34: Chapter 34: The Core of the Mineral Vein Array

"He truly just left." He stood up, looked at the several fork roads deep in the Rock Cavern, pointed at one of them and said, "In this direction, chase! That brat has at least thirty to forty thousand Spirit Stone on him, and also possesses the means to instantly kill a Qi Condensation 9th Layer. He definitely has precious treasures on him!"

He possessed extraordinary perceptive power and acutely sensed Xiao Yuan's lingering aura. Hearing this, the others were quite confident in him.

The sixteen people chased in the direction Xiao Yuan had left.

The light of the illumination stone illuminated what was before them!

Xiao Yuan lay prone by the pool, opening his mouth wide as he looked at the scene ahead.

How could this be any underground karst cave? It was clearly a valley occupied by thunder!

The valley was circular with a diameter of about a hundred zhang.

At the center was a huge Thunder Pool; inside the pool was not water, but churning silver-white lightning!

Lightning serpents danced wildly, and the roaring was deafening. Every streak of lightning emitted a destructive aura.

Above the Thunder Pool, a pillar of light could be faintly seen going straight to the dome, connecting with some kind of massive Formation. Within a hundred meters of the edge of the Thunder Pool, not a blade of grass grew, the ground was charred black, and the air was filled with the smell of ozone.

"Using the Thunder Pool as the Formation Eye..." Xiao Yuan muttered to himself.

No wonder the mineral vein grand Formation could be maintained for hundreds of years without declining — it directly drew upon the thunder of the Nine Heavens as energy!

Thunder of this level, let alone Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment, even if a Golden Core Cultivator came, they would have to weigh things carefully.

He was about to retreat when his body suddenly shook.

Within his Dantian, the Cultivation Technique insignia of the Gengjin Sword Soul Art and the Wu Tu Sacred Body Art unexpectedly began to glow slightly! The two Cultivation Techniques stuck at the fourth layer showed signs of loosening under the stimulation of the thunder pressure!

"This is... Body Tempering?!"

Xiao Yuan understood in an instant.

It seemed that simultaneous cultivation of the Five Elements required a powerful Physical Body as a container; otherwise, no matter how much spiritual power there was, it couldn't be contained.

Furthermore, metal-attribute Cultivation Techniques focused on slaughter and sharpness, while earth-attribute Cultivation Techniques focused on heaviness and defense, and both had matching Body Refining methods.

Tempering the Physical Body with thunder could happen to simultaneously stimulate the Breakthrough of these two attribute Cultivation Techniques!

"Heaven helps me!" Xiao Yuan's eyes shone.

He looked around the valley — although the Thunder Pool was terrifying, there were a few recessed rock walls in the fringe area that could be cleared out to become a temporary Immortal Cave.

As long as the distance was well controlled, he could both utilize the residual might of the thunder for Body Tempering and avoid being blasted into slag.

No sooner said than done.

Just as Xiao Yuan was about to find a suitable location, his expression suddenly changed.

The perceptive power of the Great Turtle Breathing Technique sent out an early warning — dense footsteps were coming from the passage behind!

There were at least a dozen people, and their auras were tyrannical. Two of them were exceptionally terrifying, at the Half-step Foundation Establishment!

"They chased over so quickly?!" His scalp tingled.

Sixteen people at or above the Qi Condensation 9th Layer, plus two Half-step Foundation Establishment. Fight head-on? Ten lives wouldn't be enough to die!

"Hide!"

Xiao Yuan made a prompt decision, operating the Great Turtle Breathing Technique with all his might.

The aura around his body instantly converged to the extreme, lowering his presence to the lowest.

His figure flashed, and he swiftly sped toward the other side of the Thunder Pool — there was a place with dense vegetation over there, which happened to be able to hide him.

In the blink of an eye, he had already hidden behind a huge boulder. At the same time, his left hand pressed virtually against the ground:

"Thorny Cage!"

Dozens of brown thorns drilled out from the rock crevices, intertwining into a net that completely covered him. The color of the thorns merged into one with the surrounding vegetation, and without careful inspection, one couldn't discover them at all.

After finishing all this, Xiao Yuan held his breath, suppressing even his heartbeat to the lowest.

