The air ihe tunnel was heavy, but tained a , carried by an energy that seemed to vibrate against his skin.

  At every step, Tang Xi heard the aura around you this, being increasingly trated.

  It was suffog.

  Custrophobic.

  The turetched for meters aers ihe mountain, and the absence of natural light made time seem distorted.

  She did not know how long have you been walking?

  But something was certain...

  The deeper it went, the more intehe energy became.

  And then, she finally saw the light at the end.

  A shine milky gray emerged from the dark depths.

  Tang Xi narrowed his eyes, allowing them to adjust to their new surroundings, and put away the fshlight.

  When she finally mao see clearly, her heart stopped for a moment.

  The tunnel had expanded into a much rger chamber.

  And what awaited her i was unbelievable.

  Entire walls covered in spiritual stones.

  The soft, mesmerizing glow of the stones illumihe chamber with a spectral light, dang over the jagged surfaces of the rock.

  Tang Xi felt his breath cat his throat.

  "This… is this a vein of spiritual stones?"

  The quantity it was huge.

  Even if it was a vein small, it had to be worth at least ten million spiritual stones.

  If it were a little bigger, could support aire city for years.

  Tang Xi bit his lip.

  'What do I do now?' — Logic said that getting out of there riority, but...

  Leave all this behind?

  She had already given up on the appeal in the monkeys' den.

  But this... this ure money.

  A huge fortuhat was enough for her and her father for decades.

  Tang Xi took a deep breath, f yourself to think rationally.

  'No matter how tempting it is, I 't just rip it all away.'

  'Even if I spent years digging, I would never be able to move even a thousandth of this pce.'

  The frustratioled in his chest.

  Then, an idea came up.

  "What if I try to teleport the storaight to my ste ring?"

  Your heart accelerated with the possibility.

  Tang Xi approached the wall, reag out to touch the spiritual stones.

  She focused her mind and tried.

  But...

  Nothing happened.

  She failed.

  The problem was clear: could not delimit the extra area.

  The spiritual stohey were not loose.

  They were fused to the cave walls.

  If she tries to teleport them, she'll take a whole k of rock with her.

  Tang Xi frowned.

  'Then it won't be that easy...'

  She refused to give up so quickly.

  'Se I couldn't take it all, maybe I could find a better way to extract a part.'

  Another idea popped into his mind.

  Activated [Star Dete].

  Instantly, she felt a slight indu, pointing to one of the chamber's side tunnels.

  She didn't feel any danger, luckily it was the same pce where the air current was ing from.

  But just in case, activated [Luminous cealment] and covered himself with stelr earthly aura.

  Although your energy not blend in pletely with the enviro, the rock was a mutation of the earth element.

  It was better than nothing.

  She advanced.

  The tunnel branched into multiple dires, and spiritual energy it remained absurdly dense.

  Tang Xifollowed carefully, but then...

  Felt.

  A vibration ing from the depths.

  At each passing fork, the path became stranger.

  Sometimes she found dead ends, but she felt the draft ing from there.

  When this happened, she was forced to use explosive talismans or the Lunar Umbrel to open passage.

  Mass number of tunnels and the plexity of the path were starting to bother her.

  'This entire mountain… could it be a single, immense vein of spiritual stones?'

  It was difficult to credit.

  And then...

  She found something ued.

  When opening another dead end, she came across...

  Corpses.

  Dead hawks.

  Dried blood covered the walls and floor.

  The bodies were preserved by the ountain enviro and the amount of aura.

  And these were no ordinary hawks.

  Some were in level four.

  Others, level six... seven... eight...

  And then, she saw it.

  One level nine hawk.

  Tang Xihe felt a shiver run down his spine.

  'Something killed them in here.'

  'And it wasn't one or two.'

  'There were many.'

  She ted quickly.

  Fifteen corpses in total.

  And if they were there, buried iunnels...

  Or they were crushed to death.

  Or stayed imprisoned and starved to death.

  her option was f.

  Tang Xi became even more cautious.

  And then...

  The vibrations increased.

  Not one, but several.

  They were stronger.

  Closer.

  Tang Xi stopped.

  Your heart hit faster.

  The silence around you it seemed to grow, oppressive.

  Something was moving.

  And it was right in front of you. And after minutes of silence…

  Tang Xi remained motionless, his body tensed as he watched the imposing figure in front of him.

  A Ro.

  He stood up more than three meters high, its massive structure appeared to be made from the mountain itself. Rocks inid with spiritual crystals covered his body, as if it had formed directly from the surrounding spiritual stone vein.

  Tang Xi didn't expect to find something like this.

  But now it made sense.

  The excavated tunnels, the exposed spiritual stones... everything poio a single culprit in front of him.

  The Golems de Rocha were elemental spirits born from the earth or created by olems.

  They were skilled maniputors of the earth, or rock, element.

