At that moment, the soft light emitted by the white pearl the old man had summoned created ripples like splashing water against the silent attacks of the Yin spirit, and the pearl itself trembled continuously, as if enduring a significant impact.
The old man quickly made a hand seal, urging the pearl to release a more substantial light, illuminating an area of dozens of feet around.
If not for this evil-warding pearl, they might have fallen prey to the spirit. However, even with it, they were caught off guard and temporarily controlled by the ghostly entity.
The four possessed great strength, but against a monster like a ghost, their usual attacks were only about half as effective.
The group was also unlucky, encountering such a ghost after only exploring a few hundred feet from their entry point.
For a time, the four were embroiled in a fierce battle with the ghost.
...
In the dim passage, Zhang Ling directed the corpse bear to lead the way, stopping every so often to release his divine sense and investigate.
After confirming there were no dangers, he would continue onward, searching for the place with the densest Yin energy.
About half an hour had passed since he entered the passage, and now Zhang Ling found himself in a smooth-walled tunnel.
These tunnels were formed naturally, and he roughly guessed that they were created by the perennial erosion of the Yin wind emanating from the Yin vein.
After walking some distance, the environment in the tunnel changed. Whether it was the ground underfoot or the stone walls above, below, left, and right, flickering spots of light could be seen from time to time.
These spots of light largely appeared cyan-green, emitted by irregular stones.
Zhang Ling was surprised by these spots of light. The light was not ordinary fluorescence but spiritual light. The temperature of the air here was even colder, and these stones emitting light were mostly Yin spirit stones.
Interspersed among them were some ice-blue stones, which were actually ice-attribute spirit stones transformed from water-attribute spirit stones.
Yin spirit stones and ice spirit stones were scattered throughout the tunnel. Divine sense revealed that there were many spirit stones in the岔道 ahead.
The sizes of these spirit stones also varied, because these were spirit stone ores that had not been split. Splitting spirit stones would not waste the spiritual energy inside. Even if they were smashed, the spiritual energy that had not been absorbed or consumed was negligible.
Only when the spiritual energy within was absorbed by other living beings would they become ordinary stones. This was the characteristic of spirit stones.
A generally accepted common sense in the cultivation world is that a low-grade spirit stone is the size of a thumb, and a mid-grade spirit stone is the size of a fist. Of course, the concentration of spiritual energy is also different.
Some spirit stones that are traded are not split. The value is judged by size and weight. The weight of a spirit stone will decrease as the spiritual energy inside is consumed.
Zhang Ling's heart was pounding. It seemed that a Yin spirit stone mine had formed here. Judging by the scale, it was not small, and it was very likely that mid-grade Yin spirit stones would be found further inside.
A low-grade spirit stone mine and the spirit stones it produces are worth at least a million or more. A mid-grade spirit stone mine can produce a massive amount of spirit stones, enough to supply the development of five or six sects for thousands of years.
The formation of a spirit stone mine is like a spiritual vein, accumulated over time by the deposition of spiritual energy from heaven and earth.
The distribution of spirit stone mines in the world has no pattern. Perhaps some barren lands hide spirit stone mines. It is even rarer for spirit stone mines to form directly near spiritual veins.
Only medium and high-grade spiritual vein seeds are likely to form them.
The scale of this type of spirit stone mine formed near a spiritual vein is generally not too large, but it has a characteristic of sustainable development. Due to the spiritual vein, as long as it is not over-exploited, spirit stones will continue to form.
Spirit stone mines also have grades, like spiritual veins, divided into low-grade, mid-grade, and above-grade.
A low-grade spirit stone mine may produce a small amount of mid-grade spirit stones. A mid-grade spirit stone mine can produce a very small amount of high-grade spirit stones, generally in small quantities.
A high-grade spirit stone mine will definitely produce high-grade spirit stones, mid-grade spirit stones, and a large number of low-grade spirit stones. There is also a very low probability of finding top-grade spirit stones.
However, in the cultivation world, apart from a small number of high-grade spirit stone mines that appeared in ancient times, Zhang Ling has not heard of any others existing today.
This is also the reason why high-grade spirit stones are extremely rare in the cultivation world. Zhang Ling has been cultivating for a hundred years and has many mid-grade spirit stones in his possession, but he has never seen a single high-grade spirit stone.
Zhang Ling proceeded forward, collecting all the Yin spirit stones and ice spirit stones in the tunnel into his storage bag.
Yin spirit stones and ice-attribute spirit stones are both special spirit stones, and their value is incomparable to ordinary five-element spirit stones. As for why ice spirit stones are produced in Yin spirit stone mines, there is nothing surprising about this.
Most spirit stone mines do not produce only one type of spirit stone. Yin spirit stones and ice spirit stones are both of the Yin-cold attribute, and the environment in which they form is roughly the same, so they can produce two different types of spirit stones.
Spirit stone mines may also produce some rare items, such as sharp metal stones, hurricane stones, water-fire rocks, and five-element spiritual jade, all of which are valuable spiritual objects.
Yin spirit stone mines may also yield profound Yin stones, Yin soul beads, and Yin evil cold jade. These materials are all rare items formed from Yin evil spiritual power. These are Zhang Ling's purposes for coming here. As long as he finds one of them, he can help the corpse bear advance quickly.
Now that he has discovered that a Yin spirit stone mine has formed here, there is a high probability that these spiritual objects can be found.
Zhang Ling couldn't help but command the corpse bear to quicken its pace and head towards the deepest part.
In the blink of an eye, another hour or so passed.
Zhang Ling always had a faint smile on his lips, feeling very happy. Even if there were no other gains this time, the Yin spirit stones he had collected along the way alone numbered six or seven thousand.
Converted into ordinary low-grade spirit stones, that would be seventy to eighty thousand spirit stones. This naturally made him feel very good.
He had also collected more than a thousand low-grade ice spirit stones, adding up to a harvest of nearly one hundred thousand spirit stones.
Divine sense swept across the countless winding passages ahead. The further inside he went, the more Yin spirit stones and ice spirit stones appeared on the stone walls.
Zhang Ling had a feeling of getting rich overnight.
He walked and collected, and the spirit stones that could be collected from the stone walls and the tunnel floor were all put into his storage bag.
This was not all the spirit stones in this place. Naturally, there were still many spirit stones hidden deep within the stone walls.
However, due to the urgency of time and the fact that he was not alone here, collecting the spirit stones contained in the soil and rocks would waste a lot of time, so Zhang Ling had to give up helplessly.
The rock walls in the tunnel were not ordinary rocks either. The soil in the Yin spirit mine was as hard as iron, so it was not easy to mine spirit stone mines.
Of course, Zhang Ling did not forget the purpose of his trip, constantly allowing the corpse bear to sense the place with the densest Yin energy, hoping to find the core of this spiritual vein, which was the most likely place to produce special spiritual objects.
In another tunnel more than thirty miles away from Zhang Ling, there was also a figure wearing a green cloak, whose face could not be seen clearly, quickly searching for spirit stones.
It was unknown who this person was, but only occasional laughter could be heard, seemingly very excited as well.
