Chapter 367: Chapter 242: The Previous Life’s Clan and Descendants (Long Chapter) (2)

No need.

Even if the Li Clan were to be annihilated now, Li An wouldn’t necessarily be too concerned.

He bought things from the Li Clan merely because they were cheap, and he wanted to probe the strength behind the family.

…

Returning to Evil Spirit Lake.

Li An began to focus on crafting a Rank Four Array!

Although he still hadn’t broken through to Nascent Soul, crafting a Rank Four Array was no longer difficult for him. In fact, his expertise in arrays was now higher than that of some skilled Rank Four Array Masters.

Because this array was meant to protect his cultivation ground, Li An put a lot of thought into it.

“The outer layer serves as a warning, leading the defense. Midway through the lake, it must provide favorable conditions for the evil spirits to fight, requiring parts of the formation to be an illusion; the Lake Heart Island area is the most important, balancing both defense and attack.”

Just conceiving this array took Li An half a month, and crafting it took an additional month!

Finally, the array was completely finished, perfectly integrating with the terrain of Evil Spirit Lake, covering an area of five hundred miles around!

In reality, a Rank Four Array could easily cover a region of two to three thousand miles, but Li An, having profound understanding of arrays, knew that aiming for a wider coverage would weaken the array everywhere, reducing its defensive effectiveness.

It’s better to focus on safeguarding his cultivation site!

With this array, even a Nascent Soul cultivator would find it hard to pose a threat to Li An.

Throughout this lifetime, his cultivation path had been tumultuous, constantly fleeing from the Profound Yang Sect, White Tiger City, Celestial Yang City, Beast Taming Jiang family, Celestial Killer Mountain, Dao Sect… Rarely did he have a place to truly settle down until now. Moreover, he no longer faced immense external pressure like before.

The only downside is that currently, he is still… relatively poor.

As a Loose Cultivator, without the backing of a sect’s power, it’s quite challenging to earn Spirit Stones alone.

A Rank Four Spirit Vein can support a Nascent Soul cultivator’s basic cultivation, but the speed is not fast enough. Both Li An and the Cyan Flame Divine Sparrow need additional Spirit Stones every month.

Li An is currently managing with about one Top Grade Spirit Stone per month, but the Cyan Flame Divine Sparrow, being Rank Four, requires around ten Top Grade Spirit Stones each month.

The maintenance of the Rank Four Array also consumes two Top Grade Spirit Stones every month!

This doesn’t include his expenses on various materials and resources.

“I need to find a Spiritual Ore, or if that fails, establish a Loose Cultivator city to collect taxes…”

After reaching Nascent Soul, life as a Loose Cultivator becomes even harder, with enormous expenditures, making it very tough to finance one’s cultivation alone.

From today on, he started to keep an eye out for Spiritual Ores!

Spiritual Ores are not the same as Spirit Veins. Spirit Veins also contain Spirit Stones, but they are a composite product holding the creations of heaven and earth, aiding cultivators in understanding and breaking through the Dao, whereas Spiritual Ores are simply rich in Spiritual Qi and may not contain the essence of the Great Dao, heavenly resonances, and so on.

Spiritual Ores can be mined, while hardly anyone digs Spirit Veins as it’s considered a waste of resources.

One Spirit Vein can sustain countless generations.

Fortunately, according to the information Li An received, due to the influence of the Spirit Realm’s heaven and earth forces, several places on the New Continent have spontaneously developed some small Spiritual Ores.

Li An believed that finding a few shouldn’t be too difficult.

This is also why many cultivators from Daozhou, Brahma Continent, and other regions are heading to the New Continent!

It’s a land of opportunity, rich in resources, unlike places like Daozhou where limited resources have already been divided among vested interests, leaving ordinary people struggling.

However, Li An always had suspicions. Why haven’t the superpowers like Dao Sect and Brahma Sect taken action on the New Continent?

They have only established Daoist Temples and such to maintain a presence, but haven’t exercised strong, direct control!

Have they taken a hands-off approach because they believe the current level of the New Continent doesn’t yet justify harvesting, or is there some ulterior motive?

Li An has always thought that with so many great powers creating a New Continent in the Spirit Realm, their ambitions wouldn’t be small.

There might be great storms in the future…

However, for now, what matters most is focusing on improving his cultivation!

He went out again, this time wandering around Evil Spirit Lake, scouting the area for thousands of miles, and indeed found a forming small Spiritual Ore in a valley more than a thousand miles from Evil Spirit Lake!

Upon careful inspection, this small Spiritual Ore currently mainly produces Middle Grade Spirit Stones and a small number of Upper Grade Spirit Stones.

Li An estimated that it could produce about fifty thousand Middle Grade Spirit Stones and roughly eight thousand Upper Grade Spirit Stones annually!

Converted into Top Grade Spirit Stones, the annual yield would be around one hundred thirty stones.

Not a lot, but not too little either!

With the current production, it can sufficiently support the Cyan Flame Divine Sparrow’s cultivation and the operation of his Rank Four Array and would help alleviate a significant amount of pressure!

Moreover, this Spiritual Ore is still growing, and its output should increase in the future.

Li An couldn’t help but lament, no wonder there’s inflation in the Spirit Realm, everything is more expensive than it was in the Emperor Origin Realm, just rising with the tide… Spirit Stones are not as scarce as in the lower realms.

If this were the lower realms, such a mine would be enough to trigger a bloody battle among Nascent Soul Clans!

Li An immediately set up a Rank Three Array around this Spiritual Ore for protection and assigned a Rank Three Spirit Leopard from Lake Heart Island, along with several Tier Two Spirit Beasts, to guard it.

From now on, this place belongs to him!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep