Chapter 1761: Each Defeated One by One

Once the purple mystic crystals were gone, it started pouring the deep red ones.

Wu Shidao had visited the treasury several times and had a rough estimate of its contents. He took "eighty thousand jin" of mystic crystals in one go. Even if he didn't completely deplete the stock, he certainly took six or seven tenths of it.

Success would deliver a devastating blow to Qianhuan and the Illusion Sect!

While the scale demon was working, the outer chamber remained sealed unless the steward of Xianguang Cave entered. At this point, Wu Shidao felt a sudden calm. Unable to leave, he leaned against the stone wall, sat down, and stared blankly ahead before letting out a self-deprecating chuckle.

Deep within the mystic crystal mine.

The pitch-black darkness served as the perfect camouflage. The earth-mole creatures charged into the tunnel, single-mindedly focused on the giant mystic crystal deposit ahead, barely sparing a glance upward.

The shadow remained as still as a mountain. Yet, when it finally moved, its rounded form possessed an almost ethereal lightness. Its eight long legs descended the uneven rock face, making not the slightest sound.

As two earth-mole creatures crawled out, it followed immediately, using its massive body to block the tunnel entrance.

The earth-mole creatures, now blocked, stared intently:

"Oh, what a giant scorpion!"

The earth-mole creatures, with their night vision, clearly saw the creature's slick, oily black body. In front, two massive pincers resembled crab claws, while behind, a high-arching, hooked tail, more than seven feet off the ground, ended in an exceptionally sharp stinger over a foot long.

The earth-mole creature at the very front, unable to stop, was instantly pinned by its head and torn to shreds in a matter of seconds.

This was a clone of the Earth Spirit; once destroyed, it reverted to a small lump of earth.

The giant scorpion picked up the scattered mystic crystals from the ground, swallowed them whole, then immediately went after other prey.

Each grasp was precise and incredibly swift.

As it wreaked havoc, like a fox in a chicken coop, the other earth-mole creatures scattered, attempting to circle behind it and escape the tunnel.

However, upon reaching the exit, they discovered it was completely blocked by dense layers of silk web, leaving no gap whatsoever!

The earth-mole creatures clawed and bit, exerting their full digging strength to tear through the silk web.

It was futile.

The flimsy web proved resistant to force, and its extreme stickiness meant that once their front claws touched it, they couldn't pull away. The earth-mole creatures continued to push forward, completely blocking the tunnel entrance within a dozen breaths.

Outside the mine, the Earth Spirit immediately reported the unexpected situation to the two immortals, explaining that the opponent was too strong for it to handle alone.

Strictly speaking, it was a craftsman, skilled in its work, not responsible for combat.

"A mine-guarding spirit beast," the dwarf said, showing little surprise. "The Illusion Sect has guard dogs in their underground mines too."

This revealed He Lingchuan's strategy. If he had tasked Elder Liu and others with intercepting the earth-mole creatures, the Heavenly Palace team would not have reacted as they did. They would have assumed they'd fallen into a trap or that the Illusion Sect had arrived, and they would never have ventured back into the mine.

However, introducing a powerful demonic beast changed everything.

In ancient times, it was common for natural treasures to be guarded by spirit beasts, and for restricted areas of prominent sects to be protected by them.

This giant scorpion might have been the original guardian of the mine, merely disturbed by the earth-mole creatures—

After all, these newcomers had killed the guards at the mine entrance upon arrival, leaving no one to question.

The dwarf and his companions might cling to a sliver of hope, calculating that if they simply eliminated it, their plan could still proceed.

Moreover, if Miaozhantian intended to seize this spiritual mine entirely, they would naturally need to eliminate all obstacles, be they inanimate objects or demonic beasts.

With this thought, the dwarf turned to Master Jieshui and said, "You go. The mine tunnels are low and narrow, better suited for your abilities."

Aren't caves and grottoes the ideal terrain for a four-legged lizard?

Master Jieshui rolled its eyes. *Aren't the mine tunnels equally suitable for a half-dwarf?*

But it was too lazy to argue. With a quick slither, it vanished, leaving only a parting remark:

"Watch out for the Illusion Sect."

The eyeball spider in the tree barely registered its movement, only knowing that it had instantly darted into the mine.

He Lingchuan, however, asked, "He said 'they *also* have guard dogs.' What does that 'also' imply?"

Elder Liu replied, "Important sectarian grounds are typically guarded by spirit beasts."

"So, their own treasury also has monsters guarding it," He Lingchuan deduced, casting a sidelong glance. "How would the Heavenly Palace know that?"

"Well..."

Soon after Master Jieshui entered the mine, it encountered an earth-mole creature scrambling up from below. The creature turned around, signaling for Jieshui to follow.

Having been continuously mined for 150 years, the mine was exceptionally complex—a multi-layered, three-dimensional labyrinth riddled with countless winding paths. Master Jieshui had already sent fire snakes to scout twice, but upon entering, discovered several unexplored corners.

Along the way, it awakened several fire snake eggs, which then followed behind it.

Finally, the earth-mole creature led Master Jieshui to the battlefield deep underground.

From the outside, the tunnel entrance was enveloped in layers of thin silk web, its threads quivering faintly in the air currents.

Master Jieshui remained still, while the small fire snakes behind it surged forward.

Composed of flames, these fire snakes had no physical form, rendering the silk web utterly incapable of ensnaring them. Moreover, the web could not withstand the scorching heat of their flames.

Within a dozen breaths, the silk web disintegrated into ashes.

