Chapter 80: The Handsome Man Digs the Earth

“Is there any need for this?”

In the woods, Mo Shaowen gazed at Xu Zhe with icy indifference, speaking in a calm tone.

Xu Zhe was momentarily stunned. Wasn’t that question supposed to be asked by him? Is there any need for this?

“Liu Lanxu is kind-hearted. She never intended to harm you; she only used you to reject me. So don’t hold any grudges against her, understand?”

As Mo Shaowen spoke, he drew a silver dagger from his storage ring, his voice low. “You only have yourself to blame. You shouldn’t have had designs on her. If word gets out, it’ll damage her reputation, so I must kill you.”

Xu Zhe was at a loss. Was this sixth young master of the Mo family brain-damaged?

“Abba abba…” Xu Zhe blurted out.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Whether you’re begging or not, it’s useless. People like you are just wasting spiritual energy by staying alive. Why not die and help us keep this matter under wraps?”

Mo Shaowen shook his head, pressing hard on Xu Zhe’s shoulder as the dagger hovered at his throat.

A cruel glint flashed in Mo Shaowen’s eyes. He slashed the dagger.

Sparks erupted from Xu Zhe’s throat.

“???”

Mo Shaowen froze on the spot.

Xu Zhe couldn’t keep up the act any longer. He turned to Mo Shaowen, speechless. “Actually, what I meant to ask just now was, are you mentally sound?”

“You… You’re not mute?” Mo Shaowen stared at Xu Zhe in disbelief.

How could anyone’s physical body be so formidable? And he was only at the Foundation Establishment stage—unless…

Mo Shaowen instantly sensed something was terribly wrong. His pupils contracted sharply. He retreated in terror.

There was only one person on Qingci Continent capable of tempering his body to such a degree at the Foundation Establishment stage.

“You… You’re Xu Zhe?” he cried.

“Strange. I thought you were rather dull just now, but you’ve gotten clever quickly, guessing my identity so fast.”

Xu Zhe’s lips curled into a half-smile as he scrutinized the sixth young master of the Mo family.

Mo Shaowen felt his scalp tingle under Xu Zhe’s gaze. Fear flooded his heart. He’d seen Xu Zhe instantly slay a Nascent Soul cultivator online, and he himself was only at the mid-Golden Core stage.

The roles of hunter and prey reversed in an instant.

“Is there any need for this?” Xu Zhe asked, smiling.

“I… I… Xu Zhe, don’t do anything rash! I’m the sixth young master of the Mo family. If you kill me, the Mo family will never let you go,” Mo Shaowen stammered, retreating step by step.

Xu Zhe pressed forward relentlessly.

“Do you believe that if I spare you, your Mo family will spare me?” Xu Zhe said with a smile.

Mo Shaowen paused. It seemed unlikely.

“Enough, let’s not waste any more time. I have important matters to attend to,” Xu Zhe said, forming a fist.

“No, don’t waste—” Mo Shaowen shouted repeatedly.

He wanted to say he had plenty of time and wasn’t afraid of wasting it.

But seeing Xu Zhe’s fist, his face drained of color. He abandoned his words, spun around, and fled desperately toward the edge of the forest.

“Bang!”

Xu Zhe released an effortless punch. The force took the shape of a giant wolf, leaping through the air and piercing Mo Shaowen from behind.

Mo Shaowen groaned, blood spraying from his mouth. His eyes dimmed, and he plummeted from midair, landing lifelessly on the ground.

“Don’t think I don’t know how you’ve cursed me online. People like you really are wasting spiritual energy by staying alive.”

Xu Zhe stepped to Mo Shaowen’s corpse, silently dropped a wisp of flame, incinerating him to ashes. He took the storage ring as well.

After all, he still needed to infiltrate Yaochi. If Mo Shaowen’s body were discovered, it would cause trouble and affect his plans.

Especially since Mo Shaowen’s identity was anything but simple—he was the sixth young master of the Mo family and the younger brother of Mo Xiaolian.

