Mine Explosion

Inside No. 10 Mine, everyone looked at one another, and for a moment, no one knew what to do.

Ji Shaoyong was in no hurry. He stood with both hands clasped behind his back, completely confident.

A few minutes later, a disciple from Formation Peak stepped out of the crowd. "I... am willing to pledge loyalty to Senior Sister Yao."

"Old He! How can you betray Senior Sister Su Ye!"

The Formation Peak disciples berated him.

"What else can I do! I'm just a lowly outer disciple. I don't want to die here!"

Everyone fell silent. Just as he had said, in the current situation, if they wanted to stay alive, they could only obediently do as they were told.

"Very good, junior brother. I believe you'll be grateful for tonight's choice."

Ji Shaoyong smiled, then waved his hand in signal.

Immediately after, an Artifact Peak disciple behind him walked over and took out an azure jade bracelet.

He placed the bracelet against the man's abdomen and silently recited an incantation.

Along with the array patterns continuously evolving in his hands, the azure jade bracelet went whoosh, entering straight into the latter's dantian.

"The Spirit-Binding Ring is a magical artifact. Normally, it won't affect anyone. On the contrary, it can even protect your dantian. But from now on, if you fail to cooperate, this ring can destroy your spiritual root and dantian. I hope everyone will seriously abide by their promises," Ji Shaoyong explained.

Watching this scene, Li Jun only hated that his cultivation was not high enough.

"When others are the chopping block and I am the fish and meat, I'm still too weak!"

If he were a cultivator of the Foundation Establishment Realm right now, with the talismans he had on him, escaping from this place would be as easy as turning over his hand.

With that Formation Peak disciple taking the lead, many among the rest stepped out and chose to accept their fate.

Seeing this, Ji Shaoyong's mood greatly improved.

In truth, this move they had made today was extremely dangerous.

But as long as they could subdue these people, when the time came, they would feed each of them a Forget-Sorrow Pill, and everyone would forget what had happened today.

That way, no one would know that tonight was Yao Yuzhi's doing.

Once the Desolate Secret Realm opened, these people would become the final hand that decided victory or defeat.

"I can't sit here waiting for death. I have to think of a way!"

At the rear of the crowd, Li Jun swept his gaze around, and an idea jumped into his mind.

Over the past few days, disciples from the three peaks had poured into this place together to fight over high-quality Black Rock Mine.

This meant that many places in the mine had not been properly reinforced. If talismans were concentrated in one spot, they might be able to blast through the mine wall.

In this stretch of ore vein, the tunnels were not very far from one another.

Some mine tunnels were separated by nothing more than a single wall.

Thinking of this, Li Jun had already made up his mind.

He retreated to the wall, attempting to find a suitable blast point.

"Rustle, rustle!"

"Hm?"

Just then, Li Jun felt tiny stones shaking loose above his head.

Immediately after, the mine actually began to tremble.

"What's going on? Is it an earthquake?"

"What's that! There are demon snakes!"

The crowd grew restless, and the trembling of the mine became increasingly obvious. Stranger still, from the cracks in the mine, demon snakes began slithering out one after another.

Li Jun was stunned, unable to figure out what exactly had happened.

Then he sensed a slight movement from his hand.

The wall his palm was touching had actually cracked!

Li Jun hurriedly dodged to the side, and at that very moment, an Armor-Piercing Beast charged out from beyond the wall!

"It's an Armor-Piercing Beast! Could other demonic beasts also be attacking the mine?"

"Look! There are Steel-Bristle Boars too! Could there be a demonic beast nest deep inside No. 10 Mine?"

The scene descended into chaos. More and more demonic beasts appeared in the mine, and the entire mine trembled with increasing violence.

"Now!"

A ruthless glint flashed in Li Jun's eyes. He directly took out three Fireball Talismans and slapped them onto the wall the Armor-Piercing Beast had drilled out from.

Boom!

