: The Elegance of the Righteous Path

2024-12-23 Author: Gu Zhenren

: The Elegance of the Righteous Path

In a corner of the White Jade Camp.

A junior commander rushed to the scene: "What exactly happened?"

He was puzzled, seeing no casualties among his own soldiers. But a strange feeling coiled in his heart—something was very off!

"Commander, it's terrible!"

"Our mana pool, our mana pool is gone!"

"A dull gray stone ball suddenly appeared and swallowed our mana pool!!"

The soldiers reported in panic.

The junior commander's eyes widened: ?!

He stared at the empty spot where the mana pool had once been.

"No wonder something felt wrong..." The commander cursed under his breath, "How could the mana pool be stolen? Thieves from Thousand Peaks Forest must have slipped in."

"But it's fine, these military tools have already been refined. I'll activate the spell to track its location!"

"Protect me!"

With that, the commander began casting his technique.

He was anxious too.

This was a mana pool, after all.

One of the White Jade Camp's trump cards to resist Lord Long and keep fighting. If it wasn't recovered and returned, the camp's sustained combat ability would be severely weakened.

A layer of fine cold sweat broke out on the commander's forehead.

"Damn it, why can't I detect its location?"

The mana pool had been moved into the cabin of the mechanical roving dragon!

This mana pool was nearly perfectly round, with a diameter of three zhang and five chi, and a depth of two zhang and three chi—about the size of a typical pond.

Sun Lingtong stood in a horse stance, one hand forming a seal, the other gripping his wrist, pouring all his effort into maintaining a treasure-stealing technique.

Thievery Art—Solid Snatch Hand!

It was this technique that shrank the mana pool to the size of a round table and temporarily blocked the owner's search.

"Xiao Zhuo, hurry, hurry!" Sun Lingtong urged.

His mana and spiritual sense were rapidly depleting.

Sun Lingtong was only at the Foundation Establishment level and hadn't joined Liangzhu Kingdom, so he didn't benefit from national power support.

But this mana pool was a magic treasure, a tool only Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivators were qualified to use!

Ning Zhuo raced against time, using his skills to quickly inspect the mana pool.

"The pool walls are mainly made of Dark Jade. This jade is hard and can absorb earth energy, converting it into earth-element spiritual power."

"The pool water is hundred-year stone milk, milky white, capable of storing vast amounts of earth-element spiritual energy."

"The entire mana pool has three layers of arrays: the Earth-Seeding Array, the Land Sinking Origin Return Array, and the Pure Spirit Array."

The Earth-Seeding Array allowed the mana pool to connect with deep underground earth veins just by touching the ground. If there were no earth veins, it would absorb earth energy to the maximum extent.

The Land Sinking Origin Return Array could convert earth-element spiritual energy on a large scale into earth-element mana.

It's worth mentioning that this array was once extremely popular in history, used by almost all cultivation sects to supply massive earth-element mana for their bases.

As a result, so much earth-element spiritual energy was extracted worldwide that the entire continent began to sink.

This forced the imperial court at the time to urgently ban the use of the Land Sinking Origin Return Array by all factions.

As for the Pure Spirit Array, it purified spiritual energy, refining all spiritual power to as uniform a nature as possible.

Purified spiritual energy was more efficient to use; otherwise, too many "impurities" led to high losses and poor effects.

Ning Zhuo continuously formed hand seals, stimulating the talismans within the mana pool.

"There are over three thousand talismans on the pool walls, forming the spell restriction... it's the 'Earth Mother's Nursing Essential Technique'!"

In Ning Zhuo's upper dantian sea of consciousness, his thoughts surged like waves, mirror-like surfaces of spiritual sense shining brightly. As he delved deeper into his analysis, these mirrors shattered and dissipated one after another.

"I've got it, boss, hold on!" Ning Zhuo exclaimed joyfully.

Sun Lingtong's face lit up with delight—Ning Zhuo's speed at cracking it far exceeded his expectations.

Ning Zhuo took out over a dozen rod heads and a wooden mallet, hammering them forcefully into the pool walls.

He then used his mechanical arts to manipulate the rod heads, successfully disrupting the mana pool's operation and gradually forcing the three arrays to shut down.

The spell restriction of the "Earth Mother's Nursing Essential Technique" was also pried open with gaps and openings by the rod heads, allowing Ning Zhuo to glimpse the core deep within.

He poured his mana into it with all his might.

This mana flowed through the rod heads, accurately finding the mana pool's core, washing and refining it like a flood!

After a dozen breaths, Ning Zhuo had already cleansed most of the connection between the mana pool and its original owner. The rest would require prolonged, meticulous effort.

Having reached this point, Ning Zhuo had achieved his goal.

He immediately stopped infusing mana and withdrew his spiritual sense.

Huff... huff...

Ning Zhuo panted heavily, his face pale, having consumed much spiritual sense and urgently needing to replenish his mana.

Sun Lingtong was in even worse shape.

Sensing the mana pool no longer shaking violently, he immediately canceled the Solid Snatch Hand technique and collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

But he was extremely excited, his eyes shining as he stared intently at the mana pool.

Ning Zhuo was doing the finishing work, moving around the table-sized mana pool, using various materials to set up a sealing array.

Observing Ning Zhuo's technique, Sun Lingtong nodded in satisfaction and praised, "Xiao Zhuo, all my training since you were young hasn't been in vain. Your method of suppressing treasures, though unused for a long time, has been practiced so many times it's ingrained in your bones! You've done excellently!"

Though physically and mentally exhausted, Ning Zhuo's face glowed with joy at the sight of the mana pool.

"I've refined most of it and learned that this mana pool is called the Earth Milk Pure Spirit Pool."

"Estimated market price: four million five hundred fifty thousand mid-grade spirit stones!"

"We've hit the jackpot, we're rich!"

The Earth Milk Pure Spirit Pool was at the magic treasure level.

And the price range for magic treasures was enormous!

Magic treasure-level mana pools were heavy treasures, with forging costs often amounting to vast sums, usable only by medium to large factions.

Thus, the price of magic treasure-level mana pools was exorbitant.

Typically, a Golden Core-level faction's annual output value was around one million five hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones.

Note, this is output value, not net profit.

Such an Earth Milk Pure Spirit Pool would require a Golden Core-level faction to save every bit for three years without spending to afford.

For an individual Golden Core cultivator, assuming strong earning ability and saving every coin without spending, it would take at least forty-seven years!

Hearing Ning Zhuo's quoted price, Sun Lingtong miraculously squeezed out a bit of strength from his utterly exhausted body.

He stood up: "Quick, Xiao Zhuo, this chance is rare!"

"There are at least two more mana pools in the White Jade Camp."

But Ning Zhuo waved his hand: "Don't rush, boss."

"We're not in good condition and need to meditate to recover!"

"Let's not take the mana pools for now."

"If we weaken the White Jade Camp too much and they can't hold off Lord Long, how will we have chances to act further?"

Sun Lingtong gave Ning Zhuo a thumbs-up, praising admiringly: "Xiao Zhuo, I've always said—you have talent in our line of work!"

Ning Zhuo coughed lightly: "If not for the divine decree forcing us, and Zhu Xuanji's earlier advice to weaken Liangzhu Kingdom, how could I, a righteous person, do such things?"

Sun Lingtong raised another thumb with his other hand: "Xiao Zhuo, your words truly have the elegance of the righteous path!"

(End of )