Cold winds howled through the abandoned mine, carrying a bone-chilling cold from its depths and making the weeds at the entrance rustle.
Xia Dong stopped and turned to Qin Wan beside him. With a solemn expression, he instructed, "Wan'er, I'm going to cultivate inside. I'll leave everything else to you."
Qin Wan nodded slightly, her lovely face grave. "Don't worry, Big Brother Xia."
She had already issued strict orders in her capacity as the manager of the Yin Spirit Mine, sealing off the area.
"Sorry for the trouble." Xia Dong cupped his hands, turning his back to Qin Wan. Then he turned without hesitation and stepped into the abandoned mine's shadowy depths.
As soon as he entered, the light was swallowed by darkness. Threads of icy vapor seeped from the pitted rock walls around him.
Xia Dong's main purpose in coming here was to condense a Talisman Seed, but he wasn't in a hurry to begin his seclusion.
He slowed down in the front section of the mine tunnel and inspected it carefully. Before long, he reached a relatively dry hollow in the rocks, slightly elevated and not far from the entrance.
He had surveyed this spot in advance, but he still needed to check the surroundings once more.
The location offered a clear view of the tunnel in both directions, and the solid rock wall of a dead end at his back made it an excellent defensive position.
Once he had settled on the spot, Xia Dong pulled a gray porcelain bottle from his Storage Bag.
He pulled out the wooden stopper and evenly scattered a pungent, grayish-white powder around the edge of the rocky hollow, forming a closed ring. It was his specially prepared Insect-Repelling Spirit Powder.
Poisonous insects and miasma-dwelling creatures that preferred the shade might lurk