Xiuxian: But It's Not a Game

Chapter 56 Earth Veins Converge, Mysterious Spirit Fish

“It’s developed.”

Su Yu roughly estimated the value of the spoils of war, which totaled more than two hundred gold coins.

Even if the Xuan Snake Sword and the Black Water Pearl are to be used by oneself, the remaining items, plus the replaced Grade 5 Black Water Pearl, are worth a total of about seventy gold.

"You still have to make money by defeating bosses."

One person gets a BOSS kill all to themselves, the rewards are amazing.

After taking stock of the spoils, Su Yu turned around and saw Ao Run lying on the jade pillar in the center of the underwater spirit pool where the Black Water Serpent had just coiled, his glowing dragon whiskers floating up, looking extremely comfortable.

Su Yu swam over and curiously examined the underwater wonder.

The underwater space was entirely filled with water, but the spirit pool and the river were clearly separated into two layers.

As soon as he entered the spirit pool, he immediately felt a cool breeze penetrating into the pores of his skin.

Opening the panel, I saw a series of log messages continuously appearing:

"Prompt: By absorbing the earth vein essence, you have gained 362 points of spiritual power experience."

"Note: Due to unknown factors, you have gained 724 points of spiritual energy experience."

This notification appears approximately every five seconds, and more than a dozen appeared in just a short time.

The so-called spiritual energy experience is the experience of absorbing and refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and it can be used to improve cultivation, just like the experience of killing.

Although there is spiritual energy in the world of the other shore, most places are too thin to be used to improve cultivation. Only some ley lines or spiritual veins have a large amount of spiritual energy. By absorbing spiritual energy in those places, one can continuously gain spiritual power and experience.

The most common are various cave dwellings and immortal abodes, and guild headquarters and sects are basically built on spiritual veins.

If you are lucky enough to obtain and occupy a spiritual vein, you can build a cave on it and use formations to gather a large amount of spiritual energy. This way, you can continuously gain spiritual energy and experience, and improve your cultivation without having to fight monsters.

It takes 724 spiritual energy experience every five seconds, 8688 per minute, and 52 per hour. It's not enough for a 24-hour day, as the meridians can't handle it. Even if it's half that, it would take 12 hours to absorb 625 million spiritual energy experience.

Isn't this better than painstakingly leveling up?

Unfortunately, this place is not a spiritual vein; it's just that spiritual energy leaking from the water vein gathers here.

In just a short while, he and Ao Run absorbed a thick layer of the spiritual liquid that had accumulated at the bottom of the cave.

"It's not breathable!"

Su Yu shook her head, but her movements were not slow as she continued to circulate her magic power to absorb the spiritual energy in the spirit pool.

This is a stroke of luck, and we can't let it go to waste.

The man and the dragon lay there for a full day and night, draining the spiritual pool at the bottom of the cave, which had accumulated over countless years, completely.

He accumulated 1210 million spiritual energy experience points in one go. Ao Run absorbed them much faster than him. It was unknown how much she absorbed, but it was known that her level increased by one.

I was level 131 before, then I leveled up by killing the Blackwater Serpent, and just now I leveled up again, so I'm level 133 now.

After absorbing all the spiritual liquid, spiritual mist continued to seep from under the jade pillar. No one paid attention to it, and spiritual liquid would condense again after a while, but he certainly couldn't stay here for long.

These jade pillars are probably valuable items, but Su Yu couldn't put them away after placing her hand on them.

Looking around, Su Yu turned to Ao Run and asked:

"Go back?"

She didn't answer, but instead swayed to the edge of the underground cave, wandering back and forth in front of the holes of different sizes on the stone wall, as if searching for a certain place.

Su Yu asked in confusion:

"What are you looking for?"

Have you been here before?

Ao Run nodded and said:
"I've been here before. There's a great treasure inside, do you want it?"

"What baby?"

"I don't know either, we'll find out when we go down and take a look."

Su Yu
"Is it dangerous?"

"There could be danger."

"What might be dangerous? How dangerous is it exactly? What's inside?"

"Come with me and you'll see; the treasure inside might be very useful to you."

At this moment, Ao Run had found his target and shrank back to dive into it.

The hole was only the size of a washbasin; even if Ao Run shrunk down to the thickness of his arm, he could squeeze in, but he definitely couldn't.

Su Yu hesitated for a moment, but was persuaded by her. With a thought, she transformed into a celestial ghost, then turned from solid to ethereal, becoming a wisp of smoke that entered the hole.

Although she's always been a free spirit, it's not reckless; every adventure she takes yields great rewards.

Since the treasure inside might be very useful to her, Su Yu felt she could take the risk.

The worst-case scenario is that he dies inside, which is only five or ten years of his life, so he can afford to lose that.

Without going into too much detail, it would be worth dying inside if I could get a high-level flying sword or magic weapon.

After entering the passage, another long detour begins.

The underground caverns are interconnected, and the interiors are not made of stone but of translucent, luminous jade. Faint spiritual mist seeps out from the jade and settles downwards. In some of the recessed areas of the horizontal passages, one can also see puddles of spiritual liquid accumulated.

