Serpent Ancestor
Chapter 472: Supreme Spirit Stone

Xu Hei moved swiftly, checking their dismembered bodies one by one. After confirming, he used Summon Fire to quickly incinerate them, leaving no trace behind.

The four storage bags also fell into Xu Hei's hands.

"Hmm? Strange."

Xu Hei suddenly let out a sound of surprise.

The storage bags of this group contained pitifully few resources, almost nothing of value, only some combat talismans and protective magical treasures they carried with them.

Apart from that, there were no cultivation resources, and even Spirit Stones were scarce.

This was highly unusual. They were all Elemental Infant cultivators, yet aside from combat necessities, their entire wealth was inferior to even the Core Formation Stage.

Even the mid-stage Elemental Infant cultivator was dirt poor.

This was a cold shower for Xu Hei.

Inside, there were also some blue pills Xu Hei had never seen before, which caught his attention, but they didn't seem valuable either.

Xu Hei pondered for a moment, then stored all the magical treasures and combat items the four carried into a new storage bag of his own, and then burned the four storage bags to ashes.

Xu Hei took out a Soul Summoning Flag, infused it with soul power, and immediately, tiny soul fragments began to drift in from the surroundings.

Xu Hei had no intention of soul-searching. He simply opened his mouth and shouted, "Dragon Shatter Roar!"

"Boom!"

An invisible ripple surged through, and the remnants of the four souls shattered instantly, turning into nothingness, their forms and spirits truly annihilated.

Then, Xu Hei released the Earth Intent, tidying up the surroundings to erase any traces of battle. Using the Smoke Cleansing Pot, he absorbed the remaining scent, retrieved his Flying Sword, and donned his invisibility gear before leaving.

His actions were smooth and seamless, as if he were the one robbing and killing, and those four were the victims.

Not long after Xu Hei left, a cultivator in a yellow robe appeared out of nowhere. He glanced around at the ground, which bore no traces, and his face twitched slightly.

"Hmph! A bunch of useless fools."

The yellow-robed cultivator touched his brow, directly using a soul summoning technique, attempting to call back the souls of the four.

But after a long time, not even a trace of a soul appeared.

The yellow-robed cultivator's face grew increasingly grim. He flickered and began searching the area.

…………

The outer battlefield was fraught with danger at every step. Even seemingly peaceful areas hid lethal threats. A single misstep could lead to eternal damnation.

Along the way, Xu Hei didn't see anyone, but through his sense of smell and perception, he discovered many hidden dangers.

He took out the map given by his mentor to compare. This place was unfamiliar and not marked on the map.

"Better leave this place first."

Xu Hei increased his speed, moving straight ahead.

Having just committed murder, distancing himself from the scene was the priority. During this time, it was best to do nothing else.

Thus, at full speed, Xu Hei traveled for three days, flying out of the mountains, crossing vast mountains and rivers. The environment became desolate, and only then did Xu Hei stop.

He landed in a pile of rocks, sat cross-legged, and quickly performed breathing exercises to replenish his Spiritual Qi.

"This place is quite desolate, the air dry, the climate hot, and windless. Judging by the terrain and climate, it might be the eastern wasteland of the outer battlefield," Xu Hei thought to himself.

His mentor didn't have a map of the eastern wasteland, so everything here had to be explored on his own.

The outer battlefield was a fragment of the upper realm, knocked down during an ancient war and fallen into the mortal world. It was originally an ancient battlefield.

Looking around, the land was pockmarked, faintly showing traces of the war from back then.

Once Xu Hei had recovered his strength, he flew aimlessly over the wilderness. After a day of flying, his frown deepened.

"Strange, why is the Spiritual Qi here so thin?" Xu Hei wondered.

According to records, even in the eastern wasteland, the Spiritual Qi should far exceed that of the lower realm. Yet here, it was on par with the lower realm.

There were rare places on the outer battlefield where Spiritual Qi was scarce. An ordinary person would immediately avoid such places.

But Xu Hei was no ordinary person; he sensed something was off.

When something is unusual, there must be something strange.

