Chapter 310 - 285: The Existence of a Grand Design

Chapter 310: Chapter 285: The Existence of a Grand Design

It was like the scene was repeating itself.

Scouts had been dispatched into the sea of fire and lava.

Chu Mu stood outside the dilapidated Grand Array, waiting with some apprehension.

Before long, several Dragonfly Spiritual Artifacts passed through the gap in the Array Prohibition, riding the currents of surging Fire Qi on their return.

He waved his hand, and several projections appeared.

The capabilities of these Spiritual Artifact-level bamboo dragonflies were, naturally, a quantum leap beyond what they used to be.

This was true for their reconnaissance range and effectiveness, as well as their own defenses.

The images were very clear. Past the breach in the Grand Array, what appeared was still a sea of fire and lava, with extremely dense Fire Qi churning about.

The deeper they went, the denser it became.

The lava even began to approach a solid state, and the Fire Qi was so dense it was nearly tangible, clinging to the lava.

In the end, the lava had completely solidified. It should have turned to stone, but under the effect of the dense Fire Qi, this stone had been scoured into a brilliant, golden texture.

’Inside the Grand Array... is it a Fire Vein ore mountain?’

Chu Mu carefully examined the Fire Vein ore mountain. After a moment, he seemed to think of something. His pupils contracted as understanding dawned on him.

He recalled hearing that in the Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World, a sect like the Longevity Sect might occupy countless Spirit Veins, but only a portion of them were actually used as strongholds or Marketplaces.

The remaining Spirit Veins were directly sealed away.

This "sealing" meant using an Array Prohibition to seal the Spirit Vein.

And a Spirit Vein would constantly produce Spiritual Qi.

Therefore, the Spiritual Qi was naturally sealed within as well. As it accumulated over days and months, the Spiritual Qi inside would become extremely dense. Given enough time, the Spiritual Qi would solidify, forming man-made Spirit Stone Veins.

Under the nourishment of such dense Spiritual Qi, the growth of the Spirit Vein itself would also accelerate significantly.

According to legend, the Jade Emperor Valley once sealed its Spirit Vein in preparation for its advancement to Tier Three, releasing only a small, fixed portion of the Spiritual Qi it produced.

And now, before him...

...was also a Spirit Vein. A rare Fire Attribute Spirit Vein!

After being sealed for ages, veins of Fire Attribute Spirit Stone Ore had formed within the Spirit Vein.

And... it seemed there was more than just the Spirit Vein and the Spirit Stone Ore.

After being scoured by Fire Attribute Spiritual Energy for eons, the nature of the rocks and mineral deposits within seemed to have changed, turning them into true Spirit Ores!

Chu Mu pursed his lips. With a flick of his sleeve, he recalled the Dragonfly Spiritual Artifacts into his Storage Ring. Then, he took a step forward and vanished directly into the dilapidated Grand Array.

Inside the array and outside were like two different worlds.

Outside the Grand Array, Earth Fire Lava surged. Although the Fire Qi was much calmer due to the presence of the Earth Fire Spirit, it was not difficult to sense the restless irritability within it.

But inside this Grand Array, the Fire Attribute Spiritual Energy was so dense it was nearly liquid—pure and stable.

Compared to the thin Spiritual Qi of the outside world, the Spiritual Qi within this Grand Array was frighteningly dense, just like in the East Lake Secret Realm back then!

After briefly sensing his surroundings, he strode forward to investigate.

Just as the images from the bamboo dragonflies had shown, everything inside the Grand Array had undergone Spiritualization over the long eons!

Spirit Stones, Spirit Ores, even the ordinary soil had all become Fire-attribute Spirit Soil.

The Grand Array covered an enormous area. Furthermore, under the influence of the already spiritualized and solidified Spirit Ores and Spirit Stones, the range of his Divine Sense was also severely limited.

With a wave of his sleeve, he released four Cyan Wolf Puppets. At his mental command, the Cyan Wolf Puppets let out a roar, and with a flash of their sharp claws, they began to tear into the ore mountains, digging furiously.

He, meanwhile, continued to investigate cautiously.

In the Cultivation Immortal Realm, much like in the thousands of years of history in his previous life, every era had its own distinct characteristics.

In his past life, these characteristics were reflected in aspects like clothing, language, writing, and etiquette.

But in the Cultivation Immortal Realm, these characteristics were embodied in the system of Cultivation Immortal itself.

For example, the Hundred Skills of Cultivation Immortal, or Cultivation Methods.

The evolutionary history of a Cultivation Immortal Civilization was vividly reflected within its body of knowledge.

Take the Artifact Refining Skill he had mastered, for example. It came from the Immortal Dao Sect’s Artifact Refining General Outline. While its overall knowledge framework might not be qualitatively different from the Artifact Refining Skills of the current Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World, the minor details branching off from the whole had undergone earth-shattering changes.

Observing this Grand Array, he could sense its immense age from these same minor details.

As far as he knew, the Longevity Sect had been established in Great Chu for nearly twenty thousand years.

Before those twenty thousand years, legend said a sect named the Celestial South Sect ruled over what was now Great Chu, and even included the Northern Grassland and parts of the Southwest.

When the Celestial South Sect fell apart, the Longevity Sect was said to have been formed by a union of several of the Celestial South Sect’s top clans.

And these top clans...

...were the five renowned clans of Great Chu today.

What exactly happened back then was something Chu Mu obviously had no way of knowing.

But the age of this Grand Array...

Chu Mu estimated that it could be traced back to at least that distant era.

