Chapter 110: Fourth Level of Foundation Establishment, Secrets of the Mine!

Within the sea of the Dantian.

After the compressed Five Elements spiritual energy reached its limit, it surged in all directions, and intense pain immediately erupted within the Dantian.

Shen Lian’s expression remained unchanged. He exerted himself to circulate the "Five Elements Converging Technique," struggling to gain control over the rampaging spiritual energy, slowly completing the expansion of his Dantian sea.

The surging energy rushed into his meridians and acupoints, expanding those pathways as well. By the time the spiritual energy stabilized once more, his Dantian sea had more than doubled in size, and the Five Elements energy had reformed its cyclical flow within his body.

Fourth Level of Foundation Establishment!

Thanks to the spiritual energy stored within the shell, Shen Lian had ascended to the fourth level without needing to consume many medicinal pills. The only reason his advancement speed had lagged was the time he had spent crafting talismans.

It had been over a decade since he broke through to Foundation Establishment, and he had now successfully passed four minor realms in succession. This cultivation speed was neither fast nor slow, placing him firmly in the upper echelon of the entire cultivation world.

*Hum!*

As the Five Elements energy completed its cycle within the newly expanded Dantian sea and traveled throughout his body, the essence, energy, and spirit within his flesh and blood were nourished, converging in his sea of consciousness to manifest as nascent spiritual sense.

Twelve hundred zhang... thirteen hundred zhang...

His spiritual sense extended like ripples, capturing everything within his perception: the rolling terrain outside the cave, and the chaotic, collapsed mine shafts beneath the surface.

When it finally reached fifteen hundred and eighty zhang, Shen Lian sensed the boundary. Just as when he had ascended to the third level, his spiritual sense had expanded by over three hundred zhang.

Slowly retracting his sense, Shen Lian began to regulate his breathing. The shell artifact he had obtained in Aoshi Immortal City had allowed him to break through two minor realms. The greatest stroke of fortune, however, was that each of his Five Elements Spirit Puppets had been elevated to the sixth level of Foundation Establishment, and their combined form had reached the eighth level—surpassing even his own cultivation.

He still had not figured out exactly what that artifact was. The old demon of Black Cliff had gone to such great lengths to snatch it from Aoshi Immortal City, yet for an ordinary cultivator, the item could not be directly refined. Either the old demon was not human, or he possessed a spirit treasure similar to the Five Elements Spirit Puppets.

"Not human, perhaps."

Shen Lian muttered to himself. Thinking back on the methods the demon used to control cultivators, he was leaning toward the idea that the old demon was not human at all.

His time hiding on this abandoned mining island had been quite productive. Beyond his own advancement, two second-grade Heavenly Derivation Talismans had been nurtured, and he had a surplus of third-grade talisman arrays. The only setback was that he had yet to find any new raw Xuanling Jade Essence.

The mine’s ore veins were vast, and because he had previously focused on cultivation and nurturing talismans, he had only explored the surface. Now, he had the time to dig deeper into the shafts.

...

"Master, seven or eight more sea-folk have arrived on the island. One of them was here before."

Dahei crawled into the cave, a storage bag clinking as it hung from its large antennae.

"What is their strength?"

"The strongest is only at the seventh level of Qi Refining."

"Keep an eye on their movements. Unless something unexpected happens, let them leave on their own."

Shen Lian couldn't be bothered with a few Qi Refining cultivators who had come to the island seeking fortune.

"By the way, the cultivator who was here before seems to be badly injured. He was brought here under guard."

"Didn't you say a few months ago that the sea-folk who came earlier found a broken second-grade magic tool?"

Shen Lian pondered for a moment and understood the situation. Hearing the mention of a broken magic tool, Dahei suddenly reacted; the storage bag on its antennae glowed, and two pieces of ore flew out.

"Master, I found ore too!"

One was a piece of pitch-black Ink Iron, the other a crimson piece of Red Gold—both were second-grade ores. As for their size, one was the size of a finger, and the other was one-tenth that size.

Placing the ore before Shen Lian, Dahei arched its head back until the antennae nearly touched its own back, its two large pincers resting behind its waist. It looked incredibly smug.

Looking at the meager second-grade ores, Shen Lian was torn between laughter and tears, but he still took out a Spirit-Feeding Pill, stuffed it into Dahei’s mouth, and patted its antennae.

"...Master, the Spirit-Feeding Pills have no effect anymore."

Shen Lian looked at Dahei and suddenly realized he had forgotten to refine new pills for Dahei and Sanqian over the past few years. No wonder these two were advancing so slowly.

