[[Book 2 (FINAL book) of "One Lifetime is Never Enough"]]
"I would have waited for you forever."
The lament of a faraway voice that she had missed - that she had been longing to answer to - echoed in her mind.
"But, you are no longer here."
The des...
As YuLan reached the first cavernous rock formation, she could not help but be dumbfounded once again.
They had finally reached their intended destination once they passed through the deceptively harmless looking flower field. The stones, various caves, and otherwise barren land laced with somewhat cool air was a distinct contrast to the spring like weather from before.
Because Ao Xiang, Shen Wei, Zuo BingTan, and Zuo JinHai had previously gone to the area some years ago, they already knew which cave to pick.
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Nevertheless, despite the cold, the new place exuded a different kind of beauty. Sunlight gently filtered through various small openings on the ceiling, emitting a bluish tint when reaching the cold rocks and the ground inside the caves. Various hard minerals – some that were transparent and YuLan could swear that they were like the purest of crystals – were everywhere, as if they were mushrooms haphazardly sprouting out of the ground. The larger ones sprouted off several dwarf trees that somehow grew inside the cave.
"So many crystals," Zhen Zhu exclaimed, "How are we supposed to know which one to pick?"
Cao Lu laughed at her shimei's bewilderment, "It is actually much easier for us, than for Wu sect and Lin sect. For us, we just need to find crystals with yin properties. So focus and emit your qi as you walk, the crystals that also exude cool qi similar to ours would be good to be tempered for Ping sect's weapons."
"But we should proceed deeper to find the purest of crystals. The crystals close to the cave mouth – like these," Ao Xiang gestured with a wave of his hand towards their surroundings, "are mostly suitable for novices and second-rate sects. They are not pure enough and much too brittle. And remember, our weapons will be bound to us. We should choose the material carefully."
Everyone nodded their understanding and proceed deeper inside the cave. Soon, light became scarce and they began to be surrounded with darkness. The only source of light were the blue and white crystals sprouting on the ground. However, there were not as many as the ones they had seen before.
"From here onwards, if you find some metals or crystals that are suitable, you may take them. They should be good," Shen Wei instructed Ding Shun and Yu Mei, who soon dashed to harvest some crystals.
Zuo JinHai and Zuo BingTan stood guard while Qing Lian pulled Ao Xiang's hand to take some crystals as well.
Looking at the pile of crystals that everyone so far had harvested, piled up into a considerable size mound, YuLan decided to ask Cao Lu,
"DaShijie... . Although these crystals are quite light, how are we going to carry them all back to the sects?"
"Oh right, you have never travelled before, so of course you don't know," Cao Lu grinned and took out a jade token from her bosom. The token was about coin sized, smooth in appearance, looked very ordinary and somewhat lacking in lustre. It almost looked like a normal green colored pebble, one you could find lying everywhere by a river stream. But when Cao Lu injected a bit of her qi into it and directed it towards a mound of crystals they had gathered, it was as if the crystals were suddenly sucked into it, and finally disappeared.
