Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

A spirit vein lay before Han Mengli, glowing with a dull white light that illuminated the dark mine.

Realizing what he was looking at, Han Mengli found himself both elated and horrified. He had found a spirit vein, but at the same time, he worried that the demons standing guard around the mines would kill him for realizing it was here.

He turned around, not knowing what to do. And only then did he remember just how deep in the mine he was. This deep, not a single demon would come at all. It took him a moment to calm down before he turned back toward the spirit vein.

He began wondering what he could do with it. He couldn't take the vein away, and a vein was only so useful to him in the first place.

As he thought about that, he noticed something that he had initially missed. Getting closer, he saw a cross-hatch pattern on the spirit vein for some reason. He didn't know much about spirit veins, but certainly this wasn't supposed to be there.

Getting closer, he pushed on the spirit vein with a bit of force. Suddenly, he felt the entire thing wiggle a little, like stacks of unsteady rock piled on top of each other.

Only then did he truly understand what he had stumbled upon. This wasn't a spirit vein.

This was a spirit stone mine.

The spirit vein had long since died, its remnants splitting into spirit stones.

Han Mengli watched with wide eyes for a few minutes. Spirit stones had been so rare for him back in Darkwater, and here, there were hundreds of them lying just in the small hole he had opened. If he opened it further, he could most likely find thousands and tens of thousands.

'They're Saint spirit stones. If it was a Saint spirit vein, they likely would have realized it long ago and dug it out already,' he thought.

He got lucky.

But that luck wouldn't last for long if he didn't fill his quota today. He needed to do something about it very soon.

After a bit of thought, Han Mengli knew of only one thing he could do. He grabbed a few of the spirit stones from the hole and plugged it with the ore he had picked out of it.

Then, he sat on the ground, beginning to cultivate.

After so long a time, his body finally gained Qi that wasn't just collected on its own. Like bringing rain to a desert, his meridians cheered with pleasure—and so did his Dantian.

Saint spirit stones were a little strong for him, so he didn't absorb them directly, but enough of their energy still poured in that the pleasure soon turned to pain.

Han Mengli tried to limit how much he could absorb, and after nearly an hour passed, he stopped. The spirit stones still lay around him, very little of their energy siphoned away.

When he stood up again, he felt fire raging within his body, a newfound strength ready to topple all of his obstacles.

Han Mengli brought his thoughts in order and began mining once more. The spirit stones were beyond the hole to his left, so he continued straight forward, digging more there.

The walls were still as tough as before, but with the strength of the raging Qi flowing through his veins, they became as soft as picking through mud. He rapidly mined all 200 kilograms of ore and was ready to carry it out when he paused.

'What am I doing?' he thought. 'I can't bring this all out. They'll figure out something is wrong.'

He put most of the ore aside, carrying only a third of it out. When he did, the sun was halfway up the sky already. He had gotten better at estimating time, so he knew there were about six hours left in the day.

Considering how long it took to get down there, it would take him a long time. However, time was no longer of much concern for him.

He had already mined all he needed to. The only thing required was to bring it out.

He rushed back down to the end of the mine where he sat down and began cultivating once again. Over the years, his cultivation base hadn't improved much at all.

Despite cultivating for an entire decade even after he was moved to the forge station for being considered unworthy of the resources, he hadn't even reached the True King Realm.

Now that he had access to Qi, that was the first thing he needed to do.

Han Mengli sat down and began cultivating and thinking about his plans. Should he tell someone? Should he start gathering a rebellion?

All thoughts vanished when he remembered the old blacksmith adage he had heard in Darkwater.

'Too many hammers ruin the sword,' he thought. He could maybe tell a person or two, but even then he would have to be careful.

Han Mengli took away another batch before returning. This time, he searched along the wall, wondering where else he could divert the mine so that they wouldn't go down there.

As he did, he found a peculiar location on the wall close to the end that looked normal at first glance, but after mining for so long, he could recognize the rock there as being quite loose.

He moved over and leveraged his pickaxe along the side, pulling on the rock. It fell off easily, revealing a hollowed-out section of the spirit stone mine.

Han Mengli paused for a long moment, trying to understand what he was seeing. Someone else had found this mine? Someone else—

His mind immediately returned to his blond-haired friend who always went to the depths of the mine.

'He was cultivating here,' he realized. 'That's why he was so strong. He wasn't a body cultivator. He was using his damn Qi.'

The revelation explained a lot of things for Han Mengli, along with which he also understood the need to keep secret what he had found. Vowing to never let another soul learn of the spirit stone mine, he sealed up the hole again with the rock and went down to the end of the mine to continue his cultivation.