Volume 1, Chapter 81 – Entering the Mine

Seeing Shi Lan suddenly appear right in front of him, the man’s face changed drastically. He slashed out a streak of sword qi with a lifted hand, then shifted direction and pushed his speed up another notch, fleeing in panic.

Two Innate Realm martial artists, front and back, had already died at Shi Lan’s hands. He had no will to fight at all and only wanted to run.

However, compared to Shi Lan wearing the Cloud-Stepping Boots, his speed was far too slow. In just a few breaths, he was caught up again.

As he watched Shi Lan raise her hand and send a sweep of halberd light at him, he lifted his flying sword to block while shouting sharply,

“Stop! I am…”

Crack!

The halberd light struck the flying sword and only paused for the briefest instant before cleaving the sword in two, along with the man holding it, cutting him cleanly in half and choking off the rest of his words in his throat.

Even if Shi Lan still could not draw out the full power of the Purple Star Seven-Section Halberd, the edge of a true treasure was not something ordinary artifacts could withstand.

Shi Lan drew the halberd back, her expression unchanged.

She did not care in the slightest what background this man had. He was already dead and the enmity already formed, so there was no way she would stop halfway.

Lowering her head, she gently stroked the prayer beads on her wrist, a faint stir rising in her heart.

When she had used the Vajra Divine Fist just now, those beads had given her some kind of blessing, increasing the strength of her punches by nearly sixty percent. Otherwise, dealing with that middle-aged man earlier would have taken a lot more effort.

Wuya was not some ordinary little monk either.

Chan Buddhism…

It seemed that without meaning to, she had taken on a favor that was neither small nor particularly large.

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With a slight shake of her head, scattering those unnecessary thoughts, Shi Lan flew back toward the mine.

When the Flying Star Sect disciples saw Shi Lan return, they all instinctively backed up a few steps. They looked at one another, and in the end, the Senior Brother stepped forward and spoke nervously,

“I am Cao Ping, chief disciple of Flying Star Sect’s first seat… We have no wish to be your enemies, Miss. We will leave at once.” With that, he was about to summon his artifact.

“Stop.” Shi Lan swept her halberd across to block their path.

The Flying Star Sect disciples tightened their grips on their weapons, as if facing a great enemy.

“Is Miss really intent on wiping us out to the last?” Cao Ping’s expression was solemn as he gripped his artifact.

“Please stay here for the time being. After we leave, you can go,” Shi Lan said calmly.

Shi Lan felt little real hostility toward these Flying Star Sect people, but she could not just let them walk away.

Heaven knew how far this place was from Flying Star Sect’s base. If these people went back and brought some elder of their sect, all her efforts here would be for nothing.

Wang Ning and the others swung down from their flood-dragon horses, searched the bodies of those martial artists from head to toe, then came to Shi Lan and presented the spoils.

Shi Lan did not touch the spoils. She told Wang Ning and the others to put them away, then led the group to the mine entrance.

Shi Lan stopped, glanced at the Flying Star Sect disciples, and said, “I hope you can quietly stay put here. I do not wish to kill any more than necessary.”

With that, Shi Lan left two men at the entrance to watch the Flying Star Sect disciples from afar, then led the Demon-Suppressing Army into the mine.

The Flying Star Sect disciples’ gazes flickered. They all turned toward Cao Ping standing at the front, clearly leaving the decision to him.

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“Let’s… wait for now.”

After struggling internally for a long while, Cao Ping spoke, somewhat discouraged. He had no confidence he could outrun Shi Lan, especially not while bringing along all these junior brothers and sisters.

Though torches were lit inside the mine, it was still quite dim, and visibility was not high.

Array patterns had been carved into the walls by the entrance, glowing faintly.

Shi Lan gave them a quick look, but did not slow her step as she crossed over the lines.

Each member of the Demon-Suppressing Army lit a torch and followed behind Shi Lan.

The moment she stepped past the array lines, a surge of spiritual qi rushed at her face. Shi Lan’s body relaxed, and she could not help taking two deep breaths.

The Demon-Suppressing Army soldiers had not yet stepped into the Innate Realm, and their sense for spiritual qi was not sharp. They simply felt that the air in the mine was fresher than outside and secretly marveled at it.

“Where did you all come from?”

Walking along, Shi Lan asked casually.

“Reporting to Centurion, we were originally garrison troops at Yangxing Ridge. Later, the checkpoint was broken and the battle formation was scattered by demonic beasts, and we have been wandering ever since. When we received the prompt from the Demon-Suppressing Token in this area, we came to rendezvous with you,”

Wang Ning stepped forward and replied.

Shi Lan gave a slight nod to show she understood, then glanced at the Demon-Suppressing Token that had only turned from white to green a few days ago, her feelings mixed.

Every Demon-Suppressing Token had a certain resonance with tokens of higher rank.

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This was to prevent the Demon-Suppressing Army from becoming scattered, so that if something unexpected happened and the formation broke, ordinary soldiers could quickly regroup with the commanding officers and restore their combat strength.

She had only learned this after being promoted to Centurion, and that had been just a few days ago. She had not expected that so soon, other members of the Demon-Suppressing Army would find her.

Shi Lan put the Demon-Suppressing Token away and sighed inwardly. It was easy to join the Demon-Suppressing Army, but leaving it would not be so easy.

As for discarding the Demon-Suppressing Token, that was something she had never even considered.

Leaving aside the military merits recorded on it, as an officer, even merely losing the token counted as a serious violation of military discipline. It would be entered into the record and punished heavily.

The mine had many branching tunnels, intertwined like a spiderweb buried deep underground. Judging from the color and texture of the walls, this mine had some years on it already.

“Centurion, where are we going?” Wang Ning asked in confusion.

“Just follow me.”

Shi Lan answered casually, then closed her eyes and activated Heaven’s Eye Qi-Sight, following the flow of spiritual qi toward its source.

Before long, Shi Lan discovered a few corpses in one of the tunnels. Judging from their clothes, they were obviously miners from this place and had been dead for some time.

Shi Lan stepped past the bodies and continued forward.

Everyone in the group was a martial artist, and their pace was very fast. In less than half a quarter of an hour, they reached a very narrow tunnel.

Without the slightest hesitation, Shi Lan took the lead and walked in. Wang Ning and the others followed in single file.

After walking for a short while, their way was blocked by a pile of rubble.

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Shi Lan did not hesitate at all. She summoned the war halberd, removed the halberd blade segment, and began cutting a path through the tunnel.

The Demon-Suppressing Army soldiers behind her helped clear away the rubble she chopped out.

After opening up roughly ten zhang worth of tunnel, they came to a small cavern.

Embedded in the surrounding stone walls were many crystal-like stones of various sizes, giving off a hazy glow.

Seeing these spirit crystals, Wang Ning and the others widened their eyes, their breathing growing heavy.

Although their expressions were full of excitement, not one of them moved on their own to take any spirit crystals. They were all waiting for Shi Lan to speak.

Shi Lan’s body felt as if it was dancing with joy, and the thick spiritual qi filling the air left her almost intoxicated.

Once she came back to herself, Shi Lan waved a hand. “We have only about two hours. Whatever you can take is yours. Do not forget the two men guarding outside the tunnel.”

This was no place to linger. Forget Flying Star Sect; just the unknown power behind the group of martial artists she had killed might send people over at any time.

There were still about three hours until dawn. They had to be gone before daylight.

“Thank you, Centurion!”

Wang Ning and the others cheered and rushed to the stone walls, beginning to mine the spirit crystals.