The Third Elder looked at Jiang Xiaobai with surprise, “How did the idea of going down this route for such a time occur to you? Have you become confused after going out twice? This is not a good sign for your cultivation. As a cultivator, one must not be obsessed with other things. Enhancing one’s own cultivation is the most important thing.”
“Yes, yes, yes, this time when I come back, I promise to focus on cultivation. The kind that doesn’t leave the house until I break through,” said Jiang Xiaobai hastily with a smile, and didn’t explain why he wanted to leave the mountain.
The Third Elder wouldn’t pry into such matters, as everyone has their own secrets.
However, the fact that Jiang Xiaobai came to inform him before descending the mountain was proof enough of Jiang Xiaobai’s respect for him. Understanding this, the Third Elder didn’t make much of it.
“Take this. This is the Qian Yuan Symbol, capable of unleashing the full force of a Golden Core cultivator. If you encounter any trouble, use it.”
Looking at the three talismans in his hand, Jiang Xiaobai felt that his efforts had not been in vain. The Third Elder seems to have accepted him.
With a look of gratitude and excitement, Jiang Xiaobai exclaimed, “Thank you, Third Elder! ”
“Hmph, don’t flatter me. I’m not taken in by such acts. Go on now, I feel annoyed just seeing you, ” the Third Elder said grumpily.
Jiang Xiaobai left with a smile.
Upon leaving the Third Elder’s residence, Jiang Xiaobai headed straight for the entrance of the Dragon Valley. With Ao Yan’s token, he could come and go from the Dragon Valley as he pleased.
After going out, Jiang Xiaobai didn’t act rashly but took a leisurely stroll for over an hour while quietly monitoring his surroundings.
After confirming that he wasn’t being watched, he buried himself in the soil using an escape method and, with his cultivation at the peak of the Yuan Infant stage fully unleashed, sped towards the east at a rapid pace.
After traversing underground for thousands of miles, Jiang Xiaobai emerged from the soil, donned a black robe, put on a black iron mask, and began to fly through the air, but without releasing his aura.
Having reached the Yuan Infant stage, he could now fly, and this was Jiang Xiaobai’s first time flying on his own, and it felt fantastic!
As he flew, a word came to Jiang Xiaobai’s mind.
Sword flight!
This was the dream of countless people—to traverse the vast sky with a sword. As a child, Jiang Xiaobai had often fantasized about doing so in his dreams.
Deciding to try, he immediately took out the post-celestial spirit treasure sword from his initial stage of cultivation space, stylishly flung it into the air, and attempted to jump onto it.
But then…
Bang!
“Damn it, why can’t I fly?”
Jiang Xiaobai sat on the ground, utterly baffled.
He had just tried to wrap his spirit power around the sword like the Third Elder who used spirit power to fly with him, but he had failed!
Scratching his head, Jiang Xiaobai got up from the ground and began to wrestle with the sword. After an hour, he gave up.
“Why the hell can they fly with me, but I can’t fly with a sword?”
Jiang Xiaobai had a ‘my life is over’ expression on his face.
Now, he could fly and even had a post-celestial spirit treasure quality sword, but he couldn’t use it to fly. It was killing him.
But time was of the essence, and Jiang Xiaobai couldn’t afford to continue wrestling with the issue. He temporarily put the sword away and sped off towards his intended destination.
Over the past two days, he had comprehensively studied the jade slip. Although it contained many fascinating stories, there were only three places in there that had caught Jiang Xiaobai’s attention. In addition, there were some places that seemed to have spirit stone veins, but the chances were slim, and he didn’t have the time to check them all out.
The area surrounding Tianyuan City was simply too large. Even if he were to fly, a round trip to the farthest place from the Dragon Valley would take at least ten days.
Jiang Xiaobai quickly arrived at the first suspicious location floating in the air. According to the jade slip, a cave that seemingly belonged to a foreign expert had appeared here in the past, and it is due to this cave that the surrounding environment became somewhat unique.
At that time, many odd people came here to search for veins, but no matter what methods they used, they failed to find them and eventually gave up.
This place was a small hill. Jiang Xiaobai landed from the sky, released his divine sense to scan the area, and carefully looked around.
Not far away, at the foot of the mountain, was the cave. However, it had been mined for more than thirty years, all valuable things had been carted away, and now it was just an empty shell.
Jiang Xiaobai ignored the cave and took out the “Meandering Veins Record,” a post-celestial spirit treasure. The moment he took out the book, it floated in the air, and its pages started flipping by themselves.
Jiang Xiaobai stared at it intently. When the pages stopped flipping at a certain page, a ray of golden light flashed. Suddenly, Jiang Xiaobai’s mind seemed to contain a real-time geographic map of the area.
This was a detailed geological map that showed what lay beneath the surface. According to the map, about a thousand meters below ground, there was a tiny red dot.
Jiang Xiaobai was immediately thrilled—had he discovered a vein that outsiders could not find with his first attempt?
Without hesitation, he put away the “Meandering Veins Record,” used his earth travelling technique to descend directly underground. Within a few seconds, he reached the location marked by the small red dot on the map.
As expected, he found an area where the spiritual aura was extremely dense, making it seem like there truly was a spirit stone vein there.
Jiang Xiaobai was beyond excited. Looking at the irregularly shaped spirit stones in front of him, he instinctively reached out to touch them.
However, the moment his hand touched a large piece of spirit stone, the stone suddenly cracked open with a click and a puff of white smoke emerged from the crack.
The smoke was a condensed spiritual energy that had become visible.
Jiang Xiaobai looked stupefied. What was going on?!
He immediately started inspecting other areas of the vein and, to his ‘delight,’ discovered that this vein had already been depleted.
What does being depleted mean?
It means that after a vein is formed, if it isn’t mined, it will slowly disperse the spiritual energy contained within its spirit stones. Over time, the spirit stones lack the necessary aura to be called spirit stones.
Once Jiang Xiaobai discovered this, he felt a sharp pain in his heart.
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According to his observations, this vein was highly enriched and could have yielded a considerable fortune. If it had been fully exploited, it would have yielded at least tens of millions of upper-level spirit stones.
What a waste, it turned out to be an exhausted mine!
“Are you messing with me?”
Jiang Xiaobai emerged from the ground and sat there, shaking his head in exasperation.
He had thought he struck gold on his first attempt, but it turned out to be a depleted mine. There were no words to describe how Jiang Xiaobai felt. “I should have been prepared for this. Let’s go check the other places..”