Chapter 421: Tongxuan Initial Realm

"Why would Chen Ming appear here?"

Li Rui narrowed his eyes slightly.

He possesses Changqing Qi, and his perception is stronger than those of the same rank, which is why he could detect Chen Ming's presence.

Otherwise, Chen Ming was using a Qi-restraining method, and ordinary martial artists and cultivators would find it very difficult to discover him.

Looking at his sneaky appearance, one would think he was a demonic cultivator.

Chen Ming had said before that he was looking for the spirit mine to fulfill the last wish of his sworn brother.

But now that the spirit mine had been found, and Xia Yun's wish had been fulfilled, the Wu Kingdom had also received quite a lot.

Logically speaking, Chen Ming had no reason to come here.

Unless what he said was false.

Without a doubt, Chen Ming must have hidden something.

Regarding this, Li Rui was not too surprised.

The world is driven by profit.

No matter how chivalrous, one still has to eat.

Chen Ming helping his brother might be true, but coveting the spirit mine is also human nature.

Li Rui did not expose him, but acted as if he didn't see him, turned around, and walked toward the spirit mine camp.

It's just that he casually threw out a talisman.

That talisman turned into an almost invisible ant, following Chen Ming.

Li Rui returned to his room to continue cultivating.

Another five days passed.

What Li Rui didn't expect was that Chen Ming's intentions hadn't been revealed yet, but he had discovered quite a few other people.

These people were all cultivators.

Their strength was extremely powerful.

There was even no lack of Primordial Realm experts.

They often lurked near the spirit mine, seemingly searching for something.

"They?"

"Just a bunch of stinking bugs that smelled blood."

Yuan Xiong's eyes flashed with disgust.

"Oh?"

Li Rui: "Brother Yuan, tell me about it."

He didn't expose Chen Ming, but he told Yuan Xiong about the powerful people lurking around the spirit mine.

The spirit mine is of great importance.

Always being spied on is not a good thing; at the very least, they need to figure out the purpose of these people.

Yuan Xiong: "Brother Li wasn't at the spirit mine before, so you don't know; these are all spirit thieves, and they can't be driven away."

After Yuan Xiong's explanation.

Li Rui finally understood that the so-called spirit thieves were just people who used special techniques to re-condense the spiritual energy that leaked when spirit stones were transported.

Simply put, they were people picking up the scraps of the spirit mine.

But don't underestimate these scraps; the spirit mine is too large, and even a little bit, when accumulated, cannot be underestimated.

Otherwise, those Primordial-level cultivators wouldn't lower their status to become spirit bugs.

Li Rui suddenly understood.

Yuan Xiong: "At first, the Prince of Wei also ordered them to be driven away, and even killed several spirit thieves, but later found that they couldn't be killed off, and these people were quite well-behaved, never entering the spirit mine, so it had to be left at that."

Li Rui nodded.

It's easy to fight a tiger, but to clean up all the mosquitoes and insects, the cost is even greater than fighting a tiger.

It was a helpless move.

His heart moved slightly.

The spirit thieves outside the spirit mine must also have hidden spies.

The matter involves the Yu Kingdom, the Wu Kingdom, and the Qingwei Sect; one family might be able to hide it, but with three families, it's impossible to hide.

The spirit mine matter must have been known by those immortal sects.

Many of them have harbored thoughts of seizing the spirit mine.

It's just that due to the dignity of the Yu Kingdom, they have never dared to be too blatant.

The other two families should be in a similar situation.

However, Li Rui didn't think Chen Ming came here to be a spirit thief; he must have had other purposes.

Even Xia Yun probably didn't know.

Li Rui said no more.

He is a guardian of the spirit mine, but the real person in charge of the spirit mine is the Fifth Prince Zhu Gan.

If he "kindly" made suggestions to Zhu Gan, the other party wouldn't be grateful, and might even feel he was challenging imperial authority.

It's thankless work.

Li Rui certainly wouldn't do such a stupid thing.

