Chapter 1164 The Ore Vein
The duo and the beast quickly caught up. Although the Life Spirit Stones were fast, the area around the stream was open. In front of a Harmonious Core realm cultivator, the speed of Life Spirit Stones was clearly insufficient.
Chen Yang conjured a hand of spiritual energy and directly trapped the Life Spirit Stone in his grasp.
"That scared me! This thing's speed is truly astonishing."
Despite absorbing a significant amount of top-grade spirit stones and rapidly improving his cultivation, the large rat remained stuck at the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, showing no signs of breaking through to the Harmonious Core realm.
If it were about mining and tracking Life Spirit Stones, the large rat's talent could still be somewhat utilized. But just now, it had exerted its full strength, yet it was still significantly outdistanced by Chen Yang and Qin Yunlan.
Chen Yang pulled the Life Spirit Stone into his hand and observed it closely, finding it to be as Qin Yunlan had described.
While Life Spirit Stones possessed vitality, they were completely incapable of exhibiting sentience.
Various demonic beasts, and even trees, had the opportunity to develop sentience if they absorbed enough spirit stones. Yet, Life Spirit Stones, born from spiritual energy itself, lacked even the possibility of generating intelligence.
"I hope this thing works!"
Just as Chen Yang was about to allow Xu Qingquan's spiritual consciousness to devour the Life Spirit Stone, he suddenly stopped.
Concurrently, Qin Yunlan and the large rat beside him also looked up into the distance.
Because not far in front of them, a great many things had appeared.
Life Spirit Stones!
All of them were Life Spirit Stones!
Qin Yunlan swallowed nervously and whispered, "Life Spirit Stones are said to be rare... a spirit vein wouldn't contain too many of them."
"But now, there are far too many!"
Qin Yunlan felt her scalp tingle.
However, the large rat at their feet suddenly let out squeaking sounds.
The two immediately looked at it in confusion, wondering what was causing the rat's peculiar cries.
After all, although the large rat had not transformed and had not broken through to the Harmonious Core realm, it could speak perfectly well. Why was it acting this way now?
As they pondered, the large rat suddenly roared, "Run! These things are going to eat us!"
Dark lines instantly appeared on the foreheads of Chen Yang and Qin Yunlan. Eat them?
Life Spirit Stones were essentially condensed spiritual energy. If they didn't eat them, they wanted to eat them in return?
The large rat paid them no mind and turned to flee.
Just as Chen Yang was about to speak, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his palm.
This pain did not originate from his body or his spiritual consciousness, but from his inner core.
Chen Yang instantly scanned his inner core and was stunned to find no issues. His spiritual energy seemed to have decreased by a tiny bit.
"Ah! It hurts so much!"
Qin Yunlan beside him also let out a sudden cry of pain.
The Life Spirit Stone that had just bitten Chen Yang had now detached and latched onto Qin Yunlan.
"Damn it, this thing can devour spiritual energy!"
Chen Yang's expression tightened. That was just one Life Spirit Stone. Now, there were countless numbers staring at them.
If they were surrounded, escape would be impossible.
Chen Yang could still deal with these Life Spirit Stones, but doing so would be an immense waste.
A substance of even higher grade than top-grade spirit stones...
Perhaps this was all the Life Spirit Stones this abandoned spirit vein had to offer.
As the two turned to flee, Qin Yunlan said, "We can't let these things get out. We need to find a way to contain them."
Chen Yang's mind raced, and after some thought, he came up with a plan.
The Bronze Cauldron!
Since these things possessed vitality, the Tree Tomb space was unsuitable. However, the Bronze Cauldron was different.
The space within the Bronze Cauldron could accommodate living entities.
As for the consequences of these Life Spirit Stones entering the cauldron, that was not something Chen Yang could address at the moment.
The most important thing now was to collect these Life Spirit Stones!
With that thought, Chen Yang immediately stopped. He opened the Bronze Cauldron, and the Life Spirit Stones chasing them from behind felt a terrifying suction force, and in the next second, they were drawn into the Tree Tomb space.
The large rat in the distance, upon sensing that the Life Spirit Stones behind them had suddenly vanished, was stunned for a moment. It then turned its head and, seeing that Chen Yang and Qin Yunlan were no longer fleeing and that the Life Spirit Stones were gone, scurried back.
Chen Yang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said with a wry smile, "These Life Spirit Stones are originally condensed spiritual energy. How could I not have realized that these creatures could also devour a martial artist's spiritual energy!"
The thought of having all his spiritual energy devoured by these creatures sent a shiver of apprehension down his spine.
While the spiritual energy in his inner core could be replenished at any time, if he were to reach a state of having absolutely no spiritual energy left, it was likely that the Life Spirit Stones would then target his inner core!
Qin Yunlan also sighed and shook her head, "This is too strange. I always thought this was just an abandoned spirit vein, something left behind by the Demon Capital Prefecture that they didn't fully excavate. But now, it seems that's not the case..."
With such a quantity of Life Spirit Stones, coupled with the top-grade spirit stones they had seen along the way, it was clear that this was not something left behind by someone.
At this point, Chen Yang finally brought up the information he had received some time ago: "This area we are in was previously excavated by the Demon Bone City, not by the Demon Capital Prefecture."
"It was because this area didn't have a large quantity of spirit stones that the Demon Capital Prefecture handed it over to Demon Bone City."
"I don't know who conducted the survey, to have missed so much!"
Hearing Chen Yang's words, the large rat eagerly hopped onto Chen Yang's shoulder and said with a laugh, "I know this! Little Stone said that many people came at the time, even the Governor of the Demon Capital Prefecture who appeared last time.
"But no one discovered the spirit stone ore vein beneath. Even Little Stone and the others didn't actually discover this place at the time!"
"Little Stone said that there was originally some kind of formation hiding the spirit vein below. After that layer of spirit stones was completely excavated, they occupied the mine shafts here. It was only shortly before we entered the netherworld that the formation disappeared."
Chen Yang's brow furrowed instantly. The formation disappeared just before he entered the netherworld?
Chen Yang had a nagging feeling that there was something he had overlooked.
"Since we've already come this far, why don't we explore further? Let's see what lies at the end of this stream of condensed spiritual energy."
Qin Yunlan's suggestion was immediately met with Chen Yang's agreement.
They were already very deep, and even the spiritual consciousness of Harmonious Core realm cultivators was being suppressed by the immense spiritual energy. Taking advantage of this opportunity to explore was indeed feasible.