Starting with a daily divination to build an immortal clan

Chapter 171 Seizing the Spirit Mine
Although she had already heard that the giant centipede had been subdued by the master and become "one of their own," Shi Miao still instinctively took a step back upon seeing such a terrifying beast and feeling the terrifying aura emanating from the giant centipede, her eyes filled with fear.

After realizing what was happening, and seemingly afraid of being disliked by Shen Chongming, he mustered his courage and moved closer.

The centipede leader had already sensed Shen Chongming's aura, and immediately lowered its head, its compound eyes darting around in a very obsequious manner.

“Big centipede, I need your help.” Shen Chongming squatted down and said, “About a hundred miles to the west, there seems to be a group of barbarians from the Western Wilderness mining a vein.”

“There are cultivators guarding the outer perimeter, so my family can’t get through. Could you let your descendants sneak in and take a look, and hopefully find out what kind of mineral vein it is?”

The Shen family's spies recently ventured deep into another half of Hidden Dragon Mountain and discovered that the barbarians seemed to be mining a vein, but there were many cultivators patrolling the perimeter, so they couldn't sneak in to investigate.

Shen Yuan once taught him that when dealing with others, knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to victory.

He came here to ask the centipede leader for help in figuring out what the Western Wilderness barbarians were mining, how many people were at the mine, and their approximate strength.

Only by understanding these things can a surprise attack plan be formulated.

After much simple-minded contemplation, the centipede leader finally understood Shen Chongming's meaning.

It nodded its head in response.

Shen Chongming vaguely understood that it was probably saying that it was all under its control.

"Thank you, big centipede."

Shen Chongming stood up and took out a fragment of a spirit crystal from his pocket.

"Will this be useful to you?"

The centipede leader looked at the spirit crystal fragment, sensing the rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth within it. Its compound eyes were filled with joy, and it nodded its enormous head repeatedly.

Seeing this, Shen Chongming immediately threw the spirit crystal fragment over.

The centipede leader opened its large mouth and inhaled slightly, directly sucking the spirit crystal fragment into its belly.

Shen Chongming clapped his hands and said, "I'll bring you some spirit rice next time I come. Let your insects and offspring get to work first."

The centipede leader nodded and then let out a sharp screech.

Moments later, countless centipedes emerged from the poisonous miasma, their sheer number sending chills down one's spine!

None of these centipedes were demonic beasts; they were just ordinary poisonous insects.

Even if they were discovered by the cultivators of the Western Wilderness Barbarians, they wouldn't think much of it.

After all, it's not unusual to find centipedes in these mountains and forests.

Seeing how quickly it worked, Shen Chongming smiled.

"You should know about our camp now. If you have any news, send one of your men to find me."

"gone."

Watching the two figures disappear into the distance, the centipede leader raised its head, feeling the spirit crystal fragments being slowly refined within its body, and let out a strange squeak.

"This little two-legged creature is actually quite nice..."

"Much better than that cold-hearted guy from before."

Once Shen Chongming and his companion had completely disappeared, its form slowly shrank back into the poisonous miasma.

……

More than ten days later, a small centipede crawled into Shen Chongming's wooden house. Seeing that Shen Chongming was cultivating, the little thing obediently lay there without moving.

When Shen Chongming woke up from his cultivation and saw the little centipede lying in front of him, he immediately understood that there must have been news from the big centipede.

He immediately got up, picked up the small centipede, put it in a small cloth bag, and headed towards the poisonous miasma forest.

When he arrived, the centipede leader seemed to have sensed his presence, and its head emerged from the poisonous miasma as it waited.

After sensing the divine sense, Shen Chongming held his breath and focused his mind to sense it before nodding slightly.

The Shen family spies were right; those barbarian tribes of the Western Wilderness were indeed mining a spirit mine.

The giant centipede didn't know what the spirit mine was either, only that there were more than thirty "two-legged beast kings" in the spirit mine.

After another conversation, Shen Chongming finally understood that the "two-legged beast king" it mentioned meant a human cultivator.

Unfortunately, the giant centipede only sent out insects and offspring that had not yet reached the level of demon beasts, so it had no way of figuring out the specific cultivation levels of those Western Wilderness cultivators.

