Chapter 161: The Meticulous Mind of Yang Hong

Suddenly, Chu Xin'er, who was tunneling underground, disregarded the heavy pressure of the surrounding rocks and soil and plunged straight into the deep depths of the earth.

Just as she descended a dozen zhang, earth-yellow lights flashed consecutively ahead in the earth, and five figures appeared one after another.

The leader had a slightly dark complexion and a robust build. Although his cultivation was inferior to that of Wang Lingfei, Yang Hong, and the others, he was nonetheless a genuine Foundation Establishment late-stage cultivator.

He carefully probed the exact spot where Chu Xin'er had just been, his expression neither sorrowful nor joyful.

"Senior Brother Zhu, what is it? Did you find anything?" Seeing him suddenly halt and stand still, someone could not help but ask.

The dark-faced young man shook his head. He had just sensed some spiritual power fluctuations from an Earth Escape Talisman, but based solely on this, it was hard to say whether it was the demonic woman the sect was trying to capture.

After all, many squads were searching everywhere underground at the moment, making it inevitable to leave behind some fluctuations. They had encountered several such groups previously, and after final confirmation, every single one had turned out to be a false alarm.

Moreover, according to the deduced clues, Chu Xin'er should not have had any more top-tier Earth Escape Talismans. Coupled with her cultivation being merely at the Foundation Establishment early-stage, had she truly appeared, it would have been impossible for her to escape his detection.

"Let's go, over there."

After probing for a while longer and still finding nothing, the dark-faced young man beckoned to the others and headed in the direction from which Chu Xin'er had previously tunneled.

A moment later, earth-yellow light flashed dozens of meters away, and Chu Xin'er, with a rising and falling chest and a pale face, materialized. Lingering with fear, she glanced back before flying away without the slightest hesitation.

In fact, if she could truly tunnel deep into the depths of the earth where she had previously ventured, she would not need to worry about being discovered at all. Alas, her cultivation was limited, and the deeper she went into the earth, the more terrifying the crushing pressure became.

Just for that brief moment, her cultivation and the power of the Earth Escape Talisman had been consumed at three to four times the normal rate, while her forward speed was actually less than a third of what it originally was.

More importantly, her chest felt so oppressed she was almost on the verge of vomiting blood; had she not come out, she likely would have sustained injuries.

Unable to tunnel deep within the earth, Chu Xin'er had no choice but to continue moving forward cautiously, constantly staying alert to evade the enemy.

Meanwhile, a five-member squad was approaching the "spirit stone vein," though from the opposite direction to Zhou鹏 and the others.

Within an earth-yellow light barrier, the handsome and tall youth was none other than Yang Hong. The four youths accompanying him were not weak in cultivation, with the weakest having reached the Foundation Establishment late-stage.

"Senior Brother Yang, this seems to be a spirit stone vein..."

Similar to Zhou Peng's squad, upon seeing the individual spirit stones before them, someone immediately could not help shouting in excitement.

"A spirit stone vein? Perhaps. However, I suspect that demonic woman is hiding inside to cultivate. Junior Brother Liu, Junior Brother Fang, Junior Brother Chen, Junior Brother Wang, go notify the others to come over..."

Yang Hong was not a crude hothead like Zhou Peng. He would not rashly alert the enemy. Staring at the spirit stone vein ahead and pondering for a moment, he calmly pointed at the few people beside him and gave his orders, appearing thoroughly methodical.

"Yes, Senior Brother Yang."

Yang Hong held great prestige among the younger generation of the Lingtian Sect, and the few youths accompanying him were all his followers, so naturally no one raised any objections.

Before long, guided by the four youths, over a dozen nearby squads arrived successively, including Wang Lingfei and the dark-faced young man.

"I say, Yang Hong, you're far too cowardly. Let alone the fact that it hasn't been confirmed whether that demonic woman is inside, even if she truly is there, I, Wang Lingfei, am alone sufficient to capture her."

