Chapter 126: I Struck It Rich
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/
The cultivation world had once classified spirit stones into five grades: low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, extreme-grade, and divine-grade. Yue Qianchou had seen and used the first three types, and there were quite a few in Utopia as well. As for extreme-grade, he had only heard people say they were purple spirit stones, different from the first three types where each higher grade was exchanged at a ratio of one to one hundred compared to the lower grade. It was said that one extreme-grade spirit stone could be exchanged for ten thousand high-grade spirit stones. He had never seen one before, until he saw the Ghost General’s purple wine cup – only then did he know that extreme-grade spirit stones truly existed in the world.
Some people used the analogy that low-grade spirit stones were mostly used by commoners in the cultivation world, while mid-grade ones were used more by the nobility. Following the analogy of the first two types, the amber-golden high-grade spirit stones symbolized royalty among spirit stones, while purple extreme-grade spirit stones symbolized emperors among spirit stones. As for the even higher divine-grade spirit stones, it seemed no one had seen them. Some said they were red, some said black, others said seven-colored – in short, people said all sorts of things, but there was no definitive conclusion.
“Smack!” Yue Qianchou had just climbed out of the stone cave when he fell flat on his face due to being distracted. He shook his head, his eyes reflecting purple light as he got up nonchalantly, swallowed his saliva, and murmured: “Holy cow! I’m not dreaming, am I?”
What had he seen? Before him seemed to be a purple crystal palace. A moderately-sized underground cavern was covered with purple crystals, flashing with purple light – this was a world of purple crystals. No, not entirely. In the very center of the purple crystal palace, several purple crystal formations surrounded a mass of black crystal – a black spherical crystal body with a diameter of about ten feet, its entire surface covered with black crystal spikes. Like a hedgehog protecting itself, it emanated a ghostly black radiance that overpowered the purple light filling the hall, full of unquestionable dominance.
Yue Qianchou felt as if he were in a dreamlike fairy tale world. Unable to believe it, he broke off a piece of purple crystal from the side. The regular crystal lay in his palm, identical in shape and size to ordinary spirit stones, except for the different color. He then pressed against the purple crystal wall to observe – indeed, there were very regular cracks. Breaking off a piece by hand would naturally result in the same size and shape as spirit stones. This was probably the characteristic of spirit stones! Holding a purple crystal in each hand, he circulated his cultivation technique, and vast spiritual energy surged forth from the two small objects.
“Damn! These really are extreme-grade spirit stones!” Yue Qianchou casually tossed both hands, and the purple crystals made crisp “ding ding dang dang” sounds as he threw them aside.
“Wahaha… I struck it rich! Wahaha… I struck it rich!” Yue Qianchou suddenly looked up and laughed wildly, laughing until tears almost came out. In a flash, he directly rushed into the purple crystal palace and rolled around everywhere, crawling all over the ground. Whenever he encountered a purple crystal formation, he would hug it and kiss it wildly, more crazily than if he had seen the most beautiful woman in the world with the hottest figure. As a result, extreme joy led to sorrow – he accidentally bumped into the crystal spikes of the black crystal mass in the center.
“Damn!” The sharp pain on his forehead brought him back to his senses from the madness. He rubbed his forehead as he got up, feeling something sticky on his palm. Looking at his hand, he saw it was bright red – he had actually broken his forehead?
“What the hell is so sharp?” Yue Qianchou cried out strangely. He knew that although his current cultivation wasn’t high, ordinary worldly knives and spears could hardly injure his skin, let alone just accidentally bumping into something. How could it cut his forehead?
He couldn’t help but step back a few paces and examine the black crystal mass that was over ten feet tall. The fully armed black crystal spikes gleamed brilliantly under the purple light, displaying their inviolable sovereignty.
“Black crystal? Are there spirit stones of this color? Damn, could it be…” Yue Qianchou’s facial muscles began twitching as he thought of a spirit stone that only existed in legends. He quickly stepped forward, bringing his just-stopped-bleeding forehead close to the black crystal spikes again, opening his mouth wide to examine them.
