Chapter 862 - 117: Striking It Rich!

Shao Chaozong’s warning still echoed in the passage, as the overwhelming, piercing screech had already drowned out everything around!

The nauseating, viscous blood mist seemed alive, instantly gushing out from countless cracks in the rock walls on both sides, even overhead and underfoot, transforming into deadly red waves, frantically engulfing Lin Chen and five others.

"Careful! Gather together and charge!"

Lu Feng’s voice rang out, his spear danced like a dragon, and the sharp Innate Gang Qi tore through the air, shredding the approaching blood mist and its hideous Blood Mist Beasts.

However, when the Blood Mist Beast was killed, its body once again spewed out red mist, even denser than before. The mist from the burst of a dead Blood Mist Beast contained potent corrosive properties, capable of corroding even the Protective Gang Qi of Innate Martial Artists.

"Useless, can’t break through, too many!" Xu Siyuan growled, his short blade gleaming as he slashed at a few heads, but his forearm was hit by a surge of blood mist abruptly breaking through the rock wall.

The viscous blood mist adhered to it, instantly corroding his clothes and leaving a conspicuous burn. His Protective Gang Qi was already exhausted from the frantic escape from the Sea Demon, and now it struggled against the pervasive Blood Mist Beasts.

Zhu Ru’s situation was slightly better, a layer of peculiar fragrance seemed to envelop her, forming a pink translucent barrier. The blood mist struck the barrier with a faint explosion but couldn’t get close, though the barrier clearly exhausted her mind, her face pale and breathing labored.

In the blood mist, everyone else’s Divine Soul was ineffective, but Lin Chen, with his powerful Divine Soul, could still perceive within the red mist. He was also hitting the charging Blood Mist Beasts with punches, and upon seeing Zhu Ru’s display, there was a peculiar glint in his eyes.

"Don’t engage the Blood Mist Beasts, just charge forward!"

Shao Chaozong, with the most experience, shouted angrily, both palms out, the mighty Palm Force resembling two giant shields, briefly opening a path within the dense blood mist, though his sleeves were corroded to tatters, revealing a few charred spots on his arms.

The six struggled onward, Shao Chaozong leading the way, with Zhang Sheng and Lu Feng flanking him to kill any Blood Mist Beasts attempting to close in, while Lin Chen took the rear. His Divine Soul was crucial at this moment.

The powerful Divine Thought wasn’t affected by the red mist, allowing sensing of Blood Mist Beasts breaking through rocks or emerging from overhead or underfoot ahead of time. When a Blood Mist Beast silently dropped from a crack above Zhu Ru’s blind spot, Lin Chen’s Palm Wind struck swiftly, precisely shattering it in mid-air.

Yet Xu Siyuan, ahead of Lin Chen, wasn’t as fortunate. His feet suddenly collapsed, blood mist surged below, Xu Siyuan panicked, nearly struck by the stealthy Blood Mist Beast from below, but Lin Chen’s Palm Wind struck the ground beneath him, blasting the Blood Mist Beast apart.

"Th...thanks!"

Xu Siyuan turned back, expressing gratitude through the red mist, yet Lin Chen didn’t respond to Xu Siyuan but shouted forward, "Blast open the stone wall on the left!"

Just now, Lin Chen’s Divine Thought found the stone wall ahead on the left was thin, with several channels behind it.

Shao Chaozong almost didn’t hesitate, changed his attack direction promptly, and Lu Feng and Zhang Sheng decisively joined, the three concentrating their force on the left stone wall.

This is the decisiveness of Innate Second Realm experts, understanding well that Lin Chen couldn’t set them up at such a moment.

Boom!

With the power of three Innate Second Realm experts, amidst the thunderous roar, the stone wall was forcefully blasted open into a large enough hole! Behind the shattered entrance, indeed, lay several deep, divergent narrow passages, their destination unknown.

Simultaneously, the intense blast shockwave temporarily scattered the surrounding blood mist, revealing more hideous, writhing Blood Mist Beasts!

But at this moment, everyone was deeply captivated by the walls of the six passages before them, those walls glimmering with purple sand points visible to the naked eye.

Quenching Crystal Sand!

Each passage held Quenching Crystal Sand.

"Everyone, we each take a passage. How much Quenching Crystal Sand we gain depends on our capabilities."

Shao Chaozong shouted, realizing that all six entering one passage while defending against pursuing Blood Mist Beasts and obtaining Quenching Crystal Sand would be too inefficient, it’s better for each to take a separate path.

Most importantly, Shao Chaozong had his own plans.

Finished speaking, Shao Chaozong rushed towards the leftmost passage, Gang Qi surging around him, crushing several approaching Blood Mist Beasts directly.

With Shao Chaozong leading, Zhang Sheng too unhesitatingly chose the nearest passage to him, gritted his teeth and charged forward, collision smashing through some blocking Blood Mist Beasts.

"Brother Shao makes sense, I bid farewell too."

Zhu Ru’s gaze swept over Lin Chen, she slightly nodded, her aura exploded, freezing the Blood Mist Beasts momentarily, though just for a breath, enough to dart into a passage.

"Brother Xu, join me in a passage."

Lu Feng said to Xu Siyuan, recognizing him as the most severely injured among the six, previously attacked by Sea Demon in the sea, recently harmed by Blood Mist Beasts, his strength greatly diminished.

Xu Siyuan’s eyes held a trace of hesitation, but he finally nodded.

