The Value of Soil
The difference between a proper spirit stone and a mere ore lies in whether it can stably retain the spiritual energy it holds. The moment such incomplete ore is severed from the vein, its spiritual energy will immediately begin to leak, making it pointless to mine. Thus, the best course of action would be to stay in this spot and absorb the energy directly, but Jekyeong currently had no way to absorb it, and to make matters worse, it was water-attribute energy. Since his own spiritual nature leaned toward fire, attempting to absorb water energy would be extremely inefficient at best, and at worst, it could actually harm his spiritual foundation.
It's a textbook chicken rib, Jekyeong thought, swallowing his disappointment as he looked around to see if there was anything else. He had already confirmed through his Spiritual Perception that there was nothing of note here besides the ore vein. His turning around and scanning the area was nothing more than a lingering attachment.
The turtle said there are a few more places like this, so I'll just have to hope for a better harvest elsewhere. Just as he smacked his lips bitterly and prepared to turn around, something caught his eye.
Huh? It wasn't actually anything special. It was just a somewhat thick layer of dirt sitting right in the middle of the ore vein. Yet, strangely, that ordinary dirt—or more precisely, the ores surrounding it—drew Jekyeong's attention. If his senses weren't playing tricks on him, the ores near the dirt had exceptionally faint water energy compared to the others. The aura was so weak that he might have mistaken them for ordinary rocks.
What is this? Piqued, Jekyeong drew closer to inspect the dirt. Earth energy? It's faint, but... it's not dispersing. It wasn't dispersing. This was the same property as a spirit stone. However, the energy in this dirt was incredibly faint, to the point where he wouldn't have noticed it without looking closely.
Hmm? As Jekyeong observed the dirt so closely his head was almost buried in it, he felt the earth energy flare slightly before immediately scattering. The earth energy of the dirt had attempted to suppress the water energy of the vein, only to be suppressed in turn. Yet, it wasn't a completely futile effort; in the process, the water energy of the vein had also diminished by a microscopic fraction.
Could this be... Jekyeong clearly witnessed the process of the earth and water energies clashing and canceling each other out. He now understood why this ore vein looked the way it did. The mutual overcoming of the five elements. The earth energy contained in this dirt has been continuously draining the vein's water energy over a long period of time.
He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes. But having seen it, he had no choice but to believe. This was no ordinary dirt. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a type of spiritual crystal in the form of soil—one that even possessed a certain degree of spiritual energy recovery. If this dirt hadn't been interfering here, this place might have developed into a spiritual territory rich in water energy, even if a full spiritual vein was out of the question.
This is definitely a spiritual treasure. And likely a highly valuable one at that. The ores that had failed to become spiritual crystals no longer caught his eye. Jekyeong's gaze was now entirely fixed on the widely scattered dirt. He had to take every last bit of this soil.
But... how do I carry it? If it were ore, he could grab it with his tail or something, but how on earth was he supposed to carry dirt? Should he hold it in his mouth? He could do that with ordinary dirt, but this was a spiritual treasure. What if it dissolved in his mouth, or worse, slid down into his stomach? If this spiritual soil ended up being digested in his belly...
Of course, consuming a spiritual treasure would be good for his body, but he wasn't looking for a health supplement right now; he was looking for capital to use as transaction funds. It would be highly problematic if his capital got digested.
"Mmm." He racked his brain, but no good ideas came to mind. As he struggled, he suddenly thought of the turtle waiting up above. If he decided to carry this dirt in his mouth, the turtle would inevitably have to stay down here for a while. I wonder if that fellow has any good ideas? He didn't expect much. He just figured the creature might know something, given how knowledgeable it seemed to be about various things.
"Turtle. I need to carry some items back, but I have no suitable way to transport them. Do you have any good ideas?"
"Eh... what kind of items do you mean...?"
"Dirt. Spiritual Soil, to be precise."
"Spiritual Soil?" At the question he had asked without much expectation, the turtle blinked, slowly raised its head to look upward, and then spoke cautiously.
"Um... Lord Dragon. I once heard that among the humans, there are those who possess treasures capable of storing a vast number of things."
Jekyeong's eyes snapped wide open at those words. A storage bag! It was exactly what the turtle had described—a tool that could easily store numerous items, essentially the inventory of the cultivation world. Right. There are storage bags. Recalling what the senior cultivators of the Mansi Assembly had said in the past, storage bags seemed to be quite commonly used in the human cultivation world. In that case... wouldn't those human cultivators up there, who seemed to be water bandits, have at least one such storage bag on them?
This turtle. I'm starting to like him. Jekyeong looked down with satisfaction at the turtle, which was keeping its webbed feet gathered in a polite posture. Though the head-bowed turtle trembled anxiously under Jekyeong's intense gaze, Jekyeong paid it no mind.
"Turtle."
"Yes! Lord Dragon."
Jekyeong opened his massive maw wide. "Get in."
"Yes..." Wearing a tearful expression, the turtle climbed onto Jekyeong's massive tongue.
"You'd better hold on tight."
"Hold on to wha—?" The mouth snapped shut, cutting off the turtle's voice. Immediately after, Jekyeong's body shot rapidly upward, and a faint, undignified shriek leaked from his tightly closed jaws.
