Just as experts throughout Jinyang Prefecture sprang into action at the news.
The ore vein on Crow Mountain, in the western outskirts of Prefecture City, had once supplied iron a hundred years ago, but had since been abandoned.
Countless mine tunnels, large and small, dotted Crow Mountain. Having been abandoned, their entrances were all concealed by thick shrubs and rubble, yet inside, they connected in every direction like a spiderweb.
The tunnels spread across three levels, with hundreds of branching passages. Even the most seasoned miners could lose their way inside. All that remained in the mine passages were corridors black as ink, rotting pit props, a damp chill that lingered year-round, and the smell of rust.
Only deep underground did a stone chamber appear, brightly lit within.
A middle-aged man in blood-red robes was at his wits' end. After a long while, he finally could not hold back and reproached the two men beside him:
"Elder Ma, Daoist Huanglong, I took you both in so you could quietly cultivate and recover from your injuries. Yet to restore your cultivation as quickly as possible, you ignored my warnings and went out to perform Blood Refining on living people, extracting their blood essence to heal yourselves. Now our Branch Hall's location has probably been exposed!"
The middle-aged man was Ji Wuming, the Branch Hall Leader of the Blood Lotus Sect's Jinyang Branch Hall. His branch had been thriving in Jinyang Prefecture. He had never expected this trouble to erupt just days after taking the two men in.
Ma Yuan and the Yellow Dragon Taoist both possessed methods for performing Blood Refining on living people, seeking to restore their vitality as quickly as possible. Their faces were now ruddy, showing none of the signs of their earlier grave injuries.
"Branch Hall Leader