Leaving the small valley where the Purple Spirit Fruit grew, Tang Xiaoqi continued his exploration of the secret realm with its towering ancient trees and dense spiritual energy, accompanied by his newly acquired "little tail"—the rabbit spirit that still yearned for the Purple Spirit Fruit, frequently casting glances with its red eyes toward his storage bag.
Nourished by the Purple Spirit Fruit, his spiritual sense remained in a state of exceptional clarity and acuity, its coverage subtly expanding to twenty-one zhang, allowing him to perceive his surroundings with even greater detail. This enabled him to avoid several areas harboring dangerous auras, such as a nest of foul-smelling poison dart frogs and a patch of strangely beautiful demon vines that released hallucinogenic pollen.
The rabbit spirit also seemed to have benefited greatly from that half Purple Spirit Fruit; not only was it faster and more agile in movement, but it occasionally took the initiative to run ahead, pricking up its ears to listen for a moment or sniffing the air with its little nose, then gesturing toward a certain direction. Xiaoqi tried following its suggestions twice; though he didn't discover any particularly rare spirit herbs, the paths were relatively safe, further increasing his appreciation for this little creature's intelligence.
"You're quite a decent guide, little fellow," Xiaoqi chuckled, watching the rabbit spirit once again run ahead and stop before a cluster of faintly glowing mushrooms, using its small paw to gesture that they should detour.
The rabbit spirit glanced back at him, its short tail twitching smugly, then continued leading the way.
After roughly two hours of travel, a rather peculiar area appeared ahead. Here, the trees were relatively sparse, and the ground was covered with vast expanses of strange grass. The grass stood about half a person's height, with narrow, elongated leaves exhibiting a silvery-gray hue and veins of even brighter silver-white. Under sunlight filtering through gaps in the forest canopy, the entire grassland shimmered with rippling silver light, resembling a sparkling silver ocean—quite a spectacular sight.
"Silver-veined grass?" Xiaoqi recognized this spirit grass. Silver-veined grass itself held little medicinal value, but its roots could gather and purify metallic energy within the soil, typically growing near metal ore veins. Due to this characteristic, it was often used by low-level cultivators to assist in practicing some metal-attribute techniques or arts.
Seeing this seemingly endless expanse of silver-veined grass, Xiaoqi's heart stirred slightly. Such a large area of silver-veined grass growth suggested the possibility of a sizable metal ore vein underground. However, not being a cultivator specialized in prospecting and ore detection, he wasn't particularly interested; he merely wanted to pass through this area quickly.
Signaling the rabbit spirit to follow, he carefully stepped into the silver-veined grass. The grass was dense, making walking rather inconvenient; underfoot were tangled grass roots and soft soil. While pushing aside the blocking silvery-gray grass blades, he remained vigilant of his surroundings. Such a unique environment could very well nurture some peculiar demon beasts.
The rabbit spirit seemed quite intrigued by this silvery, shimmering grassland, hopping about occasionally to sniff the glowing silver leaves, even attempting to take a bite now and then, but quickly spitting it out in distaste—apparently the taste wasn't great.
Just as Xiaoqi trudged forward, his attention more on his surroundings than his footing, suddenly his ankle struck something hard!
"Oof!"
Caught off guard, he lost his balance, let out a startled cry, and tumbled forward, landing squarely in the dense silver-veined grass and scattering a cloud of silvery-gray grass fragments.
"Pfft! Pfft!" Xiaoqi spat out grass blades and dirt that had flown into his mouth, somewhat disheveled as he pushed himself up. With his late-stage Qi Refining cultivation and agility, he shouldn't have been tripped so easily; it was truly because the grass obscured his vision and the hard object had appeared too abruptly.
Rubbing his slightly sore ankle, he frowned and looked toward where he had tripped. Amid the dense grass roots, half-concealed, was a fist-sized, pitch-black stone with a rough, uneven surface. The stone appeared utterly unremarkable, indistinguishable from ordinary mountain rocks; without physical contact, one would never have noticed its presence.
