Chapter 405 - Deep Waters
While Mo Wuji locked into these six blackstones with his spiritual will, he hurriedly fetched out his Tian Ji Pole and started hammering the black ground.
The Tian Ji Pole was not suitable for digging, and coupled with the fact that this black ground was hard and resilient, Mo Wuji could only condense lightning on his Tian Ji Pole in order to dig out this black sand.
"Boom! Bang!" After two swings with his Tian Ji Pole reinforced with his lightning sword, a small hole around 30 centimeters deep was blasted open.
Mo Wuji was now much clearer on how difficult it was to excavate this black rock. Luckily, he was still able to blast the black sand away. As long as he continued to use his lightning-reinforced Tian Ji Pole, he would be able to eventually reach 9 meters deep.
Mo Wuji’s elemental energy was brimming, and he even had several elemental storage channels. Even if he continuously struck downwards, he would not need to rest.
After relentlessly striking at the same spot, black sand and rubble were continuously being sent flying. After an entire day, Mo Wuji finally struck out a hole which was 9 meters deep.
Sweeping his Tian Ji Pole with slight spiritual energy, a few blackstones floated into the air. Mo Wuji did not wait for these blackstones to land on the ground. With a quick swipe of his hand, these blackstones landed in the basket behind his back.
Mo Wuji brought the basket in front of him, and just as he was about to examine a piece of blackstone, he was momentarily sent into shock. Just now, he clearly found six pieces of blackstone, why did one suddenly go missing?
Indeed, blackstone was able to escape off by itself. Even though he had locked in onto these blackstone with his spiritual will, one of it still ran off by itself without him knowing it. No wonder why the excavation of blackstone required two people: one person had to lock in using spiritual will, while the other had to dig. If not for the fact that his spiritual will was strong, and he was even using spiritual will from his spirit storage channel, it would have been extremely difficult for him to excavate the blackstone.
Since that Jia Qi had gone off by herself, it seemed like she had her own trump cards.
However, Mo Wuji did not mind too much about it. With his spirit storage channel, it should be relatively easy for him to find blackstone. The only problem was that it was too troublesome to dig up the blackstone. His Tian Ji Pole was clearly not suitable for digging. Even when it was reinforced by his lightning sword, he still had to take an entire day to excavate a few blackstone.
Even though Mo Wuji was now a bit more experienced with excavating blackstone, he still felt that he should choose a more suitable spiritual equipment for digging.
Casually grabbing one of the blackstones in his baskets, he found that the blackstone was roughly the size of a fist. When held in the hand, it felt warm like a jade, sending a soothing and comfortable sensation. When his spiritual will descended on the surface of the blackstone, he could only faintly feel some energy hidden within it. However, he wasn't even able to discern what that energy was.
Mo Wuji subconsciously tried to place the blackstone in his storage ring. However, no matter how his spiritual will tried to draw it in, the blackstone in his hand wasn't moved.
Shaking his head, Mo Wuji threw the blackstone back in his baster. From the looks of it, this blackstone was unable to be sent into storage rings, or the grade of his storage ring was too low.
After covering the basket with a lid, Mo Wuji brought out a quasi-extreme grade spiritual spear. If he recalled correctly, he received this spear from Hoover. Because Mo Wuji didn't use it, he didn't care about it. However, to excavate blackstone, using a spear was more suitable. Unfortunately, he didn't know how to forge equipment. If he did, he definitely would have forged himself a shovel.
After refining the spear, Mo Wuji continued to search for blackstone. These blackstone could be exchanged for spirit stone slags. What he lacked the most was spirit stone slags.
On the fourth day, Mo Wuji found another blackstone. This blackstone was also 9 meters under the ground. After spending close to a day, all the way to the fifth day’s afternoon, he managed to dig the blackstone and threw it into his basket.
This left Mo Wuji rather helpless; for the same amount of work, the received far fewer blackstones. From the looks of it, if he wanted to obtain large amounts of blackstone by himself, he would need to find a place concentrated with blackstone.
Five days have already passed, even if he found anymore blackstone, he would not have the time to dig it.
Mo Wuji simply picked up his basket and put it on his bag. Just when he was preparing to leave, a intense explosion of elemental energy attracted his attention. Mo Wuji sent his spiritual will outwards and immediately saw a familiar face.
Jia Qi was currently fighting with a cultivator, while another cultivator was spectating by the side.
Mo Wuji guessed that this battle should be over blackstone. He wanted to see exactly how many blackstones were there. If there were man, he wouldn't mind joining in the fight.
Seeing Mo Wuji come over, the two people stopped battling, but they did not keep their magic treasures.
"Friend, we're fighting for the rights over blackstone. If you have no business, then please move away." The cultivator spectating by the side said to Mo Wuji indifferently.
Indeed, they were fighting for blackstone. Mo Wuji's spirit storage channel's spiritual will had already seeped into the ground. Soon, he found one piece of blackstone about 3 meters deep.
Just one blackstone. Even though it was relatively shallow, Mo Wuji was not very interested. It was not worth it to enter a conflict just because of one blackstone. Just when he was about to leave, Jia Qi suddenly said, "He’s my partner, why must he leave?"
After hearing that Mo Wuji and Jia Qi were partners, the other two started to look at Mo Wuji with hostility.
Just when Mo Wuji was about to deny his relations, Jia Qi continued, "There's one blackstone here. I will give you two spirit stone slags."
