In front of the mine shaft where the incident had occurred, corpses lay strewn across the ground — no fewer than fifty or sixty of them. Every face was ashen, every pair of eyes wide open.

Experienced source diggers all changed expression at the sight, giving it a wide berth from a great distance. Not a single person dared to approach.

The Fifteenth Mining Zone was gripped with terror. Every person had withdrawn, and most were trembling uncontrollably.

From the mouth of that mine shaft, wisps of gray mist seeped out. Even from far away, one could feel a sense of oppression.

“Something truly wicked is here…” Ye Fan was quietly alarmed. He had long known that strange occurrences sometimes happened in source mines — but experiencing it firsthand still left him unsettled.

An old man who had been digging source ore here for eight or nine years let a flicker of dread cross his eyes. “I have a feeling,” he said, “that whatever sinister thing this is — it is not ordinary.”

Before long, cultivators from Yao Guang Sacred Ground arrived. Leading them were several middle-aged men, the rest being young disciples.

“Who was excavating in that mine shaft? Are there any survivors?” one of the middle-aged men asked.

“I was working at the shaft entrance.” A young man stepped forward, his expression extremely tense.

“Anyone else?” the middle-aged man pressed.

Six or seven more people came forward, each one pale with fear.

“Tell me — what did you see?” the middle-aged cultivator asked.

“We didn’t see anything. We only heard the screaming from below — then we fled.”

“Where is Elder Qin? Wasn’t he overseeing things here?” The middle-aged man’s brow creased.

“That venerable elder also fell inside the mine shaft.”

“What?” The middle-aged man’s eyes went wide in an instant. “Elder Qin has died?”

“Yes…” the source digger replied, clearly very shaken. “At first, something seemed to have been discovered below. That venerable elder received the report and went down himself to investigate — and then the sinister events began. Everyone inside died.”

Another person nearby added: “Lucky for us we ran fast enough. Otherwise, those of us standing at the shaft entrance would not have survived either.”

None of them needed him to say it — everyone had already seen the fifty or sixty corpses at the shaft entrance.

The middle-aged cultivators of Yao Guang Sacred Ground exchanged glances, all of them furrowing their brows. This was the last thing they wanted to see. Once a source mine was possessed, the danger became extreme.

Gray mist drifted from the shaft entrance, looking eerily wrong — unsettling to behold.

“Could it be that something living was dug up?” one of the middle-aged men said.

The others all changed expression at his words. If that were the case, it would be a terrible omen.

“Word is that not long ago, the Jiang Family dug into a ghost mine and turned up a few dripping bones — and quite a few people died because of it.”

The exchange among the middle-aged cultivators stirred something in Ye Fan’s mind. The underground veins were full of mystery and the unknown.

“I’ll capture a strand of this gray mist and see what it actually is.” One of the middle-aged men opened his mouth and expelled a thumb-length silver vial, which transformed into a silver streak of light and flew forward, emitting a soft, gentle glow as it began to draw in the gray mist.

Crack!

Something astonishing happened. The moment a wisp of gray mist entered, the silver vial shattered — dimming completely and dropping to the ground.

“This is…” The middle-aged man’s body jolted.

“A weapon refined by a cultivator of the Dao Palace Secret Realm — and it couldn’t even withstand a single wisp of gray mist. What in the world is this thing?!” Everyone was profoundly shaken.

The several middle-aged men all wore grave expressions. This time, things were clearly out of the ordinary. Their hearts held no certainty.

A full hour passed before the gray mist finally dissipated entirely, vanishing into heaven and earth.

Not long after, a barnyard hen was tossed into the mine shaft. It kept clucking, and even after a considerable amount of time had passed, it had not died.

The several middle-aged cultivators let out a long breath.

“Not as bad as we feared.”

“It seems it was nothing more than a baleful energy. This is not a ghost mine.”

The several middle-aged cultivators walked forward, more than a dozen young disciples following behind.

They stood at the shaft entrance, examining each corpse in turn, then peered downward at length.

“Move all these bodies away and bury them in a spent mine.” One of the middle-aged cultivators issued the order.

Every source digger present took a step back. Not one was willing to touch those people who had died so inexplicably.

The middle-aged cultivator frowned at the sight. “The baleful energy has already dispersed. There is no danger now.”

