Chapter 53: Luck in Bad Luck

The air inside the tunnel was heavy, but contained a chain , carried by an energy that seemed to vibrate against his skin.

At every step, Tang Chun Xi heard the aura around you thickens, becoming increasingly concentrated.

It was suffocating.

Claustrophobic.

The tunnel stretched for meters and meters inside the mountain, and the absence of natural light made time seem distorted.

She did not know how long have you been walking?

But something was certain...

The deeper it went, the more intense the energy became.

And then, she finally saw the light at the end.

A shine milky gray emerged from the dark depths.

Tang Chun Xi narrowed his eyes, allowing them to adjust to their new surroundings, and put away the flashlight.

When she finally managed to see clearly, her heart stopped for a moment.

The tunnel had expanded into a much larger chamber.

And what awaited her inside it was unbelievable.

Entire walls covered in spiritual stones.

The soft, mesmerizing glow of the stones illuminated the chamber with a spectral light, dancing over the jagged surfaces of the rock.

Tang Chun Xi felt his breath catch in his throat.

"This… is this a vein of spiritual stones?"

The quantity it was huge.

Even if it was a vein small, it had to be worth at least ten million spiritual stones.

If it were a little bigger, could support an entire city for years.

Tang Chun Xi bit his lip.

'What do I do now?' — Logic said that getting out of there was a priority, but...

Leave all this behind?

She had already given up on the appeal in the monkeys' den.

But this... this was pure money.

A huge fortune that was enough for her and her father for decades.

Tang Chun Xi took a deep breath, forcing yourself to think rationally.

'No matter how tempting it is, I can't just rip it all away.'

'Even if I spent years digging, I would never be able to move even a thousandth of this place.'

The frustration settled in his chest.

Then, an idea came up.

"What if I try to teleport the stones straight to my storage ring?"

Your heart accelerated with the possibility.

Tang Chun Xi approached the wall, reaching out to touch the spiritual stones.

She focused her mind and tried.

But...

Nothing happened.

She failed.

The problem was clear: could not delimit the extraction area.

The spiritual stones they were not loose.

They were fused to the cave walls.

If she tries to teleport them, she'll take a whole chunk of rock with her.

Tang Chun Xi frowned.

'Then it won't be that easy...'

She refused to give up so quickly.

'Se I couldn't take it all, maybe I could find a better way to extract a part.'

Another idea popped into his mind.

Activated [Star Detection].

Instantly, she felt a slight induction, pointing to one of the chamber's side tunnels.

She didn't feel any danger, luckily it was the same place where the air current was coming from.

But just in case, activated [Luminous Concealment] and covered himself with stellar earthly aura.

Although your energy not blend in completely with the environment, the rock was a mutation of the earth element.

It was better than nothing.

She advanced.

The tunnel branched into multiple directions, and spiritual energy it remained absurdly dense.

Tang Chun Xifollowed carefully, but then...

Felt.

A vibration coming from the depths.

At each passing fork, the path became stranger.

Sometimes she found dead ends, but she felt the draft coming from there.

When this happened, she was forced to use explosive talismans or the Lunar Umbrella to open passage.

Mass number of tunnels and the complexity of the path were starting to bother her.

'This entire mountain… could it be a single, immense vein of spiritual stones?'

It was difficult to credit.

And then...

She found something unexpected.

When opening another dead end, she came across...

Corpses.

Dead hawks.

Dried blood covered the walls and floor.

The bodies were preserved by the cold mountain environment and the amount of aura.

And these were no ordinary hawks.

Some were in level four.

Others, level six... seven... eight...

And then, she saw it.

One level nine hawk.

Tang Chun Xihe felt a shiver run down his spine.

'Something killed them in here.'

'And it wasn't one or two.'

'There were many.'

She counted quickly.

Fifteen corpses in total.

And if they were there, buried in the tunnels...

Or they were crushed to death.

Or stayed imprisoned and starved to death.

Neither option was comforting.

Tang Chun Xi became even more cautious.

And then...

The vibrations increased.

Not one, but several.

They were stronger.

Closer.

Tang Chun Xi stopped.

Your heart hit faster.

The silence around you it seemed to grow, oppressive.

Something was moving.

And it was right in front of you. And after minutes of silence…

Tang Chun Xi remained motionless, his body tensed as he watched the imposing figure in front of him.

A Rock Golem.

He stood up more than three meters high, its massive structure appeared to be made from the mountain itself. Rocks inlaid with spiritual crystals covered his body, as if it had formed directly from the surrounding spiritual stone vein.

Tang Chun Xi didn't expect to find something like this.

But now it made sense.

The excavated tunnels, the exposed spiritual stones... everything pointed to a single culprit in front of him.

The Golems de Rocha were elemental spirits born from the earth or created by other golems.

They were skilled manipulators of the earth, or rock, element.

