116: Chapter 114: Number One on the Heavenly List 116: Chapter 114: Number One on the Heavenly List “Ye Zhen, why do we need to search inside the mine?

Perhaps the treasures deep within have already been taken by the Che Family.” Inside the tunnel, Fast Sword Cao Bufan asked.

“If the treasures inside the mine could be taken away by the Che Family in one go, then Che Tiejun wouldn’t have taken such a huge risk to murder and silence others,” Ye Zhen replied.

“You mean?” Fast Sword Cao Bufan’s eyes suddenly lit up.

As Ye Zhen nodded, Fast Sword Cao Bufan’s heart began to thump uncontrollably.

If their speculation was true, then…

An hour later, when Ye Zhen and Fast Sword Cao Bufan reached the deepest part of the middle mine and overturned a pile of rubble, their eyes were momentarily dazzled by the brilliance.

Spirit Crystals!

All exposed low grade Spirit Crystals, the kind that you could just break off a piece of the vein with a strong tug.

Cao Bufan was stunned!

Ye Zhen was also shocked by the shining low grade Spirit Crystals.

“No wonder….” Ye Zhen murmured.

Everything was revealed.

No wonder a seemingly insignificant Purple Copper Ore site could attract so many Mid-grade Earth Level Demon Beasts, it turned out there was a Spirit Crystal Vein hidden inside.

No wonder there were fewer Demon Beasts inside the tunnel on the right; it turns out the Demon Beasts were all drawn to the Spirit Crystals in the middle tunnel.

No wonder, Che Tiejun wanted to kill them and silence them.

A Spirit Crystal Vein, even the smallest scale vein, could drastically elevate a family’s power in a short time.

Spirit Crystals, they are one of the most important cultivation resources after breaking through to the True Essence Realm, even used as hard currency in high-level martial artist trades.

Moments later, with swords gleaming, Ye Zhen and Cao Bufan quickly began mining the exposed low grade Spirit Crystals—a short while later, each had acquired seventy to eighty low grade Spirit Crystals.

However, their fortune ceased there; the visibly exposed low grade Spirit Crystals had been mined clean, and it would take step by step mining to achieve further gains.

“Ye Zhen, I’ll go check the tunnel on the left to see if there are any Spirit Crystal veins,” Cao Bufan said.

Cao Bufan headed to the left tunnel while Ye Zhen dug on the edge of the mine road.

This was tangible wealth; each Spirit Crystal dug up represented an income of a thousand taels of gold.

Moreover, Ye Zhen’s speed of mining using True Yuan was much faster than that of a miner, but even so, it took about sixty seconds to dig out each piece.

Ye Zhen was digging vigorously because he knew something important—once one’s cultivation stepped into the Spirit Summoning Realm, if one had a large amount of Spirit Crystals for assistance, the cultivation improvement speed would be very fast.

In the meantime, Cao Bufan came once and said that Spirit Crystals could also be mined in the left tunnel, so he continued mining there.

Two hours.

Four hours.

Twelve hours.

After a frenzied twelve hours of mining, having harvested over seven hundred low grade Spirit Crystals, even Ye Zhen, a being of the True Essence Realm, felt an overwhelming exhaustion.

Clap…clap…clap!

Sudden and loud clapping echoed in the mine tunnel, and Ye Zhen, extremely exhausted, sprang up, his gaze warily watching a dangerous-looking stranger slowly approaching from a hundred meters away.

“Very good!

Really very good!”

“Before coming here, I couldn’t even dream that killing you would lead to the discovery of a Spirit Crystal Vein!

The most wonderful part is having you, a free miner, mining Spirit Crystals for me.”

The newcomer spread his hands, “Actually, if you hadn’t rested, but continued mining, you could have lived a bit longer!

Watching you mine is boring, but still enjoyable.

After all, each Spirit Crystal you dig up will be mine!

Oh, and the guy in the neighboring mine tunnel, he’s also a great miner for me, wahahaha!”

The newcomer couldn’t help but laugh with self-satisfaction.

“Who are you?”

