Chapter 55: Convergence of Earth Veins, Miraculous Spiritual Fish

"I've struck it rich."

Su Yu roughly estimated the value of the spoils, and all of them combined totaled over two hundred gold coins.

Even if the Black Serpent Sword and the Black Water Mystic Pearl were to be kept for his own use, the remaining items, along with the replaced Tier 5 Black Water Mystic Pearl, still had a combined value of around seventy gold coins.

"Nothing beats farming a boss for fast money."

Monopolizing a boss entirely yielded incredible rewards.

After finishing counting the loot, Su Yu looked back to see Ao Run currently sprawled across the jade pillar at the center of the underground spirit pool, the very place the Black Water Mystic Serpent had been coiled around earlier. Her glowing dragon whiskers drifted in the air, making her look extremely content.

Su Yu swam over, curiously observing this underground wonder.

The entire underground space was filled with water, but the spirit pool and the river water remained distinctly separated into two layers.

As soon as he entered the spirit pool, he immediately felt a wave of refreshing chill drilling straight into his skin pores.

Opening his status panel, he watched as system logs continuously popped up with prompts:

"Prompt: Absorbing the Earth Vein Spirit Liquid, you have gained 362 points of spiritual power experience."

"Prompt: Affected by unknown factors, you have gained 724 points of spiritual power experience."

This prompt appeared every five seconds or so, and in just this brief moment, over a dozen lines had already emerged.

The so-called spiritual power experience was the experience gained from absorbing and refining the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth. Just like kill experience, it could be used to elevate one's cultivation realm.

Although spiritual Qi existed everywhere in the world of Beyond, in most places it was far too thin to be used for cultivation. Only at certain earth vein nodes or spiritual veins would vast amounts of spiritual Qi converge, and absorbing Qi in those locations allowed one to continuously gain spiritual power experience.

The most common examples were various immortal caves and grottoes; guild headquarters and sect bases were also basically built directly on top of spiritual veins.

If one were fortunate enough to acquire a spiritual vein, occupy it, build a grotto-heaven on top of it, and use formation arrays to gather massive amounts of spiritual Qi, they could endlessly generate spiritual power experience. This way, one could raise their cultivation realm without ever needing to grind monsters.

724 spiritual power experience points every five seconds meant 8,688 per minute, 520,000 per hour, and as for a day—though not a full 24 hours because the meridians couldn't bear the load—even at just half of that, 12 hours would yield 6.25 million spiritual power experience points.

Wasn't this far better than bitterly grinding levels?

Regrettably, this place was not a spiritual vein; it was merely the spiritual Qi leaking from a water eye that had gathered here.

In just this short span of time, he and Ao Run had already absorbed a thick layer of the spiritual liquid accumulated at the bottom of the cavern.

"It doesn't last long at all!"

Su Yu shook his head, though his actions were not slow as he continued to circulate his magic power to absorb the spiritual Qi in the pool.

This could also be considered an opportunity, and it must not be wasted.

Next, man and dragon sprawled here for a full day and night, forcefully draining the spirit pool—which had accumulated over who knows how many years at the bottom of the cavern—completely dry in one go.

He had accumulated 12.1 million spiritual power experience points in a single breath. Ao Run's absorption speed was much faster than his; exactly how much she absorbed was unknown, only that her level had increased by one.

She had previously been at level 131, went up a level after slaying the Black Water Mystic Serpent, and now leveled up once more, putting her at level 133.

After absorbing all the spiritual liquid, spiritual mist was still constantly seeping out from beneath the jade pillars. If left unattended, it would condense back into spiritual liquid after some time, but he certainly couldn't stay here indefinitely.

These jade pillars were probably good treasures as well, but when Su Yu pressed his hands against them, he found he couldn't put them away.

Looking around, Su Yu turned to Ao Run and asked, "Are we heading back?"

Instead of answering, she wriggled her body and came to the edge of the underground cavern, pacing back and forth in front of various sized holes in the stone wall as if searching for something specific.

