Hearing the na, Fang Qingyuan praised:
"Qu Wujie? That’s a good na. And the one from the Liu Family?"
"The boy from the Liu Family is nad Liu Xun."
The na sounded vaguely familiar to Fang Qingyuan, but he couldn’t recall where he’d heard it. ’Oh well,’ he thought. ’Plenty of people in the world share the sa na. There must be many called Liu Xun.’
After asking their nas, Fang Qingyuan dismissed them. He walked into the Tea Garden, gazing at the lush, green tea bushes as he mulled over his plans.
’I can’t just dive underground to explore without making any preparations,’ he thought. ’I’ll need to stock up on Elixir Pills and Earth Attribute Spirit Stones, at the very least.’
’I should also prepare a few Earth Elent Magical Artifacts for support while I’m down there.’
After lingering in the Tea Garden for a mont, Fang Qingyuan summoned Silver Treasure and soared into the sky.
...
Three nights later, Fang Qingyuan arrived at the Tea Garden alone. This ti, he hadn’t even brought Silver Treasure with him.
Qu Wei and the other mortals were fast asleep, and Fang Qingyuan deliberately avoided them. He had chosen the dead of night, reasoning that it made no difference whether it was day or night once he was underground, since he wouldn’t see the sun anyway.
Reaching the center of the Tea Garden, Fang Qingyuan took a deep breath and activated his Vertical Earth Technique. In the next instant, the soil beneath his feet turned illusory, and he sank straight down.
Descending two hundred feet in a single breath, Fang Qingyuan finally ca to a stop at that depth. All around him was pitch-black, profoundly deep and silent.
Down here, Fang Qingyuan sensed the Magical Power remaining in his body and realized he could still use the Vertical Earth Technique five more tis.
’It seems my safe limit is a depth of about six hundred feet. After all, you have to account for the return trip, so most Cultivators reserve more than half their Magical Power to get back.’
Otherwise, if your Magical Power ran out and you were trapped underground, you would risk death over ti.
’Besides, you can’t tell directions down here, there’s no air, and it would be a huge problem if I tunneled the wrong way.’
Despite his heavy thoughts, Fang Qingyuan silently activated the Vertical Earth Technique again, turning the soil beneath him illusory and continuing his descent.
After four more uses, Fang Qingyuan reached a depth of a thousand feet. Sensing his nearly depleted Magical Power, with a re thought, he began to carefully collect the surrounding soil.
As Fang Qingyuan moved a section of earth into his Immortal Mansion, a small cavity ford beside him. To prevent a collapse, he took out a Tier One Lower Grade, clam-shaped Protective Magical Artifact, infused it with Spiritual Power, and enveloped himself within it.
The instant the Vertical Earth Technique wore off, an imnse pressure bore down, imdiately engulfing the River Clam Magical Artifact.
The River Clam Magical Artifact let out a CREAK under the pressure, but it held. Fang Qingyuan set aside the backup artifact he had at the ready and breathed a sigh of relief before releasing fresh air from his Immortal Mansion.
The fresh air from the Immortal Mansion diluted the heavy, earthy stench of his surroundings. Fang Qingyuan took out a middle-grade Earth Spirit Stone, held it in his palm, and began to restore his Magical Power.
Two hours later, sensing his Magical Power was fully restored, Fang Qingyuan set aside the middle-grade Earth Spirit Stone—now depleted by a tenth—and once again cast the Vertical Earth Technique.
One thousand feet, two thousand feet, three thousand feet...
Even at seven thousand feet, Fang Qingyuan had yet to discover anything unusual. Furthermore, as the depth increased, the distance he could descend with each use of the technique was rapidly shrinking.
For the first thousand or two thousand feet, he could descend a full two hundred feet at a ti. But by three or four thousand feet, the imnse pressure of the earth had reduced that distance to just one hundred seventy or one hundred eighty feet.
Now, at seven thousand feet, each use of the technique only let him descend one hundred ten or one hundred twenty feet at most.
His Tier One Lower Grade, clam-shaped Protective Magical Artifact had shattered at a depth of three thousand feet, unable to withstand the pressure. Fortunately, Fang Qingyuan had used his backup—a Tier One Middle Grade Golden Ring Spirit Picker—and avoided the fate of being buried alive deep within the earth.
