Chapter 516: Chapter 281: Xiao Xiao’s Deadly Predicament (Extended Chapter)

Raising the specially made stone hoe, he dug down with force. The gray soil was flipped by the blade of the hoe, emitting traces of an eerie aura.

Li An also sensed the depletion of his life force!

Very slight.

He did not use the power of the Life Seed to counter this depletion, after all, it would be troublesome if someone noticed his anomaly.

"The eerie aura is too strong, it feels as though it’s not just one Exotic Spirit corpse... but many!"

Li An carefully sensed it. Could there be many mysterious creatures buried beneath here?

Li An deliberately dug in other directions, not directly unearthing the Exotic Spirit corpse.

These things were rather important to him, but once they appeared, they would undoubtedly draw attention.

He repeatedly probed from the left and right, confirming the position of the Exotic Spirit corpse. That day, after some contemplation, he suddenly raised his hoe and dug in. Immediately, a surging aura of eeriness was emitted, extremely astonishing.

"So strong!"

"What’s going on?!"

For a moment, everyone around was greatly shocked.

Shui Changxiao had already landed outside the pit and shouted, "Elder Ying, what’s going on?"

Li An quickly released a sealing artifact, letting the Profound Ice refined from human corpses fall, and the eerie aura gradually subsided. Li An struggled to climb out of the pit and said, "I didn’t notice, I encountered an Exotic Spirit corpse, almost let it escape... Fortunately, I sealed it with the sealing artifact."

He panted, even though he had been here for just a year or two, he looked like he had aged ten years, and said, "Senior Shui, we cannot dig down any further here!"

Shui Changxiao frowned and said, "No, we must dig. This is one of the core locations... Continue, there is another sealing artifact, don’t worry!"

With that, he handed Li An a jade bottle, "This is a Celestial Destiny Pill, for longevity and enhanced life force. The Sect Leader values you greatly!"

He patted Li An on the shoulder.

Li An showed reluctance, but also felt utterly helpless, and said, "We can’t tamper with this pit anymore, I’ll... try digging in a different direction."

Shui Changxiao nodded.

After this episode, Li An continued to dig as usual.

That day, at noon, when the storm on the Southern Sea was at its most active, Li An had learned that at this time, the attention of Shui Changxiao and the others was often divided. They needed to monitor the impact of the storm on Giant Tomb Island. As Li An kept digging, he suddenly burrowed into a tunnel!

After several years, he had managed the land beneath his feet like a labyrinth. The tunnels crisscrossed, and two of them were connected to the pit where he initially unearthed the Exotic Spirit corpse.

That pit was now sealed, filled with an intense aura that nobody could investigate.

Li An crawled through the tunnel into the pit. A dense eerie aura greeted him, and in front of him was a withered corpse, sealed by him in Profound Ice.

With a thought, the immortal coffin floated beside him, and he cautiously moved the sealed corpse aside --

Li An had initially known that the real contents here were not just one corpse, but a pile!

He sealed the topmost one just to mislead others.

After moving the topmost one aside, indeed, he saw bodies stacked below densely, at least seven or eight. Li An did not wait for the eerie aura to spread, but had already used the immortal coffin to collect all the mysterious corpses!

"One pit?"

After collecting the eight mysterious corpses, a black pit was revealed beneath, seemingly connected to a gigantic hollow.

Li An dared not linger, immediately placing the topmost corpse back to block the hole, and then retreated through the tunnel.

The entire process was very brief, unnoticed by anyone.

He obtained seven Exotic Spirit corpses.

...

Time flew by.

In the blink of an eye, five years passed.

In just five years, the first batch of "miners" on the island started having problems.

Many became hunched and aged, their physical strength drastically declined, weakening year by year, and some even started to die!

"Another batch has died..."

On this day, Shui Changxiao respectfully accompanied the saintess Zhan Qingxuan, inspecting Giant Tomb Island. He respectfully said, "Saintess, the depletion of life force on this island is much faster than we imagined, we may need another batch..."

"Then why not hurry to recruit?"

Zhan Qingxuan spoke coldly, "The Southern Sea’s wind and waves are rising, a great change is imminent. Yet this place is far from meeting the Sect Leader’s requirements. How many heads do you have?"

Shui Changxiao’s expression changed dramatically, hurriedly kneeling, "Saintess, calm your anger! Changxiao will immediately increase the numbers, and will complete the excavation of all array eyes within three years, ensuring no delay to the Sect Leader’s great affairs!"

Zhan Qingxuan asked, "How is the excavation of the core area going?"

Shui Changxiao replied, "Reporting to the Saintess, it is one-third complete..."

"Only one-third?!"

Zhan Qingxuan was even more impatient, "Hurry up! Speed up!"

Shui Changxiao respectfully agreed.

...

"Elder Ying, the progress in the core area is too slow. The Sect Leader and the saintess are very dissatisfied..."

Shui Changxiao found Li An.

In just five years, although Li An had not died, he appeared increasingly elderly, with a full head of silver hair, many age spots on his face, and a slightly hunched body...

"I do have a method..."

Li An said, "The core area is slow because there are too many Exotic Spirit corpses underground, thus we have taken many detours. If we had enough sealing artifacts, we could dig straight down and save half the time."

"I can return to Yingyuan Island to refine a batch of sealing artifacts!"