Chapter 510: Chapter 499: The Sword Cultivator Father
On one side, Ye Sheng was pondering how to diligently cultivate and forge the most perfect sword for Ye Qiu, while on the other side, Ye Qiu was also working hard to accumulate cultivation resources for his son. Neither father nor son was idle.
During this period, many valuable items had indeed accumulated in Ye Qiu’s space. He was now a Nascent Soul Middle Stage cultivator, and there were very few places in the Xuanyuan Realm he could not go to. Coupled with the protection of Little Golden Crow, he dared to venture into any dangerous places. However, the only thing that Little Golden Crow had been yearning for, the Active Spiritual Vein, had not been found—the level of the Xuanyuan Realm was simply too low. Perhaps when he ascended to the Great Thousand World, he would find a suitable one.
"Let’s go, let’s head to the next location." Apart from the Merfolk Secret Realm, there was another place that was widely talked about in Lin Shen’s previous life where one could find good treasures, and that was the Endless Desert to the west.
Legend had it that the Endless Desert had no borders, and even Nascent Soul Stage cultivators could lose their way within it. Lin Shen was chased into the desert in his previous life, where he found the ruins of an Ancient Temple buried underground, within which lay the skeleton of an ancient Buddha that had weathered into bones. Not only was there a Buddha Lamp capable of purifying the spirit next to the body, but also a Shariputra.
In his previous life, Lin Shen had killed countless people and committed many deeds that weighed on his conscience. Ye Qiu intuitively felt that it was with these two items that he cleansed his Heart Demon.
However, the Endless Desert was too vast, and without guidance like the last time he entered the Merfolk Secret Realm, he had no idea how long it would take to find it.
But he was idle anyway, and even if he didn’t find it, there was no loss.
He was amazed at Lin Shen’s luck, as many treasures had not appeared in the Xuanyuan Realm for many years, but it seemed as if all the treasures emerged for him as soon as he arrived.
However, now that Ye Qiu had taken the Merfolk Treasure, would the Heavenly Dao compensate by giving Lin Shen some other opportunity?
And wouldn’t you know, Ye Qiu had guessed correctly. Some people were born as favorites of the heavens. Lin Shen spent a full three days breaking the Array specially set up for him by Master Wu’an, collapsing to the ground, bloodied and laughing loudly.
The blood seeped into the soil, stimulating a black and white bead. Lin Shen felt as if struck by lightning as Spiritual Energy crazily flowed towards the bead. The black and white bead spun around and, to his astonishment, burrowed into his Dantian.
What was this thing?
He tried to activate the bead with Spiritual Power, but to no avail; it wouldn’t budge no matter what he did. The bead simply took root in Lin Shen’s Dantian.
But from that day on, every morning when Lin Shen cultivated, the bead would slowly rotate, and the Spiritual Energy passing around the bead in the Dantian would become even more refined.
Lin Shen’s eyes widened in surprise, he hadn’t expected the bead he obtained casually to be so effective! It was a perfect match for his Five Spirit Roots cultivation technique.
Ye Qiu would never have imagined that after he seized Lin Shen’s opportunity, the Heavenly Dao would whimsically grant Lin Shen such a large benefit. When cultivators think of black and white beads, they often associate them with Yin and Yang, and things relating to Yin and Yang were usually not simple.
However, even if Ye Qiu knew, he would probably still go after it. He refused to believe that a Small Thousand World could contain so many treasures.
The Endless Desert was vast. So vast that even after more than a month of flying on his sword, Ye Qiu had not seen another soul and was starting to feel disheartened. He landed and decided to travel on foot; after all, the Ancient Temple was buried underground, and he might just step right on it.
"There’s a spiritual beast approaching." Little Golden Crow flew up into the air and lazily warned Ye Qiu.
Ye Qiu gathered his full attention, as he had agreed with Little Golden Crow that unless his life was in imminent danger, he would not allow Little Golden Crow to intervene. It would only speak up to remind him if the opponent’s strength exceeded his own.
Ye Qiu calmed his mind and held his breath in anticipation. Soon, the sound of spiritual beasts’ paws scraping against gravel resounded sparsely in his ears, then rapidly grew louder until it was almost deafening.
Ye Qiu’s expression became even more solemn, for there were more than one spiritual beast. He wondered if he had encountered a swarm of Blazing Fire Ants or Poison Red Scorpions—two of the most difficult-to-deal-with group-dwelling spiritual beasts in the desert.
As the noise grew louder, when the first Mutant Blazing Fire Ant appeared before him, Ye Qiu’s eyes widened in shock. The ants were as big as spiritual cat cubs, each bearing a piece of crimson crystal stone on their heads—a favorite artifact refining material among cultivators.
However, Ye Qiu had no intention of collecting them for his son at the moment. This swarm of Mutant Blazing Fire Ants was not only sizable but also incredibly numerous, with cultivation ranging from high-level Golden Core Stage to low-level Qi Cultivation Stage. Even though they were several ranks lower than him, the sheer number of ants could exhaust his spiritual power.
Without a moment’s hesitation, as soon as he saw the main force, Ye Qiu turned around to run. Yet, for some reason, today’s Blazing Fire Ants seemed fixated on him—whether Ye Qiu flew on his sword or changed his running path, the ants relentlessly pursued him.
"How long are they going to chase me?" After two days of fleeing, Ye Qiu’s emotions became agitated.
Little Golden Crow did not help him, leisurely flying as if enjoying the spectacle.
Ye Qiu drew his longsword and ferociously struck at the ant army chasing after him.
But the ant army rolled into a tight ball to save energy, and all he damaged were the low-level ants on the outside.
Unfortunately, Golden Core Stage spiritual beasts could not communicate normally with cultivators. Moreover, Ye Qiu felt something was amiss. Even if they were mutant ants, they should have some sort of intelligence. Why would they chase a sole human cultivator without reason?
This swarm of ants was definitely not normal; it was as if they had been provoked.
Ye Qiu decided to find out the truth, so he changed direction and headed towards the location from which the ant army had come.
After running for three more days, Ye Qiu discovered a human cultivator’s corpse. The ant army buzzed by and in an instant, not even the bones of the corpse remained. A chill ran through Ye Qiu, and he ran faster.
However, he quickly analyzed the situation, deducing that the human cultivator must have died within these six days; had the ant army passed by before, they would not have left the corpse untouched.
The key question was who killed this person and for what purpose? Ye Qiu always felt it was related to the rampant behavior of the mutant ant army.
"There is a group of active volcanoes ahead," Little Golden Crow reminded Ye Qiu just in time.
Ye Qiu knew he must be close to the nest of the Blazing Fire Ants. The reason they were named so was that they were born near active volcanoes, relying on the abundant Fire Element Spiritual Energy within the volcanoes for cultivation.
But these were mutant ants—would their nest be different from the other Blazing Fire Ants? And could there be the killer of the human cultivator or another spiritual beast there?