The first carriage going east was just a decoy to fool the Gu family; her true destination was Yushui City to the north.
She chose Yushui City to join the top sect in the cultivation world, the Xiaoyao Immortal Sect.
In the original book, the heroine joined the Star-Moon Sect, and there wasn't much description of the Xiaoyao Immortal Sect.
Gu Ningyun knew about it because the book mentioned that the heroine, delayed by the spirit root transplant, missed the once-in-a-decade recruitment of the Xiaoyao Immortal Sect, which she always brooded over with regret.
Every time her cultivation hit a snag, she would complain that there was a Xiaoyao recruitment station right in Yushui City; if she had finished merging the spirit root a day earlier, she wouldn't have missed it.
By Gu Ningyun's calculation, there was about a month left before the Xiaoyao Immortal Sect started recruiting disciples.
She leaned lazily against the carriage window. Thinking about how the heroine's family had plotted against her, she felt uneasy just leaving without doing anything.
She remembered a chance for the heroine outside Yushui City. This opportunity was obtained by the heroine before she entered an immortal sect; it was hidden but not particularly dangerous.
Waiting for a month would be boring anyway, so she might as well spend ten days or so digging up this chance in advance.
At that thought, Gu Ningyun felt much better.
...
After entering Yushui City, Gu Ningyun bought enough food for a month and ten iron pickaxes to carry on her back. She left the city before nightfall when the gates closed.
With the tools ready, she planned to drink the spring water in her space first. It might strengthen her body and help with digging up the chance later.
Once she reached a secluded spot, she slipped into the space. After setting her things down, she panted, her arms aching.
Although a chance meant power, it was truly painful for a six-year-old like her to carry such heavy iron pickaxes.
After eating something and recovering, Gu Ningyun looked at the pool of spirit spring water.
Fearing her mortal body couldn't handle it, she took a small, cautious sip.
The spirit spring was sweet. As soon as she swallowed, she felt the water turn into a cool current, spreading from her throat throughout her body.
Soon, as the current surged, an intense itching and pain spread from everywhere in her body, as if countless ants were biting her from the inside.
“Ah!”
Gu Ningyun collapsed onto the grass, gritting her teeth and enduring with difficulty. After an unknown amount of time, she became somewhat numb to the pain before it finally began to subside.
When the pain completely receded and her senses returned, she immediately smelled a strong, foul odor mixed with the scent of blood.
She lifted her arm and found herself covered in a thick layer of dark, bloody scabs.
Eww, this was unbearable.
She brought over the bathtub and washed herself three times before she was finally clean.
The used spirit spring water wasn't wasted; she poured it all on the small sapling.
She had observed while drawing the first bucket that as the water level dropped, bubbles would gurgle from the bottom of the spirit spring, and the water would soon return to its previous level. It was clearly renewable.
After changing her clothes, Gu Ningyun finally had time to observe the changes in her body.
The first thing she noticed was that her entire body was filled with strength; she could easily lift the heavy bathtub from before.
If she had to carry those pickaxes now, she felt she could handle twenty more without a problem.
She ran and jumped around the grass, finding her body much more agile than before. She could run faster and jump higher.
Gu Ningyun pinched her fair little arm. Her skin used to be fragile and delicate, but now it felt much more supple and firm.
Gu Ningyun giggled. Could this be the cleansing the marrow mentioned in novels?
She tried another sip of the spirit spring. This time, there was no pain or impurities. It seemed her body had been thoroughly cleansed.
Perhaps because she hadn't started cultivating yet, she felt the current from the spirit spring circulate once through her body before dissipating into the space.
However, the exhaustion from the previous pain had vanished, leaving her full of energy.
She opened the light screen. Morning sunlight filtered through the tree shadows; an entire night had passed.
Gu Ningyun finished her breakfast in a few bites and grabbed an iron pickaxe, her heart pounding. In the silence where no one was around, it was time to stealthily dig for the chance!
...
Outside Yushui City, on the mountainside of an unremarkable hill with sparse spiritual energy, stood a crooked maple tree with a clear, fishless pool beneath it.
Gu Ningyun rolled up her sleeves, took a deep breath, and dove into the water.
Unknown vines crawled across the wall near the bottom of the pool, creating a wall of green.
Gu Ningyun searched carefully through the vines. When her hand hit a hollow spot, she pushed aside the green leaves, revealing a small hole the width of an adult man's shoulders.
Found it! Gu Ningyun was overjoyed.
Who would have thought that a small spirit stone mine was hidden behind this passage?
She surfaced for a breath and then dove headfirst into the hole.
After swimming and crawling for about ten meters, Gu Ningyun emerged from the passage into the heart of the mountain.
The small pool on the outside of the mountain was actually connected to an underground river within.
It was pitch black inside the mountain, but perhaps because of the spirit spring water, Gu Ningyun could see in the dark.
She kicked her legs, swam to the shore, and climbed out of the pool.
After changing into dry clothes in the space, she took out an iron pickaxe and started digging into the left wall.
Yellow mountain soil fell away. After digging about half a foot, she heard a “Clang!”
Gu Ningyun leaned in to look. The soil was gone, replaced by a layer of unremarkable black stones.
The original book didn't mention what these stones were, and the heroine hadn't collected them.
Gu Ningyun felt that stones appearing next to a spirit stone mine couldn't be simple, so she collected them as she went.
Once she dug through the layer of black stone, a fresh and refreshing aura rushed over her, and a cluster of transparent, hexagonal crystals appeared before her eyes.
Based on the original host's memories, Gu Ningyun recognized these as low-grade spirit stones. There were about a dozen in this cluster alone.
What was she waiting for? Start digging!
The clanging of mining continued for over ten days.
Gu Ningyun swung her pickaxe tirelessly. When she was hungry, she went back to the space to eat; when she was tired, she drank spirit spring water to recover her energy; when she truly couldn't go on, she laid out the bedding she had brought from the Gu Manor on the grass in the space and took a nap.
Finally, after wearing out seven iron pickaxes, she collected the last cluster of spirit stones into her space.
Gu Ningyun spent another day and two more pickaxes digging out the remaining black stones from the other five sides of the vein.
Standing in the empty mine shaft and looking at the surrounding walls that had returned to yellow soil, Gu Ningyun smiled with satisfaction. As expected of Every-Last-Scrap Ningyun, she didn't leave a single crumb for the heroine to pick up.
Back in the space, she forced herself to wash up before losing consciousness and falling into a deep sleep on the grass.
While she was mining the spirit stone mine, many outsiders with children gradually began to arrive in Yushui City.
...
Gu Ningyun was woken up by hunger.
She sat up from the grass, blinking her blurry eyes, and immediately saw the bed just three steps away from her.
“......”
After eating, Gu Ningyun finally took stock of her harvest from this trip.
18 top-grade spirit stones, 209 high-grade spirit stones, 2,356 mid-grade spirit stones, a small mountain of low-grade spirit stones, and a pile of mysterious black ore that was slightly smaller than the low-grade pile but still taller than her.
Gu Ningyun tried hard to suppress the corners of her mouth from curling up. Well, it was just a small fortune, stay calm.
It was just getting enough spirit stones that the Gu family in Yanlin Town wouldn't be able to earn in ten years. Stay low-key, low-key.
Rate on N.U.
