Profound Water Mineral Vein

Because of the earlier ambush by the Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake, Ling Pengyun feared that another demon serpent might still be hiding within the nest. He carefully extended his divine sense inside and, only after detecting no trace of life, followed the tunnel deeper in.

As for the Azure Scale Water Python's corpse, it was simply too enormous—three zhang long and as thick as a millstone. His Storage Bag was not large enough to contain it, so he planned to thoroughly scour the demon serpent's nest first, then drag the corpse away when he returned.

Strangely enough, although the entrance to the Azure Scale Water Python's nest lay at the bottom of the Underground River, once the passage extended beneath the cliff wall beside the river, it sloped upward.

After traveling upward for more than ten zhang, the water disappeared. After advancing another several dozen zhang, Ling Pengyun finally followed the passage into the demon serpent's true nest.

Ling Pengyun summoned a fireball for illumination.

The demon serpent's nest had likely been carved out by itself. It was circular in structure, with a space only a little over ten zhang wide. Though the ground was pitted and uneven, there were not many loose stones.

The instant Ling Pengyun entered the nest, his gaze turned toward the direction from which he had sensed spiritual energy earlier.

There, he saw another passage within the nest, about one zhang wide.

Now that he was closer, Ling Pengyun could sense that the spiritual energy flowing from that inner passage was exceptionally pure Water Spiritual Energy, untainted by any other Five Elements spiritual energy.

"A water-element spirit object?" Ling Pengyun said joyfully.

Ling Pengyun's main cultivation art was the water-attributed Azure Water Art. To him, water-attributed spirit objects were far better than the other four kinds of Five Elements Spirit Objects.

Unable to wait any longer, he immediately entered the passage, which was about a zhang wide.

He traveled nearly a hundred zhang deeper, yet still had not reached its end.

However, the Water Spiritual Energy around him became ever purer and denser, making Ling Pengyun increasingly eager to learn what spirit object lay beyond this passage.

After advancing another dozen or so zhang, the passage finally came to an end.

Yet there were no spirit plants here, only shattered blue iron chunks scattered across the ground.

Ling Pengyun saw that the spiritual energy which had drawn him here was being emitted by these blue iron chunks. The metal also seemed vaguely familiar to him, and his brows immediately furrowed tightly.

He picked up a blue iron chunk and examined it closely, then used the Black Iron Flying Sword to strike it. A piercing clang of colliding metal rang out.

Yet the spot struck by the flying sword had only sunk slightly inward.

That degree of hardness confirmed Ling Pengyun's suspicions.

Something capable of withstanding an attack from a First Grade Middle Rank Black Iron Sword was no ordinary object.

After pondering for several breaths, he cried out in alarm.

"Mystic Water Iron Ore!"

His eyes shifted as he summoned a ball of flame, only then discovering that the entire area around the end of the passage was covered in Mystic Water Iron Ore.

"Mystic Water Iron Mine!" Ling Pengyun cried out once more.

The corners of his mouth rose unconsciously, and he burst into laughter.

Mystic Water Iron Ore was a First Rank Middle Grade spirit ore. Even the poorest-quality Mystic Water Iron Ore, after refinement, could be purified into First Rank Middle Grade Mystic Water Iron and used to forge First Grade Middle Rank Magic Tools.

The higher-quality Mystic Water Iron Ore deeper in the mine could, after refinement, even serve as material for forging First Rank High Grade water-attributed magic tools.

Perhaps there was even Mystic Water Iron Matrix, a spirit iron that could serve as the primary material for a Second Grade Magic Tool.

Even the lowest-grade First Rank Middle Grade Mystic Water Iron Ore, once refined into Mystic Water Iron, could sell for the steep price of five Spirit Stones per jin.

If it was forged into a magic tool, its value would be even higher.

A mine meant Spirit Stones. With enough Spirit Stones, Ling Pengyun would no longer need to hesitate over the high price of Spirit Peaches, which were more effective than Yellow Sprout Pills!

"I just wonder how large this mine is?" Ling Pengyun said in delight, his eyes gleaming.

Mineral veins in the Cultivation World were generally divided into five grades. From smallest to largest, they were depleted veins, micro veins, small veins, medium veins, and large veins.

A depleted vein was not guaranteed to have any set extent. It might extend only one zhang, or even one inch. Any mineral vein within a hundred-zhang range could be called a depleted vein.

Small, medium, and large veins all had established standards and could only be called such upon reaching a certain scale.

But to Ling Pengyun personally, even if this Mystic Water Iron Mine was merely a broken vein extending only one zhang, he would still be overjoyed.

That would mean he could earn at least a hundred Spirit Stones from it.

Naturally, he hoped the mine would be as large as possible.

To uncover the answer, he merely needed to probe it with his divine sense.

