“Yes, Young Master Qu. More and more people keep arriving, a long night of sleep brings about many dreams.” Immediately after the first man spoke, his sentiments were echoed by the other teams gathered around. People quickly expressed their support and agreed to let Qu Chang Feng come up with a plan.
Qu Chang Feng himself seemed to enjoy this feeling of being respected, so after hearing all of this, his gloomy complexion finally eased and he put on a serious look and said, “Naturally we must take action. As long as everyone works together to break this barrier, the Soul Cleansing Divine Water will be within our reach.”
“I agree. When we first found this place, my Junior Brother and I tried to break this barrier but soon discovered it was incredibly hard, I’m afraid it can’t be broken with just two or three people. Our only option is for everyone to work together!” A beautiful young woman nodded with a smile.
“Then what are we waiting for? As long as Young Master Qu coordinates all of us to attack together, I don’t believe so many of us will fail to break this damn barrier,” A man with a large beard snorted as he took out a hammer artefact, clenching it tightly as he waited for Qu Chang Feng to speak, as if he was a loyal soldier waiting to be commanded.
Qu Chang Feng smiled slightly, giving everyone present the impression a light spring breeze had just blow through. At this moment, he finally restored his usual flamboyant temperament and spoke, “Breaking this barrier won’t be a problem, it’s only a matter of time until we can obtain this Soul Cleansing Divine Water, but before we act, this Qu feels we should first discuss how to allocate it.”
When he said this, many people frowned secretly.
Before they even broke the barrier, Qu Chang Feng wanted to distribute the benefits. This clearly made many feel uneasy.
However, no one raised any objections. If Qu Chang Feng became angry out of shame, the consequences weren’t something any of them could bear. Heaven Battling Union looking for trouble with people who had done less wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, and everyone they targeted ended up quite miserable.
“Then… how does Young Master Qu think we should allocate this Soul Cleansing Divine Water?” The beautiful woman who spoke before smiled sweetly, batting her eyes slightly as she asked, displaying a fresh and charming appearance.
She didn’t want to seduce Qu Chang Feng as she knew that she could not win over this Heaven Battling Union Young Master with her skills. She just wanted to show as much goodwill towards Qu Chang Feng in hopes he would be more generous to her when dividing up the spoils.
Unfortunately for her, Qu Chang Feng turned a blind eye to this before speaking in a smooth tone that illustrated he had already come up with a distribution plan, “There are eight forces represented here, so this Qu suggest we divide this pool into four parts.”
“Four parts?” The beautiful woman frowned slightly but quickly resumed smiling, “If we divide this pool in four, how do we distribute it?”
Qu Chang Feng proudly declared, “My Heaven Battling Union is not unreasonable, we only want one portion!”
Hearing this, everyone secretly let out a sigh of relief while also feeling a little surprised. Qu Chang Feng being this generous was far beyond their expectations; all of them had thought Qu Chang Feng would demand half of it, so him asking for a quarter was a pleasant surprise.
This proposal had to be accepted! No one here was stupid enough to refuse.
Everyone nodded strongly, not raising any objections.
Seeing that everyone agreed to his proposal, Qu Chang Feng was satisfied, his smiling and laughter growing gentler.
“Young Master Qu, how do you suggest we divide up the remaining three parts? I hope you can provide us with your guidance so that after we break this barrier, everyone will have a set of rules to abide by. All of us live together on Shadowed Star and none of us should act shamelessly about such matters, inviting public anger upon us,” Another person said. This person was head of the force with the smallest number of members, three in total. That was also why he allowed Qu Chang Feng to decide the allocation of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water; otherwise, if it turned into a free-for-all, his team would undoubtedly obtain less.
As soon as this person’s words came to an end, many people stared at him fiercely.
However, Qu Chang Feng just nodded politely, “This is also true. If no one has any opinion, how about this Qu decides how the remaining three parts are divided?”
Although some people were reluctant, who would be stupid enough to stand up and question Qu Chang Feng’s status at this time?
All of them could only hold their noses and accept the situation while hoping Qu Chang Feng wouldn’t be too partial to anyone. After all, some forces here had good relationships with Heaven Battling Union.
Disregarding how everyone else was thinking, Qu Chang Feng laughed and said, “That being the case, this Qu won’t be polite. En, of the remaining three parts, this friend can take one. Do you have any complaints?”
To everyone’s surprise, Qu Chang Feng first addressed the lone, stern-faced male cultivator who was standing to the side.
“Ah…” Exclamations sounded as everyone was filled with surprised, staring at Qu Chang Feng in shock before turning to look at the stern-faced man, wondering what Qu Chang Feng was thinking.
To them, it was obvious Heaven Battling Union could acquire one quarter of this Soul Cleansing Divine Water, but the stern-faced man and Yang Kai were both all alone and clearly didn’t have the ability or qualification to acquire any of this treasure.
They had long ago subconsciously excluded these two people entirely!
How could they have imagined that Qu Chang Feng would suddenly give an entire quarter of this pool to a lone man; that was how much his entire Heaven Battling Union took.
Was there some kind of trick behind this?
Many people had doubts in their hearts whether Qu Chang Feng was planning to let this person take away a quarter of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water and then rob him of it later, but if that was really his plan, why not give it to that lone First-Order Saint King instead? Why would Qu Chang Feng choose this Third-Order Saint King?
Wasn’t that just asking for trouble?
Despite all the confusion around him, the stern-faced man didn’t show any surprise at all, as if he had expected this situation from the beginning, simply nodding as he bluntly said, “Sure!”
He spoke calmly and confidently, without the slightest hint of thanks or apology.
This made the leaders of the other forces gathered here change slightly and frown slightly as if they had just thought of something, none of them raising any objections to Qu Chang Feng’s distribution plan anymore and instead readily agreeing.
At that moment, the look everyone gave to this stern-faced man changed, fear and dread flashing across their eyes.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed as well as he guessed the origins of this man. However, he wasn’t sure of his guess; after all, he hadn’t been on Shadowed Star for very long and didn’t know much about its customs and local conditions.
Next, Qu Chang Feng went on to distribute the remaining half of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water among the assembled forces on the scene. The distribution was based on the number of people each force had, with those having more people obtaining more of the pool while those who had less receiving less. This distribution was fair and simple, not showing favour to anyone, not even the beautiful young woman who had flirted with him. This naturally caused her to frown as a layer of frost seemed to cover her expression.
Out of everyone present, the only one who wasn’t assigned anything was Yang Kai.
No one was surprised by this though because they had long ago excluded him. It would be strange if Qu Chang Feng really assigned anything to Yang Kai.
After the distribution of benefits was decided, many cultivators glanced towards Yang Kai. Some people showed ridicule and disdain while others showed sympathy. Everyone had different opinions on the matter, but no one spoke a single word for him.
Yang Kai just stood there indifferently without saying anything.
He actually found this whole situation somewhat amusing. He wasn’t even sure this golden pool of water was Soul Cleansing Divine Water and putting hope on others to understand this was no different than hoping a pig could explain it to him.
These people didn’t know anything at all about Soul Cleansing Divine Water yet before the barrier was even broken, they had decided how to divide it up.
Yang Kai really wanted to see how they were going to take away this Soul Cleansing Divine Water!
Once this treasure left the pool where it had been formed, it’s purifying, and cleansing properties would immediately disappear. If the Soul Cleansing Divine Water was taken out of the pool, all they would get is a pile of rich spirit liquid rather than Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
So, no matter what kind of extravagant and colourful words Qu Chang Feng spoke, and no matter how everyone was staring at him, Yang Kai didn’t show a flustered look.
Since nothing could be brought out from this pool, what good was a distribution plan? In the end, it would be necessary to absorb this Soul Cleansing Divine Water here and now, so their distribution scheme was meaningless, and once everyone realised this, Yang Kai was confident he would be able to fish some benefits in the ensuing chaos.
Immediately after the discussion about the distribution of benefits concluded, under Qu Chang Feng’s call, everyone began attacking the golden barrier covering the pool.
For a time, various artefacts and Martial Skills bombarded the golden dome above the pool, causing numerous ripples. To ensure that no complications arose due to delay, everyone put forward all of their strength.
As soon as everyone began attacking, individual strengths and weakness were revealed. The cultivators at the Third-Order Saint King realm all had relatively similar strength, but Qu Chang Feng’s performance stood out. The fact that he was using an Original Grade High-Rank artefact, a long bronze axe, also increased the difference between him and the others present. Although with his Third Order Saint King cultivation he could not display the full strength of this artefact, every strike he made would cause the golden dome to tremble fiercely.
It came as no surprise that Qu Chang Feng had such skill though; after all, he was the first talent of Heaven Battling Union and his reputation had spread across Shadowed Star. It was also normal for him to possess such a powerful artefact.
What was surprising though was the stern-faced man didn’t seem to have any powerful artefacts at all, only wearing a pair of plain black gloves on his fists as he repeatedly punched the barrier.
However, this calm and relaxed attack actually carried no less power than Qu Chang Feng’s.
Seeing this, the crowd confirmed their previous conjectures and understood why Qu Chang Feng had willingly given this person a quarter of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
After understanding this, everyone focused on exerting the power of their artefact and Martial Skills and avoided paying attention to this person.
Qu Chang Feng, on the other hand, seemed to want to compete with this stern-faced man, and knowing an outright confrontation was out of the question, he had settled on who could make a bigger impact on this barrier instead. As such, Qu Chang Feng pushed his Saint Qi even harder, increasing the ferocity and effect of his attacks with each blow.
But no matter how Qu Chang Feng urged his Saint Qi, the stern-faced man’s attacks remained unchanged and he showed no intention to strengthen them at all, as if he didn’t place Qu Chang Feng in his eyes at all, making Heaven Battling Union’s genius disciple so frustrated he nearly spat blood.
It was incredibly vexing to Qu Chang Feng, like he had struck a blow with all his might but only hit cotton.
While the crowd was breaking the barrier, Yang Kai did not idle, he also participated by adding his strength; after all, he was still planning to fish for advantages after this. If he was to stand by and do nothing while the barrier was being broken, he would only be giving people an excuse to expel him, so despite everyone else’s amazement, he condensed his Saint Qi into a sword, not daring to expose his Demonic Flame, and chopped towards the golden barrier without any signs of anxiety or panic.
The strength he displayed was neither weak nor strong, only what an average of First-Order Saint King should have.
Everyone else was stunned at first but soon became disinterested and began ignoring Yang Kai, some of them secretly sighing and wondering why he would bother putting in any effort despite knowing he wouldn’t be apportioned any of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
If he really tried to snatch any of this treasure, anyone here would be able to kill him on the spot.
The same beautiful young woman who had spoken earlier was standing next to Yang Kai, swinging her artefact, transforming it into countless flaming birds that crashed towards the barrier, slowly but surely wearing it down. Seemingly unable to bear watching Yang Kai do such a thankless job, she spoke up to persuade him, “Little Brother, don’t bother, it’s no use. Instead of doing this, you might as well leave this place and look outside to see if you can find your own opportunities. It must not have been easy to reach this Treasure Area with your cultivation; you shouldn’t waste your time here.”
She obviously thought that Yang Kai had simply gotten lucky and somehow managed to cross the Flame Area to reach this Treasure Area. Since he managed to reach here, she felt Yang Kai should grasp onto this luck and not waste time here.
Seeing someone try to kindly persuade him, Yang Kai didn’t tell this woman to mind her own business and instead smile to her slightly with a silly look.
The beautiful young woman saw him insist and couldn’t help feeling a little disgruntled, thinking he didn’t know how to appreciate kindness and no longer cared about him.
Just then, a cultivator suddenly exclaimed excitedly, “The barrier is about to break, everybody put in more strength!”
With the fall of his voice, the entire golden dome began shaking even more as even greater ripples spread across its surface, like a lake which had countless stones being thrown into it.
There was no need for this man to remind them as everyone had noticed the change in the barrier. This barrier was truly quite powerful, able to withstand the concentrated attacks of forty or so elite Saint Kings for an incense stick worth of time yet still not completely break. On top of that, this barrier was incredibly ancient, with no one here able to tell just how many years it had existed.
If this barrier had been at its peak strength, it was likely no one here would be able to break it.
As the barrier began to break, everyone’s eyes glowed with joy and they all increased the output of their Saint Qi.
After half a cup of tea’s time, following a cracking sound, the dome-shaped barrier above the pool finally shattered and disappeared without any trace. At the moment the barrier broke, an invisible energy escaped from the pool and swept across everyone present.
