77: Chapter 77 Fire Marrow Crystal

Pills, Talismans, artifacts, and Formations were the four arts of cultivation. The way of Talismans was somewhat widespread, and the Wang Family had only touched the surface of the way of artifacts. As for the way of pills and the way of Formations, which earned the most Spirit Stones, the Family couldn't touch either of them at all.

When it all came down to it, their foundation was still lacking.

He had even considered using the black lotus to devour a Formation Master's Divine Soul to strip away their attainments in Formations, but Formation Masters were extremely rare, and how could they be so easy to kill?

Furthermore, without Formation talent, having a pile of memories in vain would be of no use.

"That's settled." Wang Chongyang made the final decision, his aged voice leaving no room for doubt.

"Third Brother will personally go make contact tomorrow. Be sure to invite a reliable Tier 2 Formation Master over. Dispatch all remaining manpower as well to search for Mortal children with Spiritual Roots within the Family's territory. The earlier we bring them back, the stronger the Family will be a day sooner."

"Understood!" With Wang Chongyang speaking up, no one dared to raise objections any longer, and they all acknowledged the order in unison.

Wang Chongyang glanced around, and seeing that no one else had any objections, he was about to announce the end of the meeting.

Wang Shouren suddenly stood up, saying, "Sixth Grandpa, this grandson has another matter."

"Oh?" Wang Chongyang's gaze fell upon him. "What is it, Shouren?"

"On the way to pursue an evil cultivator's remnant soul, deep inside a nameless mountain at the border of Wanshan County and Xiaoshan County, this grandson discovered a branch vein of earth fire."

Wang Shouren selectively recounted his experiences of exploring the cave and encountering a Tier 2 Yao Beast, merely omitting the details of the black lotus and the white Lotus Seed, and packaging himself as having arrived at that place while tracking the remnant soul.

"Deep inside that cave is a natural magma lake with extremely pure fire baleful Qi, which is enough to draw upon earth fire for Artifact Refining. Moreover, a kind of crimson crystal grows on the cave walls, though I do not know what it is."

"A branch vein of earth fire?" Wang Yaowu was the first to jump up. "An entire one? You brat Shouren aren't trying to trick me, are you!"

"Rest assured, Third Uncle, it is indeed an entire one. The magma lake deep inside the cave is quite large, and this kind of crystal is embedded everywhere on the rock walls, so the reserves shouldn't be low."

"You've only been out of seclusion for three days, and you've already rendered two great merits for the Family! By eliminating the evil cultivator and finding a branch vein of earth fire, Shouren, you're planning to make up for all the contributions you missed during two years of seclusion all at once!"

Wang Yaowu slapped his thigh and laughed, even his expression, which had been gloomy for many days due to Wang Shoucheng's serious injuries, finally relaxing.

While everyone was chattering away discussing the scale and mining difficulty of the earth fire branch vein, Wang Shouren untied his Storage Pouch from his waist and poured all the crystals inside onto the table.

Over a dozen crimson crystals of varying sizes rolled across the table, the large ones the size of an infant's fist and the small ones no bigger than a fingernail. Under the illumination of the spirit lamp, the entire discussion table was dyed with a rosy glow.

"Sixth Grandpa, uncles, this grandson has shallow knowledge and cannot name these crystals, and there are no records of them in the Family's Jade Slip manuals. May I ask if anyone recognizes them?"

Wang Yaofeng, who had managed the treasury for many years, narrowed his eyes and leaned in to take a look. Casually picking up a fingernail-sized crystal and weighing it in his hand, he smiled and said,

"Shouren, you don't even recognize this? Isn't this just fire-flame crystal Ore? Twenty catties can be exchanged for one hundred Spirit Stones. It's just ordinary goods used by Loose Cultivators over in the prefecture city to refine fire-attribute Magical Artifacts."

"These dozen or so pieces of yours look like they don't have many Impurities, but they are too small. I reckon they are altogether worth only a few dozen Spirit Stones, not even enough for the cost of a Spiritual Fish banquet."

He shook his head, placed the crystal back on the table, and his tone carried a bit of generous teasing from an elder toward a Junior.

"It can't be that after two years of seclusion, you've forgotten everything clean, can it? Go flip through the Ore manuals in the treasury later and you'll understand."

