Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 285 The Secret Underground [Please Subscribe]

No longer needing to focus on Zhou Chun's situation, Zhou Mingde, working with his spirit pet Fire God Jackal, was indeed not afraid of the giant insect composed of a swarm of worms.

Although the giant insect exuded an aura comparable to a high-grade third-tier demonic beast, its strength was clearly no match for a true high-grade third-tier demonic beast.

After Zhou Mingde and his servants fought the giant insect for about a quarter of an hour, the aura emanating from the insect began to subside.

Ultimately, those ordinary demonic insects were too weak to sustain such a high-intensity battle for long.

Just then, Zhou Chun, who was watching the battle, suddenly had a thought and couldn't help but look up in a certain direction.

Several streaks of light from cultivators could be seen rapidly approaching the battlefield from the southwest sky.

A short while later, four figures—three men and one woman—appeared outside the battlefield.

Of these four, two are cultivators at the Purple Mansion stage, and the other two are at the late Foundation Establishment stage.

After the four stopped outside the battlefield and briefly observed the situation, a middle-aged man with the cultivation level of the Purple Mansion stage called out loudly, "Fellow Daoist ahead, do you need our assistance?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Mingde frowned and slowed down his pace in the fight against the giant insect.

He took a moment to look at the four people outside the battlefield and found that they were a mid-stage Purple Mansion cultivator and an early-stage Purple Mansion cultivator, whose overall strength should be about the same as his.

Although this is a special time when all human cultivators are united in fighting the insect plague, in theory no cultivator would dare to commit murder and robbery under such circumstances. But one can never be too careful, and who knows if there really is someone who has lost their mind!

So after thinking for a while, Zhou Mingde replied in a deep voice, "Since fellow Daoists are willing to help, I am naturally very grateful."

Upon hearing this answer, the middle-aged man who had spoken immediately laughed and said, "Haha, Fellow Daoist Zhou is so straightforward. Then I, Shen, will come to your aid."

After saying that, she and another woman in a red dress, who was at the early stage of the Purple Mansion realm, joined the battle.

With the addition of these two new forces, the giant insect formed by the swarm was quickly scattered by the three men and the jackal. The third-tier insect king inside was eventually bitten by the Fire God Jackal and had its head twisted off.

After the remaining demonic insects were killed, the two groups gathered together to exchange ideas.

Through conversation, it was learned that the middle-aged man was named Shen Borong, and the woman in the red dress was named Ruan Hongzhuang. Both of them came from Qi, which is west of Yang.

The two of them brought their juniors to Yang Kingdom with the same idea as the Zhou family: to see if they could find something to control the insect swarm.

They were drawn over after spotting the giant insect from afar.

After exchanging backgrounds and a brief conversation, Shen Borong took the initiative to start a conversation, saying, "We've found quite a few insect nests before, but those nests were either completely abandoned or only had the old, weak, and sick remaining. This is the first time we've encountered an insect nest like this one, still teeming with demonic insects. Could there be some other mystery here?"

coming!

Zhou Mingde and Zhou Chun both raised an eyebrow, knowing that the most troublesome thing was about to happen.

There aren't that many fools in this world; what they can think of, others can naturally think of as well.

Now that Shen Borong has brought this matter to light, they can no longer pretend to be ignorant.

Zhou Mingde quickly chimed in, "That's our guess too, but we'll have to investigate further to see if that's true."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ruan Hongzhuang chimed in, "Then let's begin our search now, lest something unexpected happens."

Her use of the word "we" made it seem as if she were very familiar with the Zhou family.

Zhou Mingde couldn't help but turn his head and glance at her, but he didn't say anything more. He just nodded slightly, which was taken as his acquiescence.

The three groups then split up and began digging into the mountains and searching for the underground secrets.

Before long, they had pretty much figured out the reason.

It turns out that crops similar to kudzu and cassava grow extensively underground in this mountain range. Although the fire destroyed the vines and tree trunks on the ground, most of the edible parts underground were unharmed.

The insect swarms can maintain their daily needs by eating these underground tuber crops.

That's why the insect swarms here haven't migrated away.

Once this was understood, all three parties were undoubtedly quite disappointed.

"I never imagined the truth would be so simple!"

Beside a dug-out hillside, Shen Borong looked at the potato crops buried in the ground, his face grim.

They had many guesses in their minds, but they never considered this simplest scenario.

When they discovered that the truth was so simple, how could they not be extremely disappointed?

"Now that the truth is clear, Zhou and I will not linger here any longer. Fellow Daoist Shen and Fellow Daoist Ruan, may you both take care!"