Hearts pounding with dread, the source diggers moved the dozens of corpses, throwing them into a spent mine and burying them on the spot.

The several middle-aged cultivators conferred among themselves and prepared to descend for an inspection.

“Perhaps we should first have them clear the bodies from inside, and then we go down…” one of the middle-aged cultivators suggested, scanning the surrounding source diggers as he spoke.

Everyone present felt a shiver run through them and immediately began backing away.

“What is there to be afraid of? The barnyard hen is unharmed — that proves it’s already safe inside. Are you all less than a chicken?”

Ye Fan, hearing this, very much wanted to spit in his face. If you’re so unafraid, why don’t you go in yourself — instead of making the source diggers go first as scouts?

A young disciple of Yao Guang Sacred Ground personally came forward to select people. Ye Fan had the misfortune of being chosen and was compelled to go down into the shaft to move the corpses.

Inside the mine shaft, everything was dim. Even torchlight could not fully illuminate it. On the ground lay one body after another, sprawled in every direction. Some of the more timid source diggers, catching sight of this scene, felt their bodies start to tremble at once.

Ahead, a faint glow emanated from the darkness. A source stone the size of a human head shimmered with light, embedded in the earth and rock. A cultivator in his fifties lay rigidly on the ground nearby, long since having breathed his last.

“Something happened here…”

Ye Fan walked carefully forward. Once he had a clear view of everything, he drew a sharp breath.

Inside that source stone the size of a human head, there was a claw — similar in shape to a human palm, but covered in dense red fur, over an inch long, covering even the center of the palm. It had a sinister, grotesque look.

“This is at the very least a creature from before the ancient age…” Ye Fan was inwardly alarmed.

“Ghost claw!”

“A monster!”

Everyone around erupted in cries.

Ye Fan extended his divine sense and examined it carefully — then changed expression again.

What had originally been an enormous rock, cracked open by the source diggers, had revealed this source stone within. Throughout the rock layer were patterns of bone, connected to this source stone.

“This…” He could not help but be stunned.

This appeared to be a fossilized creature — only the palm had been preserved intact by the source, while the rest of the body had become fossilized stone-bone.

“This must have been a humanoid creature — but wait, it has bat wings!”

A humanoid creature with wings was certainly not human.

At this point, he could also see why the gray mist had appeared and why so many people had died.

When the enormous rock was being chiseled apart, this source stone had been chipped at one corner. A tiny bit of flesh from that palm had been exposed to the air — and in drying out, it had produced the gray mist.

“How terrifyingly powerful was this creature? A mere trace of exposed flesh — rotting in the open air — produced such overwhelming force. A single wisp of that gray mist was enough to shatter the weapon of a Dao Palace Secret Realm cultivator. This is truly beyond imagination!” Ye Fan was deeply shaken inside.

The one fortunate thing was that this source stone was extraordinary — it flowed with radiant light and spontaneously gathered the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The damaged area had already been sealed by that luminous energy.

By this point, the cultivators from above had also flown down. Their perceptions were keen, and sensing no danger below, they no longer held back.

“This is… a claw with living flesh!”

Several of the middle-aged cultivators cried out in shock on the spot.

“A few years ago, a severed arm was dug up — also sealed inside a source stone — and sent back to the Sacred Ground. A Supreme Elder once said that the moment any living flesh like this is found, it must be reported immediately. This matter must be of great significance.”

The several cultivators carefully cleared away the surrounding rock and, together with the enormous stone, transported that source stone up to the surface.

The Supreme Elder of Yao Guang Sacred Ground was alarmed. He came personally to this place, studying the palm with great care, and examining the humanoid impressions in the rock over and over.

“Inconceivable!” He appeared deeply unsettled.

“What creature is this?” a nearby young disciple asked carefully.

“Before the ancient age…” The Supreme Elder said only two words before abruptly stopping.

It was clear that the Supreme Elder’s heart was far from calm. After a long silence, he finally exhaled slowly, then swept his wide sleeve — gathering the source stone the size of a human head, along with the enormous rock, into it.

“Continue excavating here. The moment any new discovery is made, report it to me immediately. This matter is of great importance — I will record a major merit for each of you.” His expression was solemn. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

“Why did the Supreme Elder say nothing more? What manner of creature was that?”