Xu Zhe had seen him online, helping Mo Xiaolian curse him—more viciously than she herself.

Xu Zhe didn’t care, hadn’t taken it to heart, but his memory was too good to forget.

…

Soon, after cleaning up the scene, Xu Zhe concealed his aura and moved swiftly back to his previous position.

Spiritual energy surged beneath his feet. In a flash, he burrowed underground and vanished.

He followed a tunnel carved out by earth spiritual energy, heading straight toward the mountain beneath Yaochi, arriving exactly at its center.

With a gentle leap, he floated up within the mountain, reaching the tunnel’s end.

“Hm?”

At the end, Xu Zhe discovered the earth spiritual energy was not wholly blocked by the formation, but by a layer of metal.

He hovered within the tunnel, eyes fixed on the thick metal layer overhead, scanning it with his spiritual sense.

“This is a metal ore formed by years of accumulated metal spiritual energy?”

Xu Zhe was surprised. The metal layer covered nearly the entire midsection of the mountain, as if someone had wedged a sheet of metal into its heart.

More importantly, the surface was etched with formation patterns.

Judging by the degree of corrosion on the patterns, it was clear they had existed for many years.

Exactly how many, Xu Zhe couldn’t tell.

But he was sure they’d been there for tens of thousands of years.

This far exceeded the time since Yaochi was founded, and even surpassed the time since the hundred people first arrived on Qingci Continent.

“An ancient deadly formation!”

Xu Zhe examined the vast array of patterns, clicking his tongue.

Clearly, when Lin Keyi and the others chose to establish Yaochi here, they hadn’t discovered the metal layer or the formation—otherwise they would never have built their power atop this mountain.

This deadly formation was formidable.

Even Xu Zhe himself had to admit that the formation master who laid it was nearly his equal in the art.

After a careful study, Xu Zhe grasped the logic behind its arrangement: the master had cleverly used the metal layer, inscribing the patterns upon it, fusing them together.

Thus, every time spiritual energy condensed in the metal layer, it powered the formation, keeping it running perpetually.

A more ingenious design was that all metal spiritual energy was trapped within the formation, constantly feeding the mountain above.

This was likely why Yaochi’s sanctuary was so rich in metal spiritual energy.

“But the formation master was still a bit inferior to me. He likely believed this was just a vein of metal ore, so he carved the patterns on the metal layer, missing out on the greatest treasure.”

Xu Zhe smiled.

From the aura, he could tell there must be a primordial metal spiritual vein hidden in the mountain’s upper section.

If he were the one laying the formation, he’d either excavate the primordial vein, leaving only the metal layer for the formation, or he’d inscribe the patterns directly onto the spiritual vein, maximizing its effect.

As it stood, the patterns were etched on the metal layer, while the primordial vein remained locked above—clearly the master was unaware and had squandered the treasure.

“Good thing it’s me who found it, otherwise no one could have acted.”

Xu Zhe whispered, eyes fixed on the patterns.

He traced the lines, simulating and calculating in his mind.

To pass through the metal layer and reach the mountain’s upper section, he’d have to carve out a small entrance, without disrupting the formation.

But deadly formations were always complex, never leaving room for an entrance.

This made things difficult for Xu Zhe.

The tangle of patterns was like a ball of knotted yarn; each strand was independent yet interconnected.

Xu Zhe had to amplify his mental faculties, simulating every strand in parallel, testing modification schemes.

After several hours, he finally saw a way forward.

“The logic here is unique, much like the formation in Tianjiao Valley. Could it be the work of the same master?”

Xu Zhe muttered, then his fingers gathered spiritual energy, beginning to alter the patterns on the metal layer.

It was like simplifying the circuits of a motherboard, consolidating overlapping functions.

Soon, he had cleared a blank space on the metal layer, moving the main patterns outward.

To stabilize the formation, Xu Zhe added a small auxiliary array.

Effectively, he’d installed a switch for the deadly formation.

