After Wen Xingzhu and the other two women left, Lu Ren did not continue searching for crystal mines. Instead, he came to a secluded valley and sat cross-legged atop a crumbling boulder.
Gray mist swirled around him, jagged rocks rose everywhere, and shattered mountainsides concealed much of the valley.
Not far away, Immortal-Smiting Iron darted about at high speed.
Black-and-gold formation patterns flew from the tortoiseshell markings on its back, silently sinking into the surrounding mountains and deep underground.
"Lu Ren, you really are devious!"
Immortal-Smiting Iron chuckled strangely. "You deliberately leaked the aura of the Chaos Great Dao so that woman would go for reinforcements!"
"The Xu Family has plenty of powerful cultivators on the second level. They're bound to have a lot of Ten Thousand Dao Origin Crystals!"
Lu Ren smiled. "If I go to the second level myself, things will get even more troublesome once my identity is exposed. Better to have them come to the first level on their own!"
"And here I almost thought that woman had you so smitten you'd lost your head!"
Immortal-Smiting Iron spoke.
"Can I count on this formation?"
Lu Ren asked.
From the memories of the Xu Family cultivator he had killed, he had learned that the Xu Family had at least five Source-Integration Realm cultivators on the second level of the Ten Thousand Dao Source Ruins.
Some of them had entered the Ten Thousand Dao Source Ruins decades ago.
The fact that they were still alive meant they must have plenty of Ten Thousand Dao Origin Crystals.
Of course, what worried Lu Ren most was the possibility that he could not kill every Xu Family member he lured here.
If even one escaped, it would mean serious trouble.
He had to lay an ambush in advance!
Immortal-Smiting Iron said,