Just as Shen Bowen and Ruan Hongzhuang were staring blankly at the potato crops with disappointed expressions, Zhou Mingde suddenly spoke up, indicating his intention to leave.

Upon hearing his words, Shen and Ruan looked at the two Zhou family members for a moment, then nodded and exchanged pleasantries before watching them leave.

They watched the Zhou family members leave, and Shen Borong and Ruan Hongzhuang, unwilling to give up, searched the mountains several more times before finally leaving with resentment.

On the other hand, although the Zhou family members were also quite disappointed, at least they hadn't come away completely empty-handed.

Although Shen Borong and Ruan Hongzhuang's intervention reduced their gains, the corpses of the third-tier demonic insects still ended up in their hands.

Compared to third-tier demonic beasts, third-tier demonic insects do not have an inner core condensed within their bodies. This is the biggest reason why third-tier demonic insects are generally weaker than third-tier demonic beasts and Purple Mansion stage cultivators.

However, this does not mean that the corpse of a third-tier demon insect is worthless.

In fact, the corpse of a third-tier demonic insect is itself a treasure.

The shells, claws, teeth, and even the eyes of the demonic insects are all excellent materials for refining weapons.

The collected corpses of second-tier demonic insects can also be sold for Spirit Coins at the market.

As reinforcements from various countries and factions began to eradicate the demonic insects in Rong Kingdom, they also offered rewards to their disciples. The corpse of a second-tier demonic insect would earn those disciples a considerable amount of merit within their sect.

Since the corpses of demonic insects have this function, naturally some people will be willing to buy the corpses at a slightly lower price to boost their battle record.

Just as the two were preparing to continue their search for something to subdue the demonic insects within the territory of Yang Kingdom, Zhou Chun suddenly shouted, as if he had remembered something, "Something's wrong! Something's not right!"

"What's wrong? Zheng Chun, what are you thinking about?"

Zhou Mingde's expression froze, and he stopped the Vulcan jackal he was using for transportation, looking at Zhou Chun with a puzzled expression.

Zhou Chun made no attempt to hide anything and quickly said in a deep voice, "Elder, think about it. Even if the tubers buried underground can serve as food for the demonic insects, how can second- and third-tier demonic insects grow by eating only these ordinary foods that have no spiritual power?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Mingde's gaze sharpened, and he immediately replied, "You mean, there's something else buried underground?"

"I can't say for sure right now, but there must be something more to this unreasonable situation!"

Zhou Chun answered Zhou Mingde's question in a low voice, conveying the meaning as well.

"Okay, then let's go back and search more carefully!"

Zhou Mingde made a decision quickly without much hesitation.

So the two of them went back into the mountain range.

This time, the two not only searched the area thoroughly on their own, but also released their spirit pets to help them search.

After searching for a long time, an unexpected discovery was made.

The one that was found to be abnormal was the golden-armored rock turtle.

It was originally an earth-elemental demon beast, but later mutated to have a metal element, giving it a sensitivity to the earth that is beyond that of ordinary people.

While it was searching alone in the mountains this time, it vaguely sensed a rich earth elemental energy hidden deep in the earth, and then notified Zhou Chun.

After learning about the underground anomaly from the Golden Armored Rock Turtle, Zhou Chun immediately asked Zhou Mingde to dig along the Golden Armored Rock Turtle's senses.

To avoid making too much noise and being discovered by other passing cultivators, they also set up a formation they carried with them to cover up the digging activity.

After digging to a depth of about 100 zhang, the two finally discovered the anomaly underground through their divine sense.

It turns out that the rich earth elemental spiritual power that the golden-armored rock tortoise sensed was actually emitted by a spiritual jade.

Deep beneath this mountain range lies a mineral vein of Earth Elemental Jade!

【Earth Element Crystal Jade】is a good thing.

This kind of spirit jade contains pure earth elemental energy and has an excellent capacity to contain earth elemental energy, making it extremely useful in the fields of weapon crafting and formation.

This item is usually one of the essential materials for constructing a mountain-protecting formation.

Furthermore, Zhou Mingde also knew that some Golden Core cultivators would use secret methods to extract the earth element spiritual power contained within the [Earth Element Crystal Jade] to condense magic treasures, which could enhance the power of the magic treasures!

Therefore, in the cultivation world, such spiritual items are the least likely to be sold, and their prices are extremely high.

It's obvious that those demonic insects refused to migrate and chose to stay because they discovered that there was a [Earth Elemental Crystal Jade] vein here and there was plenty of food.