Ye Zhen’s gaze was filled with dangerous brilliance, realizing that this person had come specifically to kill him.

The man in front of him, with thick brows and big eyes and a rugged face, was too dangerous.

To have silently watched him mine all day without Ye Zhen feeling anything, there was only one possibility: this man’s cultivation was too high, the gap between them too great, undetectable even from a hundred meters away under scrutiny.

Otherwise, even from hundreds of meters away, under the look, there would usually be some sense of presence.

“Who am I?”

The man laughed, “Actually, you should be very familiar with me, because I’ve always been above you!”

“You should be very lucky, if it wasn’t for my master’s instruction that you might have some unknown secrets on you, instructing me to find an opportunity to interrogate you, otherwise, you would have become a corpse without any noise long ago.”

“Master, above?”

Those two words, once aligned, struck Ye Zhen like a bolt of lightning.

“Qu Zhanqian?

Are you the top-ranked Qu Zhanqian from the Heavenly List?” Ye Zhen exclaimed.

“Smart!”

Qu Zhanqian gave Ye Zhen a thumbs up.

“Did Hong Banjiang send you to kill me?”

“How dare you!

The name of the master is not for you to call so casually,” Qu Zhanqian chided.

In the midst of the scolding, a Palm Shadow flashed, and a palm wind fiercely swept toward Ye Zhen’s cheek.

Instinctively, Ye Zhen sidestepped, causing Qu Zhanqian’s slap to miss suddenly, leaving Qu Zhanqian with a surprised expression, but his smile grew even wider.

“Good, merely at the Fourth Stage of True Essence, and yet able to dodge my attack, very good, now I truly believe you hold some secrets on you.”

“Alright, look, would you rather hand over your secrets quickly and choose a painless way to die,

or should I let you cling to a sliver of hope until the bitter end, suffer under my unique interrogation technique, wailing in agony for two days and nights before dying tragically?” Qu Zhanqian rubbed his hands together, eager to begin.

“Oh, by the way, don’t hold out hope that you can escape, with my cultivation, you have absolutely no chance of escaping, even if you add that worthless fellow in the neighboring mine tunnel!”

During the conversation, Qu Zhanqian deliberately activated his true essence…

no, it should be said that the spiritual power around his body fluctuated violently.

Qu Zhanqian’s true essence, 99% of it had transformed into spiritual power, and if it weren’t for the few traces of true essence mixed in with the brilliant spiritual power, Ye Zhen would have almost believed Qu Zhanqian was from the Spirit Transformation Realm.

“Peak of the Spirit Summoning Realm?”

Even so, the strength Qu Zhanqian displayed still made Ye Zhen exclaim in surprise.

“Hehe, good to know!”

“My cultivation is not something that Che Tiejun could compare to, I could crush him like an ant with just one finger!” he said.

At this, Qu Zhanqian smiled again, “So, which path will you choose?

My patience is very limited!”

Listening to Qu Zhanqian’s urging, a storm surged in Ye Zhen’s mind.

Ye Zhen had not expected that the Fifth Elder Hong Banjiang would be so insanely ruthless as to send his proud disciple Qu Zhanqian to kill him.

Qu Zhanqian was so fearless, just swaggering over to kill him.

Clearly, he didn’t take him, Ye Zhen, seriously at all, Qu Zhanqian had absolute confidence in his own strength.

How to escape?

Perhaps the Wind Cloud Sword Technique could repel Qu Zhanqian, but once the technique was used, Ye Zhen would be drained of True Yuan by the Wind Cloud Sword Technique and become powerless.

If he couldn’t severely injure Qu Zhanqian with one strike, it would still be a death sentence for Ye Zhen.

The Primordial Spirit Jade Liquid that Caiyi gave him, no matter how incredible, couldn’t possibly restore his spent True Yuan instantly.

“Then I have only that choice…”

“Ye Zhen, how about your decision?”

“Ten!”

“Nine!”

“Eight!”

….

Under the pressure, Qu Zhanqian began to count with a cold smile as the spiritual power around him grew stronger and more terrifying, blatantly threatening Ye Zhen.

