Chapter 363: Delving Underground

The idle talk is over.

The two black-clothed elders began to fully resist the Ten Thousand Blades Cart.

Wu Tie really caught them off guard; they never expected him to wield such a sharp weapon. Besides their 'Old Three' being struck down to soul-scattering, the two black-clothed elders also bore immense pressure.

If Wu Tie were to unleash the Ten Thousand Blades Cart in one go, he could very well slaughter them both on the spot.

But Wu Tie wanted to hear the full story of why they had come to cause trouble in Huachong City, so he deliberately slowed the Ten Thousand Blades Cart's attack, giving the two black-clothed elders a chance to catch their breath; they immediately produced the treasures they carried.

A palm-sized mirror, its surface wrapped in radiant clouds, spewed forth a cyan-and-red intertwined light dragon, dozens of zhang long, its body coiling and intertwining; countless flying knives struck the dragon's body and instantly shattered.

The Ten Thousand Blades Cart spun rapidly, endless flying knives being destroyed and regenerated without cease.

Scales on the light dragon's body shattered piece by piece, yet new ones continually grew; this mirror is clearly a tremendously powerful immortal weapon, with offense and defense united, far more precious than the Ten Thousand Blades Cart.

The other black-clothed elder produced a three-inch-long small sword, cradled it in his palm, and then gently blew a breath.

The small sword rose into the air, multiplying from one to ten, ten to a hundred, a hundred to countless, and instantly a sky-full of sword shadows whistled down.

Sword shadows and flying knives collided densely, both vanishing in droves; the Ten Thousand Blades Cart spun faster and faster, emitting a sharp whine, while countless sword shadows in the void continually flickered, likewise producing piercing tearing sounds.

"Huo Xiong... this is no matter for a mere colonel, a mere Life Pool Realm cultivator to meddle in." The black-clothed elder who produced the small sword sneered coldly: "Today you will die here, and then the Hua family will cover this up; for a time no one will know of your death."

"Perhaps there is still some time before the Innate Spiritual Treasure fully matures; Lu Ran is our man, he will build a smelting workshop here to refine 'Yin-Yang Whirling Light Iron' on-site, cast it into finished product, and send it to the Hua family, thereby buying time."

"Once the Innate Spiritual Treasure is fully conceived, after I take it... I will surely exterminate your entire Huo family... who let the Huo family have such a bothersome nuisance as you?"

Wu Tie gave the two black-clothed elders a deep look: "Innate Spiritual Treasure, what a wonderful thing!"

The two black-clothed elders laughed together: "Indeed, Innate Spiritual Treasure, truly a good thing."

The light dragon slammed down heavily with a tremendous bang, breaking through the Ten Thousand Blades Cart's defense and smashing hard into Wu Tie's chest. Wu Tie cried out in pain, his chest caved in, and he spat out great mouthfuls of blood mist.

Afterward, countless sword shadows whistled down from the sky, piercing Wu Tie's body and spattering blood light everywhere.

With a 'hiss', Wu Tie's body exploded into a mass of blood mist.

Then a mass of blood mist was finely shredded by the countless sword shadows, round after round; the light dragon further wrapped the mist, spewing vast splendor that burned it over and over, until finally the blood mist was refined away to nothing, and only then did the two black-clothed elders cease their attack.

"Dead?" one black-clothed elder narrowed his eyes.

"Stone dead... but he's merely a Life Pool Realm cultivator; what ability could he possibly have?" the other black-clothed elder snorted coldly.

"These threefold refined immortal weapons are strange—when did a colonel of the Divine Martial Army start being issued immortal weapons? His Great Jin Divine State surely isn't that lavish, is it?"

After a long silence, the two black-clothed elders shook their heads together.

"Perhaps it came from the Forbidden Demon Hall... the Hall Master Sima You of the Constant State Branch Hall of the Forbidden Demon Hall, this wily fox-like, wolf-like vicious fellow—perhaps he's already set his sights on the movements here."

"Be careful... please be careful... the Divine Martial Army and the city defense troops must be placated by the Ren family stepping in. Bribe with money, lure with beauty, or use whatever else—just temporarily appease them."

"As long as that spiritual treasure is fully formed, we'll take it and leave; then we won't have to fear the Forbidden Demon Hall."

The two black-clothed elders exhaled, grabbed the Ten Thousand Blades Cart, and simultaneously turned into black smoke, fleeing into the mountains.

After about half an hour, countless tiny blood droplets suddenly appeared out of thin air in midair, wriggling rapidly, then snapping inward; Wu Tie moved his limbs and walked out of the blood mist.

Not a hair was harmed, not the slightest damage.