After descending another ten kilometers, they arrived at another underground cave.

This cave is only two or three hundred meters in diameter, and a layer of spiritual liquid has accumulated at the bottom. A group of small fish with colorful tails are swimming around in the spiritual pool.

These little fish have different colored tails, and several tails can have several different colors.

Ao Run flew into the cave, transformed back into his true form, and swallowed all the small fish with a single breath.

"good to eat!"

He smacked his lips, then reached out and pulled a small fish with red, purple, and green tails from between his teeth, flicking it at Su Yu's face:
"You try too."

Su Yu reached out and took the palm-sized fish, discovering that it was completely transparent, with scales as cool to the touch as jade, and three tails of different colors.

Earth Vein Spirit Fish (Three-tailed): A spiritual creature born from the convergence of earth vein energy and water eye laws, possessing miraculous effects.

Attributes: Physical Strength cap +5, Strength cap +5, with a maximum increase of 1000 points per year.

Note: Depending on individual talent, the increase in physique and strength cap will vary, with a maximum of 10000 points.

He opened his mouth and put the small fish into his mouth. Although it looked alive, it turned into a cool liquid as soon as it entered his throat and flowed into his stomach, quickly seeping into his body.

"Hint: Refining the Earth Vein Spirit Fish (three tails) increases Physique Limit by 10 and Strength Limit by 10."

"The stuff is good, but there's just too little of it."

Su Yu smacked her lips and asked:

"Any more?"

There's more down there.

"Then let's look for it quickly."

Su Yu could clearly sense the disdain in Ao Run's eyes.

It shrunk its size again, searched a little around the spirit cave, and then found a small hole to crawl into.

Then came another few hours of digging through tunnels, turning left and right, crossing more than a dozen forks in the road, until finally finding an exit.

However, after Ao Run found the exit, he did not go down directly. Su Yu followed and looked out of the cave. She couldn't help but gasp.

This is an underground cave several kilometers in diameter, with jade pillars standing at the bottom and pools of spiritual liquid, where spiritual fish from the earth veins swim around everywhere.

There are one, two, and even five fish. In the very center of the spirit pool, surrounded by many earth vein spirit fish, there is a single fish that drags seven earth vein immortal fish of different colors, all glowing.

"So many ley line spirit fish."

However, above the spirit pool in this underground space, eight chains covered with dense runes extended from the jade walls on all sides, converging above the spirit pool and inserting into a white jade stone lock that was suspended in the air and constantly undulating. The surface of this stone lock was covered with dense runes, and layers of clear light composed of fine runes constantly emanated and covered the spirit pool.

Eight Desolate Prison Lock (Rare Item): A special magical artifact capable of suppressing forbidden objects, locking items, capturing spirits, and commanding spirits.

"So this thing is specifically designed to imprison these spirit fish?"

He looked at Ao Run and asked:
"Can you come in?"

Ao Run shook his head and said:
"I could break it open, but I don't dare."

"why?"

"Forcibly breaking through will be discovered by the master of the restriction."

Su Yu said with some surprise:
"You're still afraid?"

"Do you recognize the owner of this restriction?"

“I recognize him. He is the abbot of the Cangtian Temple on the upper reaches of the Yuan River, Cangtian Shangren.”

"Do you recognize any other human cultivators?"

Ao Run rolled his eyes at him.

"Let's go somewhere else."

Since these spirit fish already have owners, there's nothing we can do about it.

Su Yu turned around and left, preparing to return to the previous fork in the road.

However, he suddenly stopped as soon as he started walking, and Ao Run, who was following behind, bumped into his back, making his face twist. He was so angry that he slapped the back of Ao Run's head with his paw, but Ao Run turned into a wisp of smoke and missed.

Su Yu swiftly transformed from solid to ethereal, becoming a wisp of smoke that drifted left and right before disappearing into the sides of the passage, her voice echoing within:
"Tell me, does this Eight Desolations Prison Lock only seal one side, or does it completely encompass all four directions?"

Ao Run thought for a moment and said:
"do not know."

"Then I'll give it a try."

With a thought, Su Yu floated into the jade-like stone wall.

It was probably because the depth was too great and the pressure too high. The jade was extremely hard, and the drilling mana consumption was a bit high this time, but it was still within a tolerable range. In addition, the distance was not far, so he followed the edge and drilled towards the bottom of the underground space he had just been in.

From the perspective of the Heavenly Ghost, one can clearly see a layer of restrictive magic net on the jade base not far away.

He dived all the way down to the bottom, and the net of justice extended there.

They slid all the way down to the very bottom of the Spirit Cave, where the net of law extended as well.

"There really are no blind spots."

Su Yu spent more than ten minutes looking around the entire area, and finally confirmed that there were no loopholes, so she had no choice but to give up and return.

There was no other way but to turn back and take a different route in another direction.

Half an hour later, the man and the dragon arrived at another spirit cave.

Unfortunately, although this spirit cave contains some spiritual liquid, it has no spirit fish.

The man and the dragon did not linger and continued downstream.