Yuan Xiong: "Brother Li, did you find anything?"

Li Rui nodded: "It's not right, but there's no evidence, so we need to wait and see."

Yuan Xiong frowned slightly.

The spirit mine cannot be peaceful forever.

The Qingwei Sect, the Yu Kingdom, and the Wu Kingdom are powerful.

But they are not truly invincible.

Times are different now; those immortal sects all have deep foundations, and it is rumored that they are very likely to still have ways to connect with the upper realm, so they cannot be underestimated.

They must be eyeing the spirit mine covetously.

As long as the Yu Kingdom shows the slightest sign of decline, they will definitely bite like wolves and tigers, tearing the spirit mine apart.

This spirit mine guardian position is not easy to hold.

Don't know how many people are eyeing it.

Danger lurks on all sides!

Yuan Xiong took a deep breath, his heart sinking.

Outside the Ten Thousand Mountains.

An abandoned temple in the Wu Kingdom plains.

A scene of broken walls and ruins, the Bodhisattva's head rolled on the ground, covered in moss.

The Yu Kingdom has a saying about sleeping in the wilderness and not staying in abandoned temples.

The Wu Kingdom has it too.

Therefore, this abandoned temple was almost never lived in.

At most, it was some mountain bandits who dared to come here.

At this time.

A young cultivator stepped into the abandoned temple, glancing at the several skeletons on the side; these were the mountain bandits who had previously occupied this abandoned temple.

Now they had all become a pile of dry bones.

He walked into the Buddha hall.

He saw an old man as withered as a skeleton staring straight at him with eyes flashing with gloomy red light.

"An... Ancestor."

Even though he had seen it many times, his throat was still dry.

The young cultivator saluted respectfully: "That Li Rui has already left the spirit mine and returned to the Qingwei Sect."

"Hmm."

A sharp, unpleasant sound like metal friction rang out in the Buddha hall.

"I know."

The young cultivator retreated in a panic.

After the young cultivator had completely left, the old man's mouth curled into a smile, and a low, sinister laugh echoed faintly in the Buddha hall.

"This small cave heaven is truly excellent, actually having a spirit mine of such quality."

"Very good."

Not bad.

He is a person from the cultivation world.

He had just arrived in this realm and had been hiding to recover his cultivation, only showing his face recently.

Hearing that the spirit mine had appeared, he immediately became greedy.

He knew that there were experts in this realm that even he couldn't afford to provoke.

So he didn't have the thought of occupying the spirit mine; as long as he obtained enough benefits, that would be enough.

So he inquired in many ways.

Finally, he chose Li Rui, wanting to refine Li Rui into a puppet; in this way, it would be convenient for him to seize the spirit mine.

And he wouldn't be discovered.

As for why he chose Li Rui.

One is that Li Rui is often not at the spirit mine, making it easier to set up the formation, and the second is that in that so-called Martial Evaluation, Li Rui is the weakest.

These two points are enough.

The only disadvantage might be that because he is often not at the spirit mine, the formation would take a very long time to completely refine Li Rui.

But it doesn't matter.

He has always been very patient.

Li Rui patrolled the spirit mine and returned to Changqing Peak.

Mainly because the Small Five Elements Formation could no longer suppress the Evil Puppet Formation, so he had to leave.

He had to admit that the evil formation master was indeed powerful.

Being able to block a Third-Rank evil formation with a Fifth-Rank Five Elements Formation for so long was already his limit.

It wasn't that there was no way to continue blocking.

But it would be discovered by that evil formation master; the wisest approach was to leave, which was safer.

Returned to Changqing Peak.

Days became ordinary again.

Only cultivation.

Li Rui spent most of his time in the room in hard cultivation, the Wan Gu Chang Qing Art constantly condensing spiritual energy, plus the Immortal Spirit Root, his realm grew very steadily.

He couldn't feel any bottleneck at all.

Just like that.

A year passed.

"Li Laoge, Li Laoge."