"squeak!"

Seeing Shen Chongming deep in thought, the centipede leader suddenly let out a strange cry, and another divine sense came through.

"You're going to send a child at the level of a demon beast to attack that mine?"

Shen Chongming looked at it with some surprise.

The giant centipede immediately nodded.

It seemed to understand that without doing so, it would be impossible to ascertain the strength of those "two-legged beast kings".

"No, no," Shen Chongming waved his hand and said, "There are dozens of cultivators there. If your child goes, he might get beaten to death."

"Squeak!"

Hearing how much Shen Chongming cared about its child, the centipede leader, possessing little intelligence, was deeply moved and immediately twisted its body, letting out a strange cry.

The poisonous miasma around him surged, and in a moment a centipede several meters long with a silver thread running through its head and tail emerged.

Upon seeing the silver centipede, Shen Chongming could vaguely sense that its cultivation level was slightly higher than his own, probably around the fifth or sixth level of Qi Refining.

The centipede leader let out a strange cry, and segments of its divine sense transmitted through it.

The gist of it is saying that their child is very capable and intelligent.

Shen Chongming pondered for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he said, "I've thought of a good idea..."

The man and the beast chatted for a long time, and then the silver-threaded centipede hurriedly crawled towards the distant mine.

Shen Chongming took a cloth bag out of his pocket.

"This stuff is pretty good too, and more importantly, it smells better than spirit crystal fragments."

The bag contained some spirit rice.

Compared to spirit crystal fragments, spirit rice tastes better and is easier to absorb and refine.

The centipede leader happily swallowed the spirit rice, and then reluctantly watched Shen Chongming leave.

...In a secluded valley on the west side of Hidden Dragon Mountain, thousands of Western Wilderness barbarians were numbly busy in the valley.

There is a water smoke stone vein here, a spiritual mine that the disciples of Hundred Beasts Mountain found some time ago using the vein-finding technique.

After discovering the spirit mine, they recruited thousands of ordinary people and dozens of cultivators from the Western Wilderness Barbarians to mine it.

The cultivators were responsible for protecting the mine and preventing monsters from attacking it, while the ordinary people served as laborers, digging for water smoke stones in the mountains.

Water smoke stone is a low-grade but high-quality refining material, and its value is even higher than that of green spirit stone.

Hundred Beasts Mountain attaches great importance to this mine and has specially dispatched two disciples at the seventh level of Qi Refining to guard the valley.

Besides these two disciples at the seventh level of Qi Refining, there were more than thirty barbarian cultivators at the third to sixth levels of Qi Refining.

In the dense thicket, the silver-threaded centipede had silently crawled to a spot not far from a cultivator from the Western Wilderness.

A cunning glint flashed in his cold compound eyes, and then he slowly crawled toward the Western Wilderness barbarian cultivator who was cultivating.

A moment later, a shrill scream rang out from the forest!
"There's a monster!"

"There's a monster!"

The Western Wilderness barbarian cultivator limped and ran wildly, shouting!

Instantly, several figures rushed over from the surrounding area.

Where is the monster?

"where?"

By the time the six Western Wilderness barbarian cultivators arrived, the silver-threaded centipede had already vanished without a trace.

The poison in the Western Wilderness barbarian cultivator who was attacked by it was taking effect, and his entire body was turning a dark purple color.

After successfully striking, the silver-threaded centipede hurriedly crawled away to another location.

Through repeated sneak attacks, it has determined the number and cultivation level of the barbarian cultivators guarding the perimeter.

With cultivators being attacked by demonic beasts one after another, the barbarian cultivators on the outskirts had no choice but to report the matter to the disciples of Hundred Beasts Mountain who were guarding the valley.

When the two disciples from Hundred Beasts Mountain heard that the attacking monster was so cunning, they were suspicious but also instantly intrigued.

As immortal sects that deal with demons and beasts year-round, they know very well that, apart from bloodline, the higher the intelligence of a demon, the greater its future achievements.

For example, the giant white wolf in the hands of Yang Xun, the chief disciple of Hundred Beasts Mountain, was only at the late stage of Qi Refining, yet it was already able to communicate with its master through simple spiritual senses.

