The Wandering Immortal

Chapter 101 Moving into the Spirit Stone Mine

Of the five major Daoist sects, the Taiyi Sect suffered the most severe losses in the South China Sea. Only one Nascent Soul cultivator escaped, and the entire talisman ship collapsed. This was naturally because they had always been domineering, blocking others and getting too close to the sealing formation.

Regarding how to divide the Laoshan industry, during the negotiations among the several major sects, the Taiyi Sect remained domineering, wanting to seize the Laoshan sect's foundation.

The Qingcheng Sect had been hostile to Luofu Mountain for many years, so it naturally sided with the Taiyi Sect without hesitation. The Kongtong Sect was also closer to the Taiyi Sect, leaving the Emei Sect as the only sect that Luofu Mountain could win over.

In fact, during the three-year war, Luofu Mountain and Emei Sect were the main forces, while the other three factions only sent a few small teams to harass the rear of Laoshan.

But when it comes to distributing the benefits, strength still matters.

Chu Yunfei was not a reckless person, and naturally knew that Luofu Mountain could not challenge the Taiyi Sect.

So they came up with a plan to give the Laoshan sect's territory, including the land north of Laoshan, to the Taiyi sect. As for Qingcheng and Kongtong, they could only share the profits from the Taiyi sect's gains.

South of Laoshan Mountain, including the maritime sphere of influence, all belonged to Luofu Mountain and the Emei Sect.

Chu Yunfei naturally wanted to create a trap for the Taiyi Sect. The original blessed land of Laoshan had been breached, and the spiritual energy had dissipated. Although the sect's location was a good place, it was not of much use.

After the Taiyi Sect acquired those territories, they still had to distribute them to the Kongtong and Qingcheng sects, which inevitably led to disputes and conflicts.

Laoshan's main industries are actually in the south, including three spirit stone veins and five metal veins, etc.

Luofu Mountain was even very generous to Emei Mountain, sending out its main force and suffering countless casualties, yet gaining the least benefit.

After Chu Yunfei returned to the sect, the three Nascent Soul elders thought they had found a handle against him and went to confront Master Zhu, saying that Chu Yunfei was weak in dealing with outsiders and had caused the sect to suffer huge losses.

Chu Yunfei shared his thoughts in front of Master Zhu.

The Taiyi Sect had nothing to offer to the Kongtong and Qingcheng Sects. In contrast, the Emei Sect, despite sending only a hundred or so disciples to participate in the battle, obtained a spirit stone mine and two metal mines, which would inevitably arouse the jealousy of the Kongtong and Qingcheng Sects.

As long as those few companies have conflicts, it will ultimately be most beneficial to Luofu Mountain.

The resources that Luofu Mountain obtains are all south of the Yangtze River, far away from the two spirit stone mines near Laoshan Mountain. Even if they fight, it will not affect Luofu Mountain.

Sure enough, just three days later, Kongtong and Emei started fighting near Laoshan. It was a fairly large-scale conflict, with Golden Core cultivators involved.

When the Taiyi Sect sent people to take over Laoshan, they found that it was just an empty shell, with even the sect's armory and medicine garden being emptied.

Naturally, Chu Yunfei made the first move, distributing the odds and ends to several small sects.

Those minor sects and independent cultivators weren't dissatisfied either. They weren't qualified to take the mines and territory; even if they did, they wouldn't be able to hold onto them and would only endanger their own lives.

Qin Feihong was the one who took over the Laoshan sect from the Taiyi sect, and he both loved and hated Chu Yunfei.

That guy was too cunning; he gained the benefits but left a mess for the Taiyi Sect to deal with.

At the same time, Qin Feihong harbored a sliver of hope that if they could become Daoist partners in the future, it wouldn't be a bad thing if her man was smart!
However, Qin Feihong also knew that a hundred years ago, when they were all still in the early stages of the Golden Core realm, they held no important positions and could be expelled from the sect for making a mistake. It was also common for female cultivators to marry outside the sect. But things were different now. Chu Yunfei was the young master of Luofu Mountain and there was no way she could start her own sect. She herself was also one of the inner elders of the Taiyi Sect, so it was unlikely that she could leave as well.

Every time Qin Feihong took out the Green Fox Bow to play with it, he kept thinking about Cui Qinghe's words. Chu Yunfei cultivated the Yuan Yang Technique, and once he condensed his Nascent Soul, he could have a Daoist partner. The Su Nu Technique was a dual cultivation technique, so neither of them could be called an implication.

