Chapter 38: Obtaining a Spiritual Vein

Portal: Have you ever envied the blue chubby one’s Anywhere Door? Now is the moment for your dream to come true! For the low, low price of just five hundred thousand points, you can obtain a portal that lets you roam all over the world, unrestricted by any place or any time! As long as you silently think of the location marked on the map, you can reach any place you want to reach!

Note: Please be aware that the portal is only a portal. It does not possess any protective function. Before use, please ensure that the place behind the door is safe.

Chi Yixuan could not see the note. His attention had been completely locked onto the portal’s description. Both eyes stared straight at it, his pupils shining with longing.

“T-this, this, this… this is practically my childhood dream!”

Every time he had to get up for school, he would imagine having an Anywhere Door of his own. That way, he could get thirty more minutes of sleep and would not have to worry about leaving his homework at home.

Every time he went home during vacation, he would also imagine having an Anywhere Door. That way, he would not have to live in the dorms and could go home to sleep every day. Every time he went traveling, he would imagine having an Anywhere Door too. That way, he could go wherever he wanted, without worrying about hotels, journeys, methods of travel, or all sorts of other problems.

In short…

“For five hundred thousand, I can own an Anywhere Door. That’s way too worth it!” Chi Yixuan jumped in place, spun three times, and wanted nothing more than to set off fireworks to celebrate this wonderful news.

【Your Majesty, composure.】

“To hell with composure! If I can still keep my composure after owning an Anywhere Door, am I even human?” Chi Yixuan was extremely excited right now. To him, the significance of a portal was not merely that it was a shortcut. It was the weight of a childhood dream!

【But you do not yet own one.】The life-bound artifact reminded him with no tact whatsoever.

Only then did Chi Yixuan calm down again. He stared at that five hundred thousand and began to think. Then his eyes lit up. “You said you wouldn’t give me a plan I couldn’t pay for. Does that mean I can take out a loan or pay in installments? Life-bound artifact, now this is where you’re in the wrong. If you had this function, you should’ve arranged it earlier! Give me a loan of five hundred million right now. I’ll charge straight up to the Dao Integration stage, punch the Three Great Sects, step on the Nine Immortal Gates, utterly crush the sixteen kingdoms, and dominate the Longevity Realm!”

【That sounds a little childish.】The life-bound artifact reminded him, 【Please think about it. If loans or installment payments were possible, then every item in the shop should be open to you at this moment.】

Chi Yixuan still refused to give up. “I really can’t take out a loan?”

The life-bound artifact did not answer.

Chi Yixuan got the answer from its silence. He sighed. “Fine. I knew there wouldn’t be such a good thing in this world.”

Chi Yixuan was not stupid either. Without needing another reminder from the life-bound artifact, he had already figured out how to operate.

At present, the only thing related to the portal was the teleportation array inside Half-Moon Gorge.

A teleportation array was also a type of array, but it was more than a hundred times more intricate than defensive arrays and offensive arrays. Even the Three Great Sects could not just casually take one out and use it. Therefore, the vast majority of cultivators in the Longevity Realm, even the sect masters and elders of the Three Great Sects, used kun-boats when traveling. The only difference was their grade.

And yet, a tiny Half-Moon Gorge, a group of children whose average cultivation was less than the third level of Qi Refining, actually held a teleportation array. If this were said out loud, few people would believe it.

After all, most people still believed teleportation arrays were only legends.

Chi Yixuan had no intention of investigating Half-Moon Gorge’s secrets, but he also knew these children could not protect such wealth. If Wutong had not, through a twist of fate, fallen to the point of becoming a human sacrifice, then it would not be long before Half-Moon Gorge’s barrier was broken.

Even if these children ran out through the small hole in advance, they would not be able to avoid the cultivators’ pursuit. Because a yellow-grade spiritual vein and this special barrier might only make them suffer a little hardship, but this teleportation array that could not be taken away would make them wish they were dead.

After thinking this through, Chi Yixuan’s thoughts returned to the shadow guard.

He used the shadow guard’s body to sense everything inside Half-Moon Gorge. His divine sense spread out, and he soon discovered where the teleportation array was located.

Because the spiritual qi was dense, every blade of grass and every tree inside Half-Moon Gorge had a lustrous, bright color. Even the stones on the ground had gained the warm, smooth texture of jade after long-term immersion in spiritual qi. In a cave not far behind the two sisters, Tie Di and Gang Qin, the teleportation array that had already stopped operating had been installed. Around it were piles of powder left after spirit stones had been drained dry. From this, it could be seen that maintaining the teleportation array’s operation required an enormous amount of energy.