Xu Hei spread his Divine Sense, probing around, but on this flat and open wasteland, he found no clues, only some remnants of ancient sect buildings. Judging by their appearance, they seemed to be relics of a sect from ancient times.

Xu Hei immediately moved, entering the sect ruins. As expected, the place had long been looted by predecessors, leaving not even a hair behind.

On the fallen stone tablet at the entrance, four large characters could still faintly be seen: Miao Xian Sect.

To be named after an immortal sect, one could imagine what kind of place the upper realm was.

"Spiritual Qi is so thin, yet there's an immortal sect ruin. Something's not right, very not right!" Xu Hei's intuition grew stronger.

Logically, where there was a sect, it should be a rare blessed land!

But here, it was the opposite, with Spiritual Qi at a low point. So why was the sect established in such a place back then?

Although countless years had passed, and the rules of the past might not apply now, Xu Hei still felt something was amiss.

"Ji Ying, what do you think?" Xu Hei asked.

"What, you don't want to think anymore? You can donate it to me for thinking," Ji Ying's voice came faintly.

"Forget I asked," Xu Hei said, speechless.

He pondered for a moment, then took out the black cloth from Yu Jianqiu, covered his eyes, and blocked his five senses, relying only on his sixth sense to explore.

Even with his extreme and meticulous observation, he still couldn't find a single clue.

However, he kept feeling a faint sense of crisis in his heart.

Xu Hei had a sudden inspiration and retreated, exiting the sect ruins. The sense of crisis immediately diminished significantly, and the farther he moved away, the more it faded.

But when he advanced, the sense of crisis gradually intensified.

Xu Hei's sixth sense was not adept at exploration, but it was top-notch for sensing danger.

"There's definitely something wrong!" Xu Hei thought.

This place was deserted, and the ruins had been desolate for countless years, explored by countless predecessors. There couldn't possibly be any traps or dangers left.

This only indicated one problem: someone was watching this place, and the source of danger could only be a person.

Xu Hei had a thought and immediately sank into the ground, using Earth Escape to approach.

This was not an ordinary Earth Escape Technique, but the Earth Concealment Escape inherited from the Earth Flood Dragon Mo Cang, a divine earth escape technique that left no trace.

…………

Meanwhile, as Xu Hei explored the Miao Xian Sect.

On the wasteland, a silver-haired girl stood calmly. Her youthful face showed no expression, and three corpses lay around her.

To be precise, they were three piles of dismembered corpses.

The bodies had been cut into countless squares, including their magical treasures, all evenly shattered into squares, very bizarre.

Ah Yin was similar to Xu Hei. Xu Hei encountered an attack as soon as he landed, while she was attacked two days after traveling.

The group that ambushed her was similar to the one that attacked Xu Hei, using a net of traps and poison formations, which she easily evaded with spatial escape techniques and counter-killed.

However, Ah Yin clearly lacked Xu Hei's ability to destroy evidence. In the past, such matters were handled by the Chu Tian Alliance.

Not long after, a yellow-robed cultivator appeared. His face was grim, and without a word, he raised his hand to unleash a flaming palm strike, pressing down on Ah Yin.

"Boom!!"

As the palm strike descended, Ah Yin's body turned ethereal, dodging the attack while swiftly fleeing into the distance.

"You killed my people; today, you won't escape!"

The yellow-robed cultivator's heart bled. This was already the second wave, with two consecutive waves of hunters dead, and not a single fish caught. How could he explain this?

Immediately, the yellow-robed cultivator's palm ignited with a dragon of flames, chasing after Ah Yin.

…………

Eastern wasteland, Miao Xian Sect.

Relying on his sixth sense, Xu Hei thoroughly explored the ruins inside and out, finally pinpointing the source of danger in the southeast underground of the sect.

He had checked this place countless times, finding no clues, and predecessors had already dug three feet deep, stripping the ground bare. Even if there were treasures, they would have been taken long ago. Anyone else would have found nothing.

But Xu Hei was different.

He changed direction, facing downward, and descended into the earth at terrifying speed.

