Discovery in the Mine, Little Yan the Glutton!

The first successful sale of Yang Yuan Stones undoubtedly gave the Lin Family a taste of the sweet profits to be made.

As for the income from that large batch of Ironwood sales, it was merely the equivalent of a single day's profit from mining the vein!

Therefore, ever since the first batch of Yang Yuan Stones was successfully sold, Lin Zhentian had transferred nearly seventy to eighty percent of the Lin Family's manpower to Ironwood Manor.

The way things looked, he was clearly intent on operating Ironwood Manor as their main base of operations.

This strange behavior from the Lin Family naturally attracted many curious gazes, but they paid no heed, simply fortifying the defenses of Ironwood Manor until it was airtight.

However, when the Lei Family had previously obstructed the Lin Family from selling Ironwood in Flame City, they had learned about the Lin Family's sale of Yang Yuan Stones from the timber buyers. Connecting this to the Lin Family's recent series of actions, they could not help but harbor suspicions.

"Send out all our eyes and ears; have them scout for information within Ironwood Manor with everything they've got. I want to confirm whether or not there really is a Yang Yuan Stone vein there!"

Lei Bao, the head of the Lei Family, felt a surge of anger upon receiving news of the Lin Family's sales and their recent movements, and he immediately issued a strict order to his clansmen.

"Also, keep a close watch on every move the Lin Family makes. If they set out for Flame City again, notify me immediately!"

Ever since returning from selling the Yang Yuan Stones, Lin Yi had once again thrown himself into cultivation.

However, this time, Lin Yi invested more of his energy into the cultivation of his Spiritual Energy.

Lin Yi remembered that after some time, a pit would be unearthed within the Yang Yuan Stone vein. The Yang Gang Qi inside would be of a higher grade, making the cultivation of Yuan Power twice as effective 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, which was of a rather high grade. Only by absorbing a higher grade of Yang Gang Qi could he balance the Yin and Yang within his body.

Furthermore, there was a Fire Ancestor Demonic Flower in that pit that could enhance Spiritual Energy. If he tempered his Spiritual Energy as much as possible during this period, he might be able to absorb more of its medicinal power and push toward the realm of a Two-Seal Rune Master!

In addition to cultivating his Spiritual Energy and Yuan Power, Lin Yi did not forget to continue deducing and practicing martial arts like the Mysterious Gate Seal.

The Mysterious Gate Seal, in particular, had only been deduced to the third level, with the final level still waiting for him to deduce and master.

In the blink of an eye, another two and a half months passed.

On this day, while Lin Yi was cultivating not far from the Yang Yuan Stone vein, he suddenly sensed a surge of Yang Gang Qi, many times more concentrated than before, erupting from the depths of the mine.

Immediately following this, a commotion broke out at the entrance of the mine.

Lin Yi's heart stirred; he stopped his cultivation at once and walked quickly toward the mine entrance.

Little Yan, who had been lying nearby basking in the sun, saw Lin Yi's movements and quickly followed.

"Young Master Lin Yi!"

Seeing Lin Yi arrive, the captain of the guards at the edge of the mine hurriedly bowed in salute.

"What's all this chaos about?" Lin Yi asked casually.

"Replying to the Young Master, one of the workers seems to have dug up something special while excavating the Yang Yuan Stones..." the guard captain replied respectfully.

"Oh? I'll go take a look myself." Lin Yi nodded slightly, then took Little Yan and headed deep into the mine.

Seeing this, the guard captain quickly summoned ten elite guards to follow behind Lin Yi.

After more than six months of excavation, the mine had become exceptionally spacious.

Moreover, because this place had been a volcano a long time ago, there were many fissure tunnels within the mountain. The number of these fissures was so great that even the veteran workers here could not count them all.

Led by the foreman, the group quickly ventured deep into the mine, traveling for over ten minutes along the winding, multi-forked tunnels before finally coming to a halt.

At this moment, at the end of this tunnel, there was a fissure only wide enough for one person to enter. Judging by the excavation marks around it, it had clearly been opened only recently.

"Our worker accidentally dug through to this spot and was burned by a type of 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 crack, Lin Yi felt his entire arm turn scalding hot in an instant.

An exceptionally scorching and violent gas seeped through his skin pores, entered his body, and finally poured into his Dantian.

Suddenly, a strange, fiery heat surged up from his Dantian.

That's right, this is it!

Lin Yi's eyes brightened; this was exactly the high-grade Yang Gang Qi he had been looking forward to for so long!

"You all stay here. I'm going in to take a look. Without my permission, no one else is to enter," Lin Yi instructed the guards behind him before stepping into the fissure first.

Behind Lin Yi, Little Yan followed as well, and judging by its appearance, it felt no repulsion whatsoever toward the scorching heat inside.

Two or three minutes later, the narrow fissure suddenly opened up, and immediately, a sea of crimson filled his vision.

What appeared before Lin Yi was a region of crimson, fragmented rock.

From a distance, it looked as if magma were flowing; a scorching heat rose from the ground, causing the air itself to shimmer and distort.

Lin Yi's gaze swept across this field of fragmented rock and finally landed on the central area.

There, standing tall, was a massive, bone-white beast skeleton, roughly several dozen feet in size!

Although this behemoth was reduced to nothing but white bone, Lin Yi could still feel a unique pressure permeating from its remains.

One could imagine that this was certainly no ordinary demonic beast, though it was unclear why it had perished here.

Beside Lin Yi, Little Yan's crimson fur stood on end, and it transformed into a red blur as it charged out, its target clearly being that white beast skeleton.

Lin Yi raised an eyebrow, wrapped his legs in Yuan Power, and quickly followed. Man and beast soon arrived beside the beast skeleton.

Little Yan looked up, staring at the mysterious beast skeleton, then suddenly leaped up and began to climb rapidly along its frame. Within a few breaths, it appeared at the position of the beast's skull.

Immediately, Little Yan raised its sharp tiger claws and stomped down, unceremoniously crushing the skull of the beast skeleton.

The massive skull fell, shattering into a pile of bone fragments upon the rocky ground. Little Yan leaped down and rummaged through the debris, suddenly biting onto a fiery red object with its blood-filled maw.

That object was actually a fist-sized, incredibly fiery red bead; it was the Demonic Crystal left behind by the mysterious demonic beast.

"Gulp!"

Little Yan curled its blood-red tongue and swallowed the fiery red orb directly.

"Roar!"

As the fiery red bead entered its body, almost in the very next instant, a raging flame erupted directly from Little Yan's body.

Its physique also began to slowly expand at this moment, and its low roar caused this massive cave to tremble and shake.

Lin Yi stared at the changes occurring on Little Yan's body, a look of anticipation appearing in his eyes.