Chapter 226: A New Discovery
Translator: SoupHunter Editor: TomYummy
"Hehe!" Yao Ruoxianâs old face was creased with amusement.
He realized that this kid really didnât know how to hold back. âI canât believe he agreed just like that, but this is good as well. This is good, very good.â
He tucked the battle armor into his storage ring. Without another word, he quickly stepped out of the cave manor, and chased after Charcoal.
"Fat Thief! Fat Thief!"
After just being mistreated, Charcoal head snapped back in horrorâseeing it was the old man, he immediately dashed away.
Yao Ruoxian rose up into the skies and chased him from up above. He continued to use a Yao Core to entice him, but seeing that it had no effect; he rolled his eyes and tossed it over agreeably. Then, he landed and stopped giving chase to avoid startling Charcoal.
Unexpectedly, this didnât work either. Charcoal simply jumped over the spot where the Yao Core had dropped in front of him.
Yao Ruoxian was speechless. He slowly walked over to the Yao Core and sucked it back into his hands. He stood with his hands behind his back, and watched in a daze as Charcoalâs silhouette slowly faded away.
Finally he gave a pitiful sigh. If he knew that things were going to be like this, he wouldnât have done something like bury that Fat Thief alive back then.
But then again, if he hadnât buried Charcoal alive back then, he wouldnât have associated Charcoal with that legend at all.
He couldnât help but shake his head with a sigh, "No rush, no rush. I will eventuallyâŠ. HuhâŠ"
Yao Ruoxian blinked. After carefully scanning around with his eyes, he slowly relaxed his hands from behind his back, and revealed the hand holding the Yao Core. He saw that a tiny mantis had climbed onto his palm, and was taking large bites out of the Yao Core to munch on.
It was probably because the Yao Core had just been at the edge of this sleeve, and attracted it over.
Ever since he started feeding the tiny mantids, their figures had grown slightly larger. The greatest change was that their bodies had become more sturdy.
Perhaps it was because they were constantly fed with crystal coins. Their bodies had various, gold, black, and silver-colored marks. They were mostly silver-colored, probably as a result of mostly eating White Crystals. At the edge of their tails were silver loops and, added to the tiny mantidsâ original body colour, made their entire appearance seem quite mysterious, yet beautiful.
"..." Yao Ruoxian was speechless. Dazed, he lifted his head to look in the direction that Charcoal had disappeared in. âThis thing eats Yao Cores too?â
The speed at which the tiny mantis consumed the Yao Core was evidently faster than when Charcoal was refining the Yao Core. Its abdomen just kept getting larger, and larger. After about half-a-day had passed, it finished tucking the entire Yao Core into its stomach, and slowly climbed back into the large sleeve.
Yao Ruoxian wanted to closely examine this. Pulling open his sleeve, he checked on the situation inside, and found the tiny mantis completely motionless.
Sticking his arm out, he tried to grab it for a better look. The other tiny mantids turned their heads to look at him in alarmâif Miao Yi hadnât already ordered them not to, they would have stabbed down with their tiny sickles already.
Only the tiny mantis with the bloated stomach was unresponsive after eating the Yao Core. Yao Ruoxian pulled it out to examine, and found that it was still motionless. If he hadnât discovered signs of life, he would have assumed it was dead.
Yao Ruoxianâs eyes widened as he invoked his arts to examine it. There was no mysterious force interfering with his probing, like the one within Charcoalâs body. He could clearly feel that the tiny mantis was slowly refining the Yao Core inside its body.
"ThisâŠ.." Yao Ruoxian was dazed for a moment. Then, he suddenly took out a pile of Ungraded Yao Cores from his storage ring, and immediately threw it into the nest of mantids.
As expected, the little fellows immediately became rowdy and fought for the Yao Cores.
Yao Ruoxian patiently waited. When the Yao Cores were completely consumed, all the little fellows stopped moving immediately. They hung onto the inside of his sleeve as though they were dead.
He invoked his arts and checked on each of them. They were the same as the one beforeâall eighty-five tiny mantids had entered a state refinement on the Yao Cores.
Yao Ruoxianâs eyes brightened as though he had discovered new land. He put the matter of Charcoal aside for the moment; he even forgot about refining a new set of battle armor for Charcoal, and found a cave to coop himself up inside. Placing the tiny mantids on the ground one-by-one, he kept watch over them and closely paid attention to their every move...
