Seabed Ore

Li Fan glanced at the map and then at the sky. The second area marked on the mission where sea monsters were said to appear wasn't far away. Thinking back on the intelligence of the "Twin Masters of Yingyu" from earlier, he felt he couldn't rely on them too much. Just in case, he used his water escape technique to go and check it out.

Escape techniques are naturally much faster than water manipulation, and Li Fan once again arrived ahead without any suspense, discovering the second mutated monster in the sea area first.

At first glance, this thing looks like a stone giant from the seabed, similar to an elemental creature. It's a huge object made up of a bunch of stones, moving around on the seabed like a human.

However, Li Fan carefully examined the situation using his blindfolded observation method and discovered the truth.

This is likely a type of mollusc, a sea anemone, that gathered on what may have been the corpse of a cultivator to absorb nutrients. It gradually condensed into a humanoid mutated monster by using reefs, shellfish, minerals, and fish bones as its outer shell. The thing had the humanoid corpse as its core, with its soft flesh buried deep in the crevices of the rock strata, protected by a hard shell, and it preyed on other sea creatures.

When Li Fan found the monster, it was moving towards a nearby island reef, seemingly having developed a habit of regularly sunbathing in the moonlight.

Li Fan wasn't in a hurry to exorcise the demon. He waited for a while until the "Twin Masters" arrived, panting heavily. Looking at the giant, they were momentarily shaken and didn't act immediately.

So Li Fan didn't say much, just smiled and waved to them, then swung his harpoon, piercing the giant's core with a single strike. The enormous giant collapsed with a crash, its severed tentacles buried in the rubble, twisting and twitching for a while before becoming immobile.

Then Li Fan pulled the chain, and the cultivator's corpse at the core of the rock giant, along with the soft-bodied monster attached to it, was forcibly pulled out. He grabbed it and tore it in half.

"Damn it! He beat me to it!"

"The next game is the decisive one! Liu Ying, let's go!"

"Don't get cocky! You won't get there first this time!"

To everyone's surprise, these two girls were quite decisive. As soon as they saw Li Fan steal the monster, they turned and ran without saying a word. "Bingyu! Go for it!" "Liu Ying! Fight on!" they encouraged each other, and then they transformed into two streaks of blue and red light and rode away on the water.

"Hey, hey! Wait a minute..."

Li Fan was speechless. He had originally wanted to show the huge difference in strength between the two sides, give them a few words of advice, and persuade them to hurry back to Penglai after they had had their fun. Who knew that the other party would turn around and run away without saying a word.

Not wanting to expose his escape technique by chasing after them, Li Fan shook his head, stuffed the soft-bodied monster in his hand into his mouth and gnawed on it. He then searched under the rock bed, finding and eating the tentacle remains of the Devil Embryo, purifying the nearby sea. Seeing that it was almost time, and considering that the last area on the map where the sea monster appeared was in the East Sea China Sea, he figured it would be fine to let the two exhausted girls travel for a day before chasing after them. So he went ashore nearby and set up the Revered Heavenly Demon Array on the reef where the rock giant had originally wanted to sunbathe, and then Moon Worship and cultivation.

In the blink of an eye, Li Fan found himself transported from the boundless ocean to a deep purple rocky landscape.

Li Fan's mood improved slightly.

Even from the system prompts, Li Fan could tell that the malevolent energy in this world was extremely abundant. The Gui Xu Nascent Soul and those with the Tai Su Dao Body felt a sense of joy and comfort, as if they were returning home. To the naked eye, the rock strata on the ground were filled with purple crystals of various sizes, clearly containing radiation. Looking up, the enormous False Moon, almost within arm's reach, illuminated everything in purple. Perhaps it was because the distance between the moon and the earth was exceptionally close.

Li Fan picked up a rock from the ground and examined it. He then scanned the surrounding illusion with his Divine Sense. Not far away, he saw many rock giants, each hundreds of feet tall. Their outer shells were made of rock, and their cores were made of crystal. They were humanoid, with arms and legs, and even had holes, noses, and eyes on their faces.

It seems that the mollusc-like sea monster was observing the physical forms of these giants in its dreams, and then imitating them in the real world, gathering rocks into a human shape to create its own shell.

Li Fan tried to get closer and sense the remains of these giants.

Indeed, the remains, judging from their appearance, were likely some kind of life form, but now they are all motionless. Moreover, judging from their postures, some are kneeling on the ground, as if enduring immense Affliction, while others are baring their teeth and claws, as if driven mad with grief and anger. In short, it is a hellish Pathway, simply turning people into stones.

Li Fan reached in and broke off a purple crystal from the giant's eye socket, then tried to confirm it with his Divine Sense.

Alright, there's no mistake. This crystal contains astonishing radiation from the False Moon. Perhaps it's because of the special life form of these rock giants that it has become a natural container that can hold the energy of the False Moon. Li Fan held the crystal and sat on the head of the rock giant to cultivate for a while, and his True Essence of Returning to Emptiness was full!

I never imagined that not only the East Sea was so rich, but the East Sea Tai Su Realm here was also so suitable for cultivation. However, the radiation is a bit too strong. In just a short while, his mood has been gradually rising to its peak, and most people's rationality probably couldn't withstand it.

