Chapter 2281: Chapter 2283: Plants (Part 2)
The reserves of the White Bizarre Gold Mine on Tianqin aren’t small, but its demand is high, and cultivators from the Jinwu Sect especially like using it.
For nearly a thousand years, the price of this mineral has been continuously appreciating, resulting in a situation where... those with mines started to hold off on selling.
The Jinwu Sect is somewhat displeased with this, though this mineral isn’t considered very high-end and its reserves are also not scarce. The current price is still within the Jinwu Sect’s tolerable range, but whenever others raise the price, Qing Ji, the True Immortal, feels a bit annoyed.
Discovering such a mine in the Insect World this time is considered a small surprise. The Jinwu Sect might not necessarily mine here in the future—after all, costs must be considered—but spreading the news of a mine being found will surely affect the market price.
Qing Ji is somewhat pleased, but Cang Jing is relatively dissatisfied. However, there’s nothing much to complain about; the Profound Ice from the mortal realm is inherently inferior.
The most bewildered is Feng Jun, who unexpectedly discovered a gold mine with considerable reserves. Unfortunately, the gold content isn’t very high. However, if he were to transport the ore back to Earth, he would surely make a significant profit.
Yet, it’s quite unfortunate that this is just his first step in exploring the Insect World. He can’t possibly halt his progress for just this.
The two Golden Core masters accompanying them faithfully recorded their discovery and even drew a star map. They are surely the discoverers of these minerals, but whether they or others will be mining is another matter.
Certainly, even if outsiders come to mine, the discoverers will still benefit somewhat.
Then, the more distressing incident for Feng Jun occurred—the two Golden Core masters didn’t record the gold mine at all, considering it a mortal item, unworthy of being documented.
Mountain Master Feng wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry about it; in any case, it felt strange.
Next, they discussed a question: Could there be a Spirit Stone Mine here?
Almost everyone leans towards believing that this world should have a Spirit Stone Mine. Don’t mind them calling it a mortal realm; it’s merely because they haven’t discovered any Spiritual Energy. Elder Cang Jing further stated that the probability of such a world’s structure producing Spirit Stones is high.
Yi Jue also holds this belief: where there are small worlds, there should be Spirit Stones; it’s just a matter of whether they can be found or not.
Elder Qing Ji looked at Feng Jun with a smile, stating, "Whether we can find a Spirit Stone Mine mainly depends on Mountain Master Feng!"
The exploration of this star system concludes temporarily; there are no living fossils, and the mineral discovered is the White Bizarre Gold Mine. As for other minerals, it’s a matter for future explorers to consider.
Afterwards, they searched two more star systems, still finding no living creatures but discovering more minerals.
Simply put, after searching three star systems, the group didn’t gain much. Considering the joint effort of five True Immortals, they even felt a sense of loss.
Next, they encountered a Broken Stone Zone, much larger than the one in the Void, with the largest stones exceeding Bai Li in diameter—and these were not just one or two stones.
Within the Broken Stone Zone, it wasn’t calm; stones often collided, resulting in chaotic energy fluxes.
Facing this situation, Yi Jue immediately extended her Divine Sense and was suddenly astonished, "There are living creatures!"
She discovered creatures that were bugs. On a stone with a diameter exceeding three hundred li, there existed seven or eight kinds of bugs—two species of worms, one sandworm, and one beetle—the dominant ruler being a bug resembling a mantis.
However, they also have predators; there’s a type of bug that specifically parasitizes within their bodies.
On a stone not particularly large, it surprisingly constituted an entire ecological system. After observing it, Feng Jun and the others couldn’t help but be secretly amazed: the key is that there are no plants here; the lowest existence is a kind of worm that eats stone.
Mantis bugs lack group consciousness; they generally operate individually. The strongest among them is roughly equivalent to the Initial Golden Core Stage, while the weaker ones resemble the Out-of-World Period.
The observation of this ecological system took about three days, and eventually, Yi Jue captured two mantises, while the Golden Core masters each caught seven or eight of every bug species.
Feng Jun didn’t catch bugs; he had other gains—a massive gold nugget exceeding five li in diameter!
This naturally formed gold nugget might not have particularly high gold content, but for Feng Jun, it was good enough—with over seventy percent gold content, what more could one ask for?
Without a second thought, he directly collected this "gold mountain."
A True Immortal from the Xuanhuang Sect couldn’t help but comment, "Mountain Master Feng, there’s really no need to rush with such mortal items."
Mortal item? Feng Jun mentally sneered but still slightly nodded, "Hmm, got it, thanks for the reminder."
Seeing him respond positively, the True Immortal from the Xuanhuang Sect, striving to foster a good relationship, further suggested, "Actually, I believe you could take some of those stone-eating worms with you; when you have your private realm in the future, these can transform the environment."
As expected from a disciple of the Seven Sects, he actually realized that the most fundamental component of the ecological system is most useful for environmental transformation.
