It was an enormous source mine — even with over a thousand people excavating inside, there was still ample space. Screams of terror rang out, carrying far in the echoing depths.

The source diggers went utterly mad, stampeding toward the exit. Stone-bone lay heaped everywhere, as hard as actual rock. People stumbled and fell constantly, and crushing and trampling broke out at every turn.

Deep in the innermost reaches of the mine shaft, a blood mist drifted. Whoever it touched let out a wretched cry without exception, dissolving into pus and blood in an instant, dying a horrible death.

The cultivators of Yao Guang Sacred Ground sprang into action — some bringing out their weapons, others unleashing secret arts — trying to seal off those chill, ghostly wisps of mist.

But neither weapons nor secret arts could stop the blood mist. It had a fierce corrosive property, and within moments, more than a dozen weapons had been dissolved.

“Ghosts! Save us!”

“Three eyes — it has three eyes! I’ve seen a demon!”

The source diggers fled for their lives, shrieking and crying out in every manner of alarm, consumed by extreme terror.

Ye Fan felt that things had taken a catastrophic turn. The premonitions of those old, weathered source diggers were almost certainly coming true. He was agile and fast with both hands and feet, racing at the very front, and within a few breaths had burst out of the mine shaft, running to what he judged to be a safe distance before finally stopping.

Boom!

The mine shaft was smashed open. The cultivators of Yao Guang Sacred Ground came scrambling out in disarray. One middle-aged man among them had nearly gone mad — crying out in frenzied terror — before his eyes he dissolved into a pool of pus and blood and plummeted downward.

That mine shaft descended into chaos. Screams and wails filled the air. Those who had escaped stood trembling and shaking, crawling over one another to get as far away as possible.

Not until a full quarter of an hour had passed did quiet finally return. Of the nearly a thousand who had gone below to excavate the stone-bones, only a little over three hundred made it out. The rest had perished inside.

The cultivators of Yao Guang Sacred Ground all wore expressions as dark as deep water. In the chaos just now, they had attempted to seal off the blood mist — and five of them had died horribly as a result, including one middle-aged man at the Dao Palace Secret Realm.

With things having come to this, they urgently reported the matter to those above. A ghost mine had appeared — the very sight they least wished to see.

Before long, one Supreme Elder of Yao Guang Sacred Ground along with seven or eight other distinguished experts arrived swiftly, asking in detail about the situation below.

In the end, not a single person could give a coherent account. They could not describe clearly what had happened — only that they had apparently caught a glimpse of something that looked like a ghost, utterly motionless.

“All of you, stand back.” Yao Guang Sacred Ground’s Supreme Elder Li Yuan commanded sharply. He pressed his fingers together like a sword and slashed forward from a distance.

A beam of light shot out, transforming into an enormous sword of light that hacked downward.

The sound was like thunder. Dust and sand flew in every direction. The great mine was sliced open — a yawning blackness, eerie and desolate, looking deeply sinister.

Supreme Elder Li Yuan continued to vibrate his fingers. That sword of light, more than a dozen zhang in length, fell again and again, splitting the mine shaft open, exposing it entirely to the sky.

All the earth and rock were sent flying hundreds of meters away. An enormous crater appeared there, and vast quantities of stone-bone were drawn out by Li Yuan, dropping in a heap not far away.

Ye Fan watched from the side, deeply shaken. The enormous mass of bones had all fossilized into stone. Looking carefully, one could discern that none of them were human bones. Though some were from humanoid creatures, they still differed visibly from the human race.

Supreme Elder Li Yuan continued to act, using the great sword to split apart the source mine, and using his arts to seize all the stone-bones and pull them out.

Before long, a mountain of stone-bones had risen on the red-brown earth — no fewer than ten thousand specimens.

Blood mist rose up one wisp after another. When Li Yuan’s sword of light made contact with it, a hissing sound erupted — the light was actually being dissolved. He swept his great sleeve, scattering the blood mist and driving it up toward the heavens. Only after a very long time did quiet finally return to that place.

Afterward, he performed a secret art. A great hand formed of blue light reached down into the depths of the mine shaft.

The earth shuddered. That great hand seized all the earth and rock from the floor of the shaft and hauled it up to the surface, spreading it out on the ground.

