Divine Brilliance

Although spirit stones were planted within the three stone puppets, they didn’t have minds of their own. Zong Shou could only use some of his intent to control them. To him, this was a brand new experience.

As this was the first time he was doing so, the puppets were wobbly and shaky, and fell down several times.

By the time he slowly got the hang of it and understood how to control them, an hour had already passed. They straightened their arms and stretched their legs before walking to their designated positions to start digging using their stone arms.

Although the stone puppets were a little cumbersome, they had great strength, around ten thousand kilograms of power. Every time their stone palms smacked down, they would dig out huge amounts of dirt. In just a short while they had dug a hundred feet down. When they faced stone that was hard to break through, Zong Shou used his Lightning Tooth Sword to forcibly cut through.

“This stone puppet is not bad! Spirit master’s spiritual techniques are really magical and dazzling, with so many uses and benefits…”

Unfortunately, the cost of these puppets was huge: one Grade Three beast crystal, which was a hundred thousand silver. In the Cloud World, that was the wealth of an average rich family.

Only Zong Shou, who had huge amounts of resources in the Sanlu Bank, knew that beast crystals would be useless in the future, which was why he dared to waste them like this.

Ten beast crystals, two spirit stones of the same Grade; this was a heavy price. However, the stone puppets could last for two months and they didn’t need to worry about running out of energy.

It meant that he would have three more experts comparable to nine meridian Mythic Masters!

Their digging speed was quick, and in just an hour they easily dug to the bottom.

Here was a fifty-foot high natural tunnel, and below it was a shallow stream.

The Rising Moon Lion was hiding not far away, and the outside of the hole was guarded by it.

Zong Shou didn’t hesitate, bringing the three stone puppets along as he jumped down. On the two sides of the tunnel were star-like glitters, closely placed together, all crystals.

Chuxue roughly knew Zong Shou’s intentions. Following Zong Shou, she jumped down into the stream, and was in awe as she looked around at the crystals reflecting the light.

“Young Master, are all these mind stones?” Chuxue was thinking that if they dug this all out, wouldn’t they earn a huge profit? One mind stone, even the lowest Grade was ten times that of a same Grade beast crystal.

Zong Shou couldn’t help but smile as he continued forwards. If the mind stones were so easy to find, then they wouldn’t be so expensive!

The crystals could actually be considered mind stones, but they weren’t graded and had little use. Even those spirit masters before the Soul Observing Realm disdained to use them. In other people’s eyes it might be a sizeable fortune, but in his it was just trash and a waste of time.

As he proceeded forwards, he spread out his soul power to search the tunnel.

This place was underground and although the Yin wind blew, it didn’t hurt his soul. Zong Shou usually could only stretch out his soul power to a hundred feet, now he stretched it out three hundred and didn’t find it tough, only that he was unable to go deep into the earth.

“I heard that an out of body spirit master can stretch his soul power ten feet into the dirt. A Night Wandering Realm spirit master was thrice that. When one reaches the Back to Sun Realm, one could reach a hundred feet, one thousand at the Day Wandering Realm. At that Realm, one just needs to use their mind to sweep and they would be able to find mind stones. However, that would only work in Low Grade mines. In those high Grade veins, spiritual energy would congeal and the soul power of a spirit master would find it tough to even get close…”

Zong Shou could only stretch into the dirt layer fifteen feet. At such a range, it was really tough to find a mind stone. He didn’t have high hopes when he did so.

There were many branches here and the short ten mile path had at least a dozen branches.

When he walked to a turning point, his eyes lit up. He ordered the three puppets to dig towards the side. After digging five feet at the wall, a few blue transparent crystals appeared, roughly the size of a fist.

Chuxue was slightly astonished, noticing at first glance the blue crystals were different from the other crystals on the sides of the wall.

They were shiny and transparent, the spiritual energy within it was many times that of the surrounding crystals. If one looked carefully, one could see a liquid power flowing within, containing pure Essence energy and spiritual energy. When one absorbed it, one could easily utilize it and not leave any future problems.

Chuxue was astonished for a while, unable to be certain. After a while she hesitated, “Young Master, is this a Grade Four stone?”

“Above Grade Three, but not at Grade Four! But it is already not bad!”

Zong Shou causally stashed them in the bag by his waist, totally expressionless. A Grade Three mind stone could compare to a Grade Four beast crystal. He was feeling slightly unfortunate that although he could make use of this water element mind stone, it wasn’t the one he wanted.

