Chương 384: Ghosts of the Mine (XXX)

Lao Shun took a deep breath. It did little to calm him down. He recalled that day he walked into the basement of that woman's 'house', full of ire and annoyance that some two-part nobodies from nowhere who were nothing actually dared to say they could fix something even he couldn't. If he had simply never gone there, or if he had simply given that bastard he now called Master some Spirit Stones, he would not have been reexamining everything he thought he knew of the world at this very moment.

Like most other alchemists, he was a scholar, too, and as such knew a great deal about formations and arrays--not how to disable or set them up, of course, but more so the theoretical knowledge of them. Their types, grades, functions, and such. And so, when that bastard casually announced that they'd traipsed through eighty Divine-tier formations, his mind froze. Rather, if the kids knew anything about formations, they, too, would temporarily cease to function.

In isolation, a singular Divine-tier array wasn't actually that astonishing--given time, most people at least at the Shedding Mortality Realm were able to brute force their way through. The issue compounded, however, when multiples were stacked. At eighty, Lao Shun couldn't really draw a parallel. Even the Holy Lands themselves, outside the central array, which was Origin-tier, at best had five or six layered Divine-tier arrays as their sect-wide defensive formation.

If that bastard could just casually walk through eighty of them, didn't that mean he could waltz into any Holy Land? Go in and out as he pleased? Wasn't that a rather terrifying thought?

"I've cleared this side," the woman announced. Lao Shun actually recognized her--he'd seen her once or twice as she'd infrequently come to the Tower.

"I was a bit surprised to see the infamous Lone Alchemist not, well, alone."

"You know me?" he asked as he finished clearing his side, too.

"As much as you know me, I imagine," she said.

"With how you were shocked, you didn't know Daoist Lu is a Grandmaster at formations, huh?" Grandmaster? That man? Lao Shun almost scoffed but held back. After spending a year with the man, he had many, many, many questions and doubts, but one thing above all was certain: that man bled a lack of common sense. Rather than knowing formations, it was far more likely that he simply had an art or an item that passively disabled formations around him... however insane that sounded.

"No, no, I didn't," he said.

"I dream of the day that man will stop surprising me."

"Do you think you will ever live to see it?"

"... doubt it," he shrugged as two began to symmetrically put down the materials for the array.

"If someone like you is surprised by him, what chance do the rest of us have?"

"I presume you also don't know how he knew this place was here to begin with."

"You can keep asking," Lao Shun chuckled.

"But I really don't know much of anything. I decided to tag along initially out of sheer boredom--you know how things get--and now it's been a year and... well, let's just say that I haven't been bored in a while. I quite miss it, occasionally." If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. As he drew the last line, silver light lit up across the jagged cracks that wound across the crevice in the side, framing it.

The bony hands that were digging into the stone retreated a bit, but the array wouldn't really do much of anything against them. The strangely timed appearance of Yin-Repelling Art, however? It was perfect. He sighed, yet again finding himself wondering just what kind of a devil did he disciple himself under.

"Do you really think he can do it?"

"Do what?"

"Kill Father."

"Who? Alchemist Yuan?" Lao Shun arched his brows, contemplating momentarily.

"I don't actually know that he wants to kill him. He did inquire about him recently, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't about killing him."

"Father will try to kill him, at the very least."

"... if Alchemist Yuan is as wise as rumors say," Lao Shun said.

"He'll do well to kill that son of his and simply pretend it had never happened."

"Oh? So you do think he can kill an Emperor?"

"No, not that," he chuckled.

"I just know that he has ways of just... surviving. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you want him to kill your Father."

"Wants and whatnots are as fleeting as shadows at night," she said as she flicked her finger, causing the jagged 'pillar' of stone to shatter and reveal the full entrance.

"We're ready to descend. My men and I will take the front as the density of Yin is... well, I do now realize why you asked me if I could endure it," she turned toward the others and announced.

"Everyone, make sure to keep perfectly behind us. Too grave an exposure to high density of Yin can lead to unpredictable things." Even at the entrance, where most of the Yin Qi simply leaked away, it was a bit stifling; Lao Shun seldom engaged with Yin Qi since he was an Alchemist, and the so-called 'Yin Infection' would have crippled his ability to concoct fire.

Even now, he was wondering whether it was such a good idea to descend into the unknown, all on the back of a singular art that appeared out of thin air.... speaking of which, he channeled Qi per art's guide, and the stifling feeling disappeared immediately. In fact, he could practically see the plumes of Yin Qi dart around him, avoiding him like a plague.

As everyone gathered at the entrance, Lady Qian took charge and was the first one to enter, summoning a blob of spherical light above her to shine light on the passage. It was narrow and winding and certainly not stable; in fact, within the very few steps they took, he could see the walls shake and dust fall off of them. If a fight were to break out, they'd all likely be buried under the entire mountain, never to be found.

Exactly what happened to all the Yin Spirits shuttling through the walls back when they were ordinary humans likely working in the mine. He fell back slowly and joined Lu Qi, who was at the far rear with little Feng and Light on either of his sides. When the two kids saw Lao Shun join, they rolled their eyes directly and openly at him, audibly sighed, and sauntered off. He'd quite literally never been so openly disrespected, even when he was a grunt in the Tower.

"You really ought to teach them some manners," he commented.

"Yeah. It clearly didn't work since you're still here."

"..."

"What do you want?" he asked with a smirk, seemingly feeling fairly proud.

"I'm not going to ask... well, anything. I fear if I do, I might just lose my mind."

"You mean you haven't--""--you can keep quiet every once in a while, you know?"

"Is that really the way to talk to your Master?"

"... haah," Lao Shun sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Are you confident?"

"Hm?"

"That we can get out of here alive."

"Not sure," Lu Qi said, prompting Lao Shun to frown; was there something more to this place that he didn't realize? The myth himself was saying that he was uncertain whether they could survive in this place.

"I guess it depends if we try to dig out the core of the Spirit Vein."

"..."

"..."

"Hmm?"

"What?"

"Did you say something so monumentally stupid that my brain literally had to erase the memory so I didn't die?"

"What? You think it's too dangerous?"

"Do I, do I think it's too dangerous to dig out a core of the Spirit Vein of a Spirit Stone Mine that had collapsed who-knows-how-many-years-ago and is currently infested with who-knows-how-many spirits?"

"... yeah, do you?"

"Karmic punishment for regicide is being enslaved in my next life, no?"

"Attempt at regicide in this is punished by becoming my stool any time my knees hurt, you know."

"Just... do whatever you want," Lao Shun gave up. This was precisely what he meant about the man lacking any manner of common sense. In fact, Lao Shun was certain that even the Emperors would have reacted the exact same way he did were they to hear it. Dig out a core of the Spirit Vein? If it were that simple, sects wouldn't establish themselves in most inhospitable places imaginable just because there was a Spirit Vein there! He wanted to scream, but he stayed silent. Whatever come, it may.