At that moment, everyone was shocked and immediately overjoyed.
Because after inhaling this invisible energy, all of them became aware of some subtle changes in their Souls, their Spiritual Energy seemingly becoming slightly stronger.
Soul Cleansing Divine Water truly lived up to its reputation!
Excitement and anticipation filled the faces of everyone present. Under usual circumstances, everyone here would have swarmed up to snatch this treasure, but since they had all reached an agreement beforehand, no matter how much they all wanted to rush up, they suppressed this urge and turned to Qu Chang Feng.
Qu Chang Feng saw this and smiled lightly, “Good work everyone, we’ve finally broken this damn barrier. En, good, I hope everyone will collect this Soul Cleansing Divine Water in an orderly manner. If anyone dares to violate our previous agreement, don’t blame this Qu for acting ruthlessly!”
As he finished saying this, he shot a cold look around the cavern.
Everyone nodded, declaring they wouldn’t dare. Qu Chang Feng was actually looking forward to someone refusing to comply with the previous agreement, giving him an excuse to kill them and take their share, but everyone present was an elite from their force, so they all understood this and naturally wouldn’t do as he wished.
A tinge of regret flashed across Qu Chang Feng’s eyes but he quickly hid it before gruffly waving to a nearby male cultivator and saying, “Begin!”
This cultivator nodded with excitement and rushed up to the pool, condensing Saint Qi in his hands to form a bowl-like shape, scooped up some of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, then prepared to put it into a vessel inside his Space Ring.
Seeing this, Yang Kai’s eyes twitched as he felt distressed in his heart.
Sure enough, the Soul Cleansing Divine Water this cultivator scooped up immediately underwent a drastic transformation in front of everyone’s eyes. As soon as it left the pool the originally golden liquid immediately began leaking golden threads of light which rapidly began to dissipate into the air, three seconds later disappearing altogether.
This scene surprised everyone.
“Senior Brother Qu, something is wrong!” The cultivator responsible for scooping the Soul Cleansing Divine Water exclaimed.
“What happened?”
“After extracting it, it seems the Soul Cleansing Divine Water’s special properties disappear,” The cultivator wailed, pointing to the large bowl he had condensed from his Saint Qi.
“What?” Qu Chang Feng was startled and quickly took a look. Inside the bowl which originally contained the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, there was now no trace of golden radiance and instead just a clear spirit liquid.
Although this spirit liquid was also a good treasure, much higher in quality than even High-Rank Saint Crystal, how could it even compare to Soul Cleansing Divine Water?
“How can this be?” Qu Chang Feng’s face became cloudy and uncertain as he quickly reached out and extract a drop of the spirit liquid from the Saint Qi bowl and put it into his mouth, confirming that it was just plain spirit liquid with no Soul purifying effect.
Unwilling to believe what he was seeing, Qu Chang Feng went up the pool personally and scooped out a handful of the golden liquid, only to see the previous process repeat itself, all the golden radiance of the fluid scattering into the air.
“Young Master Qu, could it be this Soul Cleansing Divine Water can’t be taken away from this place?” Someone guessed.
“It’s possible. Otherwise, why would the Soul Cleansing Divine Water be perfectly fine inside this pool but completely dissipate once removed?”
“How is that possible?”
“I’m not quite sure about this either. I have only heard that Soul Cleansing Divine Water is one of the Three Great Divine Liquids, but I don’t know if there is some special method required to collect it.”
“I don’t know either.”
[Three Great Divine Liquids?] Yang Kai’s brow twitched, he didn’t know what these Three Great Divine Liquids referred to, but apparently this Soul Cleansing Divine Water was one of them.
Qu Chang Feng’s face turned incredibly ugly at this moment, and with the clamouring of the crowd all around him, he was no longer able to maintain his elegant demeanor and sullenly shouted, “If we can’t take this Soul Cleansing Divine Water away, how are we supposed to gather it?”
This group of people all became dumbfounded. Qu Chang Feng had been responsible for the distribution of benefits and everyone had agreed to give him face, but now that they couldn’t even take away this Soul Cleansing Divine Water, the previous agreement had obviously degenerated into a joke. Qu Chang Feng had obviously become angry out of shame because of this matter so no one dared to suggest that all of them should simply enter the pool together now.
Qu Chang Feng wasn’t stupid and had certainly realized this point, he was simply unwilling to say it.
The reason for not saying anything was obviously because he wanted to draw up a new allocation scheme.
But while others didn’t dare to say anything, the stern-faced man who had remained indifferent to everything this whole time took the initiative to speak for the first time and declared, “It’s easy, everyone enters the pool and absorbs the effects of this Soul Cleansing Divine Water.”
With that said, he no longer paid any attention to anyone else and jumped into the middle of the pool.
This pool of water that seemed impervious the probing of Divine Sense and couldn’t be seen through by the eye was apparently not very deep, because as soon as the stern-faced man entered and sat down cross-legged, his chest still remained above its surface.
Everyone was stunned by this and turned to look at Qu Chang Feng. The cultivators who had followed Qu Chang Feng were even more furious, but no matter how angry they were they didn’t dare to reprimand the stern faced man.
Qu Chang Feng’s face was as black as a kettle and the aura around him had clearly become extremely gloomy.
When he was dividing up the Soul Cleansing Divine Water just now, he had given this stern faced man an entire quarter of it, but now, this man had not given him the slightest face and simply done whatever he pleased, making Qu Chang Feng very angry.
Even Fang Tian Zhong didn’t dare disregard him so.
Qu Chang Feng stared grimly at this man, but the other side didn’t pay him any mind, instead just closing his eyes as he sat there, his expression seemingly becoming a bit lighter, even a bit happy; obviously he was obtaining great benefits from absorbing the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Seeing someone seize the initiative, all the other cultivators grew even more anxious, so how could they bother waiting for Qu Chang Feng to speak? On top of that, although it was clear Qu Chang Feng was furious, he also didn’t seem to dare to raise any objections.
After not so secretly exchanging glances with one another, many began jumping into the pool.
With someone taking the lead, naturally, others would follow the trend, all of them afraid of falling behind, so the scene immediately became chaotic. Except for the few cultivators from Heaven Battling Union, the others all leapt into the water.
This pool wasn’t small, more than large enough to accommodate several dozen people, but although it looked like there was plenty of Soul Cleansing Divine Water, just how much efficacy this pool contained was unknown, so everyone who jumped in jostled to occupy a favourable position.
The most advantageous spot was naturally the centre of the pool.
Among the dozen or so people who jumped in first, five or six of them fell into the centre.
However, the stern-faced man suddenly opened his eyes and swiftly wielded his fists twice, filling the entire cavern with a fierce wind pressure as he sent those five or six individuals flying through the air while coughing up blood. When these people finally hit the ground, all of them looked weak and horrified.
They all knew this man wasn’t someone they could trifle with, but they hadn’t expected him to be so powerful!
Even one against six, with just two punches, this stern-faced man had easily defeated all of them. Even if this was partly due to him catching them off guard, it was also apparent to everyone he had shown mercy, otherwise, those five or six cultivators would be half dead right now.
“I’ll kill anyone who gets within approaches to within five meters of me!” After sending out these two punches, he made this declaration then closed his eyes again.
He wanted an entire five-meter radius to himself.
The stern-faced man wanting to dominate the centre five-metre radius of the pool was extremely overbearing.
But no one felt that there was anything wrong with this; even Qu Chang Feng, after seeing the other party’s strength, couldn’t help feeling startled.
Yang Kai trembled slightly, not because he was frightened, but because he was inexplicable excitement.
He had met many of Shadowed Star’s young geniuses, but no matter who it was, none of them could draw out fighting intent from him like this stern-faced man, because Yang Kai didn’t know if he could win against this person. It was this kind of uncertainty that made him want to verify it personally.
However, now was not the time to pick a fight with this person, refining the Soul Cleansing Divine Water was the priority right now.
Yang Kai would be active on Shadowed Star in the future, and sooner or later would have the opportunity to compete with this person, so after a moment, Yang Kai restored his usual calm demeanour. At the same time, he was secretly thankful that he had not acted rashly when he first entered this place.
The moment he entered this stone cavern, Yang Kai had thought of driving everyone away and enjoying the power of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water all by himself. If he had acted at that time though, he might not have even been able to defeat this stern-faced man, and in the process he would definitely expose his true strength while allowing Qu Chang Feng and the others to take advantage of his mistakes.
The world was truly big, and there were indeed many geniuses! This stern-faced man was the strongest Saint King Yang Kai had met so far, even Xue Yue of Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce would probably not be his opponent. This made Yang Kai secretly realize he could no longer casually despise cultivators in the same realm as him.
Inside the stone cavern, besides the few people from Heaven Battling Union who were standing around, everyone else had found a spot in the pool and sat down cross-legged to absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water. Everyone’s face showed a joyful expression, some of them even let out gasps of pleasure, seemingly extremely comfortable.
“Enter!” Qu Chang Feng no longer wasted any time, waving his hand somberly.
The Heaven Battling Union disciples, who had been waiting for his word, heard this and all rushed into the pool, occupying free spots, and sitting down cross-legged.
Qu Chang Feng’s face was incredibly dark, and he could barely contain his anger, but even if he had twice as much courage, he didn’t dare look for trouble with the stern-faced man. Forget about whether he was this person’s opponent, just the behemoth that stood behind him was something even Heaven Battling Union had to fear.
With a heart full of rage but nowhere to vent, Qu Chang Feng was incredibly unhappy and in a fit of anger he actually rushed over to Yang Kai and coldly shouted, “Scram, I want this spot!”
Yang Kai’s spot wasn’t too good, nor too bad, just barely okay in fact.
He had entered along with the rest of the crowd just now and wasn’t too particular about what spot he chose, just occupying any place he could find, so how could he have anticipated Qu Chang Feng would come eyeing it?
Yang Kai understood that Qu Chang Feng was simply venting his anger and that he didn’t really want to occupy this position because there were still some better spots open elsewhere.
Qu Chang Feng was deliberately looking for trouble.
Because Yang Kai had the lowest strength, and he was all alone, Qu Chang Feng had decided to pick on him. The only reason he had not directly attacked was obviously because he was worried about disturbing the stern-faced man.
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed a cold light, but after thinking about it for a moment, he didn’t put up a fight. Instead, he just stood up and moved to another free spot.
Qu Chang Feng coldly snorted and was seemingly very satisfied with Yang Kai’s performance. Having found a little face for himself, Qu Chang Feng’s expression gradually eased up. After sitting down cross-legged and starting to absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, he immediately showed a happy look, all of his previous dissatisfaction being swept away.
“Little brother, your luck is really good.” The beautiful woman who had tried to persuade Yang Kai to not to waste time a moment ago was actually sitting nearby, and upon seeing him get driven off by Qu Chang Feng, she smiled and comforted, “It seems that you were right to stick around, you really were able to fish some advantages. Compared with this opportunity in front of you, you don’t need to care about other things. Elder Sister has only sat here for a while but already feels like the bottleneck in her Soul cultivation has loosened. You should quickly focus on refining this pool’s effect, perhaps you’ll be able to comprehend something in the process.”
“En,” Yang Kai didn’t want to say anything more to her, simply nodding once before starting to absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
The reason why the Soul Cleansing Divine Water had such amazing effects was that it was condensed from the Soul of an Origin King Realm master. After an Origin King Realm master died here, their Spiritual Energy perfectly blended with the spirit liquid in this place and after undergoing countless years of transformation gave birth to this pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Although Yang Kai didn’t know why the Soul Cleansing Divine Water here was golden, after a brief attempt at absorbing it just now, he determined that it was indeed Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Naturally he didn’t want to waste any time.
The beautiful woman was right, by cultivating here, not only could one enhance their Soul cultivation, purifying and condensing their Spiritual Energy, if one was lucky enough, they may be able to realize that some of the dead Origin King Realm master’s insights into the Soul.
How could the methods of an Origin King Realm master’s be bad? As long as one was able to understand any bit of their Divine Abilities, it would be enough to enjoy for a lifetime.
So far, the only Origin King Yang Kai had met was Gui Zu! Remembering his Heaven shaking methods made Yang Kai deeply envious, and presumably, other Origin Kings would not be worse than him.
Opening all his body’s pores, Yang Kai’s physique trembled as a trace of the golden energy poured into his five viscera and six organs before flowing straight to the top of his head and entering his Knowledge Sea.
