Volume 1, Chapter 82 – Strength Skyrockets

Shi Lan no longer wasted time. Beside a spirit crystal as large as half a person, she set up a simple spirit-gathering formation, then sat down cross-legged and circulated the Yuqing Creation Art with all her might.

Rich spiritual qi surged over, condensing into wisps of white spiritual mist visible to the naked eye, which flooded over and submerged Shi Lan.

Shi Lan now possessed an Innate spiritual body, her affinity with spiritual qi already at the very peak. Combined with the wonders of the Yuqing Creation Art, her speed in devouring spiritual qi had reached an astonishing level.

On top of that, the spiritual qi here was extremely pure. It required almost no effort to refine. Once it entered her body, it was transformed into Innate true qi in the blink of an eye.

Shi Lan’s cultivation rose at an extreme pace. Even “advancing by leaps and bounds” could not describe it. It was practically changing with every breath.

Above Shi Lan’s head, the spiritual qi gathered into a vortex, pouring into her crown like a flood.

In only a little less than a quarter of an hour, Shi Lan touched the bottleneck of the third stage of the Innate Realm.

The bottleneck did not hinder her in the slightest. It was instantly blasted apart by Innate true qi, and Shi Lan’s cultivation flowed into the third stage of the Innate Realm as naturally as water running downhill.

Her rise in cultivation was far from over. The Innate true qi surged through her meridians like a mighty river, growing thicker and stronger.

The dense spiritual qi quickly pushed Shi Lan’s cultivation to the peak of the third stage of the Innate Realm and began assaulting the fourth stage.

Shi Lan kept her mind clear of distractions, almost greedily drawing in spiritual qi, seizing every breath to increase her strength.

…

Two and a half hours passed in a flash. Reluctantly, Shi Lan withdrew her power. Feeling the Innate true qi in her body, now several times thicker than before, a trace of regret flashed through her eyes.

After nearly three hours of cultivation, Shi Lan’s realm had steadily stepped into the fifth stage of the Innate Realm, and thanks to the Yuqing Creation Art, her foundation was incomparably solid.

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If she could, Shi Lan truly wanted to stay in this vein and cultivate here forever.

Looking around, she saw the surrounding stone walls had been hacked and gouged by Wang Ning and the others until they were riddled with pits and hollows and the cavern itself had grown several sizes larger. Near the spirit-gathering formation where she sat, piles of mined spirit crystals had already formed a small hill.

When they saw Shi Lan step out of the spirit-gathering formation, Wang Ning and the others stopped what they were doing and gathered around.

“Centurion, we have already wrapped up all the spirit crystals we mined. Are we leaving now?” Wang Ning pointed toward a corner as he spoke.

In that corner lay many cloth bundles. A dozen or so of them had been tied with rope and stacked neatly.

Shi Lan nodded, then let her consciousness reach out to communicate with Samsara.

“Samsara, can you take all the energy from here?”

Shi Lan had no intention of leaving such a spirit crystal vein to those sect forces of unknown origin.

“I can. Before that, you need to take something first.”

Samsara responded quickly. Last time, a great deal of his energy had been siphoned away by that other system. This spirit crystal vein could barely make up for some of the loss.

Shi Lan looked slightly puzzled. Following Samsara’s instructions, she came to a section of the stone wall and began to dig.

Wang Ning and the others followed over and helped her quarry the rock.

After digging four or five zhang in, Shi Lan and the others dug out an enormous spirit crystal, as large as a millstone.

Moreover, the richness of the spiritual qi in this spirit crystal was over a hundred times greater than that of the crystals they had mined before.

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“Cut it open,” Samsara said.

Shi Lan did as told, splitting the spirit crystal into two halves and taking from its core a piece of white jade no larger than a fist.

“What is this?” Feeling the ocean-like spiritual qi within the jade, Shi Lan could not help her amazement.

