Chapter 149: Spirit Mine

After saying this, Old Zhao fainted again.

It seemed this phrase was his obsession; since falling from the cliff, he had clung to this breath solely to utter it.

"Old Master Feng!" Elder Yu exclaimed.

Old Master Feng stepped forward, checked his pulse, examined his meridians, and sighed in relief:

"No harm done—he merely fainted. Let him rest. I'll go refine some more pills."

"Thank you, Old Master Feng," Elder Yu said gratefully.

After Old Master Feng left the room, Elder Yu's expression turned solemn.

There's a spirit mine inside Great Heishan!

Elder Yu paced a few steps inside the room, then stopped and summoned a beast-hunting master:

"Go, notify Yu Chengyi. Gather all the lead beast-hunting masters—I have something to announce!"

The beast-hunting master bowed and left; Mo Hua then asked curiously:

"Elder Yu, what is a spirit mine?"

Mo Hua knew only that spirit mines contained spirit stones; beyond that, he had no clear understanding.

Seeing there was still time before the beast-hunting masters would gather, Elder Yu patiently explained to Mo Hua:

"Cultivators need spiritual energy, but spiritual energy in the natural world is scarce. Only a few famous mountains and great rivers still concentrate it; in remote places like our Xiancheng, spiritual energy has thinned to the point where it can no longer support cultivation."

"Thus, cultivators must rely on spirit stones to cultivate, and the source of spirit stones is the spirit mine."

"A spirit mine is formed over countless years when dense spiritual energy or mist from ancient times solidified, merged with mountain rock, and was buried beneath the earth by geological shifts…"

"Some are formed when ancient spirit beasts, vast fields of spirit herbs, or other spirit-rich entities were buried underground due to cosmic catastrophes or upheavals, their spiritual essence eventually dissolving into the earth to form a mine…"

Mo Hua nodded, and a question occurred to him:

"I've read that ancient cultivators could move mountains and reverse seas, steal heaven and alter day—was spiritual energy scarce even in their time?"

"That…," Elder Yu thought for a moment, "is said to have been the opposite: in ancient times, spiritual energy was extremely abundant. Only after a great calamity did the cosmic order shift, and spiritual energy gradually thin out."

"What kind of great calamity?"

"I don't know. These are all legends—vague, uncertain, and impossible to tell truth from falsehood."

After speaking, Elder Yu added:

"Another reason spiritual energy is scarce is that there are simply too many cultivators now…"

"Before Dao Ting Si unified the cultivation world, rival factions waged endless wars, leaving countless lives destroyed and cultivators slaughtered. After Dao Ting Si unified everything, it established laws forbidding indiscriminate killing, allowing the cultivation world to recover and flourish—gradually, the number of cultivators increased."

"But the more cultivators there are, the more spiritual energy they consume; naturally, spiritual energy in the world grows ever scarcer."

"By today, twenty thousand years later, spiritual energy is extremely thin—cultivators can barely rely on anything but refining spirit stones."

Mo Hua suddenly understood, then worriedly asked:

"If all the spirit stones in the world are used up, won't cultivators be unable to cultivate anymore?"

"They won't be used up."

Mo Hua blinked. "Impossible—they can't last forever."

"At least another few tens of thousands of years won't be a problem."

Mo Hua frowned. "But we never have enough spirit stones…"

Elder Yu said: "That's because we have no spirit mines."

Mo Hua fell silent.

Elder Yu sighed. "In this world, from the largest to the smallest spirit mines, Dao Ting Si controls half; the rest are mostly seized by powerful clans and sects. We can only scavenge spirit stones from their cracks…"

"Those great clans and sects naturally never lack spirit stones—it's only us scattered cultivators who are short."

Elder Yu looked at Mo Hua and sighed:

"The Dao nourishes all things with spiritual energy—the Dao is fair. But humans are not."

Mo Hua's expression turned solemn, and he recalled a saying:

The Dao of Heaven diminishes what is excessive and supplements what is lacking; the way of man diminishes what is insufficient to serve what is excessive.

"Can we claim the spirit mine in Great Heishan?" Mo Hua asked.

Elder Yu frowned. "By convention, unclaimed medium or large spirit mines belong to Dao Ting Si. The spirit stones extracted are meant to benefit cultivators in this prefecture—though 'benefit' likely means they fill their own pockets…"

"As for small spirit mines, it's first come, first served."

Mo Hua asked: "Then is this spirit mine in Great Heishan ours first, or the Qian family's?"

"Hard to say."

Elder Yu said, then raised an eyebrow at Mo Hua: "But usually, whoever has the bigger fist is the one who claimed it first."

Mo Hua froze.

Half an hour later, the beast-hunting masters gathered in Elder Yu's courtyard.

Those present were mostly the leaders of beast-hunting teams, all at Qi Condensation Ninth Layer; Seeing Mo Shan was among them.

Elder Yu sat in the center; others sat on either side.

Mo Hua also wanted to know what happened next, so he brought a chair and sat aside to listen.

The beast-hunting masters on both sides couldn't help glancing at the ten-year-old Mo Hua.

This was a beast-hunting master's council—was it really safe for Mo Hua, a child, to be here…?

But none dared ask.

Elder Yu was known for his short temper, and now his expression was solemn, like a storm about to break—everyone was even more reluctant to speak.

If they angered Elder Yu, even as Qi Condensation Ninth Layer cultivators, they'd be scolded until they were drenched in blood.

Fine. Since Mo Hua was here, he must have Elder Yu's permission. They'd pretend not to see him.

At this moment, Mo Hua sat on a tall chair not far from Elder Yu, his legs swinging back and forth.

Everyone watched, their hearts filled with complex, hard-to-articulate emotions.

Master Yu is far too lenient with this child...

But if he wants to be lenient, let him be—after all, none of us dare speak up.

Master Yu was somewhat relieved to see Mo Hua there too.

In his view, with Mo Hua's talent, he would surely become an Array Master one day, perhaps even pass the grading to become a First-Rank Array Master.

Array Masters were out of reach for us wandering cultivators.

It was only natural that Mo Hua cared about the Hunter-Anti-Demonists' affairs.

Master Yu pondered silently.

When everyone had arrived, Master Yu spoke of the spirit mine.

All present were stunned.

This was a spirit mine—an unclaimed spirit mine!

Thinking of how Old Zhao had nearly died at the Qian family's hands, one Hunter-Anti-Demonist spat out:

"Those bastards of the Qian family—they not only stole the spirit mine, they tried to kill us to silence us!"

"Old Zhao nearly lost his life!"

"Damn it, these Qian family scum!"

Another cultivator suddenly remembered, "Didn't Old Sun disappear earlier? Could the Qian family have done that too?"

Everyone froze for a moment, then their faces darkened.

It wasn't just Old Sun—several other Hunter-Anti-Demonists had vanished before.

We thought they'd fallen off cliffs or been eaten by demonic beasts, but now it seemed they'd likely been murdered by the Qian family to silence them.

"Son of a bitch!"

"This is too much!"

The Hunter-Anti-Demonists erupted in furious curses, the room boiling with rage.

Master Yu frowned and signaled for silence, then began issuing orders:

"Gather all Hunter-Anti-Demonists at the late Qi Condensation stage. We'll climb the mountain under cover of night, searching bit by bit to locate the spirit mine."

One Hunter-Anti-Demonist asked, "What if we encounter Qian family cultivators?"

"Capture them and interrogate them thoroughly."

"What if we encounter a large force of Qian family cultivators?"

Master Yu's expression hardened, and he slammed his fist on the table in fury:

"Then kill them all!"