After descending for half an hour, Xu Hei didn't know how deep he had gone, faintly seeing blue and red magma flowing.

Finally, Xu Hei reached the area where the Spiritual Qi was most scarce, almost zero.

Here, Xu Hei finally removed the blindfold and saw the situation ahead.

In eight directions, there were eight formation flags planted, forming a formation Xu Hei had never seen before, but it had the effect of absorbing Spiritual Qi.

It absorbed all the Spiritual Qi within a thousand-mile radius into the formation.

And the final destination of the Spiritual Qi was the center of the formation, which Xu Hei couldn't see.

"Heh, I understand now, so that's it!" Xu Hei suddenly realized.

No wonder the Spiritual Qi near the sect was thin; someone had set up a formation here to devour the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth, gathering it at the center.

This Miao Xian Sect must have been a cultivation blessed land, but the other party clearly didn't plan to stay here long-term, so they used this method to collect Spiritual Qi, intending to retrieve it when the outer battlefield opened.

They collected it every ten years.

In an instant, Xu Hei guessed most of the formation owner's intentions. He immediately moved near the formation, taking a stick of incense's time to carve the Thirty-Six Heavenly Gang Star Sword Formation, forcibly breaking the eight formation flags.

Then, Xu Hei leaped to the center of the formation.

At the center was a transparent orb the size of a fist, with dense Spiritual Qi crystallized inside, forming blocks of crystal.

Xu Hei's pupils contracted, and even with his calm demeanor, he couldn't help but exclaim, "Supreme Spirit Stones?!"

Indeed! The Spiritual Qi crystals inside the orb were the highest grade of Spirit Stones, Supreme Spirit Stones!

With Supreme Spirit Stones, an Elemental Infant cultivator could quickly increase their cultivation anywhere, and even Divine Transformation Stage cultivators considered them treasures.

Supreme Spirit Stones were treasures that could enhance the cultivation of Divine Transformation Stage cultivators.

In the mortal realm, Supreme Spirit Stones couldn't be produced, not because of insufficient quantity of Spiritual Qi, but due to a lack of quality, which was the fundamental difference.

In a flash of thought, Xu Hei immediately realized that the owner of this formation was likely extraordinary, possibly a major sect with a Divine Transformation Stage overseer, specifically sending disciples to collect Supreme Spirit Stones.

Since he had stumbled upon it, Xu Hei made a decisive decision to grab the orb.

Such a precious orb, Xu Hei was reluctant to destroy it, but he also feared the other party had left tracking methods. Xu Hei decisively used the fifth form of the Azure Dragon Immortal Spell, Thunder Summon!

"Boom!!"

Lightning erupted in the void, striking the orb's core, cracking it with countless fissures. Xu Hei's arm transformed into a dragon claw, swiftly extracting the Supreme Spirit Stones inside.

One, half...

A total of one and a half Supreme Spirit Stones.

After collecting the Spirit Stones, Xu Hei's sense of crisis suddenly surged to the extreme. He didn't bother retrieving the sword formation or the eight formation flags, immediately retreating and using Earth Concealment Escape to quickly flee, moving through the earth's veins.

In just a few breaths, Xu Hei vanished into the distance.

"Buzz!!"

Space distorted, and suddenly a figure emerged from beside the eight formation flags. This figure was only a shadow with two hollow eyes.

He looked at the empty center of the formation and the shattered Spiritual Gathering Orb, his eyes turning blood red.

"Who dares steal my Tianhen Sword Sect's Spirit Stones? Who is it?!"

The shadow was clearly not the person's true body, only able to rage impotently, but was instantly engulfed by endless sword light, obliterating the shadow.

Xu Hei's guess was correct.

This place was indeed used by the other party to produce Supreme Spirit Stones. Such places were not unique; any sect relic with the right conditions would become a production site.

However, this particular relic had a collection frequency not of ten years, but thirty years.

It took twenty years to produce one Supreme Spirit Stone.

The Tianhen Sword Sect also limited their visits to avoid detection, coming only once every thirty years. This year happened to be the collection year, but someone had beaten them to it.

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