“Spirit marrow. It is the core treasure of this entire spirit crystal mine and has miraculous effects on increasing cultivation.”

Shi Lan tucked the spirit marrow into her robes and had Wang Ning and the others start moving the spirit crystals out.

Once Wang Ning and the rest had all left, Samsara began extracting the energy from the spirit crystal vein.

The glow of the spirit crystals embedded in the surrounding walls quickly dimmed, until at last they were all ashen and gray. If not for the thick spiritual qi still lingering in the air, the place would have been almost indistinguishable from an ordinary mine.

“The spirit crystal that wrapped the spirit marrow is of decent quality too. Take it out as well,” Samsara said once he finished absorbing the energy.

In no time, Shi Lan broke the spirit crystal into smaller chunks, wrapped them in cloth, and left the mine.

The horizon was turning pale, the sky already half light.

The Flying Star Sect disciples stood not far from the entrance, staring eagerly.

Shi Lan ignored them. She loaded the cloth bundles onto the back of a flood-dragon horse that Wang Ning led over, then swung herself up into the saddle.

“Hyah!”

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With a soft shout from Shi Lan, the flood-dragon horse under her hooves surged forward, galloping down the mountain. Wang Ning and the others mounted up and followed closely behind.

Watching Shi Lan and her group vanish along the mountain path in the blink of an eye, the Flying Star Sect disciples all let out a sigh of relief.

“You stay here and keep watch. Do not enter the mine for now. I will return to the sect at full speed to request reinforcements!”

After arranging his fellow disciples, Cao Ping shot into the sky, rushing toward the sect’s base.

In a little less than half a day, several streaks of light shot over from the horizon. Without pausing at the entrance, they plunged straight into the mine.

After searching through the tunnels, the group soon arrived at that cavern.

When the light faded, four figures appeared. Besides Cao Ping, there was a sixty-year-old elder and two middle-aged men in their forties.

The elder walked a circle around the cavern, picked up a few fragments of spirit crystal from the ground, and sensed them for a moment before shaking his head. “This is a dead vein.”

At his words, both middle-aged men looked a bit disappointed.

“Martial Uncle Lianyun, what is a dead vein?” Seeing his elder’s expression, Cao Ping frowned.

“A dead vein is a lode that can no longer produce spirit crystals on its own. The spirit crystals that were here earlier were formed only by accident due to some special cause, and there would not have been many of them. This place has no value anymore.”

After answering a few questions, the elder walked a few more circles around the cavern, then suddenly his expression tightened and he stopped in a corner.

“A spirit-gathering formation…”

Looking at the somewhat crude array lines, the elder stroked his beard and turned to look at Cao Ping.

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“You told me earlier that the one who suddenly intervened was a young woman?”

“Yes. From the look of her, she would not have been more than twenty at most.” Cao Ping nodded.

“Did that woman say anything else?”

Cao Ping thought for a moment, then said, “She claimed to be a Centurion of the Demon-Suppressing Army, named Shi Lan.”

“The Demon-Suppressing Army?!” The elder’s eyes went wide. He took a single long stride to stand before Cao Ping, his expression tense as he demanded,

“You did not get into a fight with the Demon-Suppressing Army, did you?!”

Startled, Cao Ping took a step back. Seeing the elder’s near murderous expression, he hurriedly shook his head. “No, no. We did not fight those Demon-Suppressing Army people.”

The elder let out a long breath and muttered, “Good, good.”

“Martial Uncle Lianyun, is the Demon-Suppressing Army very powerful? Which side do they belong to?”

Seeing this usually steady elder so flustered, Cao Ping was utterly confused. He had only heard the name “Demon-Suppressing Army” in passing and did not know much about them.

“Powerful is putting it mildly. Even the Sacred Martial Immortal Sect cannot afford to provoke the Demon-Suppressing Army.” The elder gave a slight shake of his head.

Standing behind the Demon-Suppressing Army was the entire Imperial Court.