"Ugh." Emerging from the vortex after being thoroughly battered by the violent currents, Jekyeong groaned and spread his Divine Sense once more. However, even though his Divine Sense reached all the way to the surface, he couldn't detect the presence of the human cultivators. Wondering if he had taken the wrong direction, he spread his Divine Sense even wider, but he still couldn't find them. Flustered, Jekyeong unleashed his Divine Sense with all his might once more, but the result remained the same.
What? Have they left? How could they leave so soon? Well, thinking about it, it had taken him some time... but still, would they return so early when they had come out to work? Could they have already been preparing to leave when he first saw them? Feeling uneasy, Jekyeong spat the turtle out.
"Ugh...!" Having experienced the world spinning wildly once again while passing through the vortex, the turtle could barely gather its senses even after being spat out.
"Turtle. The humans are gone." Jekyeong didn't wait for the turtle to recover this time.
"Ugh... what? They're gone?"
"Where do you think they went?"
"Uh..." The turtle slapped its own cheeks a few times with its webbed feet, then spoke with much clearer eyes. "Lord Dragon. As far as I know, there is an island nearby that the humans frequently visit."
"An island?"
"Yes. I don't know exactly what kind of place it is, but perhaps they headed in that direction?"
There were no other clues for now. He could blindly pick a direction and move while constantly spreading his Divine Sense, but the probability of success was low, and the mental fatigue would be too severe.
"Which way?" The turtle quickly pointed in a direction.
The small island, home to tens of thousands of people, was named Sam-wa-do. It was named after its three peaks, which resembled crouching frogs. Sam-wa-do had a long history. Initially, it was an uninhabited island, with nothing but nesting birds and semi-aquatic beasts. Then, human fugitives first set foot on it. This happened about seven hundred years ago. The history of Sam-wa-do began when those fleeing from Daedo sought a refuge and settled on the island.
Over the next seven hundred years, Sam-wa-do underwent many changes. The human population steadily grew as others arrived for the same or similar reasons as the first settlers. As they cultivated the land, Sam-wa-do's population swelled. The island developed alongside its population, and while the Sam-wa-do of today couldn't be called a city, it had become a human settlement the size of a large town.
However, Sam-wa-do was fundamentally founded by fugitives. Furthermore, due to its geographical location, it could never be officially incorporated into the territory of the orthodox human sects. Thus, instead of dealing with legitimate human factions, Sam-wa-do had no choice but to interact with the likes of water bandits. They served as a port where the bandits could dock and rest, trading various goods in exchange.
But dealing with water bandits, especially without any means of self-defense, usually meant exploitation. Those who couldn't bear the exploitation fled the island, while those who lacked the courage had no choice but to remain and be bled dry.
"..." The boy Han Cheongyu stood on a hill overlooking the harbor, glaring at the water bandits as they sailed away in a noisy, boisterous clamor. His bloodshot eyes held a deep resentment and murderous intent that was rare for a boy his age.
Damn bastards. One day, I will definitely... In the past, the boy's father had died of a ruptured heart while trying to stop the water bandits from running amok in the village. His mother, stricken with grief after losing her husband overnight, fell ill and died within a year. The boy's grudge had already reached the heavens, and his blade of vengeance had been honed to its absolute sharpest long ago.
The Heok-gyo-bang bastards! It was a tragedy, but the boy's parents had actually gotten off relatively easy. At least they had died quickly without suffering worse fates. In a place like Sam-wa-do, which had no backing and no power to protect itself, such occurrences were commonplace. Although the Heok-gyo-bang was known to be particularly vicious, the situation was similar elsewhere. The boy swore an oath to himself. One day, he would wipe out not only the Heok-gyo-bang but also all those vampire-like bastards who oppressed the weak and sucked their lifeblood.
"Huh?" The boy's eyes, which had been shining as sharp as blades while watching the departing bandits' ship, suddenly went wide. He rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things, but the scene before him didn't change. The ship carrying the water bandits was instantly smashed to pieces, colliding with a massive entity that suddenly erupted from the water. The shipwrecked bandits screamed in panic and threw themselves into the water, only to be greeted by a colossal figure emerging from the depths... a dragon?
A dragon? A dragon?! The boy's jaw dropped.
"Is this all of them?" Floating in the water, his face pale with terror, the human cultivator nodded frantically. He opened his mouth as if trying to say something, but no sound came out. Jekyeong had not permitted him to speak.
"I'll know once I check." Just the length of his head and neck protruding above the surface was more than enough to look down on the floating humans from a great height. His massive, elongated body, visible beneath the water, stretched in a wide circle as if completely enclosing the surviving human cultivators. Looking up at him, the human cultivators' hearts were filled with absolute despair. Resistance was futile. It had been from the very beginning. A massive tail had suddenly erupted from the water and snapped their ship in half with a single blow.
Their ship was no ordinary vessel. To a water bandit, their ship was their lifeline. Although their ship wasn't a spiritual tool, it was still a masterpiece. No one outside their trade would ever know just how many spirit stones had been poured into this seemingly ordinary vessel. Setting aside speed and other factors, its durability was such that it had previously withstood several water beasts slamming into it simultaneously without a scratch. Yet, such a ship had been snapped in two with a single strike, so it was only natural that the water bandits were terrified out of their wits.