Cultivation Begins From The Desert

In the valley where the "Thunder Rhinoceros Beast" resides, the most valuable things are naturally the two Tier Three "Thunder Wood" trees. These, along with the "Thunder Rhinoceros Beast" headbone and rhino hide Zhouyang had previously obtained, now make up a complete set of materials for refining a Tier Three thunder attribute array.

Besides the two "Thunder Wood" trees, Zhouyang also discovered a Tier Two spirit fruit tree in the valley, which also had a thunder attribute aura, and collected dozens of mature spirit fruits.

Generally, these types of thunder attribute spirit fruits have the effect of tempering the physical magical power of cultivators and are quite useful spiritual objects.

Additionally, after thoroughly searching the valley, Zhouyang found more than twenty spirit herbs, including two Tier Three spirit herbs, making for a rather substantial harvest.

After searching the valley, he did not linger, immediately releasing his flying sword and heading to the next location.

This Rhino Horn Continent is a super large oasis, and there is definitely more than one Tier Three spiritual vein here, so he naturally needs to take this opportunity to thoroughly search the area.

He had just flown not far away when a thunderous explosion suddenly came from the direction of the "Holy Mountain". At the same time, a destructive wave of spiritual qi rose.

"That is... that must be a Golden Core self-destruction!"

Zhouyang's expression changed; this scene seemed somewhat familiar to him.

Back when the Blood Nether self-destructed its Golden Core outside the oasis where the Yin Puppet Sect's ruins were, he also felt this kind of destructive spiritual qi fluctuation.

"The one who self-destructed the Golden Core surely isn't Elder Cao. In that case, it can only be that [Golden-Horned Rhinoceros]. I didn't expect this demon beast to be so resolute, willing to self-destruct its demon pill that it painstakingly cultivated for a thousand years!"

Demon beasts begin to condense demon pills from Tier Four, so most Tier Five demon beasts' demon pills are actually things they have painstakingly condensed over a thousand or several thousand years.

To abandon something that is so closely tied to one's life and has accompanied them for a thousand years is not easy, and it can even be said that it is harder to accept than death.

If you were to ask a Golden Core cultivator to choose between losing all cultivation and dying, they would definitely rather choose death!

Mortal high officials in the secular world, after tasting the flavor of power and then losing it, feel it is worse than death. Let alone a cultivator who wields great power.

Tier Five demon beasts' intelligence is already close to that of a normal adult, capable of thinking and learning. Though their beastly instincts remain, their intelligence suppresses it just like in humans.

So they also fiercely care about their power, the power that grants them wisdom, often preferring death over losing this power.

Zhouyang did not know what caused the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros" to make the decision to self-destruct its demon pill. He only knew that with the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros" self-destructing its demon pill, this war should soon come to a conclusion.

As long as Cao Wenjin isn't severely injured by the demon pill self-destruction to the point where he can't act, otherwise, with his late Golden Core stage strength, dealing with those Tier Four demon beasts would be as easy as cutting melons and vegetables.

"Looks like I have to head back first!"

He heaved a long sigh, decisively dismissing the idea of continuing to search for treasures, deciding to head back to "report" instead.

Compared to the little gain he might get from Rhino Horn Continent, leaving a good impression on Cao Wenjin was clearly more important.

If he returns now, even if found temporarily absent from the battlefield, he can come up with several perfect reasons to explain.

But if he waits until the war there is completely over to return, unless he stabs himself and claims to have fled severely injured for recovery, there's no way he could explain it.

However, just as he was halfway back, he suddenly stopped his sword light, full of shock as he looked toward the northwestern sky.

In the sky to the northwest, a seven-colored pillar of spiritual qi suddenly appeared, soaring into the sky, emitting incredibly intense spiritual qi fluctuations.

He stared in shock at the seven-colored spiritual qi pillar, unable to help but murmur, "Spiritual Qi Soaring, colored in seven colors, it's either an exotic treasure being born, or someone has discovered a spirit stone ore!"

Before his words fell, he flashed a sharp look in his eyes, and without another word, tapped his spirit beast bag at his waist to release the Eagle Lion Beast, then stepped onto its back, commanding it to rush to that location with all its might.

Zhouyang was originally only a few hundred miles from the location of the seven-colored light pillar, and with the Eagle Lion Beast flying at full speed, it took only two quarters of an hour to reach the scene carrying Zhouyang.

By this time, after two quarters of an hour of release, the spiritual qi within the seven-colored pillar was already completely dissipated, and the sky returned to normal.

When Zhouyang arrived at the scene, he saw a vast grassy field with an opening several zhang wide leading underground. The pure spiritual qi emanating from the opening evidenced that the seven-colored spiritual qi pillar had indeed emanated from there.

He looked at the opening, continuously emanating rich spiritual qi, suppressing the urge to dive in, and loudly announced, "I am Zhouyang, Clan Leader of the Yuquan Zhou Clan. May I know which fellow Daoist is inside?"

Unfortunately, a while passed after his words fell, and there was no response from inside, as if the other party had no intention of acknowledging him.