A massive explosion rang out. The hole that had originally been the size of a head was now large enough for a person to enter.

"Damn it! Stop him!"

Ji Shaoyong shouted. Tonight, they absolutely could not let anyone leave.

The black-clad men behind him burst out and charged straight toward Li Jun.

Li Jun's face went deathly grim. He immediately slapped a Diamond Talisman and a Flight Talisman onto himself, then jumped straight down.

The instant he leaped in, he took out another Fireball Talisman and blasted the entrance apart.

After doing all that, Li Jun flew downward without looking back.

"So deep! And there are actually this many branching paths?"

Li Jun looked at the tunnels before him. He had originally thought there would be only one, but now, in front of him, dozens of passageways crisscrossed in every direction.

Clearly, there was more than one Armor-Piercing Beast. Beneath this mine, there was probably an entire colony.

"There seems to be wind over there. That way!"

Li Jun distinguished the airflow, then chose the windy passageway from among the tunnels and flew into it.

He did not know how long he had been flying when, at a certain moment, he felt as if light had appeared ahead of him.

He reached the end of the passageway, touched the stone wall before him, and quietly observed through the cracks.

Bang!

Li Jun swung his sword, directly cutting open the stone wall before him.

"What is this?"

He leaped down and entered the cave directly.

It was a cave of about forty square meters. Overhead was a huge piece of white ore, giving off a faint fluorescent glow that illuminated the entire cave.

Li Jun roughly swept his gaze around, then blocked the path he had come in through and scattered some medicinal powder to erase his scent.

After finishing everything, he carefully examined the cave.

"There's wind in the cave. There should be another exit here."

Li Jun carefully felt along the wall. On the wall opposite the path he had come from, he actually touched animal fur.

"Is this a piece of beast hide?"

He felt the beast hide, then suddenly tore it down.

Crash!

As the beast hide was torn away, a painting actually appeared on the originally pitch-black wall.

Li Jun waved his hand, and spiritual power rushed out from within him, blowing away all the dust on the wall before him.

He looked carefully and found that this seemed to be a mural of a Dao debate.

On the left side of the mural, a line of text caught his attention.

"Mulberry Maiden Seeking Dao Mural..."

Li Jun looked at that small line of characters. This seemed to be the name of the mural.

And to the right of the small characters, there was another passage of text:

"In the ancient era, when spiritual qi first began to sprout, there was a woman named Mulberry.

"Mulberry walked mountains and rivers, crossed the four seas, and sought the immortal Dao everywhere.

"At Formless Mountain, she came to see those so-called immortals. An immortal taught her the art of breathing and circulation; Mulberry practiced it, and thus stepped onto the immortal path.

"That person did not begrudge the passing on of teachings, and imparted all the mysteries to her.

"Later, Mulberry discovered that he had in truth desired to seize her body as a shell.

"Mulberry was furious. She shattered his mountain and leveled it, then drifted away into the distance.

"Thereafter she wandered the Eight Wastelands, seeking every place where immortal opportunities revealed themselves. Her will was to slay immortals, to sever their path and cut off their chance to descend into the world."

After Li Jun finished reading, realization stirred in his heart.

Then he followed the mural and looked over each scene one by one. As expected, it basically corresponded to the recorded text.

"In that case, this woman named 'Mulberry' was the first cultivator of this world."

He looked at the woman on the mural. This painting seemed to record the age when spiritual qi revived, something belonging to myths and legends.

Only, why was there such a painting here?

And who had carved it here?

Li Jun frowned. The spiritual qi of Cangwu Mountain was ordinary; at most, it merely had some mineral veins.

If this place were truly extraordinary, the first sect master of the Azure Cloud Sect would definitely have chosen this place.

"This woman... why do I feel like she's a little familiar?"

Li Jun stared carefully at the woman on the mural.

At a certain moment, her figure actually overlapped with the woman in the Spirit River Phantom in his mind...