However, this meant that they were close to the core!

A mid-sized Grade Two mine, only where spiritual energy was the most luscious would there be Grade Three mind stones!

——

Continuing forwards, after another nine hundred feet, Zong Shou ordered the three puppets to stop.

The place where the cracks showed was at this place. Looking around here, he was unable to see the reason for the spiritual energy crack. Observing it, the spiritual energy here was still really rich and there wasn’t anything unusual.

“Was that core taken by someone else? But there are no signs of it being dug up, what’s the reason?”

Zong Shou’s brows were raised, his heart filled with questions. He drew a few talismans on the stone wall, drawing out a spiritual formation.

This time the Runes he drew were even more precise and the patterns more pure. He took out four earth element beast crystals, trying his best to choose to use pure ones and stick them above the runes.

Once he activated the spell, many cracks opened up, the thickest one stretched down, stopping halfway before spreading in all directions, stretching outwards like some kind of energy was blocking it.

Zong Shou’s eyes contracted. The effects of this Spirit Searching Technique were tested numerous times in the future. Such a situation was really unusual.

Thinking back, there were in fact similar examples…

“First there might be a treasure stopping my spell. Second is that the mind stones here exceeds Grade Three and reaches above Grade Six, but how is that possible? The last reason is that there is a beast below this layer…”

Zong Shou’s brow turned serious and he revealed a wary expression. Several talismans flew out from his sleeves and ignited along with his incantations.

An earth-yellow glow surrounded Zong Shou and Chuxue. Even the three stone puppets were covered by that glow. Their bodies seemed to have became even more burly and their strength was increased a little.

Since the Spirit Searching Technique couldn’t work, then they could only forcibly dig!

As that thought entered his mind, the Black Wave Sword charged down. Not long after the stone below was cut into pieces.

The three stone puppets moved aside the stones while being ready on guard.

At around a hundred feet down, Zong Shou squinted as he pressed his right hand onto the sheath of Lightning Tooth Sword on his left.

Once the stone puppet forcibly dig out the area, Zong Shou was dumbfounded as his eyes fixed down.

A purple stone spread out below, even his Black Wave Sword was unable to break it, flying backwards instead! His consciousness also couldn’t enter it.

Only after the stone puppets dug away the sand and dirt around it were they able to take out the stone. It was thirty feet around and only a few inches thick, with purple gold patterns on it.

Zong Shou was surprised. Using his sword to tap on it generated a metallic clashing sound.

His expression was really weird, it wasn’t a treasure, nor a Grade Six mind stone, nor any beast. It was just a metal stone that had appeared along with the mind stone mine.

Was it because he was too inexperienced, making such a blunder, wasting a dozen talismans. Luckily when Chuxue killed that Out of Body Realm spirit master, she replenished some.

“It is actually Purple Spirit Iron! This item is rare, using it to make a sword, one could make a Grade Four spiritual sword! Such a big piece is more than enough to make four or five. It is not much worse in value than a Grade Six mind stone.”

Although this item was good, Zong Shou couldn’t use it now. He had so much material, but where could he find a spirit refiner that could craft a Grade Four Spiritual Weapon?

Such a huge piece was also too difficult to move!

Sighing slightly, Zong Shou made one of the puppets carry it while continuing down.

His eyes contracted, his pupils turning into pinpoints, and he kept on blinking.

After a short while he pinched Chuxue’s face, asking curiously, “Xue’er is it painful? Are we two dreaming?”

Chuxue forcibly broke away from his hands, her eyes tearing up, looking at Zong Shou with a wronged expression. “It’s so painful! Young Master, why you bullying me and punching me for nothing? Xue’er didn’t do anything wrong…”

Zong Shou shook his head, thinking, -Good that it hurts, I really am not dreaming!-

Below them was a pure black, crystalline spiritual grass growing in the dirt beneath the Purple Spirit Iron.

Its leaves and roots were black and transparent, making one suspect whether this grass was alive or not. It also bore a flower. Numerous silken petals were tightly wrapped around it, revealing itself in front of Zong Shou.

Zong Shou sucked in a cold breath, still not daring to confirm it. A bundle of flame appeared in his hand as he observed it attentively. Be it the grass leaves or roots, and also this fire, it was exactly as mentioned in those books.

“Darkness Blooming Cereus, it actually is the Darkness Blooming Cereus…”