Fire Virtue Immortal Clan

Chapter 241 Financial Issues and the Search for Mineral Resources
Master Longshi is not a fool; on the contrary, cultivators who can reach the Golden Core realm are all very shrewd.

After his cultivation broke through to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm, he sensed Chongxu's apprehension towards him, all because Chongxu had lost an arm.

For the sake of the sect, he turned a blind eye to what Chongxu did and never held it against him.

However, Master Chongxu is going too far now, and most importantly, he can't distinguish reality from fiction!

Although their Tianyan Sect is a Golden Core sect with a history of over a thousand years, it has been declining in recent years.

Although the Lu family and the Dan Ding Sect are newly emerging Golden Core forces, their strength has grown extremely rapidly.

Especially Lu Cheng'an and Shi Ningyu, although they only have the cultivation of the early stage of Golden Core, even cultivators in the middle stage of Golden Core are no match for them.

At least he and Chongxu were no match for Lu Cheng'an.

The Lu family has somehow gotten involved with the Spirit Gu Sect, and their connection seems quite close.

The best option for their Tianyan Sect right now is to keep a low profile and try their best not to attract the attention of the Lu family.

But Chongxu still couldn't distinguish reality and wanted to cause trouble for the Lu family.

If things continue like this, their Tianyan Sect will be destroyed by Chongxu sooner or later.

After arguing with Chongxu, Master Longshi began to doubt his previous choices, perhaps he shouldn't have kept tolerating things.

When necessary, we should still fight for it, not for his own sake, but for the sake of the entire Tianyan Sect.

Lu Cheng'an and the others were unaware of the argument between Master Longshi and Master Chongxu. After the two left the Lu family, Liu Miaozhen said directly, "You two can divide the rest among yourselves!"

Liu Miaozhen knew about the relationship between Lu Cheng'an and Shi Ningyu, and there would definitely be no problem with the two of them dividing the remaining treasures.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, I wonder how your Blood Essence Rice is progressing? Could you show us how well it is growing?"

Liu Miaozhen's gaze fell on Lu Cheng'an, and she said in a deep voice, "The blood essence rice cultivated by our Linggu Sect has encountered a major problem. I'm afraid it will all die before it matures!"

Upon hearing the information Liu Miaozhen provided, Lu Cheng'an felt somewhat surprised.

As Lu Chengping previously stated, the Linggu Sect had already successfully transplanted the Blood Essence Rice, so how could such a situation have arisen now?
"Of course, I'll take the three fellow Daoists there right now!" Lu Cheng'an said with a smile after suppressing his surprise.

Lu Jingtong had only recently developed a fertilizer for cultivating blood essence rice, and the blood essence rice cultivated by the Lu family was not much different from that before the fertilizer was applied.

This is why Lu Cheng'an dared to take Liu Miaozhen and the others to investigate now; otherwise, he would have needed to consider it further.

The Lu family's Blood Essence Rice is planted on Mount Suixing. Because monsters such as the Green Horned Antelope live on Mount Suixing, the Lu family has cultivated several third-order spiritual veins on Mount Suixing.

Lu Jingtong was always in charge of looking after the blood essence rice. When Lu Cheng'an arrived at the blood essence rice field on Suixing Peak with Liu Miaozhen and others, Lu Jingtong was casting a spell to bring rain to the blood essence rice.

Blood Essence Rice has a high demand for rain, and Lu Jingtong has to cast a spell to bring rain almost every five days.

Casting spells to bring rain to spiritual plants is an essential skill for spiritual plant masters. Rain condensed by such spells contains rich spiritual energy, making it easier for spiritual plants to absorb.

"Lu Jingtong greets the two Supreme Elders and all seniors!"

Upon sensing the arrival of Lu Cheng'an and the others, Lu Jingtong immediately withdrew his magic and respectfully bowed to them.

"Fellow Daoist Liu, this is Lu Jingtong, the spiritual plant master of our Lu family. He is in charge of taking care of our Lu family's Blood Essence Rice!" Lu Cheng'an introduced with a smile.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, I truly admire you. This young fellow Daoist is indeed a rare talent!"

Liu Miaozhen quickly examined the blood essence rice and found that although the Lu family's blood essence rice had not solved the problem of diminished spirituality, its vitality was extremely strong.

Based on the current state of the blood essence rice cultivated by the Lu family, there is no need to worry about its maturity.

"Nice to meet you, this little trinket is for you!"

Liu Miaozhen's gaze fell on Lu Jingtong, and then she took out a second-grade low-level defensive magic weapon from her storage magic artifact.

It was a cyan round bead, a wood-attribute defensive magic artifact, which was extremely compatible with Lu Jingtong.

After receiving Lu Cheng'an's signal, Lu Jingtong accepted the defensive magic artifact and sincerely thanked Liu Miaozhen.

Liu Miaozhen was very satisfied with Lu Jingtong's reaction. Then she said to Lu Chengan, "To be honest, Fellow Daoist Lu, the blood essence rice transplanted by our Linggu Sect is in very poor condition. I am worried that the blood essence rice will not survive to maturity."

