Chapter 125: Digging Holes

At this time, Yue Qianchou naturally didn’t know that the disciples from the six major sects were praising him like a bright red flower, nor did he know that the six major sects had already decided to end the trial early. He was still thinking about whether he could gather more things in the Demon Ghost Domain and slowly pass a full month before returning.

The Spiritual Mist Three Saints respectfully led the six people toward the mountain top, answering every question Yue Qianchou asked. The latter finally learned some details about the three monsters. All three monsters had cultivated for over two thousand years and reached early Tribulation Crossing stage. The scantily-clad seductive woman was a colorful snake spirit named Hong Sanniang. The yellow-haired old monster, as could be told from his hairstyle, was a lion spirit named Huang Erwei. The more dignified-looking old monster was actually a mountain demon named Hou Daquan.

Walking to the mountain top, several people were shocked – what dense spiritual energy! The spiritual energy on this mountain top had actually become so dense that it gathered into mist and formed rain. Yue Qianchou felt the gentle drizzle falling on his skin, mixed with the unique fragrance in the air, making him feel as if he were in a perfumed rain.

“You three really know how to enjoy yourselves, actually occupying such a good place. I imagine it’s very helpful for your cultivation?” Yue Qianchou smiled at the three monsters with neither warmth nor coldness.

This made the three monsters’ hearts thump nervously. ‘Could it be he thinks we three aren’t qualified to enjoy this place? It seems this feng shui treasure land will have to be offered up.’ Hong Sanniang stepped forward: “If Master is satisfied with this place, we three are willing to give it to you.”

“Oh!” Yue Qianchou’s gaze swept over the two mounds of white flesh on her chest that her clothing could barely contain, and said indifferently: “Am I the type of person who takes what others love?”

Hong Sanniang twisted her waist and waved her hands repeatedly: “That’s not what I meant. We’re willing to give this place to you from the bottom of our hearts.”

“Is that so?” Yue Qianchou’s gaze fell on Hou Daquan and Huang Erwei as he asked: “Do you two feel the same way?” The two monsters exchanged glances, and Hou Daquan respectfully said: “We two are clumsy with words and can’t speak well. Sanniang’s meaning is our meaning.”

Yue Qianchou thought to himself, ‘What a pity, what a pity this place can’t be moved, and I can’t stay here long-term. Otherwise, cultivating here every day, I believe I could quickly break through to late Foundation Establishment stage.’ Thinking about it, he still felt heartache and waved his hand: “I appreciate your kind intentions, but it’s not necessary.”

The three monsters exchanged glances, thinking to themselves, ‘Bi Changchun’s disciple is indeed someone who has seen good things – he doesn’t even care about such a good place.’

“Eh! By the way.” Yue Qianchou said strangely: “How can there be such dense spiritual energy here? Do you know why?”

Hong Sanniang smiled somewhat reservedly: “When we three originally chose to settle here, it was also because we saw the tall, dense trees all around. We’ve stayed here for over a thousand years without ever seeing anything unusual. It’s quite strange – half a year ago, there was suddenly a fragrance from who knows where, and then the spiritual energy became more and more abundant, resulting in what we see now. Otherwise, with our cultivation level back then, we couldn’t have held onto such a place.”

Yue Qianchou nodded. Thinking about it, that made sense. Which demon wouldn’t like a place with such abundant spiritual energy? With their cultivation level from a thousand years ago, they definitely couldn’t have protected it. Even now, it was probably because this strange phenomenon had appeared for such a short time – otherwise, with their early Tribulation Crossing cultivation, they still couldn’t protect it.

His gaze surveyed the surrounding environment. This mountain was quite strange – the foot and middle of the mountain were lush and green, but the mountain top couldn’t see a single tree. It was all jagged stone forests, and that unusually fragrant scent seemed to be emanating from within the stone forest.

Yue Qianchou stared at the stone forest with gleaming eyes and asked: “Could there be some treasure beneath this stone forest?”

“Please follow me, Master.” Hong Sanniang led the way in front. Everyone followed her as they drilled into the stone forest, walking to the front of a stone cave where the fragrance became even more intense, as if this scent was emanating from within the cave.

