The successful sale of the first batch of Yang Yuan Stones undoubtedly let the Lin Family taste the sweetness of profit.
As for the proceeds from selling that large batch of Ironwood, they amounted to no more than a day's profit from mining the vein!
Therefore, ever since successfully selling the first batch of Yang Yuan Stones, Lin Zhentian had transferred nearly seventy or eighty percent of the Lin Family's manpower to Ironwood Manor.
The intention was clearly to run Ironwood Manor as their headquarters.
The Lin Family's strange actions naturally attracted quite a few curious gazes, but they paid them no heed and merely guarded Ironwood Manor so tightly that not even a drop of water could get through.
However, when the Lei Family had previously obstructed the Lin Family's sale of Ironwood in Flame City, they had learned from the timber buyers that the Lin Family was selling Yang Yuan Stones. Connecting that with the Lin Family's recent series of actions, they could not help but form some suspicions.
"Send out all our informants and find out everything you can about Ironwood Manor. I want to confirm whether there really is a Yang Yuan Stone mine there!"
After Lei Bao, the Lei Family's head, learned that the Lin Family was selling Yang Yuan Stones and heard about their actions, his anger surged. He immediately issued a strict order to the family members.
"Also, keep an eye on the Lin Family's every move. If they set out for Flame City again, notify me at once!"
After returning from selling the Yang Yuan Stones, Lin Yi once again devoted himself to cultivation.
This time, however, Lin Yi devoted more of his energy to cultivating Spiritual Energy.
Lin Yi remembered that after some time, a cavern would be excavated in the Yang Yuan Stone mine. The Yang Gang Qi inside would be of a higher level, and cultivating Yuan Power there would produce twice the result with half the effort.
When Lin Yi broke through to the Earth Yuan Stage, he had absorbed the Yin Sha Qi within Qing Tan's body. Its level was extremely high, and only by absorbing Yang Gang Qi of an even higher level could he balance the Yin and Yang in his body.
Moreover, that cavern contained a Fire Ancestor Demonic Flower that could increase Spiritual Energy. During this period, he had been doing his best to temper his Spiritual Energy. When the time came, he might be able to absorb more of its medicinal power and make a push for the Two-Seal Symbol Master realm!
Aside from cultivating Spiritual Energy and Yuan Power, Lin Yi had not forgotten to continue deducing and cultivating martial arts such as the Mysterious Gate Seal.
In particular, he had only deduced the Mysterious Gate Seal to the third level. There was still one final level waiting for him to deduce and cultivate.
In the blink of an eye, another two and a half months passed.
That day, Lin Yi was cultivating not far from the Yang Yuan Stone mine when he suddenly sensed Yang Gang Qi, several times denser than before, surging out from the depths of the mine.
Immediately afterward, a commotion suddenly broke out at the mine's entrance.
Lin Yi's mind stirred. He immediately stopped cultivating and strode toward the mine entrance.
Little Yan, who had been lying nearby sunbathing, also hurried after Lin Yi when it saw him move.
"Young Master Lin Yi!"
Upon seeing Lin Yi arrive, the guard commander beside the mine hurriedly bowed in greeting.
"What happened? Why is it such a mess?" Lin Yi asked casually.
"Reporting to Young Master, one of the workers seems to have dug up something unusual while excavating Yang Yuan Stones..." the guard commander replied respectfully.
"Oh? I'll go take a look myself." Lin Yi nodded slightly, then brought Little Yan toward the depths of the mine.
Seeing this, the guard commander quickly summoned ten capable guards and followed behind Lin Yi.
After more than six months of excavation, the mine had become exceptionally spacious.
Furthermore, because this place had once been a volcano long ago, the mountain contained numerous fissure passages. There were so many of them that even the old workers here could not count them all.
Led by the foreman, the group quickly went deeper into the mine. They followed the winding, heavily branching tunnels for more than ten minutes before finally stopping.
At the end of this tunnel was a fissure just wide enough for one person to enter. Judging from the excavation marks around it, it had clearly been dug out only recently.
"One of our workers accidentally broke through into this place and was burned by an extremely hot gas inside," the foreman said cautiously.
Lin Yi nodded slightly and slowly reached his palm into the fissure.
As his arm extended into the fissure, Lin Yi immediately felt his entire arm grow scorching hot.
An especially searing and violent gas seeped through his pores, entered his body, and finally poured into his dantian.
In an instant, a strange heat surged up from his dantian.
That's it!
Lin Yi's eyes lit up. This was the high-grade Yang Gang Qi he had been looking forward to for so long!
"You stay here. I'll go in and take a look. Without my permission, no one else is to enter." Lin Yi instructed the guards behind him, then stepped into the fissure first.
Behind Lin Yi, Little Yan followed as well. From the look of it, it felt no rejection whatsoever toward the searing aura inside.
After two or three minutes, the narrow fissure suddenly opened up, and immediately afterward, a field of crimson filled their vision.
What appeared before Lin Yi was a field of crimson rubble.
From a distance, it looked as though magma were flowing. A searing aura rose from the ground, causing even the air to distort slightly.
Lin Yi swept his gaze across the field of rubble, finally focusing on its center.
There, a gigantic, stark-white beast bone stood upright, roughly several dozen zhang tall!
Although this enormous creature had been reduced to nothing but bones, Lin Yi could still sense a special pressure seeping from its skeleton.
It was easy to imagine that this had definitely not been an ordinary demonic beast. He simply did not know why it had died here.
Beside Lin Yi, Little Yan's crimson fur suddenly stood on end. Then it transformed directly into a red blur and shot out, its target clearly the stark-white beast bones.
Lin Yi's brows lifted slightly. Wrapping his legs in Yuan Power, he quickly followed. Man and beast soon arrived beside the bones.
Little Yan raised its head and stared at the mysterious beast skeleton. It suddenly leaped up and rapidly climbed along the bones. After a few breaths, it appeared at the skull.
Then Little Yan raised its sharp tiger claw and stomped down, crushing the skull without the slightest hesitation.
The massive skull fell and smashed into a pile of broken bones on the rubble. Little Yan leaped down and rummaged through them. Suddenly, it clamped its gaping maw around a fiery-red object.
The object was actually a fist-sized, intensely crimson bead. It was the Demonic Crystal left behind by the mysterious demonic beast.
"Glug!"
Little Yan swept its blood-red tongue over the bead and swallowed it directly.
"Roar!"
As soon as the fiery-red bead entered its body, a raging flame erupted directly from Little Yan's body in the very next instant.
Its body slowly swelled at that moment, and its low roar caused the enormous cavern to tremble and shudder.
Lin Yi stared at the changes taking place in Little Yan's body, anticipation appearing in his eyes.
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