"Fellow Daoist Lu, you have cultivated the Blood Essence Rice very well. I would like to invite young friend Lu Jingtong to accompany me to the Spirit Gu Sect to see if our Blood Essence Rice can still be saved. I wonder if Fellow Daoist Lu agrees?"

This was the main reason why Liu Miaozhen accepted Lu Cheng'an's invitation.

“That’s certainly not a problem. Actually, Jing Tong isn’t the only one in our Lu family responsible for taking care of the Blood Essence Rice. Jing Kun is the main person who ensures that these Blood Essence Rice plants survive!”

“But Jingkun is currently in seclusion in his cave, breaking through his cultivation level. Once he finishes his seclusion, I will have Brother Chengping send both Jingkun and the other person to the Spirit Gu Sect. What do you think, Fellow Daoist Liu?” Lu Chengan said with a smile.

"Thank you very much, Fellow Daoist Lu!" Liu Miaozhen immediately expressed her gratitude.

Liu Miaozhen's main purpose in coming to the Lu family was to obtain the Blood Essence Rice. Now that Lu Cheng'an had agreed to help their Spirit Gu Sect cultivate the Blood Essence Rice, she did not stay at the Lu family any longer.

Liu Miaozhen quickly left the Lu family home with Shang Lan and Huo Yong and his wife.

Shi Ningyu also did not linger at the Lu family's residence, and left closely behind Liu Miaozhen and the others.

Shi Ningyu did not want the White Jade Elephant and the Flame Demon Wolf, because she already knew that the Lu family had developed fertilizer for cultivating Blood Essence Rice.

This fertilizer requires the blood of monsters.

Both the White Jade Elephant and the Flame Demon Wolf are third-tier demonic beasts. The Lu family can continue to use the blood of these two third-tier demonic beasts for research to see if they can develop a better fertilizer for the Blood Essence Rice.

Shi Ningyu only took away third-tier spiritual herbs. Both the Dan Ding Sect and she were skilled in refining pills, and these third-tier herbs would be more effective in her hands than in the Lu family. After Shi Ningyu left, Lu Cheng'an began leading the Lu family cultivators to exterminate the first and second-tier demonic beasts in the Burning Flame Mountains.

This time, they only forcefully dealt with the third-tier demonic beasts such as the Azure Flame Lion, but did not have a significant impact on the first and second-tier demonic beasts.

Although there are quite a few of these first and second-tier demonic beasts, if the Lu family were to mobilize all its resources, it would be relatively easy to deal with them.

Lu Cheng'an directly ordered Qing Hong and the other third-tier demonic beasts to focus their full efforts on attacking the first and second-tier demonic beasts.

Of course, Lu Cheng'an did not ask the third-tier demon beasts like Que Yun to kill all the first and second-tier demon beasts. Instead, he asked them to kill the demon beasts with poor talent directly, and suppress all the demon beasts with good bloodline talent or those that had already broken through to the second tier.

The Lu family possesses a secret method that allows demonic beasts at the second-stage perfect realm to quickly break through to the third stage, and then extract their essence to refine Golden Core pills.

The fertilizer that Lu Jingtong is developing to cultivate blood essence rice also requires the flesh and bones of demonic beasts.

Both of these things are closely related to demonic beasts. Lu Cheng'an has already planned that once his Lu family occupies the Burning Flame Mountain Range, they will set aside a large area specifically for raising these demonic beasts.

The Lu family also has a high-level beast taming inheritance, but Lu Chengyao, the highest-ranking beast tamer in the Lu family, is only at the early stage of Foundation Establishment. He has no ability to deal with those late-stage and perfect-stage second-tier demon beasts.

If the Lu family were to raise demonic beasts in the Burning Flame Mountains, Lu Chengyao could only assist from the sidelines, while the real responsibility for these third-tier demonic beasts would fall to third-tier demonic beasts such as Queyun.

Now, the third-tier demonic beasts like Queyun have begun to clear out the first and second-tier demonic beasts as instructed by Lu Cheng'an. With their help, even though there are quite a few first and second-tier demonic beasts, they can still be dealt with in a very short time.

Time passed slowly, and more than a month went by in the blink of an eye.

During this period, the Lu family and the Dan Ding Sect have been working together to eliminate first and second-tier demonic beasts within their territory. Now, the first and second-tier demonic beasts within their territory have been completely cleared out.

Not only that, Lu Chengyao also followed Lu Chengan's instructions and entered the Burning Flame Mountain Range with Queyun and other third-tier demonic beasts, setting aside an extremely vast area to raise the selected first and second-tier demonic beasts.

All the third-tier demonic beasts, including Queyun, will enter the Burning Flame Mountain Range to cultivate. For this reason, Lu Cheng'an specially asked Lu Chengping to set up third-tier formations such as the third-tier Spirit Gathering Array and the Spirit Nurturing Array in the Burning Flame Mountain Range to cultivate third-tier spiritual veins.