Li Rui, who was meditating in the room, suddenly heard Ning Zhongtian's voice from outside.

He pushed the door open.

And saw Ning Zhongtian walk in.

"Fourth Brother, what's wrong?"

Ning Zhongtian: "Yesterday, something big happened at the spirit mine; a group of demonic cultivators joined forces and killed their way into the spirit mine, wanting to snatch spirit stones."

Li Rui's eyes narrowed.

Sure enough, they still came.

"With the great formation, most of those demonic cultivators were killed."

"However, quite a few spirit stones were still snatched away."

"The Fifth Prince is furious and is now ordering General Yuan to pursue those demonic cultivators, and also ordered us to go together."

Li Rui pondered: "Alright, I know."

"Fourth Brother, you take some men and rush over first; I'll follow later."

"Hmm."

Ning Zhongtian immediately turned and left to carry out the order.

Not long after Ning Zhongtian left.

Sang Kong went up to Changqing Peak.

"Brother Li, I heard your country's spirit mine was attacked?"

Li Rui: "Brother Sang, your news is quite well-informed."

Sang Kong said sternly: "Brother Li, do you know the background of those fellows?"

Li Rui shook his head.

He roughly guessed Sang Kong's purpose for coming here.

The situation in the Wu Kingdom is roughly the same as in the Yu Kingdom; if the Yu Kingdom's spirit mine was attacked, it might be the Wu Kingdom's turn in a few days.

If it were really just those demonic cultivators joining forces to attack, it would still be easy to handle.

But if there were other immortal sects manipulating it from behind, then one had to be on guard.

Sang Kong sighed lightly.

He and Li Rui were in similar situations, both having the duty of guarding the spirit mine.

The authority is great, and the pressure is not small.

"Brother Li, regardless of other families, we two must often communicate with each other."

Sang Kong said.

Intelligence is extremely important.

One doesn't fear a strong opponent, but fears not even knowing who the opponent is; that is the most troublesome thing.

"Brother Sang, when have I ever hidden anything from you?"

Li Rui said.

Only then did Sang Kong reveal a smile: "It still has to be Brother who is good."

Afterward.

He left satisfied.

Li Rui sent Sang Kong away, and at noon that day, he left the Qingwei Sect.

He used the Tracking Talisman to capture more than ten demonic cultivators.

He hung the corpses of those demonic cultivators on the city walls of the spirit mine as a warning.

The effect was quite good.

For several consecutive months, there were no more demonic cultivator invasions, and even those spirit thieves restrained themselves quite a bit, having more awe for the Yu Kingdom's spirit mine.

Of course.

The spirit thieves of the Yu Kingdom decreased.

The Wu Kingdom and the Qingwei Sect suffered.

Demonic cultivators and spirit thieves actually appeared to sneak into the spirit mine to steal, and seeing the other two families make fools of themselves, the Fifth Prince Zhu Gan's mood improved quite a bit.

He rarely praised Li Rui a few times.

The spirit mine entered a short period of calm.

Li Rui made a contribution, and still went to patrol the spirit mine every three months as usual.

Each time, he still used the Small Five Elements Formation to block the evil formation.

The effect was good; that evil formation master did not notice.

As a spirit mine guardian, Li Rui could obtain spirit stones far exceeding other people of the same rank; medium-grade spirit stones could almost be guaranteed every day, and sometimes he could even obtain a high-grade spirit stone.

With spirit stones supporting him, his realm naturally rose very fast.

In less than two years.

He had already seen the threshold of the Tongxuan Initial Realm.

This day.

Li Rui quietly descended Changqing Peak and came to a remote valley deep in the Ten Thousand Mountains.

"Guide spiritual energy into the body, to connect with the Heavenly Dao."

Li Rui muttered to himself.

He sat cross-legged on a giant rock.

At this time.

The Dao Fetus in his dantian was no different from him.

His entire momentum reached its peak at this moment.

Tongxuan Initial Realm!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 422 =====