Ling Pengyun spread his divine sense through the surroundings, only to discover that throughout the sixty-five zhang range it could inspect, every stone was Profound Water ore. Not a single ordinary stone could be found. This showed that the Profound Water Mineral Vein was far from small and its mineral reserves exceptionally abundant.

"At this scale, it is at least a relatively rich Micro Vein. Who knows? It may extend beyond a hundred zhang and reach the scale of a Small Vein!" Ling Pengyun said in delight.

But after only three breaths of joy, Ling Pengyun's smile faded, and he began to mutter to himself.

"With so much mineral wealth, should I keep it for myself, or report it to the lineage?"

Everyone had selfish desires. Ling Pengyun was no saint.

"If I keep it for myself, I can certainly become rich—at least several thousand Spirit Stones. But mining the Mystic Water Iron Ore within just this sixty-five-zhang area would likely take me several years alone. If I wanted to refine the raw ore into Mystic Water Iron, it would take even longer. Without spending ten full years wholly devoted to mining, this grand plan of getting rich would likely never be completed!"

"But this ten-year plan for wealth would also mean that my cultivation would not advance an inch over those ten years!"

"I already have no confidence in reaching Qi Training Completion before sixty. If I delay another ten years, then even with several thousand Spirit Stones to buy cultivation resources, I likely will have little hope of reaching Qi Training Completion before sixty!"

"But if I report it to the lineage, I will not need to participate in the mining, yet I will receive only one-tenth of this mine's profits!"

"Judging by the abundance of this mine within the limits of my divine sense, this mineral vein is highly likely to stretch for a hundred zhang!"

"A hundred-zhang Mystic Water Iron Mine is likely worth more than ten thousand Spirit Stones. To give up something like that..."

After countless predecessors and countless years of exploration in the Cultivation World, it had long been established that cultivators had the greatest chance of breaking through to Foundation Establishment before the age of sixty. After sixty, their blood and vitality declined. Unless they used spirit objects to replenish their vitality, their chances of breaking through to Foundation Establishment became exceedingly slim.

If one reported the discovery of a mineral vein to the lineage and the lineage mined it, the discoverer could receive only one-tenth of the mine's profits. This was a long-established rule of the Ling Clan.

Faced with these two difficult choices, Ling Pengyun hesitated for nearly a hundred breaths before finally deciding to report the mine to the lineage. Though he would receive less profit this way, he could obtain a considerable sum of resources without exerting himself.

At the same time, this contribution could pave the way for him to assume a high position in the lineage in the future.

Having made his decision, Ling Pengyun did not intend to linger. He collected the hundred jin of Profound Water ore scattered over the ground, intending to have a Weapon Refiner forge it into magic tools for him in the future.

Then he followed the passage back the way he had come, left the area, returned to the demon serpent's nest, and exited into the Underground River through the nest's entrance passage.

In the Underground River, Ling Pengyun looked at the enormous Azure Scale Water Python corpse by the nest entrance, his expression shifting slightly as he secretly guessed.

"This Azure Scale Water Python must have broken through to its current realm because of the dense Water Spiritual Energy contained within that Mystic Water Iron Mine. Given another few years, or perhaps more than ten years, it might have been able to use the mine's spiritual energy to cultivate to the Qi Training Late Stage!"

"It was its misfortune to encounter me, but my good fortune to encounter it!"

"Still, this demon serpent's luck was truly not bad. To find a mineral vein in such a place was indeed a tremendous stroke of fortune!"

Ling Pengyun laughed and dragged the demon serpent's corpse as he swam outward along the Underground River's current.

When he had entered the Underground River, he had traveled against the current. On his return, he traveled with it, and his speed was much faster.

In less than one incense stick, Ling Pengyun emerged from Azure Stone Lake and returned to Azure Stone Village.

He placed the demon serpent's corpse before the villagers, reassuring them that the demon serpent of Azure Stone Lake had been eliminated and that they need not worry. He left five jin of demon serpent flesh and blood as a reward for Ling Dong's act of luring the demon serpent out. After telling Ling Dong that he would be leaving for some time and ordering him to lead the Lingxiao Guard in strengthening patrols around Azure Stone Village in the coming days, he returned to Azure Stone Mountain.

As soon as he entered Azure Stone Mountain, he placed the demon serpent's corpse in the cave halfway up the mountain and summoned a great mass of ice to freeze it solid, preventing its flesh and blood from rotting while he was away.

Afterward, he went to the mountaintop and used the Cloud Rain Technique to water the six mu of Spirit Fields. He activated Azure Stone Mountain's Mountain Protection Formation with Spirit Stones, then cast the Light Body Technique and hurried toward Ling Clan Mountain, Lingxiao Mountain, intending to report the mineral vein to the clan.

He did not feel at ease using the Thousand Mile Transmission Talisman in his possession to notify the lineage. He feared that a cultivator might intercept the Message Talisman and cause news of the mineral vein to leak.

Thanks to Mengzhong... Shijie for the reward.

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