“A demon!”

“That’s the demon!”

There lay a stretch of blood-colored earth and rock. Amid it were several source stones, every one of them as large as a washbasin — a size rarely seen — exceptionally precious, and by all accounts a rich mine.

What was astonishing was that each source stone had something inside it — none of them were pure.

The first two source stones were sealed with a vivid crimson liquid. It was clearly blood — and it had been one of these source stones cracking open and releasing the blood within that had caused the disaster.

“How terrifyingly powerful must this creature have been — its blood alone, transformed into blood mist, could kill cultivators of the Dao Palace Secret Realm…” The various distinguished experts of Yao Guang Sacred Ground all felt their hearts grow cold.

Supreme Elder Li Yuan too furrowed his brow.

The third source stone contained a sealed crystalline finger — extraordinarily beautiful, pale and supple as a water reed. Though it was only a severed finger, one could feel that it was something extraordinary — a vigorous life energy suffused within it.

The fourth source stone was the most startling. Sealed within it was half a skull. The face bore fine scales, and in the center of the forehead was a single vertical eye. Black hair grew thick and dense. The skull had been split diagonally in two.

“These must be two different creatures. The slender finger and the half-skull clearly do not come from the same body.” The distinguished experts were all profoundly shaken.

“These four source stones are of the utmost importance. I must personally escort them back to the Sacred Ground.” Supreme Elder Li Yuan’s expression was grave.

Though these were not what legend spoke of as transcendent divine sources, the living matter sealed within them was beyond valuation. They could not afford to lose them.

He sealed all four source stones, then swept his wide sleeve and gathered them inside. He then turned his full attention to examining the earth and rock on the ground.

Brought up alongside the four extraordinary source stones were two fragmented stone-skeletal remains. One was slender and delicate; the other was powerful and imposing — two different kinds of creatures. Though both were humanoid in form, neither was human. The slender one had six arms; the powerful, imposing one had a pair of bone wings.

Ye Fan could see everything clearly from a distance. He clicked his tongue inwardly — what were these powerful creatures? Where had they gone today, that there was no trace of them left?

Rumble!

Suddenly, the open-air pit collapsed. Everyone was startled. The bottom of the mine shaft sank, and a dark, pitch-black abyss appeared.

What had seemed like a burial pit of a mine shaft — there was a bottomless chasm beneath it!

This was not something they had excavated. It had always been there, lying underneath — and now, in this moment, it was exposed to the light.

A cold, bone-chilling aura shot up toward the heavens, making every single person shudder.

Even Yao Guang Sacred Ground’s Supreme Elder Li Yuan could not remain unmoved. “It appears,” he said, “that this place is something out of the ordinary.”

He had everyone fall back, then personally took action. He extended his divine sense and, after a thorough observation, gathered every ounce of his power and activated a supreme secret art.

Boom!

Heaven and earth trembled. The entire expanse of reddish-brown earth cracked and split open. Using the arts of Yao Guang, he caused that entire mine shaft to rise, rumbling upward — a great secret art akin to moving mountains and filling seas.

Earth and rock flew in every direction. The ground fractured and split. The mine shaft rose and rose, as great quantities of earth and rock cracked apart and were cast to the sides.

Yao Guang Sacred Ground’s Supreme Elder channeled his secret art, causing the earth’s crust across a range of several li to convulse with violent motion.

The great abyss beneath the burial pit was no longer sunken. It rose slowly upward.

“Heaven preserve us — what is that?”

The red earth shifted and moved, and an ever more grim, oppressive aura bore down upon them. A cold metallic sheen appeared.

“An enormous block of iron!”

As the earth and rock churned and shifted, the great pit was no longer a depression but level with the ground, and everything within could now be seen.

This was a considerable construction. The ground was paved with solid stone, perfectly smooth and flat, extending several li in every direction. Along the edges stood enormous stone columns, soaring into the sky.

And in the very center of that stone expanse, there stood a pyramid cast from metal — over a hundred meters tall, its entire surface a shade of blue-green, a metallic luster hovering across it without a trace of rust.

Ye Fan was immediately astonished. What was this thing?

Carved upon it were the sun, the moon, and the stars — gleaming with light.

