Chapter 369 High-Grade Spirit Vein Dojo

For a moment, the scene became somewhat awkward. Zhu Xiangrong felt as if his cheeks were being roasted by fire, burning with pain.

Jia Yu scratched his head and said suspiciously:

“That’s not right. I asked Junior Brother Lin, and he clearly stated that he wouldn’t be coming.”

The other party is at a crucial juncture in their cultivation and cannot afford to be distracted by anything else.

The silver light approached from afar, arriving at Crimson Flame Peak in a short while. It circled halfway around the cold pool before landing directly in the bamboo forest.

Li Haoran, dressed in a black Taoist robe, had eyes as deep as an autumn lake. The moment he landed, all his aura vanished, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"I've returned just in time, just as Crimson Peak is erupting again!"

During the last volcanic eruption, he obtained some resources and, after refining them, upgraded his flying sword to the second-tier spiritual weapon level.

With Li Haoran's arrival, the air suddenly became cold and desolate, like the snow-capped peak after a howling wind.

Ji An's pupils contracted slightly. He vaguely saw translucent blue ice particles floating in front of him and sensed a different kind of sword intent.

In the past, the opponent's aura was full of the sharpness of metal, and although there was a cold feeling, it was because of the chill on the spiritual level brought about by the cutting of sword intent.

But at this moment, the opponent's restrained sword intent contained a real chill.

The opponent's sword intent has already undergone a second transformation; what an enviable talent for sword cultivation!

He smiled in response, "When did you return, senior brother? Seeing you today, you are even more radiant than before."

The other party has been in the far north for many years in order to strengthen the Water Divine Palace. Now that he has returned, he must have reached the third stage of the Chaoyuan realm.

Breaking through a realm is not unexpected, but reaching an even higher level in sword intent is a truly astonishing talent.

It takes others many years to comprehend sword intent and gain even a slight understanding, but for this person, comprehending sword intent is as easy as eating and drinking!

The lethality brought by the dual sword intent will likely be significantly enhanced.

"I just got back. I paid my respects to the Ancestor and my Master and learned that the spiritual vein here is of a higher grade and the volcano is about to erupt, so I rushed here."

Li Haoran cupped his hands and solemnly said:

"I have met several senior and junior brothers."

Jia Yu laughed heartily, "It's good that you're back. The Ancestor and Junior Brother Lin were both a little worried about you!"

However, Senior Brother Zhu probably doesn't want to see you return, at least not today.

Zhu Xiangrong laughed and scolded, "What are you saying? Do you think I'm such a petty person!"

Li Haoran's arrival will result in him exchanging for fewer gold-elemental spiritual items, but these items will be used on his fellow disciples.

Sword cultivators don't need other types of spiritual items; he can collect fire-elemental spiritual items.

Everyone smiled, and Jia Yu continued:

"By the way, let's agree on this first: apart from what we need right now, other spiritual items should be stored in the sect's secret treasury in a certain proportion."

Judging by the timeline, the merchant alliance's airship from Central Continent will arrive in five or six years. We need to prepare a large amount of resources to exchange for goods.

The patriarch ordered that at least two Golden Core Pills be traded from the Merchant Alliance this time, which would consume a large amount of the secret treasury's reserves.

"knew."

"clear."

Hearing the others agree, Jia Yu nodded and then asked:

Will anyone else come?

Ji An replied, "Senior Sister Ge Luoying will come."

This is a good time to gather resources; Senior Sister Ge's flying sword needs to be refined into a mid-grade second-tier weapon.

That's the downside of sword cultivators. Their flying swords, which are a matter of life and death, need to be tempered step by step as their cultivation level increases. They can't achieve the magnificent transformation from low-grade spiritual weapons to top-grade spiritual weapons like he did.

Zhu Xiangrong nodded almost imperceptibly and smiled:

"It's good that there's no Junior Brother Lin this time compared to the last eruption."

Others don't need top-grade spiritual items, so he can exchange for more. Weapon refiners naturally like to hoard precious resources, and alchemists are the same; they hoard spiritual herbs.

An hour later, the bright moon rose, and the distant mountains looked like menacing demons. A strong wind began to rise in Crimson Flame Peak, and a thick smell of sulfur spread.

The group rode the clouds into the sky, silently watching the raging, rising golden-red fog.

A silver streak swept across from afar, its sword humming clear and crisp, but its power was far less domineering than Li Haoran's.

Ji An knew that it must be Senior Sister Ge who had arrived.

The earth trembled and rumbled, as if a dragon were turning over.

A towering pillar of fire erupted forth, igniting the night sky like a rising fire dragon.

Ji An's eyes were filled with a passionate, fiery red, and he marveled at the power of nature.

He wondered what level of magic a cultivator's technique could reach such a level, but he felt that only a True Monarch at the Nascent Soul level could wield such divine power.

The giant dragon soared into the sky for hundreds of feet, its flames clearly visible even from dozens of miles away.

Volcanic ash, like black snow, flew freely.

"Gentlemen, I shall proceed first!"

Li Haoran rode his sword, a flash of light appeared, and crystalline snowflakes appeared in the sky, forming a stark contrast with the black volcanic ash.

Gloying smiled faintly and flew off in the opposite direction.

Zhu Xiangrong commanded the Three Yangs to leave the furnace, saying, "My two junior brothers, I'm off."

Ji An and Jia Yu landed on the ground and looked up at the sky.

About fifteen minutes later, the eruption height of the magma continued to decrease, and lava flowed out of the crater like molten iron, continuously flowing downwards.

