Chapter 427 - 396: People from the Primordial Sect, Anomalous Copper Ore

Chapter 427: Chapter 396: People from the Primordial Sect, Anomalous Copper Ore

If the Gold Core Founders had truly all died at Duobao’s hands, as the two of them suspected, then this expenditure of Spirit Stones was more than necessary. The man had very likely already forged a Sword Pill.

Any time they could buy was a victory in itself.

Once he had cultivated more than ten Golden Core cultivators, even the Primordial Sect would have to take his ambitions seriously. Whether it was to fight Duobao, break away from the Primordial Sect, or carve out his own territory in the future, he would have a solid enough foundation to stand on.

Whether one was a mortal or a Cultivator, one truth was universal:

To make it in the world, you needed backing and influence. Without them, what did it matter how well you could fight? You were nothing more than a small-time punk.

The difficulty of going it alone was impossible to summarize in a single sentence. It was no exaggeration to say that without his support, Xiao Chan would have long since turned to dust. And without Jinyun Valley as his foundation, he himself might not have even achieved Core Formation yet.

As for the Spirit Stones, what was spent was spent.

It was better than dying with a hoard of Spirit Stones left unspent.

Besides, if he got the chance to kill Duobao with his own hands one day, he could always earn the Spirit Stones back.

"Done. The Meng Family will add another two hundred thousand."

Meng Changtu agreed without hesitation before asking, "Without a Casting Master, what about the Sword Box...?"

"Let Liang Yuan take it apart."

Jinyun Valley currently had three Sword Boxes in total. One was from the Ye Family, one was from Dan Xuanzi—which he was currently using—and the last was Dan Kongzi’s.

The craftsmanship of a Sword Box was quite complex. If Liang Yuan could fully master its secrets, there was a high chance he could become a true Third-rank Casting Master.

Thanks to Jia Chaoyuan’s instructions, and as a way of returning the favor he’d been shown, Liang Yuan held nothing back when teaching his own disciples.

That made him worth nurturing.

The benefits to Jinyun Valley of Liang Yuan becoming a Third-rank Casting Master would far outweigh the value of these few Sword Boxes. The Forging Hall had already begun taking on contracts to forge Magical Artifacts and Weapons for other families and factions.

This alone had already brought considerable income to Jinyun Valley.

If they could one day take on orders to forge Magical Artifacts for Foundation Establishment and even Golden Core True Masters, the Valley could become completely self-sufficient. They might even be able to forge top-tier Magical Artifacts like Sword Boxes and Sword Pills in the future.

They would no longer be at the mercy of others.

...

A few days later, Chen Xi returned, having successfully achieved Core Formation. Chen Che gave her the Tier Three Puppets, much to her delight.

However, she still needed some time to recover.

The three bolts of Celestial Thunder, several times more powerful than those faced in other cultivation systems, had severely wounded her Divine Soul. The entire island had been shattered by the aftershocks. If Meng Qianxun hadn’t been there to act as her Protector, it was uncertain whether she would have even made it back alive.

This made Chen Che sigh internally. ’The rules of the Celestial Dao are truly fair.’

Although unorthodox paths allowed for extremely fast cultivation, the risks they entailed were equally immense.

Meng Qianxun was also beginning to understand the uses of the Sea Snail, but it was no ordinary Sound Law Instrument. It would likely take some time to reach the level of proficiency that Fang Shuxian had possessed.

Meanwhile, Meng Changtu was locked in a struggle with the other Mudskipper Shrimp, adopting a stance of not giving up until he had tamed it.

Lu Qinglian stood guard over the island reef, living a secluded life and spending most of her days in arduous cultivation. Lu Yuntian, on the other hand, had begun gathering the materials for the Qingxu Guiyuan Pill. It seemed almost everyone had fallen into a state of busy activity.

The only exception was the Little Chick, which flew about leisurely every day. To it, the Black Tortoise Calm Sea was a hunting ground even more vast than Chu State, and it wouldn’t return until its belly was stuffed and round.

Perhaps due to its massive food intake, its body was growing visibly larger, and its feathers were becoming ever more iridescent and brilliant.

Clearly, the Demonic Power converted from its meals was not going to waste; some of it was being suffused into its feathers.

He had no idea how powerful those feathers, steeped in Demon Qi for so long, would be.

Soon enough, however, Chen Che’s own busy period arrived. After a preliminary survey, the undersea Anomalous Copper Ore deposit was confirmed to have significant mining value. The moment this news reached the Primordial Sect, they dispatched people the very next day.

"Tributor Chen, congratulations! Your fame from the battle at Jinghai has spread far and wide."

The visitor was none other than Qiu Tianshui, the Chief of the Primordial Sect’s Internal Affairs Hall. Accompanying him was Chief Steward Tang Linli.

Qiu Tianshui cupped his hands in a salute, his voice full of praise.

"Who doesn’t know of Valley Master Chen’s great name now? When I descended the mountain, I heard many people singing your praises. Even the storytellers in the taverns and teahouses are recounting the tale of how you fought a fierce battle against six Golden Core cultivators before taking on Dan Xuanzi."

