Chapter 383: Long Journey (1/2)
Chapter 383: Long Journey
A month later, on the surface of a rippling sea, a large ship departing from Scarlet Tide Continent leisurely headed east.
This ship had three floors in total. The bottom floor was filled with ores and spirit materials, and the second and third floors had little rooms where martial practitioners of all forces and realms were living.
The Scarlet Tide Continent had always been trading with the eastern side of the Flowing Cloud Continent and Heavenly Fate Continent. All three were able to profit through the trade of spirit materials.
As a result, such ships often came and went between the three continents.
The ships carried cargo and people. As long as one paid the required amount of spirit stones, anyone could book passage on them.
At the rear of the ship, in a room on the second floor, there was only a bed and a small washroom. Qin Lie was seated right on top of the bed. He had stayed in his room for more of the past month than than he had walked outside, rigorously cultivating day by day.
As of this moment, he was in the late stage of the Manifestation Realm. His Soul Lake was clear and clean, his mind was calm, and he would concentrate on cultivating every day, purifying his Soul Lake over and over.
He was using this opportunity to stabilize his mind, intent on breaking through his limits as soon as possible and stepping through the door that was the Netherpassage Realm.
Breaking through from the Manifestation Realm to the Netherpassage Realm was an incredibly difficult process. Many martial practitioners earnestly cultivated for their entire lives and were stuck at this obstacle, unable to break through. This lasted until the day their life ended, and they would ultimately pass away full of regret.
Qin Lie had paid fifty Profound Grade Six spirit stones to board this ship headed to the eastern side of the Heavenly Fate Continent. For the past month, he had been cultivating in hopes of finding a shortcut that would allow him to break through to the Netherpassage Realm.
A slight soul ripple emanated from the Soul Suppressing Orb inside his mind. Xue Li transmitted a message that he wished to get a breath of fresh air.
Qin Lie nodded slightly.
A blood red thread shot out of his forehead, twisting and writhing before it slowly turned into Xue Li’s soul shadow.
Xue Li consciously withdrew his aura so that people nearby would not notice his existence. Then he said, “Kid, how many spirit stones do you have left?”
“Let me check.” Qin Lie’s wisp of mind consciousness slipped into his spatial ring.
The incredibly eye-catching wooden sculpture left behind by his grandfather was in the spatial ring. There were also Phantasm Stones, Froststar Stones, Fate Crystals, Ethereal Jades, and the fresh blood of Scarlet Spirit Turtle. These were all spirit materials that Xue Li had once requested.
Other than that, there was also a portion of materials which were used to forge Terminator Profound Bombs, the Eye of Frost, and finally a small pile of spirit stones.
Qin Lie had acquired these spirit stones back when he was still in Armament Sect. He swept a glance over them. It wasn’t much. A rough estimation told him that there were a hundred or so spirit stones at best. Most of them were Profound Grade Six or Seven, and a dozen or so were Earth Grade Two or Three.
He rubbed his spatial ring, and there was a bright flash of light. The pile of spirit stones inside the spatial ring appeared on the bed all at once.
“I have only this much left,” Qin Lie said frankly.
“Spirit stones excavated in the Land of Chaos are all reprocessed and remanufactured before use. They are not divided in a complicated way like on the Scarlet Tide Continent.”
“Explain.” Qin Lie frowned slightly.
“The spirit stones that are excavated in your Scarlet Tide Continent, as well as in the nearby Flowing Cloud Continent and Heavenly Fate Continent, do not undergo any processing whatsoever, and are directly used as currency. This is why you’ve divided spirit stones into seven grades, just like spirit artifacts and spirit pills, based on how much spirit energy a spirit stone contains. This is actually quite troublesome and cumbersome when they are used for trading,” Xue Li said.
Qin Lie nodded. “This is true.”
He also felt that dividing spirit stones, whether they were Common or Profound Grade, seven more times was too complicated when there was no need for such complexity.
“Truthfully, the Scarlet Tide Continent and the Flowing Cloud Continent are backward and do not have a good way to process spirit stones.” Xue Li’s words were frank and pointed right at the heart of the matter.
“However, the Land of Chaos is different. After excavating spirit stones, they are able to directly extract the spirit energy from them and merge them into other spirit stones of the same grade, but different level. They have a simpler way to categorize spirit stones, only dividing them into five overarching grades—Common Grade, Profound Grade, Earth Grade, Heaven Grade, and Divine Grade. The difference in spirit power between each grade is exactly one thousand times.”
Xue Li looked at him while explaining carefully, “Every grade of spirit stones follows a clear standard because they performed the processing before creating each category.”
Qin Lie immediately understood.
The Land of Chaos treated spirit stones like the currency of the mortal realm. They would thoroughly process spirit stones that they excavated so that every spirit stone of the same grade would contain the same amount of spirit energy. This made it convenient to use spirit stones for trading.
This was just like the mortal realm where countries processed the gold, silver, and copper that they excavated into uniform ingots and bars.
The spirit stones of the Land of Chaos were all processed after being excavated. They were only split into five overarching grades. Every Profound Grade spirit stone would have spirit energy equal to that of one thousand Common Grade spirit stones. This was a proportionate conversion of one to one thousand among spirit stones.
“Using the differentiation of the Land of Chaos, the spirit stones you currently have are only around the value of forty Profound Grade spirit stones and five Earth Grade spirit stones. If you wish to reach the Land of Chaos swiftly, it will be difficult with just this amount of spirit stones.” Xue Li frowned.
Upon hearing his words, Qin Lie froze. “It’s that expensive?”
“First you have to take a boat all the way to the eastern side of Spirit Eagle Island, then take another boat from Spirit Eagle Island to Sea Moon Island. After passing through Sea Moon Island’s teleportation formation, you will have to go through another five intermediate teleportations before being able to finally reach the Heavenly Wither Continent. The boat ride from Spirit Eagle Island to Sea Moon Island will already cost five Earth Grade spirit stones, and the intermediate teleportations from Sea Moon Island will cost another eighteen Earth Grade spirit stones. The spirit stones you have right now are far from enough,” Xue Li said, shaking his head.