After saying this, the purple-haired woman activated a hand seal, and the blood streak on the jade pendant in her hand suddenly came to life, wriggling and twisting across its surface.
“Excellent. With Fifth Sister’s secret technique to pinpoint the demon beast’s location, we won’t have to fear being ambushed. This gives us a significant advantage,” the yellow-haired burly man replied with a pleased expression.
He then stepped aside, allowing his “Fifth Sister” to take the lead.
The group had only walked a few steps into the underground cavern when they entered a man-made mining tunnel.
From the pockmarked pits along the tunnel walls, it was clear that the nearby Firecloud Stones had long been exhausted. Yet, despite this, the scorching heat in the area was noticeably more intense than when they had first descended underground.
Had this vein not been deep within the Illusory Roar Desert, they would have already used earth-escape techniques to burrow directly underground in search of the demon beast. As it was, they could only follow the existing tunnels, slowly making their way deeper.
The mining tunnels were densely interwoven, with multiple paths converging at regular intervals, forming a spiderweb-like network.
Some of these tunnels stretched over a li in length, while others were merely a dozen zhang long. Most of the Firecloud Stones had been extracted, leaving only a few hidden remnants here and there.
After traversing over a dozen tunnels and arriving at a junction where four or five paths met, Han Li suddenly narrowed his eyes.
The tunnels ahead were dotted with flickering crimson lights, their walls studded with fist-sized scarlet crystals.
But Han Li’s gaze was not fixed on these rare materials. Instead, it was drawn to a headless, half-rotted corpse slumped at the entrance of one tunnel.
The skull was missing, and though the body was intact, the flesh had withered and shriveled, as if all the blood and muscle had been drained away, leaving only a thin layer of skin clinging to the bones.
The purple-haired woman and the yellow-haired man also noticed the corpse. Exchanging glances, they both showed a hint of surprise.
The purple-haired woman’s expression darkened as she spotted something on the corpse’s clothing. She raised a delicate hand and made a grasping motion in the air.
With a soft *puff*, a small scrap of fabric detached from the corpse and flew into her hand. She unfolded it, revealing a faint silver character: “Bai.”
“This is a disciple of our Bai Family, though it’s hard to say which one,” the purple-haired woman said with a frown.
The yellow-haired man snorted coldly and also gestured toward the corpse.
A *whoosh* sounded as a green leather pouch flew toward him. With a tap of his finger, it burst open, releasing a swarm of blood-red giant wasps, each the size of an adult’s palm, their wings fluttering incessantly.
“Blood Nether Wasps! If I recall correctly, these were Bai Yan’s personal demon insects, weren’t they?” the yellow-haired man asked, his expression grim.
“Reporting to the Patriarch, these are indeed Bai Yan’s Blood Nether Wasps. This junior once witnessed him using them in battle several times. There’s no mistake,” replied one of the six Bai Family disciples—an elderly man with snow-white hair, his tone tinged with sorrow, as if he had been close to “Bai Yan.”
“So this corpse is indeed Bai Yan. But he was one of the disciples left behind to guard the outpost, and the strongest among them. How did he end up dead here?” the purple-haired woman sighed softly. She flicked a fireball at the corpse, reducing it to ashes before continuing, “Let’s move forward. Perhaps we’ll find more clues.”
The gruesome state of the corpse didn’t particularly shock the group. In the Demon Realm, demonic techniques that drained the essence and blood of others were commonplace.
“Let’s keep going. We might discover something else,” the yellow-haired man decided after a moment of thought.
No one objected, and they proceeded cautiously along the tunnel where the corpse had lain.
After advancing several hundred zhang, they encountered five or six more headless skeletons, all identified by the Bai Family members as disciples who had been stationed at the outpost.
The yellow-haired man’s expression grew increasingly grim.
After walking further, he suddenly stopped and asked the purple-haired woman, “Fifth Sister, how much farther is the demon beast? Could it have already sensed us?”
“Don’t worry, Elder Brother. In the Illusory Roar Desert, our spiritual senses are heavily suppressed. The Firecloud Stone veins also interfere with detection. Right now, we’re still five or six li away—it definitely can’t sense us yet. But if we get closer, it’s hard to say,” the purple-haired woman replied after checking the jade pendant in her hand.
“In that case, let’s all conceal ourselves now,” the yellow-haired man said after a brief consideration.
“Already? That’ll drain a lot of energy. But fine, better than being spotted early,” grumbled the Corpulent Dragon Celestial Lord, reluctantly stroking his plump chin. He then spat out a black token, which transformed into a mist that enveloped him, rendering his form nearly invisible.
Han Li chuckled lightly, forming a hand seal. A swirl of black light wrapped around him, turning him into a faint shadow.
Meanwhile, Frost Li simply flicked his sleeve, releasing a crystalline glow that turned his body transparent, like a statue of ice.
Bai Yunxin and the others each produced a silver banner, tossing them into the air to form a silver light array. As it descended, the six vanished from sight.
Once everyone had concealed themselves, the yellow-haired man and the purple-haired woman also activated their techniques—one shrouded in black mist, the other with a brocade handkerchief—and disappeared.
The group pressed on.
The tunnel stretched far longer than Han Li had anticipated. After what felt like an eternity, they still hadn’t reached the end.
Finally, after what would have been the time it took to eat a meal, the straight tunnel began to twist and turn, the walls growing rough and blackened as they entered a natural underground fissure.
Other cracks of varying sizes appeared around them, some mere inches wide, others spanning several zhang. Blasts of scorching wind, carrying the stench of sulfur and burnt matter, occasionally surged from these openings.
Half an hour later, the group emerged from an inconspicuous fissure and found themselves above a massive underground lava lake.
The lake spanned over a thousand mu, its surface bubbling with red molten rock. The edges were lined with charred black stone, embedded with countless purple-red crystals several chi in length. Under the glow of the lava, these crystals flickered with an eerie crimson light.
Han Li’s eyes narrowed.
These crystals were the result of extreme fire-qi compression—each one a rare, top-grade Firecloud Stone. A rough estimate suggested there were tens of thousands of them, a fortune vast enough to drive any ordinary Demon Venerable to madness.
No wonder the Bai Family was willing to pay such a steep price to hold onto this place.
Yet what unsettled Han Li was that despite the cavern’s immense size, its layout was straightforward. A single glance revealed no trace of the demon beast.
The yellow-haired man scanned the area carefully before whispering to the purple-haired woman, “Fifth Sister, are you sure this is the right place? The demon beast is here?”
“No mistake. Its blood essence points directly here,” she replied firmly, holding the jade pendant.
“Then it must be hiding in the lava. Good—it hasn’t noticed us yet. Yunxin, set up the formation. Fellow Daoists Han, Corpulent Dragon, and Frost, please keep watch,” the yellow-haired man ordered, his gaze fixed on the molten lake below.
The six Bai Family disciples immediately dispersed around the lake, retrieving formation flags and disks to arrange an elaborate grand formation.
Without a word, the Corpulent Dragon Celestial Lord and Frost Li descended toward the lava, hovering about a dozen zhang above it, motionless. Though still concealed, they each readied their defensive demon tools.
The Corpulent Dragon spat out a shimmering blue bowl radiating icy light, while Frost Li flicked his sleeves, releasing twelve crystalline banners that orbited him like swirling halos of cold radiance.
Han Li, meanwhile, simply tapped his foot lightly in the air. A five-colored lotus bloomed beneath him, its petals exuding a chilling aura as it carried him slowly downward.
The lotus, dazzling in its hues, was formed from none other than the Five-Colored Extreme Flames.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage