Chapter 729: Chapter 728: Mid-Grade Spirit Sword (Part 1)
This time, Shi Xiaole’s first stop in Tian State was Mingyuan Town in Fengyang realm, so he had left Qingfeng nearby. Mingyuan Town only had one expert, Zong Xingnan, and with the cleverness of Qingfeng, he believed there should be no mishaps.
As expected, he gave a whistle outside Mingyuan Town, and shortly, a tall and majestic horse, like amber, leaped over, nudging its neck into Shi Xiaole’s affectionately, not forgetting to lick him with its tongue.
After not seeing Qingfeng for half a year, Shi Xiaole sensitively realized that Qingfeng was even faster than before. That leap just now was almost equivalent to the high-ranked martial artists in the Dragon Gate Realm.
"Qingfeng, can you sense this kind of aura?"
Shi Xiaole took out a Mystic Crystal Stone and asked. As a Master rank of the Demon Alliance, he had a fixed quota of Mystic Crystal Stones every month.
Whinny, whinny.
Qingfeng lifted its head at his direction.
With the intention of testing its sensing range, Shi Xiaole placed the Mystic Crystal Stone successively within five hundred meters, one thousand meters, two thousand meters, and so on, much to his surprise, Qingfeng easily found it at all distances.
Three thousand meters.
Four thousand meters.
Five thousand meters.
It wasn’t until the distance reached a whopping ten thousand meters that Qingfeng hesitated. But Shi Xiaole was already very satisfied.
The shallowest Spirit Veins were tens of thousands of meters underground, and the earth’s texture would cause a significant reduction in sensing power. Fortunately, the richness of the aura in the Spirit Veins was hundreds and thousands of times stronger than a single Mystic Crystal Stone.
At least, letting Qingfeng search for the Spirit Veins was much more convenient than doing it himself.
So, man and horse roamed aimlessly in the wilderness.
The endurance of Qingfeng was astonishingly high: it could run at full strength for three 2-hour periods after resting for just one. Probably sensing his master’s urgency, it pushed itself to the limit, nearly covering the mountain range of a realm in only a month.
During this time, Shi Xiaole was cultivating martial arts on horseback, with only a part of his mind sensing danger from the outside world.
Another month passed.
A loud, excited neigh from Qingfeng reached Shi Xiaole’s ears.
Shi Xiaole woke up from his cultivation state: "Did you find it?"
Qingfeng kept lowing, running around a not-so-flat hillside back and forth, apparently indicating something.
Unsheathing his sword, Shi Xiaole and his sword became one, transforming into a sword light that plunged into the ground, shooting straight to several thousand meters deep in one go. Qingfeng hurriedly followed, not forgetting to cover their tracks.
He kept launching sword strikes.
Man and horse continued to dig deeper, but the ground was getting harder and harder. The pressure was like countless iron plates squeezing against Shi Xiaole, causing a friction sound with his protective Vigorous Air.
The most terrifying thing was the temperature. When they reached ten thousand meters underground, it shockingly exceeded a thousand degrees. An ordinary person who came here would be instantly turned into ashes.
Fifteen thousand meters.
Twenty thousand meters.
When they reached twenty-five thousand meters underground, Shi Xiaole could only dig tens of meters each time. Breaking through the earth’s pressure took up most of his strength, and the temperature there reached a frightening three thousand degrees Celsius or more.
Even a Dragon Gate Realm Lord coming here would meet Death Without Life.
Qingfeng made a loud neigh. Strangely enough, its amber hair was glowing slightly, seemingly isolating the effects of pressure and temperature, making it even more at ease than Shi Xiaole himself.
One strike after another.
The digging became extremely challenging and required large amounts of rest. After two 2-hour periods had passed, Shi Xiaole had only dug several hundred meters deeper, and only a pitiful thirty percent of his power was left.
If he continued to exhaust himself, he feared he wouldn’t be able to withstand the pressure and temperature, and so he would evaporate.
Bam bam bam!
Seeing his master was tired, Qingfeng took the initiative. Its hooves continuously stomped on the ground. Although its efficiency wasn’t as great as Shi Xiaole’s, it outdid him with endurance. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Shi Xiaole rushed to recover his power.
So, within the alternating digging of man and horse, they successfully arrived at thirty thousand meters underground.
"Such a rich aura!"
Shi Xiaole suddenly rejoiced.
Usually, neither Mystic Crystal Stones nor Sun-Moon Crystal Stones could withstand the high temperature underground. But the world was filled with peculiar things. It was said that each Spirit Vein was wrapped in a special aura, allowing it to remain unscathed.
The "aura" needed to forge a mid-grade Spiritual Weapon was this very aura.
Keeping his strength at fifty percent, Shi Xiaole persevered and finally reached the Spirit Vein two days later.
Boom!
A mighty aura rushed out, dispersing the terrifying high temperature around in an instant. The aura invaded Shi Xiaole’s pores, making him feel so comfortable that he almost let out a moan.
"It’s actually a medium-size Mystic Crystal Stone vein!"
There were five types of Spirit Veins: the non-influential Spirit Veins, the small Spirit Veins, medium Spirit Veins, large Spirit Veins, and super-large Spirit Veins.
A non-influential vein wasn’t a Spirit Vein per se, but more like a collection of scattered crystal stones, the easiest for people to find and the largest source of crystal stones currently circulating in the Martial World.
