As the sky gradually brightened and the stars faded, Guo Xingyue woke from his reverie. He stood up, stretched, and kicked at the sand beneath his feet, noticing a rolling green stone. Picking it up, he examined it in the light of the rising sun. The stone was translucent, containing a gentle energy within.
At that moment, Ye Mingcheng had also awakened from his meditation. Guo Xingyue approached him and handed the stone over. "Brother, what do you think this is?"
Ye Mingcheng looked at Guo Xingyue, puzzled. "Little brother, how did you break through to the mid-Nascent Soul stage?"
Guo Xingyue stared blankly. "What?"
"Check for yourself," Ye Mingcheng replied. Guo Xingyue quickly focused his spiritual sense inward and was astonished to find his Nascent Soul had opened its eyes. Although it was still seated in a lotus position, it had grown nearly twice its original size, from a fist-sized form to about three inches tall, with the flying sword that had been floating nearby now held in its hand.
Scratching his head, Guo Xingyue said, "I just looked at the stars last night, feeling like I was soaring among them. I was in a good mood and didn't do anything else."
Ye Mingcheng glanced at the sky and then back at Guo Xingyue. "I've spent my leisure time gazing at the stars too. How come such good fortune didn't come my way? You're truly lucky."
Guo Xingyue just chuckled.
"This is a mid-grade Green Crystal, useful for crafting wood-type artifacts. Where did you find it?" Ye Mingcheng recognized its nature and purpose instantly.
"I just kicked around some sand, and it popped out," Guo Xingyue replied nonchalantly.
"Ha! You break through your cultivation by looking at the stars and find a crystal by kicking sand? You really are fortunate! I've been in this desert for days searching for Green Crystals and couldn't find any. You kick once and it comes right out. From now on, whenever I need to find minerals, I'll just ask you to kick a few times."
"No problem, leave it to me! By the way, since we found one, there might be more in the sand. Why don't we search carefully?"
"Good idea! Just immerse your spiritual sense into the sand hill. If there's any energy response, it means there's a crystal. We can each take a section to search."
As soon as Guo Xingyue sent out his spiritual sense, he couldn't help but shout, "Brother, there are so many here!"
Ye Mingcheng also sent his spiritual sense into the sand hill but found nothing. Confused, he looked at Guo Xingyue and asked, "Little brother, are you sure? How come I didn't find anything?"
Guo Xingyue focused his spiritual sense again, confirming, "Brother, I'm sure! There are quite a few crystals fifteen zhang down!"
"Fifteen zhang? You can sense that deep underground?"
"Yeah, what's the big deal about that?"
"Big deal?" Ye Mingcheng sighed, shaking his head. "I reached mid-Nascent Soul before you and have a specialized exploration technique from my sect. I can only sense five zhang deep. I really don't know how you cultivated."
"Hehe, before I started cultivating, I was an assassin—not just any assassin, but the king of assassins—so I guess my senses are sharper," Guo Xingyue explained. In reality, his strong spiritual sense was more due to the meditation techniques he practiced since childhood, which played a significant role in his rapid advancement to mid-Nascent Soul, though he hadn't realized that yet.
Ye Mingcheng rolled his eyes. "So that works too? Maybe I should switch careers and become an assassin. Do you know that even the elders in the late Spirit Division of my sect can only sense down to fifteen zhang?"
Guo Xingyue thought: I can sense deeper than fifteen zhang, but if I say that, Ye Mingcheng might find it even harder to accept. He quickly changed the topic. "Brother, let's start digging!"
"Digging with our hands? If someone hears that, they'd laugh themselves to death! Who digs for crystals with their hands?" As Ye Mingcheng spoke, he executed a series of hand gestures, causing the sand to fly. In an instant, a large pit formed, and as he continued, it deepened rapidly until it reached ten zhang.
Ye Mingcheng paused and said, "I'll take a break. You continue." He taught Guo Xingyue the hand gestures and how to channel his spiritual energy before sitting down to rest.
After familiarizing himself with the gestures and energy channeling, Guo Xingyue tried a few times in the nearby area before starting to dig deeper into the pit. Although he had just reached mid-Nascent Soul, he had a higher density of spiritual energy than Ye Mingcheng, allowing him to clear the sand at an incredible speed. In no time, he had dug down to fifteen zhang.
Stopping, he stared wide-eyed at the bottom of the pit: there was no sand left, only a large green mass.
Guo Xingyue thought, "Wow, this Green Crystal is huge!" He continued using the hand gestures to clear the sand around the entire block, revealing a massive crystal about two zhang tall and one zhang wide. Forgetting that Ye Mingcheng was resting, he shouted, "Brother, come quickly!"
Ye Mingcheng jumped to the edge of the pit and stared at the enormous crystal in shock. As a disciple of the Golden Stone Sect, he had seen many rare crystals but had never encountered one of this size. He walked around the crystal several times, looking at Guo Xingyue with a strange expression. "Little brother, you might as well change your name to Lucky Star!"
Guo Xingyue proudly patted his chest. "Of course! I have great luck! By the way, brother, how do we take such a large crystal with us?"
Ye Mingcheng didn't answer. He took out a peculiar knife from his body, performed some hand gestures, and worked for a long time—throughout the morning until the sun began to set—finally cutting the massive crystal into over a hundred equal pieces. He then extracted a four-foot square, shimmering green crystal from the center and handed it to Guo Xingyue. "Little brother, this is the King of Green Crystals, also known as the Green Diamond. Keep it safe."
Guo Xingyue took the crystal, holding it in his hands, and asked, "Brother, what do you need the Green Crystals for?"
Ye Mingcheng blushed slightly and awkwardly replied, "Well, I wanted to make a pill furnace for your future sister-in-law."
"Sister-in-law? Can cultivators really get married and have children?" Guo Xingyue asked in surprise.