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Chapter 456 I've struck it rich
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As National Day approaches, the climate in the Tianshan Mountains is still summer-like. However, the leaves are already starting to turn yellow, and the temperature difference between day and night is quite large.
Lin Yao didn't care whether anyone would see them, and Xiao Cao didn't bother to check if any tourists or locals had noticed them. The two of them plunged into the cool waters of Tianchi Lake in the midday sun and quickly dived towards the area that had been discovered by Elder Yi Potian and recorded by Yi Zuojun three years ago.
"Yaoyao, the spiritual energy down there is indeed abundant; it looks like there should be spirit stones."
Xiao Cao pulled Lin Yao down quickly. Now Lin Yao's strength had surpassed that of an ordinary Heaven-level expert like Yi Potian. Regardless of his combat ability, his realm and physique modified by the original witch power meant he didn't need her special protection, saving her a lot of trouble.
"Did you find the spirit stone?" Lin Yao also felt quite relieved. He could still endure the slow descent, and he even managed to probe the source of the spiritual energy himself.
"No," Little Grass answered honestly, without the slightest shame. "Timu's power lies in the earth, Mingjin controls plants, and I... well... anyway, I'm more constrained in the water, but I can still find spirit stones."
Xiao Cao almost blurted out something like "I don't have any ability," but fortunately, although she humbly didn't boast about her ability to control medicinal and poisonous gas, she also didn't want to portray herself as incompetent. Besides, now that the abilities of "Timu" and "Mingjin" belong to her, plus her possession and control of the primordial witch power, she didn't need to be too humble.
"Yaoyao, can you handle the water pressure?"
Seeing that Lin Yao did not respond, Xiao Cao immediately changed the subject.
"Thank goodness, are we almost at the bottom of the pool?" Lin Yao felt that the water pressure was quite high, and he needed to muster all his strength to fight it. He estimated that they had already dived to a hundred meters.
"Yes, we've arrived. There should be spirit stones here. Like the Heavenly Lake in Changbai Mountain, there's an undercurrent with particularly abundant spiritual energy. However, it's quite far away, more than 400 meters away. Fortunately, the undercurrent hasn't changed direction, which allowed the Grand Elder to find the right place. Otherwise, we would have had to spend a lot of time searching randomly."
Knowing that Lin Yao was struggling against the current, Xiao Cao simply pulled him along and moved quickly underwater. After about ten minutes, they reached the entrance of the hot spring's underground current at the bottom of the pool, allowing Lin Yao to successfully obtain an egg-sized spirit stone in the narrow hot spring cave. Of course, it took some effort to break through the wall to get the stone, but fortunately, the volcanic rock was loose, and he got it without much effort.
Another spirit stone was found in another body of water marked as having abnormal spiritual energy. However, this spirit stone was only the size of an almond, and Lin Yao barely managed to get his hands on it with a bitter face. After going ashore, he rushed to Yunnan, which was the key destination, where he thought there should be more spirit stones.
The volcanoes in Tengchong, Yunnan Province, are highly active. The state has even established a volcanic monitoring station in Tengchong. Other regions that enjoy such an honor include Changbai Mountain in Yanji and Wudalianchi in Heilongjiang Province, because these three regions have a history of multiple volcanic eruptions. In recent years, volcanic earthquakes, high heat flows, and hydrothermal activity have become more frequent, indicating that these volcanoes are at risk of erupting again.
Volcanoes formed over 3 million years ago, measured in tens of thousands of years, contain extremely abundant spiritual energy. The high temperature, high pressure, and complex underground conditions make it easy to form spirit stones that condense spiritual energy. It's just a matter of whether Xiaocao can extract them. As for ordinary Heavenly Realm experts, they can only sense the abnormal distribution of spiritual energy at most. Even if they point out a location with a spirit stone a certain distance below, they can only sigh in vain.
The acute influenza outbreak in Dongxing City has spread to inland areas, sweeping through several provinces in just a few days. Large numbers of infected individuals have been reported in Guangxi, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Yunnan. This acute influenza spreads at an alarming rate, and recovery from infection is extremely slow, requiring large doses of antibiotics and antiviral drugs for optimal results.
