Unbeatable! Invincible! Unparalleled!

Inside a special chamber located underground of the Imperial Palace that managed to survive the previous devastation, Duan Li, Shen Lu, Liu Sheng Duhai and the Liu Emperor sat together face to face.

"Do you know the true value of this Superior quality spirit stone that you just gave us?" said the Liu Emperor with a somber look on her as she stared at the spirit stone in question floating slowly on the coffee table.

"Eh? Isn't it just another bigger currency like the High quality spirit stones? Like one of them is equal to a few thousand of High quality spirit stones or something?" Duan Li casually replied.

His answer made Liu Sheng Duhai agitated to the point where he wanted to sprawl on him and strangle his neck for being so clueless!

"You... superior quality spirit stones are not that simple!" He said in exasperation and stood up.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked towards the ceiling with a deep look before he started explaining.

"Normal spirit stones from Low quality up to the High quality spirit stones are usually used as a form of currency for trading between cultivators. I am sure that you both at least know that this was because the spirit stones are extracted from deep underground cavern close to the numerous spirit veins spread across the underground system of the Tian continent, fossilized into crystals due to the tectonic activities for several millenniums and was thus considered as valuables according to their rarity!"

Duan Li and Shen Lu both nodded as this was common knowledge for cultivators.

"As for their quality, the higher the concentration of the spiritual Qi crystallized, the higher their rarity. For example, Low quality spirit stones could be found easily in any deep underground caverns where the air was trapped for a long time causing the spiritual Qi to condense into small crystals the size of a fingernail."

"Middle quality spirit stones on the other hand, are formed from the forceful natural synthesis of multiple Low quality spirit stones together, compressed into the size of a finger!"

"As for High quality spirit stones, these could only be found very close to the source of a spirit vein and only lucky or fated encounters could unearth them, thus their utmost rarity. Their sizes was about the size of one's palm!"

"As for Superior quality spirit stones..." Liu Sheng Duhai paused with a dramatic look on his face, causing both Duan Li and Shen Lu to be on their tenterhooks.

"They are the amalgamations of the spirit vein themselves!!"

BOOMMM!!

Duan Li and Shen Lu felt goosebumps on their back upon this revelation!

For people like them, just knowing that spirit stones came from underground cavern was already enough and they really couldn't be bothered to know more where each really came from.

However, even they knew that the value of pinpointing the exact location of a spirit vein that was always on the move every few years due to the tectonic plate movements was as difficult as scaling the heavens, and was therefore a priceless information, not to mention that now, one was right in front of them!

"To think that Brother Duan Li had been brandishing his Superior quality spirit stones as if they were cabbages, no wonder the Jiu Emperor decided to store all of it for him!" Shen Lu sighed.

Still, he couldn't help but to wonder on why Liu Sheng Juan and their Emperor did not tell them about this.

"Could it be that they didn't know?"

Shen Lu shook his head.

It would be impossible for Liu Sheng Juan, the director of the Jiu Bank company to not know of this information at least when these people knew about it..

"Amalgamation of the spirit vein? But I always thought that the spirit vein was only a pathway and was never the origin of spiritual Qi. How could a spirit vein amalgamate and crystallized into a spirit stone?" Shen Lu asked doubtfully.

He then added, "Furthermore, if that was really the case, then why didn't our emperor, Jiu Xian Ping and Liu Sheng Juan, the director of the Jiu Bank company did not tell us about their actual value beforehand?"

Liu Gongsun Xiaojian sighed before she answered, "It's not that they don't want to tell you. They simply can't and I understand why."

"The existence of Superior quality spirit stones has always been a secret and was known only to a few people. Like you said, it should be impossible for a spirit vein to amalgamate and crytallized by itself. After all, they are similar to the meridians in our body where they only exists as gateways to channel spiritual Qi for the many Qi pathways in our body. They in itself does not produce spiritual Qi, but our dantian!"

"This impossibility is exactly the reason why even a single Superior quality spirit stone is priceless! They are unique! Only fools would want to trade them for High quality spirit stones! The two of them couldn't even begin to compare!" the Liu Emperor scoffed as she explained this, causing Duan Li to nearly choke himself silly.