Yang Kai felt this rush carefully, he split half of his conscious to maintain his vigilance of the outside world. Maintaining his guard up to prevent any attacks. Meanwhile, he focused the other half of his conscious to plunge into his Knowledge Sea to observe the magical effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Yang Kai could clearly see strands of golden silk blend with the burning flames throughout his Knowledge Sea, and although these threads of golden silk weren’t numerous, their radiance was very clear. The sea of crimson flames seemed particularly eye-catching at this moment, as if golden fish were freely swimming among them.
Half of the golden silk threads soon fused with the seawater on its own, enhancing the strength of Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea while also tempering his Spiritual Energy; although this improvement was somewhat negligible, seeing such instantaneous results was already quite amazing.
In essence, cultivation revolved around four key aspects.
Strengthening physique, accumulating Saint Qi, increasing Spiritual Energy, and improving insight into the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao.
The simplest of these principles was the accumulation of Saint Qi, because this accumulation could be accomplished with the aid of many foreign resources such as pills and Saint Crystals. When a cultivator cultivated, they use these types of auxiliary resources whenever possible.
On the other hand, the most difficult aspect was enhancing one’s comprehension of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao!
Many cultivators would reach a point in the other three aspects of cultivation which would satisfy the requirements to break through to the next realm but would find themselves unable to because of bottlenecks in their understanding of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao. Essentially all Third Order Origin Returning Realm masters on Shadowed Star couldn’t raise their comprehension of this key aspect to the require height to allow them to break through and had thus become unable to take that last step forward.
The strengthening of one’s physical body was relatively easy in the early stages and could be aided by external forces, but as one’s cultivation improved, it became more and more difficult to continue enhancing their physique and was almost impossible to bring to a true peak. Yang Kai’s powerful physical body was the result of countless opportunities but was still far from reaching the apex, thus he could still be wounded by powerful attacks.
However, it was also true that Yang Kai’s physique was countless times stronger than average cultivators in his own realm and even Origin Returning Realm masters. On top of that, the huge vitality contained in his Golden Blood granted Yang Kai terrifying restorative abilities, allowing any injury he received to heal just like new in short order.
The cultivation of one’s Soul, their Spiritual Energy, was infinitely more difficult than the accumulation of Saint Qi though, and was even more difficult than strengthening one’s body, only less difficult than comprehending the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao.
Many cultivators would enter a period of retreat after breaking through to a new realm specifically to strengthen their Soul and Spiritual Energy. Taking pills wasn’t a very effective method of enhancing one’s Spiritual Energy and Secret Arts that improved the rate of Spiritual Energy growth were extremely rare and precious.
This was true in Tong Xuan Realm, and was the same in the Star Field.
The method eighty percent of cultivators used to strengthen their Souls was to cultivate Soul Skills. By continuously using Soul Skills, draining their Spiritual Energy, and then restore themselves, a cultivator would create a cycle that would slowly increase their Spiritual Energy.
This was a stupid and ineffective method, but it was also the easiest and most practical.
Yang Kai didn’t need to use such a method to enhance his Spiritual Energy because he had his Soul Warming Lotus. This treasure negated the need for him to devote time in retreat to cultivate Spiritual Energy while still allowing his Soul to be far stronger than average cultivators in his realm. Yang Kai’s current Soul and Divine Sense was comparable to those of an Origin Returning Realm master.
The reason for this was almost entirely due to the Soul Warming Lotus!
This most precious Soul nourishing treasure had been acquired by Yang Kai when he was still very weak and had co-existed with him for more than two decades. His own Soul and the Soul Warming Lotus were now complementary, so while his Soul grew, the Soul Warming Lotus would also grow.
But now, with only a small amount of Soul Cleansing Divine Water, Yang Kai had seen great gains, his Spiritual Energy growing stronger by an amount equal to a few days of dedicated cultivation in only a few breathes, something that made him very happy.
As Yang Kai observed this process, some of the golden threads which had not fused with his Knowledge Sea were led by some inexplicable attractive force towards the six-coloured island at the centre of the sea, entering it and disappearing.
This phenomenon did not surprise Yang Kai.
The Soul Warming Lotus originally had such characteristics. Whenever Yang Kai swallowed some kind of pill that enhanced Spiritual Energy, the Soul Warming Lotus would absorb most of these efficacies for its own use and grow. Although in the short term, it looks like Yang Kai was losing benefits to the Soul Warming Lotus, since his Soul and the Soul Warming Lotus shared a symbiotic relationship, over the years, the benefits the Soul Warming Lotus gave him far outweighed the nutrients he provided it.
Soul Cleansing Divine Water could be used to wash and purify one’s Soul, but it also had great nourishing effects for the Soul Warming Lotus.
However, what surprised Yang Kai was that after the Soul Warming Lotus absorbed a tiny part of these golden threads, it actually took the initiative to radiate a powerful attractive force that drew the golden energy from the Soul Cleaning Divine Water pool into Yang Kai’s body and to his Knowledge Sea at dozens of times the previous rate.
The golden threads that were pulled in by the Soul Warming Lotus soon flooded Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, but Yang Kai was only able to absorb about one percent of them while the rest were taken away by the Soul Warming Lotus, causing its colours to become even more vibrant.
Yang Kai was startled and quickly controlled the attraction force of the Soul Warming Lotus as he didn’t dare to create such a big stir.
If he were alone, Yang Kai would only be pleasantly surprised and wouldn’t try to suppress this phenomenon.
But right now there were more than thirty other cultivators here. Once Yang Kai allowed this kind of movement, he would immediately draw everyone’s attention and would no doubt be expelled! If he were to so crazily absorb the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, what would be left for everyone else?
Although Yang Kai acted quickly to suppress this attraction, he still disturbed the beautiful woman who was talking to him before.
The beautiful young woman opened her eyes and turned a suspicious look towards Yang Kai. A moment ago, she had clearly noticed an abnormal suction force coming from this First-Order Saint King youth, but when she examined him carefully, she failed to discover anything.
Shaking her head and thinking it was just her imagining, she quickly closed her eyes and continued to absorb the benefits contained in the Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Yang Kai secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t expected the Soul Warming Lotus would be so eager to absorb the Soul Cleansing Divine Water. If he had known early, he would have found a more remote corner so he could take in a little more without being noticed.
Although it was still possible for him to do this, Yang Kai had to be extremely careful not to arouse suspicions, especially from the young beauty sitting nearby.
After a few seconds of thought, Yang Kai gradually lifted the suppression of the Soul Warming Lotus, stopping when it reached a certain degree.
In an instant, about ten times more gold threads than before began pouring into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, one percent of them being absorbed by him directly while the rest poured into the six-coloured island.
This speed of absorption was just about right so he wouldn’t be discovered, allowing Yang Kai to gain roughly ten times the benefits of anyone else from this pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
However, Yang Kai wasn’t too content and instead even somewhat anxious.
There was only so much Soul Cleansing Divine Water in this pool, and everyone was desperately snatching as much as they could for themselves, so now was the time to absorb as much as possible rather than hold back.
Compared to the others who were wholeheartedly focused on absorbing the Soul Cleansing Divine Water’s efficacies, Yang Kai’s Soul was inherently more powerful, so he was able to split his attention and handle multiple tasks at once.
Yang Kai was monitoring the others in the pool, hoping they would fall into a meditative state they were unable to extricate themselves from. If this happened, he would increase his speed of absorption again; as long as he was careful, he shouldn’t be discovered.
Additionally, he needed to distance himself from the beautiful young woman next to him. Her strength wasn’t too high, only Third-Order Saint King, but she was a bit too perceptive.
Considering all this, Yang Kai waded towards a remote corner of the pool.
Although his actions alarmed a few cultivators, causing them to open their eyes, after shooting Yang Kai a look of dissatisfaction, no one thought he was up to anything or spared any effort to blame him and instead just closed their eyes again as they were all in a race against time.
After a moment, Yang Kai arrived at a corner of the pool which was quite far apart from anyone else and nodded with satisfaction.
Sitting down cross-legged, Yang Kai prepared to loosen his suppression on the Soul Warming Lotus again when he suddenly felt something beneath him.
Quickly reaching down and grabbing this objected, Yang Kai felt it was slightly warm to the touch, but before he had time to figure out what exactly it was, a strange energy began pouring into his body from his fingertips and flow straight up towards his head.
Wherever this energy passed, Yang Kai’s body shivered and he couldn’t help feeling an instinctual sense of crisis.
Not daring to neglect, Yang Kai hurriedly condensed his Saint Qi to resist this strange energy.
As Demonic Flame ignited inside his meridians, the cold energy halted its advance and Yang Kai swore he could hear something like a miserable howl echo in his ears. Seemingly aware of the terrifying might of the Demonic Flame, the strange energy quickly withdrew and soon disappeared into the pool of water.
Yang Kai’s face changed greatly!
Yang Kai’s eyes shot open as he scanned the others inside the pool, but he soon realized that no one else was even aware of what had just taken place, as if he was the only one who had heard that miserable cry just now.
Not only that, but the strange object Yang Kai was holding in his hand no longer had a sense of warmth to it and instead because as dull as a rock.
No matter what this object was though, since it appeared in this pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water, it definitely wasn’t ordinary. Yang Kai didn’t even think about it and threw it directly into his Space Ring.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed next as he scanned the golden pool of water, looking for the cold energy that had just rushed into his body, but this pool was both opaque and impermeable to Divine Sense, so no matter how he searched, Yang Kai was unable to find anything.
However, since that energy seemed afraid of his Demonic Flame, Yang Kai didn’t have to worry about any negative consequences for himself.
What made Yang Kai concerned though was that this strange cold energy actually existed in this place.
With nothing he could do about it at the moment, Yang Kai soon shook his head and put this issue aside while quietly withdrawing the suppression on his Soul Warming Lotus further, allowing it to draw in the golden threads faster.
The stone cavern was extremely quiet for a while as everyone madly tempered their Souls in the pool. Their luck also seemed to be quite good as after all of them jumped into the pool, no one else arrived at this stalactite cave.
Most likely, everyone who had received news about this place had already come.
Half an hour or so later though, a change suddenly occurred.
A huge pulse of Spiritual Energy, equivalent to what an ordinary First-Order Origin Returning Realm master could put out, swept across the stone cavern and all the cultivators sitting in the pool opened their eyes in shock as they turned towards the source of this pulse.
As all eyes landed on a certain spot, everyone in the pool felt both shocked and envious…
The source of this disturbance was none other than the stern-faced man sitting in the middle of the pool. At this moment, his body was trembling slightly and the look on his face was undergoing a series of changes, sometimes frowning, sometimes joyful, sometimes pensive…
On top of that, all around his body, a conspicuous golden halo appeared and then, as if he had suddenly transformed into a bottomless pit, countless golden threads began madly flowing towards him, causing the entire pool to become turbulent.
“He really managed to comprehend something!” The beautiful young woman called out in alarm as her jaw dropped and she stared at this stern-faced man in shock.
After hearing the words of this beautiful woman, everyone realized that this stern-faced man had not only gained the benefit of tempering his Soul, allowing his Spiritual Energy to reach the level of a First-Order Origin Returning Realm master, he had also obtained insight into one of the Soul Skills the Origin King Realm master who died here had cultivated.
This discovery made everyone’s eyes turn red.
Compared with insights into an Origin King’s Soul Skill, the tiny benefits they received were insignificant!
All of a sudden, everyone forgot to continue absorbing the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water and stared at this man.
Among everyone, Qu Chang Feng’s face was the ugliest. After venting his anger on Yang Kai, he had finally managed to calm down. No matter what, he would be able to obtain some benefits here, so he didn’t need to care too much about it.
But now, while he was only able to slightly temper his Soul, someone else was able to comprehend an Origin King’s Soul Skill, the difference between the two was like Heaven and Earth.
How was he able to gain insight into that Soul Skill? Why couldn’t it have been him instead? He was also a world-shaking talent, the greatest genius of Heaven Battling Union’s younger generation, worshipped and admired by all, so why?
Was it because he had occupied the best position in the centre of the pool?
Qu Chang Feng was so angry he nearly spat blood! But regardless of how he felt, he could only jealously stare at this man; he didn’t dare try to interfere.
Although this moment was the best time to disturb this stern-faced man’s epiphany, who knows what kind of terrifying counterattack he would have to endure afterwards?
Therefore, Qu Chang Feng could only glare at this man with intense resentment, extremely depressed.
While everyone else was shocked, Yang Kai, on the other hand, was overjoyed.
