Chapter 880 - Master of the Bronze Ghost Coffin
Lin Ming and Old Man Good Fortune continued to walk towards the core of the dimensional realm where the spirit vein source was.
On their way, they passed all sorts of divine and magical spirit flowers and trees. Flowing rivers and streams crossed the grasslands like elegant roads of blue jade. These rivers were filled with all sorts of beautiful and exquisite fish. After staying at such a mystic land, these fish had already gained consciousness with the most simple form of intelligence.
"Silent nether flowers, ghostly fog grass, spotted sky grass…" Lin Ming called out the names of several different types of spiritual plants. As an alchemist, he had an extremely high understanding towards various spirit plant materials.
These sorts of spirit plants were bred within this spiritual treasure land. The younger ones were several hundred years old and the older ones were thousands of years old. And this was only because the lifespans of these spirit plants were limited by their grade. Otherwise, with as long as this Temple of Marvels had existed, there might even have been medicinal plants that were over 100,000 years old.
These many medicinal plants weren't too precious, but as an alchemist, whether it was for alchemy practice or truly concocting medicines, there would always be a place for medicinal plants of all ranks. The Cosmic Melting Furnace was simply a bottomless pit. No matter how many medicinal herbs Lin Ming threw in, he could refine that many.
Lin Ming started to unceremoniously pick up everything around him. As long as they were mature herbs, he would take them all.
"This is…"
Lin Ming saw a crimson tree in front of him, his eyes revealing surprise and disbelief.
This tree was only 20 feet tall and the roots twisted aboveground. From afar, it looked like horned dragons that had locked together in combat.
On the crown of this tree there were seven or eight fist-sized fruits. And, what was amazing was that each fruit beat like a heart, seeming as if they could quicken and suck away one's blood vitality. They were incomparably mysterious fruits.
On top of this 20 foot tall spirit tree, there were fruits that were like hearts!
"Dragonheart Tree. Looking at it, it must be over 50,000 years old!" Lin Ming sucked in a deep breath, his eyes flashing. Normally speaking, a spirit tree had a much longer lifespan than spirit grasses. A spirit grass was already considered quite excellent if it grew to a thousand years old, but to a spirit tree, a thousand years wasn't anything at all. In the mortal world, there were trees that lived for a thousand years and some trees that had lived for two thousand years.
That was how things were. But even so, a 50,000 year old spirit tree was nearly extinct within the Sky Spill Continent!
In particular, this Dragonheart Tree was especially beneficial to Lin Ming. The fruits of the Dragonheart Tree were magnificent medicines for body transformation; they were able to greatly supplement one's blood vitality. When Lin Ming finally began refining the medicine to open up the fifth of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates, he could use these Dragonheart Fruits as the leading material!
"What a great tree. Unfortunately I have no way to move it, so I can only take away a few of the Dragonheart Fruits." Lin Ming said with a tinge of regret. The little dimension within his spatial ring could not contain living creatures. No matter how good a spirit tree was, it would slowly lose its vitality after being placed into a spatial ring. Although the roots of the Dragonheart Tree were also great materials, Lin Ming didn't want to do something so cruel and wasteful as ruining the pond just to get a few more fish. It was not easy for a heavenly treasure like this to form. It needed all sorts of lucky chances and a special environment before it would be bred. If he could move it away then that would be fine, but if he couldn't and actually destroyed the roots instead, that he would surely suffer some sort of karmic retribution.
This Dragonheart Tree was nearly extinct in the Sky Spill Continent. To pick the medicine and not destroy the roots was the unspoken rule of all alchemists. Doing so was also a good deed for himself.
At this time, Old Man Good Fortune suddenly spoke up and said, "Little Friend Lin, old me has several profound spirit pots; I can lend you one. A profound spirit pot can temporarily hold a spirit plant and can also maintain its spiritual nature.
As Old Man Good Fortune spoke, he fished out a palm-sized pot from his spatial ring. Although he called it a pot, it looked more like a rice bowl.
Old Man Good Fortune extended his hand. The pot spun in the air, rapidly growing larger.
Lin Ming was overjoyed as he saw this. Although this sort of pot had limited space, it was actually extremely valuable. Normally, an alchemist from the Divine Realm would have several of these on them, but in the Sky Spill Continent, these sorts of profound spirit pots were far too rare.
Just as Lin Ming was about to take the profound spirit pot, his heart moved. He asked, "Senior Good Fortune, wouldn't you like to use it?"
Old Man Good Fortune said, "I might be able to, but even if I needed to, I wouldn't need this much. As for these Dragonheart Fruits and other spiritual plants, they are already useless for me. They are better to be used for youngsters like you to break into higher boundaries. As for me, my problem comes from my own fires of life. With my fires of life diminishing, medicines that can help me with breakthroughs are useless; they won't be useful for me. The only type of medicine I want is one kind, and that is the type that can extend my life, moreover the quality must be higher than that of a 10,000 Year Peach Pith."