And this Spirit Vein...

Chu Mu also examined and sensed it carefully.

He didn’t know much about Spirit Veins either.

According to the rumored definitions in the Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World, Spirit Veins were creations of heaven and earth, and they were not immutable.

Spirit Veins could grow, and they could also be born from the creations of heaven and earth.

Spirit Veins were also divided into surface Spirit Veins and subterranean Spirit Veins.

The so-called surface Spirit Veins didn’t actually have a clear definition. Some said anything within a hundred zhang of the surface counted, while others said it included anything within two thousand meters underground.

Although the definition was unclear, one point was very clear.

Any Spirit Vein that a Cultivator could utilize was considered a surface Spirit Vein.

And this obviously involved the issue of cost.

For example, if a Spirit Vein was located within a surface mountain range, it would undoubtedly be very simple for a Cultivator to utilize it.

If it were tens of thousands of meters deep underground, the difficulty for a Cultivator to control the Spirit Vein’s Spiritual Qi and establish a Marketplace hub around it would be on a completely different level.

After all, Cultivators employed a strategy of utter exploitation toward Spirit Veins! The key was to control the Spiritual Qi produced at the source, then use that controllable Spiritual Qi to profit.

The increasingly thin Spiritual Qi in the vast world outside of the Marketplaces in the Cultivation Immortal Realm was clearly, in part, a result of this exploitative strategy.

And this Spirit Vein was clearly a subterranean one.

From the moment he leaped into the sea of fire and lava from the outpost camp until now, at least half a day had passed.

Over such a long period, even with delays and some wandering, he was at least two or three hundred li from the surface.

This distance, coupled with the concealment of the Grand Array and the endless sea of fire and lava, was likely the fundamental reason this Spirit Vein had remained undiscovered.

"Tier Three..."

After circling the area once, a rough guess surfaced in Chu Mu’s mind.

’This Spirit Vein is at least Tier Three!’

At this conclusion, his breathing grew a little ragged.

’A Spirit Vein that had been sealed for tens of thousands of years... if it hadn’t been plundered in the interim, how many rare treasures would have been born over such a long time?’

He could hardly suppress his excitement. Just then, a signal from the Cyan Wolf Puppets’ unusual activity came through the connection of their Divine Sense Imprints.

Chu Mu leaped into the air, arriving at the base of a crimson-gold mountain peak. He followed a tunnel carved out by the Cyan Wolf Puppets for several hundred meters.

The Cyan Wolf Puppets had stopped their furious digging. Before them, an expanse of crystalline, fiery red came clearly into view.

"A Fire Attribute Spirit Stone Ore!"

Chu Mu recognized it with a single glance.

He scanned his surroundings. The four Cyan Wolf Puppets had already cleared out all the surrounding Low-Tier Spirit Ores. Only this one winding, fiery-red Spirit Stone Vein remained, lying prone in the mountain’s belly like a great dragon.

He swallowed hard, his breath coming in ragged, difficult gasps.

"Start mining!"

He ordered impatiently, but then, as if sensing something, his expression changed and he shouted, "Stop!"

At his command, the four Cyan Wolf Puppets, which had just raised their claws to begin mining, stopped in unison.

Chu Mu’s expression was one of shock and suspicion. He cautiously stepped forward and lightly brushed his fingertips across the Spirit Stone Vein before him. The sensation registered in his mind, and the scene from his Divine Sense Perception flooded his thoughts.

He took a deep breath, slowly straightened up, and looked again at the fiery-red, crystalline Spirit Stone Vein.

"Dig over there! You, go over there!"

He ordered again, his tone urgent.

The Cyan Wolf Puppets moved at his voice, digging in different directions according to Chu Mu’s instructions.

Merely by changing the direction of their digging, a completely different scene appeared before Chu Mu’s eyes just a moment later.

"What a grand design... truly a grand design..."

Chu Mu muttered to himself, utter shock written on his face.

The purpose of the outer Grand Array was to seal.

’But inside, there’s another Grand Array!’

And this Grand Array was not a traditional combination of Array Prohibitions, but one formed using the natural terrain!

It used the entire Spirit Vein as its foundation, connected to the Earth Vein Fire Qi, used the outer Grand Array as a seal, and had this natural Grand Array as its core, all just to nurture... the Spirit Stone Vein before him!

’Such a grand design, all for a single Spirit Stone Vein?’

If word of this got out, not even a ghost would believe it!

The only explanation was that there was something incredible inside this Spirit Stone Ore that needed a vast amount of Fire Attribute Spiritual Energy to be nurtured, or even sustained!

Therefore, in the distant past, some Cultivator had set up this Chain Array, which had persisted until today.

Suddenly, Chu Mu recalled the breach he had seen in the Grand Array earlier. ’Could that gap mean the nurturing process was complete, and an Ancient Cultivator had already taken the nurtured object away?’

’Or perhaps, someone broke in sometime in the past?’

He guessed silently to himself. At the same time, he ordered the Cyan Wolf Puppets to continue digging around the Spirit Stone Vein.

As for himself, he also circled the Spirit Stone Ore, observing the workings of this semi-natural Grand Array to analyze where the true core was located within the massive Spirit Stone Vein.

As for destroying the Spirit Stone Vein directly, Chu Mu obviously didn’t dare to take that risk. After all, the Array Dao was a matter of interlocking rings; one wrong link, and it would trigger a chain reaction.

He had no idea what the true core, the nurtured object he was speculating about, would have become after all this time...

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