The number of third-tier demonic beasts like Queyun and Qinghong is too large. If someone with ill intentions were to find out that the Lu family has so many third-tier demonic beasts, they might very well make a fuss about it.

The Burning Flame Mountain Range is extremely vast. Even if some cultivators know that there are third-tier demonic beasts such as the Sparrow Meteor in the mountain range, the Lu family can still get away with it.

During this period, Lu Jingkun's cultivation also successfully broke through to the Foundation Establishment Perfection realm.

After his cultivation was consolidated, Lu Chengping returned to the Lu family from the Burning Flame Mountains. However, Lu Chengan did not let Lu Chengping take Lu Jingkun to the Spirit Gu Sect. Instead, he took Lu Jingkun into the Burning Flame Mountains.

“The family is currently facing financial difficulties. The Burning Flame Mountains contain extremely rich resources, especially the underground lava river. You can search within the Burning Flame Mountains first, and then I will take you into the underground lava river to see how many Tier 3 mineral deposits we can find!” Lu Cheng’an said.

He felt that there shouldn't be any mineral deposits in the Burning Flame Mountains, since the Heavenly Flame Sect was capable of occupying the Burning Flame Mountains back then.

If there were large Tier 3 mineral deposits in the Burning Flame Mountains, the Heavenly Flame Sect would certainly not give up such Tier 3 mineral deposits and allow those demonic beasts to roam in the Burning Flame Mountains.

Lu Jingkun cultivates the Earth Attribute Technique, the Jade Book of Earth, which has an extraordinary effect when searching for mineral deposits.

The fact that Lu Jingkun was able to find that small spirit stone mine outside Qingling Mountain Market shows that he has some talent in finding mineral deposits.

The spirit stone mine in Linghe Valley is only a small one, and the number of spirit stones it contains is not particularly large, only a little over one million.

When the Lu family discovered this spirit stone mine, their strength was not yet formidable.

They were very careful when mining back then, but as the Lu family's strength grew, they became less careful when mining the spirit stone mines in Qinghe Valley, and the mining speed increased significantly.

In recent years, the Lu family has also consumed a lot of resources such as spirit stones. After so many years of mining, the spirit stone mine in Qinghe Valley is almost exhausted.

Once the spirit stone mine in Qinghe Valley is depleted, the Lu family's financial problems will become even more severe.

It was for this reason that Lu Wenxing took the initiative to talk to Lu Cheng'an about this matter and ask for Lu Cheng'an's opinion.

Lu Cheng'an had cultivated in the underground lava river of the Burning Flame Mountains for a long time, so he was quite familiar with the situation of the underground lava river of the Burning Flame Mountains.

He was certain that the underground lava river in the Burning Flame Mountains contained a large amount of mineral resources. If the Lu family could mine all of these resources, they would no longer have to worry about cultivation resources.

After giving instructions to Lu Jingkun, Lu Cheng'an led him to search the Burning Flame Mountains.

More than half a month passed in the blink of an eye. At this time, Lu Cheng'an led Lu Jingkun into the underground lava river.

The situation in the Burning Flame Mountains was similar to what Lu Cheng'an had predicted. Although the mountain range was vast and contained several third-order spiritual veins, its mineral resources were extremely scarce.

Lu Cheng'an and his companion searched the entire Burning Flame Mountain Range but only found two second-tier mines.

These two second-tier mines contain a small amount of minerals and are quite far from the Lu family.

Lu Cheng'an simply noted down the locations of the two mines and did not notify the cultivators in his clan to come and mine them.

"Elder, there should be a Tier 3 Iron Jade Fire Marrow Stone Mine 150 miles below the lava river 30 miles ahead!" Lu Jingkun said to Lu Cheng'an with delight after taking the earth-yellow jade book that was floating in his palm.

This earth-yellow jade book is called the Earthly Jade Book, which shares the same name as the cultivation technique Lu Jingkun practices. It is also a second-tier top-grade magic artifact.

If Lu Jingkun's cultivation breaks through to the Golden Core realm, this Earthly Jade Book can be upgraded to a third-grade low-level magic weapon, which is Lu Jingkun's natal magic weapon.

Lu Jingkun's ability to explore such a vast area with only the Foundation Establishment Perfection realm is not only related to the cultivation technique he practices, but also greatly related to the magic artifact, the Earthly Jade Book, in his possession.

The current grade of the Earthly Jade Book is the second-tier top grade, and it was personally refined by Lu Cheng'an for Lu Jingkun.

“Give me directions, and I’ll take you there now!” Lu Cheng’an said quickly.

The iron jade fire marrow stone mine that Lu Jingkun discovered was located about 150 miles downstream from the lava river, which required crossing the entire lava river to reach it.

If Lu Jingkun's cultivation had reached the Golden Core realm, it would be fine, but right now he still doesn't have the ability to move freely in the lava river.

(End of this chapter)