Ninth In the World

Di Jiu felt somewhat proud as he picked up Jian Yiwu’s ring. He had, in the past, tried all means to hide from Jian Yiwu’s murderous pursuit. Luckily, he had been in time for the opening of the Sky Screen. However, Jian Yiwu couldn’t even outlast one saber move from him.

Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force landed on Jian Yiwu’s ring. Within Jian Yiwu’s ring were millions of high-grade Spirit Stones and a pile of elixirs. Di Jiu no longer placed emphasis on such things as Spirit Stones—Huan Mingzi had helped him exchange nearly 100 million Spirit Stones and many high-level blacksmithing materials. He paid even less attention to the elixirs.

On the contrary, the high-level spirit herbs within Jian Yiwu’s ring made Di Jiu happy. Jian Yiwu’s choices clearly differed from his. The lowest level of spirit herb in the ring was level-six. In slightly over two months, there was already a big pile of spirit herbs in Jian Yiwu’s ring.

Di Jiu felt regretful. If he had met Jian Yiwu after two more months, he would have become rich.

Only after he had categorized all the spirit herbs in Jian Yiwu’s ring, put them in his Small World, and pushed the rest of the items in a corner, did he walk to the side of the tiny stream.

The Rainbow Immortal Peach was considered a top-notch spiritual object in the Cultivation World. Such a treasure would never grow just anywhere. The fact that this Rainbow Immortal Peach was actually growing beside a tiny stream meant that there might be other top-notch spiritual objects nearby.

Even though Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force was at level ten, he unfortunately didn’t manage to find anything besides that tiny stream after nearly a whole day.

The only difference was that the water in this tiny stream had some Spirit Qi. Even though the Spirit Qi could make the surrounding spirit herbs flourish, this didn’t mean that it could support the growth of the Rainbow Immortal Peach.

Di Jiu followed the stream and searched all the way upwards. However, he stopped after less than 100 feet. Although part of this stream was formed from the convergence of water flowing down from the top of the mountains, the main part of it came from a fountain source. The Spiritual Force permeated the bottom of the fountain source, where there was nothing special—there was merely underground water formed from accumulated rainwater.

This place was at the foot of a mountain. Di Jiu had scanned the surrounding area with his Spiritual Force at least a few hundred, if not 1,000, times. There were no spirit meridians or spirit quintessence around.

Even if there was something he hadn’t discovered, Di Jiu didn’t plan on wasting his time there. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly thought of something.

The reason the Spiritual Force could permeate the Small Central Planet so deeply was mainly that there were natural restrictions and Dharma Arrays everywhere on the Small Central Planet. There might even be a natural Dharma Array hidden under a person’s feet without that person ever knowing. This was why people could still find 10,000-year-old spiritual fruits on the Small Central Planet although it opened once every 100 years.

As soon as he thought of invisibility Dharma Arrays, Di Jiu took out the Floating Flame Flag.

Even his level-ten Spiritual Force couldn’t detect an invisibility Dharma Array. Only by suddenly adding an array flag to this natural Dharma Array would the perfection within be destroyed. Only then would the invisibility Dharma Array appear.

If there was a natural Dharma Array there, then his Array Dao level was still not high enough. If it had been, he would have discovered it long ago.

The Floating Flame Flag was a connate spiritual treasure. Di Jiu didn’t believe that the natural invisibility Dharma Array was of a higher grade than the array flag in his hands.

When Di Jiu threw the Floating Flame Flag, it transformed into a red beam and landed on the invisible foot of the mountain.

Then, Di Jiu was surprised to discover that his Spiritual Force could already vaguely detect the array foundation. His guess had been right, this was an invisibility Dharma Array.

Fortunately, his Spiritual Force was at level ten. Otherwise, he might not have been able to discover this invisibility Dharma Array, even though he had the Floating Flame Flag.

Now that the invisibility Dharma Array had been found, everything became easier. It didn’t matter that Di Jiu couldn’t decode the invisibility Dharma Array. He could just forcibly break it.

Di Jiu slashed with the Heavenly Aqua Saber, which boomed as he used it.

Every strike from Di Jiu’s Heavenly Aqua Saber slammed where it was loosest. After a few days, a faint cracking sound was heard and a fine crack appeared in front of Di Jiu. Without hesitation, Di Jiu struck with his saber again and the crack suddenly got bigger. With a flash of his body, Di Jiu and the Floating Flame Flag disappeared directly into the crack.

Di Jiu was stunned. There was an open-air Spirit Stone mine before him. Large uncut Spirit Stones of different grades and levels were piled together, extending very far beyond. Di Jiu didn’t manage to scan the whole area as he casually used his Spiritual Force to permeate it.

On the border of this Spirit Stone mine was a wilted fruit tree. This tree was indeed a Rainbow Immortal Peach.

As it turned out, the Rainbow Immortal Peach outside had grown from the remaining seeds of this wilted Rainbow Immortal Peach tree.

Di Jiu sighed without much joy. Compared to a Spirit Stone mine, some spirit meridians would have been better. He couldn’t dig that many Spirit Stones out. He wouldn’t allow himself to do that either.