When closed, the formation would be far more stable, never at risk of erupting.

Of course, if he chose to open it, Yaochi would be doomed.

“In a way, Yaochi should thank me. Without this switch, if the deadly formation ever destabilized and erupted, they’d be finished. So now, taking the primordial metal spiritual vein is not theft, but reasonable payment for my labor.”

Xu Zhe’s fingertips summoned a void blade refined within his body, drawing a circle on the blank metal layer.

“Bang!”

A perfectly round metal plate dropped down.

But the plate was several meters thick, forcing Xu Zhe to retreat beneath it, then he flashed his storage ring and stashed the entire slab.

He then slapped his palm upward.

A massive, serpentine stream of earth spiritual energy surged up through the hole.

Each time the energy pushed upward, it withdrew, bringing out a load of sand and soil.

After hundreds of repetitions, he finally penetrated the mountain’s upper section, opening a new passage.

Xu Zhe let out a long breath, tidied his hair, clasped his hands behind his back, and ascended as if riding an invisible elevator.

His spiritual sense swept the surroundings, searching for the primordial metal vein.

Yet, after reaching the summit, he still couldn’t pinpoint its location.

He changed tactics, tunneling four horizontal passages for a carpet search.

This risked hollowing out Yaochi’s underground and causing subsidence.

But the sanctuary’s disciples were accomplished cultivators—what fear have immortals of a cave-in?

And so, for the next two days,

Xu Zhe diligently dug passage after passage beneath the Yaochi sanctuary, searching from below and from side to side.

Until the second night, when he reached the uppermost passage, he finally caught a trace of the primordial vein’s aura.

“Well now, hiding so high up—if a Yaochi disciple happened to dig here, they could easily uncover it.”

Xu Zhe clicked his tongue.

He had finally reached the primordial metal spiritual vein, but it was alarmingly close to the sanctuary.

Hiding in the tunnel, he occasionally heard footsteps above.

“Still, the vein is truly huge—ten times the size of the primordial earth vein I found before.”

Xu Zhe grinned, reached forward, seized the vein, and tossed it into his storage ring.

“Bang!”

With the vein removed, its site lost support—a soft rumble echoed, a mound of earth collapsed, triggering a chain reaction. The tunnel’s roof caved in, continuing up to Xu Zhe’s head, which also collapsed.

He swiftly swept aside the falling soil with a burst of spiritual energy.

Without the overhead earth, the tunnel became a ditch, brilliant rays flooding in.

Standing in the ditch, Xu Zhe poked his head out.

He was immediately embarrassed to find a female Yaochi disciple crouching nearby, her back to him.

Miss, you shouldn’t relieve yourself here!

Xu Zhe was about to call out, but looked closer—the disciple was clutching her head, curled up on the ground.

Apparently frightened by the sudden collapse.

“Qi Condensation stage—not weak, but why so timid?”

Xu Zhe quickly sensed her aura, then prepared to slip away.

But he froze.

The way out had collapsed!

“What’s going on?”

“Why did the ground suddenly shake?”

“Heavens, what happened? Why did the ground collapse?”

“Who’s so careless, practicing techniques in the alchemy district?”

Simultaneously, cries of alarm echoed from all around, followed by a rush of footsteps—Yaochi disciples hurried over.

Xu Zhe’s expression tightened. He leaped from the tunnel, and with a flash from his storage ring, donned a brand-new long dress.

His honest face shifted—features subtly rearranged, skin turned pale and smooth, transforming into a peerless beauty.

His aura and cultivation level changed dramatically.

“Ah, Sister Liu… Liu, you’re here too?”

The female disciple, still crouched with her head in her hands, sensed movement behind her, turned, and cried out in shock—frightened again.

“It’s nothing, I was just wandering. Want a cigarette?” Xu Zhe replied in Liu Lanxu’s voice, absentmindedly.

Earth spiritual energy flowed from his feet, pouring underground, quickly filling the tunnels he’d dug.

…