Of the eighteen spirit wells, only the one Yang Kai had claimed was truly peaceful.
Everyone had witnessed Yang Kai's savage methods earlier, and none dared compete with him for anything. They deliberately gave this killing star a wide berth.
Yang Kai was more than happy with that.
He paid no attention to the fighting at the other spirit wells. Instead, he sent a message through his consciousness to Liu Yan, instructing her to bring Hua Qingsi and the others over.
After taking care of that, he flickered forward and plunged straight into the spirit spring's eye.
The instant he landed inside, Yang Kai was enveloped by spiritual energy so dense it had turned almost viscous. The sensation of that energy flooding into his body was indescribably pleasant, and the Dao Source Realm second stage he had just broken through to actually began to stabilize in a remarkably short time.
Delighted, Yang Kai quickly formed a series of spirit seals with his hands and began absorbing the energy frantically.
At the same time, he took out the Mysterious Boundary Bead and flicked his finger across its surface, opening a rift in the bead to expose the small Mysterious World, allowing the spiritual energy to pour in and be absorbed.
However, before long, Yang Kai's brow furrowed. He focused his gaze downward, his eyes gleaming with piercing light that seemed capable of seeing through the void itself.
Faintly, he caught sight of something being expelled upward along with the eruption of the spirit spring, hurtling at astonishing speed. The sharp whistle of objects tearing through the air reached his ears in rapid succession.
"Not good!" Yang Kai's heart sank. He had no idea what was shooting up from the depths of the spirit spring, but he could sense an extremely dangerous aura. He immediately channeled his Source Qi, forming a protective layer over his body, and moved to dodge sideways.
But it was already too late.
Whistle, whistle, whistle…
Boom, boom, boom…
One after another, mysterious objects crashed into him at inconceivable speeds, each impact landing like a meteor strike.
In an instant, Yang Kai's entire body ached with pain. Using the force of the collisions, he was blasted out of the spirit well entirely.
Hot on his heels, streaks of white light burst forth like a sky full of stars, scattering in every direction.
"What the hell are these things!" Yang Kai's expression was a mixture of shock and disbelief. He dodged to the side and focused his eyes to observe carefully.
Before long, his expression became rather spectacular.
That was because he realized the objects that had erupted from the spirit spring and collided with his body were nothing other than fist-sized Spirit Crystals!
Judging from their luster and purity, the lowest grade among them was at least mid-grade Spirit Crystals, and there were even large numbers of high-grade Spirit Crystals mixed in.
Yang Kai's eyes went wide, and his gaze turned positively scorching.
Across the entire Star Boundary, the currency foundation for trade and commerce among cultivators was low-grade Spirit Crystals. For example, back at the Green Yang Temple, Gao Xueting had asked him to pay ten million for that strand of Formless Mystic Grass — and that had referred to low-grade Spirit Crystals. Converted, it was merely a hundred thousand mid-grade Spirit Crystals or a thousand high-grade Spirit Crystals.
The Spirit Crystals Yang Kai had obtained up to this point were overwhelmingly low-grade, with only a modest number of mid-grade ones. As for high-grade Spirit Crystals, he could count them on one hand.
High-grade Spirit Crystals were not easy to come by. Only the finest Spirit Crystal veins produced them, and those top-tier veins had always been controlled by major powers. Once extracted, they were virtually always consumed internally within their respective sects, rarely ever circulating to the outside world.
The higher the grade of a Spirit Crystal, the greater its utility. Many sect formations and even cultivators' breakthroughs required high-grade Spirit Crystals.
Yet here, right now, large quantities of mid-grade and high-grade Spirit Crystals were erupting from this very spirit spring. How could Yang Kai not be stunned?
While he stood there in a daze, the other seventeen spirit wells erupted simultaneously.
Massive quantities of Spirit Crystals burst forth from beneath each spring along with the surging spiritual energy. The air was filled with an unending chorus of whistling, and the sky blazed with shimmering white light.
One cultivator, caught off guard, was struck by a Spirit Crystal and grunted audibly, a thin trickle of blood escaping from the corner of his lips — testament to the sheer force behind these impacts.
Yet after only a brief moment, every cultivator at the underground springs erupted in frenzy.
"Spirit Crystals — high-grade Spirit Crystals!"
"There are high-grade Spirit Crystals beneath these springs! Ha ha ha ha, this is the jackpot!"
"Scram! This spring belongs to us! If you don't have the sense to leave, don't blame my brothers and me for forgetting the friendship between our two sects!"
"What a joke — treasures belong to the worthy. You lot think you can hog them? If you want to die, I'll oblige!"
"You refuse the toast only to drink the forfeit — I'll fight you to the bitter end! Arghhhh…"