Mo Wuji hurriedly asked, "One blackstone can be exchanged for how many pieces of spirit stone slags?"
"Under normal circumstances, ten." Now that Jia Qi wanted to Mo Wuji's help, she no longer spoke as though each of her words were worth thousands of gold.
The other two cultivators’ gaze landed on Mo Wuji. Mo Wuji looked just like an ordinary mortal, without even a hint of spiritual ripples. However, none of them dared to look down on Mo Wuji because of this. Being able to enter Half Immortal Domain, and even into a mining area, wouldn't he also be an Earthly Immortal expert?
If Mo Wuji and Jia Qi joined hands, they would have to engage in a huge battle before they could get that blackstone.
"Sorry, I'm not interested." With that, Mo Wuji turned and left.
Just for two pieces of spirit stone slags, he had to risk his life. Wasn't this severely underestimating his efforts? Mo Wuji was also slightly disappointed, the blackstones that he worked so hard for were actually so cheap. One blackstone could only be exchanged for 10 spirit stone slags. He had dug up six blackstones, which were only equivalent to 60 spirit stone slags.
Never mind, with these 60 spirit stone slags, he could at least cultivate to the advanced Worldly Immortal Stage. In the future, if he wasn't allocated a mining area, he would go out and steal ores. To him, stealing ores and digging for blackstone in a mining area was not much different.
His spiritual will could reach 18 meters into the ground; this was an advantage that many cultivators couldn't compete with.
"Your partner's going, you still want to fight with us? There's still half a day of time, if you continue to fight, then we wouldn't continue to fight one on one." Seeing Mo Wuji leave, that cultivator that was battling Jia Qi said coldly.
Jia Qi bit her lips. With a stamp of her feet, she turned and chased after Mo Wuji.
"You, wait for awhile." Jia Qi was quickly able to catch up to Mo Wuji.
"What's the matter?" Mo Wuji asked calmly.
"You know that without spirit stone slags, even if you're from Longevity Sect, you wouldn't be able to last long? Don't you want your little life anymore? I know that your cultivation is lower, but those two don't know that. Moreover, we will have to leave soon, so we wouldn't have fought that battle, and everyone would have to split it equally. Even then, you would have gotten at least one spirit stone slag," Jia Qi said grudgingly.
Mo Wuji was not flustered as he said slowly, "Dao Friend Jia Qi, even if I don't come to this mining area, I wouldn't be chased out of Half Immortal Domain, right? Even though I’m a newbie, I'm not easily fooled. I have already heard that as long as I have a bracelet, I can stay permanently in Half Immortal Domain, I don't even need any of those spirit stone slags. At the most, I won't cultivate."
His tone was even a little derisive. Even though Lang Hao didn't tell him many things, he was sure of one thing: as long as he had the bracelet, he wouldn't be chased out of Half Immortal Domain.
Jia Qi’s tone was even more derisive than Mo Wuji as she sneered, "You actually believed Lang Hao's words? It's true, he didn't lie to you. To stay in Half Immortal Domain, you only need the bracelet, and not the spirit stone slags. But did he tell you that to live in Half Immortal Domain, you need the Wood Dissolving Pill? Did he tell you that everyone preferred to stay within the Half Immortal Domain, instead of the lands outside, not because of the danger, but because the acute wood energy outside is too dense, and that would cause the woodification of your spirit channels?
Wood Dissolving Pill? Woodification of spirit channels? Mo Wuji stared blankly at Jia Qi; he really didn't know about this ah.
Jia Qi did not stop, but continued to speak derisively, "Did he tell you that to excavate blackstone, not only do you need the basket, you would also need a Blackstone Shovel? Did he tell you that most of the spirit stone slags aren't used for cultivation, but to buy the Wood Dissolving Pill? You don't even know anything, and you dare to say that you would continue staying in Half Immortal Domain?"
Mo Wuji's expression turned solemn. He knew that he had been scammed by Lang Hao; that b*stard actually scammed him quite badly. Previously, he was even very grateful to Lang Hao for helping him with the bracelet. Ten spirit stone slags ah, that's one blackstone.
"Many thanks Dao Friend Jia Qi, I truly didn't know all these. Can I ask what's a Wood Dissolving Pill?" Mo Wuji's face was truly unsightly.
When Jia Qi saw that Mo Wuji did not refute her words, she calmed down a little, "Half Immortal Domain is heavily enveloped with acute wood energy. This sort of energy would constantly seep into every cultivator’s spirit channels. If you don't find ways to remove it, your spirit channels would soon be woodified by the acute wood energy. Eventually, you will perish without a sound."
"And the Wood Dissolving Pill is the pill required to resolve that acute wood energy?" Mo Wuji asked a follow-up question.
Jia Qi nodded, "You're right. The acute wood energy can only be resolved by the Wood Dissolving Pill and the Wood Dissolving Pill can only be purchased in Half Immortal Domain. Even though there are no rules, nor pressure here, there remains one difficult thing we have to do to survive here. That is to obtain Wood Dissolving Pill."
"Why don't any pill refiners concoct it for themselves? Why must they purchase it at Half Immortal Domain?" Even though he was still clueless, Mo Wuji started to feel a little uncomfortable. The water here was too deep ah, so deep that he could drown at any moment even without knowing it.
"Because the Wood Dissolving Pill can only be concocted by metal-type pill refiners. Tell me, have you met any metal-type pill refiners?" Jia Qi lightly replied with another question.