PDLP Chapter 72 Stone Marrow
Chapter 72 Stone Marrow
"Rustle and rustle..."
Suddenly, a strange noise came from a patch of weeds on the riverbank, and then the head of the Ancient Wood Spirit Child popped out from it.
After learning that these three little guys could hide in plants and remain undetected, Li Ya used them as lookouts.
Right beside the weeds, in an inconspicuous cave, Li Ya broke open one Sumeru bag after another, each time as exciting as drawing a lottery ticket.
Li Ya discovered that he had fallen in love with the feeling of breaking open the Sumeru magic artifact. Regardless of whether the contents inside were priceless, he simply enjoyed the thrill of uncovering the mystery.
"This Destitute Valley is so poor, all of them combined can't even compare to one person."
The Sumeru bags of these Fallen Valley cultivators mostly contained various kinds of bone materials, ashes, golden pagodas, paper money, incense, and candles.
Even more outrageous, there was a coffin made of fine spirit wood in one of the storage bags, which looked like no one had ever used it.
Li Ya immediately became interested.
"How about I give it a try first?"
It was in that coffin shop in Sifang Town last time, lying in that coffin to enter the Ghost Market, that was really comfortable, a feeling that a bed can't provide. I just don't know how it will feel this time.
Without hesitation, Li Ya pushed open the lid and lay down inside.
The interior was quite spacious, and the fragrance of the spirit wood made me feel a little sleepy.
"It's quite spacious, but the mat isn't well made; it's a bit uncomfortable. I'll have to go back and get a new one."
"Is it uncomfortable?"
Li Ya felt something was strange. He reached out and touched the cushion beneath him, and as if he had thought of something, he forcefully lifted it up.
Neatly stacked moon toad coins lay at the bottom, and judging by the depth, there were probably several hundred taels of silver.
"Wow, they hid it so well!"
"This money is rightfully mine."
"What a fine coffin!"
Hiding money in a coffin—whoever came up with this idea is truly a genius.
However, Li Ya had no intention of throwing away the coffin. It was perfect to use it as a container for money now, and he would find a way to modify it when he returned to Yunfu Sect.
Li Ya sighed as he poured all the silver coins from those Sumeru bags into the coffin.
"The monks at the Mountain Lord Temple are all incredibly wealthy."
Seventy percent of the money in the coffin came from the monks of the Sanjun Temple.
These are hundreds of kinds of spiritual herbs and medicines, and judging from their roots, they were only recently dug up.
It seems the monks of the Mountain Lord Temple have discovered a place where spiritual herbs flourish.
These spiritual herbs are all low-grade, but despite their low grade, they are abundant and useful for low-level cultivators in their daily practice, so they circulate and become valuable very quickly.
As for the cultivation techniques and spiritual manuals obtained from these Sumeru bags, Li Ya naturally had little interest in them, and copied them all into the Spiritual Pivot to enrich the information stored in the Spiritual Pivot.
Even the remaining scraps weren't given up; Li Ya stored them in a corner of Ling Shu during winter, hoping they might come in handy someday.
"Children, let's go home!"
As Li Ya's voice fell, the ancient wood spirit child who was on guard outside immediately flashed in front of him and entered the cave with Li Ya.
Then Li Ya gave the order.
"Listen up, you three! I've gotten you such a nice house; you must serve me to the death!"
As Li Ya spoke, he pointed to the Dragon Blood Tree on the main peak.
"These spiritual herbs need to be planted as soon as possible. Remember to plant them separately according to their type, just as I instructed..."
After talking for most of the day, their mouths were practically dry, and with Lingpei's translation, the three little ones finally understood what to do.
Then they all bowed and kowtowed, their eyes flashing with spiritual light, and then they received their orders and left.
Li Ya couldn't help but think that it would be better to have a steward; managing such a large grotto-heaven was really difficult.
The ancient tree spirit child instantly became busy, its small figure nimbly moving across the spirit field.