This enormous pyramid was forged from an unknown metal. At the very latest, it was an artifact from before the ancient age — possibly far older still — yet the passage of time had not diminished it in the slightest.

Yao Guang Sacred Ground’s Supreme Elder Li Yuan frowned at length, then swept his wide sleeve, attempting to gather this enormous pyramid inside.

But he was immediately taken aback. He exerted force again and again and found that he could move it. Yet swirling mist surged up, and he could not draw it into his sleeve no matter what he did.

“There is something strange here!”

Li Yuan approached, channeled his divine power, and swept it across the pyramid. Every sun, moon, and star carved upon its surface lit up at once. A flash of radiance — and he was absorbed into it.

Behind him, the distinguished experts of Yao Guang Sacred Ground were all alarmed, apprehension plain on their faces.

Boom!

The blue-green pyramid shuddered violently, generating a suffocating pressure. Many of the ordinary people present collapsed to the ground on the spot.

Moments later, the sun, moon, and stars on the pyramid blazed with flowing light. Li Yuan came surging out — his face deathly pale, staggering backward, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

“Fall back — everyone fall back. Do not approach this place!” he shouted aloud, his body swaying unsteadily.

Ye Fan was deeply shaken. What was so strange about this pyramid that even Yao Guang Sacred Ground’s Supreme Elder had come off worse?

“This matter is of the gravest importance. Seal off all information about this place completely. I am returning to the Sacred Ground immediately — on no account must anyone come near this place.” Li Yuan gave solemn and emphatic instructions, then hurried away, preparing to cross the void.

The Fifteenth Mining Zone became forbidden ground. No entry or exit was permitted. Ye Fan frowned — this place boded ill, and he had no desire to stay — yet for now, there was no way to leave.

Four days after Supreme Elder Li Yuan’s departure, the Sacred Maiden of Yao Guang arrived, bringing word that the Sacred Master would be coming in person before long.

Ye Fan’s mouth twisted, and he gave a loud cry of bad luck — Yao Xi had actually come. If she discovered him, she would certainly flay him alive.

From a distance, he caught sight of Yao Xi. Just as before — a celestial beauty that could overturn kingdoms, like a luminous pearl breathing out radiance, her jade body suffused with a rosy glow, beautiful enough to take one’s breath away.

The several thousand ordinary people who saw her believed a celestial being had descended to the mortal realm. More than a few lost their composure on the spot, then felt deeply ashamed of themselves.

Ye Fan hid among the several thousand ordinary people and did not worry overmuch about being recognized. He quietly curled his lip — so-called celestial being, yet her breast garment was still in his possession.

If this secret were ever to get out, several of the great Sacred Grounds would surely be shaken to their core.

“Not a single word must leak — the Fifteenth Mining Zone is completely sealed off. No one is to enter or leave.” Yao Xi’s voice, like the music of heaven, echoed around them.

But just then, Yao Xi suddenly stopped mid-sentence. Her expression went still, as if she were profoundly startled.

Ye Fan’s heart stirred. Had she discovered him? That seemed unlikely.

At that very moment, the other cultivators of Yao Guang Sacred Ground also cried out in surprise.

“You — who are you? How did you get in here?!”

Ye Fan heard the words and turned to look in the direction of the pyramid. A blue-green glow floated in the air. And in front of that blue-green iron tower, an old woman had appeared — no one knew when.

Without a sound, without anyone perceiving her arrival — as if she had materialized out of thin air.

She was walking around the pyramid, studying it, murmuring something under her breath.

One must understand — the Fifteenth Mining Zone was an expanse of reddish-brown earth stretching flat and open as far as the eye could see. If anyone from outside had forced their way in, they would have been spotted the instant they arrived.

Yet no one had noticed her presence before this moment — not at all.

Ye Fan was struck by extreme astonishment. He said to himself inwardly: “It’s actually her!”

He had not expected to encounter her again here in the Northern Region.

Long ago, when he had first met the Crazy Old Man outside the ancient forbidden land, this old woman had manifested before him. It was through her murmured words that he had come to understand that the Crazy Old Man was a person from six thousand years in the past.

“Someone who lived in the same era as the Crazy Old Man — and she has actually appeared here…” Ye Fan could not help but be deeply shaken.