This made Zhouyang's expression darken, and he couldn't help but coldly shout, "If you, fellow Daoist, refuse to speak, then do not blame me, Zhou, for being discourteous."

Before his shout had ended, he retrieved the Eagle Lion Beast and dove straight into the opening.

It is worth noting that inside spirit stone ores, there is always a special force field that suppresses the divine sense of cultivators.

The strength of this special force field is closely related to the reserves of the spirit stone mine. The greater the reserves, the stronger the suppression on a cultivator's divine sense within.

It is said that in those super-large spirit stone mines with reserves over a billion, even Nascent Soul Stage cultivators cannot extend their divine sense beyond a thousand feet.

Therefore, generally speaking, when cultivators discover a spirit stone mine, they will gather a large number of Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators to work as miners.

The reason for using Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators as miners is twofold: firstly, because the rocks and sand within the spirit stone mine, having long been nurtured by dense spiritual qi, are as hard as steel, making it difficult for mortal miners to excavate.

Secondly, even if Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators cannot extend their divine sense outside their bodies, they can still use the "Celestial Eye Technique" to observe the strength of spiritual qi, making it easier to find spirit stones within the mine.

However, don't think that being a miner is merely hard and humiliating work.

In fact, while being a miner in a spirit stone mine is indeed hard work, the abundant spiritual qi within the mine is an unparalleled attraction for many low-tier loose cultivators without a fixed place for cultivation.

Therefore, whenever the Yellow Sand Sect recruits workers for their spirit stone mines, loose cultivators scramble for a spot, sometimes even resorting to bribing the recruitment stewards for a chance.

Zhouyang had never been inside a spirit stone mine, but he was well aware of the special force field within.

So, after entering the cave and finding his divine sense suppressed, he was not alarmed but delighted.

After fully extending his divine sense, he couldn't help but mutter to himself, "My divine sense is already comparable to a Purple Mansion Stage cultivator's, yet after just entering the cave, it is suppressed to less than three hundred feet. This means this spirit stone mine is certainly not a micro one; it is at least a small mine with reserves in the millions!"

A small spirit stone mine not only represents millions of spirit stones but also indicates the presence of top-grade spirit stones.

If he could dig up a top-grade spirit stone, even if it was just one, this trip to the Rhino Horn Continent would be profitable even if there were no other gains.

Even if he couldn't find a top-grade spirit stone, extracting more middle-grade spirit stones would also be profit.

As for handing over the spirit stones to Cao Wenjin if he arrives later, Zhouyang hadn't considered that at all.

Unless Cao Wenjin was truly insane, he wouldn't do such a thing.

After all, how can one distinguish whether the spirit stones in someone's storage bag are newly mined or previously owned?

And barring any surprises, this spirit stone mine will ultimately be taken over by the Yellow Sand Sect.

In such a case, if they do not even allow the person who discovered the spirit stone mine a sip of soup, it would be more than just bad manners.

It was precisely with these thoughts in mind that Zhouyang rushed over immediately upon discovering the phenomenon of Spiritual Qi Soaring.

It is a justifiable reason for a cultivator to investigate when an "Exotic Treasure emerges."

Of course, Zhouyang didn't forget the existence of the person who actually discovered the spirit stone mine.

So he blinked as he entered the underground mine, not following the mine deeper but using his flying sword to open another mining tunnel along the cave wall.

He did this partly to avoid making enemies for no reason and partly because time was precious; rather than wasting time fighting, it was more practical to excavate a few more spirit stones before Cao Wenjin arrived.

The person inside probably thought the same, which is why they didn't bother responding to his previous words.

The sword light danced, and the hard soil and rocks in the spirit stone mine were easily sliced like tofu under the sharp edge of the Tier Three Flying Sword.

Though Zhouyang's divine sense was heavily suppressed, it wasn't entirely impeded, so he wasn't worried about accidentally damaging buried spirit stones in the soil and sand ahead.

As he carved out a mining path with spiritual sense sword control, he continuously used the "Object Capturing Technique" to collect the extracted spirit stones into his storage bag.

The extracted spirit stones varied in size and needed to be cut into standard pieces for common use.

But Zhouyang was certainly not going to waste time doing that now, especially since lower-grade spirit stones weren't worth the effort.

Even if such stones had to be handed over, the loss wouldn't be significant, and he wouldn't waste time on such matters now.

While Zhouyang acted as a miner excavating in the spirit stone mine, Cao Wenjin swallowed a precious Tier Four Top Grade Healing Spirit Pill to suppress the injuries caused by the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros" self-detonating its demon pill. He then began clearing the remaining Tier Four demon beasts.

By the time he finished clearing all the Tier Four demon beasts, it had been nearly an hour since the appearance of the spiritual qi pillar of light.

"Zhennan, you are in charge of leading people to clear the remaining demon beasts and collect the spoils of war. I will first go check on the reason for the Spiritual Qi Soaring over there!"

Taking a deep breath to energize himself, tired from looking towards the direction of the spiritual qi column, Cao Wenjin delegated the concluding tasks to Li Zhennan and then flew towards the spirit stone mine location on a cloud.