Chapter 23: The Spirit Mineral Repository

Qu Yi, Qing Wu Gui, and Mu Han changed their appearances and concealed their auras. Their new identities were Xiao Tian Shi, Xiao Tian Nan, and Xiao Tian Ying—all disciples of the Xiao family and members of the Spirit Mineral Repository.

When killing the three from the Xiao family, Qu Yi also used the Soul Star-Picking Technique to browse through their memories, gaining a general understanding of the Xiao family’s internal structure. The Spirit Mineral Repository was where the Xiao family stored spirit stones and ores.

Xiao Tian Shi, Xiao Tian Nan, and Xiao Tian Ying had to travel to the Destruction Mountains once a year to inventory the spirit stones and ores in various secret bases and bring back important ores to the Xiao family’s headquarters for storage.

This time, it was just bad luck for them—they ran into Qu Yi and his companions who were trying to infiltrate the Xiao family.

Now, Qu Yi led Qing Wu Gui and Mu Han to fly in front of Mount Xiao Zu, then landed at its foot, right beside the foot of Xiao Zu himself. That foot alone was over a hundred meters long, looking truly imposing.

“Oh, Tian Shi, Tian Nan, Tian Ying—it’s you three back. It’s been a year; you must have had a hard time outside. Hurry back and report.” At the foot of the mountain was an entrance through which the Xiao family members entered their headquarters.

Thus, the entire Mount Xiao Zu was protected by a powerful defensive formation—rumored to be a formation from the late stage of tribulation. Anyone who tried to break in would be reduced to dust.

“Haha, Xiao Tian Kuo? It’s you! Weren’t you in the Medicine Pill Repository? Why are you punished to guard the entrance here?” Qu Yi slapped the chubby gatekeeper first and laughed loudly.

It turned out that Xiao Tian Kuo used to be close to Xiao Tian Shi and had always been in charge of medicinal materials and pills. His sudden appearance here as a guard surprised Qu Yi, who was pretending to be Xiao Tian Shi.

With that slap, Qu Yi completely dispelled Xiao Tian Kuo’s suspicions. Although Xiao Tian Kuo had felt something strange—after all, no matter how well Qu Yi pretended, there was still a slight difference from the real Xiao Tian Shi—Qu Yi’s gesture of slapping his shoulder and showing surprise cleared all doubts.

“Sigh, enough talking. It’s all for Xiao Tian Yun. To help her advance in her cultivation, I used my position for personal gain by secretly stealing pills for her. Eventually, it was discovered. Fortunately, the clan leader understood why I stole the pills. It wasn’t a serious crime, so he didn’t revoke my cultivation level. He just punished me by making me guard the entrance here for fifty years.” Xiao Tian Kuo said this with a smile, clearly uncomplaining about his duty.

Qu Yi glanced through the memories of that ‘Xiao Tianshi’ and learned that Xiao Tiankuo had liked Xiao Tianyun since childhood. It was quite normal for him to resort to such acts as stealing elixirs now.
“Well, Tiankuo, if I get the chance, I’ll speak on your behalf to the clan leader and help reduce your punishment by a few years,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
Hearing this, Xiao Tiankuo burst into laughter and said cheerfully, “Tianshi, you’re truly my good brother. Those bastards used to fawn over me, but now that I’m guarding the entrance, they all come here on purpose to mock me. They’re all opportunistic scoundrels and hypocrites. Only you, Tianshi, are willing to take risks to help me.”
Qu Yi patted Xiao Tiankuo’s shoulder before flying straight toward the entrance gate. Qing Wugui and Mu Han also immediately followed inside.
As soon as they entered the gate, the scenery before Qu Yi and the others suddenly changed. There was another mountain in front of them, but it wasn’t the statue of Xiao Zu anymore—it was a mountain covered in flowers, also tens of thousands of meters high, with dense spiritual energy everywhere.
It turned out that Xiao family’s mountain protection formation also included illusion arrays, which created the illusion of Xiao Zu’s appearance to conceal the true layout of the headquarters.
Based on Xiao Tianshi’s memories, Qu Yi flew rightward and arrived at the base of the mountain, where there was a large cave with an entrance over a thousand meters wide. Next to the entrance stood a 100-meter-tall stone tablet inscribed with the words ‘Spiritual Mineral Repository’.
This was where the Xiao family stored spiritual stones and ores, while the elixir repositories were located in the central part of the real Xiao Zu Mountain.
“Uncle Jicang, Tiannan, and Tianying, we’re back,” Qu Yi called out as soon as he landed at the cave entrance.
Above the Tian generation in the Xiao family’s lineage was the Ji generation.
Xiao Jicang, who seemed to be in his thirties, had actually been cultivating for thousands of years and was now at the middle stage of the Yuan Ying realm. If he reached the Shen Shen stage, he wouldn’t have to deal with such trivial matters anymore and could join the true elite of the Xiao family to focus on cultivation.
Hearing Qu Yi’s voice, Xiao Jicang happily flew out of the Spiritual Mineral Repository to greet the three of them personally.
Hm?
Xiao Jicang looked at Qu Yi and felt a strange sensation, though he couldn’t put his finger on it. But he quickly dismissed it and said with a smile, “Tianshi, it must have been tough being away for so long. Alright, take the ores you brought back and put them in the repository cave.”
After saying that, Xiao Jicang flew into the cave, and Qu Yi and the others immediately followed.

