Vessel of Worlds

Andy alighted on the lower slopes of Crystal Jade Peak in just over half a shichen.

From a distance, the mountain had been dazzling. Up close, the brilliant radiance was almost blinding—the entire peak appeared to be constructed from some kind of translucent crystal, refracting even the dim grey light that filtered through the valley's perpetual cloud cover into a thousand flashing points that hurt to look at directly.

This glare made it nearly impossible to search for Crystal Quartz by sight alone. Fortunately, as a forging material of considerable spiritual energy, Crystal Quartz could be detected through spiritual sense.

Andy extended his awareness into the mountainside, probing carefully. Most of what he sensed was ordinary crystalline stone—identical in composition to mundane rock, utterly devoid of spiritual energy despite its eye-catching appearance. Only here and there, scattered through the mass, were pockets of stone that gave off faint spiritual fluctuations.

He approached one of these pockets, used a Fireball Technique to blast away the surrounding stone, and extracted a fist-sized chunk. Holding it up to the light, he could see thin, scattered filaments running through the crystal in broken, chaotic patterns—low-grade Crystal Quartz.

Low-grade Crystal Quartz had limited practical value. Even if he gathered a large quantity, no one was offering Foundation Establishment Pills for it. Andy pocketed it anyway—waste not—and moved on to continue searching.

Over the next several hours, he worked his way methodically around the mountain, probing with his spiritual sense and extracting every piece of Crystal Quartz he found. By the time he had circled the lower slopes, he had accumulated over twenty blocks of varying sizes. All were low-grade.

A single block of mid-grade Crystal Quartz would be worth more than this entire haul. Andy sighed inwardly and began climbing higher.

The higher he went, the fewer the Crystal Quartz pockets became, but the quality improved. Halfway up the peak, he found his first piece of mid-grade Crystal Quartz—about the size of an egg, its internal filaments fine, regular, and spiraling in neat concentric patterns. The spiritual energy it radiated was several times stronger than the low-grade pieces.

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Andy was pleased, but he reminded himself not to get carried away. The mission called for upper-grade Crystal Quartz—Blood Crystal Stone—with filaments that had turned red. He hadn't found anything close yet.

Near the summit, Andy ran into his first obstacle. A pair of serpentine spirit beasts—each about two zhang long, with crystalline scales that blended almost perfectly into the mountain's surface—were coiled around a cluster of stone formations. They were first-grade mid-tier, roughly equivalent to seventh- or eighth-layer Qi Refinement cultivators.

Andy dispatched them without much difficulty, using his copper ring and a single Flame Serpent Talisman. The serpents' crystalline scales shattered more easily than he had expected—apparently the crystal composition that served as natural camouflage was a poor substitute for genuine defensive ability.

Behind the spot where the serpents had been nesting, Andy found a narrow fissure in the rock face. He squeezed inside and discovered a natural cavity about three zhang across. The walls glittered with a warm, reddish glow.

His spiritual sense immediately detected something extraordinary. Embedded in the far wall of the cavity were three blocks of Crystal Quartz—and the spiritual energy they radiated was in a different class entirely from anything he had found before.

Andy carefully extracted the largest of the three. It was roughly the size of two fists put together, and when he held it up, the filaments inside were immediately visible: fine, dense, spiraling in perfect symmetry, and unmistakably tinged with red.

Blood Crystal Stone. Upper-grade Crystal Quartz.

He extracted the other two as well—both slightly smaller, both equally vivid in their red-threaded interiors.

Three blocks of Blood Crystal Stone. The mission had required a single block weighing three liang or more. Each of these exceeded that threshold comfortably. He could exchange any one of them for a Foundation Establishment Pill.

Andy stowed the three stones carefully, sealed the fissure with a few casual Fireball Techniques to collapse the entrance, and descended the mountain without lingering.

The entire expedition had taken less than a day. As he flew away from Crystal Jade Peak on his Flying Plume, Andy allowed himself a small, satisfied smile. One Foundation Establishment Pill was now as good as secured. But the valley still had nearly a month to go, and he had no intention of stopping here.