Whenever he thinks of this, even a man over a hundred years old can't help but blush with embarrassment.

……

Li Shouzhong relayed the message back to Tamna Island, confirming that no one mentioned the Silla mine in the distribution of profits from Laoshan.

However, the Taiyi Sect acquired the Laoshan Sect's territory, and the inner sect elder Qin Feihong took over. Shen Wangzhi was somewhat worried, as the Taiyi Sect had been even more domineering than Laoshan in the past, and with the new territory, they would inevitably expand into the surrounding areas.

Jiang Yuan was greatly relieved to hear that it was Qin Feihong, but he didn't want to say it outright.

Alternatively, Silla could be considered part of the territory of the Sashin religion, and the dragon vein where the spirit stone is located is a branch of Changbai Mountain.

Laoshan kept the spirit stone mine very secret, undoubtedly because they feared the Sashen Cult would find out. The Taiyi Sect might invade Tamna Island, but it's not necessarily going to harass Northern Silla.

We can start working on the underwater spirit stone mine now.

Although Wanghailou only has ten people, six of them are Golden Core cultivators, and the youngest, Nanzhi, has already reached the Foundation Establishment stage. They can all be considered elite soldiers and strong generals.

Jiang Yuan first set up a defensive array underwater near the spirit stone mine to drain the water out of the array before clearing away the collapsed rubble.

Three days later, a passage half a mile deep was cleared out, and the cave walls were reinforced with earth magic and maintained with array formations.

Renovating a mine shaft is naturally more troublesome than digging a new one, requiring constant clearing of debris, drainage, and reinforcement, making progress quite slow.

After working for half a month, the ten people perked up when they saw the glowing spirit stone mines all over the ground.

Jiang Yuan spent time building a gate to the cave, which is one mile underwater and includes illusion and defense arrays to ensure that no seawater can seep into the cave.

The collapsed ground was repaired, and the surrounding layout was modified. Even if a feng shui master came, he could not tell that there was a spiritual vein in this place.

The previously loose cave entrance was smoothed out, allowing Cui Qinghe to cultivate a small grove of trees there, filled with thorns and poisonous spikes, making it impossible for even ordinary people to approach.

Jiang Yuan doesn't plan to open any doors in the ground; at most, he'll add a few sun vents and ventilation holes.

Once the interior had been cleared to a radius of several miles, Cui Qinghe began to build her cave dwelling, using wood-based magic to create doors, windows, partitions, and living utensils.

After waiting at sea for more than a month and working hard for another month, everyone is exhausted and needs to rest for a few days.

They've only cleared a temporary cave dwelling, yet they've already obtained about 700,000 to 800,000 spirit stones. Jiang Yuan estimates that this vein is still more than ten miles deep, and once it's dug through, there might even be a spirit spring. This hidden branch of Changbai Mountain contains a considerable amount of spiritual energy.

Don't mine spirit stones for now. We're all living in the mine, so we can't run away. Focus on digging a tunnel towards the front of the spirit vein and dig out the spirit spring first.

Because it requires the work of many people, it needs to be at least two zhang wide and one zhang high. After that, it can serve as the main passage of the cave. Once the surrounding spirit stones are dug out, they can be converted into cave rooms.

The spiritual spring likely has a large volume of water, so drainage ditches were prepared in advance. Moreover, they are not in a straight line, but rather the spiritual spring flows in an arc around the cave, making the spiritual energy more abundant.

Another month passed, and finally the spiritual spring was unearthed. It was a small waterfall about half a zhang wide, flowing down gently. In two days, it filled the cave's ditches, which were more than 20 li deep, and every room, including the passageway, was filled with spiritual energy.

Jiang Yuan modified the entrance to the Spirit Spring Cave to prevent the water from flowing too fast, lest it flood the cave and waste spiritual energy. As long as there is a source of fresh water to keep the spiritual energy abundant, that will be fine.

Once the spiritual energy has dissipated completely through a channel over twenty miles deep, it can be discharged into the sea. We'll need to observe it for a few more days to achieve a balance.

Only when it possesses spiritual energy can it be considered a celestial abode.

After the ten people from Wanghailou unearthed the spiritual spring, they rested for seven days.

Over the course of seven days, Jiang Yuan and Shen Wangzhi planned the layout of the cave dwelling. First, they needed to expand the area by building a council hall, roughly half a mile in circumference. The arena, on the other hand, needed to be at least three mile in circumference and at least one mile high; the project was considerable.

Little did they know, digging up the arena would uncover a huge problem!

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(End of this chapter)