“One….”

“Alright, Brother Qu, I’ll hand over a treasure I obtained, only asking for a swift end!

But, I have one small condition!” Ye Zhen said.

“What condition?

If you want to live, that’s impossible, stop talking nonsense!” Qu Zhanqian frowned and said.

“I have ten thousand silvers, I hope you can give them to my parents so that they can live out their days in peace.

All my other possessions, including this Heavenly Crystal Sword, are yours to dispose of!” Ye Zhen said.

As Qu Zhanqian heard Ye Zhen’s last words-like arrangement, he relaxed, and the spiritual power around him gradually calmed down.

“Fine!

I accept your offer.

A few tens of thousand silvers, I don’t even care about it.

Now, hand over your treasure!”

Qu Zhanqian said so, not because he was foolish!

But because of his strong confidence in his own cultivation which was far superior to Ye Zhen’s.

True Essence Fourth Stage, compared to almost stepping into the Spirit Transformation Realm from the peak of the Spirit Summoning Realm, there simply was no comparison.

So, at that moment, Qu Zhanqian let his guard down, his eyes glued to Ye Zhen’s storage bracelet.

And at that very moment, a flash of light from Ye Zhen’s storage bracelet appeared, and a Profound Ice Sword Light Talisman given by Liao Feibai suddenly appeared in Ye Zhen’s hand.

Almost immediately after taking it out, Ye Zhen sent his True Yuan into it, and with a flick of his hand, the activated Profound Ice Sword Light Talisman blasted towards Qu Zhanqian.

The Profound Ice Sword Light Talisman swelled in the wind, and in the moment it fired, a Profound Ice Sword Light tens of meters long blasted towards Qu Zhanqian!

“Profound Ice Sword Light?”

Qu Zhanqian, who had come to his senses, had the blood drain from his face.

Instinctively, he retreated backwards like lightning.

But he was fast!

Liao Feibai’s Profound Ice Sword Light was faster!

The sword light struck like lightning towards Qu Zhanqian’s forehead.

In an instant, Qu Zhanqian’s surrounding Spirit Light burst out to its peak.

Ye Zhen could vaguely see that in the instant when the Profound Ice Sword Light struck, Qu Zhanqian’s figure weirdly dodged to the right, avoiding the tragedy of being split in two.

Even so, the Profound Ice Sword Light still cut through as if slicing tofu.

Ye Zhen saw Qu Zhanqian’s left arm, along with half his left shoulder, directly severed by the Profound Ice Sword Light, but peculiarly, not a single drop of blood sprayed out.

Immediately, a layer of solid ice formed around Qu Zhanqian, and Ye Zhen even saw that the spot where Qu Zhanqian’s shoulder was cut had turned directly into ice chips.

The Profound Ice Sword Qi began to wreak havoc inside Qu Zhanqian’s body.

The power of the Profound Ice Sword Light Talisman surprised Ye Zhen greatly.

If just a talisman containing two percent of Liao Feibai’s combat power had such formidable strength, capable of instantly killing someone at the peak of the Spirit Summoning Realm, just how powerful was Liao Feibai’s combat power?

If Ye Zhen had known earlier that the Profound Ice Sword Light Talisman given by Liao Feibai was so powerful, he wouldn’t have had to be cautious earlier, and could have just used a talisman straight away.

However, Qu Zhanqian was also formidable!

With a roar, Qu Zhanqian’s surrounding Spirit Light burst crazily, shattering the solid ice that covered him in the very moment he burst open a blood hole in his body.

With a flash of movement, Qu Zhanqian staggered out towards the mine exterior, not even bothering to pick up his severed arm.

“Ye Zhen, dare to trick me, I, Qu Zhanqian, will not let this go!”

In the tunnel, Qu Zhanqian’s voice, full of resentment and trembling, rang out.

Compared to the wound of his severed arm, the Profound Ice Sword Qi from Liao Feibai wreaking havoc inside his body was the true and serious injury!

With a Chasing Star Step, Ye Zhen quickly pursued him.

(To be continued.

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