Chapter 304 - Top Grade Spirit Stones

However, as rare as it was, this wasn't the first time Ava had seen a bloodline gem. For some reason, that goofy, sex-fiend husband of hers managed to get his hands on a bloodline gem with the power to create corals. Ava couldn't fathom how Leyvi ended up with it. When asked, he said it was a gift. Heck, who would believe that? Ava didn't believe it one bit. Which idiot would give away such a precious treasure?

What irked her even more, a precious treasure like that was reduced to a mere toy in the Leyan Family Mansion, used to make ornaments, furniture, and sculptures, as if it were nothing special. It made her roll her eyes. Couldn't this family treat treasure like treasure?

In the end, the bloodline gem fell into the hands of Sawi to help with her inventions.

On the other hand, the bloodline gem she had gotten didn't have any specific bloodline ability, but it could grant her a speed boost at the cost of her energy. In her opinion, the bloodline gem she got was better than the one at home because a speed increase was extremely beneficial for a speed-oriented body cultivator like her.

It made Ava wonder what kind of awakened demonic beast had produced her bloodline gem. A cheetah? A falcon, perhaps?

Since she had pretty much seen the outskirts of the island, Ava left the port town and headed deeper into the island, following what remained of the roads for further exploration. After all, she was stuck here, so for the sake of survival, she needed to know what the island had to offer.

After a while, the road led her to a collapsed spirit stone mine, its entrance buried under rubble. A huge fortress loomed around it, its walls battered but still standing tall, like it was guarding something big. Ava could tell this mine used to be a monster operation. Back in the day, before fancy array formations got popular, people built fortresses like this to protect their mines. But this one? Way too massive for a regular setup.

Suddenly, Ava figured it out. The port town she had passed wasn't just a random dock. It was for shipping out the spirit stones they dug up here.

She didn't waste time. Using raw strength, Ava got to work, heaving rocks and debris away from the mine's entrance, clearing a path bit by bit.

When she cleared the path, immense spiritual energy pressure suddenly escaped the mine, blasting the entrance open, sending rocks, debris, and even herself flying away. After things calmed down, she sat up, spitting out dust, and stared at the gaping hole.

Since the mine hadn't been attended to for a long time, new spirit stones had formed again in the mine, and the blockage had built up the spiritual energy pressure inside.

The blast didn't hurt Ava, just left a few bruises, but it was enough to light a fire in her. Her temper snapped, and she went off. Rocks got smashed to bits, trees snapped like twigs, and the ground ended up pocked with craters from her fists and feet. Demonic beasts in the area took one look at her rampage and bolted, tails tucked, scared out of their wits by the sight of this tiny woman tearing the place apart. But Ava didn't care. She needed to let it out.

Once she'd burned off enough steam, Ava dusted her hands and stepped into the spirit stone mine. Since she was a pure body cultivator, she didn't have the luxury of using Qi as a light source, so she brought out a flashlight to illuminate her path.

The air inside felt heavy, charged with something she couldn't quite name. As she went deeper, her eyes went wide. Top-grade spirit stones! Countless of them! No wonder the released pressure sent her flying! They were so rare that in her two hundred years of life, she had only seen them in pictures. Top-grade spirit stones might not even exist anymore on the Cloud Continent.

She remembered stories from the Cloud Continent's past. They had found a top-grade spirit stone mine once, ages ago, and it kicked off a war so brutal it wiped out entire kingdoms. Everyone wanted a piece, and when it looked like no one would win, the losers blew the mine to oblivion just to keep their enemies from getting it. That ended the war and the kingdoms.

After that, the Cloud Continent turned into a free-for-all. Gangs and shady groups popped up, grabbing power wherever they could, kicking off a lawless era that dragged on for years. It wasn't until a thousand years ago that the original Cloud Continent Protectors stepped in, put a stop to the chaos, and brought peace to the continent.

Ava gave a crooked smile, shaking her head. If she were a Qi cultivator, this haul would've set her up for life—her, her kids, her grandkids, and so on for a long, long time. Too bad she wasn't born with a spirit root. All this wealth, and she couldn't tap into it directly.

She remembered a conversation she had with Leyvi some time after she told Anda about the difficulties she faced in continuing her body cultivation.

Leyvi told her he had a way to give her a spirit root, which greatly shocked her. At first, she thought it was the same heinous method of the recent Bara City's biggest scandal, extracting spirit roots from children and implanting them in someone else. This case was fresh in her mind because she was the lead interrogator, making the culprit expose the details of their crimes.

Due to this misunderstanding, her temper flared up, and she tried to beat him. But fortunately, he had already broken through to the Core Formation Realm, so he defended her attacks pretty well.

Ava was somewhat embarrassed after the misunderstanding cleared up later, but Leyvi, as usual, just laughed it off.

It turned out that he had a treasure to grant people a spirit root!

Ava was conflicted. This was her chance to gain a spirit root and cultivate like other people. Qi cultivation was definitely easier, more effective, and better developed than body cultivation. However, she had been persistent with body cultivation for two hundred years already. It had shaped who she was, and by going back on it now, she felt like she would be betraying herself and her efforts.

After all, throughout the years, it had been her ambition to be the greatest pure body cultivator in the Cloud Continent!

Although the temptation was great, she, Ava Clover, ultimately rejected it, declaring to Leyvi that she would trailblaze the path of pure body cultivation till the end, no matter how difficult it got.

She braced for pushback. Rejecting a treasure that could give spirit root? Most people would've called her crazy! After all, body cultivation had no clear roadmap, and the resources it ate up were insane. Back in the Clover Family, they had mocked her out plenty, saying she was wasting their stash, that she should've just lived like a mortal and called it a day. She figured Leyvi might say something similar or maybe nudge her toward the easier route.

But contrary to her expectation, Leyvi gave her his usual bright smile. "Hahaha! Great ambition! Don't worry! Everyone in the family can pursue their goal as much as they like. I will help you with that!" he reassured while patting his chest.

Seeing the sex fiend before her acting like that, it would be a lie to say that her heart didn't skip a beat.

It made her wonder if this was the reason why Leyvi was able to score so many ladies.

Hmph, but just because her heart skipped a beat once didn't mean that she would just allow the sex fiend to do anything to her body. The prerequisite still must be achieved: defeat her with physical strength only, or hands off!

As her wandering mind returned to the sight of countless riches in front of her, another wry smile escaped her lips. How was she supposed to mine all of these alone? The walls were practically bursting with spirit stone chunks, and the deeper she looked, the more there were. It just kept going.

The only way everything here could be mined as fast as possible was to bring Scarlet here. She wasn't sure how it was possible, but Leyvi's spirit beasts all had awakened their bloodline abilities somehow, and Scarlet's bloodline ability to dig was exceptional and magical.

She shook her head and kept exploring, pushing further into the mine. The entrance might've collapsed, but the inner tunnels were solid as rock—literally. The earth around the spirit stones had soaked up spiritual energy for ages, hardening it like iron. No cracks, no cave-ins. The paths stretched on, clean and preserved, like the mine was waiting for someone to claim it.

Suddenly, something made a lot of sense to Ava. The mansion she looted, the only building still intact in the port town, must have been built from the stones enhanced in the spirit stone mine.

The spirit stone mine continued winding further and deeper into the ground. At this point, she had walked around five kilometers, and the mine still continued. It was bigger than she thought. The amount she had found so far could probably support the entire cultivators in Bara City for a few millennia.

After exploring for another two kilometers, Ava finally reached the end of the mine.