Chapter 288: Chapter 286: Rob
The Sixteenth State was vast, about two-thirds the size of the Saint Martial Dynasty.
Searching for Cyan Radiance Stones in such a vast area was like finding a needle in a haystack.
The experts from many dynasties organized their forces, advancing in large groups to level mountains and excavate the earth.
They practically dug three feet deep into the ground.
But the number of Cyan Radiance Stones they found was small.
High in the Celestial Vault.
A pink chariot sailed through the air at incredible speed.
Aboard the chariot, Sima Qingling stared at Jiang Chen with wide, shimmering eyes and asked curiously, "Master, where are we going?"
Ever since leaving Celestial Relief City, Jiang Chen had instructed Sima Qingling to fly northwest at a steady pace.
She was still wondering to herself, ’Does Jiang Chen have some unique method for finding Cyan Radiance Stones?’
Jiang Chen opened his eyes, glanced around, and then smiled. "Right now, the entire Sixteenth State is crawling with experts from the Ten Great Dynasties, all conducting a systematic search. They’ve occupied nearly everything within a radius of thousands of miles around Celestial Relief City. If we want to find anything, we’ll have to go where no one else is!"
Sima Qingling nodded obediently and continued piloting the chariot.
Although Sima Qingling had been utterly unwilling and disgusted when she first became Jiang Chen’s maidservant, constantly plotting his demise...
...but as she spent more time with Jiang Chen, she discovered that her master wasn’t so detestable after all!
Without even realizing it herself, she had already grown accustomed to her identity as a maidservant.
"Qingling, wait a moment!" Jiang Chen said suddenly.
"Hm?"
Sima Qingling quickly halted the chariot. Her delicate brows furrowed slightly as she blinked her large, bright eyes at Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen rose to his feet.
Standing at the edge of the chariot, he gazed down at the ground below.
Below them was a bizarre forest of stone, filled with hard rock. Stalagmites jutted up from the ground, incredibly sharp, looking like the spines of a giant hedgehog buried deep within the earth.
"Let’s go down!"
A glint flashed in Jiang Chen’s eyes as he smiled.
"Yes!"
Though confused, Sima Qingling obediently landed the chariot in the stone forest below.
She looked around at the massive stalagmites, which were like a Demon’s fingers—tapered, exceptionally sharp, and pointed. This world of stone stretched for hundreds of kilometers in every direction. There wasn’t even a single blade of grass to be seen; it was a completely barren expanse that made one feel uneasy.
"Master, are there Cyan Radiance Stones here?" Sima Qingling asked.
Jiang Chen paused for a moment, then smiled. "I just have an idea I need to test. Step back a bit!"
Sima Qingling flew into mid-air, her bright eyes glinting with curiosity. She watched Jiang Chen intently, afraid she might miss a single detail.
Letting out a long breath, Jiang Chen’s eyes erupted with a cyan-gold light. In his vision, the stalagmites became transparent. Inside them were scattered, prismatic crystals, identical in appearance to the Cyan Radiance Stones the Celestial Fate Daoist had shown everyone earlier.
’Just as I expected,’ Jiang Chen thought, the corners of his lips turning up in a smile. ’Divine Thought Power can penetrate ordinary rock and soil to see the Cyan Radiance Stones within. This stalagmite forest must contain at least fifty thousand Cyan Radiance Stones!’
When leaving Celestial Relief City, he had been considering how to find the Cyan Radiance Stones.
Along the way, he had noticed some experts who had found traces of Cyan Radiance Stones. He tried to probe them with his Divine Thought Power and discovered that it could not penetrate the stones themselves, but ordinary rock and soil could not block it.
Thus, a plan formed in Jiang Chen’s mind.
While flying in Sima Qingling’s chariot, he simultaneously used his Divine Thought Power to scan every place they passed.
And sure enough, he had found a large batch of Cyan Radiance Stones!
"Blood Rain Without Limits!"
With a sweep of his longsword, countless streaks of golden Sword Aura converged into a torrential downpour, raining down and sweeping forward.
Wherever it passed, the stalagmites exploded, their rocky surfaces sheared away.
RUMBLE—
Swathes of stalagmites burst apart, and one cyan Cyan Radiance Stone after another fell into piles of dust.
With a sweep of his Divine Thought Power, Jiang Chen made the Cyan Radiance Stones fly out from the dust and collected them in his Storage Ring.
’A total of 2,368? A pity they’re all Low-grade Cyan Radiance Stones. Still, this is much faster than them digging around like headless flies. Let’s continue!’ Jiang Chen became a trailblazer of destruction. Wherever he passed, nothing was left standing, and entire sections of the stalagmite forest were blasted to smithereens.
One by one, Cyan Radiance Stones fell into his hands.
It took a full hour.
Jiang Chen had completely flattened the stone forest, which spanned a radius of one to two hundred kilometers. His Storage Ring was now piled high with Cyan Radiance Stones.
’Forty-four thousand eight hundred sixty-two Low-grade Cyan Radiance Stones, eleven thousand one hundred eighty-six Middle-grade ones, and a mere two thousand one hundred eighty Upper Grade ones. These Upper Grade Cyan Radiance Stones are really rare!’ Jiang Chen carefully counted his haul. This trip had earned him about a million points.
