Han Li immediately stood up, left his residence, and exited the inn.
He hailed a beast-drawn carriage on the street and headed straight for one of the city gates.
The private mine was naturally not located on the island itself, and its position was extremely remote. Even if he flew directly using his escape light, it would take him several days to reach it.
Three days later, Han Li transformed into a faint azure streak of light, soaring swiftly through the high skies.
Below him was no longer the rippling surface of a lake but undulating dark green mountain ranges.
Suddenly, the mountains ahead leveled out, revealing a towering peak as straight as a colossal sword, standing over ten thousand zhang tall, an awe-inspiring sight.
At the sight of this peak, a hint of joy flashed across Han Li’s face. Muttering, “Finally here,” he immediately descended toward the peak.
The azure light dissipated!
Han Li’s figure appeared atop a massive boulder at the summit of the towering peak. He closed his eyes and released his immense spiritual sense, sweeping it across the ground below.
A short while later, his eyes snapped open. With a single hand seal, yellow runes flickered across his body. Then, with a twist of his form, he vanished from the boulder without a trace.
The next moment, deep within the mountain’s belly, a flash of yellow light appeared, and Han Li’s figure blurred into existence.
He glanced at the dim surroundings, frowned slightly, then reached out with one hand and tossed out a white orb of light. It hovered steadily above his head, illuminating the area as bright as day.
Though Han Li’s spiritual eye techniques allowed him to see clearly with just a slight surge of magic power, this method was far more convenient.
After doing this, Han Li realized he was standing in a somewhat abandoned mine tunnel. The walls were pockmarked with hollows and littered with worthless ore fragments.
Ahead, a narrow passage wound deeper into the mountain.
Judging by the slightly sloping ground, the tunnel seemed to lead even further into the mountain’s depths.
After sweeping his gaze across the surroundings, Han Li’s eyes finally settled on an unremarkable piece of ore embedded in the wall.
This ore was of the lowest-value byproduct type, riddled with cracks—something no discerning person would spare a second glance at.
Yet, after examining it for a moment, a faint smile curled Han Li’s lips. He raised his arm and stretched out his fingers toward it.
With a *whoosh*, the ore trembled before being forcibly yanked from the wall by an invisible force, landing in Han Li’s palm as a streak of yellow light.
With a slight squeeze of his fingers, the ore burst apart in a flash of yellow light.
When the glow faded, Han Li’s palm held a pale black talisman, pulsing with fluctuating light.
“Heh, not bad for a little trick,” Han Li remarked indifferently after a brief sweep of his spiritual sense over the talisman. He then tucked it into his sleeve and strode forward.
The mine tunnel was extremely long, with countless intersecting passages sprawling like a spider’s web.
Yet Han Li navigated it effortlessly, turning left and right without hesitation. Within moments, he had advanced five to six hundred zhang before stopping again at a crossroads, glancing around.
With a *snap*, Han Li flicked a finger, shattering another piece of ore at the intersection. From it, another black talisman shot out.
A flick of his sleeve released a surge of azure mist, which coiled around the talisman and brought it back to his hand.
After storing this talisman as well, Han Li’s figure blurred as he appeared in one of the passages and continued onward.
Clearly, these talismans served as guides, leading Han Li deeper into the private mine.
Following the resonance between the talismans, Han Li retrieved one at intervals along the tunnel.
After three to four hours, he had ventured deep underground, the branching paths gradually thinning out.
The hollows and scars on the tunnel walls also became sparser. Eventually, the long passage showed only occasional traces of mining, with barely a hundred marks left.
However, the scattered ore fragments on the ground indicated that the quality and type of ore here were far superior to those earlier.
No wonder the mining slaves, even knowing they had strayed from the original vein, refused to abandon this place and dug even deeper.
As Han Li pondered this, his footsteps suddenly halted.
Ahead, the path was completely blocked by rubble—half the tunnel had been deliberately collapsed with brute force.
Han Li frowned slightly but strode forward without hesitation.
A yellow glow flickered across his body as the white orb above his head dissipated. His form then seemed to phase through the rubble like an intangible specter.
After the time it took to finish a meal, Han Li emerged from the collapsed section, reappearing on the other side.
As the yellow light faded from his body, he surveyed his surroundings.
Ahead, the tunnel continued, though noticeably narrower and rougher, as if freshly excavated.
Han Li’s gaze fell on a small fragment of black-and-white residue nearby. With a wave of his hand, he summoned it into his palm and examined it closely.
“Indeed, it’s Devilish Gold! So this is where they were mining it.” A trace of delight crossed Han Li’s face as he tossed the fragment aside.
Without delay, he closed his eyes and released his vast spiritual sense, probing the area ahead.
“Hmm, this tunnel is unusually long… There seems to be a natural barrier ahead, blocking my spiritual sense. And there are people nearby—weak in cultivation, likely the mining slaves. They might still be of some use.”
Opening his eyes, Han Li made a decision. With a flicker, he vanished into the darkness of the tunnel ahead.
A short while later, he appeared in a small, hastily dug cavern. Before him, three ragged, dark-skinned mining slaves of the demon race knelt in terror.
Each had twin horns and grotesque features, clearly of the same clan.
“You’re saying only the three of you remain? The others were all slaughtered?” Han Li asked calmly.
“Yes, Lord! If not for our quick thinking in hiding, we’d have met the same fate,” the middle slave replied, trembling and not daring to raise his head.
“A cleanup, then. Expected of them. So, you were the ones who mined the Devilish Gold here?” Han Li mused before fixing them with a sharp gaze.
“Yes, Lord. We were the ones who dug it out,” the middle slave answered nervously, unsure of Han Li’s intent.
“Good. Answer my questions truthfully, and I might spare you. Otherwise, with the tunnel collapsed, you’ll starve here sooner or later.”
“Lord, if you save us, we’ll tell you everything we know!” the middle slave blurted, lifting his head eagerly. The other two echoed his sentiment, their faces a mix of fear and hope.
“First, when did you discover the Devilish Gold, and did you notice anything unusual during mining?” Han Li asked slowly.
“We found it over two months ago. The soil here was hard as iron, so it took over a hundred of us this long to extract it all. As for anomalies… near the end, a few of us suddenly collapsed and turned to dust before our eyes,” the middle slave recounted, his face paling at the memory.
“Collapsed and turned to dust? Like this?” Han Li tapped a nearby black stone with a finger as he spoke.
A green thread shot from his fingertip, piercing the stone before circling back.
The seemingly solid rock *crunched* into a pile of gray-white dust.
The three slaves recoiled in horror. “Lord, that’s exactly what happened!” the middle one cried.
“Did your superiors investigate?” Han Li pressed.
“They did, but found nothing amiss. Others mined the same spots later without incident. After a few such cases, they stopped caring. Our lives are cheap, after all,” the slave replied bitterly.
“An anomaly that never repeated? Interesting. Later, show me exactly where these incidents occurred.”
“As you command, Lord!”
“Now, one last question—was all the Devilish Gold truly exhausted here?” Han Li’s expression darkened as he posed this final query.
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