Su Yu asked with confusion, "What are you looking for?"

"Have you been here before?"

Ao Run nodded and said, "I've been here before. There's a good treasure inside. Do you want it?"

"What treasure?"

"I don't know either, but we'll find out once we go down."

Su Yu hesitated. "Is it dangerous?"

"It might be dangerous."

"What do you mean 'might'? Just how dangerous is it? What's inside?"

"You'll know once you follow me."

Having already found her target, Ao Run shrank her body once more and dove straight into it.

The hole was only the size of a basin. Ao Run could squeeze into it by shrinking to the thickness of an arm, but he definitely couldn't fit.

After hesitating for a moment, Su Yu was persuaded by her. With a thought, he transformed into a Heavenly Ghost, shifted from corporeal to ethereal, and turned into a wisp of light smoke to drill into the hole.

Although she was always somewhat reckless, she was never recklessly foolish; every adventure she took yielded massive rewards.

Since she said the treasure inside might be very useful to him, Su Yu felt it was worth taking the risk.

The worst-case scenario was simply dying inside, which would only cost him five or ten years of lifespan—a loss he could still afford.

Not to mention, if he could manage to acquire a high-tier flying sword or magical treasure, dying inside once would be completely worth it.

After entering the passageway, it was once again a long, winding detour.

These underground holes extended in all directions, and the interior was not made of ordinary stone, but entirely of semi-transparent, glowing jade. Faint spiritual mist seeped from the jade and settled downward, and in the concave spots of some horizontal passages, pools of accumulated spiritual liquid could be seen.

Descending another dozen or so kilometers, they arrived at another underground cavern.

This cavern was only two or three hundred meters in diameter, and its bottom likewise accumulated a layer of spiritual liquid, within which a school of small fish with multicolored tails swam back and forth.

These small fish had tails of different colors, with a single tail displaying multiple colors.

Ao Run flew into the cavern, reverted to her true form, opened her mouth, and sucked all the small fish into it in one gulp.

"Delicious!"

She smacked her lips, reached out a claw to pick a small fish with three tails—red, purple, and green—out from between her teeth, and flicked it onto Su Yu's face. "You try one too."

Su Yu reached out and caught the palm-length little fish. He found that the fish was entirely transparent, its scales like jade and icy cold to the touch, and its three tails were of distinct colors.

Earth Vein Spirit Fish (Three-Tailed): A spiritual entity born at the convergence point of earth vein spiritual Qi and water eye laws, possessing miraculous properties.

Attributes: Physique upper limit +5, Strength upper limit +5, permanently increases by 1,000 points per year.

Opening his mouth, he shoved the fish inside. Although it appeared to be a living creature, the moment it entered his throat, it turned into an icy current that flowed down into his stomach and rapidly permeated his body.

"Prompt: Refined Earth Vein Spirit Fish (Three-Tailed), Physique upper limit +10, Strength upper limit +10."

"It's a good item, but there are simply too few of them."

Su Yu smacked his lips and asked, "Are there more?"

"There are more further down."

"Then hurry up and find them."

Su Yu could clearly perceive a hint of disdain in Ao Run's gaze.

Shrinking her body again, she searched around the edge of this spirit grotto for a bit, found a smaller hole, and drilled inside.

Another few hours of tunneling through the earth followed—turning left and right, passing over a dozen fork roads—before they found another exit.

However, after finding the exit, Ao Run did not go straight down. When Su Yu followed behind and looked out of the hole, he couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

This was an underground cavern several kilometers in diameter, its floor forested with jade pillars and pooling with spiritual liquid, with Earth Vein Spirit Fishes swimming everywhere.

There were one-tailed, two-tailed, all the way up to five-tailed ones. At the very center of the spirit pool, surrounded by numerous Earth Vein Spirit Fishes, was an Earth Vein Immortal Fish trailing seven differently colored, glowing tails.

"There are so many Earth Vein Spirit Fishes!"

However, directly above the spirit pool in this subterranean space, eight rune-covered chains extended from the jade walls on all sides, converging above the pool and plunging into a floating, constantly undulating white jade lock suspended in mid-air.

