Chapter 1090 – Purple Mountain
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Of the two teams, the main team consisted of 90% of the original group’s strength, while the secondary team consisted of only 10%. Both of the two great masters, Ye Rosewater and White Mirrorjade, were on the main team.
The strongest martial artists on the secondary team were two middle Divine Sea female disciples. Both of them were Ye Rosewater’s trusted subordinates. Besides them, there was only Lin Ming. Lin Ming had an eighth stage Life Destruction cultivation, and his strength was able to suppress the early Divine Sea Liu Yun. But as to where the true limits of his strength lay, no one but Lin Ming himself actually knew.
Ye Rosewater was completely perturbed with such a distribution.
White Mirrorjade calmly said, “I’ve already said they will be going to a tunnel underground. There are layers of rocks that can shield them from the senses of others, and it will serve to hide their positions so they won’t be in any danger. On the other hand, the main team will be wandering about the vast dessert. We have thousands of people and our goal is also much greater. As long as Splintersoul Mountain and the Occult Bone Clan aren’t blind, they’ll discover us. Did you want me to send the main force into the mining tunnels and leave the scattered rest of us to die in the desert? Not just that, but going into the tunnels is only temporary. No matter how rich the tunnels may be in resources, you’ll have to return to us 80 hours from now and help fight in the following battle. In the last 16 hours in this mystic realm, Splinter Soul Mountain and the Occult Bone Clan will definitely move against us!”
White Mirrorjade’s excuses sounded reasonable. Ye Rosewater hesitated. In all fairness, the tunnels were truly much safer and didn’t need much manpower. No matter who it was, no one wanted to be separated from those they trusted and they also didn’t want their people to be sent to another team either. That was simply human nature.
Ye Rosewater thought for a moment, then said, “Fine. I agree. But I will go to the tunnels with them.” Although Ye Rosewater had a naturally gentle personality, she wasn’t someone that was resigned to mundane ordinariness. She had long ago decided to compete for the position of Island Master and had won over some female disciples to be her subordinates. Those that were sent to the tunnels were her people so she naturally had to accompany them.
“Mm?” White Mirrorjade frowned. “Junior-apprentice Sister Ye, I think you’ve mistaken something. I am leading this group on the orders of the Highest Elders. I am not discussing terms with you but am ordering you! If you insist on going to the tunnels, I can allow you to go, but only this once! If you still question my orders, I will deal with you as someone who violated the sect rules!”
White Mirrorjade’s voice was sharp but Ye Rosewater didn’t retreat nor flinch as she glared at him. Her status was originally on par with White Mirrorjade so she certainly didn’t need to fear him.
“You stupid bitch, I originally allowed you a path to live because I only wanted to kill Lin Ming and weaken you a bit, but you actually decided to rush to your death. Don’t blame me for your own decisions,” White Mirrorjade thought as he turned around. In that split second that he turned, a fierce light sparked in his eyes. He certainly wasn’t giving Ye Rosewater a chance to live because he felt some sort of pitiful affection for her or because he was drooling over her looks. Ye Rosewater was a beautiful woman with amazing talent, and he certainly wouldn’t mind marrying her and allowing her to become the wife of the Island Master, but he also knew that although she often appeared quiet and gentle, she was actually arrogant to the bone. She refused to be under anyone, so how could she possibly submit to him? Moreover, she had long ago decided to struggle for the throne of Island Master, so they were destined to become enemies. Sooner or later, White Mirrorjade would have moved against Ye Rosewater!
No, the reason that he had originally decided not to kill Ye Rosewater on this trip into the Red Desolate Mystic Realm was because he didn’t expect the Occult Bone Clan or Splintersoul Mountain to show him any mercy just because he gave them information on Lin Ming. In the last 16 hours here, there would inevitably be a life or death war breaking out. If he was missing the strength of Ye Rosewater, that battle would be far more difficult.
“Forget it. I’ll end you in this Red Desolate Mystic Realm and allow you to die with Lin Ming,” White Mirrorjade thought. He turned to the disciples behind him and said, “Everyone on the main team come with me. The Revolving Core realm disciples are responsible for mining. The direct disciples do not need to help, they will be responsible for watching and securing the perimeter. In the first several dozen hours, although Splintersoul Mountain and the Occult Bone Clan aren’t likely to show up, we also have to guard against the unexpected. After all, this Red Desolate Mystic Realm still has red desolate ogres!”
After White Mirrorjade issued his orders, he brought the disciples of the main team to leave. As for Ye Rosewater, she brought the secondary team disciples and set off toward the mine.
The projection jade plate White Mirrorjade used was extremely mysterious. Although it looked very small, the truth was that the cost to construct it was exorbitantly expensive. It was able to create a projection of the surrounding several hundred miles. Lin Ming, Ye Rosewater, and the others all walked several thousand feet in a direction and finally saw a faintly purple mountain range. There was a massive pit right beside it.
“Purple mountains, and there is even a pit with tunnels right there! We got lucky this time! Everyone put some more effort into it. Although we have to give the gathered resources to the sect, the sect will also reward us with resources according to our own merits. We’ll keep resources equal to 2-3% of what we bring back!” Ye Rosewater said, trying to inspire morale in the team.
With the natural mining pit here, it meant that the violet sun stones in this purple mountain were absolutely high-grade. The so-called pit was actually due to the heaven and earth origin energy in the purple mountain being far too rich. It accumulated and then finally erupted, just like a volcano, creating a massive pit and rough tunnels inside.
“Everyone, maintain your guard. The direct disciples will go first to scout the area.” After separating from White Mirrorjade, the late Divine Sea Ye Rosewater naturally became the leader of this squad.
