As Qi Ping continued his exploration of the subterranean world, he soon discovered many good items.
Rank 2 Middle-Grade Geocentric Milk, Rank 2 High-Grade Azure Water Essence Gold, Rank 2 High-Grade Redfire Elemental Copper, Rank 2 Low-Grade Evergreen Stone Milk...
"My goodness! There are so many Rank 2 items!"
After a week of searching, Qi Ping found many valuable Rank 2 items that were rarely seen on the surface.
Rank 1 items were even more numerous!
Qi Ping only collected the Rank 2 items and some of the more plentiful Rank 1 items. He was careful not to uproot them, ensuring that they would slowly recover over time.
"Some of these items can be used by my companions, others can be given to the bees to research new honey, and if I need Spirit Stones, I can sell a portion of them."
However, he wasn't particularly short on stones right now. Between his savings and the spoils of war, he had nearly ten million Spirit Stones. What he truly lacked were things money couldn't buy, like Black Market Points and Sect Contribution Points.
His most startling find was a fairly large Rank 2 mineral vein in the extreme depths!
Although it was only Rank 2, its massive volume was enough to provide significant growth for the Little Stone Essence. Qi Ping reminded the stone essence to refine it but warned it not to "cut the root." Since this was his future territory, he couldn't allow any unsustainable practices.
"The underground world has quite a lot of spiritual items!"
"It's thanks to Little Stone. If it hadn't broken through to Rank 3, many of these places would be unreachable."
Aside from the stone essence, another major factor was the tiger's guidance.
Many items they would have otherwise missed were found only after the little tiger pointed the way.
One had to admit, the combination of the tiger and the stone essence was the ultimate treasure-hunting team!
To Qi Ping's regret, after searching for so long, he hadn't seen any sign of Rank 3 items, subterranean spirit veins, or a suitable soil-attribute companion.
But he didn't lose heart; he maintained a good attitude.
In truth, the area he had explored in a week was less than one percent of the Qingtian Domain!
And the exploration area of the underground was much larger than the surface!
This was because the underground wasn't just a flat plane like the surface; it had massive vertical depth. Even the Rank 3 stone essence found it difficult to explore down to the extreme limit.
And this "limit" wasn't the absolute bottom of the world, but rather the limit of the stone essence's own reach. This highlighted the difficulty of underground exploration; without sufficient strength, one wouldn't even have the right to try.
Knowing there were still so many places to search, Qi Ping wasn't worried. Instead, he enjoyed the process.
Even if there was nothing in the Qingtian Domain, he could always explore the surrounding regions!
"This feeling of exploring the world is actually quite nice!"
With his true body cultivating in the territory and his clone exploring with the stone essence and the tiger, Qi Ping finally felt he was fulfilling his desire to explore the cultivation world.
There were no powerful cultivators to bother him, and he had the tiger to sense luck and danger and the stone essence to move freely. The feeling was fantastic.
As the explored area grew and he saw more of the brilliant cultivation world, his state of mind began to elevate.
'Based on our current gains, the underground is definitely worth exploring. But to cover a larger area, I need an army of subterranean explorers.'
'The underground is like a treasure vault that hasn't been fully developed due to the difficulty of access. If I have enough strength, I could even look beyond the Qingtian Domain and target neighboring regions, or even the entire world!'
The underground was so vast that as long as he kept searching, he was bound to find things of immense value, perhaps even rare, world-class spirit items!
With these thoughts, Qi Ping continued his search.
The subsequent exploration was similar to before, yielding many decent harvests.
After two more weeks, he finally encountered something that promised to be a surprise.
Qi Ping, the Little Stone Essence, and the little tiger were currently in a lava world in the extreme depths.
Lava rolled like ocean waves here, and the temperature was terrifying. Qi Ping estimated that an ordinary Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivator wouldn't survive long here.
Beside Qi Ping was a group of creatures covered in lava, looking similar to Cloud-Fire Lions. They were the rarely seen Lava Beasts!
Lava Beasts were subterranean creatures that could grow up to Rank 3, though the ones currently with Qi Ping were only at the Rank 2 Middle Stage.
Qi Ping was currently being led by several Lava Beasts toward their tribal grounds.
The reason was simple: these simple-minded beasts had a high affinity for Qi Ping because he was a Beast King Druid. After some communication, they shared a problem they were facing.
Hundreds of years ago, an "extreme-cold object" had suddenly descended upon their ancestral grounds—the place where the spiritual item "Lava Heart" was born. It had corrupted the area, and for centuries, no Lava Hearts had been produced, nor had any pure fire spiritual energy been born. This caused the tribe's strength to steadily decline.
The cold object was too strong; they had sacrificed many clansmen but had been unable to remove it.
"Awoo, awoo... (Honored friend, follow us! We're almost there!)"
Following the Lava Beasts, Qi Ping soon arrived at a place resembling a lava whirlpool.
"Awoo, awoo... (It's right there!)"
"A Lava Spirit Spring?" Qi Ping looked at the whirlpool and immediately recognized the spirit land. This was indeed the place where Lava Hearts were born.
However, the spirit spring was currently nearly extinguished, and dense extreme-cold energy was continuously pouring out.
"Extreme Yin energy? Why is Extreme Yin energy coming out of a lava spring? It's even managed to put out the spring..."
Qi Ping was filled with doubt.
But remembering the tiger's divination, his interest was piqued.
'The hex is auspicious. Besides, I currently need Extreme Yin energy to nurture the Yellow Spring Tree. I wonder what it is!'
With that thought, Qi Ping flew toward the spring without hesitation. As he approached, the fire spiritual energy on his body suddenly converted into Yin spiritual energy.
"Awoo, awoo... (Be careful! Come out immediately if there's danger!)"
Seeing Qi Ping enter, the Lava Beast shouted at his back once more, its eyes full of both hope and worry...