A life extending medicine was the most precious kind, as well as the most difficult to find. To cultivate the martial path was to struggle daily against the heavens; only by doing that could one extend their life. But, to use medicines to defy the will of the heavens and seize a longer lifespan, that was far more difficult. Over the endless years, there had been countless heroes that were eventually unable to contend with the overflowing river of time.
Moreover, the higher level a martial artist was, the higher grade of medicine they would need to extend their life. To someone like Old Man Good Fortune, even a 10,000 Year Peach Pith was no longer effective. After Old Man Good Fortune had brought Emperor Shakya upwards, he had actually obtained a life extending medicine, but after that there was nothing else.
With such harsh requirements, he would already be thankful to the heavens and earth if he could find just a little tiny bit of medicinal plant that could extend his life. He simply didn't need so many profound spirit pots.
Lin Ming wasn't too humble. He took the profound spirit pot and put away the Dragonheart Tree, as well as taking away the spirit earth around it. He covered the roots of the Dragonheart Tree to preserve its vitality.
At this point, Old Man Good Fortune's mind suddenly chilled as his breath caught in his chest.
"Mm?" Lin Ming also went on high alert. As he saw Old Man Good Fortune's sudden response, he maintained absolute vigilance, looking all around himself.
However, the vast grasslands were still as they were before. The wind blew through the swaying stalks and the spirit plants were still in full bloom without anything out of the normal.
After shutting his eyes for a moment, Old Man Good Fortune opened his eyes and shook his head. "Maybe I was being too cautious just now, but I had a feeling that someone was peeping at us… it was only a feeling; I might have made a mistake. Still, we should be careful. In this abundant land there might not necessarily be no enemies."
"Mm." Lin Ming nodded. Old Man Good Fortune's boundary was amazing. Even a small, baseless idea might indicate extreme danger. Lin Ming increased his vigilance, making sure that nothing was out of place around him.
At this time, what Lin Ming didn't know was that outside of the dimension he was in, within an underground chamber, there was a handsome and pretty demon youth sitting atop a bronze ghost coffin. He had a bamboo flute in his hands and a sly smile was blooming at the corners of his lips. "This old man is really vigilant, hehe…"
The demon youth played with the flute in his hands as he danced on the bronze ghost coffin. If Lin Ming were here, then he would have recognized that this bronze ghost coffin was the exact same one he had seen at the 8000 Mile Black Swamp. This bronze ghost coffin exuded a timeless, simple atmosphere with the breath of the Great Dao!
This ghost coffin was 30 feet long and yet its master was actually such a handsome and charming youth. His height was the exact same as a normal human's, and his eyes were a deep purple, as if they contained the endless starry night within them.
He had sharp ears similar to the Fey race. His fingers were slender, his nails sharp, and his skin looked like it was carved from white jade. In fact, this made him seem a bit fragile.
At the side of this demon youth were six black-clothed underworld beings, each of them fierce and dangerous-looking. They were the six evil spirits that had pulled the coffin.
Each one of them had strength equal to a quasi Emperor from the Giant Demon race!
In front of these six black-clothed underworld beings, there was a white-clothed person standing there with a mask covering his face. His voice was deep and low as he said, "With Honored Sir's strength, solving this Old Man Good Fortune shouldn't be too difficult!"
"Humph! A mere late Divine Sea martial artist, and his life is also reaching its end. He is nothing but garbage. All he is good for is lording his minimal power over the Sky Spill Continent. If I was in my peak state then I wouldn't even need half a finger to crush him to pieces! But now, since I had to use a special technique to overcome the force field in the Sea of Miracles, I must expend some effort. However…"
As the curious demon youth spoke to here, his eyes turned to the young man standing near Old Man Good Fortune. This youth was Lin Ming. The demon youth cackled, licking his lips as he said, "This young seedling you chose is quite good! I never imagined that the Sky Spill Continent would have such a great seedling! 23-24 year skeletal age, second stage Life Destruction cultivation, and he also cultivates in dual body and essence. Besides all this, he even has curious bloodlines on him. This is truly unbelievable! This boy must have some secret on him, otherwise it is impossible to grow to this degree in the Sky Spill Continent with its meager resources and trash level inheritances. Not to mention everything else, but just his body transformation technique does not exist on the Sky Spill Continent!
The masked man was silent. The strange demon youth raised his bamboo flute and then jumped down from the bronze ghost coffin. "I will deal with that old man. Everything else will be up to you!"
"Good."
"It's here, this is the spirit vein source!"
Old Man Good Fortune and Lin Ming both had some experience in seeking spirit veins. They soon found the core of the dimensional realm, which was also where the spirit vein source was.
"Open!"
Old Man Good Fortune casually waved his hand and all of the surrounded soil divided apart, separated in half by some invisible force and revealing a deep channel that glittered all around. This flowing channel soon led into a cave.
This was a skill application of the power of space. One could substantialize space to open up a path.
Although Lin Ming's current understanding into the Concept of Space was excellent and he could fuse the power of space into his attacks, it was still difficult for him to accomplish such an ingenious method like smoothly carving out a cave by just using the tyrannical and dominating power of space.
As they entered the cave, they walked around 100 steps before a light appeared before them. In front of Lin Ming and Old Man Good Fortune, a jade green world suddenly appeared.