He had been suppressing the attractive force coming from the Soul Warming Lotus out of concern it would attract other’s attention; but now, this stern-faced man was drawing everyone’s focus and the pool had become incredibly turbulent.
At this moment, even if Yang Kai were to create a big ruckus, no one would take notice.
Not hesitating, Yang Kai immediately released all suppression from the Soul Warming Lotus and allowed it to wantonly absorb the golden energy here.
Instantly, a massive amount of golden light poured into Yang Kai’s fiery red Knowledge Sea. This brilliant golden radiance almost covered up the original crimson colour. The energy contained in these golden threads was sensational but even with Yang Kai’s absorption abilities, he was barely able to snatch any of it, the vast majority being drawn in by the Soul Warming Lotus. The Soul Warming Lotus was even more terrifying than the stern-faced man’s body when it came to drawing in the golden silk threads.
The pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water, which had originally been dazzling gold in colour, began fading at a speed visible to the naked eye, but immersed in their fit of shock and jealousy, no one noticed this change.
So Yang Kai became even more unscrupulous.
Although he too was a bit envious of this stern-faced man’s opportunity, he knew better than anyone that a Soul Skill was just a clever method of using Spiritual Energy, like how Martial Skills were applications of Saint Qi. No matter how profound it was, it was the force behind it that determined its ultimate strength.
Who cares if it was an Origin King’s Soul Skill? When he became stronger in the future, Yang Kai was confident he could create his own powerful Soul Skills.
But the benefits he was obtaining right now would affect his very foundation! Although the Soul Skill realized by this stern-faced man was obviously incredible, compared with the benefits Yang Kai was reaping, it was still worth less.
While he ate meat, others drank the soup. Everyone had their own opportunities. Being envious was useless.
“How did the colour of the pool become so pale?” Someone suddenly exclaimed, drawing everyone’s attention back to reality.
When everyone looked down, their complexions became pale. Only about an incense stick worth of time had passed since they entered the pool, but the golden liquid had already become very dim, with only a tinge of golden light still flowing through it. The pool water was no longer even opaque and one could clearly see its bottom with their eyes and penetrated it with their Divine Sense.
The thick and opaque golden light in the pool water had now grown incredibly dim. Everyone rushed to try and absorb this power but discovered that the potency of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water contained in the pool had also become weak.
Everyone became shocked and angered.
“It’s him!” Qu Chang Feng ground his teeth and glared at the stern-faced man, unable to stop himself from muttering.
Suddenly, several dozen pairs of eyes landed on the stern-faced man, all of them flashing a deep sense of dissatisfaction. Yang Kai also began gritting his teeth, as if his benefits were being snatched away, all while suppressing the attraction of the Soul Warming Lotus again.
In this short period of time, almost ninety percent of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water’s efficacies had been drawn into his Knowledge Sea and subsequently absorbed by the Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus. Half of the remaining ten percent was absorbed by everyone before then while five percent now was left in the pool.
It wasn’t that Yang Kai didn’t want to continue absorbing this last bit of efficacy, but the cultivators around him had now become extremely disgruntled and vigilant. If he continued to do as he had just now, there was a chance someone would notice and at that time, he wouldn’t be able to avoid becoming a target of criticism.
Instead, Yang Kai allowed the stern-faced man to carry this black pot for him. In any case, not only was this man’s personal strength tyrannical, but the power behind him was also extraordinary, so even if everyone here was angry, none would dare try to make trouble for him.
Sure enough, although the more than thirty cultivators looked like they were anxious to kill this man, no one took any aggressive action, not even Qu Chang Feng.
After a moment, everyone closed their eyes again and raced against each other to absorb the remaining efficacies of in the pool of Soul Cleansing Divine Water.
Now that there was only a tiny bit left, if they didn’t compete for it, it would only end up in other’s grasp.
As for the stern-faced man, he seemed to have reached a critical point in his epiphany and was completely unaware of what was happening around him, not even realizing he was being made to carry this huge black pot for Yang Kai. Immersed in his comprehension of the Origin King Realm master’s Soul Skill, the last remnants of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water’s efficacies continued flowing towards him madly.
About a day later, the thirty or so cultivators sitting cross-legged in the pool all began opening their eyes and, while a look of pleasant surprise flashed across many of their faces, there was far more regret and indignation than happiness.
Everyone who had been soaking here had their Soul cultivation greatly improved. In one day, the growth of their Spiritual Energy was equivalent to several years of painstaking cultivation.
On top of that, after being baptized by the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, some cultivators, who had received wounds on their Souls many years ago had the lingering effects washed away. Now, everyone found it easier to manipulate and condense their Spiritual Energy than ever before.
Having obtained some fundamental benefits, everyone was quite happy. A comprehensive enhancement of their Soul also meant that it would be easier for them to cultivate their Spiritual Energy in the future.
All these changes occurred after just one day, so what would have happened if they had been able to soak in this pool for longer?
If not for someone occupying the vast majority of the benefits here, all of them would have been able to soak in this pool for at least ten days here. How much would their Soul cultivation improve after ten days? No one dared to imagine it.
Everyone’s eyes landed on the stern-faced man again, and there was clear hostility in their gazes.
At this moment, the stern-faced man had finished comprehending the Soul Skill which belonged to the fallen Origin King Realm master and his expression for once showed a hint of satisfaction, but when he discovered that everyone was glaring towards him angrily, he suddenly found himself at a loss, wondering what he had done to incite everyone’s wrath.
But soon, he determined that this hostility was simply the result of jealousy. Although the effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water had disappeared, causing him some shock, when he remembered the rapid growth of his Soul, he somewhat understood what had happened.
Did he absorb a greater part of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water’s effects, causing everyone to become angry with him?
The stern-faced man wasn’t certain about the situation, but in the end, he also didn’t care, so he just coldly snorted, stood up, leapt out of the pool, dried himself with his Saint Qi, then walked off without so much as a single glance back.
The greatest benefits of this place were gone, so naturally, he didn’t want to remain here under the hostile glares of the crowd.
The remaining thirty people exchanged looks of blank dismay, seemingly not having expected this person to act so aloof.
“I’ll let him get away with it this time!” Qu Chang Feng ground his teeth resentfully before slamming his fist on the edge of the pool with an ominous expression.
No one else dared to be wordy, and after a short while, they too stood up from the pool dispiritedly and left.
After leaving the water, some turned back and stared greedily at this spirit liquid.
If it had been under any other circumstances, everyone would have been ecstatic to have encountered such a large pool of rich spirit liquid; after all, this liquid was also a rare treasure. It had taken many years to form and contained an even higher concentration of Saint Qi than High-Rank Saint Crystals, so whether it was used for cultivation or restoration, it was an ideal resource.
However, after experiencing the magical effects of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, this spirit liquid suddenly seemed a bit mediocre. It was just the leftovers with no special Soul purifying benefits.
Even so, not gathering this treasure before their eyes would be ridiculous, causing the mood in the cavern to become a bit tense.
“Young Master Qu, how should we distribute this spirit liquid?” The beautiful young woman looked at Qu Chang Feng carefully and asked for his opinion, a hint of sorrow colouring her charming face as she said, “Our small forces don’t have great industries, so while others may not put this pool of spirit liquid in their eyes, to us it is still a good treasure.”
“Yes, Young Master Qu, all of us will listen to your instructions, anyone who dares disagree we will all kill together,” Immediately, a cultivator belonging to a force that had good relationships with Heaven Battling followed up. Earlier, when he was deciding the distribution of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, Qu Chang Feng had taken care of him somewhat, so although that distribution plan had ultimately become a joke, now was still an excellent opportunity to curry favour.
Listening to these people though, Qu Chang Feng just angrily declared, “Since that’s the case, my Heaven Battling Union will take half of this spirit liquid!”
His anger had not been soothed because of the flattery coming from the crowd. Just remembering how the greatest benefits of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water had been snatched by that stern-faced man was enough to enrage Qu Chang Feng.
When everyone heard this, their faces changed slightly, with some people murmuring quietly, “Wasn’t it a quarter before?”
“What, do you have any objections?” Qu Chang Feng glared coldly at the man who spoke, clearly murderous intent flashing in his eyes.
“Young Master Qu misunderstands, this one’s Junior Brother did not mean what he said, how could we dare have any objections? Young Master Qu does not need to lower himself to deal with him.” Immediately, a man dressed in scholarly robes came forward and addressed Qu Chang Feng cautiously before turning to yell at the speaker again, “Even if you keep your mouth shut no one will mistake you for a mute! Hurry up, why haven’t you apologized to Young Master Qu yet?!”
Everyone knew that Qu Chang Feng could not be provoked at this time. He was clearly angry and was looking for an excuse to vent; only a fool would run up and give one to him.
If this scholarly man did not reprimand his Junior Brother strongly now and get him to apologize, Qu Chang Feng would begin slaughtering them. Whether Qu Chang Feng would be willing to let this matter drop with just an apology, the scholarly man didn’t know, but he had to make an effort to try to save his Junior Brother’s life.
The one who spoke just now also came to his senses at that moment, realizing he had said something he shouldn’t have and quickly stepped forward to apologize respectfully.
Qu Chang Feng coldly snorted, “I’ll let this pass only this time, the next time you dare utter such nonsense I’ll immediately take your life! So what if I want half of this spirit liquid? Even if this Young Master claims all of it do you dare to complain?”
“We wouldn’t dare!” The crowd nodded, looking incredibly awkward.
The biggest benefits had already been taken away by the stern-faced man, so if Qu Chang Feng really claimed all of this spirit liquid, they would all have nothing to gain.
“Take it!” Qu Chang Feng ordered one of the other disciples from his Sect, prompting that man to step forward and collect the liquid.
Everyone stood and waited quietly, hoping Qu Chang Feng meant what he said and would really only take half.
Qu Chang Feng’s suddenly turned his gaze towards Yang Kai, his eyes flashing a cold light.
The moment their eyes met; Yang Kai knew what Qu Chang Feng wanted to do.
This guy was still looking for somewhere to vent his anger. Everyone else was in a group of three to five, and the forces behind them weren’t weak, so slaughtering them wasn’t ideal. Instead, Qu Chang Feng had decided to target Yang Kai, someone who didn’t seem to have any background.
Grinning back at him stupidly, Yang Kai leapt backwards and rushed out of the stone cavern.
Yang Kai didn’t want to start anything with Qu Chang Feng. Although Yang Kai wasn’t afraid of him, if he were to kill Qu Chang Feng by accident, he would only provoke Heaven Battling Union. There were too many people here and unless Yang Kai killed all of them, the news would leak out.
Yang Kai didn’t want to face a behemoth like Heaven Battling Union yet.
On top of that, Qu Chang Feng’s strength was good, and Yang Kai estimated he wouldn’t be able to kill him quickly, not to mention the Origin Grade High-Rank artefact he used before was extraordinary.
Yang Kai didn’t need this spirit liquid either. It may be better than High-Rank Saint Crystals, but it wasn’t anything too precious; therefore, Yang Kai left without any hesitation.
“You’re lucky you ran quickly!” Qu Chang Feng stared for a moment, seemingly not having thought Yang Kai would act so decisively, but eventually decided not to chase after him.
This pool of spirit liquid looked quite plentiful but being divided up between eight different forces, it soon emptied.
Even the little bit of milky white crystal that had condensed at the bottom of the pool was swept away by the crowd; then, after searching the cavern and determining there were no others benefits around, everyone left, albeit somewhat reluctantly.
Outside, the crowd bid farewell to Qu Chang Feng before splitting up in different directions.
After about an incense stick worth of time, a group of three people stopped in a mountainous area ten kilometres away from the stalactite cave. These three people were from the smallest and weakest force to be represented back in the stone cavern.
Two of these three were Third-Order Saint Kings while the last was just a Second-Order Saint King.
At this moment, the Second-Order Saint King was cursing out Qu Chang Feng’s arrogance and domineering behaviour. When the Soul Cleansing Divine Water was previously being divided up, they had been assigned the smallest portion and afterwards, they had received the smallest amount of spirit liquid. The reason was simple, they had the fewest members and lowest strength.
Among the three in this group, an elderly man, who was apparently their leader, had listened to this Second Order Saint King complain the entire way and finally couldn’t help but persuade him, “Forget it, the force behind him is too powerful, not something our Flowing Cloud Valley can afford to provoke. That’s just how life is. You also know that Heaven Battling Union is like this, so why keep complaining about it?”
