He remembered that he seemed to have seen the tree in Xie Wanran’s memories. The spiritual fruits of the tree were precious. The Tree tended to make fair deals. If anyone dared to pick the fruits without permission, he would be killed.
Xiao Jinting hesitated for a while before he took out a pail of spiritual spring water from his space ring and extended it to the tree, which stretched its branches and took the pail of water. In an instant, the water in the pail was gone.
The tree branches shook. Somehow, Xiao Jinting felt the tree was displeased.
He felt embarrassed. The spring water he took out was of the best quality, but the tree didn’t seem satisfied. It was not surprising. The tree had seen many treasures. Although his spring water worked on ordinary spiritual plants, it meant nothing to precious trees like Spirit Advancing Tree.
The tree hesitated for a long while before it reluctantly tossed a Spirit Advancing Fruit at Xiao Jinting. The fruit was the smallest, but it didn’t vary in effect.
Following that, the tree shrank into the ground and vanished.
Li Yi said in disappointment, “It’s gone.” He was thinking of making a deal with the tree.
Xiao Jinting said, “Perhaps it doesn’t think we can give it what it wants.”
The tree seemed reluctant to give him the fruit. However, Xiao Jinting might be the first customer that the tree had met for years, so it willed itself to make the deal with him. Xiao Jinting felt that the tree disappeared because it was afraid to make another bad deal if it stayed.
Xu Lingfeng looked at Xiao Jinting curiously, “Why did you exchange the spiritual water for the fruit?”
Xiao Jinting said, “I read it in a book.”
Xu Lingfeng said in surprise, “In a book?” He had read many books, but he had never learned about such a weird tree. He reckoned Xiao Jinting must be a master in his previous life.
…
Looking at the empty spot where the tree used to be, Li Yi frowned and said, “It’s too dangerous here.”
There were treasures everywhere in the secret realm, but an insect or a tree might turn out to be devils. Along the way, they had seen more than twenty dead Nascent Souls.
Xu Lingfeng said solemnly, “Our safety is more important than the treasures.”
Xiao Jinting nodded and said, “You’re right.”
They went forward for a while and heard screams. Xiao Jinting scanned ahead with his soul force and found several cultivators got dragged down by a monster in the mud and vanished.
After they traveled for a few months, they reached a safe mine, where some cultivators were digging ore.
Xu Muan said in excitement, “It’s Immortal Crystal Mine.”
They quickly started to dig for ore. The secret realm was very dangerous, which made the mining look safe
Some arrays protected the Immortal Crystal Mine. They had to break the arrays before they dug the ore.
It was difficult to dig even if they broke the arrays. There might be only a hundred or so pieces of Immortal Crystal ore in such a big mind. It sounded a lot, but there were so many cultivators. The chance of getting one was flimsy. Besides, it was difficult to dig the ore.
It took them one month to crack the powerful arrays. They were faster compared with the other cultivators.
It took them another half year to dig out twelve pieces of Immortal Crystal and over a thousand highest-grade spiritual stones.
Highest-grade spiritual stones were rare, and Xiao Jinting felt he suddenly got rich after they dug out more than a thousand of them.
With the passage of time, more cultivators swarmed into the secret realm. Although the mine was huge, it got emptied soon after hundreds of cultivators dug at it at the same time. Xiao Jinting put some of the highest-grade spiritual stones in his jade space.