The only advantage of cultivating here was that one wouldn’t need to worry about a lack of Spirit Qi.

Di Jiu immediately remembered what Huan Mingzi had said—when he had once gotten a lot of Geocentric Pattern Gold from the foot of the Slanted Grace Snow Mountain and left, the mountain had exploded and a Spirit Stone mine had been discovered underneath it.

From the looks of it, the reason the female cultivator with the Principal Spirit had been able to find the Slanted Grace Snow Mountain must have been because she had known that there was a Spirit Stone mine underneath it. She had known because she had also had a level-ten Spiritual Force and a Floating Flame Flag.

Now that Di Jiu had both a level-ten Spiritual Force and a Floating Flame Flag, it was his turn to discover the Spirit Stone mine.

The whole Small Central Planet was currently fighting for high-level spirit herbs. He would be a fool to hide here and dig this mine.

As Di Jiu stepped on the huge Spirit Stone mine, he had an idea. If he could move this whole mountain, he would have more than enough to help Jing Moshuang build several Galaxy Sects.

As the Galaxy Art circulated slightly, Di Jiu immediately felt an enormous Spirit Qi swarm in. Then, he could clearly feel his cultivation level increasing.

Di Jiu’s heart trembled. This feeling was much stronger than what he felt during his normal cultivation. It felt as if…

Di Jiu remembered how he had felt while going through tribulation transcendence. His favorite cultivation was during Thunder Tribulation Transcendence, because his cultivation speed was rocket-fast then. Although the way he cultivated and absorbed Spirit Qi now was a far cry from tribulation transcendence, it was still a few tiers higher than when he had only cultivated with Spirit Stones and a spirit meridian.

He had to stay here to cultivate for a period of time before leaving. No amount of spirit herbs outside could hinder Di Jiu’s plan to cultivate here right now.

After picking a place on the Spirit Stone mine, Di Jiu circulated the Galaxy Art with all his might.

The bubbling Spirit Qi, which felt like it was being evaporated by a large fire, swirled in towards Di Jiu. Di Jiu was ecstatic. He was not just happy because there was abundant Spirit Qi here, but also because he had finally understood why it was much faster to cultivate in a Spirit Stone mine rather than use Spirit Stones.

The Law in this Spirit Stone mine was actually complete. While he was absorbing the Spirit Qi of this mine, he could almost feel a tiny Spirit Origin grow bit by bit over a long period of time and become this huge Spirit Stone mine.

It felt like a lover was whispering into his ear, telling him about their past experiences.

This was a type of natural growth and Heavenly Dao growth. Thanks to this Spirit Origin and realization, Di Jiu’s cultivation improved by leaps and bounds.

The ore ash, which lost its Spirit Qi, seemed to have been absorbed automatically by the Spirit Stone mine. Di Jiu was still sitting on this boundless Spirit Stone mine.

At first, he hadn’t planned on digging. Instead, he had wanted to spend his time finding spirit herbs. However, now that Di Jiu was completely immersed in cultivating, he didn’t even remember to look for spirit herbs.

Fourth-stage Ekayāna Tripod Realm, fifth-stage Ekayāna Tripod Realm…

A year passed without Di Jiu noticing. By now, he had already attained the seventh-stage Ekayāna Tripod Realm.

The higher Di Jiu went, the longer it took him to transition to the next stage. However, the speed with which he absorbed the Spirit Qi was increasingly powerful. His galaxy meridian was a bottomless pit. Only this place could provide enough Spirit Qi for his cultivation.

Eighth-stage Ekayāna Tripod Realm, ninth-stage Ekayāna Tripod Realm…

By the time Di Jiu opened his eyes once more, he had already perfected the ninth-stage Ekayāna Tripod Realm.

He couldn’t quite believe his progress. Other people had entered the Small Central Planet and looked like crazy for spirit herbs, while he had been in seclusion for a whole two years.

In two years, he had advanced from the third-stage Ekayāna Tripod to the perfected ninth-stage Ekayāna Tripod Realm. He was lucky that he had found this place. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to enter the ninth-stage Ekayāna Tripod on the Small Central Planet.

Di Jiu stood up. Regardless of how abundant the Spirit Qi was in the Spirit Stone mine, or how complete the Law was here, he could not rely on this Spirit Stone mine to break through to the Life Tribulation Realm.

In order to do so, he would have to leave this place, find the level-eight spirit herb and try to become a level-eight Elixir King. He also had to find the Suo Fruit and refine it into a Tribulation Convergence Elixir.

Di Jiu looked back at the Spirit Stone mine under his feet. He didn’t start to dig. He couldn’t bear to, for he had almost felt like this Spirit Stone mine was alive while he had been cultivating there. If he could feel the birth of life, he could then understand the Law within.

Di Jiu had some doubts. There would come a day when this Spirit Stone mine would transform into a lone spirit body and leave this place. It wouldn’t have mattered if he hadn’t reaped any benefits. However, he had. After attaining the Life Tribulation Realm, he would just return to cultivate for a few more years before leaving. Besides, he had too many Spirit Stones. He would not dig.