“I just can’t stand it,” The man was still unsettled. “Who cares about Heaven Battling Union? Qu Chang Feng thinks too highly of himself, if it weren’t for Heaven Battling Union behind him, would he be able to act so arrogantly? I say he’s not worthy of his reputation, he definitely wouldn’t be either of two Senior Brothers’ opponent if there was a fight.”
The elderly man’s expression sank as he reprimanded, “You must not speak so irresponsibly! Although Qu Chang Feng is an arrogant playboy, there’s no question about his true strength. If it weren’t, relying solely on Heaven Battling Union’s authority, how could his name be known across all of Shadowed Star? You’ve heard of Fang Tian Zhong from Thunder Typhoon Sect, haven’t you? I heard that he and Qu Chang Feng have fought no less than ten times, but each time their battle would end in a tie. Since he can fight Fang Tian Zhong to a draw, your Senior Brother and I are definitely not his opponents. You must never despise those who have great reputations. Since they can become famous, they definitely have corresponding strength.”
“Even Fang Tian Zhong can’t beat him?” The Junior Brother was startled as he realized he had been greatly underestimating Qu Chang Feng’s ability.
“Indeed, that’s why each time the two of them meet, they are always at each other’s throats. Your Senior Brother Lu Ye knows this clearly.” When the elderly man spoke, he glanced over at the third person.
“Why would Senior Brother Lu Ye know about such matters?”
The elderly man explained, “Because once, while he was out wandering, your Senior Brother Lu Ye came across the two of them fighting. Junior Brother Lu Ye, tell him about the situation at that time so he knows not to belittle the world’s heroes in the future and lose his life without realizing why.”
At that moment, the Second Order Saint King turned a curious look towards the Senior Brother named Lu Ye.
However, Lu Ye’s brow was currently deeply wrinkled and seemed to be thinking deeply about something, his expression cloudy, as if he hadn’t heard the words of the elderly man.
“Junior Brother Lu, what’s on your mind?” The elderly man asked suspiciously. Since coming out of the stone cavern, Lu Ye seemed as if he had been lost in thought, unaware of the outside world, and even until now he had not recovered.
“Heh heh…” Lu Ye suddenly laughed lowly. They didn’t know why, but when this laughter reached their ears, the elderly man and the Second Order Saint King cultivator couldn’t help shivering as goosebumps formed on their skin.
The elderly man looked startled and thought that something had happened to Lu Ye in the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, hurriedly asking, “Junior Brother Lu, are you all right?”
“Me? Of course I’m fine, I’m very good, hahaha! I’m better than ever before!” As he spoke these words, Lu Ye’s eyes suddenly flashed an eerie green light. Lu Ye’s originally gentle face also distorted and became extremely fierce at that moment and in the next instant, his Saint Qi surged as he stuck out his hand and plunged it directly into the chest of that Second Order Saint King cultivator.
How could that cultivator think that his Senior Brother Lu Ye, who was usually kind and courteous, would suddenly try to kill him? Only after he felt the pain in his chest and looked down did he see and realize that Lu Ye’s hand had been inserted into his heart.
After spasming slightly, this man saw Lu Ye withdraw his hand from his chest, blood dripping from his fingers as his still-beating heart rested in his palm.
[Is that my heart?] Such a thought flickered across this cultivator’s mind with a trace of doubt before he fell backwards, the large hole in his chest spurting out a lot of blood.
“Lu Ye, what are you doing!?” The elderly man’s complexion changed greatly. His fellow Sect Brother had killed one of their juniors right before his eyes, never had he imagined he would witness such a scene.
As he angrily shouted, the elderly man condensed his Saint Qi and prepared to attack this murderer.
But how could he have guessed that a spike of Spiritual Energy would suddenly burst into his mind and instantly break through his Knowledge Sea’s defences, causing his consciousness to shake?
The elderly man groaned as his Knowledge Sea received serious damage in that instant, the Saint Qi he had just gathered dissipating without a trace.
Immediately, this old man saw Lu Ye maliciously grin towards him, the green fluorescence in his eyes becoming both brighter and stranger.
“You’re not…” The elderly man opened his mouth to exclaim, but before he could finish his sentence, his head was severed from his body by Lu Ye’s hand. Blood splashed out from the headless corpse and soon covered the surrounding several meter radius.
Lu Ye stood firm, flicking the blood from his hand before coldly snorting and declaring, “Of course I’m not!”
Even if he seemingly easily killed two Saint King Realm cultivators, Lu Ye still showed a look of dissatisfaction at this moment. This body’s aptitude was good, and quite suitable to cultivate his Secret Art, but his realm was simply too weak; compared to his peak, he was currently as vulnerable as an ant.
However, Lu Ye was still satisfied because he had finally managed to escape from that damned place. How many years had it been? Five thousand? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand?
He no longer remembered as it had been far too long. If no one had found that stone cavern for another thousand years, his Soul may really have disappeared from this world.
In order to break through some of the barriers surrounding that cavern so that someone could discover it, he had even shaved off portions of his Soul’s essence; if he hadn’t done so though, that stone cavern may have remained hidden forever. Fortunately, all his efforts had been worth it. Someone had really discovered that place, fulfilling the wish he had for so many aeons.
Lu Ye’s complexion turned pale for a moment, but he quickly suppressed that. Using such a powerful Soul Attack with this body had put a heavy load on him; worse, he had not yet completely adapted to this body he had recently seized.
It seemed he wouldn’t be able to use any other powerful techniques for a while.
Looking up and seeing the red hue of the Flame Area blotting out the sky, Lu Ye sneered, “The Three Suns Flame Rings! How much area does this take up?”
After saying such inexplicable words, he searched the Space Ring of the elderly man and the Second Order Saint King before burning their bodies, turning around, and running back towards the stalactite cave.
It didn’t take him long to return.
The stone cavern was now empty, and the pool of water had been scraped dry. Even the skeleton which was sitting nearby had been attacked by someone before they left, scattering its bones across the ground.
Seeing this scene, Lu Ye’s eyes flashed in annoyance before walking over to the scattered bones, bending down, and carefully arranging them, picking them up, and depositing them into his Space Ring.
While he did this, he wore a complicated expression filled with both sadness and reminiscence.
After collecting the bones, he walked into the empty pool and stood there for a while to think before tracing an irregular path at a specific pace. Every time he took a step, he would pour a certain amount of Saint Qi into the ground from his feet. Lu Ye’s expression was extremely serious, as if he was completing some extremely important task.
After walking for about a cup of tea worth of time, a light of anticipation gradually appeared in Lu Ye’s eyes.
Soon, he took one final step while pouring out just the right amount of Saint Qi.
*Kacha…*
At the center of the bottom of the pool, a gap suddenly split open revealing a hidden compartment.
Seeing this, Lu Ye smiled happily and quickly stepped forward, picked up a Space Ring which was hidden in this compartment, placed it on his hand, then breathed a sigh of relief.
With this ring, he could easily make a comeback.
The only thing that made him a bit annoyed was that his most important treasure had been taken away by that First-Order Saint King. The power flowing through that boy’s body, those black flames, was too strange. When he had previously entered that kid’s body to try to seize it, those black flames had nearly incinerated his Soul!
He had never seen a black flame like that before, one that seemed to blend both extreme heat and cold, good and evil. Its existence was an extreme contradiction in and of itself.
Lu Ye panicked at that time, and if he had remained inside that body for just three more breaths, he didn’t doubt his Soul would have been completely burnt into slag.
It was such a good body too. Being unable to seize that body inevitably made Lu Ye somewhat regretful.
“How could I allow you to also carry off my property?” Lu Ye sneered before releasing his Divine Sense. He firmly believed that even if Yang Kai took that thing and hid it in his Space Ring, he would easily be able to sense it.
Because that thing was his.
However, a moment later, Lu Ye couldn’t help feeling shocked because, no matter how he tried, he couldn’t sense that thing’s aura, as if it had disappeared into thin air.
“Impossible!” Lu Ye roared, his face twisted hysterically. He simply couldn’t believe it. Since that thing’s aura had disappeared, the only possibility was that kid had managed to refine it.
But that kid was just a trivial First-Order Saint King; even if he possessed incredible talent and skill, trying to fuse with that thing would only result in his immediate violent death!
That treasure was the most important thing for Lu Ye. As long as he had that, he could set off a new reign of terror throughout the entire Star Field, so now that it had disappeared, how could he not be infuriated? Without it, if Lu Ye wanted to restore his Soul cultivation, it would take him at least two or three thousand years.
At this point, Yang Kai was fifty kilometres away from the stalactite cave.
When he noticed Qu Chang Feng’s murderous intent, he had immediately left there, but now, without any specific goal in mind, he was just moving about at will.
When the Flowing Flame Sand Field first opened, his plan was to plunder the Treasure Area, but now that he had arrived, he felt deeply disappointed by the spirit grasses and spirit medicines produced here.
Besides the dozen or so stalks of Emerald Silk Grass, Yang Kai didn’t have any other harvests worth mentioning. Everything else he picked up was available in the outside world, and although they weren’t cheap, he was not short of money right now, so there was no need for him to waste time collecting them.
His biggest gain was naturally the benefits he obtained in the stalactite cave.
As his Soul was already far stronger than other cultivators in his realm, Yang Kai hadn’t personally benefitted much from the efficacies of the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, his Spiritual Energy only showing some slight improvements. However, the nourishment his Soul Warming Lotus had obtained was difficult to describe and more than made up for it.
After the Soul Warming Lotus absorbed so much of the golden energy, its six-coloured light kept flickering, and it seemed that if it were allowed to swallow even a bit more, it would evolve.
This sight made Yang Kai quite depressed. He knew how difficult it was for the Soul Warming Lotus to continue evolving.
When he first obtained this unparalleled treasure, the Soul Warming Lotus was only five-coloured, but after taking so many pills that enhanced Spiritual Energy, it didn’t show any signs of change. Only after Yang Kai consumed a Saint Grade High-Rank pill that had formed Pill Clouds and was several thousand years old did the Soul Warming Lotus evolve from five-coloured to six-coloured.
Previously, Yang Kai had suspected that trying to make it evolve into its final seven coloured form was all but hopeless and it had become a goal he would be satisfied completing before his life ended.
But now, this seemingly impossible goal actually seemed to be within his reach, both exciting and depressing him greatly.
Yang Kai was already contemplating about refine some pills specifically meant for Soul cultivation to see if they could help the Soul Warming Lotus evolve after the Flowing Flame Sand Field closes.
How much benefit he could obtain from wantonly taking such pills didn’t matter, as long as they could help the Soul Warming Lotus, even if he had to spend an enormous amount of Saint Crystals and waste numerous pills, it would be worth it.
Letting his imagination run wild for a moment, Yang Kai’s mood lifted significantly.
He was looking forward to what kind of benefit the Soul Warming Lotus would bring him in its final form. Before, when his strength had been low, although he could feel the effects of the Soul Warming Lotus somewhat, he wasn’t able to understand its benefits thoroughly, but as his realm had improved, Yang Kai became increasingly aware of the importance of the Soul Warming Lotus.
He had never deliberately cultivated his Soul, but his Divine Sense and Spiritual Energy were both far stronger than cultivators in his own realm. Eighty percent of the credit for this was owed to the Soul Warming Lotus while the rest was thanks to the Demon Eye of Annihilation.
Without his Demon Eye of Annihilation, Yang Kai wouldn’t have been able to swallow others’ perceptions of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao so smoothly, nor would he have been able to continue cultivating without any bottlenecks or obstacles or allow his Soul cultivation to far exceed his Saint Qi cultivation.
Putting aside these thoughts for a while, Yang Kai next took a certain object out of his Space Ring.
This thing was the unknown object he had found in the pool. At the time, Yang Kai wasn’t able to investigate it and simply stuffed it into his Space Ring. It was only now that he was able to examine it. Taking a look, Yang Kai discovered that it was actually a glittering, translucent cube about the size of an egg.
It seemed to be crafted from the finest jade.
However, aside from being pretty, there didn’t seem to be anything special about it. When Yang Kai touched it in the pool, it had first felt slightly warm, and then a cold energy had leaked out of it and poured into his body.
Now though it seemed completely ordinary; Yang Kai also didn’t feel any energy inside of it. Frowning as he observed this cube, Yang Kai tried burning its surface with his Demonic Flame, but no matter how hard he tried, the cube didn’t show any signs of change at all.
This actually surprised Yang Kai quite a bit. His current Demonic Flame could even melt ordinary Origin Grade artefacts, let alone a seemingly ordinary decorative stone.
He couldn’t feel any energy fluctuations, nor could he burn it with his Demonic Flame, so Yang Kai next tried to probe it with his Divine Sense.
