54: Chapter 54 The Great White Spirit Stone Mine

"Hahaha..."

"You..."

"A Nascent Soul True Monarch?"

"In four years, you broke through from the Qi Refining Third Layer to the Nascent Soul Stage?"

"That's hilarious."

"Do you think you're a Saint of some Immortal Sect?"

Hui Peng was nearly dying of laughter.

The Nascent Soul power within Zhao Yi's body jolted, and the Cultivators holding him were instantly sent flying.

With several thuds, they landed several meters away, their fates unknown.

"You..."

Hui Peng gulped as Zhao Yi rested a hand on his shoulder.

Feeling the weight on his shoulder like a massive mountain, cold sweat began to pour down Hui Peng's face.

"True... True Lord Zhao..."

"I offended you just now, please forgive me."

If not for Zhao Yi's hand pressing down on his shoulder, Hui Peng would have wanted to slap himself; this was too surreal.

Cultivating from the Qi Refining Third Layer to the Nascent Soul Stage in four years—what kind of monster was this?

"How did the Spirit Stones I owe the Academy end up in your hands?"

"Reporting to the True Monarch, cultivation is hard, and earning Spirit Stones is even harder. This was just to make a little bit of money."

"If I get these Spirit Stones back, I get to keep a third."

Zhao Yi...

"The Academy is certainly generous."

"And what if I don't have the Spirit Stones?"

Hui Peng fell silent.

"Not convenient to say?"

Zhao Yi released a bit more of his Nascent Soul power.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

"I'll talk, I'll talk!"

"If someone truly doesn't have the Spirit Stones, we force them to go mine."

"Mining?"

Zhao Yi's eyes lit up. This was exactly what he needed; it was like being offered a pillow just as he was getting sleepy.

"What kind of mine?"

"A Spirit Stone mine, naturally. The Academy has a massive enterprise and needs a vast amount of Spirit Stones every day. How could it manage without a Spirit Stone mine?"

Zhao Yi removed his hand from Hui Peng's shoulder, straightened his clothes, and said with a serious face, "I have no Spirit Stones. Send me to the mine."

With a thud...

Hui Peng knelt before Zhao Yi.

"True Lord Zhao, please spare me."

"Cultivators who mine excavate the spiritual essence of heaven and earth and sever the Spiritual Veins of the world. They are abandoned by heaven and earth and loathed by the Heavenly Dao. They are..."

"They are the legendary Death Cultivators!"

Having said this, Hui Peng seemed to relax a lot.

"Actually, the Academy is selective. Unless one's talent is too poor, they wouldn't be schemed against to go mining."

Seeing Zhao Yi's expression sour, Hui Peng hurriedly explained, "Of course, those schemes definitely wouldn't include you, True Lord Zhao."

Zhao Yi...

The reason his face looked bad wasn't because he was being schemed against by the Academy, but because they hadn't been upfront about mining Spirit Stones, causing him to waste thirty years for nothing.

"Let's go."

"Take me to the Spirit Stone mine!"

He definitely couldn't go back to the Lesser Strange Spirit Stone Mine, but he hadn't expected things to take such a turn; the Cultivation Academy had a Spirit Stone mine too.

"True Lord Zhao..."

"Grandfather Zhao..."

"You are a Nascent Soul True Monarch! How can you go be a Death Cultivator?"

"Isn't it just four thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones?"

"I'll take responsibility and pay them all back for you."

Hui Peng spoke as he tore the white jade paper in his hand to shreds.

"Bastard!"

"Do I look like someone who lacks Spirit Stones?"

"What?"

"Do you really want to ruin my reputation and make me out to be a scoundrel who has Spirit Stones but won't pay his debts?"

"I..."

"You..."

"It's not that..."

Hui Peng was at a loss for words. Unable to defend himself, he simply cowered and kowtowed repeatedly.

"True Monarch, have mercy!"

"Pity me, I have a two-hundred-year-old mother above and a hundred-year-old son below. Please, True Monarch, spare me!"

"Take it."

A Spirit Stone the size of a fist rolled in front of Hui Peng.

"This?"

"A High-Grade Spirit Stone?"

Hui Peng hurriedly picked up the Spirit Stone.

"This is for me?"

Zhao Yi nodded.

"Besides paying the debt, the rest is for the guide fee."