If Zhou Chun and his group hadn't discovered and eliminated them, and given enough time to thrive with the abundant food and the [Earth Element Crystal Jade] mine, the swarm might have multiplied into a multi-million-strong population!

After all, when winter passes and spring arrives, the land of Yang Kingdom, which was burned by fire, will surely be rejuvenated and regain its vitality.

Then the insect swarm will have more food to eat.

"The Earth Elemental Crystal Jade is indeed a valuable item. Even if this mine is only a small one, it's worth no less than a million spirit coins!"

"But this is the Kingdom of Yang, and our Zhou family is thousands of miles away. How could we possibly mine this vein?"

At this moment, after his initial joy, Zhou Mingde quickly looked at Zhou Chun and pointed out the problem.

The value of the mineral vein is undeniable, but the difficulty of mining it is exceptionally high.

In the past, many independent cultivators in the cultivation world have discovered mineral veins, but because they were outnumbered and outmatched, they were ultimately unable to possess them.

Those with the ability and courage might be able to sell information about mineral veins for a good price.

Those who lack the strength and courage can only secretly mine some ore to sell, and they have to be very careful when selling it.

Although the Zhou family is also a powerful force, their family is far away in Jingguo, so it is obviously impossible for them to send people to occupy this [Earth Element Crystal Jade] mine and mine it.

If they cannot occupy the land and mine the veins, then this discovery is obviously not very meaningful to them.

They can't just follow the example of those rogue cultivators and secretly mine here!

Therefore, after hearing Zhou Mingde's words, Zhou Chun's excitement immediately dissipated, and he fell into deep thought.

To be fair, he definitely didn't want to give up this [Earth Element Crystal Jade] mine.

This is absolutely the most precious mineral vein the Zhou family has discovered so far, even more advanced than the Xuanjing Stone mine shared by the four families.

Moreover, they are the only ones who know about this mine, and there are currently no other forces in the vicinity of it.

However, the reality is undeniable: the small Zhou family simply cannot afford to reach out to such a distant mineral vein.

Let alone the Zhou family, even a powerful force like the Qinglian Temple probably couldn't extend its reach this far!

Seeing that Zhou Chun remained silent for a long time, Zhou Mingde tentatively suggested, "How about we find a powerful organization to sell this information? With my cultivation level, as long as I'm not too greedy, I should be able to sell this information for thirty to fifty thousand spirit coins!"

Selling information about the mineral vein is undoubtedly a last resort, something only a rogue cultivator would do.

However, compared to possessing a treasure trove but being unable to mine it, selling it for spirit coins is undoubtedly a viable alternative.

Thirty to fifty thousand spirit coins are nothing compared to the value of the [Earth Element Crystal Jade] mine; there will definitely be forces interested in it.

With Zhou Mingde's cultivation level at the Purple Mansion stage, engaging in this kind of business is relatively safe, and he is less likely to be killed to silence him.

But how could Zhou Chun be willing to use such a desperate measure!

He didn't rush to respond to Zhou Mingde's words, but continued to think about a better way to handle the situation.

After a considerable amount of time had passed, Zhou Chun suddenly relaxed, as if he had come up with a good idea.

He looked up at Zhou Mingde and smiled slightly, saying, "This junior has thought of a better solution than selling the mine. Elder, why don't you guess what it is?"

"You little rascal, you're playing coy with me!"

Zhou Mingde's eyes widened, and he urged, "Tell me quickly, what brilliant idea have you come up with?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun immediately smiled and said, "This junior believes that although my Zhou family cannot send anyone to mine this [Earth Element Crystal Jade] vein, it does not mean that my Zhou family cannot utilize it!"

"What do you mean by that? If we can't exploit it, how can we make use of it?"

Zhou Mingde frowned, not understanding Zhou Chun's meaning.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Chun immediately spread his hands and said, "Elder, think about it! We can send someone capable of mining this [Earth Element Crystal Jade] vein to mine it, and then we'll take a cut!"

"Who has that ability?"

Zhou Mingde pressed on with the question, too lazy to think about it any further.

"Of course it's Senior Lin Hongyu. With her late-stage Purple Mansion cultivation, once the insect plague is eradicated, she can easily come to Yang Kingdom, occupy a spiritual land, and establish a stronghold. After the calamity that befell Yang Kingdom, it's unlikely that it will attract powerful figures from all sides to claim land here as before!"

"When Senior Lin Hongyu opens a mine here, she can do as she pleases with most of the output. As the information provider, it wouldn't be unreasonable for our Zhou family to share 20% of the profits with her!"

(End of this chapter)