Chapter 494: The Tri Cauldon Peony Sect

"So this is what a cultivation sect looks like…" Lin Mu muttered after seeing the peaks.

He continued walking forward and could sense the rapid change in the spirit Qi concentration in the air.

"The difference is… quite a lot. No wonder people want to join sects." Lin Mu said as he took a deep breath.

He could tell that the concentration of spirit Qi was about fifty percent more than other places.

"Though it still can't compare to the Myriad Armament Canopy Abode. That place is on a different level." Lin Mu stated.

"They probably have a couple of spirit stone mines and maybe a few more spirit Qi springs in the area. This concentration of spirit Qi seems proportional to that." Xukong suddenly spoke.

"Do we need to target those too?" Lin Mu asked.

He knew spirit stones were one of the foundational resources that were needed for a sect to function. Without them, there was no way a sect would last for a long and a mid sized sect like the Tri cauldron pent sect definitely had a large requirement of them.

"Hmm… not necessarily. They can't mine beyond a certain point and most of their wealth should be stored in those vaults that Wu Hei told you about. If they mine too much, it will just hurt the vitality of the mines. If too many spirit stones are mined, the mines won't recover and will go into a decline.

Most sects will mine a certain amount and stockpile them in their vaults. Over the years they end up with a large surplus which makes the backbone of the sect. That's why the more spirit stone mines a sect has the more power they will have." Xukong answered.

"What about the spirit Qi springs then?" Lin Mu questioned.

"The spirit Qi springs work a bit differently. While they can turn into a spirit stone mine after a few decades or centuries, even before that they do help in increasing the ambient spirit Qi of an area. Not everyone uses them like how the lost immortal did." Xukong explained.

"Hmm… that's true… he did take advantage of a lot of spirit Qi springs when he found them and who knows seized how many people's future fortune." Lin Mu said as he remembered the memoirs.

Lin Mu had seen the Lost immortal find Spirit Qi springs and absorbing them dry like the very first time he had done at the mines. It was one of the reasons why he was able to reach the Nascent Soul realm despite his low talent.

He would spend his time in finding spirit Qi springs and then draining them dry. Due to his efforts in this, he had researched quite a bit and had even developed certain theories about how a spirit Qi spring would be formed.

According to him, if certain parameters were fulfilled, there was a 90% chance of a spirit Qi spring forming in that area. Lin Mu had read those theories, but they were all too much for him. Unlike him, the lost immortal had gained centuries of experience before he had come up with those. 

In fact, when he had become a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, he was already close to the end of his life span. It was that very last moment when he had gotten lucky and found a rather mature spirit Qi spring that was close to turning into a spirit stone mine.

He absorbed all of that and broke through to the Nascent Soul realm.

~Sigh~

Lin Mu sighed at the bad luck of the lost immortal and couldn't help but compare how fortunate he was. The lost immortal had ended up spending over two hundred years before he reached the Peak of the core condensation realm while here he was at the same point at eighteen years of age.

"Better start hiding now, the longer I stay out of sight the easier it would be for me…" Lin Mu said before sinking into the ground using phase.

Even if Lin Mu had the robes and the identity badge of a Tri cauldron peony sect disciple, there was still a chance that he would be found out by someone. While not everyone didn't know everyone in the sect, there could still be people who get suspicious.

Another thing was that while Lin Mu had the identity badge, it didn't mean that it was 100% authentic. The disciples who were part of the sect were all recorded in the sect registry. So while Lin Mu would have the badge, if anyone cross checked it with the registry they would find out the truth.

The less Lin Mu came into the sights of others, the fewer chances of him being found out.

~phew~

"Getting up there will take a while…" Lin Mu said.

Since he couldn't fly he would have to take the long winding route that went to the peaks. The Tri cauldron peony peak was built in a rather unique manner. The entire region of the three peaks was rising up from the ground like a singular mountain and then from that three different peaks separated.

If one looked at it from afar, it kind of looked like a three pointed cauldron. 

Lin Mu first needed to reach the base of the sect which took him an hour to climb. Since he was traveling underground the entire time, he moved smoothly but the drain on his spirit Qi was also substantial.

Along the way, he saw plenty of outer disciples and servants. These were the majority members of the sect and did most of the labor in the sect. Lin Mu paid attention to their conversations, as these were the people who would know the finer nuances of what happened in the sect.

And just as Lin Mu was listening to one of the gossips between a few Outer court disciples, he learned of an interesting development.

"Did you know, Alchemist Bilao will be getting his own peak after his Ascension?"