Cultivation Begins From The Desert

Rhino Horn Continent.

Without discussing the outcome of the confrontation between Cao Wenjin and the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle, let's focus on Zhouyang, who began mining in the Spirit Stone Ore, digging for seven to eight days straight.

During these seven or eight days, he worked for three hours and rested for one hour, maintaining this routine.

After such continuous excavation for seven to eight days, the tunnel he had dug had reached several thousand feet in length.

However, despite such prolonged digging, Zhouyang still had not found the Top-grade Spirit Stones he desired. He did uncover a considerable amount of Middle-grade Spirit Stones, likely over a hundred pieces when cut, and even more Low-grade Spirit Stones, at least four to five thousand pieces.

This harvest was certainly unsatisfactory to Zhouyang, as Rhino Horn Continent was currently no friendly place; each additional day he spent there increased the danger.

"Could it be that I've been digging in the wrong direction?"

Judging by the quantity of Middle-grade Spirit Stones he found, this Spirit Stone Ore was undoubtedly at least a small-scale ore, which would surely contain Top-grade Spirit Stones.

Zhouyang's extended efforts to find Top-grade Spirit Stones made him question whether he was digging in the wrong direction.

Unfortunately, while everyone knows that Spirit Stone Ores produce such treasures, how to extract Top-grade Spirit Stones has always remained a mystery.

Even the major sects with thousands of years of heritage cannot precisely mine all the Top-grade Spirit Stones from an ore, and must use a wide net approach, gathering them slowly through excavation.

Zhouyang initially believed that the direction with stronger Divine Sense suppression might have Top-grade Spirit Stones, but now he doubted this assumption and suspected he had chosen the wrong path.

So after a moment of contemplation, he suddenly changed his excavation direction to where the Spiritual Qi Soaring phenomenon initially occurred.

Digging in this new direction for another two days, Zhouyang, using Spiritual Sense Sword Control, suddenly sensed an incredibly pure Spiritual Qi wave emanating from the front, which delighted him, prompting him to accelerate his digging.

Moments later, he unearthed a head-sized, earth-yellow Spirit Stone.

This earth-yellow Spirit Stone emitted exceptionally pure Spiritual Qi, far purer than ordinary Middle-grade Spirit Stones, but Zhouyang did not believe this large stone could entirely be Top-grade Spirit Stone.

"Could it be that the true Top-grade Spirit Stone is hidden within this stone, while the rest are merely by-products?"

Gazing at the stone in his hand, his eyes sparkled as if he had realized the truth.

Following slight deliberation, he carefully infused Magical Power into his Flying Sword to cut the stone.

After a tea break's worth of time, Zhouyang finally stripped off the "outer layers" encasing the real Top-grade Spirit Stone, obtaining the first Top-grade Spirit Stone of his life.

This Top-grade Spirit Stone was about one finger long, three fingers wide, and half an inch thick, entirely golden yellow like the finest jade, emitting dazzling Spiritual Light.

Compared to Middle-grade and Low-grade Spirit Stones, the Top-grade Spirit Stone contained much purer and thicker Spiritual Power but did not emit any Spiritual Qi; its Spiritual Power was completely restrained.

This restrained Spiritual Power is the key characteristic distinguishing Top-grade Spirit Stones from Middle-grade and Low-grade ones; because of this, Top-grade Spirit Stones won't degrade to Middle-grade even if stored in a Storage Bag for millennia.

As for the Top-grade Spirit Stones surpassed by Ultimate Spirit Stones, they reportedly not only won't lose Spiritual Power but will actively absorb Spiritual Qi from rich areas to replenish used Spiritual Power, achieving infinite recycling!

"So this is a Top-grade Spirit Stone!"

"I wonder if this Top-grade Spirit Stone counts as two or three pieces in terms of spirit stone quantity? It wouldn't make sense for such a large spirit stone to count as just one piece!"

Excited and unable to put it down, Zhouyang fondled the Spirit Stone, his eyes full of excitement.

Although he had never seen a Top-grade Spirit Stone before and was unaware of the standard size divisions, he knew that given the size of the stone in his hand, it couldn't count as just one standard-sized Top-grade Spirit Stone.

With just this one piece of Top-grade Spirit Stone, all his hard work over these days was worth it.

After playing with the Top-grade Spirit Stone for a while, he carefully stored it in a Jade Box and placed it in his Storage Bag, then separated the Middle-grade Spirit Stones that had encased the Top-grade Spirit Stone into another Jade Box.

These accompanying Middle-grade Spirit Stones, though unable to match the concentration of the Top-grade Spirit Stone's Spiritual Power, were still much better than ordinary Middle-grade Spirit Stones.

They would be more effective than regular Middle-grade Spirit Stones for replenishing Magical Power in battle or serving as a power source for a Tier Three Puppet Beast.

After securing these Spirit Stones, Zhouyang felt renewed vigor, and, controlling his Flying Sword, continued digging deeper.

On the other side, the Golden Roc, having returned to Rhino Horn Continent, plunged into the cave once belonging to the Golden-Horned Rhinoceros to recuperate.

