Establishing a Clan in the Eastern Wilderness: A Daily Divination, Cultivating Longevity in a Grotto

Chapter 110 Foundation Establishment Stage 3: Space Evolution

Li Changsheng didn't rush to rescue the person from the Zhuo clan chief's concubine's room. He changed into a drab, coarse cloth robe, suppressed his cultivation to the third level of Qi Refining, and used a disguise technique to look like a wandering cultivator. Before leaving, he instructed Li Changle, "I'm going to gather information; don't wander off."

"Okay, brother." Li Changle nodded obediently.

Yunshan County was far more prosperous than Qinglan County, with bustling streets and rows of shops. Li Changsheng strolled around the city before finally stopping in front of a teahouse. Inside, a storyteller sat on a high platform, spitting as he recounted a tale of a Foundation Establishment cultivator's battle against a demonic beast. The tea drinkers below listened with rapt attention, munching on melon seeds.

Li Changsheng went inside, found a seat in a corner, and ordered a pot of spirit tea. After the storyteller finished his tale, the tea drinkers gave him tips, and he got up and walked to the front of the stage, placing a bag of spirit stones on the table.

"Sir, may I speak to you in private?"

The storyteller's eyes lit up, and he quickly put away the spirit stones and led him to a private room in the backyard of the teahouse.

"What would you like to inquire about, fellow Daoist?" the storyteller asked with a smile, his wrinkles smoothing out.

Li Changsheng took out a spirit stone from his sleeve and placed it on the table: "Zhuo family, Shen Qing."

The storyteller's smile faltered slightly before returning to normal. He reached into his sleeve and tucked the spirit stone into it, lowering his voice: "Fellow Daoist, you've come to the right person. No one in Yunshan County knows more about Shen Qing's affairs than I do."

He cleared his throat and began to speak slowly and deliberately.

"Shen Qing married into the Zhuo family. His father, Shen Tieshan, was said to be a genius at weapon crafting, but unfortunately, he suffered a qi deviation during cultivation and has been dead for several years. Shen Qing himself doesn't have high spiritual root aptitude, and after so many years of cultivation, he's only at the third level of Qi Refining. In the Zhuo family, sons-in-law don't have much status to begin with, and since he's an orphan, no one takes him seriously."

"The Zhuo family's daughter, Zhuo Wan'er, is beautiful and has a wild personality. She already had a lover, the eldest son of the Zheng family next door. The two grew up together, but unfortunately, the Zheng family refused to marry her, and the Zhuo family also refused to marry her off to the Zheng family. Later, for some reason, the Zhuo family betrothed her to Shen Qing."

The storyteller took a sip of tea and continued, "After the marriage, Zhuo Wan'er treated Shen Qing with icy indifference, not even letting him into the bridal chamber. Not long after, she found a pretext, saying that Shen Qing was unambitious and disgraced the family," and banished him to a mine in one of the Zhuo family's areas to work in the mines."

"Mining area?" Li Changsheng frowned slightly.

"Yes, the mining area." The storyteller lowered his voice. "That place is incredibly eerie. I've heard that miners there often don't last long before they contract all sorts of strange, inexplicable illnesses, their bodies ulcerate, their spiritual energy dissipates, and they die a gruesome death. Even cultivators can't withstand it. The Zhuo family sends a new batch of miners in every ten years, and not a single one ever comes out alive."

Li Changsheng was silent for a moment, then asked, "How long has Shen Qing been inside?"

"It's been three or four years, hasn't it?" the storyteller sighed. "I'm afraid it's been much longer—"

He didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was clear.

Li Changsheng took out another spirit stone, placed it on the table, and got up to leave.

Back in the secret cave, Li Changsheng told Li Changle what he had learned. Upon hearing this, Li Changle's face flushed red with anger: "The Zhuo family is utterly despicable! Aren't those who marry into the Zhuo family considered human?"

Li Changsheng didn't reply, but said, "Tomorrow morning, I'll go to the mining area, and you go to the mistress's room to find out what's going on."

Don't get close, just look from a distance.

Li Changle nodded in agreement.

The next morning, Li Changsheng sat cross-legged on the bed and communicated with the Heavenly Book through his mind.

"Today's divination result is 'open'."

