Chapter 1364: Importance of Space Node Stones
Arriving back in front of the formation, Xuan Hao didn’t waste any time as he began the process of trying to figure out a way to easily break through the formation as fast as possible, while at the same time also checking to see if he could figure out the situation inside the formation. Hoping that the one behind the entire thing would be confident in the strength of the formation and thus wouldn’t have dispatched a Demon Lord Realm demonic cultivator to watch over the small kingdom where the mining for Space Node Stones was taking place.
Of course, given the value of the spiritual stones, Xuan Hao felt this was unlikely, even if the power of those in the outer regions and at the edges of the continent barely reached the Core Formation Realm in most cases, there would still be other dangers in forms of demon beasts from the endless ocean or cultivators like Gong Cheng, who were looking for a place to hide and lay low.
Any of these two could spell trouble for the demonic cultivators mining for the space stone nodes, as the first could destroy their mining operation, while the latter might result in news of the space node stones spreading to the rest of the continent.
Obviously, neither was something that the demonic cultivator behind all of this wanted to happen, as it would not only draw attention from major powers like the Blue Sea Empire but would also end up drawing the attention of other demonic cultivators who would likely be more than happy to lend their fellow demonic cultivator a hand in securing the space node stones.
Unfortunately, even if the other party wanted to monopolize the space node stones at that point in time, it would impossible. Even with the strength of someone in the Demon King Realm.
But more importantly than that, the main reason why it was difficult to monopolize was that the extraction and mining of space node stones took a long time and couldn’t be completed in a short period of time. Requiring years or decades to mine even a small part of the overall mine.
In a sense, the reason for the secrecy of the small kingdom where the space node stones had been found was also because of this, as without personally encountering one of the rare few times that the space node stones were transported out of the small kingdom, he would have no idea what it was that was being mined there and would likely not have decided to take the risk of breaking in at the risk of offending a Demon King Realm demonic cultivator.
After all, even though spiritual metal with spatial properties were rare, it wasn’t that rare that someone would offend a Demon King Realm demonic cultivator over it.
Only Xuan Hao, whose sect was lacking a lot of spiritual metal like that was willing to take such a risk, as the Star Shattering Sect really needed to start establishing teleportation formations across the sect’s territory to ensure that the sect could continue to grow without any major issues.
After all, teleportation formations would allow the sect to far more easily move around the sect territory and also have a far easier time transporting different resources around.
Although it was a bit of a stretch at the moment, it would be ideal if teleportation formations could be created within the different resource rich locations of the fallen Sky Empire that the sect had recently taken over.
Of course, the longer distance between teleportation formations, the more resources and the more difficult they would be to construct… And although the Star Shattering Sect’s territory was rather small when compared to a large empire like the Blue Sea Empire, it had already grown to be close to a third the size of the now fallen Sky Empire.
The main difference between the two being that the Star Shattering Sect had almost full control over this territory compared to the Sky Empire that didn’t fully control most of its territory due to different powerful demon beasts or other things.
Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao continued trying to comprehend the formation in front of him, as minutes soon turned to hours, as his understanding of the formation guarding the space node stone mine slowly deepened.
First of all, he discovered that the formation was far weaker than he had first thought.
Even with strength comparable to the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm, it should be relatively simple to break the formation itself with enough time.
Given his current strength was far above that, the weaknesses he had managed to pinpoint in the formation would essentially allow him to almost instantly destroy the entire formation. Rending it completely useless.
Secondly, he did manage to peer through the formation to some extent after his understanding of it increased and he found weak spots that his divine sense could slip through undetected.
Unfortunately, when he investigated the situation on the other side of the formation, he discovered that there was not just one, but two demonic cultivators in the Demon Lord Realm present inside the small kingdom guarding the space node stone mine.
Even if these two Demon Lord Realm demonic cultivators could be considered on the weaker side and wouldn’t pose that much of a threat to him given his current strength, it would still take him some time to kill them, time that he didn’t have considering that he expected a Demon King Realm demonic cultivator to rush over the moment he broke the formation.
With that in mind, Xuan Hao had instead focused his attention on where the space node stones were being stored before being transported. Intending to take as much as possible with him before escaping before the two Demon Lord Realm demonic cultivators had a chance to block him.
Luckily, the space node stones were not being stored inside an interspatial ring or space bag but were instead stored out in the open just next to the mine itself where it was being processed into smaller and more manageable sizes that could be cared with ease inside interspatial rings or bags.
From the looks of the situation inside, the space node stones were only prepared outside the mine before being picked up later when a group like the one he had killed not long ago appeared to transport it out.
Because of this, the amount of processed space node stones present outside the mine was close to nothing.
The majority of it was in large unprocessed chunks that would be difficult to transport not only due to their size, but also due to their spatial nature making it more difficult to stone inside interspatial rings and bags.
Of course, Xuan Hao wasn’t too concerned about this, as with his current comprehension of the Dao of Space, he could forcibly contain the spatial anomalies caused by the space node stones for a period of time before storing them inside some of the interspatial rings he was carrying.
The main problem being that even though he had further enhanced and strengthened them after his comprehension of the Dao of Space increased and their current size surpassed that of the few space bags he had stolen not long ago, he wouldn’t be able to carry all of the unprocessed space node stones out with him.
At most, he would be able to take half of it, but considering that there was close to ten times the amount of space node stones than what he had managed to get his hands on already, Xuan Hao felt that it would be enough for a simple network of teleportation formations across the current territory of the Star Shattering Sect.
Of course, in the future, a mine like the one in front of him would be required, but for now, the sect didn’t have the strength to size such a mine.
The best-case scenario would be that one was discovered inside the sect’s territory, and they could secretly mine it like the demonic cultivators were doing at the moment.
Oh well… No matter what, it looks like I will still be breaking into this place…
Smiling to himself as he thought about this, Xuan Hao soon narrowed his eyes as he focused his attention on the two Demon Lord Realm demonic cultivators inside the formation-
BOOOOM-!
And the next second, a terrifying explosion echoed out across the desolated land, as the formation was pierced in several critical locations at the same time by his sword intent. Instantly destroying the formation.
Ruumble-!
Not a second later, the two Demon Lord Realm demonic cultivators rushed out, but… It was already too late at this point in time, as Xuan Hao had directly used his drifting cloud steps to teleport himself in front of the unprocessed space node stones before taking as much as he could carry and before reusing his drifting cloud steps to disappear.
Not giving the demonic cultivatorsthe chance to realize what was happening before he was gone.
