Volume 5 Chapter 40

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Volume 5 Chapter 40: Spiritual Bead

"The two red beads you gave me earlier, there should be many more around here. Please gather them all for me."

After Venerable Xuan Yuan and the others had completely left, Xu Qingfan softly spoke to Little Black on his shoulder.

As Xu Qingfan finished speaking, Little Black immediately spread its wings and flew around the ruins. It went farther than where the others had been picking up scattered spirit stones, closer to where the person in purple had been before.

After Little Black left, Xu Qingfan turned his palm, revealing two clear beads glowing with a gentle red light, about the size of an adult’s thumb. They held a strange Spirit Qi within them, resembling spirit stones but much stronger and more alive.

Xu Qingfan then focused his Divine Sense into the beads to examine them closely.

Meanwhile, after leaving Xu Qingfan’s side, Little Black swiftly flew towards the distance where the person in purple had battled the puppets from the "Treasure Pavilion." Many broken puppets lay in the grass, looking much worse than the one Xu Qingfan had obtained, with missing parts.

Whenever Little Black found a damaged puppet, it pecked at the puppet’s chest with its sharp beak. Inside, a red bead similar to the ones Xu Qingfan had appeared. Little Black grabbed the bead in its beak, flew back to Xu Qingfan, placed it at his feet, and took off again to find more red beads.

Besides obtaining the red spiritual beads from these broken puppets, Little Black picked up even more from the surrounding grass.

The battle between the "Treasure Pavilion" puppets and the person in purple had been brutal. The puppets’ self-destruction left dozens of the purple-clad people in shreds, while the powerful spells from the purple person shattered most of the "Treasure Pavilion" puppets into dust. The red spiritual beads, however, remained intact, mysteriously unharmed, simply falling to the ground. Though concealed, Little Black’s sensitivity to energy allowed it to easily find the beads wherever they fell, whether in the grass or between stones.

A moment later, over two hundred red spiritual beads were at Xu Qingfan’s feet. Xu Qingfan completed his examination of the beads, waved his sleeve to store them away, and appeared pleased. After a moment of thought, he said to Little Black on his shoulder, "Let’s go."

With that, Xu Qingfan wasted no time and swiftly flew towards the distance.

…

The red spiritual beads in Xu Qingfan’s hand were given to him by Little Black before Xu Qingfan arrived to join Venerable Xuan Yuan and the others, after finishing his healing. Xu Qingfan was puzzled at first about where these beads came from and why Little Black gave them to him. However, upon careful investigation, he discovered that these red spiritual beads contained Spirit Qi that was even seven times stronger than ordinary high-grade spirit stones. Moreover, this Spirit Qi included all five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—and moved in a unique rhythmical pattern.

Upon sensing the various peculiarities of the red spiritual beads, Xu Qingfan was greatly surprised. Through his connection with Little Black, he learned that the three puppets that ambushed him had been destroyed by Little Black’s fearsome death aura, reducing them to ashes except for the red spiritual beads inside them, which remained unharmed.

Little Black, naturally embodying this death aura, rarely encountered anything that could withstand it. Thus, curious by the beads’ resilience, he promptly brought them to Xu Qingfan after he had slightly recovered.

During the battle with the three puppets, Xu Qingfan was so tense that he failed to notice the two red spiritual beads.

Upon sensing the unusual traits of the red spiritual beads, Xu Qingfan decided to examine them further in the future. However, in the presence of Master Guanghui, he restrained his curiosity and quietly kept them away. Master Guanghui assumed they belonged to Xu Qingfan, much like the "Five Spirit Bell," and thus paid little attention.

After discovering that these red spiritual beads were hidden within the puppets, following the departure of Venerable Xuan Yuan and the others, Xu Qingfan immediately had Little Black gather any remaining beads from previous battles.

During this time, Xu Qingfan thoroughly investigated the secrets of these red spiritual beads.

From his preliminary investigations, Xu Qingfan recalled an ancient technique from the cultivation world long since lost, which filled him with great joy.

