Chapter 20: Extreme Yin Refined True Gold |
The maidservant realized she had misspoken and immediately fell silent.
Li Shun, however, seemed not to notice. He continued rambling, “What you don’t understand is that without the nourishment of essence blood, Lengshan Grass must absorb the radiance of the cold moon to grow. So the closer it is to the surface, the more abundant it should be. There’s no reason for it to extend deeper underground…”
“How annoying!” Le Shi snapped, cutting him off.
She stared at Li Shun for a long while. After careful consideration, she finally took a deep breath and made her decision.
Without warning, she bent down and hoisted the stunned Li Shun onto her back. Her figure shot forward like lightning, racing straight down the steep tunnel toward the pitch-black depths below.
“Aiyo, miss, this really isn’t proper. You’ll wear this old man out…” Li Shun cried out in alarm. Yet his hands moved with perfect familiarity, locking tightly around her neck without the slightest intention of letting go.
Still, as he sensed himself being carried deeper and deeper underground, a trace of gravity surfaced in his eyes.
—
Within the Fangcun space.
The remaining Lengshan Grass within the space bowed as if welcoming their emperor.
“Lengshan Venerable…”
Worthy of being a rare treasure that appeared only once in a century. The moment Li Shun’s divine sense approached it, he felt an incomparably pure, chilling clarity wash through his entire being.
His divine sense seemed to grow stronger by the moment. His mind became clearer than ever before, his thoughts moving several times faster than usual.
More importantly, as his main consciousness continued to absorb the aura of the Lengshan Venerable, he gradually began to sense something amiss in the underground mine in the real world.
“This place seems to be filled with a cold, yin-like presence. Not physical cold, but…”
“It feels as if some enormous entity is lurking in the darkness, silently watching every living being that enters.”
The instant this thought formed, Li Shun felt the surrounding chill come alive, as if all of it had turned its gaze upon him.
The cold seeped into his body. Even under the protection of the Langhuan Blazing Robe, which continuously emitted heat, he found it difficult to endure.
His body temperature plummeted.
Le Shi, who had been sprinting with him on her back, immediately sensed something was wrong. She came to a sudden stop and turned around. “What’s wrong with you?”
“M-Miss… d-don’t you feel… this cursed place is a bit too cold…” Li Shun replied, trembling.
Le Shi frowned deeply. She had no choice but to stop and lay the shivering Li Shun on the ground.
She scanned the surroundings with vigilance. After a moment, a trace of seriousness finally appeared on her delicate face.
After some hesitation, she took out a pill from her robes and fed it to Li Shun.
As soon as he swallowed it, he felt a burst of heat ignite in his abdomen, instantly spreading throughout his body. The cold receded at once, and a fine layer of sweat even formed on his forehead.
Seeing his condition improve, Le Shi hoisted him back onto her back and continued rushing deeper underground without a word.
“If you sense any Lengshan Grass nearby, call out to me,” she instructed.
“Miss, are we really going deeper? What exactly is down there…”
“Thank you for saving my life just now. May I ask your name? If there’s ever a chance, this old man will surely repay you…”
Despite Li Shun’s constant attempts to distract her and slow her down, she ignored him completely.
And so, inevitably, they ventured further into the depths of the Lengshan mine.
The surroundings grew colder and colder. Even the langhuan blazing robe, which had barely been able to emit a faint red glow, was now being suppressed. Its light flickered like a candle in the wind, on the verge of extinguishing at any moment.
More importantly, Li Shun detected, within the surrounding darkness, a presence strikingly similar to that of the Lengshan Venerable.
They shared the same origin, though this aura seemed slightly weaker.
“Stop!”
After a moment of thought, Li Shun called out to halt Le Shi.
“Over there!”
Le Shi followed the direction Li Shun pointed out, winding her way forward. Before long, at the very end of a tunnel, a sudden bloom of blue light came into view.
The source of that glow was a plant resembling Lengshan Grass, yet nearly five to six times larger in size.
“So this is… unbelievable! How could there be such an enormous Lengshan Grass?” Li Shun exclaimed in exaggerated astonishment.
“This is Lengshan Lord. There is a one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance for Lengshan Grass to mutate into this form. While it is not as valuable as Lengshan Venerable, it is still far superior to ordinary Lengshan Grass,” Le Shi explained.
