83: Chapter 83 Unexpected

"You little rat~ finally found you!"

At the entrance of a cave somewhere, a clump of bushes suddenly moved in a strange way.

The next moment, a white-haired puffball poked its head out from the bushes.

Xing Yaoyan didn't bother wiping the dirt off her face; she had a mischievous grin, her heart filled with the thrill of impending revenge.

Heaven knows how long she had been running to reach this place and finally see the massive silhouette of this combat vehicle.

The cave entrance emitted a faint light, clearly indicating that someone was already inside.

"Hmm?"

Just as she passed by the combat vehicle, the cabin door suddenly whooshed open!

"No way! Someone was still on the vehicle?!"

Without time to think, Xing Yaoyan hurriedly dodged to the side, pushing her Star Swallowing Art to the limit.

A young man wearing glasses emerged from the combat vehicle.

He gave a slight yawn, casually tapped a few buttons on his phone, and soon, the blue light flowing along the vehicle's body completely faded.

It seemed he was the only one here...

He just got off the vehicle, carrying a bag in his hand, and walked toward the cave entrance.

The vehicle door closed automatically, finally making a "bang" sound.

At the same time, the man felt the same "bang" sound ring in his ears.

"Enemy..."

Xing Yaoyan clamped her hand tightly over the bespectacled man's mouth, not letting him make a sound before he finally passed out.

"Tch, what a weakling. How did he even get into an exploration team?"

Xing Yaoyan curled her lip in disdain and dragged the man into the shadows, tying him up securely.

She took the item out of the bag, then crumpled the bag into a ball and stuffed it into the bespectacled man's mouth.

"Hmm... perfect."

Xing Yaoyan stood up and clapped her hands, finally focusing her gaze on the item she had just taken out of the bag—a gorgeously packaged pure gold box.

Upon opening it, she saw a black square stone lying quietly on the soft gold silk inside.

She subconsciously activated her Star Swallowing Art, but soon discovered that she couldn't absorb any energy from it.

"Could it be..."

She was silent for a moment, as if preparing herself mentally.

Suddenly, she stuffed the black stone into her mouth and took a hard bite.

"Ugh~ ptooey, ptooey, ptooey..."

It was an extreme stench that she couldn't quite describe; if she had to say, it was like pairing blue cheese with canned herring, and then being asked to eat a bite of original-flavored braised intestines.

Xing Yaoyan dry-heaved for a long time before she could finally recover.

She didn't understand; this thing looked so well-packaged and clearly valuable, so why did it taste so strange! Although it was wrong for her to eat random things, this was completely a scam! It really wasn't because she was greedy!

Xing Yaoyan stared quietly at the black stone in her hand. She wanted to put it into her storage space, but was afraid it would contaminate her spirit crystals, and didn't want them all smelling foul later; throwing it away was a pity, after all, she had snatched it with her own ability...

Forget it, she'd just shove it in her pocket...

"Put this here, put that there. Number Six, Number Seven, hurry up, time is running out."

A man's voice and some metallic clanging sounds came from inside the cave.

Xing Yaoyan had already confirmed that she couldn't sense any aura of spirit crystals inside the mine, but it looked like mining had just finished not long ago. Why would these people come to this worthless mine instead of going anywhere else?

Combined with the somewhat strange black stone in her pocket, Xing Yaoyan suddenly became curious about their purpose.

"Forget it, anyway, there's a month of time, no rush, let's see first..."

She pressed her body against the edge of the passage and slowly inched forward.

As the last corner disappeared, she discovered that the cave was truly a world of its own.

There was a huge hollow area inside the cave, extending several hundred meters downward. She was currently at the highest level, so she could clearly see the movements of the people below.

There were four men in total, each radiating different spiritual power fluctuations, but they were all Tier 3, fairly easy to deal with.

"Hmm?"

She saw a man leave a spot on the rock wall below, leaving behind a small square block, its indicator light blinking and emitting a dangerous aura.

"It wouldn't be C4, would it..."

Suddenly, she felt something, looked up, and saw that the crevices in the rock overhead were filled with these blinking blocks, densely packed together, scaring her so much that her trypophobia was about to kick in.

Xing Yaoyan secretly shrank her head back.

She had a strong premonition that this exploration team wasn't here to dig for spirit mines at all; they were here to kill people and destroy the evidence, and it had a strong flavor of "if we don't achieve our goal, we'll all go down together." After all, what kind of good person puts bombs on their only escape route!

Xing Yaoyan silently took half a step back. She knew this place was not to be stayed in for long. Although she was confident she could survive a cave-in of this magnitude, it would consume a lot of resources, and this kind of aggressive fighting style didn't suit her personality.

"But... has the light in this cave dimmed a little..."

The mine originally didn't have much light, so Xing Yaoyan didn't know if it was just her imagination.

"Clang, clang, clang-clang-clang..."

A rhythmic knocking sound echoed in the cave.

"There's someone else? But it looks like another group..."

Xing Yaoyan looked up again at the blinking "C4 bombs" overhead.

"Forget it, better slip away quickly, curiosity killed the cat..."

And just as she was preparing to slip away, thinking about whether to check if the mecha combat vehicle's core was edible on the way, a familiar voice sounded.

"Poison Fang, where is my item?"

Xing Yaoyan immediately stopped her retreat, abruptly poked her head out to look in the direction the voice came from, and saw a familiar silhouette standing below her. Moreover, looking at the faint light behind her, this must be another passage into this place.

"Yu Linger? What is she doing here..."

"Oh, she said she came to pick up something... Eh?!"

She silently touched the black stone hidden in her pocket and thought: It can't be such a coincidence, right?

"Your item has already been brought off the vehicle by Number Three, and he is walking this way, so please be patient..."

"Number Three... that weakling?"

Xing Yaoyan had basically confirmed that the main point of intersection between the two sides was the black stone in her hand.

Of course, letting her hand it over was definitely impossible. She had snatched it with her own ability, so now it was hers...

"And before that, we have another task. We hope you, Young Miss Yu Linger, will not interfere..."

"What task?"

Yu Linger asked in a deep voice, as she had faintly sensed something was wrong.

"The person beside you... must die here today."

Hearing this, Xing Yaoyan was shocked and quickly looked toward Yu Linger's side.

"Just this ordinary-looking man? Do they have to kill the client's bodyguard when conducting this kind of transaction now?"

That's right, Xing Yaoyan had mistaken the disguised Qian Mo for Yu Linger's bodyguard.

"Forget it, forget it, I'd better leave..."

Intense spiritual power fluctuations were already coming from below, and she could faintly feel an invisible combat barrier about to completely envelop this area. If she stayed any longer, she might really get herself into trouble...

Suddenly, she, who had already stepped one foot out of the cave, paused abruptly.

She smelled it—amidst the chaotic spiritual power fluctuations, that most familiar scent...

She did not hesitate, or rather, she didn't think at all, just turned back like a robot and ran quickly inside.

The barrier completely enveloped the cave.

And as Xing Yaoyan ran, a black phantom of a scale gradually enlarged before her eyes.