Ch172 A New Spirit Stone Collector

I leave the Wang Clan peak behind, soaring down to Lingshi City under the night sky in my flying vessel.

My breakthrough into the late stage of qi refinement was a success, and I’ve consolidated my Martial Spirit Physique, but in doing so I’ve given the Ye Clan far more information about myself than I’d have liked.

In my last battle with Lan Xin, we did not give them any information to report back.

Now, the Ye Clan is far closer to figuring out who holds the unregistered golden core artifact.

The Wang Clan may not be under direct pressure any longer, but I will be.

Considering they’ve been lurking in this city all the time I was gone, they must have heard whispers of my actual identity.

While I’m known as a weakling who does not match their transmitted description, my Li General shop is quite the hot topic among cultivators, and I’ve been publicly associating with the Wang Clan as a mysterious family friend for quite a while.

It would be surprising if I’m not at least one of their potential suspects.

This situation does appear to be more complicated than it seems.

That 6th-level foundational demon looked surprised at the fact that a golden core artifact was the cause of all this, meaning there is a major gap in information being shared.

Whoever is orchestrating these attacks does not even want their own clan members to know what they’re looking for.

Considering the old Wang Patriarch's logic, he’s probably right about their future plans.

They will most likely take a step back and watch Lingshi City with only their hidden forces. They will be far less likely to recklessly engage, now that two mid stage demons were killed so easily.

My only lingering question is how the late stage foundational elders will react.

The only cultivator of this strength I’ve ever encountered in the flesh is Jiang Duo, but his breakthrough was recent and his physiques and soul were extremely chaotic and unstable.

Even with such an unstable foundation, he still managed to stop a few swords in my golden core artifact before it killed him.

The Ye Clan’s Elders are true cultivators of this strength that have far deeper family backing. Their physiques, qi cultivation, and arsenal of treasures are certainly greater than the Jiang Clan. This level of strength is still quite mysterious to me.

It is in my best interest to distance myself from their searches, and not reveal any of my power that matches the 7th level qi refining spirit grade physique profile they’ve put together.

–

I pull out four spatial rings that haven’t been cracked yet and get to work while flying down toward a landing point on the outer edges of Lingshi City.

No one is nearby, so I sit alone and open up the three younger illusory demons’ rings first.

It is mostly uninteresting tier 1 resources. The two 10th-level demons have some valuable unused tier 2 low-grade soul explosion talismans and tens of thousands of spirit stones each, but I just stow them all away.

The more important ring is the dark grey mid-grade ring of that copper-skinned illusory demon.

It takes me a little under ten minutes to crack open while keeping my aura mostly contained in my body.

Far more wealth appears inside.

The first pile I see has 158 foundational crystals and well over a hundred thousand spirit stones.

There are piles of soul metal, soul jade, and a collection of half a dozen low grade tier 2 soul explosion talismans. There is even a single mid-grade soul explosion talisman.

This demon was killed in a single slash from my Puppet.

Not a single one of his life-saving resources was used up.

I see a collection of mid-stage tier 2 copper flags all bound together on a meter-long pole.

When I imprint the pole that acts as a control disk, an instinctual imprint comes back, similar to other talismans I’ve bought at markets, allowing me to understand how the device works.

A system scan appears in my mind too.

[Ding!]

[Copper Spirit Locking Array has bound to the Host!]

[Passive Ability: None.]

[Active Ability: 1 Use, Rechargeable (Cost - 60 Foundational Crystals). Creates an area of extremely chaotic qi for 30 seconds within the placed array flags. Is capable of trapping mid-stage foundation establishment cultivators, keeping them unable to cast spells, imprint artifacts, or manipulate qi until the array runs out of power.]

“Interesting…” I murmur, stowing it away and pulling out another strange triangular piece of copper dense with foundational qi.

[Ding!]

[Copper Spike Talisman has bound to the Host!]

[Passive Ability: None.]

[Active Ability: 1 Use, Rechargeable (Cost - 12,000 Spirit Stones). Shoots out a heavy spike of qi, bound together by an inferior copper skin enchantment left over from its crafter. Is capable of killing initial-stage foundation establishment cultivators.]

There is an extremely subtle vibration coming off the device. The heavy metal making up the talisman craft is low-grade tier 2, but it is well-worn, feeling closer to inferior grade.

There is a pile of scrap metal and ore at the bottom of this ring too. It is burnt and bent used-up spiritual copper, resting near a thick booklet labeled Copper Skin Acquired Physique. It has notes filling every page, bulging the seams.

With a grin, I stow away all of my new loot and flying vessel.

I slip away into a dark alley filled with mortal shops to enter my hidden realm for half an hour.

Inside, I use up all of the spiritual stones I’ve just looted and some extra from my buffer to charge my puppet and purple cloud bow back up to their fully charged states.

I purchase another enlightenment talisman before slipping out, then head off to the center of the city.

Peering through the street-view window of the Meng Talisman Shop, an older black haired woman sits behind the counter reading a thick open book as I hoped.

There are a few mid and late stage qi-refining customers inside still pulling talismans off the shelves and examining them before buying.

I wait a few minutes until there is a gap when the store is empty and walk inside to be greeted by a pair of bored eyes widening with excitement.

“Li Hao? Why are you here?”

She presses an array disk beneath her desk, putting up more privacy walls and closing the shop from the outside.