Feng Jun chuckled again upon hearing this, "Your suggestion is good, but as for alien species... I’m cautious about introducing them."
"Oh?" Yi Jue turned his head to glance at him curiously and asked, "What is the basis of your statement?"
Feng Jun shook his head and answered directly, "There’s no basis; my main point is to consider preventing the invasion of alien species... such as the Spirit Valley Moth."
Elder Cang Jing raised her eyebrows, "What’s so bad about the Spirit Valley Moth? A bit of cold weather can inhibit its survival."
Her words came easily, as the Spirit Valley Moth is the main cause of reduced Spirit Valley harvests. However, the place where Xuanshui Sect survives is either icy or filled with water regions, so the moth’s threat isn’t significant.
Yi Jue, being involved in the Spirit Plant path, knew about this matter, "The Spirit Valley Moth originally belonged to the Miru Realm. Because they can help pollinate flowers and trees, they were introduced to Tianqin thirty thousand years ago, but unexpectedly became a major cause of Spirit Valley harvest reduction due to the lack of natural enemies."
At this point, she looked again at Feng Jun, "That’s how I understand ’species invasion.’ Not sure if it’s right?"
"That’s indeed the case," Feng Jun nodded. He hadn’t researched theories about species invasion on the Tianqin Plane, but he felt that cultivators were somewhat oblivious to such situations, so it was normal for his theory to be questioned.
Actually, he didn’t care much about the issue himself; he was just cautious about this when returning to Earth from other planes, subconsciously refusing to carry such worms. It wasn’t an intentional display of uniqueness.
He then coughed softly and spoke gently, "Carrying a small number of species and ensuring they don’t leak out means taking some back for research is fine. However, I’m quite busy, so I can’t guarantee there won’t be any oversight, so I won’t easily get involved."
Yi Jue nodded, "I know you’re comforting me. Forget it, I won’t take these two mantises."
She took out two mantises, clapped her hands, and crushed them into a puddle of mud, "Actually, I’m not interested in researching bugs either."
Feng Jun smiled and changed the subject, "There’s still no sign of Incense Fire Ascension. Unfortunately, we can’t perform a Soul Search on insects."
"Huh?" True Immortal Huo Liu’s eyes lit up, "Could a friend from the Beast Taming Path perform a Soul Search on insects?"
"You’ve certainly stumped me," True Immortal Yi Jue shook her head, answered helplessly, "The Beast Taming Path is strong in taming beasts. Although it can also breed Spirit Insects, sensing the thoughts of Exotic Beasts is different from performing a Soul Search, right?"
As she spoke, she looked at Elder Cang Jing. In this group, Cang Jing’s knowledge was the widest. Although Elder Qing Ji was not young, he ultimately came from the Lower Realm.
Elder Cang Jing shook her head with a bitter smile, "Your own Eighteen Paths don’t even know this internally, so why ask me? As far as I know, I’ve never heard of the Beast Taming Path being able to perform a Soul Search on Exotic Beasts."
Elder Qing Ji, however, confidently said, "There’s no way the Beast Taming Path can achieve that, otherwise Xuanhuang and Yuangang would have invited them over knowing this is the Insect World... but they haven’t done so."
Yi Jue Elder suddenly realized, "Indeed, so..."
Her eyes were originally bright, but suddenly dimmed again, "So we can only explore bit by bit."
Six days later, the group discovered another star system. This time, the star was larger than the previous ones, but there were only eight planets around it, and they were also not small.
There were also some asteroids, but they all had a diameter of less than a mile, so calling them broken stones wasn’t an exaggeration.
"This star system is a bit strange," Yi Jue frowned and was about to release her Divine Sense.
"Don’t use Divine Sense!" Feng Jun promptly stopped her, then took out a large astronomical telescope, "Let me take a look."
Everyone parked the flying boat, Feng Jun set up the astronomical telescope steadily, adjusted it for a while, and began to observe the star system ahead.
After about half an hour, when everyone was starting to get impatient, he gasped, "The third planet actually has water and plants... the fourth one also has water!"
"Plants?" Elder Cang Jing was stunned, "Insect World with plants? Now this is interesting."
The cultivators from Tianqin had encountered Insect Worlds, and not just one, most of which did not have plants. Even if there were, they would be completely devoured by the Insect Race, even poisonous plants would be eaten by insects not afraid of poison—the Insect Race’s ability to evolve is that formidable.
So generally speaking, a world with plants cannot be an Insect World—it must have more advanced life forms than the Insect Race to curb their instinct to devour all plants.
There’s another scenario that Tianqin cultivators encountered only once in an Insect World, where insects had evolved enough intelligence to have social division, and not only that, learn to cultivate plants without exhausting resources.
Because of this, upon hearing there were plants on the planet, everyone had complex expressions—this world is a bit tricky.