Who could have guessed that the moment his Divine Sense touched it, the colorless crystal cube would suddenly disappear from his hand.
At the same time, a refreshing feeling spread from his mind.
Yang Kai’s face changed slightly and he quickly sent his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea.
Inside his Knowledge Sea, Yang Kai saw the fiery red flames and brilliant ocean water roil, and the six-coloured glow of from the giant lotus island had increased in intensity manifold. In the sky above Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea, the colourless crystal cube had suddenly appeared.
Yang Kai’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
As far as he knew, Knowledge Seas were intangible, so even if one was to open up a cultivator’s skull, they wouldn’t be able to see their Knowledge Sea. Except for some special Soul type artifacts, no external object should be able to enter this ethereal ocean.
The Demon Eye of Annihilation barely counted as a of Soul type artifact, and the Soul Warming Lotus was also a Soul type treasure, so them existing inside his Knowledge Sea wasn’t a problem.
But what was this colourless crystal cube? Why had it entered his Knowledge Sea the moment his Divine Sense touched it?
However, after observing it for a moment, Yang Kai found that nothing seemed to be wrong; in fact, it wasn’t just harmless, it actually brought him an unimaginably refreshing sensation.
Yang Kai wanted to carefully examine the cube; after all, anyone who had something inexplicable enter their Knowledge Sea would need to take precautions.
But before he could take any action, the six-coloured island suddenly transformed into a six-coloured beam of light, shot out like a great rainbow, wrapped up the colourless crystal cube. Then, under Yang Kai’s dumbfounded gaze, dragged it back to the island.
The six-coloured mass of light flickered and shivered for a moment before returning to its original Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus form, the brilliant light it was emitting also returning to normal.
Yang Kai’s thoughts flashed and his Soul Avatar immediately appeared above the Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus. Looking down, as he expected, the colourless crystal cube was now quietly lying on the Six Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, surrounded in a halo of multi-coloured light.
Immediately after, the petals of that Soul Warming Lotus closed up towards its centre, clenching like a fist into a bud-like state, seemingly returning to a point before it had blossomed.
Yang Kai’s expression filled with shock as his Soul Avatar trembled excitedly.
Although he didn’t quite understand what was going on, as the owner of the Soul Warming Lotus, he was able to tell that the Soul Warming Lotus had begun its evolution into its final form!
He no longer needed to enact his plan of refining pills to nourish the Soul Warming Lotus.
And the cause of all this was that strange colourless crystal cube!
The last time the Soul Warming Lotus evolved, it hadn’t happened like this. At that time, after absorbing a massive amount of energy, its colours had gradually changed.
This time, as it evolved, it actually transformed into a flower bud. Yang Kai could almost foresee that when this flower bud fully blossomed again, it would be reborn as a full-fledged Seven Coloured Soul Warming Lotus.
Whatever that crystal cube was, it seemed to contain even more powerful energy than even the golden threads in the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, otherwise, how could it have allowed the Soul Warming Lotus to evolve in one fell swoop?
Yang Kai’s mood soared and his Soul Avatar’s face was filled with an indelible smile. The jubilant emotions he was feeling made the fiery Knowledge Sea surge about and waves dozens of meters high splashed up into the air, like a series of great volcanic eruptions.
Only after a long time was Yang Kai able to suppress his excitement and fix his eyes on the Soul Warming Lotus bud. Quickly, he discovered that brilliant light hallows were pulsing from it, spreading out across his Knowledge Sea. These pulses were very regularly, like a kind of heartbeat.
Also, with each pulse of light, Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea was experiencing some subtle changes. The fiery red flames and blue sea water became both deeper and purer, both seemingly increasing in power and intensity. The golden threads from the Soul Cleansing Divine Water Yang Kai had yet to properly refine began melting away at this moment and soon fully integrated into his Knowledge Sea, strengthening Yang Kai’s Soul and Spiritual Energy once more.
Yang Kai’s eyes lit up. The Soul Warming Lotus was still in the process of evolving, but he had already begun to reap some benefits. This only made Yang Kai more and more eager to see what would happen when it finished its evolution.
Although Yang Kai wanted to stay here for a little longer, he couldn’t help frowning, his face a bit unhappy, because the part of his consciousness he had left outside to keep watch had noticed that several people were approaching him.
With no other choice, Yang Kai could only move his consciousness from his Knowledge Sea back to his body.
After quietly releasing his Divine Sense, and discovering who it was that was approaching him, Yang Kai was somewhat stunned.
The people on their way turned out to be the same beautiful young woman who had spoken to him back at the stone cavern and her companions.
There were five people in total, all of them Second or Third-Order Saint Kings. Yang Kai wasn’t clear which force they came from, but to be able to gather together so many people so quickly, it was definitely not a small family or Sect.
Why was she following him? Could it be that since he was alone, and had a low cultivation, she thought he would be an easy target?
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed a cold light and he paid even greater attention to this group’s movements.
Throughout the entire Flowing Flame Sand Field, Divine Sense was suppressed greatly, but because Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was far more powerful than others, even with this suppression he could easily monitor other people’s movements undetected.
Yang Kai was even able to eavesdrop on this group’s conversation.
“Senior Sister Chen, why are we chasing after that guy? He’s just a First-Order Saint King. With such poor strength, letting him join us wouldn’t provide us with any benefits and would instead hinder our movements,” A burly looking youth asked with an unwilling expression on his face.
“That’s right Senior Sister Chen. That guy didn’t look very strong and probably comes from some small family force. Him even obtaining the qualifications to enter this place with such low strength must mean his family doesn’t have any stronger cultivators to send.”
“Furthermore, if you let him join us, once we find something good, we’ll have to give him a share. I don’t think it’s worth it.”
The four men and women behind this beautiful young woman didn’t understand why she wanted to recruit Yang Kai and assumed she was acting out of a sense of kindness, wanting to help him, but this was the Flowing Flame Sand Field. In this place, there was a crisis around every corner, and if one wasn’t careful, they could easily lose their life, how could they spare any effort to take care of others?
After the four men and women finished speaking, the beautiful woman sighed lightly before asking, “You all think that his strength is low and that he has no useful skills, right?
“En, isn’t that obvious? Could it be he’s playing the pig to eat a tiger?” The burly man’s eyes narrowed slightly as he thought up a possibility.
“He shouldn’t be,” The beautiful young woman shook her head.
“Since that’s the case, why take him along?”
“Hehe, you all know he doesn’t have much skill, so why was he able to come here? Why was he able to break through the Flame Area?”
When the beautiful woman asked this, her four companions were stunned silent. All of them had experienced for themselves how unbearable the Flame Area was. At that time, the five of them had to work hard together to traverse it and arrive at the Treasure Area, so how did a weak First-Order Saint King manage to make it here all on his own?
“Senior Sister Chen, do you know why?” The four turned to the beautiful young woman curiously.
Shaking her head slightly, the beautiful woman replied, “I don’t know exactly, but I think he is a man of great destiny!”
“A man of great destiny…” The four men and women behind her all exchanged strange looks.
The beautiful woman surnamed Chen giggled as she smiled, “You may think it sounds ridiculous; but personally, I believe in such things. Some people are born blessed with good fortune while others are fated to have bad luck. This affects how many opportunities they encounter in life compared to others with similar aptitude, allowing them to develop at a different pace than their peers. Over the years, I’ve met a few people who carry such great destinies and by associating with them, I’ve been able to obtain some small benefits.”
The burly youth couldn’t help his face from twitching slightly before hesitantly asking, “Senior Sister Chen, you mean, if we allow him to come with us, we may get some unexpected benefits?”
“Exactly. If you think about it, it’s already a miracle that a First-Order Saint King was able to pass through the Flame Area all on his own. I don’t think he relied on his own strength to do that but instead was able to find a safe path to travel on all the way to the Treasure Area. If this wasn’t the case, just depending on his own cultivation, it would be impossible for him to cross the last section of the Flame Area. What he relied on should be his great luck,” The beautiful woman explained gently, and although her words weren’t enough to make her fellow Sect Brothers and Sisters believe here completely, they were still thought-provoking enough. “Of course, this alone isn’t enough to determine he carries a great destiny; however, what happened in the stone cavern just now you all saw with your own eyes.”
“In the stone cavern…” Everyone thought back for a while and naturally recalled bits and pieces of Yang Kai’s performance at that time, all of them soon feeling everything about him had been a bit strange.
“Do you remember? At that time, I thought that after Qu Chang Feng finished dividing up the Soul Cleansing Divine Water, it would be impossible for him to gain anything, so I urged him to not waste his time and leave as quickly as possible. But through a series of twists and turns, everyone ended up soaking in that pool. No matter how small the benefits he managed to obtain there, it was still far more than he should have been able to acquire. Far more than ten thousand cultivators entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field, yet only three or four thousand managed to reach the Treasure Area, but the ones who managed to obtain benefits from that stone cavern only numbered thirty. Among those thirty though, he was the only First-Order Saint King!”
“When Senior Sister Chen puts it that way, his luck really seems to be extraordinarily good,” The burly youth felt the stubble on his chin and gently nodded, seemingly thinking what this beautiful young woman had said was reasonable.
Fated luck and destiny were vague concepts, difficult to see or understand, but no matter how one looked at it, the luck of that First Order Saint King was strangely good.
“Senior Sister, there’s a saying that the night is darkest before dawn. If his destiny was all used up just now…” Another female cultivator in the group was secretly worried, there was no such thing as endless wealth or endless luck in this world.
“It doesn’t matter. It won’t hurt us to bring him along either way. If we can really find something good because of him, giving him a share isn’t a problem. If we can’t, it just means our luck was too bad to begin with,” The beautiful young woman smiled freely.
“Since Senior Sister has decided, let’s take him with us,” The burly youth saw that the beautiful young woman was insistent and didn’t raise any more objections. It was indeed as she had said, there wasn’t any loss in allowing him to join them, at worst, they would need to give him some small benefits, but as a trivial First-Order Saint King, even if they only gave the leftovers of their harvest, would he dare to complain?
If they were to encounter any danger, they would simply let him fend for himself. In any case, if it was true what Senior Sister Chen said and he was a man of great destiny, he shouldn’t die easily.
As soon as the burly youth agreed, everyone stopped talking and simply followed the beautiful young woman’s lead.
Yang Kai took back his Divine Sense and wore a strange look upon his face.
A man of great destiny? He couldn’t help chuckling to himself.
Being able to find that stone cavern indeed had a little bit to do with luck, but it was more so because Yang Kai had confidence in his own abilities. He wasn’t afraid of Qu Chang Feng in the first place, so he had stuck around, if it had another First-Order Saint King, they would likely have left at the first chance they could without obtaining any benefits at all.
As for crossing the Flame Area… did that even count as difficult? What did that have to do with luck?
Now that he had figured out their intentions though, the hostility on Yang Kai’s face dispersed. They didn’t have any malicious intent and could even be considered good-natured.
However, that didn’t mean Yang Kai was willing to act together with this group. While they felt he would only be a hindrance, Yang Kai also felt the same about them. Moving on his own was both easier and more convenient for Yang Kai, on top of which, anything he found belonged solely to him.
The beautiful young woman and her group weren’t far from Yang Kai; perhaps they had begun chasing after him immediately after the spirit liquid had been divided up. As such, it wasn’t long before the group of five appeared in Yang Kai’s field of vision.
In order to avoid Yang Kai’s misunderstanding their intentions, when they were still quite far away, the beautiful young woman surnamed Chen shouted enthusiastically, “Little brother!”
Pretending he had only just discovered them, Yang Kai put on a look of vigilance as he assumed a defensive stance.
“Little brother doesn’t need to be startled!” The beautiful young woman seemed to have expected this and flashed a charming yet kind smile, her eyes crystal clear as she said in as genuine a tone as possible, “We have no malicious intent.”
Saying so, she led the other four behind her over towards Yang Kai quickly.
After they closed the gap between them, Yang Kai asked flatly, “What intentions do you have then?”
“Hehe, it’s nothing much, we just saw that little brother was all alone, so we wanted to ask you a few questions,” The beautiful woman replied with a smile, “Did you come here alone?”
“That’s right,” Yang Kai nodded slightly.
“Impressive,” The beautiful woman remarked enthusiastically in a crisp and clear voice, nodding her head in approval. According to her previous conjectures, Yang Kai should be from a small family that had sent at most three disciples into the Flowing Flame Sand. Field’. The other two probably hadn’t been able to cross the Flame Area, but Yang Kai had actually managed to reach the second layer, it was an amazing accomplishment.