This cave was kilometers in length, with separate chambers dug every mile, each hiding the ores and spirit stones obtained by the Xiao family from various places. The cave was also embedded with countless night pearls, making it as bright as day and allowing everything to be seen clearly. Soon, Xiao Jicang arrived at cave number 078, followed by Qu Yi, Qing Wugui, and Mu Han. Suddenly, a square token appeared in Xiao Jicang’s hand; he placed it on the stone door of the cave, and the token emitted white light. The door then slid open with a creaking sound, revealing a vast interior. The cave stretched about ten kilometers long and was filled with various ores, though most of them were of low quality, belonging to the level below the Yuan Ying stage. Qu Yi, Qing Wugui, and Mu Han entered the cave with Xiao Jicang, and they handed over the space rings of Xiao Tianshi, Xiao Tiannan, and Xiao Tianying, which they had seized. Xiao Jicang shed thirty drops of blood to claim ownership of the thirty space rings, then carefully extracted the ores from each ring and sorted them into distinct piles. As for the spirit stones in the rings, they could only be retrieved by going to other caves. A total of twenty-five space rings contained the ores gathered by Xiao Tianshi, Xiao Tiannan, and Xiao Tianying from various locations in the Destruction Mountains, while five more rings held various spirit stones. After much effort, Xiao Jicang finally sorted all the ores in the twenty-five rings, leaving him utterly exhausted and weakened. At that moment, Qu Yi suddenly smirked, waved his hand, and knocked Xiao Jicang unconscious. Quickly, Qu Yi sent his spiritual consciousness into Xiao Jicang’s core spirit, found his soul, and then activated his divine instrument to implant a soul shackle on him. “Hmph, the Xiao family—now I’ve finally infiltrated you. You still don’t know, do you?” Qu Yi thought to himself with satisfaction. If he had continued to act as Xiao Tianshi, he wouldn’t have dared to be too active in the Xiao family’s stronghold, as there were still some powerful members there, possibly even those at the Tribulation stage. If he showed the slightest flaw, he would likely be discovered. In that case, the Xiao family could use their protective array to seal off the entire space, forcing Qu Yi to hide inside a tiny realm forever. Now that he controlled Xiao Jicang, he, Qing Wugui, and Mu Han could enter the tiny realm and use Xiao Jicang to operate within the Xiao family, gradually understanding their strength before making further plans.

As for Qu Yi daring to enter the Tiny Realm Sphere now, unafraid of that early-stage Tribulation-crossing expert from the Taiyuan Sect, it’s because that expert from Taiyuan Sect doesn’t dare get too close to Xiao Zushan. Moreover, the Xiao family’s mountain protection formation can block his spiritual perception, so Qu Yi can enter the Tiny Realm Sphere without that expert even noticing.

Soon, Xiao Jicang, who had fallen into a coma, regained consciousness and quickly realized he was under Qu Yi’s control.

“Aren’t you Xiao Tianshi?” Xiao Jicang shouted angrily, his eyes blazing.

As soon as he finished speaking, he rolled to the ground, writhing in pain. The Artifact God had already issued a spiritual command: anyone who dared disobey, question, or resist Qu Yi would have their soul stretched and twisted.

Thus, the moment Xiao Jicang spoke, he was overwhelmed with agony.

“Alright, Xiao Jicang. If you cooperate well, I won’t take your life. As for the rest of the Xiao family, their fates are up to them,” Qu Yi said with a smile.

