Chapter 431 Medium Spirit Stone(TERM) Vein

Astrael (Person Name), the foremost rogue cultivator of the Heavenly Abode Continent (Location), had been lamenting his lack of tribulation-crossing treasures. Upon discovering Qian Xinghe possessed vast quantities of spirit stones, he decisively executed him without hesitation.

Qian Xinghe had only formed his Golden Core a mere 30-some years prior—how could he possibly contend with a ruthless false infant-stage expert like Astrael? Naturally, after their battle, he ended up collecting his lunchbox.

That Astrael (Person Name) was utterly ruthless. After seizing the treasures from Qian Xinghe, he still felt the spirit stones were insufficient. Deciding to follow through with his wicked scheme, he descended upon the Chu Kingdom (Location) and nearly exterminated every last cultivator within the Qian Clan's territory.

The entire Qian Clan, an immortal family, had their savings of over 10 million spirit stones completely plundered by him before he fled beyond the borders of Ji Province.

"I always wondered why he refused to acquire the 5 Elements Essence for us. Turns out he scorns the meager stipend we offer."

Lyra let out an icy snort of fury. The Qian Immortal Clan had concealed a medium-grade spirit stone vein for a full 60-year cycle, secretly extracting a staggering 18,000,000 spirit stones' worth of resources. That colossal loss should have rightfully belonged to them.

"The heart of man is never satisfied, the snake would swallow the elephant. Qian Xinghe embezzled the spirit stone vein, thinking he could conceal it from us by purchasing treasures outside the Ji Province."

The elderly clan leader standing nearby also shook his head and remarked coldly, "Little do they realize that with their level of strength, this sum of 32,000 spirit stones is nothing but a death warrant."

Eldrin's gaze was icy, a flicker of anger in his eyes as he said, "If the Qians hadn't been suddenly wiped out, no 1 knows how much longer this matter would have remained hidden."

"This matter likely extends beyond a single case. We must investigate all major immortal clans affiliated with the Heavenly Ruins Alliance across both provinces."

He truly could not help his anger. The combined territories of Tianxu Province and Dishu Province were larger than the entire Chu Kingdom (Location). By all reasoning, the resources contained within should be no less—if not greater—than those of the Chu Kingdom (Location).

He had previously wondered why, after so many years of development, no high-grade spirit stone veins had ever been discovered. So this was where the problem lay.

The thought of having his hard-won territories stolen by others made Eldrin's expression grow even colder as he said,

"Over these years, we have refrained from intervening in the distribution of micro and small spirit stone veins across the 2 provinces, leaving the shares to the major Foundation Establishment and Purple Mansion cultivation families of the Tianxu Alliance. Yet they dare to resort to such schemes."

"Investigate! I want this thoroughly investigated!"

"Especially the Immortal Clan, whose power has surged dramatically in recent years, must be subjected to targeted investigation."

The old clan leader nodded, his expression grim as he spoke, "I intend to recall Kael (Person Name) and Lior (Person Name), assigning them to thoroughly investigate the Sky Ruins Province and the Earth Lion Province respectively."

"However, our immediate priority is to swiftly take control of the medium-sized spirit stone vein."

Hearing him mention the medium-grade spirit stone vein, Eldrin finally suppressed some of his fury.

After exchanging a glance with Lyra (Person Name), he rose to his feet and said, "Let’s first inspect the spirit vein and secure it before anything else."

The 3 of them directly teleported to the Earth Lion Ridge, where they rendezvoused with Lila (Person Name). After picking up a dozen or so Purple Mansion cultivators along the way, they flew from Earth Lion Ridge toward the medium-grade spirit stone vein.

After flying over 200,000 li, they discovered a concealed mine shaft nestled among towering mountain ranges.

At this moment, over 2,000 Qian Family cultivators were mining spirit stones within the cavern, led by a Purple Palace, Late Stage cultivator named Qian Kongshan.

As the Qian Clan had been annihilated less than 7 days prior, the cultivators from the Qian Clan stationed within the spirit stone vein had yet to receive the news.