One month later, the slumbering mantids woke up one-by-one. Only the tiny mantis that had consumed the First Grade Yao Core had yet to awaken.
Their situation was different from Charcoalâs. Charcoal became slimmer after he woke up, whereas after these little fellows woke up, they actually grew larger.
âThey can grow faster by eating Yao Cores?â Yao Ruoxian immediately let his imagination run wild. He thought about how terrifying of an existence the Hell Mantises of the Boundless Secular World wereâthey were an existence that could even kill a Purple Lotus expert!
âIf these little fellows could grow up to that size, and live outside of the Boundless Secular WorldâŠ.â Yao Ruoxian shuddered at the thought of it.
Immediately after, he felt a welling of joy. If he could have eighty-five of these monsters from the Boundless Secular World by his sideâwhat kind of crazy idea was that?
"WahahaâŠ.." Yao Ruoxian danced as if he had discovered a new continent.
However, after a brief moment of happiness, he realized that the little fellows on the ground werenât obeying him anymore; they were all spreading their wings and flying out of the cave.
"Hey, hey, hey! Where are you guys going!?" Getting a little anxious, Yao Ruoxian hastily tucked the tiny slumbering mantis on the ground away, and swiftly chased after them.
He wouldnât have known that after the tiny mantids had awakened, Miao Yiâwith his blood bond to themâhad abruptly opened his eyes from his meditation, whilst cross-legged on the stone seat.
He had been a little surprised because originally, the tiny mantids had left the boundary of their psychic connection. Now the connection had been re-established andâfrom the distance between themâit felt like they were probably on the other side of the island.
âThereâs such a great distance between us, yet I can actually detect the presence of the little fellows. This never happened before. What is going on?â
Miao Yi immediately used his psychic bond to summon the little fellows to him. He wanted to find out what had happened.
Not long after, a bunch of the little fellows swarmed inside the cave. Miao Yi extended his arm, and the little fellows all landed on top of it.
Once he saw the little mantids appear, Charcoalâwho had been lying down beside the stone seatâimmediately stood up in alarm. He was a little fearful of these little fellow. Stomping his hooves, he ran off; almost crashing into Yao Ruoxian just as he was about to enter.
However right now, Yao Ruoxian didnât spare a thought for him. Immediately dodging to the side, he landed inside the cave and glared at Miao Yi, saying "Brat. What are you trying to do? They belong to me. Are you trying to take them away? Donât think that this old man wonât smash your head to a pulp with his mace!"
Miao Yi was used to him always shouting threats at him, so he didnât bother with it. Instead, he stared at the little mantids on his arm and exclaimed, "It seems they have grown a lot. How did this happen?"
He reached out and grabbed onto one, then flicked the little fellowâs carapace with his finger. His flicks made a âpa paâ sound.
Just with that, the silver loop on the little fellowâs tail was accidentally flicked off. Miao Yi and Yao Ruoxian jumped in fright, thinking that the little fellow was injured.
Yao Ruoxian was enraged. He sucked the silver loop that dropped onto the ground, into his hand and waved it as he bellowed, "You used so much force and flicked it⊠flicked⊠flicked-"
It seemed his attention was caught by the thing in his hand. He swallowed the words he was about to say, and exclaimed in wonder after closely examining the shiny silver bit in his hands; completely dumbstruck. "High Purity Crystalline SilverâŠ. ThisâŠ"
"Crystalline Silver?" Miao Yi felt it was strange. Crystalline Silver was made from White Crystals. While Crystalline Obsidian was made from Black Crystals, and Crystalline Gold from Gold Crystals. He couldnât help asking, "Arenât Crystalline Silvers made from condensing the essence powder released from refining White Crystals? Why would it appear on the tiny mantids bodyâŠ.."
His voice stopped, as he thought about how the tiny mantids ate that sort of thing. Looking as though he had just realized something, he slowly lowered his head to look at his own arm.
Yao Ruoxian suddenly invoked his arts and sucked one of the tiny mantids over from Miao Yiâs arm. Positioning it in his palm, he imitated what Miao Yi had done before, and flicked it with his finger.
With a âpaâ sound, the silver loop attached to the little fellowâs tail fell off. He held it in his hand, and examined it. After that, he examined the little fellowâs tail.
