, then even the workers would be affected, and their lives would would get tough.
Basically, their lives were closely dependant on the condition of the Lin family.
Walking towards Ye Chen and the rest of the group, Lin Xiaoxue said gratefully, “Thank you all for protecting us during this whole trip. If you are ever in need of some pellets, you could buy them from us Lin family, we would only charge you the cost of production.” Actually, it was only her being polite, she knew that none of the martial artists would lack that trivial amount of money. They only lacked extremely huge amounts of money. But, she felt that it did not matter. For the Lin family, the most important thing was to maintain a good relationship with all the martial disciples, as it would be very beneficial for the future development of Lin family.
Wang Feng replied casually: “Since we took the mission, we would naturally try our best to achieve good results. So, there is no need to thank us.”
Lin Xiaoxue seemed a little embarrassed. As a lady, she was bound to get married. She did not like those guys from rich families. Although they seemed extremely powerful on the outside, it was only due to the influence of their families. Without the support of their families, they were worthless. So, she always wanted to marry one of the martial disciples, geniuses like Wang Feng and Ye Chen. From their attitude and appearance, she felt that they must be some from big families, that never lacked money. Combined with their powerful martial arts, they would be the most ideal companions for all the teenage girls. However, during this trip, she discovered that Wang Feng was quite indifferent, and never let anyone get close to him. On the contrary, Ye Chen seemed very friendly. But she felt that beyond his friendliness, there was some brutality hidden. He kept everyone at a certain distance, neither too friendly, nor too cold.
Yuan Xuemei had a sharp observation, and combined with the fact that she was also a woman, she was able to clearly understand Lin Xiaoxue’s thoughts. But she still couldn’t agree with them.
There was nothing common between a warrior and a normal person, so it was very unlikely for them to get married.
In her opinion, Lin Xiaoxue was only at the Mortal Realm. If nothing happens, she could at most reach the Condensing Reality Realm in her lifetime.
However, at Wang Feng and Ye Chen’s level, their biggest goal in life was to get stronger. They did not care about any other stuff. Even when they get to a certain age and needed to find someone, they would try and find someone who was at least at the same cultivation level. But, they almost definitely would not marry a normal person.
To be fair, Yuan Xuemei would not marry a normal person either.
If Wang Feng and Ye Chen knew her thoughts, they would also probably agree with her.
For them, no matter how pretty Lin Xiaoxue was, she could only be counted as a “normal” person, someone they would not be in touch with after this. There was no point in starting a romantic affair, when they already knew that they were completely different people.
Boom!
Right at that moment, the ground suddenly started to shake heavily, it seemed as if something was forcing its way out of the ground.
The next moment!
There was a huge white beam of light, about a few meters thick, that went all the way up into the sky, parting the clouds.
The Yuan Qi in the sky above the basin seemed to have thickened again. The Yuan Qi formed above them was so dense that it was almost visible to the naked eye. Every breath of Ye Chen seemed to strengthen his Zhen Qi.
Yuan Xuemei yelled, “A column formed by Yuan Qi, there must be a spirit fountain down there.”
Hearing her words, Ye Chen and Wang Feng looked surprised. They could not believe that there was a spirit fountain under this basin. Generally, soul stones could be found where a spirit fountain was present, and soul stones were very essential for martial artists. However, they could not be sure about the size of the spirit fountain. If it was huge, then every big martial institution in the Windy Nation would start fighting for its ownership.
Ten miles away from the basin, three men in black lifted their heads at the same time.
“Yuan Qi had formed a column to the sky; the spirit fountain has appeared!”
“Should we go inform master Ghost? Every marital institution would soon be notified of the appearance of the spirit fountain.”
“No need, Let’s go there and use the secret martial art to cover the scent. Otherwise it would be too late, even if we notify master.”
“Fair enough. We have no time to lose, let’s go!”
Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!
The three of them turned into three dark creepy shadows, as they rapidly went through the dark forest. Their speed was inhumanly fast, and they disappeared in the blink of an eye.
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Translated by : Sheryl
Edited by : Jaggerjakk