Mining

Chapter 16: Mining

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

For these three days, Chen Xiao went about his usual routine, strolling through Moon-Gazing City with his gold-rimmed folding fan in hand, walking with a swaggering, pigeon-toed gait.

Seeing Chen Xiao strutting down the street, acting as overbearingly as ever with no signs of anything unusual, everyone concluded that the peerless genius in the City Lord's Mansion who had awakened an Immortal Spirit Root could certainly not be this ignorant, cultivation-less playboy.

By the third day, Cai Di, having consumed the Ten Thousand Poisons Pill and begun re-cultivating the Ten Thousand Poisons Return to Sect, had regained his cultivation base.

However, at this point, Cai Di's cultivation—which had originally been at the peak of the Integrated Body Late Stage, just a hair's breadth away from the Tribulation Transcendence Realm—had regressed to the Integrated Body Middle Stage. Everything has its pros and cons; although Cai Di had the aid of the Ten Thousand Poisons Pill to re-cultivate, his cultivation realm had still dropped by a level.

Yet, Cai Di felt no dissatisfaction. A fallen cultivation base could be built back up, and this had also eliminated his future troubles in one fell swoop. Not only did he no longer have to endure the agony of ten thousand poisons devouring his body, but he had also obtained a complete cultivation technique that could lead him all the way to the Great Vehicle Realm.

Now, he could be said to be completely and utterly devoted to Chen Xiao.

Three days later, the people of Moon-Gazing City suddenly noticed that the entourage trailing behind the city's greatest menace, Chen Xiao, had grown. In addition to the masked woman Mengmeng, there was now a man who looked to be in his forties, with a lean, gaunt frame and a slightly hunched back.

This was none other than Cai Di, who had slightly disguised his true appearance. After all, having once rampaged through the Immortal Realm and even poisoned Immortals to death, one could imagine just how many enemies he had. Thus, even after pledging his loyalty to Chen Xiao, he had to conceal his true identity.

Accompanied by Mengmeng and Cai Di, Chen Xiao sauntered out of the east gate of Moon-Gazing City. Chen Tiannan knew Cai Di's true identity, and seeing such a powerful expert following his son, he naturally set his mind at ease and recalled the men he had secretly assigned to protect Chen Xiao.

"Young Master, where are we going?"

Seeing Chen Xiao walk out of Moon-Gazing City, Mengmeng asked with some confusion.

"To collect a debt from the Nangong Clan."

Chen Xiao gave a mysterious smile.

"Young Master, the Nangong Clan... they seem far from simple." At this moment, Cai Di, who had been silent until now, spoke up.

"Oh?" Chen Xiao paused. He recalled that in his past life, when he was at the Immortal Martial Sect and wanted to request their help to avenge him by causing trouble for the Nangong Clan, the sect had not only ignored him but had even begun to treat him with cold indifference.

Chen Xiao now began to understand that this was likely all related to the Nangong Clan.

In his past life, the Chen Clan had been wiped out by the Nangong Clan. Although that had not yet happened in this lifetime, Chen Xiao knew clearly in his heart that if he did nothing, such a tragedy would sooner or later repeat itself.

Therefore, regardless of what kind of background the Nangong Clan possessed, Chen Xiao would never back down. It was either them or him.

"So what if they aren't simple? If they cross me, even if the Heavenly King himself came down, this young master would still cut him down all the same."

As he spoke, Chen Xiao snapped his flashy gold-rimmed folding fan shut. A golden light flashed in his hand, and he slapped a golden talisman directly onto his own body.

"Follow me."

He then struck two identical golden talismans onto Mengmeng and Cai Di. With a movement of his feet, Chen Xiao surged forward, covering several miles in a single breath.

"A God-Speed Talisman?!"

Cai Di was shocked. He had not expected such a powerful talisman, which had been lost for nearly a thousand years, to reappear today.