Hearing Wang Lingfei's somewhat sarcastic remark, Yang Hong smiled indifferently and said that if that was the case, why didn't he go capture the demonic woman right now.

"Let's go, we're going in."

Wang Lingfei curled his lips, beckoned to the few people beside him, and took the lead in tunneling into the "spirit stone vein." The others were just about to follow when they were stopped by Yang Hong.

He said that the demonic woman was crafty and possessed bizarre methods; to prevent her from escaping, they should let Wang Lingfei search the inside while they surrounded the place to cut off any escape routes.

With nearly a hundred people present, swallowing the spirit stones in the vein privately was already impossible. This seemingly massive vein would ultimately have to be handed over to the sect for unified excavation and distribution.

Therefore, the dark-faced young man and the others did not oppose Yang Hong's proposal.

Time ticked away, and more teams that received the news gathered. The spiritual senses of over two hundred people linked together, completely enveloping the entire spirit stone vein.

Just at that moment, figures flickered, and Wang Lingfei returned as quickly as he had left, except his face was filled with shock and anger.

"What? Junior Brother Xue and Zhou Peng are all dead, and the demonic woman has long since escaped? How is that possible, we've been guarding right here all along..."

Hearing Wang Lingfei's explanation, everyone's expressions changed drastically. Even Yang Hong's indifferent expression turned to astonishment, and he asked in disbelieving disbelief.

"Hmph~~, if you don't believe me, feel free to go inside and see for yourself."

Wang Lingfei sneered. Previously, their group had first found that cavern space, and subsequently discovered the remains within the collapsed rock wall based on the small cave dug out by Xiao Wenzi.

Although Xue Panyun's physical body had already shattered and Zhou Peng was currently being devoured and refined by Xiao Wenzi, based on the lingering aura and combat traces left at the scene, Wang Lingfei could confirm that Zhou Peng and the others had all perished.

Meanwhile, Chu Xin'er was already using her second top-tier Earth Escape Talisman, carefully bypassing yet another searching squad.

Perhaps because more and more squads were receiving the news and rushing toward the spirit stone vein, Chu Xin'er found that her journey forward had become much smoother. She thus diverted a fraction of her focus to cracking the imprints on the remaining few storage bags.

After all, relying solely on this single Earth Escape Talisman would never allow her to completely escape danger.

Although Yang Hong was displeased with Wang Lingfei's attitude, for the sake of the bigger picture, he quickly calmed down and suggested that everyone search inward from the perimeter together, leaving no suspicious spot unchecked.

Streaks of earth-yellow light shuttled through the mountain walls. When those medium and high-grade spirit stones came into view, the gazes of many flickered somewhat, yet none dared to stop and mine them.

For everyone understood clearly that a spirit stone vein of this magnitude was not something they could privately misappropriate or covet.

"Good heavens, these are all high-grade spirit stones, and there are so many of them?"

"No, the spiritual energy within these spirit stones has long been exhausted; they are nothing more than worthless junk."

Eventually, Wang Lingfei and the others appeared in the cavern space one after another. Looking at the piles of cracked high-grade spirit stone mounds, cries of astonishment rose and fell. However, Yang Hong's gaze was locked firmly onto a sealed patch of ground.

"This place was clearly excavated not long ago. If I'm not mistaken, the skeleton inside should have been buried by that demonic woman...

Wait, why would a skeleton appear here? Could he be some senior ancestor of my Lingtian Sect? Was this space specially created by him for healing his injuries?"

The stone pit Chu Xin'er had dug to bury the skeleton was not very deep. With Yang Hong's spiritual sense strength, it was quite easy to probe the skeleton inside through the gaps in the rocks, and he could not help but mutter to himself.

As for the speculation that he was healing his injuries, based on clues such as the skeleton's fractured sternum and the mounds of spirit stones with exhausted spiritual energy, the meticulous Yang Hong easily deduced it.