Chapter 120: Spirit Stone Rain

"We can give it a try; just now we didn't find a single formation eye, and everyone struck the light shield directly with their artifacts, yet it didn't open even a sliver." Xue Qi Zhenjun also thought so.

"But, fellow cultivator, could you go inside first and look for a formation eye; if none is found, then break it with force."

"Fine then." Sui Lv Zhenjun looked at the circle of cultivators outside, saw that Xia Bing and the others were absent, gave Jiang Yu a signal, and floated upward to search for the formation eye himself.

Jiang Yu had cultivated in a sect in her early years, then later transferred to Tianyuan Continent; she was barely acquainted with the cultivators on the opposite side.

Therefore she could only ask Xue Qi Zhenjun, and she had indeed seen Senior Sister Xia's party; the mountain cave that sealed the chain‑Qi cultivator was no more than a hundred li away, definitely within the Nascent Soul cultivator's spiritual perception range.

Xue Qi Zhenjun said, "Earlier I sent disciples to convey messages to your senior brothers and sisters, but from several chain‑Qi mouths you captured, they learned that there were still their strongholds nearby, so they went together with the people I dispatched to eliminate them."

"Thank you, Zhenjun, for clearing my doubts." Jiang Yu roughly guessed that Senior Sister Xia knew she and her master had entered the secret realm first, and to prevent further probing, simply stayed away from Bichun River.

She asked clearly here, and a Jie Dan cultivator beside Qin Zhuo spoke, "Little friend Jiang, have you seen my junior brother Dai Lin?"

"Yes, he was in a fainted state then; my master ordered me to set a defensive formation for him, but when my master and I went around two places to find him, we discovered the surrounding mountains and rivers had shifted."

"Comrade Dai, including the Seven‑Star Kui Dou formation surrounding him, had completely vanished."

"We circled a few times in the air, still couldn't find him, but we first heard Xue Qi Zhenjun calling out." Jiang Yu's words were nine parts truth and one part false; after all, Dai's family could not have discovered that the master had ambushed him.

The other side, of course, would not fully believe her, but at that moment they could only wait, and the waiting took more than half an hour.

Then a flash of light darted from afar and landed; it was Sui Lv Zhenjun, his body covered in grass clippings, still holding a parcel for Jiang Yu, "He was attacked by reed‑sword grass; give him some small returning pills."

"Junior Brother Dai!"

"Dai Lin."

The person hadn't awakened, and under everyone's gaze, Jiang Yu selected an upper‑grade small returning pill made from one particle of a low‑grade spirit stone among eight hundred, and gave it to him to swallow.

Then they heard the master and Xue Qi Zhenjun say that they could not find a formation eye anywhere.

She didn't know whether the master had found the person from the original reed‑sword grass, but she only watched as the master and Xue Qi Zhenjun leapt into the air, one inside, one outside, moving up and down, releasing Nascent Fire in mid‑air and pushing it toward each other; with a bang, the two fireballs instantly punched out thumb‑sized holes.

The Nascent Fires of the two Nascent Soul cultivators were instantly repelled, and the freshly opened hole sealed again in an instant with a tight seam.

"You all together." Xue Qi Zhenjun turned his head, scanning the cultivators behind him.

On this side, Jiang Yu thought of the Thunder Mother Stone and transmitted, "Master, we are few here; could we use Heavenly Thunder Seeds to counter‑strike from inside and outside simultaneously to pierce a bit?"

"Of course, it's certainly impossible to coordinate with the people outside to attack the same point simultaneously."

This light shield spanning both sides was very strange; it seemed not to enclose the top of the head, yet when the master and others flew into mid‑air, it flickered and appeared again.

Perhaps the master thought the mid‑air restriction was weakest, but Jiang Yu believed they could mimic directed blasting, setting off an explosion on the part of the light shield near the ground.

Sui Lv Zhenjun, while Xue Qi Zhenjun was arranging the others to ascend on the opposite side, thought for a moment and said, "We'll try a fire attack once more; if it fails, we'll try your method."

"The Heavenly Thunder Seeds in your hand are indeed effective against Foundation Establishment opponents, but they may not be useful for breaking formations; retreat."