His divine sense continued probing inward and discovered that this teleportation array was embedded into the mountain, inseparable from it. Even if cultivators wanted to move it away, they would have to expend a great deal of effort.

Seeing this teleportation array, Chi Yixuan suddenly had a realization. Could it be that what this strange barrier truly wanted to protect was the teleportation array, and protecting minors was merely incidental?

By now, the contract had already been established. The two sisters, Tie Di and Gang Qin, were completely reassured and began to explain a portion of the valley’s secrets that small children like Wutong were still unable to come into contact with.

“We guess Senior has already seen it. This barrier was not set up to protect us. Twenty years ago, several children stumbled into Half-Moon Gorge by accident and discovered the secret here, so this place became our shelter.”

Tie Di recalled, “Those children were long since forced to leave Half-Moon Gorge because they reached adulthood, but we have continued using the methods they worked out for maintaining the arrays and barrier until now. Over the years, we have occasionally taken the risk of using the teleportation array to go outside and find some books on arrays to read, but we have never been able to fully understand the mysteries of this barrier.”

“As time passed, the barrier’s effects grew weaker and weaker. Even if more spirit stones were added, it could no longer recreate its initial might. Even if Wuxing Gate had not discovered us this time, in a few years, Half-Moon Gorge would still be exposed before the eyes of the world.”

Chi Yixuan had noticed it as soon as he came in. The array patterns on the key array flags that generated the barrier had already become blurred, and these children, who had not yet reached Foundation Establishment, obviously did not have the ability to repair array patterns.

Tie Di continued, “At first, there was no spiritual vein here. This superior yellow-grade spiritual vein was left behind by our elders, which is why it can be used to trade with Senior. As for the teleportation array and protective barrier here, they do not belong to us. Senior may dispose of them as you please.”

Chi Yixuan had originally been thinking about what he should use to exchange with them for the teleportation array. Now it seemed he was going to pick up another bargain for free.

As for the origins of these children, the origin of the yellow-grade spiritual vein in their hands, and why they knew the secret that life-bound artifacts could be stripped away… Chi Yixuan’s thoughts were the same as before. He did not plan to get to the bottom of it.

Driving the shadow guard into the mountain cave, Chi Yixuan heard the life-bound artifact say, 【Your Majesty, this teleportation array is very old and has already suffered slight damage, but it can be used as a manufacturing material for the portal.】

Chi Yixuan was familiar with this operation. Previously, the Artifact Refining Workshop and Medical Workshop had also been unlocked using materials plus spirit stones.

But the teleportation array was shop merchandise, which was different from unlocking the Artifact Refining Workshop after all. He asked, “Does it also need points to supplement it?”

【Yes. It also requires forty thousand points.】

Chi Yixuan: …

He looked carefully at his account balance and confirmed that his remaining points were a little over thirty thousand, not a little over forty thousand. “How long until points come to my door?”

The life-bound artifact said gently, 【At most one day.】

Chi Yixuan then said to the Tie Di sisters, “Go pack your things. Wait one more day, and I’ll take you away.”

Tie Di was somewhat worried, but when she thought that this was a Golden Core Perfected One and that those Foundation Establishment disciples of Wuxing Gate outside should be no cause for concern, she relaxed and went out to gather her family to pack.

…

Easternmost Continent, Silver City

Strange Treasure Hall had already been cleanly divided up by the merchants working together. Aside from the main store here in Silver City, even the deeds to Strange Treasure Hall’s branch stores elsewhere within Donglai Kingdom had already been stamped with other people’s names.

Several idlers squatted at the street corner, cracking melon seeds while chatting.

“I really didn’t expect it. Such a huge shop, and it collapsed just like that.”

“Who would’ve thought? Just half a month ago, even a menial worker from Strange Treasure Hall dared to bark orders at us!”

Not far away, Granny Zheng, who sold wontons, heard this and knocked her ladle against the edge of her pot. “That’s why, when doing business, you still have to rely on conscience. A place like that, throwing its weight around just because it had a cultivator behind it, was never going to last!”

As they chatted, a bang came from the entrance of Strange Treasure Hall. It turned out that the plaque reading “Strange Treasure Hall” had been taken down by workers and had fallen to the ground, cracking into several pieces. A new plaque, Swift Wind Trading Company’s signboard, was draped in red silk and hung up in its place.

Before long, crackling firecrackers rang out. Then came a group of people wearing seven-colored feather garments, dressed as auspicious spirit birds, circling a red ball hung with bells. In the middle, a lady whose brows and eyes had been painted very handsomely held a wooden sword and dressed as the legendary Immortal Lord. Wielding the sword, she danced gracefully with the flock of spirit birds.

