In this world, killing to silence and wiping out an entire family to keep a secret were perfectly ordinary occurrences. Yang Yan had witnessed Yang Kai's ferocity firsthand — a first-level Holy King realm cultivator was absolutely nothing before him. She knew very well that if Yang Kai truly wanted to make a move on her, no number of Artifacts on her body would be able to stop him, given the bizarre nature of that demonic flame of his.
In that moment, Yang Yan rather regretted learning this earth-shattering secret.
Yang Kai glared at her. "What are you talking about?"
Yang Yan immediately broke into a grin. "I knew you weren't that kind of person! Hurry up and put these Void Spirit Crystals away — it'd be bad if someone saw them."
Yang Kai agreed wholeheartedly and quickly stowed the several hundred Void Spirit Crystals into the Demon God's Secret Tome.
Even now, he was still somewhat dazed. If these Void Spirit Crystals had truly been found and mined by the Stone Puppet only recently, then there was only one possible explanation beneath Dragon Cave Mountain — the Stone Puppet was always running underground.
But what Yang Kai couldn't figure out was that he had clearly explored the underground thoroughly before and never discovered any vein. If there truly was a Void Dusk Stone vein here, Wu Yi's Heike Family couldn't possibly have been unaware of it — after all, that family had been rooted here for countless years.
He needed to get to the bottom of this.
Yang Kai reached down, picked up the Stone Puppet, and turned to Yang Yan. "Come with me."
Yang Yan didn't ask any questions, seeming to know what Yang Kai intended to do. She quickly followed behind him, her pretty face full of anticipation.
Leaving the cave, the two soon arrived at a mountain hollow some ten miles away. Finding a concealed spot, Yang Kai set the Stone Puppet down and gave it a command to dig deep underground.
The Stone Puppet quickly vanished from sight, leaving behind only a small hole just big enough for a person to squeeze through.
Previously, the Stone Puppet's burrows had only been small hollows, but this time, since Yang Kai needed to explore underground, he had to have it dig the opening wider.
Yang Yan grew even more excited, her cheeks flushed red, standing silently to the side as she waited to descend with Yang Kai.
Half an hour later, Yang Kai gave Yang Yan a signal and jumped into the deep pit before him.
He had to admit, the tunnel the Stone Puppet dug was absolutely extraordinary. It was perfectly cylindrical, its passage impossibly smooth, as though polished by some tool. After jumping in, Yang Kai encountered no resistance whatsoever and slid straight down without a hint of obstruction.
The tunnel was remarkably deep — hard to believe it had been dug in merely half an hour. Yang Kai truly gained a newfound appreciation for the Stone Puppet's abilities.
He slid down for a full incense stick's worth of time before suddenly feeling the tunnel come to an end. Without warning, the sensation of falling from a great height washed over him. He quickly steadied himself, and the next moment, his feet touched solid ground.
From above came a rapid series of clicks. No need to look — Yang Kai knew it was the Stone Puppet gnawing on ore. He pulled out a luminous strange stone and held it aloft, but before he could get a clear look at his surroundings, Yang Yan's shriek came from overhead: "Yang Kai, help me! I'm... I'm stuck!"
Yang Kai looked up, and his face immediately darkened.
Yang Yan was indeed stuck — wedged in place by the pair of formidable weapons she carried on her chest. Her lower body dangled above Yang Kai's head, her legs kicking frantically, while her upper body was still lodged in the tunnel above and wouldn't come down.
He reached up, grabbed her ankle, and yanked downward hard. With a shriek from Yang Yan, he dragged her free.
"It hurts!" The moment she landed, both hands flew to her chest, kneading and rubbing vigorously. She looked up at Yang Kai with glistening eyes, seeming to blame him for his complete lack of gentleness.
Before she could go after Yang Kai for his roughness, the glow from the luminous stone illuminated their surroundings, and Yang Yan froze on the spot, her small mouth forming a perfect circle. Her delicate body trembled, and she instantly forgot the pain from the friction on her chest.
Yang Kai seemed to have received an equally tremendous shock, his head whipping ceaselessly from side to side, excitement surging so deep within him that he nearly let out a triumphant howl.
The two of them were now standing inside an underground cavern — one that must have been excavated by the Stone Puppet recently. It was roughly a dozen zhang across, but under the luminous stone's glow, the walls all around reflected a dizzying brilliance.
Void Spirit Crystals of various sizes, some bright and some dim, were embedded throughout as though they were worthless. Between them, the far less valuable Void Dusk Stone was packed in dense layers.
Inside the underground cavern, the only sounds were the two's heavy breathing and the steady clicking of the Stone Puppet gnawing on ore.
A long, long moment passed before Yang Yan suddenly let out a cry and rushed toward a millstone-sized Void Spirit Crystal that hadn't yet been mined. She threw herself upon it, a look of pure bliss spreading across her face, little cat-like murmurs escaping her lips.
It wouldn't be fair to call Yang Yan wide-eyed and naive — Yang Kai's excitement was no less than hers.
He had never imagined that beneath Dragon Cave Mountain — a place with no spirit herbs, no spirit medicines, and no rare mineral veins — thousands of zhang underground, there lay such a rich deposit of Void Spirit Crystals!
Judging by this vein alone, it could no longer be called a Void Dusk Stone vein. The Void Spirit Crystals made up nearly half the deposit. It absolutely merited the name Void Spirit Crystal vein — they were no longer merely a secondary product of Void Dusk Stone.