So Li Fan repaired the Gui Xu Dao Yi that had been damaged before, and took out the Si Nan, hoping to find the 'fragment of the cause and effect of the extermination' in this stone man world.

He followed the direction of the spoon handle and used earth magic for a while, when suddenly he felt a distinct vibration! A regular, rhythmic vibration!

What's going on? There are still living stone figures?

The Si Nan clearly points in the direction of the source of the vibration.

Out of caution, Li Fan put on his Daoist robe, cast an invisibility spell, and teleported underground to investigate.

Then he saw it.

This is an open-pit mine, the kind of typical spiral diamond mine, at least a thousand feet in diameter and five hundred feet deep into the earth's veins. It is clearly man-made, with clear, smooth, and flat cutting marks on the pit walls. Such large-scale surface modification has created a powerful vortex between the planet's internal magnetic field and the air pressure above the surface. If birds or even small aircraft were to fly by, they could be sucked into the cave by this vortex.

Li Fan could guess what was going on with just a casual guess.

Who else could it be but the cult, or more precisely, the 'legion' behind the cult.

At the bottom of the mine, there was a gigantic eight-legged robot resembling a bird-catching spider. According to the system, it was an "outdated engineering drone"—a replica of the drone Li Fan had stolen. Of course, this one was much larger, like a behemoth, constantly digging tunnels. Nearby, there were also spider-engineers the size of ordinary people, collecting, filtering, and refining a bluish-green mineral crystal from the mineral veins mined by the giant spider at the bottom of the planet. They stored it inside their bellies. Once full, they would climb back into the giant spider's belly to pack it into boxes. The whole process was automated, and there were no Sentinel in sight. It was just unknown whether there were any satellites or mining ships in the sky.

As Li Fan speculated, he examined the upper rock layers of the mine. The crystals in the upper rocks had been irradiated purple, but there were still green ones at the bottom. It seemed that the cores of the rock creatures on this planet were originally green crystals, but the crystals were affected by the radiation of the False Moon and turned purple, which directly destroyed the life cores of those rock giants.

Li Fan didn't rush down to destroy the 'Legion's' mine. After thinking about it carefully, he knew that such a large-scale mine couldn't have been built by that Ah Xiba alone.

Furthermore, given that the second-ranked individual possesses the Blood Talisman Sword of the Divine Cult, Li Fan now suspects that within the Nine Palaces of Penglai, there might be a sect, or even an entire mountain's core Inner Sect, that has been secretly replaced and stripped of its core by the Divine Cult's 'Legion' apostles!

If Moon Worship near Penglai can directly connect to this Tai Su world and collect these special mineral resources, then it is absolutely worthwhile for the legion to take the enormous risks to infiltrate it. Moreover, from this perspective, it makes sense that the three kingdoms of Gen, Xun, and Zhen, which are within Penglai's sphere of influence, have been turned upside down by the Divine Cult!

Holy crap, he actually managed to infiltrate the legion's headquarters...

System, what do you say? Should we go for it?

"No rush. There's no need to alert them."

"We've recorded the crystal information; let's wait for the analysis results. We'll see what this thing is then."

Since the system has said so, Li Fan's reconnaissance will end here. He should first awaken and return to the Taiji Realm.

Holy crap, there are way too many missions in Penglai... all sorts of main and side quests, Li Fan is starting to not know where to begin. And isn't this a bit too dangerous? Are there even legion apostles among the Inner Sect masters of Penglai? Could it be that Manifestation Dao Lord?! If so, this is really hopeless!

"It shouldn't be. Although they had the first-mover advantage, you know that cultivation isn't about who lives the longest. Besides, before the Tai Su cultivation method came out, leveling up was very slow, and none of the people you killed were younger than you."

"Our two civilizations operate on different models. Even the first batch of apostles, relying solely on themselves, have a very low probability of reaching the Nascent Soul. I think it must be due to deep cooperation between the Legion's apostles and the higher-ups of the Divine Cult."

"Anyway, don't worry. In a head-on fight, the Apostles shouldn't be a match for you."

'But be careful too. I don't think I need to remind you, but once you're discovered, they definitely have enough resources to eliminate any threat.'

It's basically a game where whoever exposes themselves first dies.

However, Li Fan thought about it and realized that the same principle applied to the cult and the legion.

The higher-ups of the Xuanmen sect, those powerful figures who have reached the Divine Transformation stage and attained enlightenment, are unlikely to have spies from the Divine Cult. After all, the Three Great Sects have been fighting for so long, there will always be spies and traitors within. But to say that the head of Penglai is a Divine Cult spy, the head of Emei is also a Divine Cult spy, the entire Xuanmen sect is a Divine Cult spy, and only the Sword Ancestor Xuantian is fighting alone like a certain Qin Jiu, that's just nonsense. Whether it's a novel or a comic, if they just make up this 'everyone is actually a spy' plot just to create a surprising twist, then the outline has probably really fallen apart.

So at most, it's possible that one or two Nascent Soul Stage cultivators from the Divine Cult infiltrated the Outer Sect, or even the core Inner Sect disciples, by exploiting the Xuanmen's selection mechanism.