Strangely, however, her attention did not linger on the plant for long. Instead, her gaze swept carefully across the surrounding stone walls, examining them with meticulous focus.
After a short while, she seemed to find what she was looking for. A trace of delight surfaced in her eyes.
She was about to hoist Li Shun onto her back and continue on their way when she suddenly heard him speak in a cautious tone, pointing at the Lengshan Lord ahead.
“My lady, may this old man harvest it?”
“I’ve spent my entire life cultivating Lengshan Grass, yet I’ve never seen such a wondrous specimen. My hands are itching with the urge…”
Le Shi had originally wished to avoid unnecessary complications. But seeing the utterly sincere and earnest look in Li Shun’s eyes, she hesitated briefly before finally nodding.
Li Shun immediately broke into a cheerful grin and began employing the farmer’s Spirit Division and Life Transformation technique, collecting the Lengshan Lord.
Afterward, the two continued onward.
Along the way, Li Shun faintly sensed the presence of several other Lengshan Lord, yet he chose not to mention them.
He simply allowed Le Shi to carry him forward at high speed.
As for Le Shi, it was unclear by what method she had learned the layout of the underground mine tunnels. She moved straight toward her objective without the slightest hesitation.
Just as they were about to reach their destination, she abruptly came to a halt.
“Follow me.”
She set Li Shun down and spoke in a low voice.
Li Shun nodded, hunching his body as he followed behind her.
At the end of their path lay a narrow passage faintly emitting a green glow.
“This should be the place.”
The maid seemed somewhat uncertain, yet for some reason did not dare to proceed further.
She could only wait patiently for the others to arrive.
After roughly half a day, five more maids arrived one after another.
Their gazes met, and it seemed they had finally confirmed their target.
They promptly sent word to Marquis Changle.
In less than the time it takes for half a cup of tea to cool, Marquis Changle had already descended from the surface.
She looked into the depths of the green-lit passage ahead, then swept her gaze over the group of laborers whose eyes were filled with fear. With a wave of her hand, she ordered, “Take them back. Seal this place. No one is to step inside.”
The maids acknowledged in unison and immediately escorted the laborers away along the original route.
Marquis Changle, however, entered the passage alone.
The deeper she went, the more violent the life-draining chill became.
Everywhere she looked, the ground beneath her feet and the stone walls on both sides were sealed in layers of ice.
Yet she showed no fear of the freezing cold. Stepping across the solid ice, she advanced step by step until she reached the very core of the mine.
There, a nearly transparent, indistinct azure figure hovered silently in midair.
It seemed to be immersed in some distant memory, staring blankly into the void ahead. It showed no reaction whatsoever to Marquis Changle’s arrival.
A trace of reverence flickered in her eyes as she gazed at the figure.
Then she continued forward.
The closer she approached, the more bone-piercing the cold became. Gradually, even with her strength, she began to struggle against it. Frost gathered on her brows, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
When she finally reached the limit of what she could endure, she stopped.
“This unfilial descendant, Si Zhanqing, greets the ancestor!”
Her face filled with sorrow, Marquis Changle dropped to her knees with a heavy thud.
The azure figure remained unmoved.
Only after a long time did Si Zhanqing rise.
The sorrow in her eyes had faded, replaced by a hint of excitement.
“The yin energy here should be sufficient.”
Ignoring the biting cold beneath her, she sat cross-legged and took out a green gourd from her robes.
The gourd floated into the air as she began to chant softly,
“The Nine Nether Earth Veins, the Lunar Yin descends.
Seizing fortune and stealing fate, forging a hidden pact with Heaven’s will.
Condense the void into substance, transmute qi into silver.
The five elements made manifest, from extreme yin is born metal!”
As her incantation echoed, ripples began to appear in the surrounding air.
Droplets formed, falling one after another.
Soon, the rain grew heavier, turning into a torrential downpour.
Within the rain, a single droplet of golden liquid was born.
It fell into the green gourd below.
Then more followed, dripping continuously.
…
Three days later.
Si Zhanqing returned to Lengshan County, her harvest abundant.
The cold yin energy that had long shrouded the region began to dissipate silently.
“Congratulations, Marquis Changle, on achieving your heart’s desire!” County Magistrate Fang Xun observed her expression carefully before offering a deep bow with clasped hands.
Then, in a more cautious tone, he probed,
“Your Lordship, as for those laborers… should they be…?”