Elder Hai, cradling a stone jar, stepped over the threshold and quickly walked to the stone platform where Mu Li lay.

He set the jar down and observed Mu Li's bodily condition. After a brief contemplation, he took out two talismans and attached them respectively to Mu Li's head and abdomen.

Then he stepped back a few paces, formed a strange hand spell and began chanting an obscure and unintelligible incantation, directing it at the talismans on the platform with a few rapid finger jabs.

The patterns on the talismans abruptly lit up, shooting out two screens of emerald light that spread over Mu Li's body like a viscous fluid.

Seeing this, Elder Hai formed several more hand spells before opening his palms towards the sky. He began chanting softly, as mana rapidly surged through his body.

The next instant, a bizarre scene unfolded.

Accompanied by a series of strange sounds, many blood-colored filaments sprouted from Elder Hai's palms, writhing like living snakes.

Expressionless, Elder Hai extended his right hand into Mu Li's chest, the flesh-colored tendrils coiling swiftly around Mu Li's heart, the tips even piercing directly into the flesh, probing the innards of the heart.

Mu Li immediately let out a pained groan. Although not loud, the sound was particularly grating in the quiet room.

But Elder Hai, unfazed, continued to drive the spell, as the flesh-colored tendrils enveloped the heart, forming a tendril shell around it, taking its place, while Mu Li's actual heart was gradually absorbed and devoured by the tendrils until it completely vanished.

Upon seeing this, Elder Hai immediately reached into the stone jar he brought earlier.

Inside the jar, a demon beast's heart, freshly excised, soaked in a foul-smelling liquid, still seemingly throbbing.

Elder Hai's palm tendrils made contact with the demon beast's heart and wrapped around it as swiftly as they had done to Mu Li's heart, but this time without piercing the flesh.

After completely enshrouding the demon beast's heart with tendrils, Elder Hai lifted his hand, placing the heart within Mu Li's chest.

As his hands neared each other, the tendrils emerging from his palms rushed towards one another as if they had found their destination and quickly fused into one entity.

During this process, the demon beast's heart, wrapped in tendrils, dropped into the tendril shell connected to Mu Li's bloodstream and, with the help of the tendrils, gradually stitched itself into Mu Li's body.

The excruciating pain turned Mu Li's groans into heart-wrenching screams. His body shook violently, yet the emerald light screen covering him, like a mountain, firmly pressed him against the stone platform.

Sometime later, Elder Hai completed the transplant, retracting the tendrils from his palms and turned to fetch a black elixir from the side. He forced a pill into Mu Li's mouth and pressed down, forcibly catalyzing the elixir with mana.

Soon, clusters of tender red flesh sprouted at the edge of the wound on Mu Li's chest, waving in the air like tiny hands.

The flesh quickly grew, turning into tendrils similar to those that had emerged from Elder Hai's palm, drawing together at their tips as if strung by an invisible thread and swiftly connecting.

Under the action of these tendrils, Mu Li's chest gradually closed up.

As the demon beast's heart began to function, Mu Li's aura shifted, carrying a hint of the imposing presence unique to demon beasts.

His mana fluctuated wildly, soaring from the Qi Refinement Realm to the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment, before slowly settling down.

Elder Hai then released his hand from pressing down on Mu Li and nodded in satisfaction, "Good, indeed, inserting a living demon beast's heart reduces rejection. Now, we'll see how many limbs can be successfully attached."

Finished speaking, Elder Hai turned and pushed open another door in the room, stepping into a frosty, mist-filled chamber.

The entire room, crafted of Cold Iron, was extremely cold, and from the ceiling hung numerous chains. Each chain bound partial limbs, from both demon beasts and humans.

Elder Hai carefully selected, taking two wolf legs from amongst them before returning to the previous room. However, as he approached the stone platform, his brow suddenly furrowed.

On the platform, countless flesh-colored tendrils burst from Mu Li's body, struggling wildly in the air like a massive anemone, repulsively inducing goosebumps.

Mu Li's demon beast-like aura and cultivation became extremely unstable, varying erratically as if he might explode any moment.

Elder Hai quickly put down the wolf legs, rushed forward, ignoring the flesh tendrils surging towards him, and directly pressed down on Mu Li's body.

He rapidly circulated spells, trying to stabilize the frenzied Spiritual Energy inside Mu Li's body. But the more he urged, the more wildly the tendrils danced, wrapping around his arm, piercing his skin, and even crawling towards his head.

Just as the tendrils were about to enter his mouth and nose, Mu Li's energy suddenly dispersed, and all of the tendrils rapidly shrank, retreating back under the skin.

Relieved at this turn of events, Elder Hai was about to withdraw his hand when suddenly, he heard a "plop".

