Chapter 506: The Passage at the Bottom

Wang Sheng had slightly overestimated himself.

He had not expected that cultivating in a sealed environment wouldn't be as wonderful as he had imagined. In his narrow crevice, he couldn't just keep growing stronger without any obstacles.

"

Yaoyun, how long has it been?

"

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We have been away from the mining pit for more than two hundred twenty years.

"

"

We've been out here for more than four hundred years, then...

"

Wang Sheng lowered his head and looked at his hands. "

I keep feeling as if I've wasted all these centuries. I cultivated in a daze down here, making no real progress toward my actual objective.

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What would that be?

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Naturally, to find an outpost that the Daoist sects' cultivators could stay at upon leaving the Realm of Exiled Immortals.

"

Yaoyun fell silent.

Wang Sheng shook his head and straightened his back. Slowly exhaling, the thin fiend-blood energy around him began to thicken.

He was currently near the bottom of the blood mine. Decades earlier, while carefully exploring, he had discovered what seemed to be a passage that led straight to the bottom. Other immortals seemed to have dug it.

Judging from the traces, it had likely been created when the Celestial Wind Sect discovered this blood mine. A large number of their experts had entered and broken through from a side location, heading straight for the core. However, the passage suffered many collapses and was now sealed.

The sect had most likely already taken the mine's real treasure long ago, and the unaffiliated practitioners brought here as miners were only being used to squeeze out whatever value the blood mine itself had left.

"

You haven't wasted these centuries. At the very least, your cultivation has risen considerably. You've already reached the middle stage of the Primordial Immortal Realm.

"

Closing his eyes, Wang Sheng irritatedly replied, "

Breaking through has become extremely difficult.

I've been at this realm for more than eighty years, yet I still haven't found even the slightest opportunity to move forward.

"

Immortal light coiled at his chest. Yaoyun turned into a tiny three-cun-tall fairy and floated in front of him with a helpless look.

"

It's fine. My Dao Heart has grown unstable.

"

Wang Sheng exhaled slowly.

"

I apologize.

"

Yaoyun shook her head and floated to his forehead. She extended a finger and tapped him between his eyebrows, causing a cool sensation to spread from his forehead to the rest of his body.

Wang Sheng exhaled once more and calmed down.

Yaoyun turned into a streak of light and returned to the sword core of Flying Haze within his chest. If she stayed in a place filled with fiend-blood energy, she would eventually be tainted.

Just as Wang Sheng had said, he had originally intended to stay here in seclusion until he reached the True Immortal Realm, then search for a chance to escape. However, he had already done everything that he could in this environment. He wasn't anywhere near the limits of his cultivation yet, but his Dao Heart was close to collapsing.

How many years had he been cultivating before the azure dragon had captured and thrown him into the blood mine? How many years had he lived? And how many years had he already spent trapped here?

He had far exceeded what he could endure.

One had to progress steadily on the path of cultivation, relying on constant comprehension. Yet here, faced with endless fiend-blood energy, his inspiration had long run dry. Seeking even a sliver of insight was harder than creating a top-tier sword technique.

The more he struggled in cultivation, the more painful his longing for his senior sister became, tormenting his Dao Heart. He couldn't bear to sever this emotion. Decades ago, it had turned into a tribulation of affection that now impeded his cultivation.

In such a state, stillness eventually turned into restlessness. He could no longer cultivate as he had planned, no matter how much he wished to.

"

How about we go check the bottom of the blood mine?

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Wang Sheng opened his eyes and sighed. "

Haven't we concluded that the lowest level has already been emptied?

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It wouldn't hurt to take a look.

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There could not possibly be a path out from there. There are arrays around the entire blood mine. Several True Immortals stand guard, and Heavenly Immortals watch the outside.

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Wang Sheng tapped his forehead and smiled bitterly. "

What's wrong with me? I've become so pessimistic. Fine, let's take a look. Trying is still better than waiting here to die.

"

Wang Sheng spread out his spiritual perception through the surroundings and raised his hand to bombard the blood soil ahead, opening a path straight to the passage that he had previously discovered.

For a moment, rumbling spread all over the blood mine as though it was resonating with him. Terrified, the unaffiliated practitioners in every pit panicked and hurried toward the central area like startled birds.

Wang Sheng had long noticed that no matter how much noise he made below, the True Immortals above never descended to investigate. It was as though there was something terrifying below that even they did not wish to approach.

After venting his emotions, Wang Sheng began digging more gently. He used immortal power to move the blood soil behind him, moving through it at a steady pace as if swimming through water.

Keeping up with his habit of finding humor in hardship, he rubbed his messy beard. "

If I stayed here any longer, I might turn into a loach spirit myself—an old one at that.

"

At that moment, he pushed into empty space and slipped into a circular tunnel. He adjusted his posture and stood up.

Since this wasn't his first visit, he was already familiar with this place. He walked straight toward a collapsed section.

The cross section of the tunnel was perfectly round, as if an enlarged golden cudgel had widened it or an expert had unleashed enough force to melt the blood soil. This was the exact passage that Wang Sheng and Yaoyun had deduced to be the route that the Celestial Wind Sect had used when their experts rushed toward the core of the blood mine.

