Divine Brilliance

Zong Shou looked on for a good long while in disbelief. Was he blessed by the heavens? For him to actually have such good luck…

He was just trying to dig out the mine core of a Grade Two mind stone mine, and had actually obtained Purple Spirit Iron, and then bumped into such a treasure.

Darkness Blooming Cereus; just listening to its name, one would know that such a spirit grass needed to grow in a dark environment.

Based on what Zong Shou knew, such a spiritual grass not only needed large amounts of spiritual energy, it also couldn’t be exposed to the sun. If it came into contact with it, it would die immediately.

After it bore fruit it would need to be exposed to the air to bloom. It would only be able to live for ten breaths before withering immediately.

This item couldn’t increase cultivation nor soul power, but the seeds from this plant had a special ability which sent all spirit masters into a frenzy.

Even he was tempted by it!

His breathing couldn’t help but become thicker as Zong Shou pinched his arm once more, and only under this piercing pain was he able to keep his senses.

Although the Darkness Blooming Cereus was good, it could only be harvested after the flower bloomed. There was one day before this flower bloomed, a full day before he could get his hands on it.

Once again he controlled those stone puppets to dig down, but this time he carefully avoided the plant and went down on the sides.

As he had expected, this area was where the mine core was at. After digging for another four hours, he obtained over ten Grade Three mind stones, making him smile broadly. Their elements were different; many were water element, due to the underwater stream, next most common were earth element mind stones, which took up a small portion.

Mind stones were produced where earth energy was thick. No matter which mind stone mine it was, it would definitely have earth element mind stones.

The last and final mind stone mine core should be buried beneath this tunnel, roughly three hundred feet away. It was a full eight hundred feet below the ground.

When Zong Shou found the item, he had been digging for a total of eight hours.

This mine core was different from the mind stones. It was silver in color, like a swan egg, no different from any normal stone. However, he was able to feel the large amount of spiritual energy within it, four times that of normal mind stones.

“It actually is a metal element mine core…”

Zong Shou’s eyes once again revealed a shamed expression. This time he had actually guessed wrongly once again!

The many water and earth element mind stones dug out before made him sure that this mine core should definitely be one of those two types.

In the end it was actually the metal element, which had nothing to do with them.

“That’s right! As they say, metal gives birth to water, this place is also where earth veins are thick and also that Purple Spirit Iron ore. I am too inexperienced, which was why I got it wrong!”

Knowledge gained from reading from books and real life experiences were two different matters.

Using his spirit to feel it, this iron core didn’t give him much surprise. The metal element spiritual energy was abundant within it, but he could only deduce two relatively stronger spiritual energy veins.

The so-called mine core was no different from the Spiritual Vein Pearl.

The only difference would be that the former was formed naturally. Many spiritual veins gathered in the ground and reacted with one another, which would produce mind stone veins. The mine core was formed by many spiritual veins crashing into one another and even merging together. Each medium-sized mind stone mine could have one to many mine cores, and there was also chance that there were none at all.

As for a Spiritual Vein Pearl, that was totally manmade.

He could feel Little Gold’s reaction getting more and more intense on his left hand. Zong Shou couldn’t help but smile. This little fellow was really lucky today!

The metal element mine core left him slightly disappointed. Only water, lightning, and fire elements, crafting them into a Spiritual Vein Pearl would help him greatly.

However, these two metal element veins was not bad, either. He could directly merge them with that Grade Two metal element Spiritual Vein Pearl. After it reached Grade Four, it could barely reach the quality needed to become an external pill.

The abundance of spiritual energy here was not much worse than some spiritual lands. A large portion was because of the Darkness Blooming Cereus and that Purple Spirit Iron stone, which swallowed up a huge amount of spiritual energy. If not, this mind stone mine wouldn’t only be Grade Two and it could even be a Grade higher…

——

Taking the mine core, Zong Shou didn’t give up yet. He continued to search around, and over four hours he found twenty-plus more Grade Three mind stones. This time it was an explosion of metal element ones, a total of 17, making up a huge proportion of them.

When he sent out his mind to search around once more, he couldn’t find any traces of more mind stones, and only then did he order the stone puppets to stop.

There should be many more mind stones hidden around, but their positions were really secluded and tough to pinpoint. He wasn’t willing to spend so much effort to search for them.

His original plan was to come and go quickly, returning after a night. But in order for this Night Blooming Cereus to bloom, he still needed to wait for several hours.

Even if he used his heels to think about it, he knew what decision he had to make.