"Very well. Once I gather enough spiritual herbs, I will refine new pills for you both."

Shen Lian quickly moved past the topic. "How is the exploration of the island going?"

"The miners dug everything out too cleanly. These two pieces were just found in other nooks and crannies on the island."

Whenever this topic came up, Dahei had plenty to say. Its descendants were all common Black-Horned Ants, and since the stones in many parts of the island were too hard, the ants could only crawl along the fissures in the ground.

Because of the battles that had once occurred in the mines, seawater had flooded in, leaving the mine shafts hundreds of zhang deep filled with water. Dahei could still explore those areas, but its ant swarm lacked the capability. And as for Dahei, it had to remain on the surface to monitor the island's activity, so it couldn't dive underwater.

Shen Lian nodded. Of course they had mined it clean; the Profound Corpse Sect used new energy sources. Since Dahei had found nothing on the surface, Sanqian had found nothing underwater, and his own use of the Five Elements Spirit Puppets had yielded nothing, it was time to look deeper.

After a hundred years of excavation by the Profound Corpse Sect, the mine was deeper than expected, but the intense battles had caused severe collapses. The flooded, collapsed shafts had created a new, treacherous structure. The deep, surging waters carried immense pressure—the deeper one went, the greater the pressure, which even a Foundation Establishment cultivator could not withstand. However, among humanity, there were water-repelling beads crafted from hunted sea-folk, which could create a waterproof light shield, allowing one to walk as easily as on land. Different grades of these beads allowed for exploration at different depths.

"Continue to monitor those sea-folk on the island. Report if anything happens."

After sending Dahei away, Shen Lian began to plan. There were three things to do: find raw Xuanling Jade Essence, assist the Five Elements Spirit Puppets in practicing spells, and craft puppet talismans. These tasks didn't need to be rushed; he could alternate between them during his cultivation breaks.

...

Six hundred zhang deep in the mine.

The water was pitch black, with streams of black dust floating in it. When this dust reached the surface, it became the source of the island's toxic vapors. The dust originated from the depths of the mine below.

Standing on a rock, Shen Lian sealed his pores with spiritual energy. Guided by the Water Spirit Puppet, the Five Elements Spirit Puppet descended toward the depths. This area was the limit of Sanqian’s reach.

The Spirit Puppet merged with the water, its surface coated in black dust, but each circulation of its spiritual energy dispelled the particles. As the puppet moved through the water, exploring the collapsed and shattered shafts, it encountered discarded corpse puppets, but no ore.

Having only recently ascended to the fourth level of Foundation Establishment, Shen Lian needed to use the silk-condensing method inherited from the Immortal Puppet Arts to forge his newly generated spiritual sense if he wanted to reach peak control over the Five Elements Spirit Puppets. This secret technique was a practice that required daily, uninterrupted refinement. Even so, with the puppet six hundred zhang underwater, Shen Lian could still probe an area of eighteen hundred zhang in radius.

After his investigation, he discovered that the ore vein continued well beyond eighteen hundred zhang. Shen Lian did not rush; he decided to finish inspecting the currently accessible area first.

Three days later, the Five Elements Spirit Puppet returned to its master for the sixteenth time from the depths. Shen Lian merged with the water and returned to the surface.

He sighed. "The Profound Corpse Sect truly lives up to its reputation."

Controlling the puppets consumed spiritual sense, and the toxic mining dust at these depths meant he couldn't stay for long. Fortunately, this situation served as excellent training for controlling the puppets. He spent his time alternating between descending to search, detoxifying, cultivating, and crafting talismans.

...

Three months later.

One thousand zhang underwater.

Having found no Xuanling Jade Essence at the six-hundred-zhang level—though he had cleared the area of danger—Shen Lian set his target depth to one thousand zhang. It wasn't that he couldn't go deeper; when he was at six hundred zhang, his puppet’s vision had already peered into regions over twenty-eight hundred zhang deep. At that depth, he could see the countless eruptions of toxic black water, resembling black mushroom clouds. The concentrated black water was too much even for the Five Elements Spirit Puppets, let alone a real Foundation Establishment cultivator. Even a Pseudo-Core expert would likely be eroded.

After a brief look at these eruptions, Shen Lian refocused on searching for the Xuanling Jade Essence.

...

"Hmm."

That day, as he was searching, he suddenly felt his spirit beast contract tremble. He immediately retracted the puppet and headed toward the surface. Dahei, the chief sentry of the island, wouldn't summon him unless it was urgent.