Now Li Fan is certain that the Divine Cult has an internal traitor assisting A Xiba in Penglai. It could be the person he fought yesterday, or it could be Xia Chengming from the Zhenzhen Palace, ranked second on the list. But the possibility is not very high. After all, in this day and age, who doesn't know a few moves from their opponent? Li Fan also knows the Blood Shadow Godly Movement, the Xuan Tian version! So, based on just one move of the Blood Talisman Sword, one cannot determine the opponent's true strength.

Of course, since the other party had severed his arms and cut off his face, regardless of whether he was a traitor within the cult, he was probably now an enemy...

Li Fan shook his head. He had no clue at the moment. He would wait for the system to finish analyzing the minerals and see what kind of thing was worth the cult taking the risk of developing it right under Penglai's nose.

Just as Li Fan finished tidying up the magic array and was preparing to use water magic to chase after the two silly girls, the Gu Guan Method sensed a familiar face nearby.

It is Zhou Chengxue.

Hmm... Why is this guy around here at this time? Could it be... he's actually a spy for the cult?

Li Fan was now a bit suspicious, so he put on the Gui Xu Dao Yi and sneaked over to investigate.

So Li Fan secretly crept closer and followed Zhou Chengxue to see if he was going to some secret base of a cult.

After following this guy around for a whole day, they found that Zhou Chengxue was looking around here and there, seemingly just patrolling the sea. Finally, he landed on a cargo ship, chatted with the ship owner, and received a piece of green ore from him!

Li Fan was shocked!

Alright! I actually caught you! I never imagined that Zhou Chengxue, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, was actually a spy for the Divine Cult! I almost fooled you; I thought you were just a lazy bum lying around!

Just as Li Fan crept over, ready to catch him red-handed, he saw Zhou Chengxue hold up the green crystal ore cut into a hexagonal prism, examine it in the sunlight, and turn to ask the boat owner, "What's this? Where did you find it?"

Huh?

The ship owner smiled and said, "I don't know. When we went out to sea to collect pearls, we saw some Spirit Race sneaking around nearby. We thought they were secretly raising pearl fields, so we followed them to look for them. But all we found was this tattered bag. Look, this spirit jade is quite beautiful. They probably found it in some shipwreck ruins somewhere."

Li Fan immediately recognized it as a large backpack used by the legion to carry equipment, coated with anti-detection paint. Inside were about a hundred pieces of cut ore, a vibrant green color.

Zhou Chengxue glanced at it, shook his head, and said, "I've been in the East Sea for so many years, and this is the first time I've seen this kind of jade. It's cut so cleanly. However, it doesn't contain any spiritual energy, so it can't be used as jade material. It can only be considered a rare stone. I'll give you five hundred strings of cash."

The ship owner rubbed his hands together and said, "Zhenhai, give us a little more! These gems are so beautiful, so rare. They'll definitely love them as jewelry for my wives and concubines."

Zhou Chengxue tapped the crystal, then traced lines on it with his index finger. "It can't gather energy, nor can it be used to attach talismans. It's heavy and hard; only monsters who like shiny things would collect it. Hmph, still the beast... Fine, eight hundred strings of cash."

The boat owner beamed, "Thank you for your generous gift, sir."

Zhou Chengxue then casually picked up the bag and said seriously, "Don't give me that. Lately, the spirit shells, pearls, and corals you've been handing in have been decreasing. Stop bringing up the Spirit Race and demons. I'm understanding you, but you're not? If you keep doing this, do you expect me to pay your own way in offerings?"

The boat owner immediately put on a bitter face and said, "Oh, Master, it's not that I'm making excuses, but you know that a great monster has appeared in that shell field. Every time you disperse it, it comes back to life in a few days. We don't dare to go near it."

Moreover, I've heard that powerful demons have appeared in the outer seas, in hordes of them. Many Spirit Race have been driven to migrate there. They can travel in water, and nothing in the sea can compete with them...

Zhou Chengxue was also troubled. "It's come back to life? I just killed it a few days ago! Is there more than one? Could there be a hidden nest in the trench...?"

Okay, I understand. I'll bring a few more helpers in a few days and clear this area out. You guys be careful. Sigh, why are there so many demons and monsters...

Li Fan hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he hid in the shadows and watched Zhou Chengxue's departing figure.

Is he pretending? Not necessarily. Judging from his appearance, he genuinely doesn't recognize those ores. Besides, he's Spirit Race...

If I'm not lying, then it means that the Spirit Race of the East Sea has colluded with the Divine Cult, using their ability to travel by water to help the Divine Cult secretly transport these mined ores out to sea.

Thinking about it carefully, the soft stone monster might not only be used to scare away the fishermen in the area. It might also be responsible for transporting the mined ore out of the Tai Su Realm. There might be other such things in other places, in other sea areas under the jurisdiction of Zhenhai Real Person.

However, if it only started recently, then perhaps this secret ore production line was also only recently set up by Asiba...

The three great achievements of Xun Kingdom, Zhen Country, and Penglai?

Who knows, this might just be an accident that killed a top performer...