Chapter 149: Spiritual Mines (Third Update)_1
Old Zhao finished speaking and fainted once again.
It seemed sentence was his obsession; from the moment he fell off the cliff, he had been holding on to his breath just to say these words.
“Old Mr. Feng!” Elder Yu called out anxiously.
Old Mr. Feng stepped forward to check him, tested his pulse, and examined his meridians, then let out a sigh of relief:
“It’s alright, he’s just fainted. Let him rest, and I’ll go make some pills.”
“My thanks to you, Old Mr. Feng,” Elder Yu expressed his gratitude.
Old Mr. Feng left the room, and Elder Yu’s expression turned grave.
Inside Big Black Mountain, there actually were spiritual mines!
Elder Yu paced a few steps around the room, then stopped and called a Monster Hunter, instructing:
“Go and inform Yu Chengyi to gather all the leading Monster Hunters. I have something to say!”
The Monster Hunter took the order and left. Mo Hua, curious, asked:
“Elder Yu, what is a spiritual mine?”
Mo Hua only knew that inside spiritual mines were spirit stones, but beyond that, he did not understand the specifics.
Seeing there was still time, as the Monster Hunters needed time to gather, Elder Yu patiently explained to Mo Hua:
“Cultivators need spiritual energy to cultivate, but the spiritual energy between heaven and earth is thin, except in some famous mountains and rivers where spiritual energy converges. Other remote places, like our Tongxian City, have such sparse spiritual energy that it can no longer support cultivators in their cultivation.”
“Since that’s the case, cultivators can only cultivate using spirit stones, and the source of spirit stones is spiritual mines.”
“A so-called spiritual mine is from ancient times, when dense spiritual energy or spiritual fog in the mountains solidified and merged with rocks, then got buried under the mountains due to geological movements over years and years…”
“There are also some that formed from the remains of ancient spirit beasts, patches of spirit grass, spiritual objects, and other things rich in spiritual energy, which due to great calamities or various changes, were buried underground and eventually formed spiritual mines through spiritual resolution…”
Mo Hua nodded, then a question came to mind:
“I’ve read that in ancient times, great cultivators could move mountains and seas, swap the sky for the earth. Was the spiritual energy also sparse during their time?”
“That…” Elder Yu thought for a while and said, “It’s said that in ancient times, nature’s spiritual energy was extremely dense. Only after a great calamity did the heavenly and earthly patterns change, and the spiritual energy gradually became thin.”
“What kind of great calamity?”
“I don’t know about that. These are all legends, vague in detail, and their truth is uncertain.”
After finishing his explanation, Elder Yu continued:
“Another reason for the scarcity of spiritual energy is because there are too many cultivators now…”
“Before the Taoist Court unified the Cultivation World, various powers waged wars year after year, causing misery and countless deaths among cultivators. After the unification, the Taoist Court established laws, prohibiting indiscriminate killing, allowing the Cultivation World to prosper and the number of cultivators to gradually increase.”
“But the more cultivators there are, the more spiritual energy they absorb during cultivation, resulting in less spiritual energy in the world.”
“Two thousand years to the present day, nature’s spiritual energy is extremely thin, and one can basically only rely on refining spirit stones for cultivation.”
Mo Hua suddenly understood, then worriedly said:
“If the world runs out of spirit stones, won’t cultivators be unable to cultivate anymore?”
Mo Hua was momentarily stunned, “It can’t be inexhaustible, right?”
“At the very least, it shouldn’t be a problem for another few tens of thousands of years.”
Mo Hua furrowed his brows, “But we never have enough spirit stones…”
Elder Yu said, “That’s because we have no spiritual mines.”
Elder Yu sighed, “In this world, from the largest to the smallest spiritual mines, the Taoist Court occupies half, and the rest are basically taken by powerful clans and sects. We can only scavenge for some spirit stones through their leftover scraps…”
“Those great clans and sects naturally don’t lack spirit stones. Only we, the loose cultivators, are short on them.”
Elder Yu looked at Mo Hua and lamented:
“The Heavenly Dao nourishes all things with spiritual energy, the Heavenly Dao is fair, but people are not.”