While its injuries appeared severe, they were merely superficial wounds, and with its strong self-healing ability as a Tier Five High-Grade Demon Beast, such injuries would fully recover with some rest.

In fact, even if it hadn't feared losing face when returning to the Broken Cloud Mountain Range, seen by other Demon Beasts in such a state, it really didn't need to recuperate at Rhino Horn Continent at all.

After more than ten days of continuous recovery, not only had all the wounds on the Golden Roc healed, but the feathers that had previously fallen off were replaced with a new cluster of feathers.

Although these newly grown feathers were not as tough as the ones tempered by its magical power, they were perfectly sufficient to support flying.

Moreover, during these days of recuperation, it had completely expelled the remaining power of space from its body.

Once its body had recovered, the Golden Roc naturally felt no attachment to the Rhino Horn Continent and immediately flew out of the cave, preparing to return to the Broken Cloud Mountain Range to report back to the Fire-Scaly Demon King about the situation.

However, just as it flew several hundred miles away, it seemed to remember something and turned back to patrol the entire oasis again.

Although the Rhino Horn Continent was vast, at the speed of the Golden Roc, it would not take an hour to fly around the oasis.

Eagles naturally have very sharp vision, and the eyes of the Tier Five High-Grade Demon Beast, the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle, could see through most illusions and illusion arrays of Tier Five and below, through various effects of Qi Concealment and Hidden Breath Secret Techniques, as well as perceive the flow changes of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, and even penetrate through earth and stones!

Flying a thousand feet above, the Golden Roc let its gaze sweep across the land of the oasis below. Those demon beasts, which appeared large and conspicuous but only had the aura of a Tier One or Tier Two beast, it completely ignored. These low-tier demon beasts were not its target.

A moment later, a cold sneer flashed in its eyes as it found its target.

Boom!

Accompanied by the sound of thunder, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator hiding in an underground chamber dozens of feet deep was struck dead by a lightning bolt that descended from the sky.

Boom! Boom!

Like the sound of death's horn, thundering blasts erupted across various places in the Rhino Horn Continent. After each thunderclap, one or more cultivators still hiding on the continent were struck down in their hiding places, without exception.

After slaughtering a dozen or so remaining cultivators on the Rhino Horn Continent, the Golden Roc finally flew over the spirit stone mine.

Originally, if a spirit stone mine hadn't been discovered, even the eye of the Golden Roc couldn't see its presence from the sky.

But now, although Zhouyang and others deliberately sealed the mine entrance during excavation, they could not contain the dispersing spiritual qi.

In the Golden Roc's eyes from the sky, those mine entrances emitting spiritual qi were as bright as beacons in the night.

"Oh, there's even a spirit stone mine here?"

A trace of surprise flickered in its eyes, somewhat astonished by the existence of the spirit stone mine.

Ordinary Tier Five Demon Beasts might not care about such things since they couldn't use them.

But the Golden Roc was different. Having long followed the demon king, it vaguely knew that its own demon king, and some high-tier cultivators in the human cultivation realm, had some covert transactions. Their demand for spirit stones was far greater than that of an average demon king.

The Broken Cloud Mountain Range also had many spirit stone mines. However, once those mines were discovered, demon kings would drive demon beasts skilled in excavation to empty them.

Then, the demon kings would keep the top-grade spirit stones and upper-grade spirit stones for themselves, while the middle-grade spirit stones and low-grade spirit stones would be used to enhance the rank of certain spirit veins within their territory or create new spirit veins, following the practices of human cultivators.

Therefore, the Golden Roc thought that if it could inform its own king about the spirit stone mine, perhaps the king would reward it generously.

"Just right, the defensive artifact of this lord was damaged by that damned human cultivator. If there are rewards, I shall request the king to refine another defensive artifact for me!"

Its eyes gleamed with divine light, filled with murderous intent when looking down at the spirit stone mine.

Determined to offer the spirit stone mine to the "Mountain-Relocating Demon King" behind it, the Golden Roc certainly wouldn't sit by while human cultivators "stole" what belonged to its king.

With the flap of its wings, golden thunderbolts began to condense into head-sized thunder balls that rained down on those mine entrances.

Rumble!

After a series of earth-shaking explosions, the tunnels inside the spirit stone mine collapsed entirely, burying the miners alive, including Zhouyang.

Due to the suddenness of the incident and the special force field within the spirit stone mine isolating the miners' senses of the outside, not even Zhouyang had any premonition before the tunnels caved in.

Thus, when the billions of tons of mud and sand fell overhead, he only had time to activate his body-protecting divine technique "Qianyang Golden Light" before being buried underground.

Fortunately, with the "Qianyang Golden Light" slightly holding back the falling sand, he managed to survive using the "Earth Escape Technique" to move through the debris.

Although he saved his life with the "Earth Escape Technique," due to the collapse causing the terrain to change, reopening the mine tunnel here for excavation would not be possible for some time.

Furthermore, a more pressing question gnawed at him—who was attacking the ore vein?