Chapter 2062: Blood Essence Pendant
Han Li had only unintentionally stumbled upon information surrounding Bloodtooth Rice while going through countless ancient tomes written about the Elder Devil Realm prior to entering this realm.
According to the book that he had read, Bloodtooth Rice could only be found at a place called the Blue Waterfall Lake, which was extremely far away from Illusion Night City. Due to its scarcity, none of the local devilish beings would sell this rice and kept it solely to themselves, so it was quite remarkable that the Bai Family had managed to secure one of such a high caliber.
Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon glanced at Han Li and Han Qizi, and said, "Are you two interested in this Bloodtooth Rice as well? It"s a pity for you that I"ve already claimed it. If you two want one as well, then you"ll have to ask Brother Bai."
After that, he immediately took a bite out of the Bloodtooth Rice, devouring a third of it in just a single mouthful, then began to slowly chew it in a blissful manner.
A rich fragrant aroma instantly filled the entire hall.
"Do you have more of this Bloodtooth Rice, Brother Bai?" Han Li asked.
Han Qizi also immediately turned his attention toward the burly man and purple-haired woman.
"Surely you jest, Fellow Daoist Luan Dragon; our Bai Family only has this one Bloodtooth Rice in our possession," the burly man said with a wry smile.
"I"m afraid I find that very difficult to believe, Brother Bai. Everyone knows that the more Bloodtooth Rice is consumed, the more p.r.o.nounced the enhancement effect it would have on the consumer"s body. If you"re able to obtain this rice, then how would you have only obtained one?" Han Li asked as his eyes narrowed slightly.
Han Qizi was clearly also unconvinced.
"Truth be told, our Bai Family did manage to purchase several pieces of this Bloodtooth Rice, but they"ve all been consumed by my sister and myself. We only kept this one as a seed or as a pill refinement ingredient. Otherwise, we wouldn"t even have this one left," the burly man hurriedly explained.
Han Li was silent for a moment before continuing, "Seeing as your Bai Family was able to obtain this Bloodtooth Rice once, I"m sure you"ll be able to do it again. If you can purchase some for me, then price won"t be an issue."
"If you can purchase a Bloodtooth Rice of this caliber for me, I"ll be willing to a.s.sist your Bai Family one more time if you encounter any trouble in the future." Han Qizi finally spoke for the very first time, and his voice was very raspy and dry, as if he really hadn"t spoken in a very long time.
The purple-haired woman seemed to be rather tempted by these propositions, but the burly man replied without any hesitation, "We only managed to purchase these pieces of Bloodtooth Rice by chance when we encountered some fellow daoists from the Blue Waterfall Lake; our Bai Family doesn"t have a consistent avenue through which we can obtain these things, so there"s no need to discuss this matter any further."
Han Li and Han Qizi exchanged a glance upon hearing this, but they didn"t press the issue any further in the face of the burly man"s stoic response.
Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon was still munching on his Bloodtooth Rice, but a hint of disappointment also flashed through his eyes.
After that, everyone began to rest and meditate in the hall. Around two hours after Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon finished consuming that piece of Bloodtooth Rice, his aura suddenly swelled drastically, and his face became bright red. Only after a long while did he manage to digest the power of the Bloodtooth Rice, and Han Li became even more interested in Bloodtooth Rice upon seeing this.
It seemed that this Bloodtooth Rice was far more efficacious than the records on the book suggested.
During this period of time, the burly man and purple-haired woman were discussing the disappearance of the Bai Family"s disciples through voice transmission, but they were unable to arrive at any reasonable conclusions due to the complete lack of leads.
As such, they could only set the matter aside and began to meditate as well.
After all, they had only left some low-grade disciples here, and overall, they were inconsequential to the Bai Family.
The group stayed in the stronghold for a day and a night, then continued onward on their Eight-footed Devilish Lizard steeds after recovering to their prime conditions.
Less than half a day later, the burly man looked up at the dim sky, then suddenly turned to Han Li and the others, and said, "Fellow daoists, that devilish beast is truly quite formidable, so we"ll have to exercise caution from here onward. Please conceal your auras and stow away your devilish lizards."
Everyone knew that this was a crucial juncture, so there were naturally no objections raised. All of them jumped down from their devilish lizard steeds before stowing them away in their spirit beast bracelets, then continued onward, flying at a low alt.i.tude.
Even though no movement techniques could be used in the desert, flying at a low alt.i.tude was possible. However, doing so expended several times more magic power than it normally would.