A yellow light flowed, and the deduced text slowly emerged:

[Mine Area - Blood Demon Stone]

Deep within the Zhuo family's mining area lies a Blood Demon Stone. This stone was formed from the concentrated essence and blood of an ancient Blood Demon upon its fall, containing immense power that can corrode the flesh and blood of living beings, causing various morbid diseases. The strange illnesses among the mine workers are all caused by this stone. Shen Qing has already contracted this disease; if he is not rescued in time, his life will soon end.

Li Changsheng put away the heavenly book, got up and went out.

-

Zhuojia Mining Area is located in a barren mountain area in the northeast of Yunshan County, about 100 miles away from the county seat.

Li Changsheng arrived in less than half an hour aboard the Crimson Feather. He lay in ambush on a distant hillside for a full hour, carefully observing the layout of the mining area. He initially thought it was just an ordinary mine, but the more he looked, the more something seemed amiss.

The mountains in the mining area are dark red, covering only a few miles in circumference. The ore veins are not large, at most they can be considered as micro-veins of low-grade first-class quality.

However, the array's spiritual light surrounding the entire mine was astonishingly intense—its grade was far beyond that of a first-order array.

He quietly took out a "Barrier-Breaking Spiritual Eye Talisman" from his storage bag and affixed it to his forehead. The talisman burned, and a clear light surged into his eyes, instantly making the scene before him clear. The array's veins were as dense as a spider web, firmly locking down the entire mine. There were eight array bases, each buried in one of the eight directions of the mountain, while the array's core was located at the heart of the mining area.

"A second-tier, low-grade formation, the Spirit-Trapping and Yuan-Locking Formation." Li Changsheng was startled.

This type of formation is usually used to seal off large spirit stone veins to prevent spiritual energy from leaking out, and it is also used to imprison prisoners with high cultivation levels.

The Zhuo family is merely a Qi-refining family. It's rather strange that they would set up a second-tier formation on a small, low-grade first-tier mineral vein.

"There must be some unspeakable secret hidden in this mining area," he thought to himself.

To make matters worse, there were overseers guarding the entrance to the mine, and everyone entering and leaving had to show their identification tokens. Under the cover of the array, any unauthorized entry or exit would trigger an alarm. Although Mo Yu's Shadowless Formation could conceal his presence, it could not escape the detection of the second-tier array.

Li Changsheng did not act rashly, but continued to observe.

Half an hour later, he discovered a pattern—every two days, a hearse carrying supplies would arrive from the direction of the county town and enter the mining area. The hearse carried the miners' elixirs and healing medicine, escorted by two Zhuo family cultivators. When the hearse entered, the overseer would temporarily close one corner of the formation, reopening it after the hearse had passed.

"The opportunity lies in the hearse."

Li Changsheng returned to his temporary camp, took out the disguise mask he had seized from Cheng Laosan, and changed into the robes of an outer disciple of the Zhuo family. He suppressed his cultivation at the third level of Qi Refining, making him look like an ordinary member of the Zhuo family.

Two days later, the hearse arrived as scheduled.

Li Changsheng laid an ambush at a bend in the route the hearse was bound to take. As the hearse passed, he unleashed his Shadow Kill Sword, the blade transforming into a blur that silently grazed the back of the necks of the two escorting cultivators. The two didn't even have time to utter a sound before collapsing unconscious to the ground.

Li Changsheng dragged the two into the forest, bound them with spirit-binding ropes, and sealed their dantian with spirit-suppressing talismans. He took out one of their identity tokens, carefully memorized his facial features, and used a disguise technique to transform into his appearance. Afterward, he put the two into his spirit beast pouch—he couldn't kill them, as doing so would trigger the Zhuo family's life tablets.

He jumped into the hearse and drove towards the mining area.

At the entrance to the mining area, two supervisors came to greet us.

"Zhao Hu, why are you fifteen minutes late today?" a supervisor asked casually.

Li Changsheng imitated Zhao Hu's voice, replying gruffly, "We encountered a pack of wolves on the way, which delayed us."

The foreman, unsuspecting, waved his hand. Another foreman took out a formation flag, drew it in the air, and a crack appeared in the formation's light barrier. The hearse slowly drove in.

Li Changsheng glanced silently at the interior of the mining area, his heart growing even heavier.

