Chapter 179: Fire-attribute Spirit Stone
After all, back in that era, managing to cultivate alone to the pinnacle of the Martial Dao was an incredibly outstanding achievement.
If the Spiritual Qi hadn’t been depleted, preventing him from advancing further, he might have truly broken through to the Ascension Realm.
Chu Feng couldn’t be bothered with all that. He simply used the sword as a shovel, stabbing it into the ground and pulling out large chunks of dirt and gravel with each motion.
Seeing how easy it was, Chu Feng started working even harder.
In just a few moves, he had already dug out a sizable pit.
However, there was nothing underneath. Unconvinced, Chu Feng kept digging.
Another half an hour passed. Chu Feng had dug over three meters deep, but he still hadn’t reached the bottom.
"It’s over three meters deep already, and I still haven’t hit bottom?" Chu Feng was a little surprised.
However, the Heaven-Slaying Sword in his hand was completely unscathed, still as good as new.
"I refuse to be beaten! If I don’t dig you out today, my name isn’t Chu Feng!" Chu Feng steeled his resolve. He had to dig this thing out today, no matter what.
After all, whatever was down there was likely related to his path of Cultivation. It was no wonder he was so determined.
So, no matter what difficulty he faced, Chu Feng had only one thing on his mind: dig!
He used the Heaven-Slaying Sword as a shovel without the slightest bit of pity, because the thing was incredibly tough.
If the sword’s original owner were still alive to see this, he would probably die of a stroke on the spot.
After digging down another seven or eight meters, Chu Feng was starting to get a little out of breath.
"Damn it, have I still not reached the bottom?" Chu Feng was getting tired. He sat down at the bottom of the pit and began to think.
But as soon as he sat down, he suddenly felt a gentle warmth on his back.
"Huh? Why is it so hot behind me?" Chu Feng looked surprised, then turned to look at the wall of rock and dirt.
Chu Feng reached out to touch it and found that the wall was scalding hot.
"Holy crap, don’t tell me there’s magma back there?" Chu Feng was astonished, and he felt a small pang of fear.
It wasn’t unheard of to accidentally dig into a magma chamber or a volcanic crater in a mountain cave. And while Chu Feng had never heard of any volcanoes back home, who could say for sure there weren’t any?
So, Chu Feng became extremely cautious.
He backed away, stood to one side, and gently prodded the rock wall with the tip of his Heaven-Slaying Sword.
The rock must have weighed several pounds, but before the sword, it was like tofu, instantly crumbling to pieces.
As the rock crumbled, Chu Feng saw a flash of fiery light that sent him scrambling up the side of the pit. If that was magma, he’d be cooked to a crisp in moments if he didn’t run.
However, after he climbed out, he saw that no magma was pouring out from below.
"Strange, why isn’t there any magma? Could that red glow not be from magma?" Chu Feng muttered to himself.
With that, he climbed straight back down and approached the spot.
It was emanating a red glow and radiating intense heat.
’What on earth is this thing?’ Chu Feng was puzzled, but he still cautiously used his sword to pry away the surrounding rock.
CLINK.
A fist-sized, fiery red stone fell out.
The moment the stone dropped, the surrounding air became scorching hot.
"This... Is this a Fire-attribute Spirit Stone?" It took Chu Feng a long moment of staring at the stone before he finally realized what it was.
His face was a mask of pure ecstasy. He was happier than if he’d won billions.
Spirit Stones simply couldn’t be bought; they were completely monopolized by the major Martial Arts Families.
Martial Arts Families controlled many industries from behind the scenes—mining, jewelry, salvage, animal husbandry, and so on. They had a hand in everything.
So, whenever Spirit Stones appeared, they were immediately snatched up by the Martial Arts Families. They never circulated on the open market.
And even if someone had one, nobody would dare try to sell it—unless they had a death wish.
"I’ve struck it rich!" Chu Feng was thrilled.
Especially in this era of depleted Spiritual Qi, finding a Spirit Stone—even a single one—was a treasure worth tens, or even hundreds, of billions!
Of course, they were only useful to those who practiced Cultivation. In the hands of an ordinary person, it was just a rock.
’Could there be a Fire-attribute Spirit Stone mine here?’ The thought suddenly struck Chu Feng, startling him.
If that was the case, then for him, the value of this discovery was even more staggering.
"What a pity for Hentian," Chu Feng said. "If he had discovered these Fire-attribute Spirit Stones back then, he might have been able to advance further and extend his life by several hundred years."
At this thought, Chu Feng didn’t dare dawdle any longer and got back to digging.
He continued to dig deeper, following the spot where he had found the Fire-attribute Spirit Stone.
Before long, another wave of scorching heat washed over him. Chu Feng was overjoyed; he knew it meant he had found another Fire-attribute Spirit Stone.
BANG!
After breaking through a large slab of rock, an even more scorching wave of heat hit him in the face.
It felt like standing in front of a bonfire on a scorching summer day. And that was with Chu Feng being as strong as he was; an ordinary person would have been severely burned.
He continued on like this, digging a tunnel more than ten meters long.
In total, Chu Feng dug up thirty fist-sized Spirit Stones, but then he found no more.
"Strange. It’s clearly very hot here, so why aren’t there any more Spirit Stones?" Chu Feng looked puzzled, a frown on his face.
’Are there really only thirty of them here? Or did I dig in the wrong direction?’
"This won’t do. I’ll try digging from a different angle," Chu Feng said.
He then began to dig energetically, working his way around the pit floor and digging outward in all directions from the center.
Two hours later, Chu Feng had only managed to find another ten Spirit Stones. After that, his search yielded nothing.
"Damn it, that’s it?" Chu Feng’s face was filled with longing; he desperately wanted to find more.
If he had more Spirit Stones, he could help his wife cultivate, and her progress would be incredibly fast.
TING!
Just as Chu Feng was starting to despair, his sword suddenly struck something hard, like metal, sending sparks flying.
"Huh? This thing is that hard?" Chu Feng was surprised.
His Heaven-Slaying Sword was incredibly sharp and could cut through almost anything.
’But today, it seems to have met its match.’
"I refuse to believe I can’t pierce this thing!" Chu Feng injected some Spiritual Power into the blade, gritted his teeth, and stabbed down with all his might.
TING!
Another metallic clang rang out, but this time was different. Chu Feng felt a scorching wave of heat blast him in the face.
When he pulled his sword back, a burst of fiery light shot out toward him.
Startled, Chu Feng quickly jumped back.