  Tang Xi ched his fists.

  "If that thing decides to fight, I'm dead."

  Fight against elementals it was already difficult.

  But inside a mountain filled with tons of rock?

  It would be suicide.

  The Golem didn't o defeat her directly.

  If you wanted, you could just colpse the mountain on top of her, burying it forever.

  Tang Xi swallowed hard, without hesitation she decided to use a sed level aura cealment talisman, which she was relut to use until now, she only had one.

  Now she uood what had happeo the fals.

  They dug into the cliff, attracted by the enormous tration of spiritual energy within the mountain.

  But when they mao ehey were annihited by Golems.

  And their bodies they were buried, along with the passages they excavated.

  Tang Xi feels a chill runs down your spine.

  She could not be discovered.

  It couldn't bee just another body buried there.

  With calcuted steps, dodged the Golem, moving through the tunnel with maximum caution.

  She tinued advang.

  As she tinued forward, Tang Xi noticed something impressive.

  The amount of spiritual stones tio increase.

  Now, they weren't just low level.

  She began to find mid-level spirit stones.

  An invaluable fortune.

  Tang Xi felt the temptation growing inside her.

  Even though she had already found an absurd amount of spiritual stones before, it was still difficult to simply ignore so much wealth.

  But she he was not distracted.

  Yoal was to find the exit, and the source of the indu.

  And for that, I needed follow the air current.

  She marked the tunnel where the wind came from, ensuring she don't get lost.

  Then, tinued oh of indu.

  After dodge molems, avoid dead ends and ultiple forks, Tang Xi finally reached its destination.

  The tunnel ended in an imposing wall, made purely from mid-grade spiritual stones.

  They were so dehat they glowed with their own iy, emanating a suffog energy.

  Tang Xi closed his eyes for a moment.

  "It's that wall...or what's behind it."

  She didn't hesitate.

  She picked up five Iron Armor talismans and pced them on the body.

  Then, touched the wall.

  With mental effort, pced it in his ste ring.

  The stone disappeared, leaving his mind exhausted from the effort.

  And the moment, Tang Xi was almost crushed by the pressure that gushed out from the opening.

  Dense. Excruciating.

  The spiritual energy that escaped from the chamber was so trated it looked like liquid, pressing your body from all sides.

  She couldn't move.

  Your body struggled to absorb the energy, but it wasn't enough.

  Every cell in his body felt hungry.

  Your ski deeply while your muscles trembled under pressure.

  Same with talismans activated, resist it was almost impossible.

  But...

  She didn't e in in the ring.

  She didn't hide.

  Tang Xi withstood the pressure.

  She felt something inside her tremble, it was her bones.

  And then...

  She heard a clear sound.

  Breaking a bottleneck.

  Your body heated up violently, every bone shuddered and pulsed as energy spread within her.

  Tang Xi kly what was happening.

  She had surpassed the fourth level of Borengthening.

  But It didn't stop there.

  The cycle of the elements had also kicked into high gear.

  And then, another crash.

  She advanced directly to the fifth level of Body Tempering.

  Tang Xi widened his eyes, feeling your body will transform.

  She became stronger.

  Your bones became more resistant.

  Your flesh denser.

  Every fiber of his being had been refined by the impact of pure spiritual energy.

  But it almost killed her.

  With effort, she caught three more iron armor talismans and glued them to the body.

  The pressure finally eased.

  Tang Xibreathed hard, trying to catch my breath, and dealing with mental exhaustion.

  'That was more dangerous thahought... she almost got crushed.'

  'But It was worth it.' — she cluded with an exhausted smile

  So she turned around, the enviro in front of you.

  She it was inside a cave made entirely of mid-grade spiritual stones.

  The amount of wealth there it was simply absurd.

  But your to look fixed itself in the ter of the chamber.

  There, a big rock stood, and i...

  densed Spiritual Liquid.

  The resource that Lunar Umbrel wao indicate it, but couldn't because was isoted. Oher hand, the chamber that isoted him was a treasure in itself, so he induced her.

  But it wasn't the only thing there.

  Beside the stone, An immense five meter Golem was sleeping.

  Tang Xi felt his heart accelerate.

  The aura of that creature was absurdly strong.

  ' This golem is even strohan my father, he must be above the in Realm… possibly in the Spiritual Sea!' —she cluded with a certain tremor iired mind.

  But he didn't react.

  Tang Xi swallowed dryly.

  'So that was why I didn't feel any danger…'

  'He is sleeping.'

  Golems could sleep for thousands of years, since were not disturbed.

  Tang XiI had no iion of waking him up.

  Without hesitation, moved the stoh the spiritual liquid to her ring, something that drained her mind even more, leaving her dizzy.

  But she bit her tongue and turned quickly, heading towards the path of the air current.

  Yoal it was getting off the mountain.

  And the faster, the better.

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