"Blood Drop Rebirth"—this is a tremendous supernatural ability awakened in the Wu clan's bloodline; as long as a single drop of fresh blood remains, Wu Tie can be revived infinitely.

The two black-clothed elders' attack was indeed fierce; had Wu Tie not deliberately activated his divine ability, exploding himself into a mass of blood mist, they would not have found it so easy to kill him—leaving aside other factors, just speaking of his mutated bones, ordinary immortal weapons could hardly injure them.

After exploding into blood mist, Wu Tie instantly entered the strange state of the Impermanence Tower—neither alive nor dead, both alive and dead. The two elders thought they had refined Wu Tie into nothing, but in fact he only lost a trifling amount of vital energy.

"Innate Spiritual Treasure... you want it, and I want it too!" Wu Tie muttered: "For now, don't notify the Forbidden Demon Hall about this... such a great treasure, tsk..."

Wu Tie lurked in the mountains.

Every few days, a streak of light would fly in, conveying Li Dayou's news and intelligence.

In Wu Tie's reply to Li Dayou, everything was also fine; he told Li Dayou he had temporarily discovered nothing further.

The people of the Forbidden Demon Hall also did not reappear.

Perhaps they were monitoring the movements here in their own special way—who knows?

Lu Ran joyfully announced to the entire Survey Team that they had found one of the main ingredients required for the new forging method—Yin-Yang Whirling Light Iron.

However, this spiritual material is hard to mine and transport; only by refining it on-site into shape can it be easily moved. Thus, near the drilling tower where the Yin-Yang Whirling Light Iron was found, Lu Ran began having people construct a large smelting workshop covering hundreds of mu.

The Survey Team continued to drill wells along the terrain, probing toward the southwest.

In the preliminary smelting workshop, inside a secluded stone hut, Lu Ran personally led a few apprentices, digging out the earth bit by bit, gradually forming a deep underground cavity.

At nightfall, Wu Tie concealed his form, lay silently against the stone hut's exterior, and eavesdropped on Lu Ran and the others speaking inside.

The two black-clothed elders were inside the stone hut, one of them still toying with Wu Tie's Ten Thousand Blades Cart.

Ren Shanwen and Ren Duxing, father and son, stood respectfully in the corner of the hut, occasionally nodding and smiling, echoing the words of the black-clothed elders and Lu Ran.

"Be careful, please be careful. The Innate Spiritual Treasure—no one knows its temperament... these days, absolutely do not use evasion techniques to disturb it. Rely on manpower to dig straight through to its birthplace; that is the safest approach."

"Lu Ran, don't get it wrong. This requires going straight down thirty thousand zhang underground; a slight error and we won't know where we've deviated to."

The two black-clothed elders earnestly admonished Lu Ran.

"Elder, rest assured; with the ancestors' records left behind, plus my observations of mountain and river terrain, this is the place, no mistake." Lu Ran smiled smugly: "To fulfill the ancestors' command, I have painstakingly studied feng shui and dragon-seeking tomb-finding techniques for eight hundred years..."

He pointed firmly at the three-zhang-wide pit in the hut, Lu Ran said in a low voice: "This is it; the error will absolutely not exceed a hundred zhang, elders, rest easy. If I'm off, I, Lu Ran, will chop off my own head!"

The two black-clothed elders still wore a troubled expression.

Lu Ran couldn't help but reassure them: "Elders, rest easy; in these vast mountains, to find this spot one must survey bit by bit... but since we've located the vein that harbors utter killing qi, it's absolutely correct."

The two black-clothed elders muttered a few words under their breath, and gradually a red glow appeared on their faces.

"If we can obtain this treasure... our family's future... hehe."

"Hehe, hehe."

The two exchanged a glance and then laughed together.

One of them, toying with the Ten Thousand Blades Cart in his hand, muttered low: "The origin of this immortal weapon still unsettles me... let the children make a bigger commotion, bigger still... employ the Heavenly Patrol Secret Guard's all hidden posts in Nine Mountains Prefecture to assassinate the lord of Nine Mountains Prefecture..."

"No matter how many are sacrificed, let's draw away any eyes that might be watching this place, draw them away, draw them away."

"Ah, ah, for this treasure, any number of deaths is worth it..."

Wu Tie lay prone outside the stone house, couldn't help shaking head repeatedly.

These two black-clothed old men were obviously thrown into mental disarray by this Innate Spirit Treasure.

Days passed one by one.

Lu Yue, inside the smelting workshop during the day, led a group of apprentices in pretending to smelt ore.

As soon as night fell, Lu Yue led several master craftsmen, like mole rats, continuously digging downward.

