Chapter 2167: Miner

Han Li immediately stood up and left the inn. After stopping a beast-drawn carriage on the street, he likewise headed straight for a city gate.

The private mine, naturally, was not on the island itself; its location was extremely remote. Even flying directly with his escape light, it would still take him several days to reach it.

Three days later, Han Li transformed into a faint green rainbow, streaking through the high sky. Below was no longer a rippling lake surface, but an undulating range of dark green mountains.

Suddenly, the mountains ahead gave way, revealing a towering peak, straight like a giant sword, over ten thousand zhang high and exceptionally majestic. Upon seeing this peak, Han Li's face lit up with joy. He murmured, "Finally here," then immediately descended with his escape light, heading directly towards the peak.

The green light receded!

Han Li immediately appeared on a huge boulder at the summit of the giant peak. Closing his eyes, he released his vast divine sense, sweeping it across the ground below...

A short while later, Han Li opened his eyes. He performed a hand seal with one hand, and yellow runes suddenly glowed on his body. Then, with a twist of his figure, he abruptly vanished from the boulder without a trace.

The next moment, deep within the mountain's core, a yellow halo flashed, and Han Li's figure indistinctly reappeared. He glanced at the somewhat dim surroundings, frowned, then with one hand, he conjured and tossed a white orb of light. After a single rotation, it stably hovered above his head, illuminating the surroundings as if it were daytime. Although Han Li's spiritual eye ability, with a slight activation of his magic power, could allow him to see everything clearly, it was naturally more convenient to do it this way.

After doing this, Han Li realized he was in a somewhat desolate mine tunnel. Its walls were filled with rough pits and worthless mineral residue. Looking ahead, a narrow and long tunnel snaked further forward. Judging from the slightly sloping ground, the tunnel seemed to vaguely lead deeper into the mountain's core.

After sweeping his gaze across the surroundings, Han Li finally focused his attention on an inconspicuous ore embedded in a side wall. This ore was originally a low-value associated mineral, and its entire body was covered in cracks. Anyone with even a bit of discernment would lose all interest after the first glance. But after observing the ore, a faint smile appeared on Han Li's lips. With a movement of his arm, he extended his five fingers and grabbed towards it.

With a "swish," the ore immediately trembled and was forcefully torn from the wall by an inexplicable immense force, transforming into a yellow light as it fell into Han Li's palm. With just a slight squeeze of his finger, the ore burst open into a ball of yellow light.

After the light disappeared, a pale black talisman conspicuously appeared in Han Li's palm, its surface flickering with an intermittent glow.

"Heh heh, that's somewhat clever!"

After merely sweeping his divine sense over the talisman, Han Li made a noncommittal remark, then put the talisman into his sleeve and strode forward along the tunnel. The mine tunnel was very narrow and long, with countless crisscrossing branches, like a spider web. However, Han Li seemed to know the way perfectly, turning left and right without even glancing, advancing five or six hundred zhang in moments, and finally stopping again at a crossroads, looking around.

With a "bang"! Han Li flicked a finger slightly, and instantly a corner of a stone at the intersection shattered, revealing a black talisman that shot out from within. With a shake of his sleeve, a surge of green light erupted! The black talisman was enveloped by the light and brought back into his palm.

After Han Li likewise collected the black talisman, his figure blurred, and he appeared in one of the tunnels, continuing his journey. Clearly, these talismans, successively retrieved, had a guiding function. Under their guidance, Han Li headed straight for the deepest part of the private mine.

In this manner, relying on the mutual sensing connection between the talismans, Han Li retrieved a talisman from a certain spot in the mine tunnel periodically. After a full three or four hours, he had delved deeper and deeper underground, going further and further, while the branching paths gradually became scarce. The pitted remnants on the mine walls on both sides of the tunnel also became fewer. Eventually, in a long tunnel, only a hundred or so excavated marks could occasionally be seen on either side.

However, from some mineral residue dropped on the ground, it could also be seen that the type and quality of the ore had significantly improved compared to before. No wonder the mine slaves extracting the ore were unwilling to easily abandon this place, even knowing it had somewhat deviated from the original vein, and continued to excavate deeper.

As Han Li was pondering to himself, he suddenly paused and stopped. He saw that the path ahead was completely blocked by countless rubble; half of the tunnel had been deliberately destroyed and collapsed by brutal means. Han Li frowned slightly, but his figure did not stop at all as he continued to stride forward. A flash of yellow light appeared on his body again, the white orb of light above his head instantly dissipated and vanished, and he himself, like an invisible entity, directly merged into the rubble.