Li Ya wasn't idle either; he was studying the route.
The map given by the Master had a vague marking that indicated there were many mountain roots.
Li Ya carefully examined the text, deducing line by line and comparing it with the mountain and river locations recorded in the Ling Shu. His gaze finally settled on a chaotic forest of rocks on the west side of Fallen Dragon Valley.
All the cultivators came to search for treasures, and what they were thinking about was nothing more than rare and precious materials.
It is likely that spiritual materials like mountain roots are mostly used by ordinary cultivators to refine mountain-shaped magic treasures or to elevate mountains.
Even knowing that the mountain root is not cheap, most cultivators will not mine this time-consuming, laborious, and space-consuming spiritual material.
In the past, only those cultivators who had gained nothing would go to collect mountain roots so as not to return empty-handed.
Having made up his mind, Li Ya left the cave and headed west, still like a clump of waterweed that had come to life, swimming away in the water.
When there were no more waterways ahead, Li Ya knew he had arrived at his destination.
The surrounding area is filled with jagged rocks, ancient vines, and the earth's veins seem to be sinking, with occasional small spiritual herbs taking root in the crevices of the rocks.
Li Ya is no longer the lowly cultivator who carved out pieces of bluestone one by one in the waterfall.
The Kuntu Yellow Emperor Palace, which embodies the element of earth, is most sensitive to earth-related spiritual objects.
Without needing to use the Ling Shu to deduce, Li Ya could tell which of the strange rocks was a disguised mountain root.
Before them was a small, ordinary rock, about half a meter in size, embedded in the mountain wall. The rock was dark and rough, with a pitted and mottled surface covered with a thin layer of moss. It felt hard and dry to the touch, without any spiritual energy fluctuations, just like any other ordinary mountain rock.
If an ordinary cultivator were to come here, they would only glance at it and would never imagine that this seemingly ordinary rock would actually be a high-quality mountain root.
Li Ya stood before the rock, his eyes slightly closed, his divine sense fully deployed, carefully examining the rock wall's texture and the flow of the earth's veins.
He took out a pickaxe and struck it hard; the pickaxe broke instantly.
"These are all made of the finest iron, how come they're so fragile?"
Having said that, he slightly moved his fingertips, summoning a wisp of pure earth energy. The energy was condensed to a fine degree, and he used it to explore the condition inside the rock along its texture.
Feeling the feedback of true energy, this layer of stone skin is hard and thick.
Without much thought, Li Ya summoned the sword pellet.
Then true energy surged in, and the sword pellet spun rapidly.
The sword light sliced into the cracks in the texture, instantly peeling off a large piece of stone skin.
"Click click click!"
The sound of tiny stone chips falling echoed through the quiet mountains, and fine gray stone powder slowly peeled off wherever the sword pellet passed.
As the outer layer of dark gray stone peels away, a warm, rich, and deep earthy yellow light slowly shines through the rock wall.
Once the last piece of moss-covered stone chip was peeled away, the mountain base, crystal clear, warm and translucent, with a warm yellow glass-like texture, was fully revealed.
"This looks like a piece of stalactite!"
The finest quality marrow found at the base of the mountain is called stone marrow.
The entire stone marrow was about three feet in diameter, with a texture as delicate as solidified fat and as translucent as warm jade, without any impurities, and surrounded by a faint spiritual aura.
Strands of mountain essence slowly emanated from the stone marrow. Li Ya reached out and gently touched the stone marrow at the root of the mountain. A warm sensation instantly spread through his fingertips, and a long, continuous mountain power slowly flowed into his body through the spiritual veins at his fingertips. The spiritual light of the Yellow Emperor Palace intensified slightly.
Li Ya continued cutting until the stone marrow was completely removed.
It was thrown into the Ling Shu Winter, and only after consuming ten Sumeru bags did the cave expand part of its heaven.
With the replenishment of the stalactite, the unstable boundary quickly became clear and stable, and slowly expanded outward.