Hong Sanniang pointed at the stone cave: “Master’s idea is the same as ours. We also suspect there’s some treasure beneath this mountain, so we wanted to dig a hole down to see what exactly is down there. But the hardness of the stone here is really beyond our expectations. The surface layer is still manageable, but the deeper you go, the harder it becomes to excavate. We three spent nearly half a year digging out nearly a hundred meters deep, and now we can barely make any progress. I’m afraid without a treasure for splitting mountains and cracking stones, we can’t advance any further.”

“Oh, there’s such a thing?” Yue Qianchou said strangely: “Come on, let’s go in and take a look.”

As he spoke, he took the lead and walked in. The cave wasn’t large – it could barely accommodate two people walking side by side, probably because it was very difficult to excavate. After walking more than ten meters deep, just as he felt it getting dark ahead, he suddenly saw points of fluorescent light. Yue Qianchou paused. ‘Fluorite? Could there be a spirit stone mine down here?’ When he had worked as a miner at Azure Light Sect, he learned that fluorite was a companion mineral to spirit stones.

He immediately quickened his pace downward. Because this cave was dug from the mountain top downward, the slope was quite steep. Every ten or so meters, the cave’s direction would turn in the opposite direction. After walking nearly a hundred meters, he found there was no more path – they had reached the end of the stone cave. Hong Sanniang explained from behind: “We three have only dug this far.”

Yue Qianchou nodded, formed hand seals, and three cold lights from his body quickly shot toward the stone wall. A series of “ding ding dang dang” sounds rang out. When the flying swords returned, he discovered that this series of attacks had only left a bunch of white dots on the stone wall – they couldn’t even make a few small pits.

“Hiss!” Yue Qianchou sucked in a breath of cold air, reached out to touch the stone wall and said: “What hard stone.”

A trace of smile flashed in Hong Sanniang’s eyes, quickly disappearing. She thought to herself, ‘There must be some treasure beneath this mountain, otherwise there wouldn’t be such a strange phenomenon. I only felt safe bringing you here because I knew you couldn’t dig through it either. We’ll leave it for the future – there will always be a day when we three dig through, and whatever’s below will still be ours.’

Yue Qianchou stroked his chin and looked at the stone wall, thinking briefly, then suddenly spoke: “You all go out first. Without my orders, no one can come in. Hong Sanniang, you three take good care of my friends. If they lose even a single hair, you can imagine the consequences yourselves.”

The last sentence, set against the cave’s ghostly blue fluorescent light, seemed exceptionally cold and sinister. The Spiritual Mist Three Saints shuddered and bowed to accept the order. The people behind them – Kou Xuehua and the others – were muttering to themselves, ‘We’re fellow sect disciples – when did we become your friends?’ But being in a dangerous situation, several people weren’t fools. Yue Qianchou saying this must have deep meaning, so they could only make up their minds to cooperate well.

After there was no more movement behind him and confirming everyone had gone out, Yue Qianchou’s hands produced a pair of gloves – precisely the “Mountain-Piercing Claws” that had once rendered great service in helping him steal spirit stones. After putting them on his hands, he flexed the ten dark, gleaming claws and murmured with a smile: “A treasure for splitting mountains and cracking stones? I happen to have a pair right here. I really want to see what exactly is down here that has such hard stone protecting it. Don’t let me down!”

“Swish swish…” Claw shadows danced, and the iron-hard stone wall began to send stone chips flying. The stone cave deepened downward along with the unstoppable smile on Yue Qianchou’s face.

After half a day, Yue Qianchou himself didn’t know how deep he had dug, but it was deep enough to reach the underground beneath the mountain. Because this mountain wasn’t originally very tall – probably only two or three hundred meters high – excluding the nearly hundred meters the three monsters had dug, he estimated he had also dug two or three hundred meters. Thinking of this, Yue Qianchou couldn’t help but curse out loud: “Damn! Three idiots, don’t they know to dig from the bottom of the mountain? They had to start from the mountain top, making me waste so much time for nothing.”

After cursing, he swung his claws again in a series. Suddenly, with one claw strike, he felt it become easy. A purple ghostly light writhed at the breach in the stone wall. Yue Qianchou was overjoyed. After a few more claw strikes, he opened a gap he could squeeze through. He first stuck his head in to observe, and with this look, Yue Qianchou was immediately dumbfounded, almost drooling…