"Brother Fang, don’t misunderstand, I saw that Brother Xu was injured and only wanted him to share a tunnel with me. It’s not that these tunnels are any different. At the end of these six tunnels, there’s just another exit of the canyon. If Brother Fang doesn’t believe it, you can share a tunnel with us."

Lu Feng looked at Lin Chen. So far, Lin Chen was the one he found most inscrutable.

Lin Chen was the first to discover the Blood Mist Beast and also found a way out for everyone. And after such a fierce battle just now, not a drop of the Blood Mist Beast’s blood had stained him.

Hearing the suggestion for Lin Chen to share a tunnel with him, Xu Siyuan’s mouth slightly opened as if he wanted to say something, but he didn’t in the end.

"I trust Brother Lu. Take care, Brother Lu."

Receiving Lin Chen’s response, Lu Feng did not hesitate and took Xu Siyuan, choosing a tunnel and charging forward. Their figures quickly disappeared.

At this moment, only Lin Chen remained at the scene.

Facing the Blood Mist Beasts all around, flames suddenly appeared around Lin Chen, and as the Innate Fire emerged, the surrounding Blood Mist Beasts seemed to sense fear and started hesitating to move forward.

Innate Fire is the nemesis of many Demon Beasts, especially those living in dark underground places.

Ignoring the Blood Mist Beasts that dared not approach, Lin Chen took a deep breath, his Divine Thought swiftly sweeping across the tunnel Lu Feng and Xu Siyuan entered. Only when they moved beyond the range of his Divine Thought did he step into another unentered tunnel.

Upon stepping into the tunnel, Lin Chen raised his right hand, causing Innate Fire to drift out and form a wall of fire at the entrance.

With a wall of fire formed by Innate Fire, Lin Chen wasn’t worried the Blood Mist Beasts would dare to come in. He held a dagger in his hand and began cutting Quenching Crystal Sand from the walls.

The stone walls on both sides of the tunnel, with Quenching Crystal Sand shining like a ribbon of crystals, were cut by Lin Chen, who placed the cut Quenching Crystal Sand into his Hundred Objects Box.

Five two-hour periods later, after all the Quenching Crystal Sand was cut down, Lin Chen finally put away his jade knife.

Five hundred sheng in total!

A dou equals ten sheng, and according to market rates for Quenching Crystal Sand, a dou can sell for at least three thousand Flame Coins, which means the Quenching Crystal Sand he harvested is worth 150,000 Flame Coins.

He’s really struck it rich this time!

A family like the Lu Family, considered top-tier in Guangwu City, has this much wealth for their entire family.

The Hundred Objects Box can accommodate a volume of one thousand sheng. On this trip, he emptied some of the contents and gave them to Yin Yue to make room for as much Quenching Crystal Sand as possible.

So much Quenching Crystal Sand is extremely rare throughout the Flame Dynasty.

Lu Feng likely didn’t know there would be so much Quenching Crystal Sand here. Perhaps the tunnel entered by that Innate First Realm Martial Artist didn’t have this much Quenching Crystal Sand, and he happened to choose a tunnel with the most Quenching Crystal Sand.

"Even if the other tunnels don’t have this much, Lu Feng and the others, for safety’s sake, should venture deeper into the tunnel to thoroughly shake off the Blood Mist Beasts before starting to cut. I can go back and harvest some more."

With this thought, Lin Chen retraced his steps to the tunnel entrance. By this time, the Blood Mist Beasts were nowhere to be seen. He first chose a tunnel none of the others had entered, and in less than a quarter of an hour, he returned to the entrance.

The tunnel that no one had entered had only thirty sheng of Quenching Crystal Sand in total.

Unwilling to give up, Lin Chen entered the tunnels chosen by the others and found that besides some left at the entrance, there was none further inside. Based on the length of the marks on the stone walls, he could verify that the most Quenching Crystal Sand, about a hundred sheng, was in the tunnel chosen by Shao Chaozong, while other tunnels had only dozens of sheng.

After harvesting all the Quenching Crystal Sand from the tunnels, Lin Chen didn’t return to his own tunnel but instead directly entered the tunnel Lu Feng had chosen.

Although Lu Feng had taken Xu Siyuan into the tunnel and his Divine Soul showed no major fluctuations during his explanations, indicating no hidden agendas, Lin Chen couldn’t be completely certain.

What if Lu Feng was someone with profound schemes, and Lin Chen didn’t detect any anomalies with his Divine Thought?

Inside the tunnel, there were quite a few corpses of Blood Mist Beasts, but after passing the rock walls with the Quenching Crystal Sand, no more Blood Mist Beast corpses were seen on the ground. It wasn’t that the Blood Mist Beasts retreated upon entering, but that Lu Feng and Xu Siyuan, after finishing harvesting the Quenching Crystal Sand, must have hurried forward at full speed, leaving the Blood Mist Beasts behind.

With Divine Thought perception, Lin Chen moved swiftly through the tunnel, not worrying about any sudden dangers lurking around.

...

Three two-hour periods later, Lin Chen halted, his Divine Thought perceiving the situation ahead, his expression suddenly becoming strange as he hid his figure into the darkness.

PS: Checked the monthly tickets, reached 500 tickets. Nine Lights isn’t playing tricks by splitting the original two Chapters into three. An additional Chapter for 500 votes, either tomorrow or the day after, with the regular daily update still being six to seven thousand words.