236: New World

Chapter 234: New World

Zheng Yi carefully sensed for a moment before confirming that he was indeed underwater.

It should be a small stream with not very rapid flow, about a meter below the surface.

The stream wasn't very wide either, about seven or eight meters across.

But... he discovered the biggest problem.

He wasn't traversing with his physical body, nor was he Soul traversing, much less being reborn.

Instead... he was a mirror!

Yes, now he had become a mirror.

A small, finger-sized oval bronze mirror, quietly stuck at the edge of the stream, surrounded by mud and aquatic plants.

After sensing carefully, the appearance of this small round mirror formed in his mind.

The mirror surface was dull and lusterless, while the back was cast in bronze, very similar to the back of the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror.

But looking closely, there were also many differences.

Now, he was like having a 360-degree, all-around, no-blind-spot 3D camera, able to observe anything within the surrounding area.

Simply put, the grade of the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror was far above this small bronze mirror.

With a thought, his spirit quickly returned to his own Sea of Consciousness.

The Yin Yang Treasure Mirror was still quietly floating in his Sea of Consciousness.

"What in the world is going on?"

As soon as doubt arose in his mind, lines of text appeared on the surface of the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror again.

【Shining upon the myriad worlds, the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror's phantom body can serve as a coordinate for the myriad worlds, and a passage to the myriad worlds.】

【After certain conditions are met, traversing can be done through the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror's phantom body.】

"Hmm?"

"In other words, I can't traverse yet, only after reaching certain conditions... what conditions?"

The text on the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror's surface dissipated, clouds rolled, and soon another line of text appeared.

【Power of Time: 0/100.】

"Power of Time? What is that?"

Zheng Yi was dumbfounded. He originally thought he could traverse directly with the help of the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror, but unexpectedly there were conditions?

But this Power of Time... what exactly is it?

Unable to figure it out despite racking his brain, Zheng Yi could only enter the three thousand worlds again through the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror, focusing his spirit on this Yin Yang Treasure Mirror phantom body.

After a period of exploration, he quickly understood the function of this phantom body.

In summary, this small bronze mirror was actually a phantom of the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror.

He could use this bronze mirror as the center to scan the surrounding environment, roughly within a radius of ten meters.

Besides that, he could also use his spiritual power to write text on the bronze mirror, or emit light, spiritual energy fluctuations, etc., just like the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror.

But... what use was this?

He was in the river now, and he was even buried in the mud, unable to even drift with the current.

Could it be... that he could only stay here quietly?

He waited patiently. After the sky gradually brightened, Zheng Yi quickly sensed something.

The flow rate of the distant river began to accelerate.

Before long, he actually 'saw' a group of ragged people with their pant legs rolled up walking towards the river.

They were holding tools like fishing nets, bamboo sieves, and shovels in their hands, and stepped into the river, starting to scoop up the mud and sand from the riverbed and repeatedly wash it.

"What, what are they doing?"

Zheng Yi was completely bewildered. His location was at the edge of the stream, stuck by the pebbles on the edge, so he was not discovered by this group of people.

Soon he discovered more details.

These people who went down to the river to wash mud and sand seemed to all be from poor families.

Each one was skin and bones, in rags, and lived exposed to the elements, with ages ranging from children to adults and so on.

And on the shore, there were often two or three figures dressed in gray clothes with the same pattern embroidered on their chests, monitoring back and forth.

Suddenly, a young man in the river shouted, picked something out from the bamboo sieve in his hand, and excitedly ran towards the shore.

The nearest gray-clothed person on the shore quickly darted over, carefully held the young man's hand to examine it, then nodded in satisfaction and patted the young man's shoulder hard.

The young man smiled, and the gray-clothed person took out a pen and a booklet from his storage bag and started recording.

After that, the young man returned to the water and continued repeating his previous actions.

Zheng Yi quickly reacted, suddenly realizing, "Are they panning for gold? No, it's... panning for spiritual sand!"

The so-called spiritual sand is an aggregate of spiritual energy formed when spiritual energy is concentrated in certain minerals.

The most basic are various Spirit Stone veins.

Hidden within famous mountains and great rivers, within Spiritual Veins, for example, on Tianshou Mountain, there is a Spiritual Vein.

It's a pity that if one wants to wait for the Spiritual Vein on Tianshou Mountain to condense into a Spirit Stone vein, who knows how long they'll have to wait.

Besides Spirit Stones, there is spiritual sand.

Within famous mountains and great rivers, there must be rivers, waterfalls, lakes, etc.

And within these rivers, waterfalls, and lakes, due to various reasons, under the scouring of the river water, or flowing out from spiritual sand veins, a large amount of spiritual sand will be formed.

To find this spiritual sand, a large amount of manpower must be consumed for panning.

Just like panning for gold.

These ragged Mortals are being supervised by these Cultivators, panning for spiritual sand in this river water!

Suddenly, Zheng Yi's heart stirred, and lines of text appeared on the mirror surface of the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror phantom body.

【You have witnessed a Cultivator Family forcibly abducting Mortals to pan for spiritual sand, Power of Time +0.001.】

The Power of Time increased!

Zheng Yi's eyes suddenly lit up, and he quickly reacted.

So that's how it is, the Power of Time actually comes from this!

As long as he, or rather the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror's phantom body, experienced more things and witnessed more history, the more Power of Time he would gain.

The mere act of Mortals panning for spiritual sand can increase it by 0.001 points.

Then, by witnessing more events and history, wouldn't the Power of Time increase faster?

