When Shen Lian came back from the mountains, he heard this news from the cultivators around him, which was quite unexpected.

I didn't expect Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce to directly use spirit stones to attack.

"Could it be that Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce has other uses for digging up the cave stones?"

Facing the Krypton Gold Chamber of Commerce, Shen Lian had no choice but to accept the result.

Such a huge bounty amount tempted even some ordinary foundation-building cultivators.

The reputation that Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce has accumulated over the years made the monks not doubt the authenticity of this reward.

Shen Lian, who was working as a blacksmith outside the city, saw many cultivators going into the mountains to search, so he mixed in and became one of them.

The arrival of the cultivators from Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce has caused everyone to search for the Dongtian Stone, and the situation is developing in the direction he expected.

One day, after returning from the mountains, Shen Lian entered an ancient teahouse.

Just as the servant in the building had prepared a pot of hot tea and brought it over, a cultivator came over to meet Shen Lian.

"Fellow Daoist, my name is Yan Jiu."

Yan Jiu had a smile on his face, but his face was full of wrinkles. However, Shen Lian saw through his disguise at a glance.

"Daoyou, please have some tea."

Shen Lian poured two cups of tea and gave one to Yan Jiu.

"Daoyou is open-minded."

Yan Jiu took a sip of tea, raised his head and said, "I won't hide it. My ancestors were also great men, but unfortunately they declined in my generation.

Thinking back then..."

Shen Lian listened to Yan Jiu's bragging and was not in a hurry to expose him.

There are more monks in the Topaz Mine City recently. Many of them are looking for cave stones, and quite a few strange monks have mixed in.

"Back then, my ancestors saw a strange phenomenon in the depths of Tianzhu Mountain. A thunderbolt struck and split a mountain. By chance, a sparkling cave stone was found at the foot of the mountain... This is what my ancestors drew back then..."

Shen Lian glanced at the treasure map that Yan Jiu took out with his spiritual sense. This was the third treasure map he had come across in the past few days.

This painting is rough and elegant, even the mountains seem to be floating.

"Drink this cup of tea and go."

Shen Lian held the teacup and sipped it gently without looking at Yan Jiu again.

“Hey hey.”

Yan Jiu tactfully put down the teacup, stuffed the torn animal skin into his arms, nodded and bowed, then stepped aside.

After a while, he saw another monk coming in and then went over to him.

"well."

Shen Lian sighed softly. With the rewards from Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce, all kinds of scammers emerged, and all kinds of messy news were flying around.

Not to mention the cave ore, even the news about various fourth-level ores and secret realms are flying all over the place. The Taoist friends' words are deceiving.

He tried to find pearls in the mud and sand to see if there was any real news.

However, no.

Don't even bother talking about pearls and jade. Just turn over the mud and sand and the stinking mud will come out.

To say that these strange monks are a mixed bag is to overestimate them.

"It seems that we still have to follow the cultivators from Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce."

Putting down the teacup, Shen Lian returned to his original idea. He had been leaving the city for several days, seemingly wanting to find opportunities like other cultivators, but in fact he was secretly looking for people from the Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce.

Unfortunately, there was a Jindan Zhenren in the city and it was protected by a formation, so he had no way of getting too close to Elder Tian.

After drinking two cups of tea, Shen Lian looked into the distance from upstairs and saw two figures heading out of the city. He paid for the tea calmly and also headed out of the city.

After several days of continuous work, we did get some results, at least we identified two secret agents of Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce.

It has to be said that the Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce is very cunning. They have arranged people in each city both openly and secretly to serve as spies to gather information.

These spies have many local monks from the mining city as their minions.

Unable to find out about the fake Dan Zhenren for the time being, Shen Lian could only start with these two foundation-building spies, quietly following them and eavesdropping on their conversations.

Killing people and searching their souls is the lowest form of tactics.

…

"None of these opportunistic monks are good people."

Outside the Topaz Mine City, Du Rufang and Yan Xuanzhong headed towards the east of the city.

As the hidden agents of Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce, they all have open shops in Huangyu Mining City to rely on. Although they are called hidden agents, in fact their identities have long been known to the top leaders of Yuhua Sect.

Fortunately, both sides pretended to be ignorant and did their own things without interfering with each other.

"Brother Du, stop grumbling. The elders have come, so we should at least put on an act. If there really is a Dongtian Stone Mine nearby, you and I, as the first ones to report it, will the Chamber of Commerce not reward us?"

Yan Xuanzhong looked around. Ever since Elder Tian came, the two of them had been running around in the mountains every day. Although they had not found any useful clues, their hard work had been tremendous.

