Chapter 46: The Unveiling of a Source Stone

They blinked, then rubbed their eyes in disbelief. A look of profound shock immediately overtook their features.

“This… how is this possible? How is this possible? Even a scrap of something like this shouldn’t appear here. How could I see such a thing here?”

Initially, the group leader had assumed it was merely a scrap of a Spirit Stone. Even when the other person presented a slightly larger piece, the leader maintained this belief, thinking it was, at most, a fragment of an elemental, low-grade Spirit Stone.

However, holding it in their hand and examining it closely, they realized it was no mere Spirit Stone. This was a treasure thousands, even tens of thousands, of times more valuable.

Source Stone.

Indeed, it was the legendary Source Stone.

Spirit Stones were so named because they contained spiritual energy. Depending on the density of this energy, they were categorized from lowest to highest as low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and supreme-grade Spirit Stones.

Spirit Stones not only provided spiritual energy for cultivation but also powered spiritual artifacts and were essential for setting up formations in areas devoid of spirit veins.

Due to their widespread utility, Spirit Stones also served as currency.

However, the effectiveness of these Spirit Stones began to wane significantly once cultivators reached the Soul Transformation stage and beyond.

From the Soul Transformation stage onward, cultivators gradually began to comprehend the Great Dao, progressing from understanding it to integrating with it, and eventually evolving their own path to the Grand Ascension stage.

Consequently, the utility of Spirit Stones gradually diminished from the Soul Transformation stage. While not entirely useless, the required quantity and quality increased exponentially, yet the actual effect continuously decreased.

Thus, for cultivators beyond the Soul Transformation stage, the resource that could rapidly accelerate their progress, replacing Spirit Stones, became the World Origin.

When the World Origin underwent evolution through various special heavenly and earthly rules, a portion of it would leak out. This essence would then attach itself to certain unique stones capable of storing origin power, which were known as Source Stones.

Yet, while Spirit Stones were readily available, Source Stones were exceedingly rare.

Typically, in large Spirit Stone veins, if one was fortunate, they might discover some scattered Source Stone deposits. The presence of such a deposit would cause significant fluctuations in the supreme-grade Spirit Stone reserves within that Spirit Stone vein.

Some large veins might see their supreme-grade Spirit Stone reserves decrease by two-thirds, while others might increase by half. Regardless, the presence of Source Stones always led to fluctuations in the quantity of supreme-grade Spirit Stones.

Historical data showed that the fewer supreme-grade Spirit Stones found, the more Source Stones were present; conversely, the more supreme-grade Spirit Stones, the fewer Source Stones could be extracted.

The highly experienced mining auntie, upon recognizing the scrap as a Source Stone, immediately froze, her face etched with disbelief.

It was not just this mining area, but the entire mine was merely a small operation. Let alone a precious stone like a Source Stone, even supreme-grade or high-grade Spirit Stones were impossible to find here.

Only low-grade Spirit Stones or scraps, at most mid-grade Spirit Stones and scraps, could appear in this location.

For a moment, the shock rendered her speechless.

The auntie who had discovered the stone, seeing the other’s reaction, was momentarily stunned.

She nudged them. “Big Sister, isn’t it just a gold-attributed Spirit Stone? Why are you so excited? And it’s only a scrap, too.” Clearly, the auntie who found the stone believed the golden-hued rock was merely a gold-attributed Spirit Stone. She never realized, from beginning to end, that this stone was the legendary, priceless Source Stone.

Even if what they had found was merely a scrap, it was still a treasure more valuable than a supreme-grade Spirit Stone.

The experienced auntie quickly regained her composure and immediately instructed the others. “No more resting! No more resting! Let’s dig deeper, dig a bit more. Let’s try to unearth a few more pieces!”

Due to the rules of the Hundred Flowers Palace, most of these miners were descendants of cultivators. However, unlike those in the dining hall, their backing wasn’t as strong, or their benefactors had already perished.

After all, the Hundred Flowers Palace only recruited mortals who were family members of their disciples. If these mortals caused trouble, their cultivator backer would not escape punishment. Conversely, if a cultivator betrayed the sect, the Hundred Flowers Palace would have a legitimate reason to seize their weakness and deal with these mortals.

Therefore, if anything valuable was discovered here, the miners wouldn’t be silenced; instead, they would be rewarded.

Anything gifted to mortals was generally useless to cultivators, and the cost incurred was far less than the value of the treasures obtained. It was practically a free gift.

However, for mortals, such a reward was profoundly precious, capable of changing their destiny overnight, and it also served to prevent miners from harboring selfish intentions.

The experienced auntie didn’t explain to the others that what they had unearthed was a Source Stone, not merely a gold-attributed Spirit Stone.

After all, a so-called gold-attributed Spirit Stone was, at its core, still a Spirit Stone. It had merely been subjected to natural elemental erosion during its formation, due to specific environmental and geographical conditions. This resulted in its spiritual energy tending towards a fixed elemental affinity.

Typically, the different grades of Spirit Stones were calculated on a scale of one to one hundred. For example, one supreme-grade Spirit Stone was equivalent to one hundred high-grade Spirit Stones, ten thousand mid-grade Spirit Stones, or one million low-grade Spirit Stones.

However, one ordinary low-grade Spirit Stone required ten regular Spirit Stones to exchange for one pure-attributed Spirit Stone.

Of course, only pure-attributed Spirit Stones, meaning those with a single elemental affinity, held such value.

These single-attributed Spirit Stones could accelerate the cultivation speed of single spirit root cultivators by about two times, and sometimes even three or four times. Naturally, they were more valuable than ordinary, un-attributed Spirit Stones.

Nevertheless, no matter how precious, a Spirit Stone was still a Spirit Stone, far incomparable to a Source Stone.

Even if they didn’t unearth anything else, this mere scrap of a Source Stone alone was enough to reward these miners with a lifetime’s worth of gold and silver.

The only reason they wished to continue digging was to further increase the rewards they would receive.

****

Within minutes, all the miners learned that a gold-attributed Spirit Stone scrap had been dug out of their pit, and they instantly went mad with excitement.

Their bodies, tired from a day’s work, now felt as if they had consumed a miraculous elixir. Their backs no longer ached, their legs felt no pain. It was as if two Gatanozors had appeared, and they could, like armored heroes, vanquish the monsters and even have time to bury their physical forms.

This… was the power of money.

In a flash, the entire mining pit became a fervent hive of activity.

Ye Xiaozi, who had just finished tidying up and was about to greet the workers before heading off duty, witnessed this extraordinary scene.