Hearing this, everyone burst into laughter, and the atmosphere became much more relaxed.

The earth fire branch vein was the big prize; a few worthless Ores were merely icing on the cake—no, they couldn't even be considered icing on the cake.

Wang Chongyang's gaze, however, was nailed onto that pile of crystals.

He picked up the crystal Wang Yaofeng had put down, summoned another fist-sized one, and turned it over and over to examine it against the sunlight streaming in through the window, his fingers suddenly trembling slightly.

Without a word, he waved his hand, and a light-gray barrier of light shrouded the entire discussion table along with a three-foot radius around it. It was precisely the heaven-covering bead, which was sufficient to isolate all Divine Sense detection.

The laughter throughout the hall stopped abruptly.

Wang Yaofeng widened his eyes. "Sixth Uncle, what is the meaning of this..."

Wang Yaowu also leaned forward and lowered his voice, saying, "Sixth Uncle, isn't this going too far? They're just a few fire-flame crystals."

"Fire-flame crystals?" Wang Chongyang lifted that fist-sized crystal before the spirit lamp, his aged voice trembling unusually.

"Yaofeng, you've managed the Ores in the treasury for twenty years, but your discernment is still somewhat lacking."

"These are not fire-flame crystals. This is fire marrow crystal, which is nurtured only at the core of earth fire, taking a hundred years just to grow to the size of a fingernail."

He picked up the fingernail-sized crystal and placed it in front of Wang Yaofeng.

"Just this single piece is worth at least fifty Spirit Stones. You just said that Shouren's dozen or so pieces were altogether worth a few dozen Spirit Stones?"

Wang Yaofeng's face instantly flushed red, his lips trembled several times, and he couldn't say a single word.

Wang Chongyang picked up the largest one again, weighed it in the palm of his hand, and his voice was even shaking.

"This piece is fully the size of a fist. In the nearly two hundred years I have lived, I have never seen such a large fire marrow crystal. This single piece alone starts at one thousand Spirit Stones."

The entire hall fell into dead silence.

The teacup in Wang Yaowu's hand clattered onto the table, and he remained utterly oblivious even as the tea spilled all over his leg.

Wang Yaowen hung his mouth open, his Adam's apple rolling up and down, and it took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence: "Sixth Uncle, you didn't see wrong, did you?"

"I certainly hope I saw wrong." Wang Chongyang took a deep breath, carefully placed the crystals back on the table one by one, and turned his head to look at Wang Shouren.

"On that cave wall, are there many more of these crystals?"

Wang Shouren shook his head. "The cave walls were scraped clean by this grandson; these eleven pieces are all there are."

Wang Yaowen sighed regretfully. "It seems that although the earth fire branch vein is large, it is ultimately just a branch vein. Being able to condense a dozen or so pieces is already a stroke of good fortune."

Wang Yaowu also snapped back to his senses and heavily patted Wang Shouren on the shoulder. "Eleven pieces are not bad either! The large one is worth a thousand, and the small ones add up to a few dozen. Put together, it's probably six or seven thousand Spirit Stones. You brat really harvested a full load on this trip out!"

Everyone nodded successively, then enthusiastically began discussing matters concerning the development of the earth fire branch vein.

As for Wang Yaofeng, he quietly picked up that fingernail-sized fire marrow crystal and examined it back and forth, constantly muttering under his breath, "It looks like it, it really looks like a fire-flame crystal... But this light is indeed different..."

Wang Shouren remained calm on the surface, but stormy seas were overturning in his heart.

Deep inside the magma lake that day, when the Ridge-backed Fire-scaled Python rushed out, it stirred up the entire pool of magma. At that instant, he vaguely saw that beneath the magma, large patches were covered with this kind of crimson crystal.

If he hadn't seen wrong, it wasn't just eleven pieces, but an entire pool of them, densely embedded at the bottom of the lake like a sleeping sea of fire.

He did not voice this conjecture.

The first reason was that a Tier 2 Yao Beast comparable to the Foundation Establishment Stage was still coiled within that magma lake.

The second was that if it were true, this was a fortune sufficient to multiply the Wang Family's foundation several times over.

Even among Mortals, wealth could move people's hearts; it was still better to be cautious in everything.

"I'll talk to Sixth Grandpa alone later."