It was difficult to discover if you didnât look hard enough. It turned out that there were numerous tiny pores on the little fellowâs tail. It was impossible to see without opening your transcendence vision to examine.
Checking the little mantid again, it didnât seem like there were any signs of injury on it. He sucked another little fellow into his hand and flicked it with his finger, another silver loop dropped off. He kept repeating it on the little mantids.
Miao Yi also caught on to the idea. Grabbing one of the little mantids, he squeezed the silver loop on its tail. Without using much force, it dropped off.
He also closely examined the little fellowâs tail, and concluded that the silver loop was actually the little mantidâs excrement.
This silver loop stuck on their tails had grown largedâso back then, they assumed it was part of the little fellowsâ body. No one carelessly touched it. Only now did they realize that this wasnât the case at all.
Soon, the two of them extracted all of the silver loops on the little fellowsâ tails. The ones in Miao Yiâs hands were snatched away by Yao Ruoxian.
With the silver loops from over eighty little fellowsâ tails gathered together, it was only a small handful on Yao Ruoxianâs palm. However, this small handful required countless White Crystals to be refined.
After raising it in his hand and closely examined it, Yao Ruoxian broke out in dance again as he crazily laughed, "Itâs fully pure. Itâs actually a Crystalline Silver that is free of any impurities. I canât believe Crystalline Silver free of impurities actually exists in this world. Wahaha! To think I have actually stumbled onto it."
As a professional artifact artisan, he was naturally an expert in appraising these kind of items.
And to a professional, high-grade materials for refining artifacts were an absolute favorite.
Miao Yi was also in awe. He knew that it was difficult to extract the essence powder within Crystal Coins. Most importantly, it was difficult to maintain its purity; there would always be some degree of impurities mixed within. With the presence of impurities, if the essence powder was refined into transcendent artifactsâit would disturb the effect of transcendence energy on the transcendent artifact to some extent. It was a first to hear of Crystalline Silver that was free of impurities.
"So the little fellows could actually excrete the essence powder within the Crystal Coins after ingesting them. I actually thought that it all went into their carapace, which was why their carapace became harder. I never thought it would be like this."
"Brat. Do you know what a fully pure Crystalline Silver means? It means that for channeling transcendence energy, it will be comparable to a normal Crystalline Obsidian. Transcendent artifacts refined using this kind of Crystalline Silver will achieve the same results as those refined by normal Crystalline Obsidians."
"If the little fellows were to only eat Black Crystals, then wouldnât the Crystalline Obsidians that would extracted be fully pure as well? Wouldnât they be comparable in effect to a Crystalline Gold transcendent artifact? If they were to only feast on Gold Crystals, then what would the Crystalline Golds that are extracted be like?"
"Wahaha! I have already found the method to speed up the little fellowsâ growth. The larger the little fellows are, the more theyâll be able to eat, and at a much faster pace too. Wonât that mean that they will be able to excrete these things faster, and in larger quantities as well? Wahaha, good stuff! This is really good stuff!"
Yao Ruoxian seemed to have completely lost himself in his excitement. He gestured about here and there, and without his realizing, his saliva was raining down everywhere. He looked like he was going mad.
Miao Yi was also very excited after hearing this, but he didnât feel as strongly about it as someone who refined artifacts like Yao Ruoxian. Naturally, he wouldnât be as excited as Yao Ruoxian, to the point of losing his own composure.
He was also concerned about another problem. He curiously asked, "Could I know if Senior has discovered some method to help them grow up faster?"
"Just feed them-" The overexcited Yao Ruoxian suddenly clamped his previously unchecked mouth shut. He had finally regained his senses with Miao Yiâs question. Drawing back his crazed laughter, he widened his eyes and mocked, "You donât have anything to do with the method of speeding up their growth. You donât need to concern yourself with my things."
With an indifferent expression, Miao Yi doused him with cold water by saying, "Senior. Please donât forget, you already exchanged them for Charcoal."
"IâŠ." Yao Ruoxian was lost for words, âHow had he forgotten about that?ââ After being dazed for a brief moment, his face tensed up as he replied, "We havenât completed the exchange yet, no?"
Miao Yi mocked him in his mind, âIt doesnât matter if the exchange is made or not. Do you really believe that the little fellows will listen to your instructions and go away with you?â
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