Big Data Cultivation

Chapter 161: Chapter 161: Another Encounter with a Spirit Stone (Three More Votes for Monthly Pass)

No matter what, Feng Jun’s current task was to seek the next Spirit Stone.

Even though he hadn’t made a choice, the experiences he had gone through had already made the choice for him.

This was probably… the trend of destiny?

Feng Jun knew that his range for detecting Spirit Stones was only about a radius of three hundred meters, so he definitely needed to venture farther out and not overlap with the range of his previous search—that would simply be too uneconomical.

In fact, what he had in mind was not just to walk beyond six hundred meters, he planned to pick a pleasant spot depending on the situation.

With only a few energy points left now, he had to use them carefully.

While walking, he became alert and looked back. Sure enough, more than four hundred meters away, there were about a dozen Tian Family members trailing him from a distance, including the martial master and the high-rank martial warrior he had seen before.

So he stopped in his tracks, and seeing that the others also stopped, he raised his voice and said, “You can follow me, but you have to stay back beyond one li; otherwise, don’t blame me for making a move and injuring someone!”

Upon hearing this, the following Tian Family members were extremely annoyed, and that martial master even shouted out, “We are here to provide protection, and yet the one we protect threatens to hurt us… When has the Tian Family ever fallen so low?”

Fortunately, there was another martial master among them who shouted back, “If you’re unwilling to protect, just go and tell the clan elders, there’s no need for all this noise here! You’ll only make people laugh at the Tian Family for having no discipline!”

Even the most united clan was bound to have such minor disputes and oppositions; it was really quite normal. After all, even a couple spends day after day bickering, so what about such a large clan?

Despite their quarrels, this group of people still obediently widened their distance, maintaining roughly five hundred and thirty to forty meters in a straight line from Feng Jun.

Following Feng Jun, they travelled for almost seven or eight li, eventually reaching a small peak on Mount Zhige.

This was also a site for mining Jade. Near the peak, there were four or five large pits, but since a lot of Jade had been mined here, the miners had left for better prospects.

Seeing that Feng Jun stopped at the peak, the crowd paused as well, keeping the same distance of about five hundred and forty meters—which was still the direct distance; if you count the detours up the mountain, it was probably closer to eight or nine hundred meters.

Seeing the other party stop, the Tian Family members couldn’t help but discuss amongst themselves, speculating why this person had stopped here.

Feng Jun had been strolling aimlessly, without a particular direction in mind. When he arrived here, he had a vague feeling that it was worth a try, so he stopped.

After stopping, he took out a harmonica—yes, it was a harmonica meant for playing.

During his university days, Xiao Feng had learned two musical instruments, one was the guitar, the other was the harmonica.

The guitar was rather bulky, and he hadn’t even brought it to this plane of existence; the harmonica was much simpler, easily fitting in a pocket.

After taking out the harmonica, he started to play a tune of “Little Apple.”

As for Feng Jun’s level of playing… well? It was just for self-entertainment, not enough to provoke thoughts of violence in listeners, nothing more.

However, the natives of this plane had never suffered the torment of such a divine tune.

The martial master who held great resentment towards Feng Jun became irritable once more, “Dammit, what the hell is this? I’ve never heard such an unpleasant tune.”

—To speak the truth, Feng Jun felt the same way; he had never understood how “Little Apple” became so popular.

But in that moment, an intermediate-level martial warrior spoke up, his face solemn, “From my judgment, this is very likely a musical transmission of a message, it being unpleasant is quite normal. His main purpose is likely to transmit some information through it.”

Upon hearing this, everyone illuminated with understanding and nodded, “So that’s it.”

Feng Jun played the harmonica for a while, and figured that the tracking Tian Family members were probably baffled, then quietly took out his mobile phone, opened the WeChat interface, and with a light tap of his left hand, said, “Let’s go~”

Returning once again before the “People Nearby” feature, he didn’t hesitate to erase the word ‘people’ and replaced it with “Spirit Stones.”

Since he had so few energy points left, he had already decided to try this just once. His choice for this location was first because he had some expectations for this place, and second because… it’s a memorable spot, so if there were no Spirit Stones, he could avoid it next time.

Then he delightedly discovered two purple dots, two of them, and not far ahead of him, two that were side by side.

This… this just proved that he was indeed destined to be the main character~

Wait a minute, that sounded a bit… ambiguous?

The purple dots were about one hundred and twenty meters away from him. He exited WeChat, estimated the direction, and then walked a hundred meters before re-entering WeChat and selecting “Nearby Spirit Stones” again.

This was why he had only planned to gamble once; detecting a Spirit Stone was just the first step. Pinpointing it would require at least another use of an energy point, and if things didn’t go smoothly, it might cost two points.

And he needed to conserve two energy points for entering and exiting the space as his last measure for survival.

