Chapter 151: Hard Stone

Xia Dang was already lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth and looking dazed, a truly wretched sight.

Qing Xi could not help but feel concerned and asked, "Xia Dang, are you alright?"

"Hahaha, how could anything possibly be wrong with me!"

Xia Dang suddenly began to dance around on the spot, celebrating yet another successful deception.

"Big Brother, you don't need to worry. Even though I am only an eighth-grade alchemist, I refined a special 'Pill of Pretended Misery'. Look at how convincing my act was—even you were fooled!"

Looking at Xia Dang's grinning face, Qing Xi smiled as well, though his smile was somewhat stiff.

With a loud *thud*, Xia Dang was sent flying away.

Watching Qing Xi slowly retract his hand, Xia Dang asked with an aggrieved expression, "Big Brother, what did you do that for?"

"Sorry, my hand had a cramp."

Qing Xi calmly flicked his arm.

"Oh!"

Xia Dang rubbed his face, took out some anti-swelling ointment from his storage bracelet, and applied it. Within seconds, the swelling subsided, restoring his handsome appearance.

The two men, along with the horse and the monkey, walked into the ruggedly styled courtyard.

Not long after, Xia Dang walked out of the inner room with a storage bracelet on each wrist and handed a white, translucent crystal to Qing Xi.

"Is this a Gangstone?"

Qing Xi took the crystal and observed it closely.

A Gangstone was a six-sided columnar crystal, five centimeters long and less than three centimeters in diameter, with slightly pointed ends. Inside it, a mist-like gas flowed, making it look very mysterious.

At first glance, it somewhat resembled a quartz crystal.

"That's right, this is a Gangstone, but we've only found one so far."

Xia Dang nodded and said.

Qing Xi nodded in response and activated his scanning function.

[Category: Heavenly Treasure]
[Name: Gangstone]
[Note: In the cultivation world, all Gangstones possess a uniform shape and size, containing one hundred strands of Heaven and Earth Gang Qi internally. Their primary function is to condense the Heavenly Gang Mark, and they can also be used for array formation and artifact forging.]

Qing Xi raised an eyebrow slightly and muttered, "A single Gangstone contains over a hundred strands of Heaven and Earth Gang Qi. That means it should be enough for me to condense a Heavenly Gang Mark, right?"

The *Spirit-Gang Chapter of the Qi Condensation Art* given by Qiu Mingzi only introduced the methods and precautions for condensing the Heavenly Gang Mark, but it did not specify the exact number of Gangstones required.

Upon learning that a single Gangstone contained over a hundred strands of Heaven and Earth Gang Qi, Qing Xi naturally assumed the quantity would be more than enough.

Xia Dang shook his head repeatedly and said, "Big Brother, you're overthinking it. A single Gangstone is far from enough to condense a Heavenly Gang Mark. Even to condense just a lower-grade Heavenly Gang Mark, you need ten Gangstones."

"So many?"

Qing Xi wore a look of surprise.

He had inquired beforehand and knew that a single Gangstone was priced at one hundred lower-grade spirit stones, but they were practically priceless and unavailable on the market.

At the very least, there was no place selling Gangstones anywhere in the Eastern Domain.

Only by entering the Central Domain could one purchase a small number of Gangstones at the headquarters of the Wanlong Pavilion.

Moreover, whenever Gangstones appeared, they were mostly sold via auction, and the final transaction price far exceeded that amount.

Condensing a lower-grade Heavenly Gang Mark required ten Gangstones, which was equivalent to over a thousand lower-grade spirit stones.

This price was by no means low.

Even an ordinary Spirit-Gang Realm cultivator would be reluctant to part with such a sum.

From Qing Xi's perspective, a sect master as "impoverished and uncorrupted" as Qiu Mingzi probably didn't even have a thousand spirit stones to his name if all his worldly possessions were combined.

Several hundred meters away, Qiu Mingzi, who was chatting idly with Lin Feng, suddenly sneezed.

His expression shifted slightly as he cursed inwardly, "It must be that old scoundrel, the sect master of the Blazing Flame Sect, cursing me. Hmph, how many years has it been? He still hasn't gotten over it—what a narrow-minded person!"

...

Holding the Gangstone in his hand, Qing Xi suddenly felt that the path of cultivation was somewhat difficult.

After asking a few more questions just now, he had learned many things.

