"Yes!" Hearing what Elder Meng said, Xuefeng excitedly stepped forward as she once again brought forth her giant hammer. Swinging it down towards the Saber Lord who was preparing to launch and attack towards the two of them.
Boom!
The giant hammer of Xuefeng collided with the saber of the Saber Lord as both of them were forced to take a few steps back as they seemed to be evenly matched.
…
"Looks like I don't really need to stay here any longer…" Looking at the two ladies from the Spring Flower Sect treating the poor Saber Lord as a top-quality training dummy, Xuan Hao decided not to interfere in their battle as he instead turned his attention towards one of the tunnels that the miners had been transporting the blue crystals out from before the clash between the Saber Lord and two people from the Spring Flower Sect.
Most of the people had already begun retreating towards what Xuan Hao had overheard to be their emergency tunnel, Xuan Hao had no idea where it led to and was not really too interested in finding out…
So, he left the people retreating alone and instead made his way over towards one of the tunnels as he looked inside.
Ignoring the constant sound of fighting happening behind him.
From the book about blue crystals or Ghost Crystals as they were called in the book, Xuan Hao knew with certainty that they were not something a cultivator should absorb under any circumstances due to its poisonous effects on a cultivator's soul and dantian.
Other than that, he also found out that it was one of the most sought-after type of resources by demonic cultivators…
The only problem was…
The Saber Lord was not a demonic cultivator but stilled seemed to have absorbed the qi inside the Ghost Crystals… Maybe that was why he was so weak even though he was a fourth stage Nascent Soul Realm cultivator?
The book itself did not mention anything about this and only noted down how useful the Ghost Crystals was to demonic cultivators.
"But there is supposed to be a Source Crystal at the centre of the Ghost Crystal mine." Reading through the book, Xuan Hao could not help but feel tempted to enter the Ghost Crystal mine and see if he could find the Source Crystal written about in the book.
The effects of a Source Crystal were simply too amazing as it would allow the cultivator to easily comprehend the dao.
For Xuan Hao, getting the Source Crystal would allow him to reach the Domain Lord Realm with ease after using the purification pill along with the pure qi fish from the secret realm!
The reason why Xuan Hao believed that the Source Crystal was still inside the Ghost Crystal mine, was because of the fact that according to the book, a special sort of life form was born alongside the source crystal and would protect it from anyone who dared to move too close…
Even the weakest of these life forms had reached the Domain Lord Realm… And it was not something that the living training dummy Saber Lord could deal with…
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As Xuan Hao was hesitating on whether he should go in and enter the Ghost Crystal mine, a small explosion occurred in the tunnel leading into the Ghost Crystal mine in front of him.𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
This was not the only place this happened as all the other tunnels except the entrance and the emergency tunnel began collapsing after several explosion talismans hidden at the entrance of them activate, causing the different tunnels inside the underground base to begin collapsing.
Rumble~
The tunnels were not the only affected, as large stones began falling down from above. Signalling the fact that the cave that the underground base was located in was beginning to collapse.
Whoosh!
Xuan Hao did not hesitate any longer as he entered the Ghost Crystal mine.
He was not really worried about the two from the Spring Flower Sect. After all, with their strength, the collapse of the cave would not be able to injure them. At most they would have to dig their way out after being buried by the falling rocks and dirt.
It was not something like the secret realm where the entire place was about to get destroyed.
Even the best-case scenario of staying in the collapsing secret realm would be ending up drifting aimlessly in the void between world before dying a slow death or a quick death if one happened upon some of the dangerous that lurked within the void.
As for getting out by himself after the entrance Ghost Crystal mine and the underground base collapsed? Like the two from the Spring Flower Sect, he could also dig his way out!
With this in mind, Xuan Hao had decided to enter the Ghost Crystal mine and search for the Source Crystal.
Steal the Source Crystal from the guardian life form and run away as fast as possible! That was his plan!
Why fight a Domain Lord Realm life form if he did not have to?
Even with this plan in mind, Xuan Hao still felt that things might not go as planned…
…
"Wow… So, this is a Ghost Crystal mine!" Walking through a mostly empty tunnel for close to 10 minutes, Xuan soon came upon a large opening as he saw a large underground lake at the centre.
Around the lake, countless small Ghost Crystals were covering the cave walls and ceiling as they weakly shone down towards a small natural platform made out of several different sized rocks that seemed to have fallen into the underground lake from above.
"That is the Source Crystal…?" Staring a small pure white crystal, the size of a grain of rice located on the natural platform of rocks in the middle of the underground lake, Xuan Hao could not help but feel a bit suspicious.
Would such a small crystal really be able to help him…?
"Hisssss~"
Lost in thought upon seeing the small size of the Source Crystal, Xuan Hao suddenly became cautious as he heard a small hissing sound come out from the lake.
"The guardian life form…?" Looking over in the direction of the hissing sound, Xuan Hao soon spotted the origin of the sound as a large snake at least a few dozen meters in length could be seen as the Ghost Crystal shone down and illuminated its body beneath underground lake water.
"Not a demon beast…" Even thought Xuan Hao had already read about it being a special life form that guarded the Source Crystal, he could still not really believe it as he had only ever really seen demon beasts before.
But the snake quietly observing him from the underground lake was clearly not made of flesh and blood.
Instead, its entire body seemed to be made from different kinds of precious metals as its two eyes resembled the surrounding Ghost Crystals. Glowing weakly as they remained locked onto Xuan Hao. Capturing each and every move he made.
According to the book, each special life form born together with a Source Crystal was unique and not one was the same.
This also made it difficult to know what kind of abilities the special life form would have, but at least it was written down that the special life forms strength depended on the size and strength of the Source Crystal itself.
Meaning, the bigger and stronger that the Source Crystal was, the stronger the special life form guarding it would be!
"How close can I get before it attacks me…" Looking around the underground cave, Xuan Hao quickly spotted a few boxes filled with Ghost Crystals as it seemed like the people under the Saber Lord had not managed to take away all of them in time before escaping.
Observing the places where the Ghost Crystals were missing after being mined and stored in the different boxes, Xuan Hao managed to calculate how far he would be able to go before he would be attacked by the unique snake observing him from the underground lake in front of him.
"Hm…"
Splash!"
Picking up a Ghost Crystal from one of the nearby boxes and throwing it into the lake directly in front of the snake, Xuan Hao hoped to get some sort of response from the snake.
"Hiss!"
But all he was met with was an angry hissing sound as the snake moved its large body inside the water, seemingly unhappy that Xuan Hao threw a Ghost Crystal towards it.
"So, I have to fight it…" Feeling a bit unwilling as he clearly sensed the strength of the snake in front of him had reached the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao knew that he would not be able to sneak by it and steal the Source Crystal before running away like he had originally planned to do…
Looking over towards the Source Crystal, Xuan Hao decided to try his luck.
At most he would have to retreat if things were too much for him to handle…
"Hissssss~!" Feeling the change in Xuan Hao, the snake quickly responded as it angrily hissed in his direction once again. This time in a more threatening tone as it clearly saw the direction Xuan Hao was looking!