However, he did not hesitate, and together with Mengmeng, he quickly caught up to Chen Xiao.

Even a thousand years ago, when the Dao of Talismans had not yet declined, such talismans were extremely rare. Since the fall of the Talisman Treasure Golden Immortal, the Dao of Talismans had gradually withered, and many powerful talismans had been lost, including this God-Speed Talisman.

Having received the inheritance of the Talisman Treasure Immortal, Chen Xiao naturally knew how to craft all sorts of powerful talismans.

While this God-Speed Talisman was not a particularly sophisticated one—merely an auxiliary tool—it had only one function: to accelerate a cultivator's movement speed, or in other words, to facilitate travel.

Yet, for Chen Xiao, a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Realm, to use a God-Speed Talisman and achieve a speed nearly equal to the sword-flight of an Integrated Body Middle Stage expert like Cai Di, this truly gave the latter a massive shock.

Chen Xiao's internal True Essence was powerful, so crafting God-Speed Talismans was not difficult for him. Over the past few days, aside from cultivating, Chen Xiao had spent his time crafting talismans. Now, his storage ring contained thousands of them, both large and small.

Beyond those he had crafted himself, there were also some low-level talismans left behind by the Talisman Treasure Immortal—though, of course, those "low-level" talismans were heaven-defying in the eyes of the current Chen Xiao.

Moreover, with a powerful bodyguard like Cai Di by his side, Chen Xiao finally dared to let go and begin eroding the Nangong Clan step by step.

Half an hour later, the golden light around the three of them slowly dissipated; a single God-Speed Talisman only lasted for half an hour. By this time, they had already arrived several hundred miles away from Moon-Gazing City.

"This is Mingyu Mountain."

After carefully observing the terrain, Mengmeng blurted out. Mingyu Mountain was a mountain range eight hundred miles east of Moon-Gazing City, rich in resources and home to several large Heavenly Mystery Stone veins.

"Young Master, why are we here?"

These past few days, the barrier in Mengmeng's heart toward Chen Xiao had grown smaller and smaller, and she had gradually begun to open up to him.

"Mining."

Chen Xiao gave a mysterious smile. "The mineral veins in this Mingyu Mountain are the common property of Moon-Gazing City. Even our City Lord's Mansion has no right to swallow them privately."

Chen Xiao chuckled, and then three more talismans appeared in his hand.

Heaven-Concealing Talismans: powerful talismans that could isolate all spiritual fluctuations of a cultivator and possessed the ability to hide one's presence. Any cultivator below the Great Vehicle Realm would be absolutely unable to detect those hidden by the Heaven-Concealing Talisman.

Of course, these Heaven-Concealing Talismans were not crafted by Chen Xiao; his current True Essence was not enough to craft such powerful items.

Cai Di was increasingly astonished. Whether it was the Heaven-Concealing Talisman or the God-Speed Talisman from earlier, these were all talismans lost for thousands of years. He had not expected this young master before him to produce them so casually.

However, he did not hesitate and immediately merged the Heaven-Concealing Talisman into his body.

Within the Mingyu Mountain range, besides the public mines belonging to Moon-Gazing City, the various major clans in the city also had several private mines here. Of course, this was an open secret; no one exposed anyone else. Everyone mined their own ores and made their own fortunes, keeping their mouths shut.

This time, Chen Xiao intended to strike at the Nangong Clan's private mine in Mingyu Mountain. On one hand, the spiritual energy required for his Thunder Virtue Universal Transformation Heavenly Art was immense, and the Heavenly Mystery Stones he could currently pull from his Golden Immortal Kingdom were insufficient to sustain him for long; he needed more to replenish his supply. On the other hand, he wanted to cut off one of the Nangong Clan's sources of Heavenly Mystery Stones and cause them some trouble.

Since this was public property of Moon-Gazing City, the various clans were not supposed to be mining privately here, so this time, the Nangong Clan would have no choice but to swallow this bitter pill in silence.