Besides, most of the battle beast companions of other Qi Refining disciples can only understand some simple commands.

Now that they suddenly learned of this highly intelligent monster, the two immediately felt an urge to capture it.

Somewhere in the mountains, the silver-threaded centipede was wondering how to confirm whether there were any other two-legged beast kings in the mine when it suddenly sensed four strong spiritual energy fluctuations flying out from the mine.

Two of them were demonic beasts, while the other two were clearly human cultivators!
The silver-threaded centipede immediately recalled the instructions given to it by its leader before it came here.

After only briefly sensing the other party's presence, he fled the place at breakneck speed.

Two disciples from Hundred Beasts Mountain arrived with their war beasts, only to find that the silver-threaded centipede had already escaped. They wanted to give chase, but remembering they needed to guard the mine and prevent any accidents, they had no choice but to return disappointed.

After meeting the centipede leader again, Shen Chongming also learned from it about the strength and number of Western Wilderness cultivators in the mine.

Back at the camp, he was conflicted.

His original intention was not only to hunt down the cultivators of the Western Wilderness Barbarian Clan, but also to find a way to plunder some spirit ore from the mines.

But now that they know there are disciples from Hundred Beasts Mountain stationed inside the spirit mine, they dare not make any rash moves.

After much thought, he picked up his pen and wrote a letter to report the news to his father.

When Shen Wenxing received the letter, he fell into deep thought.

Although spirit ore is not as valuable as spirit crystal ore, it is still very important to the major immortal sects.

The Shen family and Hundred Beasts Mountain had already become enemies, and upon learning this news, they naturally could not stand idly by and watch them continue their mining operations peacefully.

However, Mount Luoxia is now locked in a fierce battle with the Suihuo Sect, and the Shen family, with its own strength, has no way to forcibly seize that spirit mine.

After some thought, Shen Wenxing had an idea.

He gave some instructions and then hurriedly arrived at Yunzhong County.

……

"So, Brother Shen means to recruit the Vajra Sect?" Wei Qiuling smiled faintly.

Shen Wenxing nodded and asked, "What do you think should be done about the distribution of the spirit mine that Fairy Wei has seized?"

Wei Qiuling did not answer immediately.

Theoretically speaking, Luoxia Mountain naturally doesn't want other immortal sects to share a piece of the spiritual mine.

However, at present, Luoxia Mountain does have to be wary of the Suihuo Sect and cannot devote too much power to targeting Baishou Mountain. Therefore, bringing in the Vajra Sect is a good option.

However, she was having trouble deciding on the distribution of the profits.

Seeing her hesitation, Shen Wenxing immediately smiled and said, "Fairy Wei, how about my Shen family only takes 10% of this mine, and the remaining 90% belongs to Luoxia Mountain and the Vajra Sect?"

He knew that Wei Qiuling was probably in a difficult position because she wanted the Vajra Sect to intervene, and the benefits would have to be substantial.

The Vajra Sect took the lion's share, so the Shen family had to give them some too.

Giving too little will hurt feelings, while giving too much will leave Luoxia Mountain with very little to gain.

Hearing Shen Wenxing say this, Wei Qiuling was somewhat surprised, then laughed and said, "Brother Shen is so righteous, Qiuling is being too kind."

"If that's the case, then give the Vajra Sect 60%, that should be enough."

"Brother Shen, please wait a moment. Qiu Ling will send someone to invite Fellow Daoist Jin Sheng over to discuss this matter."

Upon Jin Sheng's arrival, he heard that Luoxia Mountain and the Shen family had invited his Vajra Sect to seize the spirit mines of Hundred Beast Mountain. Without much thought, he immediately slapped his thigh and agreed.

If this had happened in the past, he might have hesitated.

However, now that Hundred Beasts Mountain is entangled with Qiyun Valley and the Shen family, even if the Vajra Gate intervenes, Hundred Beasts Mountain cannot spare too much power to target the Vajra Gate.

Taking on very little risk to reap substantial profits makes this a sure-fire way to make money.

The three agreed on the division of profits and arranged for their disciples to gather in Yunshui Town before launching their attack together.

(End of this chapter)