"Master, it’s bad. Those sea-folk cultivators who came to the island were eaten by the mine."

When Shen Lian appeared at the fifth cave, Dahei immediately reported the situation.

A quarter of an hour later.

In the depths of a mine shaft not yet flooded, a dark, bottomless hole spewed thick black water, which flowed further into the mine. A flicker of yellow earth-light shimmered between the rocks, revealing a blurred phantom that gazed toward the black water.

The hole was a zhang wide, and the water it spat out resembled the bubbling flows from three thousand zhang deep. Within the thick black water lay a sense of decaying corpse aura.

*Plop.*

The black water rippled, and a pile of rotted bones was washed out, crashing into the mine shaft.

"Could this mine shaft connect directly to the three-thousand-zhang depth?"

In the twenty-third backup cave, a thousand zhang away, Shen Lian frowned. The bones washed out were not just those of the Qi Refining sea-folk; there was also a severed arm gleaming with a dark golden luster.

Soon, the severed arm appeared before Shen Lian. After a brief inspection, he found it was only a few inches long. Both ends were jagged and uneven, indicating it hadn't been cut by a magic tool, but rather torn off with brute force.

"The Profound Corpse Sect has classifications for their puppets: Iron, Copper, and Gold—with Gold corresponding to the Golden Core stage."

Shen Lian’s expression tightened. It was a suspected arm from a Golden Core corpse puppet. He had never heard of a Golden Core master falling during the great war against the Profound Corpse Sect, but there had been no news regarding their puppets either. However, since the arm appeared to be a forearm, that meant there was also a hand missing. The integrity of a corpse puppet was intrinsically linked to its combat prowess. Did this mean one of the Profound Corpse Sect’s puppets was now crippled?

After observing it for a while, Shen Lian had the puppet use its spiritual energy to lift the arm and toss it back into the depths of the mine. He was here for Xuanling Jade Essence, not to deal with a Golden Core puppet arm. Besides, the item carried too much corpse aura; if he took it out to sell and caught the attention of the Profound Corpse Sect, it would be a disaster. Returning it to where it came from was for the best.

He continued his search for the jade essence. However, since a few Qi Refining sea-folk had stumbled upon that black hole, he decided he needed to keep an eye on it. He left a puppet to guard the area, assisted by the demonized Black-Horned Ants, and returned to his search.

...

A month later.

Deep in the underwater mine, the Five Elements Spirit Puppet unearthed a piece of raw Xuanling Jade Essence wrapped in thick stone skin from a pile of rubble. This raw stone was square, the size of a human head, as if it had been cut.

Inside the cave, Shen Lian looked at the raw stone, lost in thought. The stone skin on the surface was a layer of black gravel and mud that had been compressed underwater. After Shen Lian cleaned it, he found the stone was indeed perfectly square. It had been cut.

On the surface of such a large piece of Xuanling Jade Essence, one could see the jade and the semi-petrified stone existing in one piece. At the same time, thin, winding black lines could be seen permeating the jade essence.

Shen Lian felt a touch of regret. How could he use polluted jade essence? His fire spiritual energy was so violent that it would explode upon contact with the cold,阴 (yin) energy. He used his spiritual sense as a blade and sliced through the center. After splitting the raw stone into four pieces and seeing the crystalline surface inside, he let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it hadn't been completely penetrated; two-thirds of the interior were still usable.

What a stroke of luck.

After storing the jade essence, Shen Lian first restored his depleted spiritual sense and then began helping the puppet dispel the black energy that had seeped in. Once everything was restored, he descended back into the depths of the mine.

With his previous experience, Shen Lian focused his search on the rubble beneath the black water, looking for square-shaped black stones. Only a Profound Corpse Sect cultivator could have cut these raw stones so perfectly.

Sure enough, after searching for more than half a month, Shen Lian found five more square stones of varying sizes, including one more piece of Xuanling Jade Essence.

...

Beneath the surging black water, streams of liquid erupted like springs. Amidst the rubble, a black giant coffin, a zhang in size, was embedded in the earth. Both inside and outside the coffin were square grooves of various sizes, but they were all empty.

The interior of the stone coffin was covered in dense, intricate runes, which faintly emitted a bloody halo through the black water. When the Five Elements Spirit Puppet passed through the black mist and his spiritual sense reached out to cover it, he retreated instantly.

Shen Lian, who was lingering at a thousand zhang underwater, scrambled back with all his might.

"Go, go, go!"

"This place is no longer safe."

(End of chapter)