Old Zhao said this sentence and then fainted again.
It seemed that this sentence was his obsession. Ever since he fell off the cliff, he held on to his last breath just to say it.
"Mr. Feng!" Elder Yu called urgently.
Mr. Feng stepped forward, checked his pulse, examined his meridians, and then sighed with relief.
"Don't worry, he's just fainted. Let him rest. I'll go and make some more pills."
"Thank you, Mr. Feng," Elder Yu expressed his gratitude.
Mr. Feng left the room, while Elder Yu's expression grew serious.
There was a Spirit mine in Dahei Mountain!
Elder Yu paced around the room for a few steps, then stopped and called for a demon hunter, instructing:
The demon hunter accepted the order and left. Mo Hua, curious, asked:
"Elder Yu, what is a Spirit mine?"
Mo Hua only knew that Spirit mines contained spirit stones, but he wasn't clear about the specifics.
Seeing that it was still early and that gathering the demon hunters would take some time, Elder Yu patiently explained to Mo Hua:
"To cultivate, a cultivator needs spiritual energy. However, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth is thin. Except for some famous mountains and great rivers where spiritual energy gathers, in other remote places like Tongxian City, the spiritual energy has become too thin to support cultivation."
"Therefore, cultivators can only cultivate using spirit stones, and the source of spirit stones is Spirit mines."
"A Spirit mine is formed when the dense spiritual energy or spiritual mist in the mountains during ancient times solidifies, assimilates with the mountain rocks, and then gets buried deep underground due to changes in the mountain terrain over the years."
"Additionally, some are formed when ancient spiritual beasts, large patches of spiritual grass, and other spiritual objects, rich in spiritual energy, get buried underground after great calamities or numerous changes in the world, eventually transforming into Spirit mines."
Mo Hua nodded and couldn't help but ask:
"I read in books that in ancient times, great cultivators could move mountains and overturn seas, change the sky and shift the sun. Was the spiritual energy also thin back then?"
"Well..." Elder Yu thought for a moment and said, "It's said that in ancient times, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was extremely dense. After experiencing great calamities, the spiritual energy gradually thinned due to changes in the world's structure."
"What kind of great calamities?"
"I don't know. These are just legends, vague and unverifiable."
After finishing, Elder Yu added:
"Another reason for the thinning spiritual energy is that there are too many cultivators now..."
"Before the Dao Court unified the cultivation world, various factions fought continuously for years, causing immense suffering and countless deaths among cultivators. After the Dao Court unified, laws were established to prohibit reckless killing, allowing the cultivation world to flourish and cultivators to increase in number."
"But the more cultivators there are, the more spiritual energy is absorbed for cultivation, making the spiritual energy in heaven and earth naturally less."
"Today, twenty thousand years later, the spiritual energy is extremely thin, and cultivation can only rely on refining spirit stones."
Mo Hua suddenly understood, then worriedly asked:
"If the spirit stones in heaven and earth are used up, won't cultivators be unable to cultivate?"
"They won't be used up."
Mo Hua was taken aback, "That's impossible."
"At least it won't be a problem for tens of thousands of years."
Mo Hua frowned, "But we always lack spirit stones..."
"That's because we don't have Spirit mines."
Mo Hua fell silent.
Elder Yu sighed, "In this world, from large to small Spirit mines, half are occupied by the Dao Court, and the rest are mostly controlled by powerful families and sects. We can only scrape by with the spirit stones they discard..."
"Those big families and sects naturally don't lack spirit stones. The ones who lack them are us wandering cultivators."
Elder Yu looked at Mo Hua and sighed:
"The Dao of Heaven nurtures all things with spiritual energy; the Dao of Heaven is fair, but people are not."
Mo Hua, with a serious expression, couldn't help but recall a saying:
"The Dao of Heaven diminishes the surplus to make up for the deficiency; the Dao of people takes from the deficient to serve the surplus."
"Can we occupy the Spirit mine in Dahei Mountain?" Mo Hua asked.
Elder Yu frowned, "According to custom, medium to large unowned Spirit mines belong to the Dao Court, and the spirit stones mined are used to benefit the cultivators of this province—though it's mostly for their own gain..."
"As for small Spirit mines, they are generally first-come, first-served."
Mo Hua asked, "So, does the Spirit mine in Dahei Mountain count as ours or the Qian family's?"
"It's hard to say."
Elder Yu replied, then raised an eyebrow at Mo Hua, "But usually, the one with the bigger fist gets it first."
Mo Hua was stunned.
Half an hour later, the demon hunters gathered in Elder Yu's courtyard.
Those who came were mostly the leaders among the demon hunters, all at the ninth level of Qi cultivation. Mo Shan was also among them.
Elder Yu sat in the center, with the others seated on either side.
Mo Hua, eager to know what would happen next, brought a chair and listened in from the side.
The demon hunters couldn't help but look at the ten-year-old Mo Hua.
This was a meeting of demon hunters, was it really appropriate for a child like Mo Hua to be here...
But they didn't dare to ask.
Elder Yu was known for his bad temper. Seeing his serious expression now, they dared not say a word.
If they irritated Elder Yu, even if they were at the ninth level of Qi cultivation, they'd get a harsh scolding.
Forget it. Since Mo Hua was here with Elder Yu's approval, they decided to ignore it.
Mo Hua, sitting not far from Elder Yu, swung his legs back and forth on the high chair.
The others watched, feeling complicated emotions.
Elder Yu was too indulgent with this child...
But indulging was one thing, they didn't dare to comment.
Elder Yu felt somewhat comforted seeing Mo Hua there.
In his eyes, with Mo Hua's talent, he would surely become an Array Master in the future, possibly even passing the assessment to become a first-class Array Master.
To wandering cultivators like them, Array Masters were unattainable.
Mo Hua's concern for demon hunter matters was naturally a good sign.
Elder Yu thought silently.
Once everyone had arrived, Elder Yu spoke about the Spirit mine.
The room was filled with astonishment.
A Spirit mine, an unowned Spirit mine!
Thinking about Old Zhao nearly dying at the hands of the Qian family, a demon hunter cursed:
"Those Qian family bastards, not only did they steal the Spirit mine, but they also tried to kill and silence him!"
"Old Zhao almost lost his life!"
"Damn it, those Qian family scumbags!"
A cultivator suddenly recalled, "Could Old Sun's disappearance also be the work of the Qian family?"
Everyone paused, their faces darkening.
Not just Old Sun, but a few other demon hunters had gone missing before too.
They had thought those were accidents or beast attacks, but now it seemed the Qian family might have killed them to silence them.
"Bastards!"
"Too much!"
The demon hunters cursed, anger filling the room.
Elder Yu frowned and gestured for silence, then began to issue orders:
"Gather all late-stage Qi cultivator demon hunters. We'll go up the mountain under the cover of darkness, searching inch by inch to find the Spirit mine's location."
A demon hunter asked, "What if we encounter Qian family cultivators?"
"Capture and interrogate them thoroughly."
"What if we run into a large group of Qian family cultivators?"
Elder Yu's expression turned stern, and he slammed the table in anger:
"Then we'll kill them!"