By that calculation, he could only gamble once; gambling twice would likely put himself in danger.

Fortunately, his luck was good this time, and he hit the jackpot on his first try, and the subsequent positioning didn’t deviate too much.

Therefore, he could ascertain that the Spirit Stones were located about forty meters to his front left.

However, the problematic part was, just five meters further to the front left, there was a big pit, a pit formed after mining Jade.

Looking at the big pit, Feng Jun was somewhat worried. He could enter the pit, but under the watchful eyes of everyone, how could he start mining for the Spirit Stones without raising suspicion and covetousness?

After some consideration, Feng Jun decided to take a risk, as he always held a belief that most of the time, one should conceal one’s abilities, but always hiding one’s skills was definitely not the way to go.

If others never know your strength, how can they keep a respectful attitude all the time?

So, he waved to the Tian Family members in the distance and yelled, “Come over, two people!”

Upon hearing this, the Tian Family members discussed quietly among themselves and quickly sent over a martial master and a Martial Artist—the martial master with a grudge against him, however, remained where he was.

Feng Jun didn’t try to hide his intentions and straightforwardly stated, “I want to test something here. You’d better stay back, or don’t blame me if there are casualties or injuries.”

The beginner-level martial master hesitated—should he listen to the other party or not?

However, he made up his mind quickly and nodded with a smile, “As the Divine Doctor commands, I will make the arrangements immediately.”

He returned to where his Clan was gathered and gave a couple of orders, causing people to retreat two li away and used the Sound Transmission Conch to inform the Clan Elders.

At this moment, Tian Yangni was restless, already aware that the Divine Doctor had gone out. He really wanted to follow and see what was happening, but in these past two days, he realized that many forces’ spies had gathered here.

As the Tian Family member with the highest Cultivation Level, it was really inappropriate for him to show up frequently by the Divine Doctor’s side. He wanted to ingratiate himself, but would others have different thoughts upon seeing this?

So, he was constantly torn, closely monitoring how the situation unfolded. Then, when he received the message from his Clan members, he unhesitatingly sent an Intermediate Level martial master. They both mounted horses and quickly rushed over.

Once Tian Yangni arrived at the scene, he saw that his Clan members had already split into four squads, occupying four positions, vaguely surrounding a small mound—forming at least a semi-circular cordon.

This was a protective measure, not an intention to attack, and he was very clear about this. However, what puzzled him was, “Where did the Divine Doctor go? Why can’t I see him?”

A Clan member immediately informed him that the Divine Doctor had entered a big pit that couldn’t be seen from the foot of the mountain, but since they were cautioned beforehand, no one dared to get closer to review.

Tian Yangni didn’t have the gall, so he could only stand there, looking toward the small peak from a distance.

After about fifteen minutes, Feng Jun walked out of the pit and moved over three hundred meters away before he waved his hand. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion from the pit as if the mountains were collapsing and the earth was splitting, shockingly tremendous.

Almost at the same time, stones of various sizes shot out from the pit; one fist-sized stone flew out for as far as four hundred meters.

Even though the Tian Family members were mentally prepared, they couldn’t help but be shocked. Two horses were so frightened that they neighed loudly and hopped around, wanting to flee. The people nearby rushed to calm them.

The martial master, who had always been unsatisfied with Feng Jun, was stunned for a moment before he let out a scoff, “This power… is just so-so. If this is all he’s got, we really didn’t need to retreat so far.”

“Shut up!” Tian Yangni scolded him without courtesy, “If you’re really unconvinced, then go and have a closer look! You brash fool, don’t get other Clan members involved.”

Upon hearing this, the martial master sulkily pursed his lips, thinking to himself, what did I say wrong? The power of the explosion was clearly very ordinary.

But that was all he murmured to himself; he really didn’t have the courage to step forward.

What was Feng Jun doing? He was using explosives for mining—the stones in the pit were extremely sturdy, and if he were to dig with tools, who knows until when he would have to dig. Thus, he decided to emulate Earth Realm practices and directly use explosives for blasting.

Using the spikes of the Spiritual Hedgehog, he dug four deep holes, placed explosives in them, and triggered the blast. Worried about damaging the Spirit Stones, he didn’t use much TNT the first time.

After the explosion, he entered the pit again and felt around, finding that he still hadn’t encountered the warmth that would heat up his wrist.

It seemed he had to continue blasting. He made his decision, but now the problem was that the pit had filled with large and small rocks because of the previous blast, so if he wanted to place more explosives, he’d first have to clear the rubble.

For Feng Jun, clearing the rubble wasn’t too difficult a task. If necessary, he could carry these things to the Earth Realm through his Mobile Phone—of course, on Earth, he would have to pick a place like a quarry.

However, after pondering for a while, he still gave up on that idea.

(Third update, calling for monthly tickets)