This secondary squad had a total of 300 people. There were only a dozen or so direct disciples here. Besides Lin Ming, everyone else was a subordinate of Ye Rosewater.
“Junior-apprentice Brother Lin, join Junior-apprentice Sister Xiao, Junior-apprentice Sister Zhou, and Junior-apprentice Brother Song to keep watch outside. I’ll lead some people inside first to take a look.
In Ye Rosewater’s opinion, besides herself, the strongest person in this squad was Lin Ming. With Lin Ming keeping guard outside, he would be able to deal with any unexpected incidents that cropped up.
“Mm, alright.” Lin Ming indifferently nodded.
Exploring the tunnels of the mining pit was a bit more dangerous than staying outside. Although he didn’t care much, he felt quite comfortable that Ye Rosewater left him outside. Ye Rosewater wasn’t aware of Lin Ming’s true strength; she only knew that he had completed the 30th level of the simulation mystic realm with ease.
Three people stayed with Lin Ming. Two of them were at the early Divine Sea realm and the other was at the ninth stage of Life Destruction. They were all Ye Rosewater’s subordinates. In terms of influence, Ye Rosewater was much worse than White Mirrorjade by a considerable amount. After all, she was a woman, so most of the subordinates she won over were also women. In addition to her character, she was much worse than White Mirrorjade when it came to forming a faction.
“Junior-apprentice Brother Lin, my name is Xiao Raingem.” Beside Lin Ming, a woman blinked at him. She had an overly buxom figure. Her chest was spilling over and her bottom thrust proudly outwards. She had all the sensual charm of a mature young woman seeped into her bones.
Of course, this was only her outer appearance. Xiao Raingem was actually 75 years old. In the future she would have tens of thousands of years of youth.
Beside Xiao Raingem, the young woman called Junior-apprentice Sister Zhou seemed extremely shy. She had a very naïve and waifish appearance. Out of the three direct disciples outside, she was the only one not at the Divine Sea realm. She was a ninth stage Life Destruction martial artist.
Even out of all the direct disciples of Carefree Island, Ninefall geniuses only formed 30-40% of them. Many disciples stepped into the Divine Sea after reaching Eightfall.
Based on this alone, this Junior-apprentice Sister Zhou was much better than the Junior-apprentice Brother Song. This Junior-apprentice Brother Song was only an Eightfall early Divine Sea martial artist. In terms of combat strength, the two were about equal.
As Lin Ming kept guard outside, he saw a cloud of light red dust forming in the distance. This red clouds became increasingly rich and dense, until it finally blotted out the skies and surged towards them.
Lin Ming could clearly see that this was a terrifying sandstorm that had been whipped up by the endless winds of the red desert. The sand storm rose thousands of feet high into the air. Listening to the tearing sounds of the winds, they were similar to knives cutting on glass. With such an incredible wind speed, if a martial artist with a low cultivation were to be caught up in that sand storm, they would be shredded to pieces and immediately die.
“That’s a sand storm. It’s a common occurrence in this Red Desolate Mystic Realm. Junior-apprentice Brother Lin, there’s no need to be nervous,” Xiao Raingem explained with a gentle smile. “Talking about it, those exploring mountain tunnels will be much more relaxed. Those out wandering in the desert will be far more miserable. They’ll have to form shields of true essence to block the winds. That’s going to take quite the toll on all of them.”
As Xiao Raingem spoke, Ye Rosewater’s voice sounded out from within the tunnel. “There’s nothing dangerous in these tunnels. Everyone can enter.”
The 200 some Revolving Core disciples immediately walked toward the tunnels. The great red sand storm in the distance was placing a great deal of mental pressure on them. Although they didn’t need to fear this degree of sand storm with their cultivation, who knew if there were still other dangers in the sand storm?
After entering the tunnel, Lin Ming immediately felt as though he had had entered a purple world. There was bright and dazzling purple light sparkling from all over. Even the thick dust wasn’t able to block it.
Many young martial artists widened their eyes in awe as they saw the copious amounts of violet sun stone ore. Most of them came from small family backgrounds, so they had never seen wealth of such a magnitude before.
“Start mining!” With Ye Rosewater’s order, the Revolving Core disciples swarmed forwards. The rock purple mountain was no ordinary rock; it was as hard as metal essence. Otherwise, it would never have survived the erosive onslaught of the red sand storms over the past hundreds of millions of years. Even a Revolving Core martial artist had to use a great deal of strength to mine chunks of violet sun stone.
As the Carefree Island disciples were mining in full swing, thousands of miles away, there was also another group of people gathering resources in the red desert. These people were all tall and burly with small horns on their head. They were clansmen of the Occult Bone Clan.
“Mm, according to the signal we agreed on, that White Mirrorjade really did send us a message. Our prey is currently in a mountain tunnel 3000 miles away. There’s a dozen or so direct disciples as well as a few hundred garbage level miners. The only surprise is that Ye Rosewater is also with them.”
“Haha, Ye Rosewater? That little girl is quite good, but could this be a trap set by Carefree Island?”
“This information should be true. This isn’t the first time White Mirrorjade betrayed his comrades.”
“Hehe, there is that genius called Lin Ming as well as Ye Rosewater. Our gains are far too great this time. There’s no need to mention Ye Rosewater, but that Lin Ming fellow must have a massive amount of treasures on him. For someone to grow to such a level, it’s impossible that they haven’t experienced a great number of lucky chances.”
“Just gather some resources and rest up. We’ll set out soon. I can’t wait for this!”