"Brother Yan is right. The president is clear about rewards and punishments. Otherwise, why would I choose to join Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce in the first place?"

Du Rufang spoke with a smile. He was very satisfied with the benefits of Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce.

“If the president advances to the Nascent Soul stage in the future, we brothers will also be able to be as majestic as him.”

…

On the side of Du Rufang and the other person, Shen Lian was driving a flying boat in the mountains. He pretended to be a cultivator searching for opportunities to obtain the Cave Heaven Stone, but in fact he was eavesdropping on their conversation.

He had been following them for several days. These two guys were talking nonsense all the time and he didn't overhear anything useful. Instead, he was full of admiration for the president, Qianqiu Zhenren.

In response to this, Shen Lian also took further action.

He had five storage rings in his hands, and he took apart three of them, and also took out the cave stones inside.

Different from the refining method of other magic tools, the storage ring is refined by embedding the cave stone into it, and the refining steps are very few.

In order to offset the traces of refining, Shen Lian directly smashed three rice-sized cave stones and selected out the broken parts without any traces of smelting.

Of course, he used a puppet to perform this step, eliminating his own aura.

Theoretically speaking, where there are fragments of cave stones, there should be cave stones.

He hid the dregs in the soil and rocks in a secret valley between Red Crystal City and Yellow Jade City.

Now we just have to wait for someone to notice these scumbags.

…

Two days later.

The cave stone slag scattered by Shen Lian was finally noticed by the passing cultivators.

Crystal clear like dust.

Du Rufang and the other man who were performing outside the city also received the message and hurried towards the mountains to the west of the city.

"It's really unlucky. We two brothers have been sleeping outside in the open air, but we still missed it."

Yan Xuanzhong was complaining while he was on the road. The two were running around in the north of the city when they unexpectedly received a message from Elder Tian in the city that someone had found broken fragments of the cave stone in the west of the city and asked them to go and investigate.

My goodness, doesn't it seem like these two brothers have been busy for so many days just for show?

Damn! "Those useless people under my command, it seems I was too nice to them in the past."

Du Rufang's face also looked a little unhappy. As secret agents in the Foundation Establishment Stage, their position in the Chamber of Commerce was at the deacon level, which was higher than that of ordinary managers.

He also has a group of people under his command who are responsible for gathering information.

But these people have been out for so long, and yet an outsider cultivator discovered the place where the cave stone appeared first. It's really...

The two bypassed the Topaz Mine City and rushed into an extremely remote valley in the west of the city.

There is still a demonic aura filling the valley, and some remains of the killed Fuqing demon sheep can be seen on the ground. The valley has been dug up beyond recognition.

“So many people.”

After Du Rufang entered the valley, he found that there were hundreds of Qi-cultivating monks digging, and they were using all kinds of magical weapons to chop the rock walls and rocks.

There were also foundation-building monks who occupied a large area alone, staring coldly at the surroundings.

"I found it."

A monk shouted, and a thin crystal piece on his finger flickered with light like a star.

"Fellow Daoists, I am Du Rufang, the manager of Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce. I wonder which fellow Daoist discovered this place first."

Seeing so many cultivators and the valley in disarray, Du Rufang had no choice but to fly up and reveal his identity.

"Friend Du, your company will tell me how to claim the reward. I found some ore fragments."

"Senior Du, I have some here too. This should be where the mineral vein is."

…

As soon as Du Rufang opened his mouth, the monks in the valley spoke one after another, and some even took out the fragments of the cave stone they had found.

“There’s more here!”

A monk dug a hole several feet deep in the ground and found a small fragment in the mud.

"My fellow Taoists, Dongtian Stone is a companion mineral of Yunjing Stone. Are there any Taoists who have dug up Yunjing Stone?"

Yan Xuanzhong also stood up. So many people were digging here. If they really wanted to distribute spirit stones according to the previous rewards, how many spirit stones would they need?

“Nothing.”

"No."

…

Shen Lian also casually dug some soil and rocks in the crowd. Although he scattered the fragments of cave stone on the surface and deep into the earth when he faked the scene, the cloud crystal stone was indeed a big problem.

He doesn't have this thing either.

"Without the cloud crystal stone, it is not a cave stone vein."

Du Rufang sighed softly. He also made several attempts and dug a pit more than ten feet deep. After a careful inspection, he shook his head slightly.

Some people believe this, while some do not.

This is a cave stone. Digging out a piece is equivalent to a long period of income. Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce wants to monopolize the cave stone, so naturally they will not say that there is a cave stone here.

