The Haul

Su Ye carefully returned the longsword to the bronze box, then placed the box on a shelf in the Immortal Spirit Space. After glancing at the little wild boar, which was still unconscious, he left the space.

Su Ye looked around again and walked toward a corner of the stone wall. According to the jade slip, Daoist Qinghua had set up a small Spirit Gathering Array here.

An ordinary Spirit Gathering Array could only gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, but Daoist Qinghua was exceptionally gifted. After learning how to set one up, he improved it so that it could produce spirit stones.

Unfortunately, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth had gradually dwindled until it disappeared altogether, and the array was no longer of much use.

When he reached the stone wall, Su Ye circulated his spiritual energy and pushed against it with all his strength. The wall slowly opened.

Su Ye went inside, and the first thing he saw was an altar of moderate size, surrounded by a ring of pale purple light.

Su Ye slowly walked toward the center of the altar. Suddenly, he noticed a passage leading downward on the other side.

There were no luminous pearls or other lighting implements in the stone chamber, only a few nondescript oil lamps whose oil had long since burned out and the ring of pale purple light, so it looked rather dim inside.

Su Ye pried a luminous pearl from outside the stone chamber and held it for light as he cautiously made his way toward the underground passage.

After descending a few meters, Su Ye saw a stone chamber. He pushed open the stone door and entered. This chamber looked rather small, at least not as large as the one above.

As soon as he opened the stone chamber, he saw that it was filled with a kind of "thing" that gave off a pale blue glow, neither quite jade nor quite stone.

These "things" were about the size of a big toe, packed so densely that there seemed to be several thousand of them.

"What is this? The spiritual energy is so dense." Su Ye picked one up and examined it, utterly puzzled.

"Could it be... a spirit stone?" As he spoke, he circulated his cultivation technique, and the spiritual energy inside the spirit stone slowly flowed into his body.

"So many spirit stones." Su Ye was so excited that he wanted to shout. So many spirit stones were enough for him to cultivate rapidly to Foundation Establishment or even a higher realm.

On the right side of the stone chamber was a small stone shelf, with a jade slip resting on it.

Su Ye picked up the jade slip and extended his spiritual sense to scan it.

After a while, Su Ye put the jade slip into his storage bag alongside the other three.

This jade slip recorded several arrays, including the Spirit Gathering Array improved by Qinghua. Of course, it also recorded the traditional Spirit Gathering Array, but some of the materials needed for these arrays were exceptionally precious, and there were even some Su Ye had never heard of.

Su Ye then swept up all the spirit stones and put them in his storage bag, leaving nothing in the stone chamber.

Suddenly, Su Ye saw what looked like a flash of purple light in the stone chamber. A spirit stone then dropped out of thin air from above.

Could all the spirit stones produced by the improved Spirit Gathering Array above have fallen here? Su Ye thought.

After putting away that spirit stone, Su Ye left the stone chamber and headed back up.

He had been inside for most of the day. Su Ye looked at the empty stone chamber; he had taken everything he could, even prying out half the luminous pearls.

After putting the skeletal remains into the Immortal Spirit Space, Su Ye clapped his hands and headed out of the cave.

Just as Su Ye stepped beyond the circular cavern, the scenery around him suddenly returned to what he had seen before entering the cave.

Looks like an illusion array was set up here, Su Ye thought to himself.

After leaving the cave, Su Ye began using the Qi Observation Technique. This was his first time using it, and he eventually arrived in front of a small hill.

He took a hoe out of the Immortal Spirit Space and dug a hole in front of the small hill, then took out Daoist Qinghua's skeletal remains and buried them. After filling the hole with soil, Su Ye went to a huge boulder, took out the azure longsword magic treasure, and began hacking away at it.

Before long, he had made a tombstone about a meter tall and roughly fifty centimeters wide. Su Ye inscribed it with the words "Tomb of Qinghua."

He then kowtowed three times before the grave, each knock ringing out, and headed down the mountain.

By the time Su Ye returned to the vegetable garden, the sun had already set.

Su Ye looked out over the vegetable garden, where only the watermelons remained, and could not help marveling at his haul that day. Not only had he obtained nine tea trees, but he had also stumbled into sweeping up the lifetime collection of a Golden Core big shot.

There seemed to be several figures over by the greenhouse. Su Ye walked over and discovered that they were his father, his mother, and Zhang Erhu.

"Huh? What are you doing here?" Su Ye asked in confusion.

"Eh? Brother Ye? Where did you go? Everyone's been looking for you." Seeing Su Ye approach, Zhang Erhu immediately stood up and called out to him.

"Oh, Xiao Ye, where did you run off to? We haven't seen you all day. You didn't tell us where you were going, and we couldn't get through to your phone either," Mother Su complained worriedly. Father Su stood behind her without a word, but it was not hard to see from his expression that he was worried about Su Ye.

Su Ye looked at his parents and was about to say that he had gone to Mount Jiuhua, but he held back. He was afraid that if he told them, the family would worry about him again.

"It's nothing, Mom. I just wandered around nearby, and my phone happened to run out of battery." Su Ye ultimately decided to tell the three of them a white lie.

"If everything's all right, let's go home and eat. None of us have eaten yet," Mother Su said complainingly.

After dinner, Su Ye returned to his room. Once Father Su and Mother Su had gone to bed, he headed for the vegetable garden again.

The moon was full that night, and its light was gentle, bathing the earth in snowy white.

When he reached the vegetable garden, Su Ye took out a hoe and began digging. Before long, he had dug a pit over a meter deep and about two meters long and wide.

Su Ye took the five little wild boars, their legs still bound, out of the space. He untied them and put them in the pit. The little boars had woken up long ago, but Su Ye had bound their legs so they could not move. Several days had already passed in the Immortal Spirit Space, so they had to be hungry by now.

Su Ye took a large napa cabbage out of the space and tossed it into the pit. The five little wild boars immediately began fighting over it.

Before long, the five little wild boars had shared the cabbage and eaten every bit of it. Su Ye then took out another and tossed it into the pit.

Su Ye watched for a while, then took out his phone and called Zhang Erhu.

"Hello, Brother Ye, what is it?" Zhang Erhu asked sleepily from the other end of the line. He had clearly already gone to bed.

"Erhu, there are a few wild boars here in the vegetable garden. I don't know where they came from. I've already killed the big one, so if you want some wild boar meat, come over quickly," Su Ye said.

"Huh? Wild boars? Okay, Brother Ye, wait for me. I'll be right over." As soon as Zhang Erhu heard that wild boars had come down the mountain to ravage the crops in the vegetable garden, he woke right up.

The rustling sound of clothes being put on immediately came from the other end of the line.

"All right, Erhu, come on over, then." Su Ye hung up after speaking. He put away his phone, took the wild boar carcass out of his storage bag, and laid it on the ground. Then he tidied up the scene a little before nodding in satisfaction.