A short while later, Han Li penetrated through this collapsed section of the tunnel, finally flashing out from the rubble and reappearing on the other side. As the yellow light on his body receded and disappeared, his gaze swept around. He found that although there was still a tunnel ahead, it was much smaller than the previous ones, and its walls were exceptionally rough, as if it had only recently been excavated.

Han Li's gaze then fell upon a small piece of black and white residue on the nearby ground. With a single gesture, he levitated it into his palm and lowered his head to examine it. "Indeed, it's Alien Demon Gold! It seems this is where they are mined." After finishing his inspection, Han Li tossed aside the residue of the Alien Demon Gold, a hint of joy appearing on his face.

Without daring to delay, he closed his eyes on the spot and released his vast divine sense again, extending it to probe the large area ahead.

"Huh, this mine tunnel is unexpectedly long... There seems to be a natural restriction ahead, preventing my divine sense from going further. Oh, there are even people nearby. With such low cultivation, they must be those mine slaves. Perhaps they could still be of some use!" Han Li opened his eyes, feeling somewhat surprised. However, after a brief contemplation, he made a decision.

With just a movement of his figure, he vanished into the darkness of the tunnel ahead.

A short while later, Han Li appeared in a temporarily excavated small cavern. In front of him, three demon race mine slaves, dressed in ragged clothes and with dark skin, lay prostrate before him, their faces filled with terror. These three demon race mine slaves all had two horns on their heads and ugly faces, clearly belonging to the same clan.

"You say there are only three of you left here, and everyone else has been slaughtered?" Han Li asked calmly.

"Yes, sir! If the three of us hadn't been vigilant and hidden ourselves early, we would probably have met the same fate," the middle mine slave replied hastily, trembling and not daring to raise his head.

"Silencing witnesses, eh? That's natural for them," Han Li muttered to himself. Then, his gaze flickered as he asked, "So, these Alien Demon Gold here were all personally excavated by you?"

"Yes, sir. We did indeed excavate them ourselves," the middle mine slave replied. He didn't understand the meaning of Han Li's question, but he could only brace himself and answer.

"Good, I have a few questions for you. If your answers satisfy me, I might as well save you. Otherwise, this mine tunnel has already collapsed, and even if I don't act, you will eventually starve to death here." Han Li said faintly.

"Sir, you're willing to save us! As long as you're willing to help, we will absolutely tell you everything we know," the middle mine slave exclaimed hastily, raising his head without thinking. The other two mine slaves were likewise both shocked and delighted!

"First, tell me, when did you discover this Alien Demon Gold, and did you find anything unusual during the excavation process?" Han Li asked slowly.

"The Alien Demon Gold was discovered more than two months ago. Because the soil here is as hard as iron, it took over a hundred of us all this time to barely finish extracting all the Alien Demon Gold from this place. As for what happened during the excavation, something indeed occurred when the excavation was almost complete. Several companions suddenly fell backward while digging and turned into dust right before everyone's eyes." The middle-aged mine slave recounted truthfully after a brief thought, though a fearful expression appeared on his face when he spoke the last two sentences.

"Falling backward and turning into dust, was it exactly like this?" Han Li mused for a moment, then suddenly pointed a finger at a black stone on the nearby ground, asking simultaneously.

A green light flashed! A green thread shot out from his fingertip, instantly piercing through the stone, then spiraled back. And that seemingly hard stone, with a "boom," instantly turned into a pile of grayish-white dust.

Seeing this, the three mine slaves instantly turned pale with fright, and the middle one hastily exclaimed loudly: "Sir, it was exactly like this. Our companions lost their lives just like that, so suddenly."

"When something like this happened, didn't your superiors send someone to investigate thoroughly?" Han Li nodded and asked again.

"Sir, someone did indeed come to investigate, but there was nothing unusual in the places where our companions had turned to dust and been digging. Others went back to work and continued excavating, and nothing else happened. After several such occurrences, the superiors naturally couldn't be bothered to ask about it anymore. After all, the lives of us mine slaves are inherently worthless." The middle mine slave replied with a bitter smile.

"An anomaly occurred once, and then nothing happened again. That's quite interesting. Later, the few of you will accurately point out the location of the incident to me!" Han Li chuckled and instructed.

"As you command, sir!""It is our honor to serve you, sir!"

The three mine slaves naturally dared not refuse and respectfully agreed in unison.

"Now, I have one last question. Answer me truthfully: has all the Alien Demon Gold here truly been exhausted?" Han Li's expression suddenly darkened as he posed another question.