Krune looked back and couldn't help but say.
"It went better than I thought."
Feifei agreed with him.
"Indeed, I guess your pills are worth a whole lot more than you thought."
Krune laughed and nodded.
"Perhaps you are right."
The four of them went to take a teleport formation that would send them to a more remote place in the Elemental Sect Planet. Since Tava was one of the biggest cities, there were just way too many cultivators and demon beasts coming and going. It wouldn't be a good idea to look for Elemental Stones there.
They decided to teleport to a city called Hiria close to the north pole of the planet. From the information gathered, whether there was cold or not, it didn't change the chances of finding Elemental Path Stones.
From there, Krune's group entered some remote zone, but to their surprise, they could still see a disciple of the Elemental Sect every now and then. Some of those even stopped their group to inquire about their reason to be there. Of course, as soon as Krune's group showed the collection passes, those disciples would let them be.
"The Elemental Sect is really serious at it. Even in a place like this, we can still find those lower levels disciples flying around. I guess that it will be quite hard to find Elemental Path Stones on the surface for us."
None of them minded it, though.
"It's okay, we came with the intention of getting the ones that are far from their reach, let's just stick with the plan."
Everyone nodded, and they kept flying away.
Finally, once they thought to be far enough from any nearby city, Krune's group stopped.
"Here should be more or less enough. So let's mark this location on our communicators and separate. Feifei and I are going to move North while you two go South. The distance that the Elemental Meridians can sense the Elemental Path Stone is something around 300 to 350 meters underground at most. So we can keep some distance from each other and still be inside the Divine Sense range. It will be better to move in two groups since one can cover for the other in case something happens."
No one had any objection, and they immediately activated their Elemental Meridians. Having nothing else to say, the two couples went in their own directions.
It only took Krune around 5 minutes to feel the presence of the first stone, but it was only the start. They began to find stone after stone underground. They also made sure to use their Divine Sense to see if someone was around before doing it. It was best to keep those diggings as concealed as possible.
Feifei and Krune were still the fastest ones. Both of them had comprehended at least one Earth Sub-law, and their cultivation was higher than Tiane and Ruik. After one hour, those two had already gathered 12 Elemental Path Stones.
"As expected, the number of stones far away from the city is a lot higher. There was even a time I found two together."
Feifei nodded.
"There is also the fact that every single one of them was at least 80 meters underground. It proves that those disciples of the Elemental Sect can't feel their presence so far in there. In fact, even we wouldn't be able to without the Elemental Meridians."
Krune agreed with Feifei, but that was exactly what they were expecting. Some times, Krune and Ruik's groups would notice a low realm disciple of the Elemental Sect flying around, but that wasn't all. It was rare, but now and then, they also found cultivators or demon beasts that acquired a collection pass as well. The difference was that they were betting on their luck, while Krune's side had a surefire method.
After both groups scanned the area for a few hours, they reunited again to the same point where they departed before.
Krune looked at Ruik and then asked.
"How was it."
Ruik and Tiane smiled and allowed Krune and Feifei to check their spatial rings with their Divine Sense. Sure enough, both of them had found over 70 stones altogether.
"Haha! Great! Feifei and I found a little more, 92 to be more precise. But we do have earth laws and higher cultivation, so the time we spend going down is a lot smaller."
Ruik and Tiane didn't seem to mind it.
"We already expected that to be honest. Anyway, this is worth a lot more than we are paying for those free passes. Even if we had to pay 100 Elemental Path Stones, it would still be worth it."
Krune nodded.
"Indeed. But since my pills aren't hard to make, I prefer to use them to pay for it. Value-wise, I prefer the Elemental Path Stones."
Feifei couldn't help but comment.
"The Elemental Sect is losing big with us here, don't you think?"
Krune then shook his head.
"It's just that we have the Elemental Meridians. If you think about it, those collection passes are a great idea in the end. The ones who pay for it need to give back 100 Elemental Path Stones of any tier. Since there will only be Elemental Stones for 2 to 3 years only, the Sect is profiting a lot more than if they didn't issue those passes. Don't forget that the stones lose their power if not store well."
Tiane then commented.
"I just hope no one notices our actions. Even though they wouldn't be able to do anything to us since we are following the rules, it would attract too much attention in the end."
Ruik shrugged his shoulders after hearing that.
"It should be okay. Even if we are finding this many, the fact is that the planet is enormous. Compared to the number of stones that the Elemental Sect is getting from this full-scale search, our stones can, at most, be considered a spec of dust. And that is only because we have the Elemental Meridians. Otherwise, a speck of dust would already be considered an overstatement."
Krune nodded.
"Ruik is right. Besides, we already decided that we won't stick to a single place for longer than we should. At most, we will stay for two or three days and then go somewhere else. This way, no one will pay much attention to our presence."
Everyone nodded.
"Alright, let's keep looking for the stones. This time, Feifei and I will be moving around the North-East while you two go to the South-West."
Krune's group then immediately separated once more.
Time passed, and the agreed three days were over. By now, Krune's group had already found enough Elemental Path Stones to give at least 300 or so to each other. Once they gathered again, they decided to move back to the city and go to a Hotel.
Once inside their room, they started to count how many Elemental Path Stones they got so far.
"So, we have 1348 Elemental Path Stones here. They are all pretty much around the same quality, with just a few of them having more energy. So it is 337 for each one of us."
Just as Krune was about to distribute them equally, Ruik stopped him.
"From now on, you take 10% more than Tiane and me, this will be the payment for the Pills that you used in the Collection Passes. Both of us already discussed it, as well."
Feifei nodded and did the same.
"You can get 10% of mine as well."
Krune shook his head, though.
"I don't need it. We have a lot of time to collect more, so it is not necessary."
Still, Ruik, Tiane, and Feifei didn't hear him. It wasn't a question of needing it or not, it was more a pride issue.
"We are not accepting them either. So what will you do, throw the Elemental Path Stones away? If you insist on not taking the stones, I will just go to an Elemental Sect Branch and buy a collection pass with them."
Tiane and Feifei nodded vigorously after hearing Ruik's words.
In the end, Krune could only sigh and accept to take 10% more from now on.
"Alright, here are 303 Elemental Path Stones for each one of you, satisfied?"
Ruik and the others smiled and nodded.
"Very satisfied."
Krune then looked at everyone and said.
"Okay, let's start absorbing all of them. I know that we should use as much of our time as possible to search for the Elemental Path Stones. But just in case, I want to prevent a situation where we are found holding thousands of them. Any idiot would notice that something is wrong and that we probably have a better way to look for them."
No one complained about that idea since they know that Krune is right. Even if their method of looking for Elemental Path Stone isn't against any rules, they couldn't deny the possibility that the other part greed is big enough to ignore Krune's Wisp Protection Law. Not to mention that that protection law is only applied to Krune alone, not them.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