Chapter 1056

Chapter 1056: Dividing the Spoils

Wang Chen could understand Huangfu Yongchun’s feelings at this moment.

This Golden Core cultivator, over two hundred years old, had paid an immense price to break into the Yuan Ying realm. Since he had formulated the plan to slay the Xiaojiao, the resources he invested were undoubtedly a staggering amount.

Now, having successfully slain the fourth-level Xiaojiao, the chance to break the Golden Core and condense the Yuan Ying was within reach, so it was only natural for him to lose his composure for a moment.

However, Huangfu Yongchun was not a hot-blooded youth; he quickly reined in his excitement and waved his hand to collect the massive dragon corpse.

“Fellow travelers, time is limited. Let’s clean this place up quickly, then head to the Xiaojiao’s lair to mine for treasures!”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Since they had previously established contracts, no one doubted that Huangfu Yongchun would monopolize the spoils.

Thus, the group of Golden Core cultivators began their work, first erasing the traces of the battle in the valley, reclaiming the formation materials they had set up, and finally unrolling the Heavenly Secrets Talismans as if they were spirit stones.

The Xiaojiao clan held deep grudges and was very united; if other dragons discovered that one of their kin had perished here and sought revenge, it could bring significant trouble to everyone.

Although the possibility was low, being cautious never hurt; putting in some extra effort now would spare them potential threats in the future.

Throughout history, there had been numerous examples of people facing disastrous outcomes due to a lack of caution!

After thoroughly cleaning up, everyone felt no need to rest or recover. Under Huangfu Yongchun’s leadership, they hurriedly rushed towards the Xiaojiao’s lair to explore for treasures.

The location Huangfu Yongchun had chosen for ambush was only about a hundred miles from the Xiaojiao’s lair. The group of Golden Core cultivators used sword flight and quickly reached their destination.

The Xiaojiao’s lair was hidden deep within a cold pool in the mountains, the water covering several acres, its hue a dark, bottomless black, exuding a chilling coldness.

Surrounding the pool, the rock wall was covered in clusters of verdant spiritual herbs.

Some of them were quite old.

However, these valuable spiritual herbs did not draw the slightest attention from Wang Chen and the others.

“Dive!”

Huangfu Yongchun activated a third-grade water-warding talisman and boldly plunged into the cold pool.

The others followed closely behind.

Once they entered the water, everyone swiftly dove to the bottom, and soon the surroundings turned completely black, where they could not see even a finger in front of them.

But this posed no challenge for the cultivators; groups of lights burst forth from their hands, evenly illuminating a large area.

Going deeper and deeper, they swam about fifty to sixty feet down, where piles of white bones suddenly appeared in their vision.

They had reached the bottom of the pool!

At this moment, everyone sensed the rich spiritual energy in the air.

Huangfu Yongchun looked around and then pointed to the right.

There, a dark, gaping cave awaited.

He swam over first, plunging into the cave without hesitation.

This black hole at the bottom of the pool was the very source of spiritual energy!

Wang Chen followed closely behind Huangfu Yongchun, and as he passed through the cave’s entrance, he felt a sudden lightness, as if shedding an enormous burden.

All the pressure vanished completely.

Before Wang Chen’s eyes, the scene made his eyes light up with excitement.

He stood with Huangfu Yongchun inside a massive cavern, where not a single drop of water could be found. Although there was a chill in the air, it was far better than the environment in the pool.

Moreover, the surrounding rock walls were adorned with pearls and gems of various sizes, which emitted a dazzling array of colorful lights that completely illuminated the cavern.

There was no doubt that this was the lair of the fourth-level Xiaojiao!

At that moment, the other Golden Core cultivators filed in one after another.

Seeing such a sight, everyone couldn’t help but gasp in awe.

Wang Chen bent down to pick up a stone from the ground.

This stone looked dull and unremarkable, weighing over ten pounds, but a broken edge revealed a texture similar to mutton-fat white jade, continuously oozing spiritual energy.

“This is a spiritual mineral.”

Huangfu Yongchun chuckled nearby, “Its quality is decent. It’s a complete waste to fall into the hands of the Xiaojiao!”

Cultivators typically used spirit stones as currency, which were extracted from spirit stone mines and then cut and polished.

Wang Chen had handled countless spirit stones, but this was his first encounter with spiritual minerals, making him feel a bit curious.

However, similar minerals were scattered everywhere in this cavern.

Huangfu Yongchun took out a dark golden compass from his Xumi Ring, infused it with his spiritual power to activate it, and then walked around the cavern’s walls before returning to his original spot.

The compass in his hand was clearly a magical tool, its emitted light penetrating the rocks, appearing quite mysterious.

This seasoned Golden Core true master formed hand seals and consulted the readings on the compass for quite some time before shaking his head, saying, “What a pity—it’s just a small spirit stone mine.”

He had earlier suspected the presence of a spirit stone mine here, estimating it to be small in size.

He had held onto a glimmer of hope, perhaps it might be a medium-sized one?

A small spirit stone mine could only yield mid-grade spirit stones at best, while a medium mine had the potential to produce high-grade ones.

Given the difference in reserves, the value varied by a considerable margin!

“It’s still very good.”

Master Shen laughed, “We shouldn’t be greedy.”

The already discovered spirit stone mines in the Haotian Realm were mostly controlled by powerful organizations, and countless disputes had erupted over these large and small veins.

Countless cultivators had fallen because of it!

So even a small mine was an incredibly valuable resource, and it would allow all the Golden Core masters present to make a significant profit!

Huangfu Yongchun pointed the compass to the left. “That’s the source of the vein.”

“We shouldn’t delay; let’s start extracting!”

The spirit stone mine had been exposed, now without the suppression and concealment of the fourth-level beast king, the abundant spiritual energy flowed continuously. It was bound to create special phenomena.

Such phenomena could not be hidden by ordinary formations; at least a fourth-level or even fifth-level formation would be needed to be effective.

The issue was that Huangfu Yongchun and the others had no means to set up a fourth-level formation!

Therefore, speed, or rather destructive extraction, became necessary, leaving no time to waste.

Using the magical tool for calculations, Huangfu Yongchun estimated that this small spirit stone mine had a basic reserve of seventy-three million spirit fragments.

If extracted slowly in a normal manner, it could yield around sixty-five million standard spirit fragments and a large amount of spirit fragments.

However, with destructive extraction, getting half of the standard spirit fragments would be quite good.

But everyone was too focused to care much; they took out the tools they had prepared and worked together to excavate the vein, not hesitating to consume resources to increase their speed, packing the extracted minerals into storage bags or Xumi Rings.

The waste was substantial.

After five days and nights of hard work, with seven Golden Core true masters taking turns, the small mine was finally emptied.

Huangfu Yongchun then instructed everyone to bring out all the minerals, which he divided evenly among the six people besides himself.

This was the first distribution of spoils after defeating the fourth-level beast king!