"Stupid rock..." Xiaoqi muttered, instinctively about to kick it away. But just as his foot was about to touch the stone, the spiritual energy within him—honed to exceptional sensitivity toward vitality and energy through practicing the Long Spring Art—faintly sensed that within this black stone seemed to lie an extremely concentrated, heavy Geng Metal energy!
Huh? Something's off!
Xiaoqi halted his motion, bent down, pushed aside the surrounding silver-veined grass, and carefully examined this "culprit" that had tripped him. Reaching out, he touched the stone's surface; it felt cold and hard, far exceeding ordinary stones. He attempted to channel a wisp of spiritual energy into it.
Hum!
The seemingly ordinary rocky crust on the black stone's surface, stimulated by the spiritual energy, faintly emitted an extremely dim metallic luster! Simultaneously, that restrained Geng Metal energy became slightly clearer!
"This is... black iron ore?!" Xiaoqi's eyes instantly flashed with delight!
Black iron was one of the most commonly used and important foundational materials for forging magical artifacts! Its texture was hard, with good spiritual conductivity, capable of bearing and channeling a cultivator's spiritual energy, making it the preferred spiritual material for crafting flying swords, shields, and various offensive and defensive artifacts! A piece of high-quality black iron ore was worth far more than its weight in gold!
When he had previously studied the basics of artifact forging, he had seen illustrations and descriptions of black iron ore, identical to the stone before him! Only, this piece of ore was exceptionally well-wrapped in its rocky crust; had he not tripped over it and physically touched it, probing with spiritual energy, relying solely on vision and spiritual sense, it would have been easily overlooked as an ordinary rock!
"No wonder there's so much silver-veined grass here! So there really is a black iron ore vein underneath! And I actually tripped over an exposed piece of ore?" Xiaoqi found it both laughable and frustrating—this luck, he wasn't sure whether to call it good or bad.
He immediately set to work, carefully prying the surrounding soil and grass roots with a dagger he carried (made of ordinary refined iron, not a magical artifact). After some effort, he finally extracted this fist-sized piece of black iron ore intact.
The ore felt heavy in his hand, much heavier than it appeared. He roughly estimated that if this ore could be successfully refined, it would yield at least a pigeon-egg-sized piece of purified black iron, sufficient as the main material for crafting a decent low-grade flying sword! For a disciple like him, just beginning to dabble in artifact forging and lacking materials, this was undoubtedly a timely boon!
"Haha, a blessing in disguise! Seems like taking that fall was worth it!" Xiaoqi gleefully wiped the dirt off this piece of black iron ore and carefully placed it into his storage bag. Though he couldn't forge magical artifacts yet, collecting materials was always good—who knows when they might come in handy? Moreover, now knowing about this black iron ore vein beneath the silver-veined grass, perhaps he could return to explore further if the opportunity arose.
The rabbit spirit approached, curiously sniffing Xiaoqi's hand that had just dug in the soil, then looked at the black stone that had been put away, seemingly not understanding what was so great about this black, unappealing thing.
"This is good stuff; might even get you a better nest someday," Xiaoqi said cheerfully, rubbing the rabbit spirit's head.
The rabbit spirit blinked its red eyes somewhat comprehendingly, then nuzzled his palm with its head.
After storing the black iron ore, Xiaoqi stood up, brushed off the grass fragments and dirt from his clothes, and continued forward. This time, he paid closer attention to his footing, but unfortunately, even after walking through this vast expanse of silver-veined grass, he didn't find a second exposed piece of black iron ore.
Looking back at that grassland shimmering silver under the sunlight, Xiaoqi silently committed this place to memory. Perhaps, once his artifact forging skills improved, this would become a decent source of materials.
Passing through the silver-veined grassland, the terrain ahead began to gradually rise, the trees grew even taller and more ancient, and the concentration of spiritual energy in the air seemed to increase slightly.
Xiaoqi knew he was gradually moving away from the secret realm's outer regions, heading deeper toward the mid-zone—where both opportunities and dangers multiplied.
He took a deep breath, his expression growing solemn yet expectant. The journey ahead likely wouldn't be as simple as merely encountering a second-tier demon beast or picking up a piece of ore.
Clenching his fist, feeling the abundant spiritual energy within his body and the new additions in his storage bag, he set forth once more with determined eyes and that inseparable white little tail.