World's No. 1 Swordsman-Chapter 502: Entering the Blood Mines, Making a Mortal Enemy
Lan Huilin had been moving with the confidence and ferocity of a seasoned veteran, but that exact behavior had caused her and Wang Sheng to be assigned to separate mines.
So much for our alliance.
This separation meant they would hardly cross paths. Working together was out of the question, and they would be lucky to exchange even a few words.
Still, Wang Sheng would not take the incantation that she had given him for free. If circumstances allowed, he would certainly find a way to return the favor. After all, the enemy of an enemy could sometimes be counted as a friend.
They had also shared more than two centuries in the same cage. As someone who valued loyalty, Wang Sheng would certainly reward her once given the chance.
Everything essentially depended on the circumstances.
His life over the past two centuries had seemingly gone a full circle, as if he had returned to the day he was captured. Unlike back then, though, he had grown several times stronger. He had also identified two clear paths for further growth: astral power and fiend-blood energy.
Now, he had the chance to enter the mine and search for areas dense with fiend-blood energy. Once he had, he would summon a tribulation cloud within him to generate a surge of primal qi, removing the external factors that restricted his advancement. The speed of his comprehension would be his only limit then.
It seemed it wouldn't take him a thousand years to escape, after all.
Seated inside another wooden cage, Wang Sheng studied the spell that Lan Huilin had passed on to him. Yaoyun also went through each line to examine its thousands of characters and soon uncovered a hidden trick: the incantation for a spell that would lift the disguise.
Briefly thinking about it, Wang Sheng found the pair of concealment and revelation spells quite clever. It could even serve as a token for verifying identity. This alone made it clear that Lan Huilin had a powerful supporter—one that had already set its sights on the Celestial Wind Sect.
With enough patience, Wang Sheng felt that he'd be able to witness a battle between dragons and tigers.
Before long, a celestial soldier arrived and threw onto him a wooden tag with an engraving.
Tian No. 30
Coldly, the soldier instructed, "Wear this. From now on, you are Tian Thirty. If you lose that tag, you will probably die somewhere no one will ever find you."
He then left.
Picking up the tag, Wang Sheng noticed a simple rune carved into the back. Its only purpose was to amplify the wearer's aura so others could easily sense it.
Wang Sheng had barely sat and rested for half a day when he felt several pairs of eyes fixed on him. Following the gazes, he spotted a few Primordial Immortals among his fellow miners watching him closely. Considering the heavy traces of fiend-blood energy that they exuded, they were clearly veterans who had been working here for a long time.
Why are they watching me?
Unbeknownst to him, he would get his answer once he entered the mine.
Two True Immortals soon arrived with dozens of celestial soldiers, stopping before the wooden cages. One was in a scholar's robe and waving a folding fan, his smile ever present. The other was in armor and had a stern look, his eyes as sharp as knives. A curved saber hung at his waist.
The scholar instructed, "Everyone, it's time to enter the mine."
His tone made it sound like he was announcing an execution.
The thirty miners of the Tian Division rose to their feet. The Tian, Di, Xuan, and Huang were only a simple classification, not a mark of being elite. They were more or less the same.
Wang Sheng naturally moved to the back. Several celestial soldiers looked his way with faint pity. To them, an early-stage Ascended Immortal going into the blood mines was almost the same as walking into their deaths.
The thirty stepped aboard a large wooden platform, which had been waiting for them. Dozens of celestial soldiers stood at the ready, and over ten of them came forward to remove the prisoners' shackles. With their cultivation unsealed, the prisoners could finally cloak themselves in immortal power to resist and control the invading fiend-blood energy, preventing it from seeping straight into them.
With practiced ease, the two True Immortals each lifted a chain attached to the side of the platform and guided it toward the pitch-black mine entrance. Soon, it descended along the carved walls like a "True Immortal elevator."
The prisoners gathered enough immortal power to protect themselves from the fiend-blood energy. They could all see clearly in the dark, but it didn't seem like they would have to; their immortal light already illuminated the entire shaft. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂
After the last blood-mine disaster, the fiend-blood energy in it had grown even thicker. Hence, among all the miners, Wang Sheng was probably the only one at ease. Even though he had the lowest cultivation and seemingly the thinnest immortal power, he wasn't stressed in the slightest.
After all, while the fiend-blood energy was poison to other cultivators, it was a dessert and tonic to him—the very energy that sped up his cultivation.
Having comprehended insights while chiseling away at a cliff face for two centuries, his Daoist realm had surpassed his actual cultivation. With enough fiend-blood energy, he could advance rapidly. He was so close to the late stage of the Ascended Immortal Realm that he'd likely reach it in three months.