The two black-clothed old men brought them a Storage Magic Treasure with great capacity; the excavated earth and stones were directly placed into the Storage Magic Treasure, and when full they would make a single trip to the mountains and forests to dump them.

Therefore their excavation speed was extremely fast; Lu Yue and several master craftsman apprentices were boldly Embryo Storage Realm body cultivators, possessing immense strength, and with specially designed digging tools, they could easily dig nearly two thousand zhang underground in a single night.

A cave three zhang in diameter and reaching several thousand zhang deep, according to Wu Tie's idea, such a deep cave is extremely prone to collapse.

However, Lu Yue possessed an extremely marvelous solution; after excavating a section of deep pit, as long as this solution was splashed onto the cave walls, along the way, whether mud, sand, or rock, all became a uniform whole, as hard as diamond.

It was obvious that, for this treasure-hunting operation, they had prepared for many years, expending great effort.

The Hua Family's artisans and laborers, under the protection of the Hua Family guards, went to the new survey point to conduct surveys.

In this sub-camp, only several hundred Ren Family guards remained for protection.

Hua Xinxin was still reveling in feasting and drinking in the main camp; in the Hua Family team, the sole steward who could manage affairs, the Ninth Steward, had already been assassinated, and Lu Yue's opinion thus came to dominate the entire survey team's movements.

This sub-camp had completely fallen under the control of Lu Yue and his associates.

Survey work continued normally; every few days, a new rare mineral vein would be surveyed.

Meanwhile, this cave continued to extend downward, eventually reaching the depth of thirty thousand zhang spoken of by the black-clothed old men.

This day and night, Wu Tie still lay prone outside the stone house listening for sounds; suddenly, a long, extremely joyous whistle came from deep within the cave.

The two black-clothed old men sitting in the stone house simultaneously rose to their feet, exchanged a look of astonished delight, and then both darted into the cave. As their bodies drifted downward, they issued stern orders to Ren Shanwen and Ren Duxing.

Ren Shanwen and Ren Duxing rushed out of the stone house, shouting sharply a few times, and the atmosphere of the sub-camp instantly changed subtly.

At first glance, the camp appeared normal, but all the Ren Family guards were seated cross-legged in the tents, having prepared to launch an attack at any moment.

Various spell formations and restrictions began to activate; should anyone intrude, the entire sub-camp would instantly become a massive trap, strangling all intruders.

In the instant that Ren Shanwen and Ren Duxing rushed out of the stone house, Wu Tie slipped in like a wisp of smoke.

His body trembled, instantly transforming into an exceedingly tiny speck of dust, drifting slowly and lightly downward into the deep pit.

Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha Transformation Technique, Wu Tie has now cultivated to a considerable degree of proficiency.

Moreover, having obtained the Five Elements Essence Blood, when Wu Tie transmutes the Five Elements, his transformative divine ability becomes ever more unfathomable in power. And the dust, clearly not having departed from the Five Elements category, this minute speck of dust that Wu Tie has transformed into is naturally perfect, without the slightest flaw.

The tiny dust drifted downward.

The cave was narrow, and sounds from below floated up along the walls.

"Honored Elders, how is it? Down here is the largest branch vein of the treasure's nurturing place; the earth vein we probed a few days ago is merely one of the tiniest of those branch veins."

"This largest branch vein is also the nearest to the treasure's nurturing place; entering from here will surely be fine."

Lu Yue proudly and restrainedly boasted of his achievements and his keen eye.

Wu Tie accelerated his descent.

The air was filled with dust particles; everyone's attention in the cave was drawn to the branch vein Lu Yue mentioned, and no one noticed this speck of dust descending at a speed utterly contrary to common sense.

Gradually, Wu Tie arrived at a point less than ten zhang above the cave floor.

Below, Lu Yue had excavated a space several dozen zhang in diameter; all around, that wondrous solution had been sprayed, causing the rock and soil to become a uniform whole, emitting a bright crystal luster.

The ground was a tangled mix of black and red, just like the earth qi that had spewed from the small branch of the earth vein broken by the drill a few days earlier.

Through the faintly semi-transparent ground, one could see beneath the rock layers several zhang thick, streams of black-and-red earth qi flowing slowly downward.

If we regard the nurturing place of the Innate Spirit Treasure as the Child Palace, then these large and small earth veins are its extending blood vessels. These blood vessels, stretching who knows how many li, absorb the essence of heaven and earth from the thick earth to supply the Innate Spirit Treasure's development.

Lu Yue had previously probed a minuscule capillary of this vast Child Palace, and then, following the earth veins, found this stout aorta below.

Entering through this aorta allows smooth access to the nurturing place of the Innate Spirit Treasure.

This is precisely the place discovered by the ancestors of those two black-clothed old men back then.