The surface of this stone lock was densely packed with runes, and layers of clear light formed by intricate runes continuously bloomed, covering the spirit pool below.

Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Lock (Odd Object): A special magical treasure capable of suppressing forbidden items, locking down objects, capturing spirits and monsters, and driving them.

"So this contraption is specially used to imprison this group of spirit fishes?"

He looked at Ao Run and asked, "Can you get in?"

Ao Run shook her head. "I can break it open, but I dare not."

"Why?"

"If I force it open, the owner of the restriction will notice."

Su Yu asked in some surprise, "There's something you're afraid of?"

"Do you know the owner of this restriction?"

"I do. It's Master Cangtian, the master of Cangtian Temple in the upper reaches of the Yuan River."

"You even know other human cultivators?"

Ao Run gave him an eye roll.

"Then let's go, let's find another place."

Since this group of spirit fishes actually had an owner, there was nothing that could be done.

Su Yu turned around to leave, preparing to return to the previous fork in the road.

Just as he started moving, he suddenly thought of something and stopped. Ao Run, following closely behind, crashed headfirst into his back, her face warping from the impact. Furious, she swiped a claw at the back of his head, but he turned into a wisp of light smoke and she swiped at empty air.

Su Yu rapidly shifted from ethereal to corporeal, turning into a wisp of smoke that drifted left and right, his body sinking into the walls on both sides of the passage as his voice echoed inside:

"Tell me, does this Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Lock only seal the front, or does it completely enclose all directions?"

Ao Run pondered for a moment and said, "I don't know."

"Then I'll go take a look."

With a thought, Su Yu drifted into the jade stone wall.

Perhaps because it was too deep and the pressure was immense, the jade stone was extremely hard. Consuming magic power, his earth-drilling progress was a bit costly this time, but still within a tolerable range. Moreover, since the distance wasn't far, he edged along the perimeter toward the bottom of the underground space he had just seen.

Through the perspective of the Heavenly Ghost, a layer of restrictive magical netting could be clearly seen within the jade earth not far away.

As he dove all the way to the bottom, the magical net extended right along with him.

He descended all the way to the absolute bottom of the spirit grotto, and the magical net extended right down to this point as well.

"There really are no blind spots."

Su Yu spent over ten minutes circling the entire perimeter, finally confirming that there were indeed no loopholes, and reluctantly had to give up and return.

With no other choice, he could only retrace his steps and switch to another branch path, flying off in a different direction.

Half an hour later, man and dragon arrived at yet another spirit grotto.

Unfortunately, while this spirit grotto gathered some spiritual liquid, there were no spirit fishes.

Neither man nor dragon lingered, continuing to swim downward.

Five minutes later, the passageway reached its end; there was no road further down.

Retracing their steps, they switched to another branch and continued downward. An hour later, they found another large spirit grotto, and within this grotto, they saw a second Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Lock, alongside densely packed Earth Vein Spirit Fishes sealed inside the spirit pool below.

"Could this place be a fish farm for the so-called Master Cangtian?"

"Very likely."

Discovering one was an accident, but discovering them consecutively was no longer an accident.

Two hours later, man and dragon found a third fish farm locked down by the Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Lock.

Su Yu said nothing. He followed Ao Run, changed routes, and continued downward, only to reach the dead end of this path once more half an hour later.

As he turned around, Su Yu stopped and asked with a suspicious look, "You didn't forget the way, did you?"

Ao Run rubbed her chin with a dainty, delicate claw and said with absolute certainty, "I didn't forget. It's just that all these paths look the same, I just took a wrong turn."

"Really?"

Feeling somewhat embarrassed and angry, she snapped, "If you don't believe me, then fine, let's go back."

"Wait."

Su Yu reached out, grabbed her by the tail, pulled her back, transformed her back to her true form, and shoved her straight into his arms. "You get into the spirit cage, I'll drill down through the earth to take a look."