Mo Hua’s expression grew solemn as he thought of a saying:
The way of Heaven takes from what has surplus and replenishes what lacks; the way of man takes from what lacks to serve those with surplus.
“Can we claim the spiritual mine in Big Black Mountain?” Mo Hua asked.
Elder Yu frowned and said, “According to tradition, unclaimed medium to large spiritual mines belong to the Taoist Court; the spirit stones mined are used to benefit the cultivators within our state boundary—of course, saying it benefits them likely means filling their own pockets…”
“As for small spiritual mines, generally it’s first come, first served.”
Mo Hua asked, “The spiritual mine at Big Black Mountain, did we occupy it first, or did the Qian Family get there before us?”
Elder Yu said, then raised his eyebrows and added to Mo Hua, “However, it’s usually whoever has the bigger fist is considered to have claimed it first.”
An hour later, the Monster Hunters gathered in Elder Yu’s courtyard.
The attendees were generally the leaders of the Monster Hunting Teams, all of whom were at the Qi Refining Ninth Level, including Mo Shan.
Elder Yu sat in the center, with others seated on both sides.
Mo Hua also wanted to know what would happen next, so he pulled up a chair and listened in from the side.
The Monster Hunters on either side couldn’t help but glance at Mo Hua, who was about ten years old.
This was a Monster Hunters’ council meeting, and there was Mo Hua, a child, sitting here… was this really okay?
But they didn’t dare to ask.
Because Elder Yu was known for his bad temper, and seeing his current solemn look, as if a storm was brewing, nobody dared to speak out.
If they crossed Elder Yu and made him frown, even if they were at the Qi Refining Ninth Level, they would still be thoroughly reprimanded.
Let it be, if the child Mo Hua was here, it must mean he had Elder Yu’s approval. They decided to act as if they hadn’t seen him.
At that moment, Mo Hua was sitting not far from Elder Yu, on a tall chair, swinging his legs back and forth.
The crowd watched, and a complex feeling arose in their hearts.
Elder Yu really spoils this child too much…
But even if he spoils him, they dared not say a word.
Elder Yu, seeing Mo Hua was there, felt a bit of comfort in his heart.
He believed that, given Mo Hua’s talent, the boy was sure to become a Formation Master in the future, and perhaps even pass the assessment to become a first-rank Formation Master.
A Formation Master was something that was only a distant dream for these Loose Cultivators.
It was naturally excellent that Mo Hua took an interest in the matters of the Monster Hunters.
Elder Yu thought to himself quietly.
Once everyone had arrived, Elder Yu started to discuss the spiritual mines.
This was a spiritual mine, an unclaimed spiritual mine!
Remembering that Old Zhao almost lost his life at the hands of the Qian Family, a Monster Hunter cursed:
“The Qian Family, those bastards, not only secretly mined the spiritual mines but also tried to kill people to silence them!”
“Old Zhao nearly lost his life!”
“Damn it, the Qian Family is a bunch of sons of bitches!”
Another cultivator suddenly remembered, “Old Sun went missing before, could the Qian Family also be behind that?”
Everyone paused for a moment, then their faces darkened.
It wasn’t just Old Sun – several other Monster Hunters had also disappeared.
They had thought it was due to accidental falls from cliffs or being eaten by Monster Beasts, but it now appeared that they might have been killed by the Qian Family to cover up their deeds.
“This is intolerable!”
The Monster Hunters broke into curses, anger rippling through the crowd.
Elder Yu furrowed his brows and signaled for silence, before beginning to give orders:
“Gather all the late-stage Qi Refinement Monster Hunters. We will also head up the mountain under cover of darkness, searching inch by inch for the spiritual mine’s location.”
A Monster Hunter asked, “What if we encounter the Qian Family’s cultivators?”
“Capture them for a thorough interrogation.”
“And what if we run into a large group of the Qian Family’s cultivators?”
Elder Yu’s expression turned stern, and, angered, he slammed the table and said:
“Then we kill them all!”