Perhaps because the passage had collapsed, there was very little fiend-blood energy here. This had been the reason Wang Sheng had chosen to return to the blood soil above to cultivate.

When he reached his destination, he wrapped his palms in gray clouds and began digging with his bare hands. Each time he clawed forward, thin arcs of lightning would purify the fiend-blood energy coming from the blood soil, turning it into abundant primal qi. He would then breathe it in, enjoying the rare pleasure of drawing primal qi through natural breath.

This was one of his few remaining sources of happiness.

Unbothered by the passage of time, Wang Sheng dug through the collapsed area, which spanned over thirty meters. He looked like a professional miner.

While fully absorbed in his work, he suddenly froze and frowned slightly. "

Eh?

"

"

Huh?

" Yaoyun softly remarked as well.

Wang Sheng brushed off the dirt from his hands, raised his left hand, and formed a sword finger, making a faint sword phantasm imbued with brilliant lightning burst from the tip. He swung it vertically, then horizontally, swiftly melting away the blood soil in front of him.

A skeleton, faintly glowing with immortal light, slowly slid out, still clad in mostly intact armor.

Yaoyun immediately said, "

Late-stage True Immortal Realm.

"

Wang Sheng pointed at the armor that fiend-blood energy had corroded. One could still vaguely see an emblem composed of an azure dragon and a hungry wolf. "

That's the symbol of the Celestial Wind Sect.

"

Though his intuition hadn't sent him any warning, and he sensed no powerful presence, he still felt the urge to retreat. Something in his mind had connected all the dots.

Upon discovering the corpse of a powerful immortal in this mine thousands of years ago, the Celestial Wind Sect would have likely gathered a large number of experts, opened a path to the core, and entered the heart of the mine. They would have then taken the powerful immortal's treasure.

However, they could have also triggered something strange. Terrified, the Celestial Wind experts fled, destroying the passage behind them as they were hunted down. If that were the case, then it would explain why the True Immortals of the Celestial Wind Sect never descended to investigate the disturbances that Wang Sheng had caused.

They feared something down here.

Wang Sheng frowned.

"

This thing could be deadly, but the power of heavenly tribulation was made to counter evil forces like this. If I can find that presence, maybe I can use it to escape.

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Yaoyun could not help but sigh. "

You come up with the boldest plans.

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If I do not even dare to think, then what point is there in living?

"

After pondering for a moment, Wang Sheng reached a decision. He began digging carefully, following the corridor forward. A faint curiosity rose within him. After being stifled in the blood mine for so long, the slight tension he felt now made his heartstrings tremble.

Before long, he found a second and a third corpse. He did not hesitate to claim their storage artifacts and even found a celestial sword that had not been completely corroded. He strapped it to his back.

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"

This sword still has a bit of spirituality. I will call it Blood Devourer.

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It's nearly broken. Why give it such an imposing name?

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It sounds satisfying, like I have acquired some great treasure."

Wang Sheng chuckled.

He continued digging, his spiritual perception stretching forward and soon detecting yet another collapsed section. The passage had not collapsed in only one place, which only further confirmed his earlier deductions.

He had no idea how much time had passed. Sensing that he got closer to the core with every collapsed section that he dug through, the tension in his heart grew even fiercer.

He found seven or eight more skeletons and collected all their storage artifacts, but he had no time to undo the restrictions. Hence, he instead decided to turn them into a pastime for the future. When boredom became unbearable, he could open them like lucky bags.

Finally, Wang Sheng stopped and stared at what his spiritual perception showed. He then looked up and sighed, covered his face, and turned back. Yaoyun telepathically laughed.

He had dug in the wrong direction. A few kilometers farther, and he would have exited the blood mine altogether. This was not bad, though. It meant he had already created a secret escape route.

He returned to his starting point and began digging in the opposite direction. This time, he didn't find many skeletons. After clearing two sections of blood soil, he broke into another corridor and saw a wall with a blue glow.

Inside the wall seemed to be a meditation cushion and a stone table.

Wang Sheng frowned slightly and took half a step forward when a warning shot up from the depths of his heart.

A streak of cold light imbued with the pressure of immense enchanted power swept down from above, aiming straight at several of his vital points.

That's an attack from a True Immortal!

However, though Wang Sheng had been stuck at a bottleneck, he had made great progress in his cultivation. He didn't visibly move, yet arcs of lightning burst across him before the cold light reached him.

Using Lightning Flash, he shifted a meter to the side, which was all he needed for a counterattack.

In the narrow space, he and his opponent then flashed past each other at high speed. In two exchanges, the tip of Wang Sheng's celestial sword pressed against his assailant's pale neck.

She didn't even dare look at Wang Sheng. As her expression turned grim, she closed her eyes in despair, and her aura rapidly weakened.

Wang Sheng blinked. The celestial sword in his hand cracked crisply and shattered into several pieces."We meet again, Daoist Friend Lan."

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Mm?

"