Chapter 984 - Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan

They kept digging, frequently unearthing mangled corpses buried beneath the rubble.

Suddenly, Liu Wuxie detected a faint aura beneath a pile of rocks. He activated his Ghost Eye, and peered through the stones to catch sight of Yu Zhibai soaked in blood.

When the tunnel had collapsed, Yu Zhibai had fortunately propped his pickaxe upright to create a narrow space. One massive stone had pinned his leg, keeping him stuck, but he had avoided any severe injury.

After clearing several massive boulders, Liu Wuxie finally uncovered Yu Zhibai.

"Junior Brother, I knew you'd come," Yu Zhibai grinned, even in his battered state.

Liu Wuxie pulled Yu Zhibai from the rubble and gently laid him on a clean patch of ground. He sprinkled medicine on Yu Zhibai's wounds. With enough rest, he would recover in a few days.

A deep rumble suddenly echoed from a distance, and the battle above had moved underground. More cultivators surged in, each determined to seize the spiritual vein.

"Master, we can't stay here any longer. We need to return to the surface," Ruan Ying said, urging Liu Wuxie to leave, or they would be buried here.

"Okay!" Liu Wuxie nodded.

Jiang Nan carried Yu Zhibai and dashed toward the surface. They wove through obstacles and surfaced in less than five minutes.

By now, Luan Tianzhi and the others' eyes were bloodshot. They had failed to hold back the masses and rushed underground, where the tunnel had nearly collapsed.

"The tunnel is this way! Hurry up!" someone shouted, and more people flocked underground.

"Junior Brother, forget about me. That spiritual vein is massive; go and grab a share," Yu Zhibai said.

Unlike Jiang Le, Yu Zhibai was more adventurous.

The underground spiritual vein stretched out massively, and it would be a pity to leave it behind now. Yu Zhibai, Jiang Le, and Shen Rong had already learned of Liu Wuxie's achievements.

"Master, the spiritual vein is right below us. Don't miss this opportunity, and leave him to us," Ruan Ying added. She knew it wouldn't be an issue for Liu Wuxie to grab a share of spirit stones with his strength.

"Okay. Take care of him," Liu Wuxie said. He knew this opportunity might never come again if he let it pass, not to mention his senior brothers were safe now. Han Feizi could guarantee their safety.

After sending them back to the surface, Liu Wuxie returned to the underground world. He passed through various tunnels, and Yu Zhibai's description of the layout helped him avoid many detours.

Numerous tunnels had caved in, and the newcomers wandered blindly. The underground world twisted into a labyrinth, like a spider's web, and its center still remained a mystery. No one knew where the spiritual vein was located, and they could only dig downward.

Liu Wuxie executed his movement technique and dashed forward like a meteor, leaving everyone else behind him.

"Qiao Bian!" Liu Wuxie recognized the figure ahead. Only he could match his speed.

However, Qiao Bian didn't notice Liu Wuxie and continued to venture deeper into the underground world.

When the people ahead moved a large boulder aside, torrential spiritual energy gushed out from the underground world. Everyone opened their pores, planning to use the dense spiritual energy to break into the Earth Profound Realm.

Those at the lower levels of the Spirit Profound Realm even absorbed the laws within the supreme-grade spirit stones to make a breakthrough and even the ground above pulsed with spiritual energy.

"Everyone, start absorbing!" Liu Feng shouted.

Since they could absorb the spiritual energy aboveground, they did not need to go underground.

Even so, a large number of people continued to charge underground.

Although Liu Wuxie had seen the crimson dragon coiled up underground through Ghost Eye, he was still shocked at this sight.

"That's a supreme-grade spiritual vein!" The spiritual vein revealed itself before Liu Wuxie, and Someone had arranged supreme-grade spirit stones neatly in rows.

Many cultivators took out tools to start excavating the spiritual vein. The process was slow as they had to avoid damaging the stone's structure, or the spirit energy inside would dissipate.

Thousands of people had flocked over in the blink of an eye. Yet, despite the crowd, few could excavate the spirit stones. Only skilled cultivators could excavate them; a single mistake shattered the stones, causing the spirituality inside to leak out.

Luan Tianzhi and his group arrived shortly after, and they gritted their teeth in rage at this sight. With a wave, Luan Tianzhi swept aside the surrounding cultivators and cleared space for his group.

There was no point trying to stop everyone now; their only goal was to gather as much as possible.

More people were flooding in, and it would be impossible to kill them all.

Aside from them, other experts at the Earth Profound Realm poured in. If they were to fight to the death, Luan Tianzhi's faction would lose.