“At the very least, it predates the ancient age. It seems to have been extraordinarily fearsome and powerful.”

“Had our human race even come into existence at that time? What position did we hold?”

The questions in the minds of those young disciples of Yao Guang Sacred Ground were the same questions in Ye Fan’s own heart. He longed to know the answer.

“Could it be that something of use — some secret art or divine power — can actually be discerned from that single claw?”

“That is hard to say. If the creature was powerful enough, that palm alone might truly be an invaluable treasure beyond price.”

The several middle-aged cultivators were also murmuring quietly among themselves.

“I fear that even the great figures of our Yao Guang Sacred Ground cannot truly comprehend what it is.”

“Perhaps in the world today, only the Ancient Primordial Mine holds the answer. Living creatures have been known to walk out of there alive, emerging from transcendent divine sources.”

“Say no more — the Ancient Primordial Mine is a forbidden topic. One does not speak of it carelessly in the source mining zones.”

The Ancient Primordial Mine lay at the center of this region, surrounded by the source zones of the great Sacred Grounds. No one dared to venture inside — it was a place of ill omen.

Day after day passed. Seven or eight dry shafts were sunk in succession, without yielding even a single liang of source.

Ye Fan inwardly lamented his bad luck. He had still been hoping to line his own pockets.

The other source diggers, however, counted themselves fortunate — for in those few days, no calamity had descended, and nothing sinister had been unearthed.

Just when everyone thought the storm had passed, on the seventh day, cries of alarm suddenly rang out from the depths of one of the mine shafts.

“What’s happened?” The cultivators of Yao Guang Sacred Ground called down from the surface.

For these past several days, they had not left the mining zone for a single moment — always present. The task entrusted to them by the Supreme Elder was not something they dared take lightly.

“Bones — we’ve found a massive quantity of bones!” The people below were in a state of terror.

When word reached the source diggers working in the other mine shafts throughout the zone, they all surged out at once and began sprinting for the distance. Source diggers were constantly confronted with sinister and uncanny events. At the first sign of trouble, their immediate instinct was self-preservation. The Fifteenth Mining Zone erupted into chaos.

Ye Fan finally understood why so few source diggers survived ten years. With eerie incidents occurring every few days, even a cultivator would not last long here.

“Why is this happening? In ordinary times, not even one strange occurrence in a year — and now three in a matter of days?”

Several of the old, experienced source diggers all felt a deep, uneasy premonition rise within them.

“My feeling is that digging up that claw last time wasn’t an ending — it was only a beginning. This whole mining zone is most likely a ghost mine. Something truly monstrous is about to emerge.”

“I have the same premonition. Something big is definitely going to happen.”

“They say the Ancient Primordial Mine has been restless all this past year. This is surely a terrible omen.”

Ye Fan’s heart went cold. He felt that these old-timers, having faced such things for so long, must have developed a kind of instinctive perception. Their premonitions might very well come true.

“No need to run — it’s nothing but dry bones. No danger whatsoever. Everyone get back here. All of you together, dig open this large mine, and let’s see what’s really down there!”

The cultivators of Yao Guang Sacred Ground ordered everyone back, concentrating all available manpower to excavate that deep, large shaft.

To encourage the others, they entered the mine shaft themselves, personally directing operations from below.

But when they laid eyes on what was down there, even they drew sharp, involuntary breaths.

Endless amounts of bone — all fossilized into stone. Too many to count.

Anywhere one chiseled into the rock, vast quantities of bone lay within, making the scalp tingle.

Eventually, there were no more rocks to be seen — only stone-bone. The place was essentially a burial pit.

Even the cultivators of Yao Guang Sacred Ground felt cold shivers running down their spines. The air in this place was deeply, profoundly wrong — growing more and more icy with every passing moment.

Then, someone let out a cry of alarm: “Blood — we’ve struck blood!”

In an instant, screams erupted one after another. Over a hundred people died on the spot.

“Heaven help us — a ghost mine! Monstrous, horrifying evil!”

“I can see it — heaven preserve us!”

Whether it was Ye Fan or the cultivators of Yao Guang Sacred Ground — every single one of them was overcome with bone-chilling dread.