The heaven and earth origin energy here was so thick that it condensed into droplets. This small space was filled with a layer of green mist. Just by casually taking a breath here, one could feel their soul and body be refreshed, saving them several days of hard training.
In this green fog, clusters of spirit essence stones freely grew like giant crystal formations, making it seem like a dream. This was a phenomenon that would only appear in a top grade spirit essence stone mine. In a normal spirit essence stone mine, the spirit essence stones would mix together with the impurities of the earth and would need to be refined several times in order to create an end product. It wouldn't be like now where it was naturally pure.
And in the center of this cave, there was a milky white stalactite pillar jutting down from the roof. This pillar seemed as if it were made from translucent crystal and the interior glowed with a dim green light, as if there were some demon sealed with.
"This is the source of the top grade spirit essence stones, the core of the mine."
Lin Ming took a deep breath. In this stalactite pillar, he could see that sealed within were top grade spirit essence stones.
Such a massive mine source would be able to produce 20-30 top grade spirit essence stones. This was an amount that the mines of the Sky Spill Continent could never compete with.
While Lin Ming was staring at the top grade spirit essence stones, Old Man Good Fortune's eyes were actually locked onto the stalactite pillar. The crystal clear stalactite seemed to be made from quartz. After a long time, a single drop slowly condensed onto the tip of that stalactite, gathering and gathering until it gained enough mass to drop down with a light dripping sound. This added onto a milky white pond at the bottom, forming ripples.
This pool was similar to the stalactite, faint and otherworldly. It looked as if it were made of milk.
"10,000 year stone milk!"
Old Man Good Fortune's voice was filled with excitement. He was a man with some aspirations after all; finally his hard work had paid off. After searching the continent for so many years, he had finally found a type of medicine that could extend his life.
Rather, it was more accurate to say that this pond of stone milk was 100,000 year stone milk. This sort of liquid could help revitalize a martial artist's fires of life. As long as a martial artist's cultivation was at the Divine Sea or below, this sort of material could extend their life by nearly 12 sixty year cycles.
And now, this 10,000 year stone milk in front of him had accumulated for over 100,000 years. If he could refine it, then it would be enough for Old Man Good Fortune to extend his life by the longest span possible. That would be 720 years of extra life!
To Old Man Good Fortune, this was the most precious type of treasure! How could he not be moved by it?
He took out an exquisite treasure box from his spatial ring and opened the lid. All of the stone milk gathered into a stream that was completely received into the small treasure box.
"Lucky, I'm far too lucky!" Old Man Good Fortune's face was flushed red with blood in his excitement. This stone milk was even slightly better than the treasures he was rewarded with for bringing Emperor Shakya into the Divine Realm!
As Lin Ming saw Old Man Good Fortune so ecstatic, he couldn't help but sigh in his mind. To a martial artist, age truly was fearful. One would slowly lose all their strength that they worked so hard for, lose their youthful appearance, and eventually even lose their life. Finally, they could only come to a conclusion that they would never be able to fully explore their road of martial arts. To them, this was truly a painful and heart-wrenching matter.
Even someone like Old Man Good Fortune, who didn't have many ambitions, would find it difficult to face old age and death with a calm manner.
As Old Man Good Fortune took that stone milk, Lin Ming also mined the spirit vein source that shined with a deep green divine light. It was the size of a head!
Such a large chunk of top-grade spirit essence stone was simply unheard of. In terms of just the essence gathering system, even though Lin Ming's process of crossing Life Destruction consumed far more energy than a normal martial artist's, it might still be enough for him to reach the Divine Sea!
Lin Ming was not greedy. He poured his silver battle spirit into a treasure dagger and sheared off four fifths of the top-grade spirit essence stone, leaving the other fifth. This leftover piece could serve as the core mine source, and after hundreds of thousands of years, it would condense and accumulate heaven and earth origin energy, eventually returning to its original size.
Otherwise, if he were to just take away everything at once, then this mine would immediately lower by a grade, causing all of the surrounding heaven and earth origin energy to be sparse and all the spirit plants to wilt and die. This was not a result that Lin Ming wished to see.
Old Man Good Fortune wasn't interested in the 20 plus top grade spirit essence stones. His cultivation was at the late Divine Sea realm; another step forwards would be stepping up another great boundary. Compared to entering the Divine Sea from Life Destruction, this process was much, much more difficult. Even if Old Man Good Fortune didn't come to the lower realms and stayed in the Divine Realm and diligently trained, it would still have been basically impossible for him to further enhance his cultivation.
Increasing his lifespan by several hundred years was already excellent. To make a breakthrough in his cultivation, reach the next great boundary and extend his lifespan by tens of thousands of years, that was something that could only happen in Old Man Good Fortune's dreams.
Lin Ming and Old Man Good Fortune could have been said to both be satisfied with their harvests. They decided to further explore this tunnel to see if there were other heavenly materials present, but at this moment, the world suddenly trembled around them, and an icy cold divine sense poured onto them like a pot of freezing water. Lin Ming instantly felt as if he had fallen into the nine nether abyss.
"Who is it!?"