Moreover, the Scarlet Dragon Cult and the Profound Cloud Sect disciples had gone mad as they dug for the supreme-grade spirit stones. Everyone was fighting for themselves now.

No one, not even Luan Tianzhi, Liang Yi, Mu Yuanyi, and Yuan Zilong could rally their people now that they were overwhelmed by greed. Everyone cared more about filling their own pockets than remaining loyal to their factions.

With a low humming sound, someone had taken out artifacts to retrieve the spirit stones in large quantities, intending to excavate them later. An Earth Profound Realm cultivator had even harvested hundreds of spirit stones in half a minute.

Yet even that impressive haul was just a drop in the ocean compared to the vastness of the spiritual vein, which held tens of millions. Still, for cultivators who hadn't collected a single stone, it marked a staggering gap in power and opportunity.

After entering, Liu Wuxie gazed at the Earth Profound Realm cultivators. They had used their methods and were far more efficient than the average cultivator.

"Qiao Bian has reached the Earth Profound Realm?" Liu Wuxie turned to the right, where he noticed that Qiao Bian had broken through in his cultivation.

A vortex had opened before Qiao Bian, sucking in the supreme-grade spirit stones. Qiao Bian had used the same method to claim the Thunder Saint Pearl in the mysterious sea region.

If not for Luan Tianzhi, who had knocked it away from the vortex, Liu Wuxie wouldn't have gotten it. He suspected the vortex was a powerful artifact or an advanced dao technique, and Liu Wuxie couldn't be sure what it was. But there was no doubt that it was formidable.

"Master, what are you waiting for? Start collecting them!" Ruan Ying said as she appeared beside Liu Wuxie.

She had returned after escorting Yu Zhibai to safety. Han Feizi had sent her to ensure Liu Wuxie's safety. After all, Liu Wuxie wouldn't have time to watch his back when collecting the spirit stones.

Danger also plagued the surface above, and those who couldn't get a share of the spirit stones had turned to rob others instead. Han Feizi couldn't go underground because he had to protect the others.

"I'm debating if I should take them all or just a portion," Liu Wuxie replied with a devilish smile.

He couldn't imagine what would happen next if he collected them all.

Ruan Ying said nothing; she believed in Liu Wuxie.

Moreover, a phenomenon appeared above ground, with a red veil enveloping the surroundings.

"What's going on?" gasped the cultivators aboveground with shock.

"This is bad! That appearance of the red veil means we will be trapped inside the sacred ground!" someone exclaimed.

"What's going on? What's with this red veil?" someone cried.

They couldn't fathom what was happening, and a red veil appeared like a wall.

"It's called the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan," a cultivator said, his voice trembling.

"Brother Han, what's the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan?" Liu Feng asked, knowing that Han Feizi was knowledgeable.

Gu Yu and Liu Xin'er also looked at Han Feizi with curiosity.

"Don't go near it!" Han Feizi called out, and Liu Xin'er immediately backed off.

"The Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan is a celestial phenomenon," Han Feizi explained with a frown.

"It only appears when the continent is about to shatter. Could it be connected to the spiritual vein?" Han Feizi wondered before continuing, "No one has touched this spiritual vein before as it had remained undiscovered. It looks like it's the foundation of this continent. Without it, this continent might collapse."

Sacred ground had nurtured countless generations of experts, but no one had touched this spiritual vein, until now.

This spiritual vein was likely the very reason the sacred ground still existed and had stayed intact.

Just as houses rely on pillars and emperors on dragon veins, the same principle applied: if damaged, destruction would follow.

The Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan appeared, heralding the world's imminent destruction.

"Brother Han, what lies beyond the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan?" Gu Yu asked.

"I don't know. It might be void, or there might be nothing. No one who crossed the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan has ever returned," Han Feizi replied grimly.

He felt an unease weighing down on him, and he began to doubt whether the appearance of a chosen one was the beginning of disaster.

"You're trying to say that the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan has started to erode the continent, and there's nothing beyond it? They've all vanished?" Gu Yu asked. He recalled hearing it from his grandfather.

If the True Martial Continent couldn't reconnect with the astral domain, it would eventually vanish, enveloped by the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan.

"Exactly." Han Feizi nodded grimly.

Such a phenomenon would appear during the destruction of the continent.

A red luan symbolized joy and femininity, and this red curtain resembled a bewitching woman. This was where the Heaven-Curtaining Red Luan got its name from. There was a saying that the more beautiful something was, the more likely it was to bring danger.

The red curtain continued to collapse inward, enveloping the surroundings. If it enclosed them completely, all of them would be trapped.

"We have to rush to the exit now!" Liu Feng urged.

He could tell from Han Feizi's words that the sacred ground was crumbling, and time was running out for everyone.