"Take me to the Academy's Spirit Stone mine and tell me about it along the way."

Hui Peng...

"Is the True Monarch serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

Hui Peng shook his head quickly.

"But mining Spirit Stones makes one a Death Cultivator. Whether you mine dozens or tens of thousands, you're still a Death Cultivator..."

"It's cutting off your own path to the Dao."

"Holy crap!"

Zhao Yi was getting impatient.

He found that Hui Peng was too talkative. He was the one who wanted to mine, and he was the one cutting off his own path—what did it have to do with him?

"Dammit, just lead the way..."

"One more word and you die!"

The great sumeru treasure hoe suddenly smashed a nearby boulder into powder.

Hui Peng opened his mouth but finally stopped trying to persuade him.

However, he sighed all the way as if he were the one going to mine.

They headed south from the Cultivation Academy.

The further they went, the more familiar it became to Zhao Yi.

"Wait, isn't this the Cultivation Academy's Forbidden Ground?"

"Don't tell me the Spirit Stone mine is inside the Forbidden Ground."

Hui Peng nodded.

"Correct. This Mount Dabai was named because of the Great White Spirit Stone Mine."

"The Academy was built here back then precisely because of this Spirit Stone mine."

"As for why it's called the Great White Spirit Stone Mine, it's said that the Spirit Stones produced here are whiter and cleaner than those in other mines."

Zhao Yi...

White and clean?

He didn't believe it for a second. Was that even an appropriate way to describe Spirit Stones?

"This Great White Spirit Stone Mine is a large-scale Spiritual Vein. It was estimated back then that it could yield a trillion Spirit Stones, but from the founding of the Cultivation Academy until now, less than a hundred million have been mined..."

Hui Peng babbled the whole way, but it allowed Zhao Yi to learn quite a bit about the Great White Spirit Stone Mine.

A large-scale Spiritual Vein with a chance of yielding Top-Grade Spirit Stones, an estimated capacity of a trillion stones, and less than a hundred million mined so far—there were still plenty of Spirit Stones in the mine.

That was enough.

"For goodness' sake."

"If I had known the Cultivation Academy had a Spirit Stone mine, why would I have gone all the way to the Lesser Strange Spirit Stone Mine?"

And ended up being cheated out of his wealth and cultivation.

"Immortal Master Hui, delivering someone again?"

"Which unlucky fellow is it this time who couldn't pay back the Academy?"

Hui Peng...

He wanted to explain, but one glare from Zhao Yi made him shrink back and keep quiet.

"Ahead is the Immortal Cave of the guarding True Monarch, True Monarch Gao."

"White Spirit Cave?"

The White Spirit Cave was located at the very peak of Mount Dabai. Clouds and mist swirled outside the entrance, giving it an ethereal feel.

"Is that Martial Nephew Hui? Come in."

"Eh?"

The voice let out a sound of surprise, clearly having noticed Zhao Yi.

"I wonder which Fellow Daoist has come to my White Spirit Cave? Gao Ling offers her greetings."

"A female Nascent Soul True Monarch?"

Zhao Yi felt a bit resistant. He was currently like the saying 'once bitten by a snake, twice shy of a rope'.

But no matter his resistance, he had to exchange greetings.

"I am Zhao Yi."

"Is Fellow Daoist Zhao also a Cultivator of our Academy?"

"Strangely enough, I know most of the Nascent Soul True Monarchs in the Cultivation Academy. Could it be that Fellow Daoist Zhao achieved the Nascent Soul Stage very early on?"

Zhao Yi...

He wanted to get straight to the point and ask about the rules of the Spirit Stone mine, but he was afraid of killing the conversation, so he could only honestly say, "It's normal that True Monarch Gao doesn't know me. I only achieved the Nascent Soul Stage last month."

"Oh~"

"So you're a newly ascended Nascent Soul. No wonder you look unfamiliar."

"I wonder what business brings Fellow Daoist to Mount Dabai?"

"If it's to exchange for Spirit Stones, I'm afraid I must disappoint you. Spirit Stones are hard to mine, and everything produced each month is already reserved by others."

"Exchange for what Spirit Stones?"

"I'm not here to exchange for Spirit Stones. I'm here to mine Spirit Stones."

"Oh, as long as it's not to exchange..."

"What? What did you say?"

"Mine Spirit Stones?"

Gao Ling's voice went shrill.