'Where is it? Why is there nothing here?'

Mei Xuan looked at the empty chamber in front and mumbled in confusion. Feeling that she might have come to the wrong place, she used the compass in her hand once again.

But no matter what she did, the compass was clearly pointing in this direction. That meant the key she was looking for was supposed to be in this small chamber.

Just... it seemed it was... taken away?

'Who the hell is it?'

Feeling that her trip was about to get wasted, Mei Xuan bit her lips in anger, frustrated.

If she had known this would happen, she could have just gone directly to the secret realm without caring about the key with unknown use.

She risked tagging along with Tianyu, irking Yan Xi, just to return empty-handed?

'Did someone find it? Wait... did that person take it away?'

Mei Xuan suddenly thought of a person draped in the black robe she had seen before. That person was the only one who entered this place before her.

So she felt that it was the only possible explanation for the disappearance of the key mentioned in that jade.

'Core! That person might still be in the core of this spirit mine.'

Mei Xuan thought, her cold eyes filled with hatred. If what she thought was right and she found that person, maybe she could retrieve the key?

'Then, let's go. I bet Tianyu is also heading there.'

She immediately decided and quickly turned around, heading towards the core.

Although it was extremely hard to find that place in such a short time, with the compass in her hand, Mei Xuan could still get there quickly.

**

"Intruder! You are not welcome here. Leave before I get angry!"

A light, gender-neutral voice echoed throughout the entire central chamber as soon as Zhiran came near.

Although the voice seemed low and almost childish, Zhiran knew that the warning was real, as evidenced by the searing heat that was increasing rapidly.

The fiery aura alone almost suffocated him.

'Pure elemental is really something else. I cannot even get close.'

Zhiran stopped in his tracks and watched the floating wisp of flame at the center, clearly guarding the mine. He felt like standing in front of Inferno.

"Are you the guardian of this mine?"

But although the strength of this Elemental was like a chasm that Zhiran couldn't cross, he didn't show any fear.

Rather, he seemed intrigued, clearly guessing something by its appearance.

"Intruder! This is the last warning... leave at once, otherwise..."

"Swissh!"

Seeing Zhiran still dawdling and not heeding its word, the Elemental seemed enraged as its aura began to grow thicker and thicker while the heat inside the chamber became unbearable.

Heck, even the floor was melting rapidly from the searing heat that just wouldn't stop rising.

There was no doubt that this Elemental was too strong. Strong enough to kill him in seconds.

Just... there was something different about it that Zhiran noticed the moment he entered this chamber.

Or rather, the moment he entered this mine, he already noticed something odd in the spiritual vein with his divine sense. He just wasn't sure.

But now, looking at the steady figure of the Elemental at the cente,r only giving a warning to its intruder, his guess seemed correct.

"Tsk... tsk... it seems you connected yourself to the spiritual vein of the mine. Are you... on the verge of promotion?"

Zhiran suddenly asked, finding the situation quite odd.

First, the guardian of the spiritual mine was a Fire-type elemental, which was too rare.

Then suddenly, despite being so strong, it was stuck in its position because it was connected to the spiritual vein.

'It almost feels like some kind of lucky plot is at play.'

Zhiran thought bitterly, remembering if he wasn't the first to be here, it would be Tianyu instead.

And with that guy having Sun Body, it wasn't hard to guess that this might be the opportunity created by heaven for him.

"INTRUDER! LEAVE!"

As soon as the Elemental found that its condition was discovered by the human in front, it got angry immediately.

So this time, while giving a warning, it also shot out a crimson flame spear towards Zhiran. It didn't need to move to kill a weakling like him.

"Boom!"

In an instant, the flame spear appeared right in front of Zhiran, ready to pulverize him to ashes just like those rocks on the ground melting right now.

'Shrinking Steps!'

Fortunately, although Zhiran seemed carefree, he was extremely focused and on guard. So the moment the Elemental attacked, he disappeared from his position, leaving it bare.

All that such an overwhelming attack managed to do was destroy the landscape around, directly creating a deep crater.

'Thank god, I have already condensed my divine senses.'

Zhiran felt fortunate after seeing the damage. Really, he was still nowhere near equal to a foundation-building cultivator.

He was no genius. He could only use tricks to get away from danger.

'Yin soul beads! Fortunately, I condensed a lot of them.'

Not wanting to get attacked once again by the Elemental's attack, Zhiran suddenly waved his hand, taking out multiple tiny black beads from his storage ring.

If someone looked closer, they could easily hear the howl and painful cries of the soul from within.

'Scatter!'

After taking them out, Zhiran didn't wait for the Elemental to react and sent each one of them in the specific directions, or rather, specific nodes that his divine sense could peek.

"What are you doing?"

Sure enough, when the Elemental saw his behavior, it seemed a little stunned.

But when it found how Zhiran directly placed them on the critical nodes of the spiritual vein underneath, it instantly understood the danger.

"YOU dare! Human, don't do something you will regret. Otherwise, I will definitely kill you."

As an Elemental, it could obviously harness power from within the spiritual vein directly, unlike humans. In fact, that was the sole reason why a fire Elemental could survive here in the first place.

Otherwise, such beings were generally found in places with rich fire-type spiritual energy, like volcanoes.

Still, it was possible to find such beings in mines like this, all because of their ability to filter and absorb the type of spiritual energy they wanted directly from the spiritual vein.

But to do so, an Elemental had to connect its whole body to the vein, causing its movement to get restricted.

This was a more glaring issue when it was during its promotion.

Any kind of shift in spiritual veins or external damage could very well cause its promotion to be affected, not to mention the damage it might cause to the Elemental.

That's why it was a rather odd way of promotion that one wouldn't use unless necessary.

Zhiran guessed that this Elemental might have chosen such a risky move after seeing that the mine was occupied by the Wolf King.

As a monster, they didn't have much knowledge about Elementals and probably wouldn't try to harm it.

Unfortunately, it never thought that right before its promotion, humans would attack this place.

"Hehe... kill? First, try to save yourself. These aren't just ordinary explosives, you see?"

Seeing the fiery aura that was radiating throughout the chamber, rather than getting afraid, Zhiran smiled instead.

Of course, he also activated the Jade Array given to him by Elder Yan Yue during the process. After all, his body really couldn't handle this heat.

Feeling it wasn't enough, Zhiran also used his Heavenly Drift technique to hover above the ground and was ready to activate Shrinking Steps the moment the Elemental attacked.

"Human! What do you want?"

Elemental was very smart. Although its shape was just a wisp without a form, it could sense the motive of Zhiran clearly.

Not to mention the explosiveness it felt from those Yin Soul Beads hovering above the nodes.

Just because of them, it didn't even attack Zhiran like before, afraid that they would explode.

As a kind of soul body, it was really afraid of the scent of demonic energy radiating off that thing.

So at last, it made an exception and tried to negotiate its way out of this situation. After all, from the beginning, it could feel that Zhiran's gaze was behind it.

"Oh? Aren't you angry anymore?"

Zhiran was surprised that the Elemental was so quick to change its mood. But he didn't care and smiled as if his ploy was successful.

So without beating around the bush, he pointed at the thing behind the Elemental and asked,

"How about you give me those things? I promise I will leave this place the moment I get those."

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