But now that he was trapped under the pebbles and mud, how could he attract the attention of the Cultivators?

Just then, Zheng Yi saw a dark-skinned middle-aged man walk over.

Grasping the bamboo sieve with both hands and scooping downwards into the river, he scooped up a large pile of mud and sand, then shook it vigorously, trying to find the spiritual sand hidden at the bottom of the riverbed.

However, his luck was clearly not as good as that young man's just now; there was no spiritual sand in this sieve of mud and sand.

But he wasn't discouraged and continued digging for mud and sand and panning.

Zheng Yi's heart stirred, and he immediately had an idea.

The bronze mirror hidden under the pebbles suddenly emitted a faint light.

This light appeared extremely dreamlike reflected in the river water.

The middle-aged man who was panning for spiritual sand suddenly stopped his movements. He put the bamboo sieve into the river water and rubbed his eyes hard, as if he couldn't believe it.

He quickly reacted. His hand movements didn't stop; instead, he continued panning for spiritual sand while quietly moving towards this side.

Zheng Yi was full of doubts. What was this person doing? Why didn't he quickly pick himself up and hand him over to the Cultivators on the shore?

Or was it...

Finally, the middle-aged man reached the riverbank, pretending to bend down to dig for mud and sand, while his right hand frantically searched among the pile of pebbles.

Soon, he found something, which was precisely the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror phantom body.

He shook it in the river water, revealing the true surface of the ancient bronze mirror, and a look of surprise flashed in his eyes.

Spiritual item!

It was definitely a spiritual item!

This spiritual item seemed to have just glowed, perhaps it was a Magical Artifact used by the Immortal Masters.

If he took it out, he could definitely sell it for a good price.

Absolutely must not let the Zhang Family people discover it.

Thinking this, the surprise in his eyes turned into greed. He then bent down and actually stepped on the ancient mirror with his foot, clamping it tightly with his big toe.

Finding one piece of spiritual sand only earned ten copper coins from the Zhang Family, which was too little.

This spiritual item was definitely worth more than ten copper coins, if...

Damn it!

The dark-skinned man was happily fantasizing about something, but Zheng Yi cursed inwardly.

What the hell!

I wanted a Cultivator to get hold of it, so I could definitely witness a lot of history and gain Power of Time.

But what use is it for you, a Mortal, to take me?

And... you're even stepping on 'me'.

This is truly... unbearable!

With a thought, his magic power surged, and a faint spiritual energy fluctuation immediately emanated from the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror phantom body.

This kind of spiritual energy fluctuation could not be detected by Mortals.

But for Cultivators, especially those with sensitive spirits and close proximity, it could be quickly discovered.

As expected.

A gray-clothed Cultivator patrolling on the shore's expression changed. He suddenly turned and looked towards the dark-skinned man, then quickly walked over.

Meanwhile, the dark-skinned man was still happily panning for spiritual sand, planning to ask for leave to go to the latrine later and hide the treasure inside the latrine.

Then, after everyone rested at night, he would quietly retrieve it.

Perhaps good fortune came in pairs, he actually found another piece of spiritual sand in the mud and sand, which was truly too lucky.

As he was thinking, he suddenly felt a shadow overhead.

He subconsciously looked up and saw a gray-clothed man floating in mid-air, staring at him coldly.

"Immortal, Immortal Master, do you, do you have any instructions?"

"Take it out."

"Yes, yes, yes..."

The dark-skinned man quickly picked out the piece of spiritual sand from the bamboo sieve and respectfully handed it up.

"Immortal, Immortal Master, this humble one is called Niu Dashan. This is the first piece of spiritual sand this humble one found today."

"Anything else?"

"Wh- what?"

Niu Dashan said in panic, "No, there's nothing else. This humble one only has this one piece of spiritual sand..."

"Seeking death!"

The gray-clothed Cultivator coldly shouted, waved his hand, and a sword light shot out, instantly piercing Niu Dashan's chest.

"Pfft!"

"Immortal, Immortal Master, for, I, I..."

After struggling for a moment, Niu Dashan's face was full of despair. He finally fell heavily into the river water, losing his breath.

And without his control, the Yin Yang Treasure Mirror phantom body also flowed out from the river water.

The gray-clothed Cultivator's eyes narrowed. He quickly discovered the ancient bronze mirror, reached out and grabbed it, immediately seizing it in his hand.

"Mirror fragment? It was this that emitted spiritual energy fluctuations just now... Could it be a fragment of a Magic Treasure?"

Even a fragment has spiritual energy fluctuations, its grade is at least above High Grade Magical Artifacts.

It was fitting that he had this luck.

"Ah...!"

At this moment, the surrounding Mortals also noticed the gray-clothed Cultivator's actions, appearing extremely panicked, but they quickly stabilized.

Another figure flew over. This person was wearing a white robe and frowned, saying, "Niu Liang, what happened?"

The Cultivator called Niu Liang quickly turned around and respectfully said, "Third Young Master, this Mortal dared to secretly hide spiritual sand and was discovered by your subordinate, so he was punished."

The white-robed Cultivator frowned and said, "Our Zhang Family has newly occupied the Weiyang River. We should treat people kindly, otherwise how can the surrounding Mortals be loyal to us and do things for us?"

"Never mind. From now on, anyone found secretly hiding spiritual sand will be expelled on the spot, and their entire Family will not be allowed to live around Weiyang Mountain and will not receive the protection of our Zhang Family."

"Yes, Seventh Young Master, your subordinate understands."

"Continue patrolling."

"Yes!"