Lu Ye’s stomach growled loudly, reminding him that he hadn't eaten for most of the day. Originally, he had planned to exchange the mined ores for food after completing his quota, but things hadn't gone as expected. Since encountering Manager Yang, he had been forced deeper into the mine, enduring intense battles and the pain of injury. Now, in this desolate place, the hunger was becoming unbearable.
Fortunately, he had found plenty of food in Manager Yang’s storage bag. Lu Ye pulled out a piece of dried beast meat and paired it with some water, eating it bite by bite. As the food entered his stomach, the hunger gradually subsided, and his body regained a bit of strength.
At this point, he wasn’t as alert, since there didn’t seem to be any immediate danger around. Instead, his attention was drawn to the belongings left behind by Manager Yang, and he began curiously inspecting them.
As he ate the beast meat, Lu Ye rummaged through the storage bag. He found several Blood Qi Pills and Healing Pills, which were quite familiar to him, but there were also some pills he had never seen before. Some of them emitted a strong, unpleasant, fishy smell, clearly not something of high quality. He set these dubious pills aside and picked up a book, flipping it open in the firelight. The book was rich in content and vivid, with illustrations that seemed to depict a novel. The artwork was exquisite, lifelike. Though Lu Ye was somewhat interested, he was weak from exhaustion, so he decided to put the book aside and continue searching.
Next, he picked up another book. The cover read, "The Legendary Swordsman Chronicles." After flipping through a few pages, he was disappointed to find that it was just a regular biography. Slightly disappointed, he picked up a third book. When he saw the words on the cover, his heartbeat skipped a beat.
"The Golden Cicada’s Carefree Decision"!
This book caused Lu Ye’s mind to stir. The Golden Cicada’s Carefree Decision! This was a cultivation method! He quickly opened the book, and it was illustrated and written in simple language, clearly a cultivation technique used by Manager Yang.
However, as his excitement began to settle, Lu Ye realized a problem—he had yet to open his spirit aperture. Even with this cultivation method right in front of him, it was useless to him. After all, without opening his spirit aperture, no matter how powerful the cultivation method, he couldn’t cultivate. Lu Ye sighed faintly and set the book aside. There was no point in looking at it more. Over the past year, he had tried countless times to open his own spirit aperture, but without success.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
A bit disheartened, Lu Ye reached back into the storage bag and continued rummaging through its contents. This time, he was lucky to pull out some rare ores. A few fist-sized Yuan Magnetic Ores appeared in front of him. These ores were clearly Manager Yang's personal stash. He wondered what Yang intended to do with them but didn’t think too much of it and continued searching.
Suddenly, he pulled out a dark red ore. The size of the ore was almost the same as a human head. Strangely, Lu Ye had never seen such a mineral before, nor had the mine slaves ever mentioned it. Clearly, this ore was extremely valuable. Lu Ye observed it with curiosity, deciding to investigate its use later.
However, just as he was about to put the ore down, his mind suddenly blurred for a moment, and the scenery before him became a little hazy. Then, a blurry image flashed before his eyes. That image slowly solidified into… a tree!
“The Shadow Tree!” Lu Ye’s heart skipped a beat, shock written all over his face. The Shadow Tree only appeared under certain conditions, when he focused his attention, and it would occasionally manifest in his vision. But this time, it appeared on its own. Lu Ye’s heart surged with inexplicable excitement.
The roots of the Shadow Tree seemed to sense something, and suddenly, numerous tendrils shot out, swiftly embedding themselves into the dark red ore in his hand.
The next moment, the ore made a crisp cracking sound. Lu Ye was stunned to find that after cracking open, the ore released an orange-yellow fireball! He instinctively tried to shake the fireball off, but it clung to his hand as if glued there, refusing to come off.
In the brief moment of panic, Lu Ye realized that this fireball was somehow connected to the appearance of the Shadow Tree. What was even stranger was that, despite the fireball burning brightly, he didn’t feel any heat at all.
The orange-yellow flame quickly shrank, as if being absorbed by some force. After just a few moments, the fireball disappeared without a trace.
However, as the fire vanished, Lu Ye suddenly felt a burning power surge within his dantian. This power quickly pulled his internal Qi and blood towards his dantian.
What followed was a pain so excruciating it felt as though his abdomen was being torn apart. The intense pain caused him to grunt involuntarily, and his clothes were quickly soaked with sweat.
Just when he thought he couldn’t endure the pain any longer, a faint "crack" sounded from his dantian. Lu Ye’s eyes brightened, and he suddenly felt something break open.
The tearing pain quickly faded, replaced by a wonderful sensation he had never experienced before. Lu Ye looked down at his dantian, feeling an indescribable surge of excitement in his heart—his spirit aperture… had opened!
In this moment, Lu Ye was filled with joy and exhilaration. He had finally broken through the bottleneck that had seemed insurmountable and had unlocked his very own spirit aperture!