Xiao Jicang’s soul returned to normal, and he looked at Qu Yi in terror, his mind racing. Eventually, he understood that apart from death, he had no choice but to obey Qu Yi.

“Master, what are your orders?” Xiao Jicang quickly changed his tone to one of respect.

Qu Yi was satisfied and smiled. “First, open all the caves in this spiritual mineral repository. I want to take away all the ores and spirit stones here.”

Upon hearing this, Xiao Jicang felt a chill run through his body. Weak and paralyzed, he collapsed to the ground.

“All of them? All the ores? The spirit stones?” Xiao Jicang curled up on the ground, groaning weakly, his face twisted in pain.

For over a hundred years, Xiao Jicang had been in charge of this spiritual mineral repository, treating everything here as his own cherished possessions. Now, hearing Qu Yi’s order to take away all the ores and spirit stones, he felt as if his world had collapsed, as if his soul had left his body.

Qu Yi cheerfully helped Xiao Jicang up and infused his body with true energy. “Alright, consider these ores and spirit stones as if they never existed. Hurry up and take me to the other caves to collect more.”

After saying that, Qu Yi flew straight into Cave 078. As he passed by, all the already classified ores flew into the Tiny Realm Sphere.

Inside the Tiny Realm Sphere, the Artifact God sat with his eyes closed on a soft chair, his mouth twitching in laughter. It seemed he too felt extreme satisfaction and joy while collecting the ores.

After a few breaths, all the ores in Cave 078 were brought into the Dimension Ball, where the Artifact God placed them in a special space within the ball for Qu Yi to use later.
Xiao Jicang stared at the empty cave, wiping his eyes repeatedly. He couldn’t believe Qu Yi had managed to collect all the ores so quickly. The cave was ten kilometers long, and these ores had been gathered over more than a decade—yet Qu Yi had simply jumped around a few times and collected them all.
“Master, what spell is this? Pocket Universe? World in Hand? Spatial Enclosure?” Xiao Jicang, filled with wonder, wanted to know the truth.
Qu Yi smiled, waved his hand, and said, “Enough. If you shouldn’t ask, then don’t. Take me to other caves quickly. I want to collect all the ores here too.”
Hearing this, Xiao Jicang’s face, once full of hope, instantly turned grim. Weakly, he left the cave and led Qu Yi to another cave. Using his token, he opened the stone door again.
Once again, Qu Yi used the same method, having the Artifact God control the Dimension Ball to collect all the ores in that cave.
In less than the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Qu Yi had gathered all of the Xiao family’s hoard of hundreds of thousands of years.
By the end, Xiao Jicang was completely stunned, his eyes vacant. He simply couldn’t comprehend how there could be any spatial ring in the cultivation world capable of holding so many ores and spirit stones. Moreover, after collecting them, Qu Yi showed no sign of fatigue, as if opening a spatial ring didn’t require any mental control at all.
Of course, Xiao Jicang would never know that it was the Artifact God doing all the work, and that the space of the Dimension Ball was as vast as the entire Dark Fragrance Planet.
Finally satisfied, Qu Yi sat on the ground of the mineral repository, laughing heartily from time to time. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became.
He had gathered countless refining materials—virtually every type available in the cultivation world. This was more than enough to help him get familiar with them in the future. Most of the spirit stones were of lower or middle quality, but in such large quantities that all the cultivators on Dark Fragrance Planet wouldn’t need to mine new ones for a hundred years. As for the highest-quality spirit stones, they hadn’t been stored here—they had been taken away by the Xiao family’s patriarchs and elders earlier. Only those at the Fusion stage were qualified to use them.
Before Qu Yi could laugh much longer, two voices came from the entrance outside the mineral repository.

“Xiao Jicang, it’s Chen Lan. Hurry and find me a piece of Fireheart Dark Gold ore; I need it urgently.”
“Xiao Jicang, it’s Chen Tan. Get me a piece of Patterned Heart ore; I want to craft my life magic weapon.”
It turned out to be the two young masters of the Xiao family who had come.
Qu Yi immediately flew out of the Spirit Mineral Repository with Xiao Jicang and arrived at the cave entrance, observing these two young masters of the Xiao family.
The head of the Xiao family had ten children in total—eight sons and two daughters. According to the clan rules, all eight sons were referred to as young masters.
When Qu Yi saw Chen Lan’s face, Mu Han inside the Dimension Ball became extremely excited—turns out, this Chen Lan was the young master of the Xiao family who wanted to force her to marry him.