According to their quality, Heavenly Gang Marks were divided into four tiers: lower-grade, middle-grade, upper-grade, and supreme-grade.

The higher the grade of the Heavenly Gang Mark, the faster the speed at which it absorbed spiritual qi and converted it into Gang Qi.

A lower-grade Heavenly Gang Mark provided no enhancement to cultivation speed.

The middle-grade, upper-grade, and supreme-grade marks increased cultivation speed by thirty percent, fifty percent, and one hundred percent respectively.

In other words, condensing a supreme-grade Heavenly Gang Mark could double one's own cultivation speed on top of the original foundation.

Qing Xi's current spiritual root was of the profound grade; if he were to condense a supreme-grade Heavenly Gang Mark, his cultivation speed would match that of an earth-grade spiritual root.

However, the resources required to condense a supreme-grade Heavenly Gang Mark were simply too vast.

A lower-grade mark required ten Gangstones.
A middle-grade mark required twenty Gangstones.
An upper-grade mark required forty Gangstones.
A supreme-grade mark required one hundred Gangstones.

Even though Qing Xi's personal net worth was already quite substantial, when he did the math and calculated the value of the Gangstones needed to condense a supreme-grade Heavenly Gang Mark, he was instantly stunned.

That was equivalent to tens of thousands of lower-grade spirit stones!

In the vast territory of the Yunchuan Prefecture, how many people could afford such a luxury?

Even himself, would probably find it quite a stretch, right?

However, upon thinking of the effects brought by a supreme-grade Heavenly Gang Mark, Qing Xi gritted his teeth and thought, "No wonder breaking through to the Spirit-Gang Realm is so difficult. It turns out the main reason lies in cultivation resources. Setting aside the supreme-grade mark for a moment, even a lower-grade one is enough to stump a large batch of Xiantian Great Perfection cultivators."

"Fortunately, though, I have the supreme technique *Limitless Heaven and Earth, Ten Thousand Li Tracking*, coupled with my dog-nose divine ability. Forget one hundred Gangstones; even if it's ten thousand, I'll dig them all out!"

Qing Xi made up his mind and prepared to embark on a new round of "brick-moving" life.

"Big Brother, are you alright?"

Seeing him fall into deep thought, Xia Dang could not help rubbing his hands together and asking cautiously.

"Haha, I'm fine. I'll keep this Gangstone for now and return it to you later."

Qing Xi put away the Gangstone, gave a few instructions to the Little Vajra Ape and the Dragon Horse, then found a secluded spot and sniffed the aura of the Gangstone intently.

Shortly after, he deployed his supreme technique and discovered that within the territory of the Medicine King Sect, there were actually more than a dozen locations concealing Gangstones.

Judging from the concentration of the emitted aura, the total amount of these Gangstones should be around one hundred and fifty.

"As expected of the Medicine King Sect, just their inventory has this many Gangstones. However, their belongings cannot be touched; I must look elsewhere."

Qing Xi walked toward other locations emitting the Gangstone aura and found that without exception, they were all located outside the boundaries of the Earth Vein Grand Array.

"Big Brother, what are you doing?"

Xia Dang trotted along behind him eagerly.

"I'm planning to head out for a bit."

"Head out?"

Xia Dang was shocked. "After leaving the boundary of the Earth Vein Grand Array, we could be besieged by otherworldly demons at any moment. It's very dangerous!"

"I am your Big Brother, could there be any danger?"

Qing Xi thought for a moment and instructed, "Remember to help me look after the Little Vajra Ape and the Dragon Horse."

With that, he found Lin Feng, applied a buff to him, and strode right out of the Medicine King Sect's mountain gate.

"Big Brother, be careful!"

Xia Dang waved goodbye in front of the mountain gate.

Beside him, the Ninth Elder of the Medicine King Sect waved the array flag, closing the small exit on the Earth Vein Grand Array as he said, "Young Master, just letting him go out like this—will he be fine?"

"My Big Brother said nothing would happen, and he also said he's only going out for a day and will be back by the next time the demons attack." Although Xia Dang was also worried, he figured that since Qing Xi said everything was fine, it definitely was.

The Ninth Elder was speechless.

He felt that his Young Master had a somewhat blind confidence in Qing Xi.

Although Qing Xi's strength was plain for all to see, the outside world even held demons at the peak of the Golden-Gang Realm. Such a trip was bound to be extremely perilous.

If he went and never returned, what should they do?