He waved his hand, and Jiang Yu reached out to pull Dai Lin's arm backward, doing so without using spiritual energy.

Then several resentful gazes immediately followed; she didn't need to look to know they were the female cultivators of the Profound Heaven Sect.

Soon after, Sui Lv Zhenjun and the group outside simultaneously launched a fire attack, which only managed to create a small opening in the light shield; they couldn't enlarge it, and it sealed itself again.

Thus, Sui Lv Zhenjun went to retrieve the last few Heavenly Thunder Seeds from Jiang Yu, while Xue Qi Zhenjun gathered the Heavenly Thunder Seeds of the cultivators outside the light shield.

Following Jiang Yu's suggestion, they chose a point on the light shield, everyone stepped back far, and the two Nascent Soul cultivators simultaneously threw Heavenly Thunder Seeds at that spot.

Boom—boom—boom

Several Heavenly Thunder Seeds detonated, causing the ground within several miles to tremble; fortunately it was merely a pure thunder‑force explosion, with no toxic substances harming anyone.

Apart from the white lightning that forced Jiang Yu and the other cultivators to shield their eyes, there was no other harm.

When she opened her eyes again, the light shield separating the crowd had already cracked wide open, and the two Nascent Soul cultivators present, accompanied by several Jie Dan cultivators, were swiftly shattering more light shields to prevent them from re‑closing.

Jiang Yu was just about to step forward to help when several female cultivators rushed forward, their faces full of concern for the unconscious person, squatting down and calling out.

Xue Miao fiercely gouged his own eye, while Senior Sister Cui of the Profound Heaven Sect, feigning indifference, lifted her elbow to strike Jiang Yu.

How could Jiang Yu let that happen? With a swift motion, she gathered water spirit energy into a shield, causing Senior Sister Cui to crash into a splash of water across her face.

"You!" Senior Sister Cui, angry, tried to counter‑strike with a finger‑pressing technique, but the arriving Wen Xin transmitted a voice to restrain her, "Senior Sister, the master is right here."

Jiang Yu stepped back a few paces, thinking to herself how mindless this person was; she never looked down on others' intelligence, and Senior Sister Cui's provocative behavior seemed abnormal, "Please ask Comrade Wen, who paid for the small returning pill of eight hundred spirit stones given to Junior Brother Dai earlier?"

Wen Xin never expected she would still need spirit stones, but Qin Zhuo, who had arrived, cheerfully counted out the spirit stones for her.

Jiang Yu took them, then moved far away from their group, and upon seeing the master and his party shatter all the light shields, said, "Master, I'm going to find Senior Sister Xia."

Once the light shield shattered, she realized her spiritual perception was no longer suppressed.

Sui Lv Zhenjun had just said, "We'll go later," when several booming sounds echoed from afar.

Jiang Yu turned with everyone to look, and saw that the place where it exploded was the mountain peak where the spirit‑stone mine lay.

The mountain peak's thunder stones fell; within moments the towering peak was reduced to half, and the thunder subsided gradually.

She was startled, thinking perhaps the broken light shield here triggered the planetary star array at the mountain's base to self‑detonate.

The next moment, the remaining half of the mountain exploded completely, giving her a definitive answer.

She leapt, sword in hand, following the master and others to investigate; as she drew near, the massive explosion spewed out clusters of spirit‑stone rain.

Jiang Yu quickly deployed a forbidden spirit net to capture the spirit stones, while other Foundation Establishment cultivators displayed their abilities, either using spells or spiritual energy to form nets, gathering the blasted spirit stones one by one.

With so many spirit stones, everyone was delighted to collect them, while the two Nascent Soul true lords flew even higher, overlooking the surrounding sources of the explosion sounds.

Seeing this, Xue Qi Zhenjun couldn't help but sigh regretfully, pointing, "That mountain split by the raid thunder has completely exploded."

"And the orchard over there, blown into tree debris; each tree is at least ten thousand years old, seemingly fruitless, yet all the fine refining materials are ruined."

"At least we can still harvest a good amount of spirit stones." Sui Lv Zhenjun exchanged a glance with him, then simultaneously announced to everyone, "Cease for now; what you've gathered belongs to you."