When Qian Kongshan saw the arrival of the Patriarchs, he thought the news had been leaked. Trembling with fear, he dropped to his knees and begged for mercy: "Honored Patriarchs, the order to secretly mine the 32,000-vein spirit stone deposit came directly from our Family Head."

"I am merely following orders. I beg you, Senior, to spare my life."

Chen Changxuan's expression turned icy as he stated coldly, "Take them."

Lila and a dozen or so Zifu experts took action, swiftly bringing the spirit stone vein under control.

Eldrin soared into the mineral vein on his sword. After a thorough investigation, his expression turned grave as he declared, "This spirit stone vein should yield an annual output of approximately 200,000 spirit stones. Their excessive illicit mining has caused significant depletion."

"Fortunately, this spirit vein had accumulated energy for countless years without being mined, otherwise such violent extraction would likely have degraded its grade considerably."

Caleb (Person Name), who had followed, cast a cold gaze and said angrily, "The Qian family's greed knows no bounds. They secretly mined over 32,000 spirit stones—no wonder their entire clan was nearly wiped out. Truly, humans die in pursuit of wealth, just as birds perish for food."

No 1 responded. The old clan leader said with a worried expression, "This place is too close to the demon territory. Without a fourth-order spirit vein, I fear we’ll be vulnerable to demonic attacks."

"Then let's cultivate the spirit vein."

Lyra declared her decision to cultivate a fourth-order spirit vein within this spirit mountain and deploy a fourth-grade Mountain Protection Array.

Lila frowned, her expression turning solemn as she said, "To cultivate a low-grade, fourth-tier spirit vein requires a full 10 million spirit stones. The combined resources of our clan and the Celestial Ruins Alliance still fall short."

"Don't worry about the spirit stones." Eldrin's eyes turned frosty as he spoke calmly, "We'll wait until Kael and Uncle Lior finish their investigation to see if anyone has been secretly mining the spiritual vein."

Upon hearing this, Chen Caleb and the others felt a slight stir in their hearts, realizing that this time, some families might have to pay a hefty price.

Although he intended to make certain immortal clans of the Sky Ruins Alliance pay a hefty price, the work of nurturing the spirit veins had to begin immediately.

Eldrin returned to his clan and retrieved a considerable amount of artifact-forging materials from the ancestral treasury. After crafting a complete set of fourth-rank Spirit Gathering Formation arrays, he departed for the spirit mine with over 3,000,000 spirit stones from the Chen Family.

Upon arriving at the Spirit Mine Mountain, the 2 immediately set up a Spirit Gathering Formation and began channeling spirit stones to commence the advancement of the spiritual vein.

Elsewhere, Lior and Kael returned to the Chu Kingdom.

The 2 immediately began investigating the major immortal clans across the Sky Ruins Province and Earth Lion Province. To uncover the secretly occupied mineral veins and treasures of each clan, they even commissioned Lyra (Person Name) to forge a Tier-4 Heart-Questioning Altar.

With the fourth-level Heart-Trial Platform conducting interrogations, the 2 of them labored diligently for over half a year, finally completing the screening of all 200-plus Foundation Establishment clans and 20-some Purple Manor clans within the Tianxu Alliance.

Even several high-ranking members of the Xu family were summoned to the Heart-Interrogation Platform for questioning.

And this investigation yielded truly shocking results. They compiled a list and presented it to Eldrin.

After reviewing the list, Eldrin immediately summoned over 2 100 immortal clansmen at or above the Foundation Establishment stage from the Tianxu Alliance, convening a meeting directly at the Earth Lion Ridge.

At the assembly, he tossed a list to the seated attendees and spoke with unruffled composure, "Take a look at this document."

"This..."

After reviewing the list, some wore expressions of terror while others revealed looks of smoldering resentment.

The heads of 6 or 7 Purple Mansion immortal clans wore expressions of sheer terror on their faces. The current leader of the Fang Immortal Clan (Organization) trembled as he spoke, "Ancestor, grant us forgiveness! We were merely confused for a moment!"

"Hah—"

Eldrin let out a cold sneer, his eyes sharp as blades. "In the Tianxu Province alone, there are 17 micro and 3 small spirit stone veins hidden, along with 4 third-tier earth veins and dozens of various natural treasure ore veins."

"You've done quite well."