Thankfully, the mine wasn"t far away, and after flying for around two hours, a ma.s.sive sand dune suddenly appeared on the horizon.
The sand dune was tens of thousands of feet tall and resembled a ma.s.sive mountain. At the same time, ghostly howls and unsettling cries could be heard coming from within the sand dune.
At this moment, the burly man raised an arm and indicated for everyone to proceed with caution, then suddenly descended toward an area that was several kilometers away from the sand dune.
Everyone else followed along behind him, and Han Li also trailed along with blue light flas.h.i.+ng through his eyes as he appraised a patch of ground over 100 feet away from them with a contemplative expression.
All of a sudden, the burly man reached into his own sleeve, then made a grabbing motion toward the spot that Han Li was scrutinizing.
A dull thump rang out, and a huge pile of sand that was as large as a room rose up from the ground before being dropped elsewhere.
The burly man repeated this process a few times to dig out a hole that was over 100 feet deep, at the bottom of which was an azure copper gate.
"What"s this?" Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon asked with a surprised expression.
"The main entrance to the mine is situated at the top of the sand dune, but that"s already been taken over by that devilish beast. As a safety precaution, we have to enter through another entrance. My sister and I are the only ones aware of the existence of this entrance, and not only did we set it up in an extremely discreet place, we placed no restrictions around it, so the devilish beast shouldn’t have discovered it yet. If we enter through here, perhaps we"d be able to catch it off guard," the purple-haired woman explained with a smile.
"I see." Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon nodded in response as the puzzlement in his eyes faded.
Meanwhile, the burly man pointed a finger at the copper gate from afar to release an enormous burst of invisible power.
The gate tremored slightly before it was slowly pushed open, revealing an inky-black pa.s.sageway.
The burly swept his spiritual sense toward the pa.s.sageway, upon which a hint of elation appeared on his face, and he immediately drifted toward it. "Let"s go, that devilish beast is still yet to discover this entrance!"
Everyone else naturally followed him into the pa.s.sageway, and as Han Li did so as well, blue light flashed through his eyes, making the dark pa.s.sageway as clear as day for him.
To his left and right were faint azure stone walls that completely kept out the sand of the desert, and what was even more remarkable was that these stone walls were completely smooth and seamless and released no energy fluctuations at all, clearly indicating that there really were no restrictions set up in here.
After walking along this pa.s.sageway for around an hour, light suddenly appeared up ahead, and a crimson mountain face stood in their way.
On this occasion, the burly man flipped a hand over to produce an antiquated rhomboid mirror before pointing it at a few times in succession. Black Qi swirled over the surface of the mirror, following which a burst of five-colored light emerged.
The burly man peered intently into the five-colored light for a short while, upon which his expression eased slightly, and he stowed the mirror away before sweeping a sleeve toward the mountain face up ahead.
A burst of black light immediately swept forth before vanis.h.i.+ng into the mountain face in a flash, and in the next instant, the mountain face tremored before moving to the side on its own in an entirely soundless manner.
As soon as the mountain face was moved off to the side, everyone was struck by a scorching heatwave as a fiery red underground world appeared up ahead.
Crimson rocks were littered all over the reddish-black ground, and there were countless reddish-purple stone stalagmites that protruded out of the ground.
The burly man briefly inspected his surroundings before turning to everyone behind him with a serious expression. "Let"s go, the devilish beast must be lurking where the true fire Qi is most abundant in this mine. Generally speaking, devilish beasts will cultivate and absorb energy while hibernating, but that may not be the case for a devilish beast comparable to a devilish lord in power. On top of that, we still don"t know what kind of devilish beast it is at this point, so it"s impossible for us to speculate about its habits. Please be careful, everyone; our objective is only to wound the devilish beast and chase it away, but if we manage to kill it, then we"ll split the materials from the devilish beast"s body evenly."
"Hehe, when did you become such a worrywart, Brother Bai? You"ve said this many times already. It would naturally be fantastic for us to kill a devilish-lord-level devilish beast, but if we"re unable to do so, then we won"t force things, either," Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon said with a smile.
Right at this moment, the purple-haired woman suddenly opened her mouth to expel a white jade pendant that had a crimson pattern on its surface. She then turned to everyone else with a smile, and said, "Even though I was no match for that devilish beast the last time we fought, I was able to catch it off guard and secure a drop of its blood essence. I"ve refined the blood essence into this jade pendant, so it"ll be a simple matter for us to track it down."