When it came to the small Spirit Veins, an expert and a Stone Touching Master needed to work together to find them.
According to Shi Xiaole’s knowledge, a small Mystic Crystal Stone vein could allow hundreds of Xuanqi Realm martial artists to break through and become Spiritual-Passage Realm martial artists, while a medium vein could do the same for ten times as many.
No wonder the imperial court held such strict control.
"Originally, the chances of forging a middle-grade spiritual sword were less than 50%. Since it is a medium spirit vein, it is worth a try."
Not wasting any time, Shi Xiaole immediately took out his Cloud Tiger Staff, Separation Mace, and several other inferior spiritual swords he had obtained from the Battlefield.
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
Under the high temperature of nearly 5000 degrees Celsius, the low-grade spiritual weapons began to melt. Without a sword mold, Shi Xiaole had to shape the metal with his vigorous air, and use the vigorous air as a hammer, according to the method of forging middle-grade spiritual weapons.
He was not in a hurry to bring out the Twinkling Star Stone. There was only one chance, and before that, he had to first familiarize himself with the method of forging middle-grade spiritual weapons.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Since this day, every moment, thirty thousand meters underground, the clear sound of weapon forging echoes, and strands of sword Qi began to radiate in all directions.
The spiritual air outside the medium spirit veins was being channeled into the weapons that Shi Xiaole was forging in hard-to-capture trajectories.
In the first few days, Shi Xiaole’s failure rate was high.
Dozens of darts that were made from the essence of the Cloud Tiger Staff were completely shattered.
Next was the Separation Mace, with a success rate of 10%. Of course, the finished darts were not middle-grade spiritual weapons. Because the materials were not up to standard, at most they could only be low-grade spiritual weapons.
A month passed.
Only three low-grade spiritual swords remained, and Shi Xiaole’s success rate had risen to 30%.
If there were swordsmiths present, they would certainly be shocked by Shi Xiaole’s rate of progress. Normally speaking, even the most gifted swordsmith would need half a year to possibly increase the success rate by twenty percent.
"Wind Sword Way is indeed improving."
Besides improving his sword-making skills, what made Shi Xiaole even more delighted was the noticeable improvement in the initial stage of his Wind Sword Way, which seemed to be refining itself as he was hammering away at the weapons.
What Shi Xiaole didn’t know was that some Divine Barrier Realm swordsmen who had mastered sword forging would also perform sword forging to accumulate experience when they encountered a bottleneck.
Unfortunately, they consumed dozens of times the time and energy of Shi Xiaole’s to get results that were definitely not as good as his.
"If this pace continues, a success rate of over 70% should be achieved in at the most two or three months."
Shi Xiaole chuckled excitedly, and continued to devote himself to sword forging.
In the endless depths of the ground, the dark and tranquil space was suddenly illuminated by two beams of white light that burst open like lightning, emanating a terrifying anger and ferocity.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind split the heatwave and rolled towards Shi Xiaole.
"Who is it?"
Shi Xiaole is surprised by the appearance of an opponent. The opponent appeared unexpectedly, though this was because Shi Xiaole was concentrating, but even so, the skill to hide his tracks was definitely top-notch.
"Gentle Breeze Passing the Court!"
Using his arm as a sword, Shi Xiaole swung out a chilling sword Qi.
Under the influence of the deep underground pressure and temperature, the power of the sword Qi shrank several hundred times. When it collided with the air power, it made a sound as muffled as a drum.
With a piercing gaze, Shi Xiaole took a clear look at the newcomer.
It wasn’t a human, but a snow-white monkey, the size of a child!
"A mutant animal?"
In a flash, Shi Xiaole linked the White Ape with Qingfeng and the White Jade Tiger he encountered at Peony Town.
Growl!
Without giving Shi Xiaole time to think, the White Ape pounced at him as fast as lightning from the other end of the Spirit Veins.
From its familiarity with the terrain, it can be inferred that it might have discovered this place a long time ago. It might even have treated the useless medium Spirit Veins as its private property and thus launched a surprise attack on Shi Xiaole.
"Gale Blade!"
The White Ape was easily knocked away by the Sword Qi, but the sword Qi that had caused a Fourth Tier Earth Immortal to die in agony didn’t leave any marks on it.
Just as it tried to get close, the ferocity in the eyes of the White Ape intensified and it let out a threat-filled roar.
’Damn human, I may not be able to beat you, but my mother is transforming. When she finished transforming, I will make you wish you were dead!’
With great resentment, the White Ape disappeared into the deep ground.
"How many mutant animals exist in this world? If they were organized, the search for spirit veins would be unmatched."
Shi Xiaole himself was amused by his own whimsical thought. After laughing, he suddenly recalled the meteorite from the Battlefield and the inscription left by the Immortal Scholar at Peony Town.
Wait... The stone bed at the Hundred Flowers Cave was from outer space too. Could it be...?
"Never mind, what will come will come."
Not taking the White Ape seriously, Shi Xiaole resumed his sword forging. Sometimes Qingfeng would come by but since it didn’t want to disturb its master and disliked the harsh underground environment, it preferred to stay above ground most of the time.
Time slipped by as Shi Xiaole’s sword forging skills improved day by day.
