Chapter 140: A Minor Spirit Crystal Deposit

Li Mu departed from Deyang City the very next day, heading south while carrying the black cub.

As he ventured outside the city, he did not hold back his true strength. Continuously executing the Void Escaping Technique, his speed was such that even his bodyguards could not catch a glimpse of his figure. However, he could not guarantee whether he had shaken off the pursuers from the Earth Gaze Sect.

His destination was Log City, the territory controlled by Wang Lin.

Both the Jade Iron Sect and the Bright Jade Valley had expanded to their absolute peaks, splitting the Cloud Mountain Realm right down the middle while other sects could only look up to them in awe. The expansion of these two major sects was extremely rapid, yet their methods were completely different.

The Jade Iron Sect was exceptionally steady and focused on deep construction. In every location they secured, they built heavily fortified cities, erected various restrictive arrays, and used these as strongholds to gradually assimilate neighboring sects and swallow up surrounding territories.

The Bright Jade Valley, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. Their cities were not sturdy; resembling the encampments built by nomadic peoples, they were merely temporary resting places. Their strength lay in their cultivation methods. Typically consisting of a few Vein-Refining stage cultivators leading numerous Spirit-Building stage disciples, they moved like the wind and plundered like fire. Relying on overwhelming force, they subdued all nearby sects and seized the resources of the mineral veins.

Deyang City was a Jade Iron Sect city located very close to the demarcation line, and Log City was situated right along that border.

Li Mu took out his Drifting Cloud boat and flew toward Log City. He was quite fond of this magic tool; it was stable, convenient, and possessed disguise capabilities.

While flying through the air, he manipulated its materials to change its appearance. The black cub flew alongside him in the air, utilizing its exceptionally sharp eyesight to scan the surrounding conditions.

After a few moments, Li Mu sensed the voice of the black cub transmitting into his spiritual sea: there was a situation up ahead to the side.

Li Mu elevated the Drifting Cloud boat and slowly approached.

Before a mountain, cultivators from two opposing sides were locked in fierce combat.

One faction entirely wore purple garments with crimson sashes, clearly disciples of the Bright Jade Valley, while the other faction appeared to belong to some local sect whose identity Li Mu did not know.

They were all Qi-Condensation stage individuals, with only a few Spirit-Building stage experts among them, who were hardly worth a second glance in Li Mu's eyes. Watching the fierce battle below, Li Mu smiled faintly as a sudden thought crossed his mind.

As the Drifting Cloud boat drifted closer to the crowd, he suddenly cast the Great Wind Technique.

A fierce gale materialized instantly. Within a radius of several hundred meters, visibility dropped to the point where practically no one could see anyone else. He deliberately exerted pressure with his spiritual sense; the Spirit-Building stage cultivators, trapped within the howling winds, had no idea what was happening and ran back and forth like headless flies.

A sandstorm formation suddenly surged forth, and in the blink of an eye, the Drifting Cloud boat sped away.

The strong winds gradually dissipated, and everything returned to normal. The two factions of cultivators resumed their fierce, earth-shaking battle. None of them ever realized that one person among their ranks had suddenly vanished.

Inside the Drifting Cloud boat lay an unconscious Bright Jade Valley disciple, swept away by Li Mu's sandstorm formation.

Looking at the cultivator, Li Mu laughed heartily as if looking at a fat pig. Without wasting any words, he immediately stripped the man naked.

He had intentionally chosen someone whose physical build was identical to Li Tian's. Donting the Bright Jade Valley disciple's robes and taking the sect's jade token, Li Mu felt rather pleased with himself. Soon after, he lowered the Drifting Cloud boat and dumped the cultivator deep into a distant mountain. Without a magic tool, it would take the man ten-odd days just to return, and Li Mu departed immediately.

Pulling out a flying shuttle and putting away the Drifting Cloud boat, Li Mu continued southward.

Such a disguise was useless in Deyang City, but infiltrating the Bright Jade Valley would not be difficult.

With the flying shuttle, his speed increased significantly. However, after flying for only an hour, several identical flying shuttles approached from ahead—they belonged to people from the Bright Jade Valley.