“Girl, if you have something to say, just say it.” Since he knew their purpose, Yang Kai was disinclined to waste time with them and was just waiting for this young woman to say it out loud so he could refuse.
“Your temper isn’t small!” The burly youth couldn’t help smirking. In his opinion, Senior Sister Chen’s willingness to accept him into their group was also a direct manifestation of his so-called ‘great destiny’, but he hadn’t expected this kid to act so rudely in return.
“Girl…” The beautiful young woman heard Yang Kai call her this and couldn’t help smiling. She hadn’t heard anyone call her like this for a long time, so she kindly explained, “Alright. We’re from the Clear Sky Sect…”
After reporting her Sect, the beautiful young woman looked at Yang Kai elegantly, seemingly believing her Sect’s strength wasn’t bad and should have some impact on him, but to her surprise, Yang Kai remained completely indifferent, making her feel somewhat embarrassed. Lightly coughing, she quickly continued, “My name is Chen Shi Tao and these are my Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters. Seeing how you are all alone here, Little Brother might not be aware of the dangers on this Treasure Area, yes? Not only are there many Monster Beasts, but there are also many inexplicable arrays and traps. It’s dangerous for someone with cultivation like yours to wander here all by yourself, if you’re not careful, it’s possible you might even die.”
At this point, according to the expectations of the beautiful woman, the other party should become panic-stricken and fearful, then she would say a few words of comfort before smoothly recruiting him into her team, but she hadn’t anticipated that Yang Kai would still wear a dull, uninterested look upon his face.
Chen Shi Tao groaned to herself, even more thinking that this guy came from a very small family and was thus completely ignorant about the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
With no other recourse, she could only get straight to the point, “If you want, you might as well act together with us. Although the five of us aren’t the strongest around, it’s still better to work together as a group than take risks all on your own. Of course, if we find something good, we won’t treat you unjustly. Outside, my Clear Sky Sect’s disciples have always maintained an upright and honourable reputation, never using our strength to bully others. Is little brother interested?”
Outright rejecting her wasn’t a good idea, so Yang Kai pretended to think it over for a moment but just as he was about to decline, his brow furrowed, and he turned towards a certain direction.
Not far away, in the direction he was staring, a fiery red light was rapidly approaching, and a moment later is zipped right past their group.
[A Flowing Flame Flying Fire?] Yang Kai’s first thought was that this thing was another Flowing Flame Flying Fire.
But soon, he thought otherwise, because this fiery red light wasn’t the same as the Flowing Flame Flying Fire he had seen before. Although its speed wasn’t slow, it definitely wasn’t as fast as that Flowing Flame Flying Fire. Yang Kai Divine Sense was even able to catch a trace of it.
What’s more, this was the Treasure Area, how could there be Flowing Flame Flying Fires here?
Wei Gu Chang had said that Flowing Flame Flying Fires only existed in the Flame Area and it was impossible to see them in the Treasure Area.
At the same time, Yang Kai discovered this fiery red light, Chen Shi Tao’s group also took notice of it.
The burly youth stared in the direction the red light disappeared, thought about it for a moment, then quickly exclaimed, “A World Spirit Treasure?”
The others in Chen Shi Tao’s group also changed countenance upon hearing this.
Yang Kai had also concluded that it was a World Spirit Treasure, but as to what kind it was, he couldn’t tell. All he knew was that a moment ago, when that red light flashed in front of him, Yang Kai had clearly noticed a trace of vitality from it, so what else besides a World Spirit Treasure could it be?
Before Yang Kai could start chasing it, from the direction the red light flew, a figure came rushing over.
“Oh?” Yang Kai couldn’t help grinning when he saw this man’s appearance and stayed in place to wait for his arrival.
The man quickly arrived in front of the crowd with a vigilant look upon his face; after all, he was chasing after a treasure when suddenly six people appeared in his path. This man was feeling quite anxious, but when he saw that one of these six people was actually Yang Kai, he immediately relaxed and walked over.
“Foreign Elder Chang!” Yang Kai hurriedly greeted him. The one who had come was none other than Chang Qi of Hai Ke Family.
“Yang Kai, you’re here too,” Chang Qi said excitedly, laughing happily as if he had just reunited with a long-separated family member.
Yang Kai being able to reach the Treasure Area wasn’t a surprise to Chang Qi. Others might now know of Yang Kai’s strength, but Chang Qi was very clear about it. Yang Kai had fought and killed several Third-Order Saint Kings, a spectacle Chang Qi had seen from beginning to end, if such a person couldn’t break through the Flame Area, it would be too strange.
Chang Qi was happy that the two of them had a chance to meet here.
“Where’s Foreign Elder Hao?” Yang Kai asked as he looked behind him but didn’t see any trace of Hao An.
“Old Hao didn’t come with me. In fact, we haven’t met after we came in, but don’t worry. Although Old Hao isn’t young anymore, crossing the first layer Flame Area is still within his ability,” Chang Qi said with a smile, only now turning his attention to Chen Shi Tao and her group and asking, “These are…”
“We are disciples from Clear Sky Sect,” Chen Shi Tao smiled, thinking that this old man should be a cultivator from the same family as this young man. It seems that they really came from a small family, otherwise they wouldn’t have sent someone so old like Chang Qi.
“Clear Sky Sect!” Unlike Yang Kai, when Chang Qi heard these three words his face immediately became dignified, quickly cupping his fists and saying, “So Young Lady and her companions are from Clear Sky Sect, forgive my disrespect!”
He then turned a curious look towards Yang Kai, unable to figure out how he was related to these Clear Sky Sect disciples. Clear Sky Sect’s strength wasn’t any lower than Shadow Moon Hall’s, and although they had not managed to produce true genius disciples in recent years, their foundation, accumulated inheritance, and reputation were still highly regarded.
So when he heard Chen Shi Tao say that she was from Clear Sky Sect, of course he didn’t dare show any neglect.
This was the kind of response a person from a small family should have when they heard the name Clear Sky Sect… Chen Shi Tao secretly thought that the embarrassment she felt from Yang Kai’s indifferent response had suddenly been swept away.
“Foreign Elder Chang, were you chasing that World Spirit Treasure?” Yang Kai hurriedly asked.
“Right!” Chang Qi palmed his fist, his face full of annoyance, “That thing is too slippery. Originally, I thought it was just an ordinary little snake, but when I approached it, it suddenly transformed into a flaming light and flew off. I never expected to see anything capable of flying in this Flowing Flame Sand Field.”
Everyone was dumbstruck when they heard him say this.
That World Spirit Treasure had passed by them too quickly and brought them too much excitement, completely making them forgot that the World Principles here restrained all forms of flight. Now thinking about it, just that along was incredible enough.
That treasure was surely something extraordinary! When they thought of this, the eyes of all five Clear Sky Sect disciples immediately became hot.
“Quickly follow it!” Yang Kai said before rushing off in the direction the red light disappeared. Chang Qi hesitated for a moment before hurriedly following after Yang Kai.
“Senior Sister Chen…” The burly youth licked his dry lips and murmured, “It seems he really is a man of great destiny!”
Chen Shi Tao had said that this young man possessed extraordinary luck due to his great destiny, but all of them had been quite doubtful about this. But the moment they met him, a precious World Spirit Treasure just happened to pass by! Such things were incredibly rare and every one of them was extremely valuable. With this reality shoved in front of them, they couldn’t help believing Chen Shi Tao, all of them directing looks full of admiration towards her, feeling she had far greater vision than them.
“What should we do?” Asked another female cultivator.
“Follow them!” Chen Shi Tao kicked off the ground, causing her tender body to shoot forward. The other four also hurriedly used their movement skills and pushed their Saint Qi to bring their speed up to its limit.
“Yang Kai, those disciples from Clear Sky Sect…” Chang Qi glanced back anxiously at the five people following them.
“I’m not familiar with them, we just happened to meet here,” Yang Kai replied with a smile, “But you don’t need to care about them, if we can catch up to that World Spirit Treasure, go ahead and seize it. It belongs to whoever can capture it. If they dare try to rob us, we don’t need to be polite!”
“Sounds good. Since you’ve said so, I feel relieved,” Chang Qi visibly relaxed and excitement returned to his face.
Chang Qi originally came to the Flowing Flame Sand Field to look for opportunities. Now an opportunity was right in front of him, so let alone disciples of Clear Sky Sect, even if cultivators from Heaven Battling Union or Thunder Typhoon Sect were in front of him, he would still have to fight. After living for so many years, if he died in pursuit of the Martial Dao, he wouldn’t have died in vain.
Although the two groups both pushed their speed to the limit, the inability to fly here caused them a great deal of delay. Because Yang Kai had waited for Chang Qi for a few minutes, the flying red light had left the range of their Divine Senses, so they had no choice but to follow the remnants of its vitality and aura to track it.
While they couldn’t sense its position exactly with this method of tacking, they were at least certain they were going the right way.
“Foreign Elder Chang, do you know what kind of World Spirit Treasure that thing is?” Yang Kai took a moment to ask as they ran forward.
“I wasn’t able to see it clearly, all I know is that it looked like a little green snake and when I first discovered it, it was resting atop a Soul Nourishing Flower. I actually only noticed it because I was trying to collect that Soul Nourishing Flower.”
“A Soul Nourishing Flower?” Yang Kai couldn’t help frowning. As an Alchemist, Yang Kai naturally knew what about this spirit flower. The Soul Nourishing Flower was a Saint King Grade herb and the fragrance it gave off was able to calm one’s mood while nourishing their Soul, it was a key ingredient in the refinement of several Soul cultivation pills.
However, World Spirit Treasures were generally spirit grasses or spirit medicines to begin with, why would it need to absorb the medicinal fragrance of a Soul Nourishing Flower?
Could this snake-shaped World Spirit Treasure have already formed its own Soul and achieved sentience? However, even if that was the case, it still shouldn’t be interested in a Soul Nourishing Flower.
It was a real mystery.
While Yang Kai and Chang Qi were talking, Chen Shi Tao and her group were somewhat surprised.
Because they discovered that the speed of the First-Order Saint King Yang Kai wasn’t slower than any of them; in fact, no matter how they chased him, they couldn’t catch up.
Chen Shi Tao was the most surprised, realizing now that she didn’t completely understand this First-Order Saint King cultivator.
Not long after, Yang Kai and Chang Qi stopped at the edge of a plain.
This plain was filled with grass that was about six or seven meters tall and looked very dense, but after sweeping it with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai was surprised to find that there wasn’t a single spirit grass or spirit medicine here. It seems that this fertile plot of land was only suitable for growing weeds.
This situation was quite unusual.
The faint aura traces of the flying red light Yang Kai was following also disappeared here, but he didn’t know if it was because it was hiding or some other reason.
However, Yang Kai was certain that the snake-shaped World Spirit Treasure was here somewhere.
“Let’s split up, looking for it in all these tall weeds will probably be difficult. Pay attention to any unusual energy fluctuations, there might be something like a barrier here,” Yang Kai said lightly.
“Good.” Chang Qi nodded and immediately separated from Yang Kai.
A moment later, Chen Shi Tao and her group arrived just in time to see Yang Kai and Chang Qi disappear into the weeds. Her four Junior disciples turned their eyes to Chen Shi Tao for instructions.
“Let’s also split up and search!” Chen Shi Tao made an immediate decision; she too was interested in that World Spirit Treasure.
The five disciples from Clear Sky Sect, like Yang Kai and Chang Qi, scattered in all directions to begin their search.
Searching for something in this place really gave one a headache. Even though Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was far more powerful and could cover a much wider range than anyone else present, how could he find a World Spirit Treasure that could perfectly conceal itself in such a broad thicket?
After searching for two full hours, Yang Kai was considering whether he should give up, as he was essentially just wasting time now; however, at that moment, he suddenly noticed an energy fluctuation that came from a spot about ten kilometres away.
[Someone found something?] Yang Kai looked happy and rushed towards the signal.
After a while, Yang Kai arrived at the source of the energy fluctuation and found that the five disciples from Clear Sky Sect had already gathered and were currently standing around a hole in the ground. All of them wore excited looks as they stared curiously down this hole, but none of them dared to enter it easily.
The burly man was talking to Chen Shi Tao and, listening to what he was saying, it seemed he had accidentally felt something unusual from this place and had struck the ground, revealing this hole.
However, whether this hole led to danger or fortune was something he couldn’t tell, so he had sent up a signal for Chen Shi Tao and his fellow disciples to gather so they could discuss carefully what to do next.
