PDLP Chapter 187: Stone Coffin
Chapter 187: Stone Coffin
Chapter 187: Stone Coffin
"Damn it! Quickly activate the ancient formation, or we'll all perish here!"
"Which family's cultivators are controlling these formations?
The Wang Family or the Zhao Family?
Are you perhaps in league with the Guangji Sect? Why are you still maintaining the grand formation?"
The entire Lin'an Stronghold seemed to have turned into a living hell, with screams, roars, the clashing of magic artifacts, and the explosions of spells echoing endlessly.
All the cultivators were solely focused on how to save their own lives,
but few noticed,
that in the corner towers, which served as the formation eyes of the ancient formation,
there was a puppet resembling a human in each, continuously feeding low-grade spirit stones into the formation eyes,
maintaining the operation of the grand formation.
Li Lan had planned everything out as early as when he was in the Spirit Stone Mine.
When the cultivators in the corner towers were being eliminated one by one by Wang Chi, he used the situation to his advantage, playing a trick to lure them into a trap.
If Wang Chi and the others were willing to retreat on their own and not interfere with his plan to quietly mine the Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mine, that would naturally be for the best.
But if these cultivators were ignorant of how to act,
he would have these Spirit Bean Soldiers reactivate the grand formation,
turning this Lin'an Stronghold completely into their grave.
After stirring up the greed in the hearts of all the Outer Sect disciples,
Li Lan did not stay there.
Compared to eliminating these low-level cultivators and plundering the treasures in their storage bags,
he had more important things to do.
Li Lan's figure silently disappeared from the spot,
and arrived at the spirit plant garden.
At this time,
the entire Lin'an Stronghold was in chaos,
all the Outer Sect disciples were working together to resist the external enemies; there was hardly anyone here.
This was precisely why Li Lan came.
A large number of spirit plants cultivated here could be of considerable help to Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators.
Now that he had this rare opportunity, he naturally wouldn't miss it,
considering it as compensation for saving this Lin'an Stronghold.
If the inner sect of the Guangji Sect were to inquire later,
he could just push everything onto the Wang Family and other rogue cultivators.
After a quick scan of the spirit plant garden,
Li Lan also harvested a few soul-guiding artemisia, Bone-Corroding Vine, and other spirit plants that he could use.
Besides this place,
he also went to the pill pavilion, the treasure chamber, and other places.
Although he didn't get many good things from these places,
and in terms of quality, they couldn't compare to the spirit plant garden at all,
it was still not a wasted trip this time.
After doing all this,
Li Lan rushed back to the cultivation cave abode within the Spirit Stone Mine without stopping.
Reopening the hidden mine tunnel,
he stood once again at the place where he discovered the Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mine.
Previously,
limited by his Qi Refining Great Perfection realm,
Li Lan's divine sense was not strong enough and could not spread too far, so he couldn't know what was deep within this Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mine.
But now it was different.
After advancing to Foundation Establishment (Early Stage),
his divine sense, both in terms of intensity and the range it could cover,
had undergone a qualitative leap.
Li Lan fully released his divine sense,
and easily discovered a unique item within this Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mine.
He took out the treasure-seeking jade slip and compared it,
finding that it was precisely the thing that caused the strong reaction.
It was a stone as tall as a person, looking exactly like a stone coffin,
its whole body covered with traces of erosion by time; cracks of varying widths spread across the coffin lid like a spider web,
the widest parts seemed wide enough to insert a finger,
the narrowest parts were only as thick as a strand of hair,
Despite being so far away,
Li Lan could still feel,
strands of pure spiritual energy seeping out from the surface of the stone coffin.
This spiritual energy was terrifyingly pure,
the spiritual energy contained in these middle-grade spirit stones was already not weak,
but compared to what seeped out from the stone coffin,
it was like the difference between heaven and earth.
If he could use this spiritual energy to aid his cultivation,
then his speed of refining magic power would surely rise to another level.
Even the usually steady Li Lan couldn't help but feel a little excited at this moment.
However, soon,
he suppressed this restlessness and quickly calmed down.
What exactly was this stone coffin?
Why would such pure spiritual energy be produced within it?
Were these quite special, self-repairing Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mines,
here because they were related to it?
Of course,
what Li Lan cared about the most was,
was there anything alive inside the stone coffin?
Could this be the long-term hidden dwelling place of some powerful cultivator?
Or was some formidable demonic cultivator sealed within,
and these Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mines were bait deliberately scattered by it?
It wasn't surprising that Li Lan would think this way.
Legend has it that some cultivators above the Golden Core stage,
after knowing their great limit was approaching,
would use special methods to enter a state of suspended animation, thereby staying in the world for an extended period.
This was not uncommon in the Cultivation World.
After all, who would be willing to die if they could live?
Moreover, during the period of suspended animation,
if they accidentally encountered some fortuitous opportunity, or a junior cultivator with suitable aptitude and conditions,
they could also extend their lifespan through body possession.
Thinking of this,
Li Lan's joy vanished completely, and he cautiously retreated two steps.
He didn't want to cultivate painstakingly for decades, only to end up benefiting some old monster who wanted to seize a body and be reborn.
However, if he were to leave just like this,
Li Lan was quite reluctant.
After all,
Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mines were extremely rare even throughout Jiuhua County,
and this stone coffin treasure, whose spiritual energy concentration far exceeded middle-grade spirit stones, was even more so.