Beside them, people beat gongs and drums, played mouth organs, and performed music. It was extraordinarily lively.

People young and old gathered nearby to watch the excitement. A woman held her daughter’s hand and pointed at the performance, saying, “They’re acting out the legendary story of Immortal Lord Lingyuan leading spirit birds to slay evil beings. Hiring someone to perform this isn’t cheap. You can only see it when a big store like this opens.”

Just then, the lady playing Immortal Lord Lingyuan leaped into the air, and the wooden sword in her hand cleaved out a seven-colored rainbow light. The man playing the evil being immediately staggered and rolled across the ground several times, vividly acting out the evil being’s unbearable agony after being struck by the Immortal Lord. This drew a round of cheers from the surrounding crowd.

Immortal Lord Lingyuan also seized the red ball back from the evil being’s hands and withdrew from the stage together with the spirit birds dancing gracefully around her.

Even after the performance of slaying the evil being ended, the crowd still wanted more and continued praising the performance from earlier.

The little girl blinked as she watched this scene, her eyes full of yearning. She told her mother that when she grew up, she also wanted to become a cultivator as powerful as Immortal Lord Lingyuan.

The woman smiled with her brows and eyes and repeatedly praised her daughter for having ambition.

After the evil-slaying performance ended, the guests who had come to congratulate the new store on its opening filed inside. The former Strange Treasure Hall, now Swift Wind Trading Company, had been decorated inside and out until it looked completely new. Not a trace of the old Strange Treasure Hall remained.

Luo Yanxing went back and forth inside the new store, entertaining guests. Amid the sound of opening firecrackers, she smiled with the pride of someone enjoying a spring breeze, until a clerk hurried over and whispered by her ear that people from Zhaoge had arrived.

Only then did Luo Yanxing set aside the matters in the front hall and go to the rear courtyard to receive the guests.

The person Zhaoge sent this time was Tao Dacheng, who was in charge of recruiting people from outside.

When the two met, Luo Yanxing cupped her hands and said, “Back then, Zhaoge helped break Strange Treasure Hall and the Chen clan’s alliance and helped Swift Wind Trading Company replace Strange Treasure Hall. I, Luo Yanxing, am endlessly grateful.”

Tao Dacheng smiled and said, “Boss Luo, you’re too polite. We disliked Strange Treasure Hall long ago too. Besides, this time it was the boss’s order. How could those of us below dare not do our utmost?”

Like Guo Qianshan and Fan Huilan, Tao Dacheng had also been assigned a task. Guo Qianshan led people to attack the Chen family and Strange Treasure Hall’s monopoly, while Tao Dacheng was responsible for contacting Luo Yanxing, spreading the scandals of Strange Treasure Hall and the Chen clan outside, and exchanging information with Silver City’s local merchants to bring down Strange Treasure Hall.

Without a cultivator’s protection and with the Chen clan disgusted by it, Strange Treasure Hall was a sick old tiger with its claws and teeth removed. It soon collapsed. Luo Yanxing received almost all of Strange Treasure Hall’s assets in Silver City. The other merchants who had contributed received Strange Treasure Hall’s assets and shops in other places. Naturally, Zhaoge also received a share of the cake. Tao Dacheng was here today to collect Zhaoge’s payment.

Therefore, after exchanging only a few pleasantries, the two quickly went straight to the point. Luo Yanxing brought Tao Dacheng to Strange Treasure Hall’s underground prison and said, “As agreed beforehand, all these slaves belong to Zhaoge.”

Apart from the slaves, there were also quite a few yellow-grade materials. Tao Dacheng had prepared carts and horses and hauled all of them back to Zhaoge.

…

The slaves Strange Treasure Hall kept underground were naturally all meant to be used as human sacrifices. These slaves had not seen daylight for a long time. When they were pulled out from underground, many people could not control their tears from facing the light of day directly.

Most of the slaves were very weak, but they were not easy to manage. When quite a few of them discovered that the direction they were heading was the desert, they immediately began struggling to flee.

Liang Maocai was one of them. He was not a born slave. He had been abducted and sold into slavery. After being locked underground in Strange Treasure Hall, he had kept inciting the surrounding slaves to flee, but not once had he succeeded. His leg had even been broken. This time, the commotion from Strange Treasure Hall changing hands had not been small. Of course he knew about it too. He had originally thought there would be a different ending, but unexpectedly, they were still going to be offered as human sacrifices.

Since they were going to die either way, he would risk this life!

