In the midst of Nie Qian’s yelling, Nie Tian quickly took out the animal bone and immediately placed it on top of a protruding Fire Cloud stone. 

A small bit of fire flashed out from the bone. 

Nie Tian focused with rapt attention, as his face lit up. “The animal bone has begun to absorb the power of the fire!”

“Great!” Nie Qian also exclaimed. 

Both noted, that when the animal bone settled on the extracted Fire Cloud stone, the brilliant lights inside the stone rapidly dimmed. 

This meant that the animal bone, as they expected, had been absorbing the flame energy. 

A short while later, more than half of the Fire Cloud stones embedded in the walls had their power stripped clean and were turned into ordinary grey stone. 

“Over there!” Nie Qian pointed at an even larger Fire Cloud stone while urging, “Quickly!”

Without even the slightest bit of hesitation, Nie Tian followed Nie Qian’s directions by taking the animal bone and pressing it against the large Fire Cloud Stone. 

“There! There! There’s an even bigger one!”

Nie Qian looked excited upon seeing the animal bone absorb the power of the Fire Cloud Stone and immediately chose a new target for Nie Tian. 

- Kacha! -

Within the mine, one by one, Fire Cloud Stones shattered. 

Continuously absorbing the flame’s energy, the animal bone quickly became bright red, releasing a strange l.u.s.ter. 

Small sparks flew from the animal bone. Inside the dusky mine, those sparks of fire appeared like dazzling stars. 

- Chi chi! - 

Numerous sparks emerged, one by one, and Nie Tian gradually discovered that the sparks began to gather closer to each other. 

“Here!” Nie Qian pointed towards a prominent piece of Fire Cloud Stone. 

“It’s starting to condense!”

Nie Tian was also starting to get excited. He took the animal bone and put it on that piece of Fire Cloud Stone. 

- Peng! - 

A plume of brilliant red flames from inside the animal bone abruptly ignited. 

Nie Tian perceived that the absorption of the flame was exactly how the drop of blood was being condensed. 

When he saw this, he felt a strange attractive force suddenly coming from within the blood droplet. 

- Kacha! -

Inside the Seventy-Third Mine, Fire Cloud stones shattered piece by piece,, letting out a terrible echoing sound.

At the same time, small dots of fiery lights suddenly flew out from within the nearby Fire Cloud stones. They looked like a group of millions upon millions of fire flies, as they flew towards the animal bone.

- Rumble! - 

Even more frightening was, that inside the mountain, the other mines also gradually let out rumbling noises.

Accompanying the rumbling sound, specks of fire emerged from inside the many Fire Cloud Stones. It was like a creature that was attracted to something, as one after another advanced towards Nie Tian’s location in the Seventy-Third Mine.

“What’s the matter?”

“What happened?”

“The mine is collapsing! Everyone must leave!”

“Everyone, immediately evacuate the mine!”

“A huge disaster is approaching!”

“……”

Inside each and every mine, the Nie Family clansmen and laborers, who were still mining Fire Cloud stones, all shouted in alarm. 

Together they all rapidly fled from the mine, frightfully dashing towards the exit of the cave.

“Little Tian! Oh no, the animal bone is too strong! It absorbed the flame energy too fast! This mine will soon collapse!” Nie Qian panicked. 

However, it was like Nie Tian, who was still grasping onto the animal bone, didn’t hear her cries. 

Nie Tian’s entire consciousness seemed to have been sucked into the animal bone. Within his eyes were small twinkling sparks that brimmed with a sense of mystery. 

- Hong hong! -

Piece by piece, crushed rocks fell and in the blink of an eye, the Seventy-Third Mine’s entrance was blocked. 

Intending to prevent Nie Tian from absorbing the flames with the animal bone, Nie Qian, upon trying to take Nie Tian out from the mine, abruptly discovered that they couldn’t leave. 

There were still numerous points of light permeating through the crushed stone blocking up the mine, continuing to converge around the animal bone, that Nie Tian still tightly grasped in his hand. 

The animal bone greedily continued to absorb the entire mountain’s flame energy while showing no sign of stopping!