"I disagree! Why are they fools? Can Superior quality spirit stones be eaten? What use are they if they can't be used as a currency?" Duan Li refuted as he tried to justify himself for trading Superior quality spirit stones with the Principal of the Jixue Knights academy, Bian Tianyu for a mere residence court!

He swore that the Principal would have to give him a long explanation on it!

Just because he was a village boy, doesn't mean that it was okay for them to take advantage of him! Besides, the Principal gave him quite the underpriced renumeration of the actual value of the Superior quality spirit stones!

In other words, Duan Li had been scammed!

Hmph!

"The strategic value of a Superior quality spirit stone should not be underestimated! Since they are the amalgamation of a spirit vein, when you look at it from another perspective, you can say that its a mirror connected directly to the source of the spiritual Qi in the Tian continent, the Source Qi core itself!"

Liu Sheng Duhai then continued, "You might not be able to sense it, but we Nascent Soul realm can! Just by cultivating near it would cause dramatic increase to our realm, we who have already reached the Pinnacle stage that could no longer cultivate beyond it! High quality spirit stones are not able to replicate this effect no matter how many you gathered!"

Duan Li pondered on this matter and gave it a deep thought. Indeed, when one had already reached the Nascent Soul realm, increasing their strength became very lengthy and difficult as they were already saturated with spiritual Qi down to their individual cells!

In other words, when a cup was already full of water, there was little one can do to add more into it as it will just overflow the cup.

Liu Gongsun Xiaojian nodded to the words of her Imperial Advisor and continued where he left off.

"Can you imagine if this was known to everyone? The effectiveness for those on the lower realm cultivating near it would increase by several thousand fold, causing even Qi Condensation realm newbie to be able to jump to a Foundation establishment realm in a matter of a few breaths! An unprecedented shortcut!"

"But do you think that their untempered body would be able to survive it? Their cultivation would immediately go berserk and their dantian to explode with so much power, that it would devastate their surroundings!"

The Liu Emperor then rolled her eyes before finishing her sentence, "Knowing how reckless and clueless you are, you would definitely want to give it a try! But unless you are at the Nascent Soul realm, no matter how formidable you think you are, you would still die from it and affect everyone around you. This is simply because you need the soul sense ability to see the miniscule vibrations the Superior quality spirit stone radiated out with each random seconds. Each vibration would unleash an instantaneous surge of Qi and only the correct amount should be absorbed while ignoring the rest according to one's rate of Qi cycle!"

"Absorbing a surge of Qi well beyond your capacity, which the Superior quality spirit stone will usually give out for most of the time, taking note that its connected to the Source Qi core, one could be easily overwhelmed, so it's understandable why they didn't tell you about it!"

It took a long while for Duan Li to digest and accept this before he finally relented and gave a deep sigh.

"Hais! If only I knew, I would have at least kept one for myself..." Duan Li said. Since he already gave the only one he had right now to the Liu Empire as a form of compensation, it would not be right for him to take it back after he learnt of its value. That's just being petty! Thus, he could only shake his head and felt a little regret.

After all, he had the Tetra Soul Sense where he could gave it a try!

Nevermind, I'll get one for myself once I'm back...

Still, he couldn't help but thought of the reason why his clone gave one to him via Shen Lu.

Could it be that he already foresaw me causing troubles?

Nah.. that shouldn't be possible...

On the other hand, Liu Gongsun Xiaojian and Liu Sheng Duhai's mouth froze when they heard Duan Li's previous sentence.

"C-Could it be that.. you have m-more?" their voices stuttered and their breath became agitated.

"Eh? Indeed, I have several of them. In fact, I loaned them all to our emperor. If I'm not mistaken, I should have tens of them.. or was it hundreds? I don't really remember. But anyway, that was the main reason I became the Imperial Overseer." Duan Li nodded and told them earnestly.

Pu!

Both of the highest figure in the entire Liu Empire suddenly felt lightheaded and wanted to commit suicide.

...