Tang Chun Xi clenched his fists.

"If that thing decides to fight, I'm dead."

Fight against elementals it was already difficult.

But inside a mountain filled with tons of rock?

It would be suicide.

The Golem didn't need to defeat her directly.

If you wanted, you could just collapse the mountain on top of her, burying it forever.

Tang Chun Xi swallowed hard, without hesitation she decided to use a second level aura concealment talisman, which she was reluctant to use until now, she only had one.

Now she understood what had happened to the falcons.

They dug into the cliff, attracted by the enormous concentration of spiritual energy within the mountain.

But when they managed to enter, they were annihilated by Golems.

And their bodies they were buried, along with the passages they excavated.

Tang Chun Xi feels a chill runs down your spine.

She could not be discovered.

It couldn't become just another body buried there.

With calculated steps, dodged the Golem, moving through the tunnel with maximum caution.

She continued advancing.

As she continued forward, Tang Chun Xi noticed something impressive.

The amount of spiritual stones continued to increase.

Now, they weren't just low level.

She began to find mid-level spirit stones.

An invaluable fortune.

Tang Chun Xi felt the temptation growing inside her.

Even though she had already found an absurd amount of spiritual stones before, it was still difficult to simply ignore so much wealth.

But she he was not distracted.

Your goal was to find the exit, and the source of the induction.

And for that, I needed follow the air current.

She marked the tunnel where the wind came from, ensuring she don't get lost.

Then, continued on the path of induction.

After dodge more Golems, avoid dead ends and cross multiple forks, Tang Chun Xi finally reached its destination.

The tunnel ended in an imposing wall, made purely from mid-grade spiritual stones.

They were so dense that they glowed with their own intensity, emanating a suffocating energy.

Tang Chun Xi closed his eyes for a moment.

"It's that wall...or what's behind it."

She didn't hesitate.

She picked up five Iron Armor talismans and placed them on the body.

Then, touched the wall.

With mental effort, placed it in his storage ring.

The stone disappeared, leaving his mind exhausted from the effort.

And the next moment, Tang Chun Xi was almost crushed by the pressure that gushed out from the opening.

Dense. Excruciating.

The spiritual energy that escaped from the chamber was so concentrated it looked like liquid, pressing your body from all sides.

She couldn't move.

Your body struggled to absorb the energy, but it wasn't enough.

Every cell in his body felt hungry.

Your skin sweat deeply while your muscles trembled under pressure.

Same with talismans activated, resist it was almost impossible.

But...

She didn't come in in the ring.

She didn't hide.

Tang Chun Xi withstood the pressure.

She felt something inside her tremble, it was her bones.

And then...

She heard a clear sound.

Breaking a bottleneck.

Your body heated up violently, every bone shuddered and pulsed as energy spread within her.

Tang Chun Xi knew exactly what was happening.

She had surpassed the fourth level of Bone Strengthening.

But It didn't stop there.

The cycle of the elements had also kicked into high gear.

And then, another crash.

She advanced directly to the fifth level of Body Tempering.

Tang Chun Xi widened his eyes, feeling your body will transform.

She became stronger.

Your bones became more resistant.

Your flesh denser.

Every fiber of his being had been refined by the impact of pure spiritual energy.

But it almost killed her.

With effort, she caught three more iron armor talismans and glued them to the body.

The pressure finally eased.

Tang Chun Xibreathed hard, trying to catch my breath, and dealing with mental exhaustion.

'That was more dangerous than she thought... she almost got crushed.'

'But It was worth it.' — she concluded with an exhausted smile

So she turned around, observing the environment in front of you.

She it was inside a cave made entirely of mid-grade spiritual stones.

The amount of wealth there it was simply absurd.

But your to look fixed itself in the center of the chamber.

There, a big rock stood, and inside it...

Condensed Spiritual Liquid.

The resource that Lunar Umbrella  wanted to indicate it, but couldn't because was isolated. On the other hand, the chamber that isolated him was a treasure in itself, so he induced her.

But it wasn't the only thing there.

Beside the stone, An immense five meter Golem was sleeping.

Tang Chun Xi felt his heart accelerate.

The aura of that creature was absurdly strong.

' This golem is even stronger than my father, he must be above the Origin Realm… possibly in the Spiritual Sea!' —she concluded with a certain tremor in her tired mind.

But he didn't react.

Tang Chun Xi swallowed dryly.

'So that was why I didn't feel any danger…'

'He is sleeping.'

Golems could sleep for thousands of years, since were not disturbed.

Tang Chun XiI had no intention of waking him up.

Without hesitation, moved the stone with the spiritual liquid to her ring, something that drained her mind even more, leaving her dizzy.

But she bit her tongue and turned quickly, heading towards the path of the air current.

Your goal it was getting off the mountain.

And the faster, the better.