Mortal Transformation into Immortal

Chapter 37 Yang Yun

"We can't get out."

After wandering around for a while, Yu Ling found herself trapped in a maze with no exit.

No matter which way you go, you can't get out of here.

"Am I going to be trapped here and die?"

Unable to leave for a long time, a fearful thought arose in his mind.

"Senior Li."

He walked and shouted.

The sound echoed endlessly in the cave until it disappeared, finally returning to the deathly silence of darkness.

"Stop shouting."

Suddenly, a deep voice came from behind.

Yu Ling was startled and quickly turned around to look, where she found a figure standing not far away.

Because of the poor lighting inside the cave, the exact appearance of the person who came could not be seen.

"Come with me, I'll take you out."

The man turned and walked forward.

"Could it be another miner?"

Yu Ling thought for a moment, then immediately thanked him, "Thank you, senior."

He followed behind that man.

"Senior, where is this place?" Yu Ling asked in a low voice.

The man said, "This is an illusionary place that evolved from the mine. You can't get out by forcing your way out. The person who brought you here is obviously trying to trick you."

"Senior, how can we get out?"

"Dig it through."

The man stopped, pressed his head against the stone wall, tapped it lightly with his pickaxe, listened to the echo, and said, "Once you find the right passage, dig there."

"It's this person."

As she got closer, Yu Ling recognized the man as the one who had stood in the house watching her when she first arrived at her residence; he looked to be in his fifties or sixties.

His face was rough, as if it had been scorched by wind and sand.

"Listen to it for yourself, the feeling is different. There are many such illusions in the mine. If you encounter one next time, you will have a way to get out." The man said, looking at him.

Yu Ling followed his example, pressing his ear against the stone wall. With each strike of the pickaxe, a crisp knocking sound echoed through the stone wall.

"Remember this sound. When there's the right channel, the sound will be different," the man told him.

"I've got it."

"Let's go, to the next place."

The man led him forward.

The two tried a few more places.

"Senior, the voice is different this time."

After a while, Yu Ling noticed that the echo from the stone wall was different this time, and he could clearly feel that there was something inside.

The man nodded: "That's right, that's a normal mine tunnel, but it's too far from here, probably more than ten zhang away. It will take some time to dig through it. Let's go check other places."

The man walked forward, carrying a pickaxe.

"Yes, senior."

Yu Ling followed in his footsteps.

"Don't call me senior anymore. My name is Yang Yun. You can just call me Uncle Yang."

"Uncle Yang."

The man turned around and asked, "What's your name?"

"Yu Ling, the 'Ling' in 'Lingchong' (蛉虫).

"Why did your parents give you such a name? It's too small, like an insect, walking in this world of cultivation, like an ant trying to shake a tree." Yang Yun said, puzzled.

Without exchanging more words, he continued walking forward.

"How did he know I was in this illusionary place? Did he follow me the whole time?" Yu Ling frowned to himself.

How did this person end up here out of nowhere?

It seems they came specifically to rescue themselves.

Yang Yun kept hammering at the front with a pickaxe.

He stopped as he walked through a narrow passage and said, "This shall be it."

Yu Ling listened, and the echoing sound inside seemed even closer.

"You can just stand in the back."

After giving his instructions, Yang Yun picked up a pickaxe and smashed it heavily against the stone wall.

With a loud crack, a large section of rock split open and then fell.

"Um?"

Yu Ling saw that after the rocks landed, they slowly merged with the ground and eventually became a whole again.

Just like ice blocks, when broken ice is piled together, it can form a larger block of ice.

He also tried swinging a pickaxe.

The rocks in this vein were found to be not hard.

Holding it in my hand and examining it, it doesn't feel like a rock.

"These stones have been spiritualized by the 'mineral spirits,' they are not ordinary rocks, they can be said to be the flesh and blood of the mineral spirits. More than ten years ago, these mineral spirits would nurture Sunflower Stones inside, but they no longer produce them now," Yang Yun told him.

"Uncle Yang, how long have you been at the mine?" Yu Ling asked.

"It's been over twenty years."

Yang Yun continued digging the tunnel.

"Come here, watch carefully, this is how you dig, that'll be faster."

Yang Yun explained the excavation method to him.

He first dug around the four corners of the mine shaft, then dug along the sides, and finally smashed the wall into the center, causing it to crack into several pieces and fall down.

Then he moved the large stones back so as not to block the passage.

Yu Ling stepped forward to help.

Yang Yun continued digging deeper.

Gradually, a new passage emerged.

Yang Yun's digging speed was very fast.

"Snapped!"

After one of the stone walls collapsed, some special patterns resembling tree roots appeared behind it.

"Insect buds".

Yang Yun was somewhat surprised, then said to Yu Ling behind him, "Come and take a closer look. These things are emitted by insect buds, used to absorb nutrients from the mineral veins. Dig along these lines and you'll find them."

Upon closer inspection, Yu Ling discovered a tiny amount of fluorescence flowing within these patterns.

"When looking for insect buds in the veins, we should mainly look for these patterns. The largest range of insect bud patterns can extend five or six zhang in all directions. In addition, we should look at the plants. The plants in places with insect buds will be in much worse condition," Yang Yun explained to him in detail.

Yu Ling nodded.

"Here, dig this way."

Yang Yun swung his pickaxe.

One stone after another broke and collapsed.

In less than a quarter of an hour, they had dug a depth of ten feet.

As the stone wall collapsed, a ball of white jade, about half the size of a fist, came into view.

"These are the worm buds," Yang Yun said softly.

Yu Ling reached out to touch it, but there was no reaction in the weight in his palm, proving that the insect sprout had no spiritual energy and was not a spiritual object.

"Uncle Yang, these worm buds must have just sprouted not long ago," he asked.

"That's right, at most a month. You see, apart from the changes in the ore around the insect buds, there aren't many changes elsewhere."

Upon closer inspection, Yu Ling discovered that the rocks around the insect buds were darker in color and harder to the touch, almost turning into ordinary rocks.

"Once you have more experience, you can find the insect buds hidden inside the stone wall by tapping on it and listening to the sound. Generally, where there are insect buds, the sound will have a muffled echo because the ore has undergone a large transformation," Yang Yun said to him while tapping on the stone wall.

"How many insect buds do you dig up each day?" he asked.

"Four," Yu Ling replied.

"Four isn't too many, let's dig it out."

Yang Yun walked to the side and continued digging towards the outside passage.

Yu Ling swung his pickaxe and dug out the insect bud.

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

After the insect bud fell to the ground, it made a faint gurgling sound. Its whole body stretched out, revealing itself to be a plump, white insect.

Yu Ling held it in her hand; it was soft and squishy, and she could feel a very strong, eerie death aura emanating from it.

"Uncle Yang, here you go."

He handed the insect bud to Yang Yun.

"You can keep it yourself," Yang Yun said casually.

"Uncle Yang, is this what you asked for...?"