Chapter 52: Secretly Digging Crimson Sand! Demon Clan Appears! (Request Follow Reading)

Night was deep, all around silent, save for the occasional chirping of insects.

A tear opened in the dark clouds, and the bright moonlight spilled like liquid mercury, outlining the rolling contours of the wasteland.

Lin Jingzhu wore a night-traveling suit, a veil covering her face, her black-and-white eyes tinged with grievance.

"Chen my lord, though you are the lead investigator, don't I at least have the right to be informed?"

"Secretly acting behind our backs—do you fear we'll steal the credit?"

Chen Mo did not answer.

After carefully sensing the surroundings, wind and thunder surged around him, and he shot westward like lightning.

Lin Jingzhu snorted; frost crystallized beneath her feet, and she walked through the air, firmly following behind him.

Two figures sliced through the night sky, and Chen Mo spoke:

"Lately, the city has been on edge; the one behind all this will be even more cautious. Rash action will only alarm the snake—we must wait for him to reveal himself."

Lin Jingzhu frowned slightly and said:

"So you've known all along that Zhou Jingan was suspicious, and you've been secretly watching him? But that still doesn't justify hiding it from us…"

Chen Mo shook his head:

"There are spies in the Tianlin Guard—how clean could the Six Gates Bureau possibly be?"

"I trust your character, Lin Buto, but no wall is without cracks. Caution is always better than regret."

For this reason, he did not assign Lin Siya's officers to tail him, but chose the more covert paper dolls instead.

For this period, he pretended ignorance of the case, aiming to lull Chu Zhuo into complacency and let Zhou Jingan drop his guard completely.

Lin Jingzhu knew Chen Mo was right—had it been her, she would have done the same.

Her resentment vanished instantly; she apologized: "Just now, in my haste, I spoke out of turn. I beg my lord not to be angered."

Admit mistakes, stand firm when struck—she understood this principle well.

Chen Mo smiled but said nothing.

He cared nothing for credit; completing the Empress's assigned task was paramount.

Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that the yaoguai murders and the Zhou family's secret mine opening were somehow connected…

After a moment of silence, Chen Mo suddenly asked: "How many days have you been shadowing me, Lin Buto?"

Lin Jingzhu flushed slightly and whispered: "Including today, four days and five nights."

?

Chen Mo glanced at her in surprise.

This woman had been lurking around his mansion for so long—and he hadn't sensed a thing?

"My Cultivation Method is unusual," Lin Jingzhu explained. "I can suppress my breathing and heartbeat to near-zero, go days without sleep or rest, and with my concealment and shape-shifting arts, even divine sense sweeps rarely detect anomalies."

Chen Mo understood—it was like turning on power-saving mode.

Recalling her black ice armor, as hard as metal and stone, he thought: This Ninefold Ice Soul Art is truly mysterious—no wonder it's used even in the late stages of The Ultimate Immortal Scripture.

The cultivation conditions for this art are extremely harsh: one must draw extreme cold energy into the body to temper the meridians and bones; ordinary martial artists cannot survive even one full cycle without suffering frost damage.

But Lin Jingzhu possesses a naturally "cold-resistant" physique—no such concerns—and it's as if the art was made for her.

The two sped westward at full speed for an hour.

During this time, Lin Jingzhu had to draw out spirit stones to replenish her true energy, while Chen Mo remained fully energized, showing no sign of fatigue—raising her estimation of his power yet again.

Unconsciously, they arrived at a vast mountain range.

Xi Huang Mountain, like a giant beast sprawled across the earth, stretched endlessly, its rolling ridges covered in dense forest.

Thick branches layered one upon another; the night wind stirred them like ocean waves, producing a "shasha" sound.

Hu—

Two figures landed as lightly as falling leaves.

Chen Mo gestured left; Lin Jingzhu nodded, and they moved soundlessly through the dense woods.

Throughout, he maintained a distance of nearly a hundred zhang from the two black-clad figures—close enough not to lose them, yet far enough not to alert them—

Suddenly, Chen Mo frowned.

The two men's energy signatures had vanished into thin air!

He quickened his steps, arriving at a hollow deep within the woods.

Here, weeds and wild smoke choked the ground, thorns tangled everywhere; the energy had disappeared here, and not a soul could be seen.

"Lost them?"

Lin Jingzhu stepped forward to search, but Chen Mo stopped her.

He studied the boulders and thorns before him, pondered a moment, then stepped forward with an odd gait, his form flickering like a phantom.

Lin Jingzhu suddenly understood, stepping precisely in his footprints, following closely behind.

After several hundred steps, the path was blocked—a sheer rock wall stood before them.

Chen Mo reached out and pressed against the stone wall.

A faint glow, like a thin thread, lit up from top to bottom.

Boom—

With a low rumble, a crack split the rock wall open, slowly swinging apart like a gate.

Staring at the dark cave before them, Lin Jingzhu froze for a moment.

"Chen my lord, you understand formations?"

"A little."

"..."

Chen Mo was barely past twenty, already at the sixth rank of martial cultivation—and now he displays such mastery in formations… Could this man have begun cultivating in the womb?

Lin Siya looked at him as if he were a monster.

"Let's go."

Chen Mo stepped into the cave.

Stone steps wound downward, and fluorescent stones embedded in the surrounding walls barely illuminated the path ahead.

After walking for an unknown length of time, a faint clashing of metal echoed from ahead.

Clang—clang—

Arriving at the bottom of the stone steps, the two froze at the sight before them.

The entire interior of the mountain had been hollowed out, forming a cavern nearly a hundred meters high!

Rows of ironwood beams supported the walls, with countless diagonal tunnels and vertical shafts carved above, below, and to the sides, crisscrossing like a beehive!

Black-red mineral stones were embedded in the rock walls, and a group of gaunt miners swung iron picks as they mined.

Their eyes were vacant, their faces expressionless, like machines unaware of fatigue.

"This is Red Sand ore!"

"The Zhou family is secretly mining Red Sand!"

Lin Siya's pupils contracted as she whispered in shock.

In Chen Mo's memory, this Red Sand was also called Flame Sand—it ignited upon contact with fire and was the key raw material for making "Blazing Powder," strictly controlled by the imperial court and listed as a prohibited substance!

"Blazing Powder is gunpowder? No, it's far more powerful than gunpowder…"

"I thought the Zhou family was secretly mining spiritual ore; I never imagined they were digging for Red Sand? Are they planning rebellion? Blowing up the imperial palace?"

Chen Mo's thoughts churned chaotically.

To rebel, the Zhou family lacked the strength—then what was their motive?

Lin Siya's eyes turned icy. "Secretly mining Red Sand is tantamount to treason—the Zhou family dares too much!"

They had come to investigate the demon race, yet now another major case had surfaced!

"We must report this to Lin Siya immediately and seal off the Zhou family before the culprits escape…"

Suddenly, a chilling wind swept through, sending a cold shiver through their bodies.

Lin Siya frowned.

This was deep underground—how could there be wind?

The next instant, a thick, foul odor enveloped the two of them; she immediately felt her true energy stagnate, as if poisoned by Soft-Bone Powder!

Chen Mo recognized this odor all too well—

"Demon!"