For some reason, the people escorting them this time were not watching very strictly, nor had they used the kind of prison carts that could isolate sound and strength. Liang Maocai secretly cut through the rope and shouted, “We can’t become human sacrifices! Run!”

Then he charged out with a limp.

Granny Hao’s family were born slaves. They had long since accepted their fate and could endure a lifetime as slaves, but that did not mean they were willing to go die. Seeing someone flee, they also struggled to push aside the guards and scattered in all directions.

Xiuyu was a timid girl. Because she was too thin, her arms were too slender and small. As soon as she struggled, both her hands slipped out of the rope. Seeing that many people were fleeing, she could not help but grow bolder as well and followed the crowd as she ran.

…

There were nearly ten thousand slaves being handed over on this trip. In truth, the overwhelming majority of them had already lost the courage to resist. Fewer than one in ten fled, but that was still several hundred people. With so many people scattering and fleeing in different directions, they truly were not easy to catch back all at once.

However, Tao Dacheng was not an ordinary person. Back then, he had been responsible for carrying letters and bringing the menial workers’ families back. When there were too many matters in the valley and Qiu Ping’an could not handle everything, he had also been responsible for directing the slaves in their work.

Among the thirty menial workers in Zhaoge back then, he had spent the longest time mixed in with the slaves, so of course he had anticipated this situation. Besides, these slaves had been watched by Strange Treasure Hall until they were very frail. Some were even disabled. They simply could not run quickly.

Before long, the several hundred people who had fled were caught back by Tao Dacheng’s mere dozen or so subordinates.

Those who had not dared to flee in the first place saw their companions captured so easily, and their gazes grew even more numb.

Tao Dacheng saw this, but did not say much. In any case, no matter what he said right now, these people would not believe him. It would be better to bring them back to Zhaoge as quickly as possible. When they saw it with their own eyes, the truth would naturally speak for itself, and he would not need to waste his breath.

The scenery of the Nameless Desert was as desolate and withered yellow as ever. Liang Maocai had not run far before he was caught back. His body and face were covered in sand and dust, and several cuts had been scratched onto him by the stones on the ground. But he did not care in the slightest. Compared with the whip that was about to fall, what did these small injuries count for?

His heart like dead ashes, he waited for the whip to come down. Yet the pain he expected did not descend for a long while. Instead, the rope tied around him seemed looser than before.

Liang Maocai lowered his head in shock and looked at the rope hanging from his hands, almost thinking he was dreaming. Could it be that these guards pitied him and deliberately wanted to let him go?

But how could that be possible? Would they be that kind?

Or were they doing it on purpose, deliberately waiting for him to flee again so they could catch him back, teasing him like a cat playing with a mouse?

Liang Maocai was sneering inwardly when he suddenly heard a familiar voice. “Brother Maocai, is that you?”

That voice!

Liang Maocai raised his head in shock and carefully stared at the menial worker in front of him. Only then did he recognize his identity from the young man’s familiar features. He murmured, “Shi Dahai? Weren’t you…”

Liang Maocai did not dare recognize him. Because Shi Dahai had already been sent to the Sea of Suffering Path as a human sacrifice more than a month ago. How could he still be alive?

Besides, the person in front of him…

Liang Maocai’s somewhat clouded eyes stared carefully at him. The young man before him was much sturdier than the Shi Dahai in his memory. There was flesh on his face, his hair was darker, his eyes were brighter, and the clothes he wore were respectable and had not a single patch. If not for him speaking, Liang Maocai would never have recognized that this was the same person.

“What exactly is going on?” Liang Maocai’s voice was hoarse, like sand scraping against his throat.

Seeing this, Shi Dahai fed him a mouthful of water. He himself treasured this water very much too. Nowadays, the water used in Zhaoge either came from inside the small estate or was produced with water-generation talismans, and water-generation talismans were expensive.

Shi Dahai said, “It’s a long story. In any case, none of you will die. Once we reach Zhaoge, you’ll know.”

Zhaoge?

Liang Maocai turned this name over in his heart, feeling that it was somewhat familiar. Only after a long while did he remember that he seemed to have heard it from the mouths of Strange Treasure Hall’s menial workers.

Shi Dahai told him to hold the rope tight. “Sometimes sandstorms rise in the desert. This rope is tied to keep you from getting separated.”

Granny Hao’s family had also been caught back. They had originally thought they would be beaten. If they were beaten, then so be it. With these old bones of hers, she did not have many years left to live anyway. Being beaten to death here would still be more comfortable than being offered to the Sea of Suffering Path. She had heard that the Sea of Suffering Path was extremely brutal, and that those swallowed into it all died horribly.