Spirit stones are the crystallization of the world’s elemental Spirit Qi found throughout the Shenzhou Continent. Cultivators use them to set up formations, restore Spirit Qi, and craft various elixirs and magical tools. They are essential for any cultivator. A spirit stone with a hundred years of condensed Spirit Qi is considered low-grade, five hundred years makes it a high-grade spirit stone, and if it’s over a thousand years, it reaches saturation and becomes a top-grade spirit stone.

When cultivators use these spirit stones for formations or crafting, their Spirit Qi is depleted, and they shatter into what is known as "crystal slag." This "crystal slag" not only has excellent Spirit Qi solubility but is also one of the hardest materials known in the cultivation world to date.

However, despite these qualities, "crystal slag" cannot be refined or molded, and although it possesses unique properties that other materials lack, it cannot be used to craft anything. Some cultivators, unwilling to give up, researched it for centuries but found nothing, eventually abandoning the effort.

Since then, "crystal slag" became widely known in the cultivation world as a useless material.

But four thousand years ago, an unknown cultivator accidentally discovered the use of "crystal slag." Although it cannot craft magical items or Spirit elixirs, it can be refined into something called a "spiritual bead." Surprisingly, not only does this "spiritual bead" contain more Spirit Qi than a high-grade spirit stone, but it can also have a small "Spirit Gathering Formation" carved onto it, allowing the Spirit Qi within it to be replenished, albeit very slowly.

Because of this, cultivators were overjoyed upon learning the news. However, the method to create "spiritual beads" remained in the hands of one obscure cultivator who did not understand the value of keeping wealth hidden.

The rest is history—evil cultivators coveted the method to create "spiritual beads" to overpower the righteous path, while righteous cultivators demanded the method be shared "for the good of the cultivation world."

Amid the chaos, the cultivator who discovered the method was mysteriously killed, and the crafting technique for "spiritual beads" was lost.

Xu Qingfan, through his previous investigations, was amazed to find that the two hundred red beads in his possession were made from "crystal slag" and that each contained an intricate "Spirit Gathering Formation," resembling the legendary "spiritual beads."

According to Xu Qingfan’s deductions, these spiritual beads should be the core of the puppets in the "Treasure Pavilion," providing energy for their movement and combat. However, it’s unclear how the "Treasure Pavilion" mastered this long-lost technique.

Comparing the rumored "spiritual bead," Xu Qingfan also found that the two hundred or so "spiritual beads" in his hand had various shortcomings. First, although the "spiritual beads" he held contained Spirit Qi stronger by about seventy percent compared to ordinary high-grade spirit stones, it wasn’t as exaggerated as the legends claim, which say several times stronger. Secondly, with the help of the "Spirit Gathering Formation," these "spiritual beads" could restore Spirit Qi, but the recovery was slower than the legends suggested. Xu Qingfan estimated it would take more than a hundred years for them to fully recharge if the energy was entirely depleted. Most importantly, the energy in these "spiritual beads" was unstable. If Spirit Qi was carelessly infused, they would explode. This was probably why the shadow puppets could self-destruct. However, the other parts of those puppets’ bodies must have additional arrangements; otherwise, the explosion power wouldn’t have been so great just from these "spiritual beads."

From all the above, Xu Qingfan speculated that while the "Treasure Pavilion" accidentally grasped the method of crafting "spiritual beads," it was incomplete.

Nonetheless, Xu Qingfan felt that these nearly two hundred "spiritual beads," with their regenerative capabilities, were worth no less than two thousand high-grade spirit stones, making them his biggest gain from the "Treasure Pavilion." Even though their instability and tendency to explode were flaws, if used correctly, they could save Xu Qingfan’s life in critical moments.

Thinking of this, Xu Qingfan couldn’t help but feel a bit happier.

By using the ability "Way of Life and Death," Xu Qingfan managed to recover from a near-death state, but it consumed all the Spirit Qi in his body. Despite this, the sudden destruction of the "Treasure Pavilion" filled Xu Qingfan with a sense of foreboding, so he swiftly flew back in the direction of Jiuhua Mountain without pausing to recover his Spirit Qi.

Since the Spirit Qi in Xu Qingfan’s body was largely depleted, his speed wasn’t very fast, allowing him to observe the scenery along the way in detail.

However, when he flew to a place three hundred miles north of the "Treasure Pavilion," a scene on the ground below gave Xu Qingfan quite a shock!