Chapter 579: The Tunnels Below The Mountain

"Perhaps only my grandfather will have any idea about how the sword really works. If there is anyone who can do it then it will be the number one Weapon refiner in the world!" Jing Luo claimed in a prideful tone.

One could tell from his voice that he truly believed this. Lin Mu nodded as well as Jing Wei was the only man he had seen that had skills such as that and was even praised by Senior Xukong. The latter part was of the greatest importance.

"That's probably true." Lin Mu agreed.

"Sad that we won't be able to take it with us…" Jing Luo spoke.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Lin Mu questioned.

"The sword does not allow us to carry it and neither does it want to be kept into a spatial storage treasure." Jing Luo replied.

"Can I try it?" Lin Mu asked, having an idea.

~Sigh~

"Sure… I guess it doesn't really matter much now. Either we get it now, or just leave it here anyway." Jing Luo said, fully expecting the sword to run away again. 

'Perhaps I'll have to patch up the roof again. It has already made enough holes that I ended up turning the roof holes into a skylight.' Jing Luo thought.

Lin Mu simply nodded his head and approached the Great Sword. It did not react to him, even when he was at the very side of it. It was just like Jing Luo had stated, the sword would only respond when someone touched it.

Lin Mu extended his right hand and touched the great sword's handle. The great sword trembled and at that moment, Jing Luo braced his head; as once the great sword had broken through the roof and the fragments had fallen on top of his head. While it had not injured him greatly, he still had a bump on his head for a couple of days.

"H-how?!!" Jing Luo said in the next moment, feeling absolutely shocked.

The great sword had disappeared into thin air, which was proof that it had been stored into a spatial storage treasure.

"See, it isn't really a problem." Lin Mu spoke.

Jing Luo couldn't help but look at the gold ring with green patterns on Lin Mu's hand. Lin Mu had already told him it was Jing Wei who had made the ring so he thought that was where the Great Sword was stored.

"Grandfather's craft has only gotten better over time…" Jing Luo murmured.

"Well then, where is the tunnel that leads to the Spirit stone mine?" Lin Mu questioned.

"Ah, yes. I almost forgot." Jing Luo said, recovering from the shock. "Follow me. The tunnel is quite deep in the mountain. I've been digging it for nearly twenty years now." He added.

Lin Mu followed behind the man and continued inward. Jing Luo got to the very back of the residence, where a pair of stone gates were erected. Lin Mu could tell that these were handmade and there were formations carved on them, too.

From the top of his head, Lin Mu could tell that there was an isolation formation on it, a locking formation, an insulating formation, and also a sealing formation of some kind. Lin Mu had spent quite some time studying the formation array of the vaults in the Tri Cauldron Peony sect and thus knew a lot about formations that would be placed on doors.

Jing Luo simply waved his hand and made the runes on the door move. 

~Kaching~

The doors started to move and soon opened fully. 

~Whoosh~

Once they were open though, Lin Mu felt a tide of spirit Qi hitting him. The tide was strong enough to blow his long hair back. Jing Luo had the same experience and seemed to be surprised by this.

"That… this has never happened…" Jing Luo muttered.

"The spirit Qi is leaking?" Lin Mu said.

"But if it really is, then… COME QUICK!" Jing Luo spoke in a hurry.

Lin Mu nodded his head and flew behind him. The two men flew at their max speed and traveled through the tunnels. Along the way, Lin Mu saw hundreds of branches in the tunnels. Lin Mu also realized why it had taken Jing Luo so much time to reach the place where the Spirit stone mine was.

'Looks like he also took the opportunity to mine out the precious materials and ores from this mountain.' Lin Mu thought, recalling all the raw materials that were kept in the workshop.

Even at their full speed, it took Lin Mu and Jing Wei over an hour to reach the bottom of the tunnels. This showed just how deep it went, but it was also due to the winding routes that were made by Jing Luo.

Upon reaching the end, Lin Mu and Jing Luo finally saw why the spirit Qi hit them like a tide at the doors of the tunnel.

"Cracks? How? I've tried countless methods, attacked endlessly, used explosives and yet nothing worked." Jing Luo spoke in disbelief.

Lin Mu furrowed his brows as well and got closer to check it out. He could tell that the walls here were different from the rest of the tunnels. The rock it was made out of was smooth, with very few striations. 

Lin Mu tapped the rock and sensed it with his spirit sense, finding it to be more earthy rather than metallic in nature. Lin Mu went through his memories and tried to recall if he had read about this kind of rock before.

While Lin Mu was doing this, Jing Luo was observing the small cracks that had appeared on it. The cracks were very fine, and could be considered to be hairline cracks but even these fine cracks were leaking out a rather substantial amount of spirit Qi.

While it was not comparable to that of the spirit Qi rain that was caused by Lin Mu's breakthrough, it was still higher than the normal spirit Qi of the area.

"I remember now! This is Earthen Depths Obsidian!"