"This is perhaps one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen…" Jing Luo spoke as his eyes gleamed with joy.

At his side was standing Lin Mu and both of the men were looking at a large oval shaped crystal. This was nothing but the entire source vein of the Spirit stone mine and was composed entirely of high grade spirit stones in its outer layer, with some peak grade spirit stones in its inside.

The presence of peak grade spirit stones showed that the mine was already close to turning into a peak grade spirit stone mine. But now that Lin Mu and Jing Luo had stripped it out, that would not be so.

The oval crystal was lying on its broader side and was over ten meters long and seven meters wide. It had a height of about six meters and was quite tall. At its side, an entrance had been carved which could allow one to enter it.

Rarely would one be able to see a source vein of a spirit stone mine like this, as it would be mined out in smaller fragments or just never touched. Removing it from the ground meant stopping its work and growth.

While spirit Qi springs could be transplanted by moving the source crystal, doing the same with a spirit stone mine was immensely difficult. When it was still in the form of a spirit Qi spring, it was more malleable and would be able to adjust to different areas.

But once it turned into a spirit stone mine, it was rigid and could not be done. Only certain experts could transplant an entire spirit stone mine and still make it generate more spirit stones.

Still, if that was done, it would still take many years before the spirit stone mine would be able to reach its original state. That was the reason why a sect would rather move its headquarters to an area with more spirit stone mines, rather than transplant one.

In fact, many sects did not start with multiple spirit stone mines. Most only had one spirit stone mine and they either transplanted other source crystals of spirit Qi sprigs that eventually grew to become spirit stone mines, or over time their sects simply gave favorable conditions for the growth of new spirit Qi springs naturally.

What most sects did when they found spirit stone mines in the wild was quite different. They would instead establish a branch of their sect there and let them grow. This would be beneficial to them on many fronts. First, they would be able to expand their presence in the area. Second, they would gain more disciples and thus increase their overall man power. And third, they would be able to get the spirit stones mined from those mines as a tribute from that branch.

Of course, doing so was difficult in worlds that already had many cultivation sects. In worlds like those, the sect would instead take lower sects under their wing or create an alliance. This way the lower sect would get protection from the big players, get the opportunity to send their talented disciples to the higher sect while paying a tribute to the higher sect.

Lin Mu and Jing Luo had gained one of the very such things that would help one establish a sect. 

"Now that I think of it… isn't one of the basic requirements of establishing a sect being in the Nascent Soul realm?" Lin Mu suddenly spoke.

"Yes, that's true. But it will be an unranked sect at that level." Jing Luo replied.

"And with this source crystal, we can probably increase that by quite a bit, if we just take over others." Lin Mu joked.

"Probably… if we survive." Jing Luo chuckled.

~Purr~

"Oh? You woke up?" Lin Mu spoke upon seeing Little Shrubby, who had appeared.

The beast completely ignored Lin Mu and walked up to the large source vein and started rubbing against it, all the while making a face of pleasure.

"Seems like he likes it a lot," Jing Luo spoke.

"Oh, he does indeed." Lin Mu replied before checking Little Shrubby's cultivation base with his spirit sense.

"Hmm…. Is he close?" Jing Luo asked upon seeing Lin Mu's look.

Lin Mu squinted his eyes and activated his spatial perception. He could see the faint spatial distortions around Little Shrubby's body.

"Yes, he should be having his heavenly tribulation in a couple of days at the most." Lin Mu replied.

"We better get ready, then. I don't know what a heavenly tribulation will do here. You were able to break through to the Nascent Soul realm without needing it, and no other beast had reached that level here so as to need a heavenly tribulation.

The other beasts that were at the Nascent soul realm previously were all brought here directly from the Sacred grounds and I've killed all beasts that get close to that." Jing Luo said.

"Yeah, let's put this away for now." Lin Mu said before walking ahead and placing his hand on the large source vein.

As soon as he did, he could feel a thick stream of spirit Qi entering his hand. But he did not absorb this as it would only lead to the source crystal losing its power. He resisted the temptation and directly stored it into the ring.

He could feel a bit of pressure while doing so, which he attributed to the massive amount of spirit Qi that was contained in the source vein. 

~Huala~

Once the source vein disappeared, the spirit Qi concentration of the cave visibly fell.

"Aw, it was better with it here." Little Shrubby complained.

"You'll see it later. For now, we have work to do." Lin Mu spoke.

"Okay…" Little Shrubby replied.

Jing Luo watched the conversation between the man and beast with interest. While Lin Mu had spoken in the common tongue, Little Shrubby had only growled in response. There were no actual words spoken by the beast.

"You two can really understand each other, huh?" Jing Luo asked.

"Yes, little Shrubby can talk properly now." Lin Mu spoke, feeling a bit proud.

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