Sure enough, he discovered regular cracks on them, just like those on the purple crystal walls. Yue Qianchou’s trembling hands touched them, carefully caressing as he kept murmuring: “How is this possible! How is this possible! Could this really be the legendary divine-grade spirit stone? I don’t believe it, I really don’t believe it. Please don’t play such a big joke on me. Actually, having these extreme-grade spirit stones is enough for me, really enough. Please don’t joke with me – my little heart is too fragile, really, really can’t handle scares. I’m really very timid…”
“Crack!” A small piece from the tip of a black crystal spike was broken off by him with a hardened heart. It felt ice-cold in his hand. Yue Qianchou stuck out his tongue to lick his lips, gripped that small piece tightly in his palm, and circulated his cultivation technique. Suddenly, a surge of spiritual energy like the vast, turbulent sea directly poured into his meridians.
“Ah…” Yue Qianchou let out a miserable scream, his palm loosened, and that small piece of black crystal fell to the purple crystal floor with “ding ding dang dang” sounds.
Yue Qianchou was in so much pain his teeth were chattering, and that arm couldn’t be lifted anymore. He never imagined that such a small piece of black crystal could contain so much spiritual energy. Just a slight absorption was like the sea flooding a river, threatening to destroy even the embankments on both sides. With just this one attempt, the meridians in one arm were already injured.
“My goodness! Absorbing spiritual energy and actually having the meridians damaged by the spiritual energy – simply unheard of.” Yue Qianchou grimaced and muttered, though he was now in pain but happy. Without a doubt, the black crystal before him was indeed the legendary divine-grade spirit stone. But wasn’t this supposed to be a spirit stone used by immortals in legends? How could it exist in this Demon Ghost Domain?
Fortunately, his arm kept hurting, otherwise he would have gone crazy with joy. He took out a healing pill and put it in his mouth, then sat cross-legged to begin repairing his damaged meridians. After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he finished his cultivation, exhaled, opened his eyes, casually picked up the small piece of black crystal from the ground, and stood up.
After this ordeal, he had finally calmed down. Only now did he think of another matter – the spiritual energy and fragrance outside were probably related to this purple crystal palace. Moreover, the fragrance here was obviously much more intense than outside. Where exactly did this fragrance come from? Could it be that when spiritual energy became too dense, it could emit fragrance?
Yue Qianchou looked around the purple crystal palace, not even sparing the ceiling above, but didn’t discover anything special. So he put his hands behind his back and stuck out his nose to sniff around everywhere. After circling several times, he found that the place with the strongest fragrance was the location of that black crystal mass. But when he put his nose right against it, he couldn’t smell anything. What was going on?
He stepped back a few paces to observe, his nostrils moving as he sensed the trajectory of the fragrance flowing through the space. Yue Qianchou’s gaze fell on the top of the black crystal mass – the fragrance in the entire space seemed to be coming from there.
What else could be up there? Yue Qianchou went over and carefully climbed up the black crystal spikes. Before long, his head reached the top. Looking down, there were no crystal spikes on top – instead, there was a black depression. In the depression, a mass of white fluffy material was warmly nestled, faintly covered with a layer of seven-colored radiance. The hair-thin fluffy material had tiny white flowers blooming at the tips that were almost invisible to the naked eye.
With his slight breathing, the tender white silky mass about the length of a finger began to sway gently, and an indescribable fragrance quietly spread. Yue Qianchou twisted his head this way and that, muttering to himself, ‘What is this thing? It seems like breathing a bit harder could blow it away. Yet this little thing’s fragrance can actually penetrate such thick rock and run out to seduce people? How strange!’
Something suddenly flashed through Yue Qianchou’s mind. His eyes suddenly widened, his mouth opened wide enough to fit a fist, his hands and feet loosened, and he fell straight down with a “crash,” landing on the ground. He lay there motionless on his back, his eyes and mouth still wide open. After a good while, his mouth opened and closed as he murmured: “My name is Udumbara, morning and evening, thinking of you but not seeing you. My name is Udumbara, thinking of you but not seeing you, black hair turns to snow, ten thousand years, ten thousand years. My name is Udumbara, thinking of you but not seeing you, beauty withers away, time is running short. My name is Udumbara, fearing not to see you, transforming this longing, appearing once in a thousand years. My name is Udumbara, neither ending nor perishing, if you come to see me, think not, think not, one thread in a thousand years, every thread is longing…”
