104: Chapter 104 Earth Tremors

The night was as dark as ink, thick and impenetrable.

Five days had passed since the three-day rainstorm, but the air in the Tianzhu Mountain Range remained humid and sticky, as if even the wind was saturated with moisture, heavy and unable to blow.

In the Quiet Room of the small courtyard on Emerald Bamboo Peak, the oil lamp had long since gone out.

Lin Xuan sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, his eyes slightly closed, his breathing long and steady.

The Purple Heaven Divine Thunder Art circulated slowly through his Meridians, and the Thunder Spiritual Energy flowed like a stream, nourishing the Foundation he had just broken through to Qi Refining Stage 5.

Inside his Dantian, the vortex of Qi rotated steadily. At its core, the tiny purple thunder seed was now the size of a peanut, its light restrained yet solid, every flicker faintly synchronizing with his breathing.

Two hours had passed since the heavy, heartbeat-like anomaly of the Golden Sun Grotto-Heaven had temporarily subsided.

But Lin Xuan knew this was merely a brief respite before the storm.

With a slight movement of his mind, he entered the Spirit-Taming Tower Space.

Unlike the deep night outside, the space was forever shrouded in a grey, hazy light. The Thunder Spiritual Energy was as thick as fog, carrying a faint, numbing sensation of nourishment with every breath.

Lin Xuan first went to look at the thunder essence fruit tree.

The one-zhang-tall tree stood quietly in the center of the spirit field, its canopy like a cover. The fully bloomed flower at the tip of the side branch was still vibrant; its five light purple petals were as thin as cicada wings, with silver patterns flowing along the edges.

At the center of the flower, the successfully pollinated ovary had swollen to the size of a soybean, with fine thunder patterns faintly visible on its surface, slowly and steadily absorbing the pure Thunder Spiritual Energy within the space.

An exotic fragrance assailed his nostrils; just smelling it made one feel refreshed.

"At this rate, in another seven or eight months, we should be able to see the initial form of the fruit..."

Lin Xuan estimated in his heart, a trace of anticipation flashing in his eyes.

The thunder essence fruit, a Grade 1 peak-quality spiritual fruit, was priceless and rare. Once mature, whether consumed to improve his own cultivation Foundation or used to exchange for rare resources, it would be a tremendous help.

He turned around and looked at the Herb-Seeking Mouse napping by the edge of the spirit field and the Pangolin with half its head poking out of the burrow entrance; both little guys were in good condition, and the Thunder-Light Bug was also sleeping on the thunder-attracting vine.

He exited the space and returned to the Quiet Room.

Lin Xuan was just about to continue Cultivating—

A sudden, extremely slight tremor came from the ground beneath his feet.

It was not an illusion.

Lin Xuan's movements paused, his Divine Sense instantly tightened, and his entire body's perception was heightened to the limit.

The tremor was very weak, barely perceptible, as if a heavy mallet was striking the earth from a great distance, passing through layers of rock and soil, decaying into tiny ripples by the time it reached here.

But the frequency was strange.

It was not the chaotic shaking of a natural earthquake, but... rhythmic.

Thump... Thump...

The interval between every two tremors was almost exactly the same, as if someone was deliberately controlling some kind of power, bombarding the deep underground again and again.

"Something is wrong—"

Lin Xuan's pupils constricted slightly, and he reacted immediately.

With a thought, the massive figure of the Pangolin appeared in the corner of the Quiet Room.

As soon as the Pangolin appeared, its dark golden scales pressed tightly against the ground, and its [Earth Perception] talent was activated with full force!

Within a range of 150 zhang, the underground rock and soil structure, the flow of Spiritual Qi, life fluctuations... all information flooded into the Pangolin's perception like a tide, and was then transmitted to Lin Xuan through the contract.

And in the southwest direction of that "perception scene."

There was an abnormally violent burst of Spiritual Energy, exploding at a certain node deep underground!

It was not just once.

It was multiple times in succession, with stable intervals, each explosion accurately striking the same weak point in the rock layer!

The vibration came from there, spreading in all directions like ripples in water. And it just so happened that one of the several secondary branches of the Tianzhu Mountain Range's main Spiritual Vein passed through there...

"Man-made sabotage!"

Lin Xuan's heart skipped a beat, and he instantly recalled the Pangolin into the space.

Almost at the same moment the Pangolin disappeared, the vibration outside noticeably intensified.

The water in the tea cup on the table rippled slightly, the Storage Pouch hanging on the wall swayed gently, and the window lattice creaked.

In the bamboo forest, sleeping birds were startled, flapping their wings and flying in a panic toward the night sky, leaving behind a string of terrified chirps.

Lin Xuan pushed open the Quiet Room door and walked into the courtyard.

He looked up; the night sky was still deep, but in the direction of the core production areas like Thousand Talisman Peak, Artifact Refining Peak, and Danding Peak in the distance, the halos of Formations could be faintly seen flickering violently and erratically—

That was a sign that the large-scale production Formations were being affected by the disturbance in the earth vein, causing their stability to decline!

Almost the moment Lin Xuan saw all this—

"Clang——!!!"

"Clang——!!!"

"Clang——!!!"

A loud and deep bell toll suddenly rang out across the Tianzhu Mountain Range!

It was not the urgent and sharp alarm bell used during an enemy attack, but something deeper and more resonant, one toll after another, slow and heavy, echoing endlessly in the night sky.

The direction of the Hundred Talisman Hall, the direction of the Artifact Refining Peak, the direction of the Danding Peak... the bell towers on each peak were struck almost simultaneously!

Amidst the tolling of the bells, a majestic and steady voice was clearly transmitted into the ears of every Disciple through the sound transmission network of the mountain protection Formation:

"Earth vein abnormality, each peak is to self-inspect."

"All Disciples are to remain in their residences for the time being and are not permitted to move about freely."

"Patrol teams are to immediately heighten alert and inspect the Formation nodes of each peak."

The voice repeated three times and then vanished.

But the bell tolling did not stop.

Lin Xuan stood in the courtyard, listening to the deep tolling of the bells, feeling the continuous, rhythmic, slight tremor beneath his feet, his expression calm as ice.

He took out a transmission Talisman and infused it with Spiritual Qi.

A moment later, the Talisman grew slightly warm, and Chen Hao's voice, carrying obvious exhaustion and a trace of panic, came through:

"Lin Xuan! Did you feel it? The earth shook! Several of the earth fire furnaces here on our Artifact Refining Peak almost went out of control. The Grade 2 Spiritual Artifact 'Flame Sun Sword' that Senior Brother Wang was refining suddenly had its heat go haywire, and the sword embryo almost exploded! Master is currently leading everyone to urgently stabilize the Formations..."

Lin Xuan asked in a deep voice: "Is anyone injured?"

"That hasn't happened, but everyone was scared quite badly." Chen Hao took a breath, "The entire peak is under martial law now; everyone is on standby in the workshop area and not allowed to return to their dormitories. I heard... it's worse over at Danding Peak; two furnaces of Medicinal Pills that were in the process of forming were ruined directly due to the Spiritual Qi fluctuations, and the losses are not small."

After a pause, Chen Hao lowered his voice, his tone filled with lingering fear: "Lin Xuan, this isn't right, is it? Everything was fine, so why did the earth suddenly shake? And it just had to be at this time..."

Lin Xuan did not answer, only saying: "Stay in the workshop area, don't run around, and listen to your Master's arrangements."