This speed was definitely fast!
Of course...
Jiang Chen also knew that a place as dense with Cyan Radiance Stones as this was a rare opportunity. Finding another location with so many at once would be extremely difficult.
"Master, you’re amazing!" Sima Qingling said, her eyes shining as she looked at Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen laughed. "It’s not bad! But there are only two of us. The experts from the Ten Great Dynasties are all in large groups, so their harvest is definitely greater than ours. Qingling, let’s find a new spot!"
"Okay!"
Once again, they boarded the pink chariot to search for more traces of Cyan Radiance Stones.
「A month passed in the blink of an eye.」
During that month, Jiang Chen found several more places containing Cyan Radiance Stones, but none of the hauls were as massive as the one from the stone forest.
In a valley...
Having just excavated several hundred Cyan Radiance Stones, Jiang Chen sent his Divine Thought into his Storage Ring to take inventory. ’In the past month, we’ve obtained a total of 72,321 Low-grade Cyan Radiance Stones, 31,186 Middle-grade ones, and 12,180 Upper Grade ones. The total value is over 3.5 million points.’
’The items I want to exchange for are worth 350 million. A month has passed, and we’ve only gathered one percent of the points. This is far too slow.’
Jiang Chen shook his head helplessly.
’The Celestial Fate Ancient Realm is simply too big, and the Cyan Radiance Stones are too scattered. At this rate, I’ll never be able to collect 350 million points by the time the six months are up.’
"Qingling, let’s move on!" Jiang Chen ordered.
Sima Qingling nodded obediently. Just as she was about to take out the chariot, several whooshing sounds came from outside the valley, followed by excited voices. "Boss, look! There are two people over there. It looks like they’ve already dug up the Cyan Radiance Stones here!"
"Hmph. How dare they compete with us, the Nine Fiends and Seven Heroes, for Cyan Radiance Stones? They’re pulling a tooth from a tiger’s mouth, courting death."
"The boss is right! Anyone who dares to take something from the Nine Fiends and Seven Heroes has a death wish!"
A group of seven men, each looking fierce and menacing, strode arrogantly into the valley. They looked down at Jiang Chen and one spoke with disdain, "Kid, we are the Nine Fiends and Seven Heroes of the Nine Sins Hall. If you don’t want to die, hand over all your Cyan Radiance Stones. I might let you live. Otherwise, I have hundreds of ways to make you wish you were dead!"
Jiang Chen: "..."
Sima Qingling: "..."
What the fuck!
’These guys actually plan on robbing Jiang Chen?’
Jiang Chen rubbed his nose and looked at the seven men. "Are you trying to rob me?"
"That’s right!"
The leader of the Nine Fiends and Seven Heroes, a savage-looking young man with a centipede-like scar on his face, sneered. "We seven brothers have robbed plenty of people recently. Anyone who dared to resist, we killed. If you two know what’s good for you, hand over all the Cyan Radiance Stones, and we might let you live!"
Facing the threat from the Nine Fiends and Seven Heroes, Jiang Chen calmly uttered four words: "Fuck off, or die!"
"Fuck!"
"This kid’s too arrogant! Boss, let’s do it!"
"Kill the man, and we’ll have our fun with the woman!"
The Nine Fiends and Seven Heroes lunged at Jiang Chen simultaneously.
Facing the combined attack of the Nine Fiends and Seven Heroes, Jiang Chen casually swung his sword. The light from his blade was like a brilliant, flourishing rain, and a massive Sword Aura swept out.
THWIP THWIP THWIP—
The bodies of the seven experts were still charging forward, but their heads had already separated from their shoulders.
Sima Qingling curled her lips in disdain. "They dared to rob the Master? Truly courting death!"
She immediately went forward, took the seven men’s Storage Rings, and handed them to Jiang Chen. When he checked them, he found they contained a whopping fifty thousand Cyan Radiance Stones!
Forty-two thousand Low-grade, seven thousand Middle-grade, and over a thousand Upper Grade.
"So many? Was all this stolen?"
Jiang Chen’s eyes widened. He glanced at the corpses of the Nine Fiends and Seven Heroes, a crafty glint appearing in his eyes as a slight smile played on his lips. He slapped his forehead. "Goddammit, I’m such an idiot. No matter how fast I can find Cyan Radiance Stones on my own, how can I possibly compete with the tens of thousands of people from the Ten Great Dynasties searching all at once?"
"Qingling, come with me!"
Jiang Chen called out urgently.
Sima Qingling looked at Jiang Chen, confused. "Master, where are we going this time? Are we still going to look in deserted places?"
Jiang Chen waved his hand and grinned. "No. From now on, we go where the people are!"
"Huh?"
Sima Qingling asked, bewildered, "Master, didn’t you say that in crowded places, they’ve already found all the Cyan Radiance Stones, so we wouldn’t find much if we went there?"
Jiang Chen cracked a wicked grin. "This time, we’re not going to be the ones toiling away searching for Cyan Radiance Stones. We’re going straight to robbing!"
Sima Qingling’s eyes went wide...
"Robbing?"
