1439 Awakening Stones Translated by XephiZ Edited by Aelryinth — 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮 — The journey was long, crossing mountains and ridges. The newly discovered fire vein was located some distance from the city. The west of China was less populated, with tall mountains, vast lands, thick woods, and serene valleys. It was extremely difficult to find one of the rare fire veins in a place like this. Luckily, after the two renowned clans spent a long time surveying the land, they had found a safe path leading to the fire vein. They even established a relay station at Kunlun Mountain’s Sun Ridge specifically for the fire vein. The relay station was called Wangyang Station. It used to be an under-developed village, but as the two renowned clans started investing in it, it had slowly grown to a small town. The Mui Clan and Dongfang Clan were cooperating with the local government. The local government was hoping that their remote village could be developed further, and the roads, railways, and safe zone would be extended further. The inland areas and places in the West were getting more attention since the eastern coastline was now threatened by sea monsters. The Mui Clan had long claimed ownership of Sun Ridge. The local government, Magic Association, and military would not be getting any share of the place. They were mainly focusing on developing Wangyang Station, since its growth would allow the local government to develop Tianyu Town further. As such, the military and the government were willing to lend the Mui Clan and Dongfang Clan a hand. The relay station was still in rather rough. Wooden planks, stones, and cement were stacked all around the place. Since the place was quite remote, railroads were not yet established, and the roads were mostly muddy paths. Dust and mud scattered all over the relay station as one truck after another drove to the relay station... “We are considering building roads here, but that’s only possible after the fire vein is accessible,” Dongfang Mo explained. He had arrived in person. Building roads was going to cost a fortune. Only huge clans were able to afford the expense. It would bring great benefits to Wangyang Village, since it would give them easier access to the outside world. It was extremely inconvenient to be stuck in the mountains, especially crossing the mountains and ridges just to get some supplies from other places. “What are the trucks carrying?” Mo Fan noticed that the trucks were carrying colorful stones with jagged edges out of the station, apart from bringing in resources. “Those are four Colored Ores of poor quality. Kunlun Mountain is rich in Wind Color Ores, Earth Color Ores, Fire Color Ores, and Lightning Color Ores. Those four different Colored Ores have been feeding countless cities. In the past, the Mui Clan even established a small gathering center here to collect the different Colored Ores and sell them in the Magic City. That business has been earning a few hundred million every year. “A long time ago, Mui Guangqing was placed in charge of the business and came to inspect it. He stumbled into an old Hunter who had discovered traces of a fire vein. They ended up forming a team to look for the fire vein. It turned out that the fire vein did exist, and it’s a B-grade pure fire vein. Mui Guangqing was immediately promoted to an elder of the clan, and was placed in charge of the fire vein.” Dongfang Mo glanced at a man in his thirties nearby with a smile. He seemed to be quite familiar with the situation here. Mui Guangqing was a very humble man who did not speak much along the journey. Mo Fan initially thought he was just a normal member of the Mui Clan tagging along. To his surprise, the man was in charge of the fire vein, and was the one who had discovered it! “I’m just lucky, it’s not worth mentioning at all,” Mui Guangqing explained calmly. “It’s not just about luck. Most people would be reluctant to give up on a comfortable life in the city and come to such an inhospitable place, let alone visiting this place in person to inspect the clan’s business...” Dongfang Mo seemed to admire Mui Guangqing. “Uncle Mo, stop flattering me; I’m just more serious about my tasks. Anyone else could have discovered the fire vein, too. Our biggest problem now is to excavate it. As a matter of fact, there are lots of treasure vaults like Sun Ridge here in the west, but it’s too difficult to excavate them. The military, government, and renowned clans are not willing to take huge risks. If our clan didn’t join hands with your clan, which is known for its expertise in the Fire Element, we really would have no idea how to deal with the fire vein, and some other renowned clans might end up snatching it from us. We wouldn’t care so much if the military wanted to take it away, we could just think of it as contributing to the country, but we are worried that some renowned clans are planning to claim it by annexing us and putting pressure on us,” Mui Guangqing said. “Unfortunately, our Dongfang Clan is bringing disgrace to our own name this time. I’m afraid we aren’t capable enough to take on the job this time. We are only in charge of mining and refining the ore...” Dongfang Mo turned to Mo Fan. “Uncle Mo, I think you’ve overestimated this guy’s capabilities. Our Dongfang Clan might not be better than them in other areas, but there’s no way we are going to lose to anyone when it comes to the Fire Element. Why are we bothering to let an outsider interfere with our business?” Dongfang Ming grumbled. Dongfang Ming was an old acquaintance of Mo Fan. He had nothing better to do now after failing to join the Enforcement Union. As such, he had returned to the clan to see if there was anything he could help with. Dongfang Lie was a more straightforward person. Even though there was a period where he found Mo Fan to be an eyesore, he was utterly impressed by Mo Fan’s talents when they were fighting for the spot on the national team, and was willing to reconcile