Although it is not highly fatal, infection can severely impact the work and life of people with weakened immune systems. It can even pose a life-threatening risk to some elderly people and critically ill patients with poor health. In just four days, three patients have died due to a combination of factors, prompting the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention to issue an orange alert. Apart from antibiotics, there are no specific drugs or physical conditions that can prevent infection with this flu.
Lin Yao learned of this matter when he received a call from Elder Yi Potian upon arriving in Tengchong County, Yunnan. At this time, the relevant departments had already sent the characteristic virus to "City Forest," but no typical infected patients had been delivered. However, Lin Yao was temporarily unable to return to handle the situation, and his flight records, which showed him in his true form, also indicated that he was not in the capital.
Information gathered by Yi Jia indicates that while the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention was organizing experts and scholars to tackle the problem, it placed its hopes on "Jiu Ren Pharmaceutical" in Huizhou City, Anhui Province. However, the usually efficient "Jiu Ren Pharmaceutical" unexpectedly encountered problems with its internal research institutions, claiming that the progress of vaccine and special drug research was affected by unforeseen circumstances involving the international expert team. All the blame pointed to the attack on "Allison" in Bengbu, Anhui Province. Lin Yao found it strange that the military and relevant departments did not pay attention to the two super "poisoners" he and Xiao Cao left at the scene, allowing "Jiu Ren Pharmaceutical" to continue to support "Allison" with impunity.
"Yaoyao, there are spirit stones down there, but it's such a hassle."
Xiao Cao's voice rang out, her tone rather pessimistic, "There are no fewer than ten spirit stones in just one crater, but if I take them out, what if it damages the rock structure and triggers an earthquake or even a volcanic eruption prematurely? Wouldn't that be bad?"
"How could this happen? A hole only a few centimeters in size could cause this?!"
Lin Yao was puzzled and couldn't believe that taking the spirit stone would lead to this result.
"Who knows? There are often stories online about a butterfly flapping its wings and causing a storm or hurricane. We're trying to drill through lava to stop the rock formations. It wouldn't be good if it caused trouble."
The little grass dared not move rashly. Reading too much information online had indeed made it more timid. "These spirit stones are thirteen kilometers away from the ground, which is just within my range. Any further and I can't go any deeper. Exploring is different from touching and taking things."
"Are you alright?" Lin Yao also became uncertain. "Look, everyone was saying there would be a major disaster in 2012, but it's already 2015 and nothing's wrong. Don't worry about nothing. Let's not believe it."
"Okay, I'll start drilling now. You find a place to sit down, it'll take a while." Xiaocao immediately stopped worrying; she certainly wouldn't overthink things that Lin Yao had agreed to.
"No!" Lin Yao quickly stopped him. "Let's find another place. Anyway, there are many volcanoes and hot springs here. Maybe the spirit stones elsewhere aren't in the lava. It'll be safer."
"Oh, alright then." Little Grass breathed a sigh of relief. "It's so troublesome in broad daylight. There are so many tourists in such a terrible place. It seems tourists have nowhere else to go and are just looking for novelties everywhere!"
Lin Yao nodded, glancing at a tour group of twenty people not far away. Watching the tour guide enthusiastically introducing the situation while spitting everywhere, he felt a little annoyed. The 97 volcanoes were spread over a vast area of more than 200 square kilometers, and it was impossible to fly quickly in broad daylight. This was simply wasting his time.
"Let's go to 'Atami' (Hot Sea), where the water temperature is said to reach 97 degrees Celsius. Perhaps there are sacred stones near the hot springs."
The knowledgeable and perceptive Xiaocao offered a suggestion: visiting Rehai during the day would be perfect. Places with hot springs likely have a solid geological structure, where even groundwater can seep through rock fissures to the surface. If there are any spirit stones, taking them wouldn't have any negative effects.
After paying 200 yuan for the chartered car, Lin Yao arrived at "Rehai," a domestically produced jeep of unknown brand that was clearly past its scrap age, 10 kilometers south of Tengchong County. Before even reaching the hot spring's opening point, he could smell a strong rotten egg odor, and the swirling steam rose into the sky, creating a rather unpleasant scene that made one marvel at the wonders of nature.
The flu outbreak did not dampen tourists' enthusiasm for hot springs. Lin Yao, with his keen ears, overheard their conversation and learned that it all stemmed from the belief that hot springs had a disinfecting and sterilizing effect, making it impossible for the flu virus to spread in such an environment. This lame reason only made Lin Yao laugh, because Xiao Cao had already concluded that more than half of the dozens of tourists within sight had been infected with the flu virus, and the others were probably not immune either.