“Do you have another enchantment you need done?” She stands up in anticipation, and I nod to confirm it, tossing her a high-grade ring filled to its max capacity, holding the copper spike talisman and an enlightenment talisman.

I pull out my low-grade tier 2 perception-expanding jade pendant next and place it on the counter.

“Maybe wearing this during your crafting process will help. Borrow it for as long as you want.”

Meng Ruo curiously takes the ring and pendant, her heartbeat rising and soul trembling with excitement more as she imprints everything inside to understand what she’s dealing with.

“My only request is that you try not to affect the current inferior enchantment already present. I’m curious if two enchantments can be present on a talisman at once, the same way two physiques can be present on a cultivator.”

She shows a smile and nods, pulling out the triangular copper talisman onto the desk between us. “Of course it’s possible.”

Her eyes widen and she bends down to feel the talisman with all her fingers, and brings her eyes up close to every edge of the well used item.

“I’ve never tried to add a second enchantment to a talisman… I believe it's possible though, especially because we’re only dealing with one that has not even consolidated to the initial stage. The qi based materials used in this craft aren’t quite as dense as the Azure Lightning one you had me work on before either, I’ll be able to control it much more easily.”

She stows away the talisman and looks up at me. “My own enchantment isn't very strong in the first place, and the one already in place is even weaker. The only time it should reject my enchantment would be if the qi based anchor is too weak to handle it. Like physiques, a foundation establishment may be able to handle two acquired mortal-grade perfected physiques at once, but a qi refiner attempting to do the same would have a far more difficult time controlling such a thing. It’s far safer to take the route you did and just focus on one physique to spirit grade.”

Meng Ruo’s lips curl up slightly and she eyes me up and down.

I tighten my gaze, wondering if she’s somehow detected a flaw in my suppression technique.

“My appearance may look different after my qi cultivation breakthrough, but how can you sense my physique?”

Meng Ruo shrugs. “I can’t. I wasn’t even completely sure until now. That confirms it, the celestial event earlier must have been yours.”

I let out a sigh of relief and turn around. “Yes, it was me.”

Then, start walking toward the door, “I have another secret to let you in on if you’d like. It’s part of a task I’d usually let Lan Xin handle, but she’s busy.”

The older woman grabs her umbrella, and unlocks the concealment arrays in a single breath.

She walks out from behind the counter without hesitating at all.

“What is it?”

I stop at the door, watching the arrays power down. “It’s kind of far from the city. It will be easier to explain if I just show you.”

–

Meng Ruo locks up her shop and places a closed sign on the door to leave with me away from the city.

It takes less than two hours to arrive before descending to one of the veins on the middle plot of my original farm.

The air quality is slightly higher than the inferior-grade wasteland around these parts due to the overflow, but coming from the center of Lingshi City, it feels extremely desolate.

When we walk into the first old mining site, where the outside looks the same as any old overstrained inferior-grade vein, the black-haired woman grows suspicious.

“What? Is this all you wanted to show me? These are the veins Lan Xin has been overstraining? They were the gifts from the Mu and Wang Clans, weren’t they?”

I smile while stepping over the small barrier where the black flag arrays are holding in the majority of the vein’s presence.

When Meng Ruo follows, her breathing quickens, and she raises her hands to feel the shift in qi pressure.

She stays silent as we walk further to see the massive crystalline base of the spirit vein exposed to the open air. There is only a small cave-like entrance of dirt covering it from sight.

“What is this? A High Grade Vein? No- Perfect Grade Vein? This feels even denser than the one I rent out in the city… What is this…?”

“It’s a perfect-grade vein. It took me quite a lot of effort to rejuvenate it. It involves a unique treasure from my backing, similar to the enlightenment talismans origin. I think it is quite obvious the existence of this cannot be shared.”

Meng Ruo blinks and rubs her eyes, kneeling down to feel the wide smooth vein’s center for a few minutes straight.

I eventually interrupt her. “Come on, follow me. There are more I’d like to show you.”

We walk to some of the nearby veins and fly to others that are further.

Then, I take her all the way across the plots to the lakeside farm to show her the rest.

After the first few veins, Meng Ruo’s shock hits its peak.

She becomes speechless, following along and thinking to herself as I show the locations of all 160 perfect-grade veins.

While flying back, I finally break the silence.

“So, 160 veins. Accounting for the leakage in those Lin Clan arrays, that will be around 1,086,400 spirit stones per week at most. Feel free to cultivate on one of the veins if you want a better one than the city. I won’t always be around to pick them up, so it would be helpful if you could keep the stones secure in your shop for when I do.”

She stays silent, looking back at the fields that disappear into the night with wide eyes for a while before replying.

“So that is the difference between small cultivation clans in the Hidden Mist, and true powerhouse clans from outside this prefecture. You’re planning to turn this entire barren plot into land more valuable than the entire outer sect… Even the big three clans don’t have mines this profitable…’

I show a simple smile, “You may use some of the spirit stone profits to grow your Meng Clan, and maintain its foundational status, as long as it is within reason and does not bring any suspicion to my mines. I’d like 1,050,000 stones collected weekly, do as you wish with the rest. If this task is done well, it will be a simple matter for me to acquire a few more enlightenment talismans for you in the future.”

The 8th-level qi-refining talisman master looks at me in a daze. This is far more than the heiress of a fallen foundational clan ever thought she’d see in her remaining lifetime.

Meng Ruo bows deeply. “I accept your offer. You can rely on me to collect your spirit stones.”