Chapter 104: Chapter 104: The Spirit Stone Mine

Lin Xiao immediately began feeling around the nearby rock wall with his hands.

Suddenly, his hand touched a spot that should have been solid rock, but instead, he felt nothing at all!

The next moment, he felt a sudden sense of weightlessness, and before he knew it, he had fallen into the space!

To his surprise, the small gap he had touched was actually the entrance to a hidden space!

Mo, the guard following behind, watched as Lin Xiao, who had been searching the area just moments before, suddenly vanished without a trace.

Lin Xiao felt himself falling rapidly and finally landed on the ground after what seemed like a long descent.

He had no idea how far he had fallen from the surface.

However, he was immediately stunned by the abundant spiritual energy within this space! His eyes swept over the surroundings, and he saw walls faintly glowing with a soft light.

The spirit stones in the ceiling had formed into stalactites, hanging as if they might drop at any moment.

Ahead, a deep, narrow passageway stretched into the distance, glowing faintly with the distinctive aura of spirit stones.

He was astonished.

This looked like a spirit stone mine!

And a large one at that!

Lin Xiao felt like he had struck gold.

But soon, amidst the abundant spiritual energy, he sensed a dense presence of life force, which brought him back to his senses.

There was still something he needed to resolve.

Still hidden by his concealment technique, Lin Xiao walked steadily toward the passageway.

He had already guessed what the kidnapper-cultivator was up to.

For any cultivator, seeing such a massive fortune would certainly stir greed. It was clear that the kidnapper-cultivator intended to claim this spirit stone mine for himself, though Lin Xiao didn't know exactly how he planned to do it.

No need to ask why he made this guess.

At this moment, Lin Xiao had only one thought: this spirit stone mine was his!

As he continued down the passage, it gradually widened.

After walking for half an hour, he finally came upon a vast open space.

What he saw there shocked him.

In the enormous space ahead, a huge circular formation was etched into the ground with unknown materials. Suspended above this circle of symbols were a group of half-grown children!

These children, hanging high above, were having their life force continuously drained into the large formation below.

Some of the children seemed to have been drained for a long time and were now unconscious, their faces a deathly shade of blue, barely clinging to life.

Other children, though still breathing, looked sickly and pale, having seemingly given up on struggling or calling for help.

In the center of the circle, however, a young boy was still struggling.

"Let me down! You bastard! You're no cultivator; you're a ghost!"

The boy, dressed in fine clothes, looked like a noble. He shouted hoarsely at a man in black robes standing outside the formation.

The black-robed man ignored the boy's curses.

After all, he had been listening to them all day.

His eyes were filled with anticipation as he stared at the formation, gazing at it as if it were his own child.

Soon, he would be the proud owner of a large spirit stone mine! All of this would belong to him!

Who would have thought that Xu Kefan would ever have such a day?

He didn't know who had placed such a high-level spiritual lock and concealment array at the entrance to this spirit stone mine, but it had kept this treasure hidden for so long.

It must have been fate smiling upon him, a sign that the heavens were gifting him these spirit stones!

However, this wasn't his territory, and with the nearby presence of the Shangyang Sect, Xu Kefan felt uneasy. He feared that this might be a reserve spirit stone mine for the sect.

So, he planned to use a secret technique to transfer the mine elsewhere.

He had stumbled upon a space transfer technique by chance.

But the technique was quite sinister, requiring forty-nine boys and girls to be suspended over the formation, their life force serving as the energy source.

He had been one short, intending to go out and capture another child today. The ones he had captured first were already on the verge of collapse.

After all, he had no patience to feed and care for these noisy half-grown kids.

But just as he was about to leave, this finely dressed boy had fallen right into his arms from above, right as he was stepping out.

Xu Kefan felt it was the heavens helping him out.

When luck comes, nothing can stop it!

Lin Xiao, hiding behind a wall of spirit stones, witnessed everything.

He looked at the boy still full of energy hanging at the center of the formation and guessed that this must be the "young master" the guard had mentioned.

But when he turned his gaze to the other children, some of whom were barely clinging to life, he knew he had to act quickly to save them.

The formation could activate at any moment.

Time was of the essence. Lin Xiao didn't hesitate any longer. When the black-robed man turned his back to him, Lin Xiao darted out at full speed!

As Lin Xiao channeled his spiritual energy, his concealment technique naturally failed.

The black-robed man sensed the movement and turned around, only to see a twelve-year-old boy charging at him. He was startled but then sneered.

"You, a mere child who has just begun cultivating, dare to challenge a Foundation Establishment cultivator like me?"

But Lin Xiao was incredibly fast, and before the man could finish his sentence, Lin Xiao had already reached him!

Xu Kefan's last conscious thought was seeing the boy, whom he had dismissed as a child, appear before him with a talisman in hand, slapping it onto his body.

Then, he lost consciousness.

Lin Xiao looked down at the black-robed man, now sealed by the talisman, and felt quite satisfied.

He no longer felt any regret about the cost of the sealing talisman. After all, what was seventy-five spirit stones? In this mine, he could mine that many with just a few strikes!

Of course, he had also been fortunate. The black-robed man had underestimated him, assuming he was just a novice cultivator. Otherwise, the talisman might not have been so easily applied.

Lin Xiao didn't rush to deal with the black-robed man. After carefully checking the surroundings to ensure there were no accomplices, he hurriedly began freeing the children suspended above the formation.

He started with those who were on the verge of death, leaving the energetic boy in fine clothes for last.

Mo Yuanjiao, seeing a boy about his age suddenly subdue the black-robed man, was stunned. Then, he watched as this boy went around freeing the others.

He didn't rush to ask for help himself.

Suspended in mid-air, Mo Yuanjiao kicked his legs and spun around, following Lin Xiao with his eyes as he worked. He called out, "Hey, brother! How did you manage to subdue him? That was amazing! Can you teach me?"