But no one hit them, and no one cursed them either. One guard saw that she was so hungry her feet were trembling and even stuffed a flatbread into her hand.

It truly was a flatbread rolled from flour. It even shone with oil. The moment it was held before her, Granny Hao smelled an overpowering fragrance. After being locked underground in Strange Treasure Hall for so long, Granny Hao had nearly forgotten what flatbread tasted like. Strange Treasure Hall had always given them only the husks and dregs that even pigs would not eat.

Gnawing on this flatbread, Granny Hao suddenly lost the courage to seek death.

The journey was somewhat long. Some slaves could not hold on and collapsed limply to the ground halfway there. The guards lifted them onto flatbed carts and pulled them along. More than ten thousand people dragged their way forward, walking and stopping, and finally arrived at Zhaoge before nightfall.

Qiu Ping’an had been waiting at the gate for a long time. Seeing people arrive from afar, he shouted behind him, “People are here! Everyone, hurry up and grab your tools!”

Behind him, the voices of over a thousand people answered at once.

In order to welcome the newcomers, they had all stopped working today and started preparing early in the morning. Therefore, when the first wave of slaves was brought in, they were passed through one process after another like products on an assembly line.

Xiuyu felt that everything happening now was fantastical.

She had originally thought she was going to be sent to Nameless Valley to become a human sacrifice. But what they had arrived at was a village? Or a town?

Xiuyu had not seen much of the world. Before she had time to clearly see the rows of houses in the distance, she was pulled over by a dark-skinned auntie.

“Oh my, look how dirty you are. Don’t be scared. Auntie will wipe you down.”

A bristle brush as big as her head brushed over her several times, and all the windblown sand she had carried with her on the journey was swept to the ground. Then the auntie shouted, “Next!” and pushed her backward. Xiuyu found herself in the hands of a young girl. That girl used a towel to wipe her face and hands. Then she pushed her onward, and Xiuyu fell into another person’s hands.

It was an older uncle. He lifted up his eyeglasses and looked at her for a while, then said, “Not bad. Just a few small injuries.”

Then he used a spoon to scoop up a little medicinal powder and sprinkled it over the scratches on her arms and knees. “All right, next.”

Xiuyu changed places again. A gentle young man sat at a table writing. Without raising his head, he asked her, “Name? Where are you from?”

Xiuyu vaguely realized something, but it was still unclear. Hearing the question, she answered honestly by instinct. “My name is Xiuyu. I don’t have a place of origin.”

That person wrote a few more strokes, then raised his head to glance at her and said, “From now on, you’re a person of Zhaoge. Remember that.”

Xiuyu responded and let out a breath of relief. So it turned out she had been sold to a place called Zhaoge. She was a little happy. Did that mean she did not have to become a human sacrifice?

“Next!”

Xiuyu changed places again. This time, she and the other slaves were led by a tall woman into a large room. The room was filled with tables, and on the tables were bowls of steaming hot rice porridge.

Xiuyu instinctively held her breath. However, she was far too weak. After only a short while, her face turned red from holding it in.

The tall woman asked her, “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you breathing?”

Only then did Xiuyu catch her breath and hurriedly answer, “I-I don’t dare.”

The woman frowned. “What’s there to be afraid of?”

Xiuyu said blankly, “Before, the master’s family made buns. I couldn’t help smelling them, and the master’s family said I had dirtied the buns.”

Fan Huilan sighed when she heard this and said, “Go on. The rice porridge on the tables is yours. You can drink it. One bowl for each person.”

It was not that they were reluctant to spare this bit of grain. It was just that these slaves had been imprisoned for too long, and their stomachs and intestines were weak. If they ate too much all at once, Fan Huilan was afraid they would get stomachaches.

Xiuyu was still blank and unable to react. Only when she was pushed to the table, only when a mouthful of warm rice porridge with minced meat added to it entered her mouth, did tears suddenly stream down her face.

…

Dongchen Continent, Half-Moon Gorge

Chi Yixuan waited in Half-Moon Gorge for an entire night. At last, early the next morning, he heard a notification.

【Congratulations, your territory has gained ten thousand new people. You have obtained ten thousand points.】

Chi Yixuan’s spirits lifted. Withdraw the points, dig out the teleportation array, exchange for the portal!

【Congratulations, you have obtained an unknown-grade magic artifact—the portal.】

The portal was obtained. Next, it was time to dig out the spiritual vein.

A spiritual vein that had already been tamed was easier to catch than a rabbit in the grass. With the tacit permission of its former masters, Tie Di and the others, Chi Yixuan reached out gently, and the spiritual vein beneath Half-Moon Gorge was taken into his backpack slot.

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