When Yang Kai arrived here, the five of them glanced at him, they didn’t show any intentions to drive him off and simply continued their discussion.
A few moments later, Chang Qi also came over, apparently attracted by the energy fluctuation like Yang Kai.
“Did someone find it?” Chang Qi stared at the hole.
“I don’t know,” Yang Kai shook his head. He didn’t find anything noteworthy from this hole, but its mere existence here was intriguing, so he still felt it necessary to explore it.
But this was discovered by others first, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for Yang Kai to dive in first as it would only cause the Clear Sky Sect disciples to become hostile towards him. For now, all he could do was wait.
While Chen Shi Tao and the others were discussing what to do, they glanced over at Yang Kai from time to time, some of them shaking their heads, some of them nodding, seemingly having a dispute about something.
After Chen Shi Tao said something though, the ones who were shaking their heads could only nod in agreement.
Having reached a consensus, Chen Shi Tao walked over to Yang Kai with a smile.
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed slightly; although he didn’t understand what Chen Shi Tao wanted, he didn’t feel any malicious intent from her, so he decided to hear her out.
“Little brother, do you want to explore this cave together with this Senior?” Chen Shi Tao asked.
“You’re willing to let us join you?” Yang Kai raised his brow in surprise.
“Naturally we’re willing, although this cave was discovered by my Junior Brother, we only arrived here because we were pursuing that World Spirit Treasure together, so you have some credit in finding this cave too,” Chen Shi Tao smiled lightly.
“That can’t be all there is to it, right? What kind of conditions are you proposing,” Yang Kai smiled thoughtfully?
Chen Shi Tao was a bit startled, but quickly smiled and nodded, “Little Brother is truly an understanding person. Good, then I’ll also be straightforward. No one knows what the situation is inside this cave, there may be opportunities, or there may be danger, you also know that there are many crises hidden in this Flowing Flame Sand Field. Although this cave looks normal, who knows what lies down below, no one from my group dares to go down haphazardly…”
Yang Kai gently nodded, not interrupting as he motioned for her to continue.
Chen Shi Tao quickly said, “Little brother’s luck seems to be quite good, so I was thinking it would be best for you to explore the road first. With little brother’s luck, you should be able to avoid any big risks. Of course, you should consider this matter carefully yourself first, if you don’t want to, we won’t force you.”
It turned out they wanted to let him scout ahead! Yang Kai suddenly realized.
Naturally he was going to agree. Even if they didn’t make such a request, Yang Kai would have proposed letting him go down first himself, them inviting him to do so would have worked out better for Yang Kai.
Yang Kai didn’t say anything immediately and instead pretended to hesitate, rubbing his chin for as he put on a contemplative look for quite a while. Just as Chen Shi Tao was secretly beginning to worry about Yang Kai refusing, the latter finally said, “I can agree to explore the way, but if there are any benefits down below, how do you plan to distribute them?”
“Little brother can rest assured, we are not overbearing like Heaven Battling Union. However many benefits there are down there, we will divide equally according to our numbers. There are seven of us here in total, so whatever is down there will be divided into seven, is that acceptable?”
This distribution method seemed to favour Clear Sky Sect’s people; after all, there were many more of them, so in the end, they would obtain the bulk of the benefits, but it was actually quite fair!
After all, they were a group of five Second and Third-Order Saint Kings. If they had instead been disciples from Heaven Battling Union, forget about anything, Yang Kai and Chang Qi would only be driven away or killed on the spot. Chen Shi Tao being able to propose such an arrangement was extremely even-handed.
Naturally, those from the Clear Sky Sect didn’t know that if they really dared try to expel Yang Kai and Chang Qi, it would be them that suffered.
“What if whatever’s down there can’t be split into seven?” Yang Kai asked pointedly.
“That’s easy enough to handle. If the benefits can’t be divided into seven parts, then everyone will bid on them, the one who offers the highest price will get it. This way, if you have the money, you can obtain the treasure while everyone else will obtain some Saint Crystals. This is how I always settle such matters when outside the Sect.” Chen Shi Tao had apparently experienced similar situations more than once or twice and immediately came up with a solution that satisfied Yang Kai.
Facing such sincerity, Yang Kai naturally didn’t have any objections and immediately nodded, “Alright, then we’ll follow your plan. I’ll take the lead. I’m young and my body is strong, so I’m not afraid of any danger, so it doesn’t matter if I scout the way for everyone, but Foreign Elder Chang is old so…”
“I’ll bring up the rear. How would this old sir like to walk in front of this Young Lady?” Chen Shi Tao smiled slightly and proposed. She knew what Yang Kai was worried about and took the initiative to take a certain amount of risk upon herself as well.
“Okay.” Yang Kai nodded with satisfaction. He had to admit, this beautiful young woman called Chen Shi Tao truly knew how to handle matters. She was the kind of person who could consider the risks of a situation and the concerns of others around her very well while seeing things from multiple perspectives and making sound proposals that benefited everyone. It was no wonder the other four men and women looked to her as their leader.
This gave Yang Kai a favourable impression of her despite the short time they had interacted with one another.
He also figured that Chen Shi Tao was quite famous in Clear Sky Sect, likely a Core Disciple or character of similar status.
After the negotiations concluded successfully, Yang Kai didn’t waste any time and swiftly leapt down the hole.
This sight made Chen Shi Tao, who had wanted to speak a few words of warning to Yang Kai first, gawk in surprise. Before she could even get a word out, Yang Kai was gone.
“This…” All five of the Clear Sky Sect disciples looked around at each with cramped expressions.
All of them were more and more certain that Yang Kai was a man of great destiny. This guy acted so haphazardly and rashly, actually jumping into an unexplored cave without taking out any kind of defensive artefacts to protect himself. Even if he didn’t use any artefacts, he should have at least used his Saint Qi to protect himself, right?
However, he had simply jumped right in.
If it weren’t for him possessing great destiny, with this kind of behaviour, how could he have survived so long? He should have died many times over by now.
“Ahem, we should follow him.” Chang Qi saw the five people gawking and couldn’t help reminding them. If Yang Kai really encountered some kind of danger down below, them standing around here would not be of any help to him.
“En, follow him…” Chen Shi Tao nodded helplessly. The other four men and women from Clear Sky Sect immediately pushed their Saint Qi and jumped into the hole. After they jumped in, Chang Qi followed, with Chen Shi Tao bringing up the rear.
This hole was very deep, and after Yang Kai jumped in, he kept dropping down for quite some time at a very fast rate. This hole should have been naturally generated, but its walls were actually as smooth as jade.
Although Yang Kai didn’t use any defensive artefacts or push his Saint Qi to protect himself, his Divine Sense was pushed to its limits and if any kind of danger were to pop up, he would instantly be able to defend himself.
To his surprise though, there was no aura of danger from this hole at all. After falling for half an incense stick of time, Yang Kai estimated that he had descended at least a thousand metres or so yet he still felt perfectly safe.
Suddenly, an extremely pure energy rushed up from below, causing Yang Kai spirit to shake as he revealed a look of shock.
The richness of this energy aura was even purer and denser than the one back in the stalactite cave. Anything which could produce such a rich aura was clearly a very precious treasure.
After dropping another few hundred meters, Yang Kai finally landed on the ground and quickly stepped out to make room for the people who were following behind him. Taking out a luminous stone from his Space Ring, he then began looking around.
As soft beams of light filled his surroundings, Yang Kai was able to see he was currently in an underground cavern. There was also a crystal clear underground river flowing nearby.
The area of this cavern wasn’t too large, only a hundred meters or so in diameter, but Yang Kai could see numerous channels around him leading off in every direction.
From each of these channels, and incredibly rich World Energy aura could be felt.
As Yang Kai swept his eyes around, they brightened when they landed on a certain passageway.
From the mouth of this particular passageway, he felt the aura of the little snake-shaped World Spirit Treasure. Although this aura was very faint and was quickly dissipating, there was no doubt about its origin.
That little snake was actually hiding here.
Yang Kai didn’t rush out to find it though and instead stood still and waited.
A few moments later, the five members of Clear Sky Sect and Chang Qi arrived, and after discovering the strangeness of the cavern and the incredibly rich aura contained within it, all of them showed looks of anticipation.
“Senior Sister Chen, what is this place, what kind of good things are there?” Another female cultivator in the team couldn’t hold back her joy and hurriedly asked Chen Shi Tao.
“How am I supposed to know? Little brother, you came down first, did you find anything special?” Chen Shi Tao turned to ask Yang Kai.
“No,” Yang Kai shook his head, “After I arrived here I decided to wait for all of you.”
Chang Qi, on the other hand, frowned, seemingly remembering something, the look on his face going from anticipation to excitement.
Chen Shi Tao didn’t miss this and couldn’t help glancing over to him and asking, “Old sir, did you find something? If you have, please enlighten us.”
Chang Qi chuckled, “Young Lady is too serious. If this old man is correct, this place should be a mineral lode!”
“Mineral lode?” Chen Shi Tao and others were surprised.
“En, a Saint Crystal lode!” Chang Qi said in a solemn tone, his words causing the others present a good deal of shock. He then added, “Moreover, it should be a High-Rank one!”
“Is this place really a Saint Crystal lode?” Chen Shi Tao’s beautiful eyes flashed with deep astonishment, and the expressions of the other four men and women weren’t much better.
“This old man doesn’t dare make any guarantees, but I am at least eighty percent certain,” Chang Qi smiled lightly. “Because this old man once mined some Saint Crystals from a Saint Crystal lode owned by Shadow Moon Hall, this place is a bit familiar. And if we want to confirm my assumptions, all we need to do is head over to that tunnel over there.”
Everyone agreed with this sentiment and immediately decided to investigate. There were many passages leading out from this cavern, so taking the lead once more, Yang Kai picked a tunnel at will and walked into it.
After walking three hundred meters or so, Yang Kai came to a halt and stared at the sight in front of him. Even if he had witnessed great storms before and currently had a net worth of over a hundred million Saint Crystals, the scene before him still shocked him.
In front of him was a massive piece of completely intact Saint Crystal. This Saint Crystal had not yet been cut and was actually as big as a house, completely blocking the way forward. Judging from the colour and amount of impurities contained inside this huge Saint Crystal, plus the aura it gave off, it was easy for Yang Kai to determine this was High-Rank Saint Crystal!
This was just the edge of one tunnel, who knows how many Saint Crystals of such size were present in this place?
The sound of people pounding hearts and gulping came from behind Yang Kai.
On Shadowed Star, Saint Crystal lodes were scarce. One shouldn’t take the behaviour of the great forces at the Treasure Trove Pavilion’s auction as normal. Naturally, these Sects had massive accumulations of wealth of countless years, and with the opening of the Flowing Flame Sand Field at that time, all of them hadn’t been distressed about spending more Saint Crystals to buy themselves treasures for their disciples to equip so they could reap even greater benefits from the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
To these great forces, this was an investment; as long as these disciples could effectively make use of the things they bought, the benefits they obtained in the Flowing Flame Sand Field would more than make up for the Saint Crystals spent.
However, no matter how rich they appeared, it was an undeniable truth that Saint Crystals were scarce on the Cultivation Star.
Clear Sky Sect was also a great Sect no worse than Shadow Moon Hall, and Chen Shi Tao had heard that her Sect controlled more than a dozen large and small mineral lodes, but only two of those were High-Rank Saint Crystal lodes while the others were all Mid-Rank or Low-Rank.
Moreover, she knew that those two High-Rank lodes weren’t nearly as rich as the one she was currently standing in.
What was a true High-Rank lode? The Saint Crystal lode in front of her was! Any casually mined Saint Crystal here was High-Rank!
So when she saw this massive High-Rank Saint Crystal lying in front of her, even Chen Shi Tao felt it difficult to contain her excitement.
If they could mine this entire lode, it would definitely allow Clear Sky Sect’s financial resources to improve by several grades.
Why hadn’t anyone ever discovered such an incredible mineral lode hidden in the Flowing Flame Sand Field before?
“Do we need to come up with distribution for this too?” Yang Kai suddenly turned around and asked, pulling Chen Shi Tao out of her daze.
“No need no need! Although we haven’t checked the other channels, their situation is obviously similar to this one. Let’s split up and mine it separately. However much anyone mines, they can keep,” Chen Shi Tao waved her hand hastily.
It had only been a bit more than a month since the Flowing Flame Sand Field opened, which meant there were almost five months before it closed. If they stayed here that long and continued mining these Saint Crystals…