“There are still fourteen hours until it blooms. Forget it, I can have Little Gold swallow these mind stones…”

Zong Shou chose a relatively open space nearby. He ordered the three stone puppets to dig around the sides to open up the space a little, until there was sixty feet cleared all around him.

However, when Zong Shou started to arrange the spiritual formation, his head hurt. The number of Grade Three beast crystals in his bag was close to drying up. He racked his brains and added in two mind stones before barely having enough.

Mind stones naturally had extremely pure essence energy and soul energy, no less than the essence energy he got from the Lightning Phoenix. Actually Little Gold could have just directly swallowed them.

Zong Shou’s current formation wasn’t to absorb mind stones, having another use.

He looked around in satisfaction. Zong Shou threw another two metal element mind stones to the side, saying to the stunned Chuxue, “You won’t learn anything from this, go to the side and use these two mind stones. You swallowed two Human Pinnacle Pills and with the help of the mind stones, within a few days you should be able to reach the Spirit Cultivation Realm…”

“Eh? This mind stone is for me?” Chuxue grabbed the mind stone and with a dumbfounded expression asked, “How should I use this?”

She had not cultivated spiritual techniques in a long time and every day she just habitually cultivated her soul power and was unable to break through from the Soul Observing Realm. Although she had learned this mind stone absorbing method, she didn’t have a chance to come into contact with it these few years and had long forgotten about it.

Seeing that Zong Shou’s face had turned green and was really unpleasant, she gave an awkward smile and felt guilty for some reason, “Young Master, I remembered, I have some rough impression! No, I remember it clearly, how could I forget?”

Zong Shou frowned, his expression calming, “Xue’er if you don’t know just say it! I also won’t scold you. Oh right, I drew a total of three formations just now, so what did you learn? Those Runes are really common and you should have learned them before…”

He could have came alone to obtain the mine core. The reason why he made Chuxue follow around was to let her see him draw formations. In this world, there was nothing more helpful than to view high Grade spirit masters and talisman drawers, to look at their talisman drawing process to understand the true meaning of the path of the talisman.

Spirit masters, be it in the future or in the past, paid a lot of attention to legacy.

Chuxue immediately heaved a sigh of relief. However she was still doubting, looking innocently at Zong Shou, “Really? Young Master wouldn’t scold me?” Seeing Zong Shou nod, she was barely able to feel at ease, following which she blinked and asked, “Young Master, you promise you can’t scold me, promise! Xue’er forgot everything! I have learned the technique long time ago, so how can I remember? And also these talismans, they recognize me but I don’t recognize them, I forgot about them long ago…”

Zong Shou was furious, not waiting for her to finish before pinching her face, alternating between left and right, “Why are you speaking like you are right? How are you a spirit master if you don’t know about talismans? Why not learn only martial cultivation?”

Seeing her eyes turn slightly red, shining in a watery manner, her chin protruded like she wanted to say that she would just cultivate martial cultivation. What spiritual techniques and talismans, what a bother, why does she have to learn it. Zong Shou was furious and amused, adding more strength, “You dumb girl, your Battle Martial Body is not bad and you are able to reach the peak of the martial path without comprehending sword and fist theories. However, if you meet any truly overpowered people, then you would definitely be dead. If you cultivate spiritual techniques at least you can escape without running!

“You still dare to act cute to me? That’s useless, after you return copy the desolate talisman scripture a hundred times, did you hear me?!”

Was it because he was afraid of the killing intent in her eyes, or he was afraid of hurting her cheeks, after punishing her a little he let go.

Chuxue jumped up in rage, hiding to a corner. Her two small hands rubbed her faces as she cried out, “Young Master, you liar, you said you wouldn’t scold me!”

“I directly pinched your cheeks, I didn’t scold you! How did I lie?” Zong Shou smiled slightly, then his expression changed instantly as he started to recite the incantation for absorbing the mind stone.

When martial cultivators absorbed mind stones they only needed to activate their inner strength to absorb it. It was a little tougher for spirit masters, who needed to use their spiritual technique to absorb the spiritual energy from within the mind stone.

Teaching her the chants and also the talismans that she needed to use, Zong Shou was worried that the little brat didn’t get it and would waste the mind stone. He used his hands to show her many times before trusting her to begin to the side.

Zong Shou sat in the middle of that spiritual formation, ordering Little Gold to slide off his arm. For an octopus beast to swallow something was really simple, he only needed to toss over the mind stone.

In less than ten minutes, Zong Shou saw an entire mind stone get crushed by Little Gold. He didn’t waste a single thread of spiritual energy and soul power, and after absorbing it all he spat out all the dust.

It was also Grade Three, but this mind stone didn’t give him any pain or trouble.