Wang Sheng set aside his thoughts and looked around, finding multiple tunnels branching off the shaft. Each one was thick with fiend-blood energy. Having been carved out by miners over the years, they now stretched so far that their ends couldn't be seen.
The blood mine was structured like an anthill. No one knew how many years the Celestial Wind Sect had been excavating this place or how many unaffiliated practitioners had died mining here.
Wang Sheng kept estimating how far they had descended. During his two centuries of working on the cliff, he had visited its pointed bottom. By his estimation, they had descended through two-thirds of the total depth, which meant most of the mine had already been hollowed out. Given its conical shape, that size was far larger than it seemed.
Clang!
The wooden platform stopped, and the thirty miners jolted. The two True Immortals held the chains above them, maintaining a fixed distance. They were clearly keeping their guard up in case the miners ganged up on them.
"Each of you has three months to find at least three mid-grade blood essences, thirty ordinary blood essences, a stalk of spirit herb, or something of equal value. If you fail, you'll be left here to die."
Over ten of the thirty miners below were new. A few glared up at the True Immortals, their anger rising. Others simply sat cross-legged in defiance, expressing their refusal through silence.
Unlike them, the veterans quickly chose nearby tunnels and watched each other warily. Seven to eight rushed off into the openings first, while another equally large batch followed from a distance, then chose their own tunnels. Three or four men stayed around Wang Sheng, their gazes filled with very noticeable "goodwill."
Wang Sheng remained silent. Soon, a large hand landed on his shoulder.
As he frowned and glanced at it, Yaoyun telepathically reported, "Mid-stage Primordial Immortal. One of the top three among these miners."
Wang Sheng turned to look, finding a thin, gray-haired Daoist. His dirt-colored Daoist robe hung loosely, and though his eyes had appeared dull earlier, they were now razor sharp.
"Fellow Daoists, give me some face," the old Daoist said calmly. "Leave this one to me."
The three others eyeing Wang Sheng nodded and stepped back. No one wanted trouble with this old man surnamed Gai.
"Thank you." Elder Gai cupped his hands, then shoved Wang Sheng lightly. His tone turned cold. "Move."
Wang Sheng glanced up at the two True Immortals. They were already seated on a ledge a hundred meters above, a board game of Go laid out between them. They paid no attention to what happened below.
Be it in this ancient battlefield or the endless space, the strong always preyed on the weak. That rule never changed.
At last, Wang Sheng understood why they had been watching him earlier. Since he had the lowest cultivation, the Primordial Immortals had chosen him as their shield. They wanted him to enter areas dense with fiend-blood energy to search for blood essence or spirit herbs, avoiding the corrosion themselves.
Simply put, they were going to make him work twice as hard and endure twice the fiend-blood energy.
The average early-stage Ascended Immortal could only endure a few years of powerful miners ruthlessly exploiting them in the mines before fiend-blood energy destroyed them.
This was a threat to his life. Just like the Celestial Wind Sect, these people had become mortal enemies.
Wang Sheng glanced at the old man and calmly said, "I know what you want me to do. No need to restrain me."
"That's smart of you." Gai laughed coldly and followed behind.
Wang Sheng felt no real pressure. He studied the tunnels and the piles of bones scattered along the path.
Soon, he sighed telepathically. "The Celestial Wind Sect has committed grave sins."
"When two armies meet on the battlefield, those who lay down their lives for their faction are hailed as heroes," Yaoyun replied calmly. "But the Celestial Wind Sect harms its own heavenly fate through acts like this. The backlash is certain."
"Considering where I'm at with my cultivation, toppling the Celestial Wind Sect is a distant dream. They probably have at least several Heavenly Immortals."
"On the other hand, those people are likely the strongest among them," Yaoyun said. "If they had a Golden Immortal, they wouldn't be hiding in a corner like this.
"Anyway, you ought to be cautious. If our hypothesis is right, then the powerful corpse that produced all this fiend-blood energy will be at the very bottom. That area could be filled with strange fiends or anomalies."
Wang Sheng smiled faintly, feeling a spark of anticipation. He then remembered the old Daoist following behind him.
"Yaoyun, can the fiend-blood energy prevent the True Immortals from sensing us?"
"It should. They don't seem to care about miners fighting anyway."
"Good." Wang Sheng began scanning the surroundings, considering a scenic place to bury the old Daoist.
He then paused. Maybe he knows this blood mine the best.
Wang Sheng suppressed his urge to kill the elder immediately. Instead, he devised a plan to draw information out of him before sending him off.
Having come up with a way to start the conversation, he cleared his throat.