The Great Turtle Breathing Technique was a concealment Cultivation Technique that even a Golden Core Cultivator found difficult to see through; dealing with these fellows whose highest was Half-step Foundation Establishment was simply a dimensional reduction strike.

After a few breaths —

Swish swish!

Sixteen figures surged out from the passage entrance.

The leader, One-Eyed Dragon, had just stepped into the valley when he was shocked by the thunder scene before his eyes.

"This, this is..." His single eye widened.

The crowd behind him also gasped.

The Thunder Pool churned, thunder ran wild, and the destructive pressure made everyone's hair stand on end.

"The Formation Eye of the mineral vein grand Formation!" The boss of the Black Wind Five Fiends — the Centipede-Scarred Man's face turned pale. "This kind of thunder-attracting Formation can even blast a Golden Core Cultivator to death!"

"That brat... couldn't have charged into the Thunder Pool, right?" The Seductive Female Cultivator asked with a trembling voice.

"Impossible!" Scarface shook his head. "No matter how freakish he is, he is still in the Qi Condensation Stage. If he goes in, he will instantly turn to ash."

One-Eyed Dragon narrowed his single eye and scanned the valley: "Search! He must be hiding nearby!"

The sixteen people dispersed and began a carpet search.

Xiao Yuan was hiding in the thorn bushes, looking at the situation outside through the gaps.

A stalwart man at the Qi Condensation 9th Layer walked past the boulder where he was hiding, a distance of less than three meters.

The stalwart man even glanced at the thorn bushes, but didn't find anything unusual, turned around and left.

Xiao Yuan felt cold in his heart.

In another direction, One-Eyed Dragon and the Centipede-Scarred Man stood at the edge of the Thunder Pool with solemn expressions.

"Boss, the thunder here is too strong, and perceptive power is disturbed," the Centipede-Scarred Man said in a low voice. "It can't be scanned carefully at all."

One-Eyed Dragon had a gloomy face: "That brat definitely has Advanced concealment means... Damn it, can the fat meat that reached our mouths still fly away?"

They searched for another half an hour.

The sixteen people turned the valley upside down — besides not daring to approach within a hundred meters of the Thunder Pool, they pulled open even the rock crevices everywhere else to look.

They gained nothing.

"Did he really charge into the Thunder Pool?" Someone muttered softly.

"There has to be a corpse, right? No matter how fierce the thunder is, it should at least leave some ash?"

"Maybe even the ash was blasted away..."

Scarface was unwilling, but didn't dare to stay any longer — the pressure of the Thunder Pool made his heart panic.

One-Eyed Dragon glanced at the valley one last time, gritted his teeth and said, "Retreat! Send people to take turns guarding the outer passage! I don't believe he won't come out!"

The sixteen people left disgruntledly, their footsteps gradually fading into the distance.

The valley returned to silence, with only the roaring of thunder.

Another three hours passed.

After making sure these people wouldn't return for the time being, the thorn bushes rustled apart, and Xiao Yuan drilled out.

He looked toward the passage direction, his gaze solemn.

That bunch of people were guarding the passage, so he simply couldn't go out from here. Unless his cultivation broke through to a level sufficient to easily deal with those dozen or so people.

However, he didn't care either; after all, this was a good place for him to Cultivate, and he didn't want to go out temporarily in the first place.

It was just that this group of people would definitely not give up so easily and could return at any time. If he wanted to Cultivate with peace of mind, he had to make the other party unable to find his tracks.

Thinking of this, he looked toward the Thunder Pool direction, his eyes flashing slightly.

Immediately, he walked toward the Thunder Pool ahead, feeling the oppression brought to him by the thunder might, as well as his body's bearing strength against it. At a position where he could just barely adapt, he stopped.

He urged the sword art and began to dig the soil on the ground before him. As time passed, Xiao Yuan dug deeper and deeper.

Having dug down nearly several tens of meters, he then urged the earth-attribute spiritual power to cover up the soil above, making it look as if it had never been dug, and then set up a concealment Formation within it.

As for Xiao Yuan, he hid inside the cave dug out from within. Feeling the might of the thunder overflowing into the cave, a slight joy arose in his heart.

"Now... it is time to Cultivate."

He chose this distance; the residual might of the thunder was strong enough, yet not fatal. It happened to be convenient for him to Cultivate. If the thunder intensity was no longer enough, he could also push the cave further forward.