The blue jade dragon wriggled left and right, akimbo with both claws, and shouted loudly, "You don't trust me?"

"I do. I'm just taking a shortcut."

"Hmph!"

Perhaps looking for a way to back down, she didn't persist. Tossing her head, she dove into the spirit cage and vanished.

Su Yu shook his head speechlessly and transformed back into the Heavenly Ghost. However, instead of drilling straight down, he opened his status panel to prepare for an upgrade.

He spent a full 4,000 cultivation points and 175 points of Dao insight to upgrade the Heavenly Ghost Transformation Art to the 50th tier, successfully deriving the Xitu Divine Thunder, one of the Five Elements Divine Thunders.

50th Tier Heavenly Ghost Transformation: Vitality 100,000, Magic Power 20,000, Physique 3,000, Strength 5,000, Speed 2,000 km/h, Heavenly Ghost Body, Five Elements Escapism, Ethereal-Corporeal Transformation, Guishui Divine Thunder, Binghuo Divine Thunder, Gengjin Divine Thunder, Xitu Divine Thunder.

Only the Yimu Divine Thunder was missing to complete the Five Elements Divine Thunders.

At this moment, Su Yu still had 143.81 million kill experience and 823 points of Dao insight in his hands, basically accumulated over the past month and change since leaving the Chixiao Sword Vein.

Relying on Ao Run's Zifu Cold Tide to gather monsters for area-of-effect farming, he could accumulate around 6 million cultivation points per day, reaching a staggering 180 million in a month.

The remaining cultivation points were more than enough to elevate any sword manual or the Heavenly Ghost Transformation Art by ten tiers.

After some consideration, Su Yu decided not to upgrade for the time being, saving it for later.

If it turned out to be enough, he would keep it to upgrade his sword manual; if not enough, he would upgrade then.

Closing the status panel, with a single thought, he shifted from corporeal to ethereal, turning into a wisp of light smoke and sinking into the jade stone beneath his feet.

Sinking into the earth, he could clearly sense his surrounding environment.

Consuming magic power, he dove rapidly downward. Roughly seven minutes later, an anomaly appeared at the edge of his perception. Approaching quickly, he discovered a hole the thickness of a thick thigh.

Adjusting his direction, he followed the hole downward, seeing the end of the passage a few minutes later.

Passing the hole and continuing downward, he dove for over ten minutes before discovering an underground cavern. Peering out from the cavern wall, his eyes lit up—this spirit grotto had a spirit pool and spirit fishes, but no Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Lock.

He immediately leaped out from above the grotto. The spirit cage at his waist vibrated, and Ao Run drilled out, joyfully pouncing downward.

"Damn it!"

Su Yu grabbed her by the tail, flung her backward, leaped rapidly into the spirit pool, grabbed the plumpest five-tailed Earth Vein Spirit Fish he could find, and shoved it straight into his mouth while scooping up several others with both hands. Right then, he watched as Ao Run reverted to a true form over a hundred meters long, opened her mouth wide in a fierce suction, and swallowed the remaining dozens of spirit fishes in one go.

"Leave some for me!"

Panicking, he shoved the fishes in his hands into his mouth, flew over to Ao Run's open maw, reached inside, and yanked out one that hadn't been swallowed yet.

"Prompt: Refined Earth Vein Spirit Fish (Five-Tailed), Physique upper limit +30, Strength upper limit +30."

"Prompt: Affected by unknown factors, Physique upper limit +60, Strength upper limit +60."

"Prompt: Refined Earth Vein Spirit Fish (Four-Tailed), Physique upper limit +10, Strength upper limit +10."

"Prompt: Affected by unknown factors, Physique..."

Altogether seven fish—one five-tailed, two four-tailed, one three-tailed, and three two-tailed—granted a baseline increase of 64 points to Physique and Strength. With the talent's double bonus, it yielded a total increase of 128 points to Physique and Strength.

"Awesome!"

Su Yu wiped his mouth, put Ao Run away again, and waited for his Heavenly Ghost magic power to recover before continuing his descent.