Shrouding the Heavens

Chapter 179 Demonic Mine

The mine that had met with a mishap was in complete disarray. There were at least fifty or sixty corpses lying there, each of them with dull gray complexions and eyes wide open.

The experienced miners’ expressions all changed and they ran far away. No one dared approach.

The fifteenth mining area was filled with terror. Everyone had retreated and most of them were trembling with fear.

Strands of gray fog came out of that mine shaft. Even from far away, people could sense a repressive force.

“I really did see a ghost…” Ye Fan was also apprehensive. He had known that the Source mines would occasionally have such a thing occur, but personally experiencing it still caused him some shock.

An old miner who had already been here for eight or nine years said worriedly, “I have a feeling that this evil might not be an ordinary one.”

Not long after, the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s cultivators rushed over. A couple middle-aged men led them, while the rest were all younger disciples.

“Who survived from that mine shaft?” asked the middle-aged man.

“I was working above the shaft!” ayoung miner walked up nervously.

“Are there others?” he continued asking.

Another six or seven people walked out, each scared and anxious.

“Did any of you see anything?

“I didn’t see anything. I just heard a cry from inside, and then we fled.”

“What about senior brother Qin? Wasn’t he patrolling here?” the middle-aged man frowned.

“That divine immortal fell into the mine shaft.”

“What?” The middle-aged man’s eyes opened wide. “Senior brother Qin died?”

“Yes…” Those miners were all very nervous. “At the beginning, they seemed to find something below so when that senior divine immortal received the report he personally went down to check it out. But the result was that when the evil occurred, all of them died.”

Beside him, another person bowed and said, “Fortunately we fled fast enough, otherwise we might have died even while just standing above the shaft.”

He didn’t need to say this. Everyone could see the fifty-some corpses littered around the shaft opening.

The Flickering Light Sacred Land’s cultivators all looked at each other in dismay and frowned. They hated facing this kind of situation. Once an evil occurred within a Source mine, the danger would rise to a critical level.

Gray fog filled the air around the shaft opening. It looked very strange, worrying everyone.

“Could it be they excavated something alive?” asked a random person.

The others’ expressions all changed when they heard this. If this were true, it was definitely a great and terrible omen.

“It’s said that the Jiang Family not long ago dug up a ghost mine, and ended up finding blood dripping and bones, and many people died.”

The words being passed between the middle-aged cultivators caused Ye Fan’s heart to shake. The Source veins below the ground were filled with mysteries and the unknown.

“I’ll go seize a strand of the gray mist and see what it is.” One of the middle-aged men spit out a thumb-sized silver bottle they flew over and released a soft light that began to absorb the gray fog.

Crack.

But what shocked people was that just as the gray fog entered, that silver bottle immediately shattered, becoming dim and falling to the ground.

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

“A weapon refined from a Dao Palace secret realm cultivator was actually unable to capture even a strand of the gray mist. What is that thing?” Everyone was greatly startled.

The middle-aged men all looked at each other solemnly. This time it was not an ordinary affair. Their hearts sank.

---

An hour passed before the gray fog completely scattered into nothingness.

Not long after, a chicken was thrown into the mine shaft. It continuously cried out for a long time without dying.

The middle-aged cultivators all sighed in relief.

“So it wasn’t as bad as we thought.”

“Looks like it was just a batch of evil air and not a ghost mine.”

The middle-aged cultivators all walked over, and the young disciples followed after them.

They stood over the shaft opening and examined each corpse before looking down below.

“Carry these corpses away. Find an abandoned mine to bury them in,” ordered one of the middle-aged cultivators.

All of the miners retreated and no one wished to touch those corpses that had died for some unknown reason.

That middle-aged man frowned upon seeing this. “The evil air has dissipated. There’s no more danger.”

The various miner’s hearts were leaping in fear as they picked up the corpses and threw them into an abandoned mine, immediately burying them as fast as possible.

The middle-aged cultivators all began to discuss heading down the mineshaft.

“Maybe we should send first clear out the corpses inside before we go down…,” proposed one of the middle-aged cultivators. Saying this, he swept his gaze over the surrounding miners.

The surrounding people immediately felt their hearts turn cold as they retreated.

“What are you afraid of? That chicken is fine. That means whatever happened down there is already over. Are all of you no better than a chicken?”

Ye Fan really wanted to spit on this person when he heard this. If there was nothing to be afraid of, why didn’t he just enter himself? He actually wanted to send miners to probe it for him.

One of their disciples personally walked up and picked people. Ye Fan was unfortunately picked and sent down to carry out a corpse.

The inside of the mine was dusky, and even the torch light couldn’t completely illuminate it. There was corpse after corpse lying on the ground in complete disorder. A couple cowardly miners shivered when they say the scene.

In front of them, specks of light could be seen. A head-sized Source shone within a stone. An old cultivator over fifty years old was lying there, having died long ago.

“The problem came from here…”

Ye Fan carefully walked up. Seeing everything clearly, he sucked in a cold breath.

That head-sized Source had a claw inside it that was as large as a human’s palm. It had many red inch-long hairs on it, and the palm was no exception. It appeared quite sinister.

“This is probably from a life form from before the Primordial Era…” Ye Fan was shocked.

“A ghost claw!”

“Monster!”

The surrounding people all shouted in alarm.

Ye Fan stretched out his divine sense to carefully examine it, his expression once more changing.

This was originally a large rock that was split open by miners before revealing this Source. Within the stone layer were marks of bones that connected to this Source.