However, the Tier One Middle Grade Golden Ring Spirit Picker didn’t last either, shattering at six thousand feet and eting the sa fate as the artifact before it.
Now, Fang Qingyuan was using a Tier One Upper Grade Cyan Luo Umbrella, a Wood Attribute Protective Magical Artifact valued at over nine hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones.
The River Clam Magical Artifact and Golden Ring Spirit Picker he had just lost were worth a combined five hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones, a loss that didn’t sting too badly. But if this artifact were to break as well, Fang Qingyuan would be left speechless with grief.
Fang Qingyuan had purchased these three artifacts over the past few days. To afford them, he had sold off so of his Ore Spiritual Materials cheaply, exchanging them for the three artifacts and so Elixir Pills.
The pressure of the earth alone wouldn’t have been so severe. But as Fang Qingyuan descended deeper, he began to feel waves of Geomagnetic Power mixing with the crushing weight, assailing him as if Mount Tai itself were crashing down upon him.
Geomagnetic Power, much like the Nine Heavens Gang Wind, was a natural phenonon whose na alone was enough to make Cultivators pale. The deeper one ventured into the earth, the more tyrannical the Geomagnetic Power beca.
The Cultivator the Steward had hired previously had also sensed this Geomagnetic Power; unwilling to lose his Protective Magical Artifact, he had wisely retreated.
But Fang Qingyuan had already reached a depth of seven thousand feet; he was unwilling to turn back now.
’Another three thousand feet,’ he decided. ’If I still don’t find anything, I’ll have to give up. My artifact can’t take much more of this pressure.’
And so, at nine thousand feet, the Cyan Luo Umbrella shattered. Expressionless, Fang Qingyuan took out his Tier Two Lower Grade Turtle Shell Spirit Shield.
’Every magical artifact has its limit,’ he thought. ’If I had used the Tier Two Lower Grade Turtle Shell Spirit Shield from the very beginning, it likely wouldn’t have survived the prolonged pressure just to get this far.’
Each ti Fang Qingyuan ditated to recover, it took over two hours. During that ti, he had to constantly use a magical artifact for protection. As he descended, the weight of the Geomagnetic Power pressed down on his artifacts, forcing him to expend more of his focus to control them. This, in turn, caused his ditation sessions to grow progressively longer.
For the next thousand feet, the Geomagnetic Power grew even more intense, and Fang Qingyuan could only manage to descend sixty or seventy feet with each attempt.
ditating, recovering, collecting earth, releasing air from the Immortal Mansion... After three continuous days of this cycle, Fang Qingyuan finally reached a depth of ten thousand feet.
It was as if he had crossed so invisible threshold. The mont Fang Qingyuan descended below ten thousand feet, he felt the pull of the Geomagnetic Power begin to weaken.
Sensing this change, the exhausted Fang Qingyuan was jolted. He calmly closed his eyes, allowing his mind to relax.
’I’ve found the right place,’ he thought. ’Hope is right in front of , but now is the critical mont. I must hold steady and not be rash.’
Thus, Fang Qingyuan closed his eyes and ditated for a long ti. He took a Qingxin Elixir Pill to calm his spirit and even took a short nap. Only after his spiritual energy was nearly full did he slowly head toward the area where the Geomagnetic Power was weakest.
Before moving on, Fang Qingyuan left a spherical beacon behind. It was made of tal and imbued with a trace of his Magical Power, allowing it to last for seven or eight days. He had been leaving one such beacon every ti he stopped to ditate, lest he lose his way on the return journey.
Fang Qingyuan continued forward for another thousand-odd feet. When the Geomagnetic Power had beco as faint as it was when he first went underground, his spiritual sense vaguely perceived a place ahead emitting Gold Spirit Qi, a sensation that pricked at his very soul.
’Such intense Gold Spirit Qi... could it be a vein of Gold Spirit Ore?’
At this thought, Fang Qingyuan’s heart leaped with joy. ’I’ve found a Spirit Ore deposit! Even if the sect takes half, I’m going to be rich!’
But Fang Qingyuan had celebrated too soon. By the ti he reached the source of the Gold Spirit Power, the sight that greeted him shook him to his very core.
A colossal beast lay curled up ten thousand feet deep in the earth, utterly motionless, as if it had been dead for ages.
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