There were over a hundred miners in the mining area, all dressed in rags and emaciated. They were not ordinary people, but cultivators at the early stage of Qi Refining—some at the first level, some at the second, and a few at the third. Their dantian was sealed by the Spirit Lock, preventing the circulation of spiritual energy, and they could only rely on their physical strength to mine.

In the center of the open space, several overseers were loading baskets of dark red ore onto another hearse. The ore emitted a faint spiritual energy fluctuation; it was a low-grade first-tier "hematite," used to refine low-level magical artifacts and of low value.

"Hematite, a tiny vein, yet it's sealed off with a second-tier grand formation—" Li Changsheng's mind was filled with doubts.

He didn't look around much and drove towards the shack area where the miners lived.

The conditions in the shacks were even worse than he had seen from the outside. The shacks were low and damp, with drafty roofs and muddy floors. A stench of decay permeated the air, a mixture of blood and medicine that was nauseating.

The miners squatted in twos and threes in front of the shed, holding rough earthenware bowls filled with the lowest grade of "yellow sprout rice"—a spiritual grain far inferior to red marrow rice, barely enough to keep a cultivator from starving, but offering no benefit to their cultivation. Their faces were etched with numbness and despair, their eyes vacant, like walking corpses.

Li Changsheng unloaded bags of fasting pills and healing medicine from the hearse and handed them to the overseer in charge of distributing the supplies. As he carried them, he secretly used his divine sense to search for Shen Qing's location.

He found his target in the most remote and dilapidated shack.

Taking advantage of the foreman's inattention, Li Changsheng slipped into the shed.

There was only one person in the shack, huddled on a pile of hay in the corner. He was not yet thirty, but he was so thin he was just skin and bones. His cheekbones were high, his eyes were sunken, and his skin was an unnatural grayish-white, covered with dark red spots. His hands were calloused and cracked, several fingernails had fallen off, revealing bloody nail beds. His lips were chapped, oozing dark red blood, his eyes were bloodshot, and his gaze was unfocused.

Shen Qing.

His short, tattered robes were covered in mud and blood. On his left arm was a fist-sized, festering wound, oozing pus and blood, emitting a foul stench. His dantian was sealed by the Spirit-Sealing Lock, and his spiritual energy was almost completely depleted, with only a faint trace of energy circulating in his meridians.

Li Changsheng crouched down and called softly, "Shen Qing?"

Shen Qing struggled to lift her head, staring blankly at him. Her eyes were cloudy and lifeless, as if covered by a layer of gray. His lips moved a few times, uttering a hoarse, almost inaudible sound: "You—who are you?"

"The people who came to save you."

Shen Qing paused for a moment, then gave a bitter laugh. His laughter was dry and harsh, like a broken bellows leaking air.

"Save us?" He shook his head, his voice weak yet filled with deep despair. "Do you see outside? A second-tier formation, dozens of overseers, hundreds of miners—we're all Qi Refining cultivators, but our dantian is sealed, we can't use our spiritual power, we're no different from ordinary mortals. You're alone, only at the fifth level of Qi Refining, how can you save us?"

As he spoke, he coughed a few times, spitting out a mouthful of dark red phlegm.

"Even if you break the formation and kill the overseer, we won't get very far. The Zhuo family has peak Qi Refining cultivators, flying spirit beasts, and communication talismans—we can't escape." He closed his eyes, his voice growing softer and softer. "You should leave. Don't drag yourself into this mess."

Li Changsheng did not leave. He took out a jade-green pill from his pocket and handed it to Shen Qing.

"This is a Detoxification Pill, a high-grade first-level pill, which can temporarily suppress the blood poison in your body."

Shen Qing opened his eyes, staring at the pill with a strange glint in them. A Detoxifying Pill, a high-grade first-tier pill, would fetch at least a thousand spirit stones on the market. For miners like them, this was a treasure they wouldn't even dare to dream of.

"Who—who are you?" Shen Qing's voice trembled slightly, no longer filled with despair, but with doubt and a hint of—expectation.

"I told you, the people who came to rescue you are here." Li Changsheng stuffed the pill into his hand. "Take this pill first to recover some strength. When I return, I will take you away."