“This…” He was completely shocked.

This should be a corpse that turned into a fossil. Only its palm was preserved by the Source. The rest of it was turned into stone.

“This should be a human-shaped life form. Wait no, it had wings!”

A creature that had wings was definitely not human.

He then tried to find out why there would be gray fog that killed that many people.

When they had broken the stone, this Source had a corner of it damaged. A piece of that palm’s flesh had been exposed, drying out in the air and turning into the gray fog.

“What sort of frightening life form was this? Just a speck of flesh that rotted in the air was so frightening? Just a strand of it was capable of destroying a Dao Palace weapon. It’s unbelievable!” Ye Fan was overwhelmed with shock.

The only fortunate thing was this Source was definitely not ordinary. Light flowed within, and from automatically gathering heaven and earth’s Qi, the broken corner had actually been repaired.

---

At this time, the cultivators above also flew in. Their spiritual perceptions were sharp so once they sensed there was no danger below, they were no longer scared.

“This is…a fleshy claw!”

The middle-aged cultivators all let out startled cries.

“A couple years ago we excavated a broken arm that was also sealed within a Source. It was sent back to the Sacred Land. A Grand Elder once said that if we saw such flesh we have to immediately report it. It must be extremely important.”

These cultivators carefully cleared off the rubble and picked up the Source along with its surrounding stone.

A Flickering Light Grand Elder personally came and carefully examined the palm, then also examined the human-shaped remnants in the stone.

“Unbelievable!” This was the result of his examination.

“What kind of life form is it?” asked the various cultivators beside it.

“From ancient times…” The Grand Elder only said these three words before suddenly stopping.

Obviously he was very disturbed. Only a long time after did he finally breathe again and wave his sleeve to collect the Source and stone.

“You guys continue excavating. If you find anything new, immediately report it to me. This matter is very important. I’ll record your great merit.” His expression was solemn before he then disappeared in a flash.

“The Grand Elder didn’t clearly say. What kind of life form is it?”

“At the very least it is a life form from before the Primordial Era. It definitely seems very terrifying and powerful.”

“Did our human race even exist back then? And what kind of position did we have?”

The Flickering Light Sacred Land’s young disciples were all filled with questions similar to Ye Fan’s questions. He really wanted to learn the answer.

“Could it be that claw can still release secret arts and divine energy?”

“Difficult to say. If it was powerful enough, that claw might really be a priceless treasure.”

The cultivators were all quietly discussing it.

“Maybe even my Flickering Light Sacred Land’s sovereign will be unable to understand it.”

“In this world, maybe only the Great Primordial Mine has the answer. There were powerful life forms that actually walked out of Sources.”

“Don’t speak of it. The Great Primordial Mine is a forbidden land. You can’t randomly talk about it here.”

The Great Primordial Mine was the center the various Sacred Lands’ claims surrounded, but no one dared go in and explore. It was an ominous land.

---

Over the following few days, they declared more than half a dozen other shafts to be abandoned, having not found a single Source inside.

Ye Fan cursed his bad luck. He was actually hoping to stuff his own pockets.

The other miners were celebrating because no misfortune had descended upon them, and they hadn’t excavated a ghost mine.

---

Just while people felt that the disturbance had passed, on the seventh day, a cry suddenly came from inside a mine shaft.

“What happened?” the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s cultivators shouted from above.

Over these last few days, they were never far and continuously patrolled this area. They couldn’t be careless with a Grand Elder’s great merit.

“Skulls, there’s a huge amount of skulls!” the people below cried out in terror.

The other mining shafts in this area all received this news and everyone immediately rushed out, preparing to flee far away.

The miners were all afraid of meeting an evil monster. If even a breeze blew across them, they would immediately guard themselves. The fifteenth mining area was a complete mess.

Ye Fan finally understood why so few miners survived for ten years. These evil messes occurred so often that even cultivators wouldn’t live that long.

“What’s going on? Normally we don’t run into any danger even in a year, but now they’re happening so often?””

The experienced miners all had bad premonitions.

“I think that the matter with that claw they found still hasn’t ended. Instead, it’s just starting. This area is probably a ghost mine and powerful demon is about to come out of it.”

“I also have such a suspicion. Something big is definitely about to happen.”

“It’s said the Great Primordial Mine has been very unstable this year. There might be a powerful beast escaping.”

Ye Fan’s heart shivered. These miners were so experienced, maybe this instinct or omen of theirs might really come true.

“No need to run! It’s just a withered bone. There’s no danger. Everyone quickly come back and dig into this mine to see what’s going on!” the cultivators ordered everyone there, concentrating their manpower on excavating that deep shaft.

In order to boost everyone’s morale, they also personally descended into the mine and oversaw everything.

However, when they personally saw what was below, they sucked in a cold breath.

Endless withered bones that hadn’t even fossilized were here. It was impossible to count how many corpses had been here.

Just by striking the stones, a huge amount of bones would come out. People’s scalps turned numb.

In the end, they weren’t even able to see stone anymore. It was all bones. Even the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s cultivators felt cold sweat run along their backs.

The feeling that something was wrong was becoming more and more powerful.

Just at this moment, there was someone who let out a cry of fear. “I excavated blood!”

In an instant, that cry stopped, and over a hundred people died.

“Heavens… a ghost mine and a huge evil monster!”

“I saw it, fuck!”

“No matter if it was Ye Fan or the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s cultivators, they all felt their blood run cold.