Nie Tian’s consciousness and spirit had long since entered the drop of burning blood, once more entering the mysterious land of fire. 

In that unknown s.p.a.ce, he saw the whole sky ablaze, with light warping in endless changes. He even saw a glowing blaze gathering together to form a tremendous dragon. 

- Hu hu! -

In the outside world, the rich spiritual power that curled around the Lingyun Mountain unknowingly began to move, quietly converging towards that unremarkable mountain peak. 

From the mine entrance, the vast expanse of white spiritual power began to permeate into the Seventy-Third Mine mine.

The very anxious Nie Qian suddenly felt as though every breath she took had an innumerable amount of spiritual power. 

Her thin perception found that Nie Tian’s location had astonishing amounts of spiritual power. It was, as if the mine’s spiritual power had followed along Nie Tian’s pores and flowed into his body. 

Her bright eyes were wide open, staring attentively at Nie Tian both in shock and ecstasy. 

The change happening inside the mine had exceeded her knowledge, rendering her unaware of what to do and unsure of how to help Nie Tian. 

At this moment, through the cracks in the stones, which were blocking the cave entrance, large quant.i.ties of flame energy were still entering the room and converging into the animal bone. 

She knew, that for the time being, it would be hard to leave. She could only pa.s.sively accept what was occurring at this moment. 

At the same time.

At the back of the Lingyun Mountain, inside another mountain peak, smaller than the Lingyun Mountain, but larger than other mountains, a wizened old man dressed in a hemp, suddenly put down the spiritual weapon in his hands. 

“That’s strange. Why has the heaven and earth’s spiritual power suddenly changed?” He muttered and suddenly sat cross-legged, lightly closing his eyes. 

A vague shadow from the sky slowly drifted out, moving like a demon, while flying to the stone chamber.

The vague shadow flickered in the air, as if it was a reflected image. Although it seemed unreal, it was chasing the heaven and earth’s spiritual power. It drifted to the small mountain range where the Nie Family mined Fire Cloud Stones. 

The shadow leisurely entered into the mine, following the stone road and continuing to penetrate deeper into the mine. 

Not long after, the shadow arrived at where Nie Tian was inside the Seventy-Third Mine. The shadow flitted between the narrow rocks, quietly entering the mine vein. 

Inside the mine vein, the shadow appeared increasingly indistinct, becoming more difficult to see with the naked eye.

“Yi!”

Dwelling in a nook, the shadow glanced at Nie Tian, and then focused its attention on him and the animal bone that he held.

Inside, Nie Qian, despite standing right by Nie Tian, felt nothing. 

- Rumble! - 

The entire mountain gently began to sway. At the summit of the mine where Nie Tian and Nie Qian were, the hanging boulders also began to gradually disintegrate piece by piece, and tumbled down. 

The shadow raised its head to look at the falling boulders and prodded at a few. 

Sensing something, Nie Qian watched at the falling boulders in horror, her heart wailing in anguished despair. 

Surprisingly, however, the boulder that was obviously going to crush her and Nie Tian, appeared to have received some kind of force that pushed the boulders to the perimeters of the mine. 

The originally meant to be crushed into pulp Nie Qian, stood unscathed next to Nie Tian as if cared for by the G.o.ds. 

Much later.

When there was no more fire coming from all directions, as if all the flame inside the Fire Cloud Stones possessed by the mountain had been sucked dry by the animal bone. 

Nie Tian was holding the animal bone, totally unaware of what happened inside the mine, and still in the middle of the dreamland. 

The mine continued to shake for a long time, until it gradually began to settle down. Piled up in the perimeters of the mine were the boulders that had dropped. 

Unexpectedly, where Nie Qian and Nie Tian were located, there wasn’t a single piece of stone. This caused her to feel an unimaginable sense of grat.i.tude within her heart towards the Nie Family for the protection. 

Then, after a long time, the animal bone Nie Tian grasped changed back into its original dark brown colour. 

Nie Tian gradually awoke and the first thing he said upon opening his eyes was, “That drop of blood inside the bone has finally succeeded in condensing!” 

The secret shadow, upon hearing these words, rippled softly, shocked to its innermost being. 

……