Black blood spurted from Mu Li's orifices, and his body, which had been struggling, suddenly lost all strength.

Elder Hai's eyes widened, his expression extremely ugly:

"Dead? What happened? This kind of situation has never occurred before! What exactly went wrong?"

Roaring, he punched Mu Li's body, sending a clean punch through him. Blackened blood mixed with an unidentified liquid splattered out, even spraying onto his face.

It was at this moment, possibly due to the rage overwhelming his heart, that he suddenly felt dizzy. He immediately took a deep breath and quickly sat down cross-legged, circulating his Cultivation Technique. It took quite a while before he gradually returned to normal.

"No good, I can't delay any longer. I need to find a solution to this aftereffect as soon as possible."

He thought for a moment, stood up to look at Mu Li's corpse, a flash of annoyance in his eyes. But in the end, he still restrained his impulse, picked up Mu Li's body, and continued deeper into the room.

Passing through a door, he entered a spacious hall filled with numerous cages, which held various demon beasts as well as several monk slaves with collars around their necks.

Elder Hai casually opened one cage and threw Mu Li's corpse to the ravenous demon beast, then turned his attention to the enslaved mine slaves, picking out the next subject for his experiment.

At the same time, the soul crow formed from Yuan Ming's soul splitting also left the underground of the tall building and flew back into Zuo Qinghui.

Naturally, it was him who had dealt with Mu Li. Better to grant him release from such a living death.

From the brief contact just now, he found Elder Hai's strength to be at early-stage Core Formation, and his Divine Soul seemed somewhat chaotic. Although he did not know the specifics of his Divine Skills, with Yuan Ming's current Divine Soul Cultivation, he was able to suppress him, so there was no need for too much concern.

But liberating the mine slaves was a significant matter. Yuan Ming planned to strategize carefully before acting, to ensure that nothing could go wrong.

The next day.

Deafening bell tolls echoed throughout the entire mining camp, Zuo Qinghui came out from his dwelling, only to see the other people in the bunkhouse were already prepared, sitting at the long table, silently eating their breakfast.

Since their cultivation was suppressed and they had no Fasting Pills, they were forced to fill their stomachs with commoner's food.

The breakfast was prepared by commoner servants. After serving the dishes, they waited on the side, ready to clean up after the cultivators finished eating.

What truly surprised Zuo Qinghui, however, was that the food in front of each person was markedly different.

For example, in front of Zhou Peng was a plate and bowl. The plate held three crispy fried dough sticks, golden and glossy, so crunchy that just picking them up with chopsticks would produce a snapping sound. The soy milk in the bowl beside him was rich and fragrant, wafting appetizing aromas.

Sitting next to Zhou Peng was a middle-aged cultivator, with four steaming big meat buns placed before him. The buns had thin skin filled with thick meat, biting into them would cause the greasy juices to drip from the corners of their mouths, tempting onlookers to wipe it away with a hand and lick it off.

Others had breakfasts like soup noodles and wontons, which just by looking at them would make one's stomach growl in hunger, wishing to immediately sit down and feast.

However, only a handful of people could enjoy such meals. In front of the others was merely a bowl of murky gruel and some pickled vegetables for accompaniment.

And that wasn't even the worst. When Zuo Qinghui sat down, the commoner servant just brought over a bowl of gruel—he was not given any pickled vegetables, and even the rice grains were sparse.

Zuo Qinghui hesitated and looked at the commoner servant, asking, "Is this all?"

Before the servant could respond, Zhou Peng spoke up first, "Fellow Daoist Zuo, I forgot to mention yesterday, on the mine, according to the amount of ore mined, every day you can earn some contribution points. They can be used to buy daily necessities or to improve the quality of meals. The Tokens used to record and trade contribution points are specially made. If nothing unexpected happens, yours should arrive by this evening. Until then, you will have to make do, and when the other two Fellow Daoists come by later, please explain it to them as well."

Zuo Qinghui nodded his head and asked no more questions. He picked up his bowl of gruel and silently started drinking.

Just then, he suddenly felt a scrutinizing gaze fall upon him.

Without turning around, he guessed who the owner of that gaze was.

He saw Xu Che walk over to the table and sit down next to him, "Fellow Daoist Zuo, I..."

Zuo Qinghui put down his bowl and pointed to the long table, "Eat first. We have to go down to the mines later, and we can't afford delays."

Afterward, under the half-examinatory, half-supervisory gaze of Zhou Peng, he repeated Zhou Peng's words from before.

Xu Che paused, then nodded thoughtfully.

Soon, everyone finished their breakfast and left their homes, only to see Shen Mangxing slowly approaching as well.

He looked around and, seeing no one was missing, didn't say much. He simply waved his hand, signaling them to follow.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.