Even a Qi Refining cultivator could easily see the extraordinary nature of this object here.
This kind of heaven-sent opportunity was not something one could encounter anytime.
Li Lan pondered for a long time,
before finally making up his mind.
Keep digging!
Although this action seemed quite dangerous,
for the sake of his future cultivation path being unimpeded, this risk was worth taking.
Moreover,
golden core powerhouses in suspended animation and the like,
were just Li Lan's baseless guesses.
This mysterious stone coffin might not necessarily be dangerous.
Furthermore,
he had been mining this Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mine for all these years,
if there were truly something alive in the stone coffin, it should have been awakened long ago.
Having made his decision,
Li Lan no longer hesitated.
With a wave of his single hand, he summoned several fourth-order wood-attribute magic artifacts of different appearances.
These were all found in the storage bags of Wang Chi and others, and they came in handy at this moment.
Li Lan formed a hand seal, and all the magic artifacts flew out together, landing heavily on the Spirit Stone Mine.
Puff puff!
The unusually tough Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mine was instantly pierced with many large holes of varying depths,
spirit stone fragments scattered everywhere.
Mining spirit stones is different from digging,
the former needs to consider whether the extracted spirit stones are intact, so when striking, there are inevitably some reservations.
The latter doesn't need to be so troublesome,
just break through a passage as quickly as possible.
As soon as the Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mine was damaged,
the edges of those large holes began to wriggle,
seeming to want to fill in the missing parts again.
Li Lan naturally wouldn't let it succeed,
He immediately controlled the magic artifacts and quickly began to widen these large holes,
and dug towards the deepest part, the location of the stone coffin.
To be cautious,
Li Lan did not follow the magic artifacts too deeply,
but chose to let the Spirit Bean Soldiers do the work.
He summoned several Spirit Bean Soldiers to follow,
and stopped one fourth-order magic artifact from moving.
The Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mine quickly wriggled and surrounded it, filling all the gaps around that magic artifact and the Spirit Bean Soldier.
Before long,
two large pieces of middle-grade spirit stones, like amber, were formed.
Through perception,
Li Lan found that the Spirit Bean Soldier trapped inside, aside from being unable to move,
did not suffer any other additional damage.
This showed that,
this Middle Grade Spirit Stone Mine did not have lethality,
other than being able to self-repair, it was no different from other spirit stones.
Li Lan did not relax his vigilance because of this,
He fully activated the magic artifacts to clear the way,
while also splitting a trace of his divine sense to observe the movements outside.
With the cooperation of the ancient formation and Li Lan's deterrence,
the remaining family rogue cultivators were unable to cause any more trouble,
and the crisis at Lin'an Stronghold was resolved so easily.
Seeing Li Lan begin to cultivate in seclusion again, the other Guangji Sect Outer Sect disciples also consciously did not disturb him anymore,
and spontaneously began to handle the aftermath.
Subsequently, the entire Lin'an Stronghold seemed to return to peace again.
But Li Lan knew that,
this matter was far from over,
and bigger trouble was yet to come.
This was also one of the reasons why he was so eager to dig out that stone coffin.
Indeed,
half a month later.
Trouble arrived.
On this day,
an Outer Sect disciple waited nervously outside Li Lan's cave abode for a long time.
With a rumble, the stone door opened.
Li Lan, dressed in a light blue robe, slowly walked out.
Seeing this, the Outer Sect disciple,
hurriedly bowed respectfully, holding out a recording jade slip with both hands.
"Senior Brother, an urgent message has arrived from the inner sect, specifically for you."
Li Lan thanked him kindly,
took the jade slip and returned to his cave abode to examine it.
As soon as he opened it,
the figure of an old man with an immortal demeanor, white beard, and hair appeared beside him.
This recording jade slip, when activated with magic power, could preserve the user's voice and appearance,
the materials used were quite precious, and not something ordinary cultivators could afford.
Even the Three Great Sects would only use it at extremely important moments.
Guarding a low-grade Spirit Vein, the crisis has already been resolved, is it still necessary to waste this recording jade slip?
Seeing the subtle signs,
Li Lan already had some ideas.
However, he did not show it at all on his face, turning his gaze to the benevolent-looking old man.
Although he had not seen this person in the Chongshan Region, he had long heard of his great name.
Elder Chi of the Service Peak, a Foundation Establishment (Middle Stage) powerhouse, Su Hongying's master; all sect missions in the Tian Shu Pavilion had to pass through his approval before being issued.
Numerous matters such as the deployment of all Guangji Sect disciples, the appointment of Outer Sect Elders, and whether one could cultivate in a Medium-Grade Spirit Vein,
all required Elder Chi's nod to be approved.
"Greetings, Elder Chi."
Although he didn't know if the other party could see him,
Li Lan still bowed.
"Heh heh, Li Jiangchuan, your sect mission to guard Lin'an Stronghold has been successfully completed.
Congratulations, you have obtained the qualification to cultivate in a D-grade cave abode in a Medium-Grade Spirit Vein."
As soon as Elder Chi appeared, he said with a beaming smile.
He seemed quite amiable, without the slightest arrogance expected of a Foundation Establishment (Middle Stage) powerhouse.
Five full years have passed?
In these years, besides cultivating, Li Lan had been busy with various trivial matters,
and he really hadn't paid too much attention to the time.