As several fire snakes surged inside, the giant scorpion, sensing their presence, turned its head.

They met face to face.

As a fire snake lunged, it was instantly caught by a massive pincer and torn in two.

The next moment, it exploded into a large fireball, yet the scorpion merely recoiled two steps, appearing unharmed.

Seizing the moment, Master Jieshui spoke, attempting to reason: "Leave quickly, and I won't trouble you."

The response was a gush of corrosive acid spat from the tunnel.

A hiss sounded as green smoke rose from the corroded ground. Had Master Jieshui not dodged swiftly, the acidic fluid would have splashed all over it.

Master Jieshui was enraged.

Just then, another dark shadow flashed within the cave: hundreds of earth-mole creatures had gathered, astonishingly forming a giant wolf. Previously, every attempt to coalesce had been disrupted by the scorpion, but Master Jieshui's arrival had diverted its attention, allowing the Earth Spirit to change its tactics.

Hearing the furious battle raging within, Master Jieshui could no longer resist and plunged headfirst into the tunnel!

The fish had taken the bait.

He Lingchuan opened his eyes, stood up, and finally issued his command: "Everyone, listen closely—"

"Reel in the net!"

"Commence battle!"

How significant were those four words?

The team of immortals, who had lain in wait within the Banqiu Lighthouse barrier for a long time, had finally received the signal to strike!

Within the tunnel, the giant scorpion had just repelled an attack from Master Jieshui when its figure vanished from its spot.

Before Master Jieshui could react, its opponent was gone, vanishing so quickly that it left a lingering afterimage.

"Not good!"

Then, with a sudden whoosh, the tunnel vanished, along with all the scattered rubble on the ground.

The tunnel that the earth-mole army and Master Jieshui had rushed into was now, astonishingly, a solid stone wall!

Embedded in this stone wall was a round, moon-like bronze mirror, its surface still emitting a faint glow.

He Lingchuan walked over, pointed at the mirror, and said, "Elder Liu, if you would."

Elder Liu casually drew out his Spirit Immortal Brush and, with a swift stroke, completed his task on the wall.

He "painted" another wall, obscuring the mirror. Anyone passing by later would not detect a mirror embedded within the wall.

It wasn't that He Lingchuan didn't want to retrieve the Soul-Capturing Mirror; rather, with a living being currently trapped inside, it couldn't be moved.

Elder Liu asked him, "Well? Can it hold him?"

Could this mirror truly trap a demon immortal like Master Jieshui?

He Lingchuan, reading his thoughts, replied, "The mirror alone cannot, but it can hold him for a while."

This would allow them to defeat their opponents one by one.

"Let's go," said Granny Zhu, her spider-scorpion form emerging beside them. "Time to deal with the dwarf!"

In the final second, the Soul-Capturing Mirror had pulled it out.

The mirror world then closed, trapping Master Jieshui inside.

In fact, He Lingchuan had previously pressed the Soul-Capturing Mirror against this stone wall, commanding it to open its inner space.

Visibility underground was almost zero, and the Soul-Capturing Mirror, now vastly more powerful, created an incredibly lifelike internal space that seamlessly blended with the mine.

By this point, He Lingchuan possessed far more trump cards than just the Soul-Capturing Mirror, so revealing it to Elder Liu was not a concern.

With the Illusion Sect's artifacts being revealed one after another, it wouldn't look good if he didn't showcase any of his own.

One should be magnanimous.

The Earth Spirit's earth-mole creatures were exploring throughout the tunnels, and the sudden introduction of a false space would be impossible for them to anticipate or defend against.

He Lingchuan had also instructed Elder Liu to paint a stone wall within the false space and to add a ridiculously large mystic crystal.

This was a mystic crystal mine, brimming with actual mystic crystals, so placing a fake one among them would easily pass for the real thing.

"It needs to be large, the bigger the better," he had told Elder Liu at the time.

What kind of discernment did immortals possess? Ordinary mystic crystals wouldn't even register in their eyes. Only rare, once-in-a-lifetime treasures like this could magnify their greed, causing them to become complacent and overlook potential dangers.

Now that Master Jieshui was trapped in the mirror world, only the dwarf immortal remained outside the cave.

Elder Liu, He Lingchuan, and Granny Zhu—the three of them—should have no trouble subduing him.

How many powerful individuals had Bai Ziqin sent to Banqiu? He Lingchuan estimated three, at most five, and two of those had already entered the mine.

If these two could be eliminated, the immortals' chances of victory at Banqiu Lighthouse would naturally increase significantly!

It was important to remember that the Illusion Sect had dispatched four immortals to Banqiu Lighthouse. According to He Lingchuan's calculations, there might be only one powerful Heavenly Palace cultivator guarding the lighthouse, or at most three. In terms of both numbers and cultivation, the Illusion Sect held the advantage.

Therefore, to bring down the Banqiu Lighthouse, winning the battle in the mine was crucial!

At certain critical moments, a battle becomes a numbers game, and victory goes to whoever understands those numbers first.

Elder Liu, He Lingchuan, and the others, who had patiently endured the darkness and suffocation deep within the mine for so long, finally summoned the Haoyuan Golden Mirror. With a single step, they crossed directly from the mine's depths to the stone steps outside.

Meanwhile, outside the mine, the dwarf performed a water mirror spell, writing on its surface:

"Mine occupied. Giant mystic crystal discovered deep within tunnel. Encountered mine-guarding demonic beast; currently eliminating it."

The mirror's surface was small, yet these few dozen characters concisely summarized the current situation.