The entrance to the Deep Mines resembled the maw of a sleeping abyss. Black, jagged limestone swallowed the gray morning light, and a bitter wind reeking of sulfur and decayed blood blew upward from the depths.
A dozens-strong line of outer disciples stood shivering at the precipice, guarded by enforcement disciples clad in polished leather armor.
At the front of the line, Senior Disciple Zhang leaned lazily against a wooden pillar, twirling a ivory toothpick between his fingers. When his eyes landed on Lin Chen, a cruel smile touched his lips.
"Still alive, Lin Chen?" Zhang sneered, stepping forward to block his path. "I half-expected you to throw yourself off the cliff last night to save us the trouble of dragging your corpse out of the mines."
Lin Chen kept his head down, keeping his expression utterly impassive. Beneath his long sleeves, the hidden vortex in his right palm hummed faintly. His power was still concealed—the Primordial Devouring Sutra allowed him to suppress his aura completely, making him still look like a weak, First Layer garbage.
"The Sect assigned me a duty, Senior Brother," Lin Chen said, his tone flat and unbothered. "I intend to fulfill it."
"Fulfill it?" Zhang chuckled, a sound echoed by the surrounding guards. "You have three days to harvest fifty jin of Black Fiend Ore. Fail, and you will be stripped of your disciple status and thrown into the mountain wild to feed the wolves. Now move!"
Zhang gave Lin Chen a heavy shove toward the dark tunnel.
Lin Chen pretended to stumble forward into the darkness, but as he crossed the threshold, his eyes gleamed with a cold, sharp light. Fifty jin of Black Fiend Ore? That ore is infused with dense earth attribute energy. For anyone else, it's poison to handle without specialized tools. For me, it's a buffet.
The air grew heavy and hot as Lin Chen descended deeper into the earth. The damp rock walls were veins of toxic blue fungus that provided the only illumination. Deep within the shafts, the frantic scraping of iron picks against stone rang out alongside the occasional ghastly scream of a disciple encountering a subterranean beast.
Lin Chen skipped the shallow shafts where other terrified disciples clustered together for safety. He kept walking down, past the second level, past the third, until the oppressive aura of Corpse Qi made the air thick enough to choke on.
He stopped at a dead-end shaft on the fifth level. The rock face here was embedded with jagged, pitch-black crystals that radiated a cold, heavy pressure: Black Fiend Ore.
Normally, a miner would need an hour of painstaking hammer work just to chip away a fist-sized chunk.
Lin Chen simply stepped forward and pressed his bare palm directly against the crystal-encrusted rock wall.
Circulate.
The hidden vortex in his palm spun violently.
The jet-black color instantly vanished from the stone. The toxic, heavy earth energy locked inside the ore turned into a visible stream of dark gray light, pouring directly into Lin Chen's palm, through his meridians, and plunging straight into his Dantian.
The stone wall shattered into brittle, worthless gray dust and collapsed.
Crack!
The second layer barrier shattered instantly.
Third Layer of Qi Refining.
A wave of warmth rushed through Lin Chen's limbs, clearing out three years of accumulated physical toxins in a single breath. His bones popped, his vision sharpened in the pitch darkness, and the raw strength in his muscles doubled.
"Fascinating," Lin Chen murmured, looking at his glowing palm. "It doesn't just devour Qi... it purifies the physical body."
Screech!
A sharp, ear-splitting hiss echoed down the narrow tunnel.
From the shadows of the ceiling, a creature descended. It was the size of a hound, possessing six armor-plated legs, razor-sharp mandibles dripping with corrosive green acid, and glowing red eyes.
A Scale-Armored Fiend Spider—a mid-grade Spirit Beast equivalent to a Fourth Layer Qi Refining cultivator.
The beast lunged, its razor-sharp legs slashing through the air toward Lin Chen's neck!