Chapter Thirty-One: Medium-Grade Spirit Stones

“Hmph! Incorrigible to the end!” Lin Yanghao let out a cold snort, seeing that Mo Yousheng remained unrepentant, then raised his hand and brought it down, ending Mo Yousheng’s life.

Having avenged the Feng family, Lin Yanghao felt a weight lift from his heart. Now, only his promise to help Old Lin restore his dantian remained. Lin Yanghao thought to himself that it would not be possible to fulfill this promise on the Dragon Martial Continent; he would have to wait until he reached the broader Spirit Realm. After all, the means of cultivators were myriad—perhaps there was a way to repair a damaged dantian.

After killing Mo Yousheng, the Mo family soon descended into chaos. It was not long before the house was deserted, and anything of value was taken. Lin Yanghao, however, cared little for such worldly possessions.

He pressed on toward Mo Yousheng’s chambers, for what Lin Yanghao truly sought was the Mo family’s treasure vault, where the most precious possessions of the clan were kept. With luck, he might find something he desired.

He searched the Mo residence for a long while, but found no sign of the vault. Lin Yanghao deduced that Mo Yousheng must have built it underground, so he began exploring the vicinity. At last, beneath Mo Yousheng’s bed, he discovered a hidden door. Stepping through, he saw that Mo Yousheng had indeed concealed his treasures here.

He rummaged through the trove, only to be somewhat disappointed. Most of the items were valuable collectibles, antiques, and curios, the rest being chests upon chests of gold coins.

With nothing of real use to him, Lin Yanghao prepared to leave. Once, such riches might have been precious to him; wealth and power were what had first driven him to cultivate. Yet, since becoming a martial artist—and learning he was, in fact, a cultivator—his outlook had subtly changed. He realized that all worldly power and possessions were fleeting; no matter how great, they would decay within a century. Thus, he regarded these things as external, unimportant; only advancing his own cultivation mattered.

“What’s happening?” Lin Yanghao had barely taken a few steps when a wave of comfort swept through his body, a sensation of vitality flooding him. He walked further, and the feeling vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. Instantly, Lin Yanghao concluded that there must be a treasure hidden in that spot. He searched the underground area, digging a pit about half a meter deep, and found a finely crafted sandalwood box. Eagerly, Lin Yanghao opened it.

“Hahaha! Heaven does not treat me ill!” Lin Yanghao exclaimed in delight. Inside was exactly what he had been worrying about: a mid-grade spirit stone. At once, his disappointment vanished, replaced by elation.

Lin Yanghao’s main concern had not been finding a teleportation array—so long as such a thing existed, he could hope to locate it. But as for the conditions required to enter the Spirit Realm, the mid-grade spirit stone was the one uncertain factor. Now that he had found it, his mood soared.

It turned out that Mo Yousheng was a collector of antiques, and this mid-grade spirit stone had been purchased at a high price during an auction. The auctioneer claimed that wearing this ancient jade would strengthen the body and ward off all illness, as it was a piece that had gained spiritual awareness. Mo Yousheng was taken with it at first sight and, after acquiring it, wore it for several days. To his surprise, it accelerated his cultivation of inner strength, and he wore it until he reached the Martial Emperor realm. Once he broke through, the jade was no longer useful, so he stowed it away. Thus, Lin Yanghao benefited from Mo Yousheng’s oversight.

Had it been another martial artist, even a spirit jade mine buried underground would have gone unnoticed. But Lin Yanghao was a cultivator, sensitive to spiritual energy, and in the spirit-poor Dragon Martial Continent, the difference around a mid-grade spirit stone was immediately perceptible to him.

Returning to the inn he shared with Feng Shihan, Lin Yanghao found her brow furrowed, clearly still worried about Feng Batian’s whereabouts. He recounted the vengeance he had exacted upon the Mo family and shared the good news of his acquisition of the mid-grade spirit stone. Feng Shihan merely smiled faintly, saying little.

White Emperor, who lay atop Feng Shihan, seemed to sense her unhappiness and nuzzled her playfully.

Lin Yanghao knew Feng Shihan was thinking about Feng Batian again. After all, two years had passed without word from him. Should he still be alive, news of the Mo family’s demise would surely reach him before long. Lin Yanghao resolved to take Feng Shihan back to the Land of Death the next day, while he himself would embark on the quest for the teleportation array and the low-grade spirit stones.

The following day, Lin Yanghao quietly departed the Great Yan Kingdom with Feng Shihan. What he did not know was that his feat of single-handedly defeating three Martial Emperor-level experts had spread across the entire Dragon Martial Continent within a day. Some claimed Lin Yanghao had broken through to a realm beyond the Martial Emperor. Whatever the truth, his name would soon be known by all.

Having settled Feng Shihan, Lin Yanghao prepared to seek the remaining four low-grade spirit stones and the teleportation array. Though rare, such things existed in this continent. Lin Yanghao believed that, with his cultivator’s unique sense for spiritual energy and his persistence, finding the spirit stones should not be difficult. Yet, was it truly so easy? Lin Yanghao pondered: if it were, would not the continent’s low-level cultivators have already emptied it of spirit stones? Only in the search itself would he discover the true difficulty.

He recalled that the old eccentric Master Muyu had said that, in the Spirit Realm, every sect and cultivator clan monopolized their own spirit stone mines. The annual yield from these mines was astonishing, for spirit stones were not only the source of cultivation energy but also the common currency among cultivators.

So Lin Yanghao reasoned that spirit stones must be deeply buried. He found a mountain with promising spiritual energy and began digging halfway up the slope.

…

Half a month passed, and Lin Yanghao had been digging in the vicinity all that time, but still found nothing.

He remembered Feng Batian mentioning a substance called Qi-gathering stone, which could aid martial artists in cultivating inner strength. He wondered if this might be related to the spirit stones he sought. Thus, Lin Yanghao decided to head into the city to see if Qi-gathering stones might be connected to his quest.