with him. Meanwhile, Dongfang Ming was more narrow-minded. He was still holding a grudge against Mo Fan because of what had happened in Hangzhou! “You’re just here to lend a hand. Stop interrupting, can’t you see that us adults are discussing business here?” Mo Fan said imperiously, not showing any mercy to Dongfang Ming. Dongfang Ming was on the verge of losing his temper. Who did this Mo Fan think he was? He used to have a chance to beat the crap out of this jerk. How could Mo Fan possibly beat him, if it wasn’t for the resources he received from joining the national team? “Xiao Ming, don’t be reckless, it’s time to forget about the past.” Dongfang Mo was Dongfang Ming’s father, and did not hesitate to teach his son some manners. He was quite friendly to Mo Fan, too. He switched his tone and said, “Mo Fan, since Xiao Ming is around your age, please don’t hesitate to give him some advice.” “Xiao Ming?... HAHAHA, not a problem, I won’t mind keeping an eye on him.” Mo Fan burst out laughing when he heard Dongfang Ming’s nickname. The others laughed, too! Dongfang Ming was supposed to be an unusual name, but when Dongfang Mo called him by his nickname, it suddenly reminded everyone of the textbooks in primary school! Dongfang Ming’s face twisted like a grilled eggplant. He was too embarassed to say anything else. —— The vehicles reached Wanyang Station at the base of Sun Ridge. The place had more than a hundred hills and mountains of varied sizes. Its altitude was significantly higher than the mountains and the mountain ranges nearby. During summer, when the sun was shining upon Sun Ridge, its terrain would end up trapping the heat, resulting in unusually high temperature on the main ridges, and making it extremely difficult for ordinary people to stay on them. Rumors said that around three hundred years ago a meteorite had landed on Sun Ridge, producing an enormous burning pit hidden between the mountains. This fire vein did not just appear out of nowhere in the past year or two; it was formed by nature with the right conditions. The resources of a fire vein were extremely rare and valuable. Mui Guangqing was quite knowledgeable. He was able to refer to local rumors and ancient records to locate the fire vein, despite the complicated geography of Sun Ridge. He even figured out roughly how long the fire vein had existed. The fire vein had been around for about three hundred years. Perhaps it was not as impressive in the past. It had only grown to its current scale after being exposed to the sun in such a unique environment for many years... A fire vein not only supplied Spirit-grade Seeds and Soul-grade Seeds, but even the insignificant stones in a fire vein were refined to be used as Guiding Stones, an energy source used to train a bunch of Fire Mages. Mages had become rare and valuable since the sea had risen. Not everyone was a Mage, so an elemental vein like this played an important role in Awakening new Mages. Mo Fan knew that the reason why magic schools would only recruit a limited number of students was mainly because they had a limited supply of Awakening Stones. In addition to that, only the Magic Association knew the exact way to produce Awakening Stones. In other words, the Magic Association had to give their permission before a new Mage was Awakened. The Magic Association distributed Awakening Stones to every faction in the world! The Magic Association would collect the raw materials for producing the Awakening Stones from society, and were the ones deciding the price. An elemental vein like this fire vein would contain the Awakening energy of the respective Element, refined by nature. The Magic Association would further modify the energy to awaken the Star Dust in a person’s body. Elemental magic was considered a part of nature. The Awakening Stones that the Magic Association normally distributed to the schools were mostly from the elemental veins, which was the reason why most Mages would awaken Elemental magic as their first Element. Since the fire and lightning veins were the rarest among the Elemental veins, there were fewer Mages that could awaken the Fire Element and the Lightning Element. Mo Fan had learned all this when he was resting at the Parthenon Temple. The main reason why the Parthenon Temple was superior to most of the factions was because they were not under the Magic Association. The founders had established the Parthenon Temple as an independent organization via their unique combination of Blessing and Healing Elements, which exceeded the level of the Magic Association. As a matter of fact, the Magic Associations had to nod and bow their heads to the Parthenon Temple as a result... Even though Mo Fan did not believe it at first, the truth was, it was possible to Awaken any Element as long as someone had enough money and resources. As for the young Mages at school, the Elements they could Awaken mostly depended on their luck and body constitution. If one was lucky enough, and the Awakening Stone they used turned out to be from a fire vein, it meant that person would have a higher chance to Awaken the Fire Element. If the Awakening Stone assigned to a student was a low-quality Awakening Stone mixed with the Earth Element and the Wind Element, and the process of refining it involved the Water Element and Light Element, and the student’s body composition was all mixed up, it was difficult to tell the exact Element that the student would Awaken. It all came down to the odds of Awakening the Elements. A high-quality Awakening Stone and the Guiding Stone of a specific Element would greatly increase the odds of Awakening that Element. It did not necessarily mean a low-quality Awakening Stone could never Awaken the Lightning Element, but the odds were only ten thousand to one, or even a hundred thousand to one! The only relief was that no Element was superior to another. The Mages only needed to focus on improving their cultivation. It all came down to which Mage was stronger in the end!