Chapter 268

Chapter 268: The Snake Maiden Is Here to Join This Family

Such a Spirit Vein would take who knows how long to mine. If she relied on herself alone, she might not finish even before Devil Qi broke through the defenses and seeped in.

And if they mined it like this, the Spirit Stones would only become Spirit Stones, and the Spiritual Qi would never recover.

She wondered if there was a way to move the Spirit Vein intact.

Shen Sang Ruo suddenly thought of something, her eyes flashing. She took the cloth pouch from her waist and poured a few Giant Beetles into her palm. Zhu Miao had said the Giant Beetles could Miniaturize anything. If Zhu Miao trusted that power, it had to be strong.

She asked the bugs as a bold idea formed: “Can you Miniaturize this Spirit Vein?” Then she held the Giant Beetles toward the Spirit Vein in front of them.

The Giant Beetles huddled together, whispering in their tiny voices, then nodded to her.

Shen Sang Ruo looked delighted. She had only wanted to try, and she did not expect it to work.

This meant she could move the whole Spirit Vein to the Ninghua Sect intact.

[Ninghua Sect has a mine now. We are going to thrive.]

They would gain not only a huge number of Spirit Stones but also the Spiritual Qi the Spirit Vein would bring to nourish the entire Ninghua Sect.

Usually, the top sects were built right on top of Spirit Veins. Sects like Flying Cloud Sect and Heavenly Sword Sect had medium Spirit Veins under their grounds. The Ninghua Sect also used to have a Spirit Vein underground, but a Heretic Cultivator ruined it during that great change. Now it was a dead, dried-out mine.

Compared to this Spirit Vein, the losses at Linglong Pavilion were nothing. Linglong Pavilion would be rebuilt soon. Every problem they faced would be solved.

The Giant Beetles signaled for her to set them down, then they marched toward the Spirit Vein.

Little Shi asked in a curious voice as she almost missed the tiny bugs: “What are those?”

“Giant Beetles, and as for what they do…” Shen Sang Ruo began to answer, but the Giant Beetles were already working together to Miniaturize the huge Spirit Vein into the size of a palm.

She curved her lips and said with a light smile: “You saw it, so I don’t need to say more.”

She tapped her toes and rose into the air, then moved forward and lifted the Miniaturized Spirit Vein into her hands. She wanted to put it into her Teleportation Artifact and Teleport out right then, but it seemed the Teleportation Artifact could not be used inside this space.

She gave up for now, deciding to send it out after they left.

Shen Sang Ruo placed the tiny fellows who were standing on their hind legs and happily waving their other legs onto her hand. Knowing the Giant Beetles had big needs for attention, she praised them warmly: “You’re amazing. Thank you. What kind of reward do you want? I’ll do my best.”

The Giant Beetles spread their legs wide, then folded them together again.

Shen Sang Ruo easily understood what they meant. They wanted her to Miniaturize and play with them.

She laughed and promised: “After we get out of the Starfield Plain, I’ll definitely play with you.”

The little ones were satisfied and wiggled their legs even faster.

Little Shi watched in awe and said with a sigh: “Elder Sister, there are always such rare demons around you.” She thought of the mysterious Bamboo Bear, the Dodder Flower Sprite with countless vines, the very fast Snail, and now bugs that could shrink things.

She did not know that inside Shen Sang Ruo’s sea of consciousness there was also a Kui Ox with the bloodline of an Ancient Divine Beast, and a Koi Carp that could bring strong good luck.

Seeing all this made Little Shi want to join in too. For anyone else, earning the favor of even one of these demons would be amazing. It showed that Shen Sang Ruo herself stood at the peak in every way in the Cultivation World.

Little Shi hugged Shen Sang Ruo’s leg and looked up at her as she asked with hopeful eyes: “Elder Sister, you don’t have a demon like me yet, right?” She meant a dual-form, Devouring type demonic beast. She felt she was special and worthy to join.

A certain little dumpling in the sea of consciousness opened its eyes with a snap. A sense of danger shot up at once. [Oh no, another one came to steal my Master.] Sure enough, it was a Snake Demon. In no time at all, she had wrapped herself around the spot.

The Kui Ox inside the sea of consciousness began to pace in a panic. It had only just formed a Bonding Contract with Shen Sang Ruo, and now a demon wanted to take its place. Worse, that snake was stronger than it.

Shen Sang Ruo found it a bit unbelievable. She lifted a hand and touched Little Shi’s forehead without thinking: “You don’t have a fever that made you silly.”

Little Shi did not care about that. She still looked at Shen Sang Ruo with bright eyes and even said with a bit of excitement: “I came to join this family, not to break it apart.”

That left Shen Sang Ruo at a loss. She said with open confusion: “I’m only at Nascent Soul Early Stage, and you are a Great Demon with one foot already in Divine Transformation. Are you sure you want to stay by my side? Great demons like you love freedom. Why would you let someone else restrain you?”

In Shen Sang Ruo’s eyes, the Snake Maiden had no reason to do this.

Little Shi’s eyes curved like a moon as she smiled and said naturally: “Of course it’s because Little Shi likes Elder Sister.”

Shen Sang Ruo fell silent. [Do I believe that?]

Before she could speak, a purple light shot from the center of her brows. The Kui Ox, who had been holding back for a long time, finally jumped out. With its horns lowered, it charged straight at Little Shi and bellowed: “Moo!”

It was not allowed to steal its master.

Clinging to Shen Sang Ruo, Zhu Miao snickered. It knew this dumb ox would not be able to hold back. That was why it had stayed quiet.

Facing the Kui Ox rushing at her, Little Shi froze and did not move, then cried out for help: “Elder Sister, save me!”

Shen Sang Ruo had not planned to act, since the Snake Maiden was much stronger than the Kui Ox and the ox could not hurt her. But then she remembered that in this form the Snake Maiden had no Spiritual Power. She moved at once and stopped the Kui Ox.

Even so, the ox’s horn still scraped a bloody line across Little Shi’s arm.

“Moo?” The Kui Ox was stunned. Why did she not dodge?

It hurried to look at Shen Sang Ruo, lowing to explain. It only wanted to scare Little Shi. It did not mean to hurt her.

Little Shi covered her arm and complained sadly as she said: “Elder Sister, it hurts so much.” Then she asked with a quiver: “Is it also your Spirit Beast? It is really fierce.”

Shen Sang Ruo glanced toward the cave mouth. The Living Spirit Tea Tree was outside, so why did she smell tea? She patted the Kui Ox to show she did not blame it, put it back into her sea of consciousness, then looked at Little Shi who was still clutching her arm.

She spoke firmly, cutting through the act: “Stop pretending. This little wound will vanish if you change back into the Snake Maiden.”

Hearing this, tears filled Little Shi’s eyes. She stood there and stared at Shen Sang Ruo, her voice as pitiful as could be as she called out: “Elder Sister.”

Even though Shen Sang Ruo knew this was not Little Shi’s real face, it was too misleading. Looking at that pitiful look, she softened in the end. She crouched and quickly bandaged Little Shi’s arm, then fed her a pill and asked: “There, that should do, right?”

Little Shi stopped crying and smiled: “Thank you, Elder Sister.”

Shen Sang Ruo pulled the topic back with a serious look as she asked: “So why do you insist on following me?”