With no time to investigate and study the influenza virus, Lin Yao and Xiao Cao devoted themselves entirely to the task of exploring and collecting spirit stones. In four hours, they visited three hot spring bathhouses. Xiao Cao obtained twelve spirit stones of varying sizes and also created a hole for a gushing hot spring in the large bathhouses of two of the hot spring establishments. Although the hole was small, only four centimeters in diameter, it rendered the two hot spring bathhouses unusable because the water temperature rose uncontrollably and rapidly, exceeding the limits that the human body could withstand.
However, all of this was no longer Lin Yao's concern. He left the hot springs at his usual spot and began his search under the cover of night. He planned to spend the night searching the volcanic crater within a 200-square-kilometer radius, trying to obtain as many spirit stones as possible. These were always scarce, and since he had taken the time out of his busy schedule, he should try to get as many as possible to increase his chances of winning in future battles.
The extinct volcanoes resemble giant, moldy bowls embedded in the raised mounds of earth, with their craters mostly hundreds to thousands of meters above the ground. The plants growing in the nutrient-rich volcanic ash are like the mold on the rim of these bowls, looking quite eerie, yet Lin Yao and Xiao Cao find them very appealing.
Extinct volcanoes that rise up like mounds are Xiaocao's favorite. These volcanoes that have erupted usually have spirit stones at their bottom. Even if there is scorching magma in the lower layer, there is no need to worry about damaging the geological structure and causing earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. This is because many volcanic craters have cracks that lead to magma layers several kilometers below, or rock layers that are gradually cooling down and solidifying from magma. The spirit stone content in these layers is quite rich, which makes Xiaocao wonder where the spirit stones that erupted in the past went. Could they evaporate on their own like water droplets?
“Little Grass, we’re rich! Volcanic areas are great, there are tons of spirit stones. Changbai Mountain Tianchi is like that, Tianshan Tianchi is like that, they were all formed by volcanoes. If we get all the spirit stones, do you think we can build a spirit stone house to live in? Those Yi family disciples can just cultivate in the house if they want to break through to the Heavenly level.”
Lin Yao was quite bored. The work of retrieving spirit stones was done by Xiao Cao. He only used his abilities to help Xiao Cao speed up the journey. Otherwise, he had nothing else to do. So he would find topics to chat with Xiao Cao whenever he had nothing to do. Fortunately, Xiao Cao was able to multitask. She could deal with his chatter without affecting the efficiency of drilling for spirit stones.
"That's right, Yaoyao, do you want to cover your bed with spirit stones and sleep on them from now on?"
Xiao Cao retorted to Lin Yao irritably, clearly displeased with his nonchalant attitude. While she could drill tunnels herself, traversing kilometers or even tens of kilometers through dense soil and hard rock was incredibly arduous. She had even begun absorbing spiritual energy from spirit stones to replenish her energy, managing to gather only 175 spirit stones by late night. She hadn't expected Lin Yao to be thinking about building a house—how many spirit stones would that require? Even if she worked for a hundred years, she might not be able to meet Lin Yao's needs!
"Luckily we didn't drill a hole on flat ground. It's much easier to find spirit stones in the crater. There's nothing to worry about at all."
Lin Yao sensed the complaint in Xiao Cao's tone and immediately changed the subject. He knew Xiao Cao was having a hard time, but the dark wilderness was just too boring. They had to make conversation, but it was really hard to find a topic. Now Xiao Cao knew everyone he knew, and she knew everything he knew. In fact, she knew him better than he did. He couldn't think of any new topics to discuss.
After a long while, Xiaocao finished her drilling and stone-collecting operation. With a sense of crisis, she realized she couldn't take all the spirit stones she found, lest it cause disaster for the people and environment in this area. "Alright, let's go to the next place."
Lin Yao immediately channeled his inner energy, pushed off with both legs, and shot towards another mountain peak like a rocket. He used his true energy to form a dense, thin layer on his arms, as if a pair of transparent wings had grown from his sides. The grass quickly rolled towards the rocks and trees of the distant mountain peak, using their force to pull Lin Yao into flight. This glider-like flight mode reached its maximum speed, even exceeding 700 kilometers per hour, maximizing his travel efficiency.