Five minutes later, the passage ended, and there was no way down.

The two, one human and one dragon, returned along the same path and took another fork in the road. An hour later, they found another large spirit cave. In this spirit cave, they saw the second Eight Desolate Prison Lock, as well as countless earth vein spirit fish sealed in the spirit pool inside.

"Could this place be the fish farm of that so-called celestial being who hides in the heavens?"

"Probably."

Finding one is an accident, but finding them in succession is no longer an accident.

Two hours later, the man and the dragon discovered the third fish farm locked by the Eight Desolations Town Prison Lock.

Su Yu didn't say anything, and followed Ao Run to change routes and continue down. Half an hour later, they reached the end of the road again.

Su Yu stopped as she turned around, and asked with a suspicious look:

"You haven't forgotten the way, have you?"

Ao Run rubbed her chin with her small, delicate hands and said with certainty:
"I haven't forgotten, it's just that all these roads are the same, I just mistook one for another."

"Really?"

She was somewhat embarrassed and angry:
"If you don't believe me, then forget it and let's go back."

"Wait."

Su Yu reached out and grabbed her tail, pulling her back, then transformed back into her true form and shoved her into her arms:
"You go into the spirit cage, I'll go down underground and take a look."

The blue jade dragon swayed from side to side, its claws on its hips, and shouted loudly:
"You do not trust me?"

"I believe you, I was just taking a shortcut."

"Humph!"

There might be a way out, but she didn't insist. She tossed her head and disappeared into the spirit cage.

Su Yu shook his head speechlessly, transformed back into a Heavenly Ghost, but instead of diving down directly, he opened the panel to prepare for an upgrade.

It took a full 40 million cultivation points and 175 points of Taoist cultivation to upgrade the Heavenly Ghost Transformation Technique to level 50, successfully generating the Earthly Divine Thunder, one of the Five Elements Thunder Techniques.

Fifty-Layer Heavenly Ghost Transformation: 100000 Health, 20000 Mana, 3000 Physique, 5000 Strength, 2000 km/h Speed, Heavenly Ghost Body, Five Elements Escape Technique, Illusion-Reality Transformation, Gui Water Divine Thunder, Bing Fire Divine Thunder, Geng Metal Divine Thunder, Xu Earth Divine Thunder.

The Five Elements Thunder Technique is only missing the Wood Divine Thunder.

At this moment, Su Yu still had 14381 million killing experience points and 823 points of cultivation, which was basically the accumulation from leaving the Crimson Sky Sword Meridian to now, just over a month ago.

With Ao Run's Midnight Cold Wave ability to gather monsters and farm in groups, he can accumulate about six million cultivation points a day, reaching as high as 180 million a month.

The remaining cultivation points are enough to raise either the Daoist Sword Technique or the Heavenly Ghost Transformation Technique by ten levels.

After considering it for a while, Su Yu decided to postpone the promotion and discuss it later.

If it's enough, keep it to improve your sword technique; if it's not enough, then improve it again.

With the panel closed, a thought transformed reality into illusion, turning into a wisp of smoke that disappeared into the jade beneath his feet.

When he burrows into the soil, he can clearly sense his surroundings.

He quickly descended, expending his mana. About seven minutes later, he sensed something unusual at the edge of his body. He rushed closer and discovered it was a hole as thick as a thigh.

He adjusted his direction and went down the hole, and after a few minutes he saw the end of the hole.

Continuing down through the hole, this time it took more than ten minutes to find an underground cave. Peeking out from the cave wall, my eyes lit up. This spiritual cave had a spiritual pool and spiritual fish, but no Eight Desolate Prison Lock.

He immediately jumped out from above the spirit cave, the spirit cage at his waist vibrated, and Ao Run emerged, joyfully rushing down.

"Depend on!"

Su Yu grabbed her tail and flung her back, then quickly jumped into the spirit pool. She grabbed the fattest five-tailed earth vein spirit fish and stuffed it into her mouth. She then wrapped her arms around the other fish and saw Ao Run transform back into her true form, which was over a hundred meters tall. She opened her mouth and sucked in the remaining dozens of spirit fish.

"Save some for me."

He hurriedly stuffed the few pieces into his mouth, then flew to Ao Run's mouth and rummaged inside, grabbing one that hadn't been swallowed yet and pulling it out.

"Hint: Refining the Earth Vein Spirit Fish (five tails) increases Physique Limit by 30 and Strength Limit by 30."

"Note: Due to unknown factors, the maximum physical strength has been increased by 60, and the maximum strength has been increased by 60."

"Hint: Refining the Earth Vein Spirit Fish (four tails) increases Physique Limit by 10 and Strength Limit by 10."

"Hint: Unknown factors are affecting physical condition."

There are seven in total: one with five tails, two with four tails, one with three tails, and three with two tails, which together increase physique and strength by 64 points. With the double bonus from the talent, they together increase physique and strength by 128 points.

"Hurrah!"

Su Yu wiped her mouth, put Ao Run away again, and waited for the Heavenly Ghost's magic power to recover before continuing to descend.

(End of this chapter)