Chapter 105
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Chapter 105: Treasure Hunting Instrument
At that moment, a sharp sound broke through the air.
A Sword Boat carrying over 60 children was seen flying toward the main peak.
“65 children, Big Brother Xu; it seems your tests are getting easier,” Wang Yulun remarked, eyeing the kids on the Sword Boat.
“Quality over quantity. We’ll recruit more outer disciples once these core ones grow up. Finding 65 in just a month is more than I expected,” Xu Fan replied. He had thought they might not even gather 50, but to his surprise, so many children passed the test.
After all, his tests were far from easy.
Wang Xiangchi, aboard the Sword Boat, spotted Xu Fan in the dojo and quickly steered the boat toward it.
Wang Xiangchi and Li Xingci gazed at the majestic and ethereal sect buildings on the main peak, their eyes lighting up. This was almost exactly the fairyland they had imagined.
The children on the Sword Boat, awestruck by the enchanting scenery, began chattering excitedly about their future in such a magical place.
“Wow, this is where immortals live!”
“Xiaocui, I’ll come back to marry you once I become an immortal!”
“Mom, Dad, your son will be an immortal one day!”
“I want to cultivate! I’ll slay all the beasts!”
Li Xingci smiled as he watched the excited children. The youngest was only 6, while the oldest was 14, all having grown up by the lake.
This was the result of his month-long journey through thousands of villages and towns. He believed that any child who could pass his master’s tests would achieve great things in the future.
The 50-meter-long Sword Boat gently landed in the open dojo at the mountain’s peak.
“Master, we’ve recruited 65 qualified disciples: 39 boys and 26 girls. Among them, 2 have dual spirit roots, 21 have three spirit roots, 36 have four spirit roots, and 6 have five spirit roots,” Li Xingci reported.
“Good work. Hand these children over to Little Xi, then take a few days to rest before gathering the remaining 35.”
“With this, our sect is almost officially established.”
While the disciples were still manageable, Xu Fan knew he had to make the most of it; in a few decades, it would be the apprentices and grand-students giving orders.
“Understood.”
After meeting Grand Elder Xu, the 65 children were escorted by Wang Xiangchi to the area at the foot of the main peak, designated for outer disciples.
As for the position of sect leader, Xu Fan entrusted it to the cleverest of his four disciples, Xu Yuexian. The eldest was a bit slow, the third was obsessed with swordsmanship, and the fourth was lost in his own world.
Xu Yuexian was the only relatively normal one; aside from being cautious and meticulous, she had no major flaws.
Upon receiving their orders, Wang Xiangchi and Li Xingci didn’t rest but immediately set off for the small town by the lake, as they could only recruit disciples within their sect’s jurisdiction.
“Such hardworking disciples,” Xu Fan thought with satisfaction.
“Oh, please. You were so obvious that even a fool would’ve understood,” Wang Yulun scoffed.
“Ha ha!”
At the bottom of the Ten Thousand-Mile Giant Lake, Xu Yuexian explored the spirit ore resources using a waterborne precious artifact.
“Master really has a tool for everything. It’s not easy for ordinary cultivators to dive this deep,” Xu Yuexian muttered to herself.
This was her 30th day of underwater exploration, marking exactly one month. She had surveyed all areas around the giant island, and apart from some insignificant, unformed exotic treasures, the rest were spirit iron ores, which were easy to mine—provided one could dive to such depths.
Though everything matched the descriptions, Xu Yuexian remained unconvinced. As a dedicated treasure hunter, she trusted her instincts and felt there had to be something extraordinary about this place.
Before arriving, Xu Yuexian had already obtained the historical records of this region from the Elder Council. Sixty thousand years ago, a minor Beast Race Invasion occurred here, which was quickly suppressed. According to the records, the invasion was caused by spatial turbulence that transported the beast race to this area.
The first place these beasts appeared was the Ten Thousand-Mile Giant Lake, leading Xu Yuexian to deduce that there must be a spatial weak point around this area. She believed that near this weak point, there would certainly be exotic treasures with spatial attributes or natural runes.
This was her goal. She was willing to stake the honor of a treasure hunter on the belief that there must be spatial attribute treasures here. But if there weren’t any, there was nothing she could do about it.
Lost in her thoughts, Xu Yuexian suddenly slapped her forehead.
"Why don’t I ask Master to create a special artifact for detecting spatial attributes? That would be much better than searching blindly by myself."
With that, Xu Yuexian turned her submarine-like precious artifact towards the surface of the lake.
"That’s a great idea! This time, I’ll make you a full-attribute exotic treasure detection artifact," Xu Fan said to Xu Yuexian.
"Thank you, Master," Xu Yuexian replied with a smile. Normally, she often felt that her master treated her more like a friend; he only put on a serious demeanor when teaching. Otherwise, he felt more like a friend or a kind elder.
"Come by tomorrow to pick it up. Also, I have something to tell you: from now on, you will be the sect leader of our Hidden Spirit Sect."
"When we gather a hundred disciples, you will take the position," Xu Fan said casually, as if it were a trivial matter. The name of the sect was something he had just thought of.
Hidden Spirit Sect—it suited his low-key personality perfectly.
"Why me?" Xu Yuexian was surprised.
"Do you think your elder brother could handle it?" Xu Fan asked.
Xu Yuexian shook her head without hesitation. Her elder brother was strong in combat, but for everything else, he should just focus on quietly learning his skills.
"What about Brother Wang or Brother Li?"
Xu Yuexian shook her head again.
"Uncle Wang wouldn’t be suitable," Xu Yuexian suddenly realized.
"To avoid unnecessary trouble, let’s not consider him."
"Alright," Xu Yuexian didn’t press her master further, knowing it wouldn’t make a difference.
She then briefed Xu Fan on the situation at the lakebed and resumed her treasure hunting, as there wasn’t much else to do in the sect.
The beach by the giant island should now be called Hidden Spirit Island.
Xu Fan was crafting a precious artifact named the Treasure Hunting Instrument, based on the rune iron plate, which he had modified and enhanced. For Xu Fan, creating such artifacts was as easy as pie.
As he worked on the artifact, he pondered how to process the spirit iron ore from the lakebed.
Now that he had established the sect, he couldn’t just sit idle. Over the years, Xu Fan had accumulated a considerable fortune, but compared to sects that had been around for centuries, his wealth was like a drop in the ocean.
In recent years, Xu Fan had spent half of his fortune on time-space sand, enough to reach the Golden Core Stage. However, after reaching the Golden Core Stage, his time chamber wouldn’t be able to sustain the energy consumption of a Golden Core Stage cultivator like him.
"So what if it’s all spirit iron ore? Even the most basic spirit ore in the cultivation world can be used creatively in my hands."
"As for the challenges of mining the spirit iron ore from the lakebed, that’s not a problem at all."