Dense spiritual energy surged from various spiritual vein nodes, and waves of gale-force winds swept outwards from Crimson Flame Peak, causing the spiritual trees to be blown about.

Ji An narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling wisps of mysterious energy passing through his body and being captured by the stone turtle.

The metal element represents firmness and resilience, the water element represents moisture and surging, the wood element represents growth and potential, the fire element represents brightness and explosiveness, and the earth element represents support and nourishment.

In a daze, he saw the earth a deep green, giant trees reaching the sky, thunder roaring, and flames sweeping across the land.

An infinite power seemed to surge from the earth into his body through his legs, as if it were the weight of millions of years.

Energy gathers within the land, and deep underground, great waters flow.

Compared to the last volcanic eruption, Ji An has learned much more this time.

His Daoist aura was rapidly increasing, and his mood was like eating a honey osmanthus cake—sweet!

The feeling of getting twice the reward is just so satisfying.

Jia Yu took a sip of wine and said loudly:

"Junior Brother Ji, will there be any trouble with your cave dwelling?"

This volcanic eruption lasted longer than the last one. Hopefully, the lava won't flow to the entrance of your cave.

"Don't worry, senior brother, I've already made preparations."

Ji An opened his eyes. He had already dug two barriers, each three zhang wide, two zhang deep, and twenty zhang long, fifty zhang above the cave. There would be absolutely no problem.

"That's good."

"Now that the volcanic eruption has ended and the agitation of the earth's spiritual energy has gradually subsided, there's no point in us just standing around outside."

"Senior brother, please come into the living room. I've already instructed my disciples to prepare wine and dishes. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we shared a few drinks?"

Jia Yu shook the wine gourd in his hand: "Excellent!"

In the living room, the two raised their glasses and drank heartily, clinking glasses and exchanging toasts.

After finishing the delicious fish soup, Jia Yu smacked her lips in satisfaction and said:

"With this upgrade of the spiritual vein's grade and the collision of the five elements, Junior Brother should have gained quite a bit of insight, right?"

During the last volcanic eruption, he asked the other party a similar question, and the other party understood it at that time. Keep in mind that at that time, the other party was a cultivator in the early stage of Foundation Establishment!

"This time the harvest was very fruitful, much more than last time."

Ji An smiled and said that the harvest exceeded his expectations.

"Speaking of which, Crimson Flame Peak is a uniquely blessed region, containing the five elements. Such a wonderful place is unique to any sect."

The following day at noon.

After searching through the latter half of the night and the entire morning, the cultivators turned Crimson Flame Peak upside down.

I can't guarantee that all the spiritual items have been collected, but I definitely haven't missed any spiritual items of level two or above.

These spiritual objects are not buried deep underground, so they cannot escape the cultivator's divine sense scan.

While others were diligently searching, Ji An and his companion had food and drink, and even managed to sleep for two hours.

After everyone divided up the spiritual items, Zhu Xiangrong led his disciples to leave first, followed by Ge Luoying.

Jia Yu said with a smile:

"This harvest is even greater than the last one. Once the spiritual veins of Crimson Flame Peak are upgraded to the second-tier top-grade, perhaps third-tier resources will gush out from underground."

Ji An pouted, "Senior brother is daydreaming. You'd better wake up soon."

"The sect's main spiritual vein has only been upgraded to the third tier for a few years, so it's highly unlikely that Crimson Flame Peak could nurture a third-tier spiritual creature."

"Junior brother, you don't know this. Do you think that all these surging spiritual creatures were conceived after the sect occupied this place?"

Of course not. Spiritual veins are nurtured in the earth. They are like trees, growing luxuriantly and constantly improving in quality.

However, spiritual veins also have a lifespan, which can be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, but they will wither and die just like trees.

Perhaps tens of thousands of years ago, a third- or fourth-order spiritual vein was nurtured here and then withered away.

Jia Yu explained that he had nothing to do in the treasure pavilion, so besides drinking, he studied many things.

He also dabbled in extremely obscure knowledge, such as the enhancement and decay of spiritual veins.

The knowledge passed down in sects is not as rich as that of Nascent Soul sects. Much of the knowledge recorded is not detailed, just a few strokes, which cannot satisfy his curiosity at all.

Ji An pondered carefully and nodded, saying:

"What my senior brother said makes sense; I was just being superficial."

"Haha, junior brother, your cultivation is constantly improving, so of course you don't need to worry about these things."

Jia Yu put away the spiritual object, took a sip of wine, and hung the gourd on his waist. "Junior brothers, farewell. I still need to go back and report this harvest to the ancestor."

Junior Brother Ji, remember to send a message to the Diligent Work Hall to inform them that the spiritual vein has been upgraded. Hall Master Zhang will send someone to investigate further upgrades to the spiritual vein.

Let me know when the time comes so I can allocate resources.

No one could have imagined that Crimson Flame Summit would become a second-tier high-grade spiritual vein dojo, and he was even a little envious.

"Understood, I will send the message to Senior Brother Zhang in a moment."

Jia Yu rode away on a cloud, and Li Haoran transmitted his voice:

"Junior brother, I heard from the Ancestor that the spiritual plant I brought back from the Canglan Secret Realm is actually a Phoenix Tree, a precious plant that can be upgraded to the fourth level?"

"Yes, unless the ancestor's judgment is wrong."

Ji An gave a bitter smile and cried out in poverty:

“I’m going to lose money on this deal. The ancestor said that the Phoenix Tree can only bear fruit when it reaches the third level, otherwise there will be no profit.”

(End of this chapter)