Shen Qing held the pill, his fingers trembling slightly. He looked into Li Changsheng's eyes, which held no pity, no charity, only a calm certainty, as if what he said he could do, he definitely could do.

Shen Qing's eyes suddenly reddened.

Having been a live-in son-in-law in the Zhuo family for so many years, he had endured countless cold stares and humiliations; no one had ever treated him like a human being. Zhuo Wan'er treated him like a dog, the Zhuo family members treated him as a joke, and even the miners ostracized and mocked him because he had once been a live-in son-in-law.

But now, a complete stranger has risked his life to sneak into the mining area, give him medicine, and say he wants to save him.

He lowered his head, put the pill in his mouth, and swallowed it forcefully. As the pill entered his stomach, a warm power spread throughout his body, slowly suppressing the poison that was eroding his flesh. He felt a little better, raised his head, and said in a hoarse voice, "I'll wait for you."

Li Changsheng nodded and got up to leave the shed.

He made up an excuse, saying he needed to go deep into the mine to check the quality of the ore, and entered the mine alone.

The mine tunnels were narrow, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The walls on both sides were riddled with pits, and the ground was covered with gravel that crunched underfoot. The further in you went, the dimmer it became, the more damp the air grew, and a faint, rotten stench permeated the air. The mine tunnels were a maze of interconnected paths, with numerous forks, and the clanging and banging of miners echoed from all directions, never ceasing.

As Li Changsheng walked, he scanned the surrounding environment with his divine sense.

He noticed several nodes with strong spiritual energy fluctuations deep within the mine tunnel—these were the foundations of an array. One of these nodes was located behind a stone wall at the deepest part of the mine tunnel.

"The Blood Demon Stone should be there."

He continued deeper into the mine. The closer he got to the depths of the tunnel, the more oppressive the air became, with a chilling aura permeating the air. His skin began to itch, as if something was eroding his flesh. He quickly circulated his spiritual energy to protect his entire body.

At the end of the mine tunnel was an ordinary stone wall. The wall was covered in runes, part of an array. Li Changsheng carefully examined the runes and discovered that behind this stone wall lay a space sealed off by layers of arrays.

"No wonder the Zhuo family set up a second-tier grand formation on the miniature mineral vein. It wasn't to guard the mine, but to guard what's behind this stone wall."

Instead of rushing to break the formation, he took out the blood-red belt from his storage bag.

As soon as the belt appeared, it trembled slightly, as if in response to something. It floated up on its own and flew towards the stone wall, a faint layer of bloody light appearing on the belt. When the bloody light touched the runes on the stone wall, the runes seemed to be corroded, beginning to dim and dissipate.

Li Changsheng's heart stirred, and he followed behind the belt.

The belt broke through one restriction after another, carrying him through the stone wall and into a hidden space.

The space was small, roughly ten feet square, surrounded by hard rock. From the cracks in the rock, streaks of dark red liquid seeped out, emitting a pungent, bloody stench. In the very center of the space, a fist-sized rock floated silently in mid-air.

The stone was entirely blood-red, its surface pitted and uneven, like a solidified blood clot. It emitted a faint red glow, and with each shimmer, an invisible ripple spread outwards. Wherever the ripples passed, dark red water droplets seeped from the rock's surface, and a nauseatingly sweet and fishy odor filled the air.

Blood Demon Stone.

Li Changsheng wanted to get closer, but then he suddenly...

The runes on the stone wall suddenly lit up, and a beam of spiritual energy shot down from above, enveloping him. The beam contained a powerful restrictive force, attempting to restrict his movements.

"Oh no! The alert level has been triggered!"

Li Changsheng's expression changed, and he hurriedly summoned the Shadow Killing Sword, slashing at the pillar of light. The Shadow Killing Sword transformed into a phantom, silently disappearing into the pillar of light, tearing a gap in the restrictive power. He seized the opportunity to break free, his figure flashing as he rushed to the Blood Demon Stone.

The belt had already floated above the Blood Demon Stone, its blood-red light blazing brightly, about to envelop the Blood Demon Stone.

How could Li Changsheng dare to be devoured here?

A thought arose.

He threw the Blood Demon Stone directly into the Heavenly Book space.

"We have to get them out before the others realize what's happening!"

He looked around, made sure no traces were left, and then turned and sped away from the mine tunnel.