The leading Vein-Refining stage cultivator looked rather arrogant, his pale face marked by several dark moles. He cast a disdainful glance at Li Mu and issued an order: "Fall in behind me. Someone is missing."

Li Mu pondered for a moment, decided against overthinking it, and directly followed behind the group, heading towards the southwest.

Since they were members of the Bright Jade Valley, gathering more information through them wouldn't hurt.

Through a brief conversation, Li Mu learned about their mission, which involuntarily brought a hint of amusement to him.

As it turned out, these individuals were precisely cultivators from Log City, and their objective was a low-grade spirit crystal mine. This spirit crystal mine was not harassed by other factions; instead, it had been occupied by a group of second-tier shovel-beasts, making it impossible to capture for several successive days. Second-tier spirit beasts rarely possessed beast cores, and low-grade spirit crystal mines had very little practical value—eating them was useless, discarding them was wasteful. Yet, after wrestling with the problem for days, Wang Lin had actually dispatched a Vein-Refining stage cultivator named Zhao Mo to handle it.

Li Mu had a massive demand for low-grade spirit crystals; if they were there, he wanted them. As for the shovel-beasts, rumor had it that their carapaces were extremely tough, making them excellent practice materials for forging protective garments.

The group flew for a few hours and landed before a mountain.

Zhao Mo, the Vein-Refining stage cultivator, said coldly, "You two, go to the nearby village and bring back some immortal slaves. Bring as many as you can; except for the dead ones, take both the old and the young."

The two cultivators nodded and left, leaving only Li Mu and another cultivator standing on the mountain.

Inside Li Mu's heart, a flame of anger was already faintly burning. The style of the Bright Jade Valley stirred up many emotions in him; such a purely predatory sect was something only found in the New Realm.

*"Immortal slaves? Even if you actually bring them here, I will make you taste what the life of an immortal slave is like,"* Li Mu thought to himself.

Zhao Mo shouted aloud, "You two, follow behind me to tidy up the materials and harvest the beast cores."

The two men hurriedly nodded. Zhao Mo nodded back, raising his voice considerably: "Whoever dares to conceal a beast core, don't blame me for showing no mercy."

"Understood, sir."

Zhao Mo smiled, a hint of a sneer on his face, and walked ahead into the mountain.

The spiritual Qi concentration within the mountain was very sparse, differing greatly from the surrounding areas—this was the classic sign of a spirit crystal mine.

Spirit crystals were inherently unique objects capable of easily absorbing and locking in spiritual Qi. If they existed around a spirit crystal mine, they would slowly absorb the spiritual Qi within the mine, transforming into stones that retained boundless spiritual energy. In a spirit crystal mine, the better the spirit crystals, the higher the quality of the crystals obtained thereafter.

This place was merely a low-grade spirit crystal mine, and the quality of its spirit crystals was naturally poor.

Passing through a valley, they followed a path descending into a cave. All the way down, faint, muffled sounds could be heard amidst the trickling streams nearby.

*Clink, clink.*

These were the sounds made by shovel-beasts. They loved to live near subterranean veins and were even more fond of spiritual crystal aura; many spirit crystal mines were infested with these creatures.

Zhao Mo's spiritual sense was far weaker than Li Mu's, so he detected the sounds of the shovel-beasts much later than Li Mu did.

He took out a lamp-like magic tool and held it in his hand. It instantly shone brightly, illuminating the surroundings clearly.

The other cultivator caught sight of it, his legs growing somewhat unsteady as he shivered in fear.

Inside a cave several hundred meters wide, there were numerous shovel-beasts.

There were far too many of them, presenting a hideous sight.

They were about fifty centimeters in size, supported by numerous sprawling legs, resembling spiders. As they crawled across the ground, the two feelers on their heads constantly whipped about like continuously shoveling spades, their carapaces gleaming brightly. Born in absolute darkness, these shovel-beasts were completely blind and had no reaction to the bright light.

"I never imagined there would be so many. This trip is truly a massive profit, heh heh!"

Zhao Mo was extremely surprised, a green saber already gripped in his hand.