"If it bothers you, I can take them all away!" When Wuyi saw Yang Kai staying silent, she assumed he was unhappy and hurriedly bit her red lip as she spoke.
"Where would you even take them?" Yang Kai chuckled. "Since they're here, they might as well stay. Besides, this place was yours to begin with."
"But I already gave it to you." Wuyi's face was full of shame. "Since I gave it to you, everything here is yours now."
"Don't overthink it. The fact that you have so many people following you is your own doing." Yang Kai gave a faint smile. "There are still plenty of stone chambers in the cave. A few more people won't make a difference."
"Thank you!" Wuyi said gratefully.
Yang Kai shook his head, his expression sincere. "I should be the one thanking you."
If Wuyi hadn't offered Dragon Vein Mountain for him to live in, he never would have discovered the Void Spirit Crystal mine here. Though it wasn't convenient to speak of it yet, Yang Kai would remember this immense favor. Never mind keeping the few dozen followers who had come with Wuyi — even if Wuyi ran into far greater trouble down the line, he would stand up for her.
"Stop thanking each other already." Yang Yan's voice drifted over, and Yang Kai turned to see her walking over from the side, looking somewhat exhausted. Though her expression was haggard, her beautiful eyes were brimming with excitement. She casually tossed something to Yang Kai. "This Artifact is pretty decent. See if you want to refine it. If not, sell it. We're dead broke right now."
Yang Kai caught it and swept it with his Divine Sense — it was Xu Zhishen's Hundred Peaks Map. He immediately tossed it into his spatial ring. "This one's not for sale."
His battle with Xu Zhishen had yielded two Artifacts: the Shadow Soul Thread and the Hundred Peaks Map. Yang Kai hadn't had a chance to examine them closely, but he knew the Hundred Peaks Map was genuinely good. Xu Zhishen had unleashed the phantom images of six mountain peaks and it already carried that kind of power. If refined and used to project more peak phantoms, the power would only grow stronger.
If all a hundred peaks emerged at once, even someone at the Return to Void Realm probably couldn't withstand it. Yang Kai had never paid much attention to offensive Artifacts, but he was quite fond of the Hundred Peaks Map.
"Then give me Holy Crystals!" Yang Yan bluntly extended her small hand.
"Weren't we just using the materials we bought last time? Fifty thousand Holy Crystals' worth, and high-grade ones at that — all gone already?" Yang Kai stared at Yang Yan in shock. This woman was as good at spending money as she was at earning it.
"You think setting up a grand formation is easy? Those materials were only enough for the formation itself. Now that so many people have arrived, every stone chamber needs its own small Spirit Gathering Formation. The Holy Crystals they consume each day during cultivation add up to quite a bit."
Wuyi waved her hand from the side. "There's no need for all that. They never enjoyed such treatment back in their families. The spiritual energy around Dragon Vein Mountain is already quite good."
Last time, Yang Kai's breakthrough had swept the spiritual energy clean within a thirty-li radius of the cave. Over half a month, some of it had recovered — at least faint wisps of spiritual mist could now be seen atop the surrounding hills again.
"Don't be polite with him. You can't imagine how wealthy he is." Yang Yan leaned in close to Wuyi and whispered in her ear.
She was the only one who knew about Yang Kai's inexhaustible supply of Void Spirit Crystals, so naturally she understood he would never have to worry about Holy Crystals.
Yang Kai shook his head and pulled out everything remaining in his ring — tens of thousands of high-grade, mid-grade, and low-grade Holy Crystals — dumping them all out at once, keeping only a thousand or so for his own emergency use.
"Wuyi, from now on you're Dragon Vein Mountain's bookkeeper. She'll handle all the finances. I need to set up formations and don't have time for that. If I need anything bought, I'll tell you. If you run out of Holy Crystals, just tell Yang Kai — he'll get more." Yang Yan stuffed the spatial ring filled with countless Holy Crystals into Wuyi's hands.
"W-what?" Wuyi was stunned. She hadn't expected that Yang Yan had asked Yang Kai for Holy Crystals only to hand them over to her. But she quickly understood — Yang Yan was clearly trying to give her something to do, to keep her from overthinking and letting her mind spiral. Realizing this, she felt a swell of gratitude. She didn't decline, and said in a firm voice, "Rest assured. Every single Holy Crystal that passes through my hands will have a clear destination!"
Wuyi had once harbored ambitions of leading the Haike family and had managed various affairs for the clan over the years. Managing a mere forty-some people was well within her capabilities.
Yang Kai's eyes flickered as he caught on to Yang Yan's intentions, and he quietly gave her a thumbs-up.
Yang Yan giggled. "My defensive grand formation is almost complete. But Yang Kai, you really need to gather more Holy Crystals. If we want to fortify a thousand-li radius, the current formation won't be enough. Right now it can only protect the ten-li area around our cave."
Yang Kai naturally understood the deeper meaning in her words. The Void Spirit Crystal vein was of paramount importance. The Stone Puppet had been mining for days and was still going — no one knew how staggering the reserves beneath the earth truly were. No matter what, he had to defend this place.
Moreover, Yang Kai himself intended to stay here, using it as a springboard to build his reputation.
He nodded. "Don't worry about the Holy Crystals. I'll figure something out."