This time, instead of being modest, Chen Che let out a hearty laugh and casually recounted how he had finished off Dan Xuanzi. Of course, when it came to the part where he used his Divine Sense to shatter the other man’s Sword Box with his Sword Pill, the story that came from his lips painted it as a coincidence and an accident, not an act of overwhelming brute force.

As Chen Che described the events, Qiu Tianshui’s expression gradually shifted to one of pity and disdain.

’What a pathetic way for Dan Xuanzi to die. To think his ultimate trump card had such a fatal flaw. Still, this also eased his worries. If Chen Che’s victory had been due to his true combat strength, that would have been far too terrifying.’

’It seems there was a fair bit of exaggeration in the accounts of this battle after all.’

His gaze swept over the Cultivators on the island, and Qiu Tianshui shook his head inwardly. ’Xu Chuan and his five companions couldn’t even defeat these few thousand Cultivators on the reef. And Dan Xuanzi just sat back and watched the tigers fight until the very end before making a move. That whole group was monumentally stupid.’

’If it were me, I either wouldn’t have attacked at all, or I would have completely eradicated them, root and stem. I would have made heads roll until he was isolated and utterly helpless.’

Glancing at Chen Che again, his wariness had greatly diminished, and he no longer felt the need to probe the matter further. Instead, his curiosity turned to the undersea Anomalous Copper Ore. He never would have expected that the battle at Jinghai would lead Jinyun Valley to discover such a high-tier ore vein.

"Tributor Chen, has the Anomalous Copper mine been set up yet? Might you take me for a look?" Qiu Tianshui smoothly changed the subject.

"This way, please!"

Chen Che gestured with his right hand.

The three of them formed the hand seal for a Water Avoidance Technique and immediately entered the sea.

The ore vein was located on the seabed, about thirty-two hundred zhang below the surface. Qi Refining Cultivators were completely incapable of reaching such depths, and even Foundation Establishment Cultivators would need the help of water-avoiding Magical Artifacts.

However, the excavation of the ore vein couldn’t possibly be done entirely underwater.

With the point of discovery as the center, two large Water Avoidance Arrays had been erected, covering a radius of three hundred zhang. Supplemented by Luminous Beads, the setup looked like two giant, interconnected bubbles from a distance.

The one who had set up the Array Formation was an old acquaintance of Chen Yin: Elder Daoist Qingsong.

"Valley Master Chen, Senior Qiu."

Seeing the two, Elder Daoist Qingsong immediately and respectfully cupped his hands in a salute.

"This Array is quite ingeniously arranged," Qiu Tianshui remarked, clasping his hands behind his back as he surveyed his surroundings.

"I arranged it according to Valley Master Chen’s requirements." Elder Daoist Qingsong’s face creased into a thousand wrinkles as he smiled. He quickly began to explain the Array to Qiu Tianshui.

This old Array Master might have been a bit weak when it came to breaking arrays, but his skill in Array Formation was considerable, befitting his title of ’Genius Array Master’ from two hundred years ago.

"This Water Avoidance Array uses an ’interlocking chain’ design. Even if one Array Foundation is destroyed, the entire Grand Array will immediately abandon the damaged foundation to prevent it from becoming a weak point. Meanwhile, the remaining Array Foundations will continue to maintain the array’s operation, providing enough time for repairs."

"This prevents the Array from being breached and allowing seawater to flood the mine. It would only fail if half of the Array Foundations are destroyed in a short period. The Grand Array is still being calibrated, but it will be fully operational soon."

Stepping into the Grand Array, the surrounding seawater vanished instantly, as if they were walking on dry land.

Inside the Array, many people were already at work, some busy building a port, others constructing residences. Pavilions rose rapidly from the ground, looking like an undersea city under the glow of the Luminous Beads.

"In the future, visiting Cultivators will be inspected here before being allowed to enter the mine," Chen Che explained.

"The ore vein is over there, I presume?" Qiu Tianshui looked up. Ahead of them, a mountain peak had been split in two, revealing chunks of red crystals in the exposed rock face, like the seeds of a ripe pomegranate.

Only a few Cultivators were mining in the area, and the faint CLANG CLANG of their tools could be heard from a distance. The old man, Chen Yin, was also inside the mine, inspecting the Water Avoidance Array.

"That’s right."

Chen Che nodded. "It’s a rare, rich deposit. The ore content is over seventy percent, and it can be mined for at least two hundred years."

With that, the two of them entered the mountain.

A straight mountain path led directly into the mine.

The mountain had been opened up. Part of it was an open-pit vein, while the other part ran deep underground, with several branching tunnels already exposed. Qiu Tianshui, hands clasped behind his back, wandered around the various sections before finally stopping inside the largest mine cavern.

’Here comes the main event!’

Chen Che thought to himself.

Just as he expected, Qiu Tianshui retracted his gaze from the ore vein, turned his head, and said suddenly,

"The Primordial Sect will be taking fifty percent of this Anomalous Copper mine!"