Du Rufang and Yan Xuanzhong looked at each other. This group of monks was indeed not so easy to fool.

They are just monks in the Chamber of Commerce who are responsible for catching wind and making guesses. How can they know how to explore for mineral veins? The Chamber of Commerce has specially trained mineral explorers.

Mineral veins are the essence of heaven and earth, and there have always been legends about them in the world of immortal cultivation. Even if a Nascent Soul cultivator wants to explore the spiritual power within the mineral veins, he will be blocked by the secrets of heaven.

This is a limitation of the rules of heaven and earth. What we are afraid of is that high-level cultivators will completely drain away the spiritual power of heaven and earth.

Otherwise, why would the major sects just open mines honestly? They could just send a Jindan elder to stay here for a while and take away all the ore.

At that time, it will depend on which sect digs more and who will be able to monopolize the market.

In view of this, Shen Lian did his homework when scattering the fragments of the cave stone and deliberately chose this valley because there was a small mixed vein mine deep below the valley.

At the same time, Du Rufang and Yan Xuanzhong looked at each other silently, and Du Rufang flew out of the valley.

…

Three miles outside the valley.

On the top of a low hill, Du Rufang took out the jade talisman with a look of fear and trepidation on his face, as if the person on the other side of the jade talisman could see it.

"Reporting to the elder, we have conducted a preliminary investigation and found some fragments of cave stones. We dug several dozen feet into the ground but did not find any associated cloud crystal stones."

There was no response from the jade talisman. Du Rufang pondered for a moment and then said, "Elder, there are many foreign monks in the valley at present, and I am going to recruit some of my men from the mining city.

We will identify dozens or even hundreds of spots in the valley, conduct preliminary excavations, and then decide on subsequent actions based on the situation. "

Seeing that there was no movement from the jade talisman, Du Rufang panicked. He knew Elder Tian a little bit. He was very strict with his subordinates and never showed mercy to those who pretended to obey his orders but actually disobeyed them.

The reason why he and Yan Xuanzhong went out every day was to appear more diligent.

"Control the valley and do not allow any more monks to enter."

"I brought a batch of spirit stones with me. I will give different amounts of spirit stones to the existing cultivators in the valley as compensation according to their strength."

"Liehuo will deliver the spiritual stones later."

…

Half a day later.

Shen Lian, who was dressed as a second-level foundation-building cultivator, was asked to leave the valley after receiving three thousand spirit stones as compensation. For a foundation-building cultivator like him, three thousand spirit stones were just too much to buy a magic weapon of inferior quality.

There were hundreds of cultivators in the valley, and the Qianqiu Chamber of Commerce issued a total of more than 50,000 spirit stones.

One word: trench.

People don't talk too much about things that can cost money.

There was a roaring dragon in the sky above the valley, and the second-order great perfection fire dragon was hovering in the sky, breathing out flames.

Whether they like it or not, from now on, anyone who approaches the valley will be killed without mercy.

After collecting the spirit stones, Shen Lian walked for dozens of miles, plunged into the depths of the dense forest and turned back towards the valley.

…

Nightfall.

Guard posts have been set up around the valley, and red flints dispel the darkness and illuminate the surroundings of the valley.

There were more than a dozen figures in the valley, searching carefully.

Outside the valley, there are monks stationed and patrolling back and forth.

Elder Tian, ​​who rode the dragon, finally arrived in the valley. He sat cross-legged on the cliff on one side of the valley, looking at the busy monks below.

In front of him was a jade box, and inside it was a handful of broken pieces of cave stone, sparkling brightly.

Occasionally, a monk would dig it out from the soil below and bring it to him.

"Elder, there is a small vein of earth element stone and hematite mixed here."

After the visitor reported, he automatically flew back to the valley. Elder Tian kept his back straight even when he was sitting cross-legged. He picked up the fragment of the cave stone and looked at it.

He had checked the fragments of the cave stone in the box many times, and they were definitely broken raw ore.

After thinking about it, he took out the jade talisman and activated it.

"Elder Tian."

After the jade talisman lit up, Elder Geng's voice was heard first.

"How's it going?"

"Things went smoothly. We did find some debris and a valley..."

Elder Tian briefly explained the matter.

"So there is no cloud crystal stone underground, only a small vein..."

Elder Geng's voice sounded, and after a few breaths of silence, he said, "I remember that cave mine in the Cloud Forest. At first, I didn't find any cloud crystal stones. I only found them after I broke through the mine."

(End of this chapter)