Chapter 1166: Chapter 643: Suppressing and Killing (Thanks to the Leader, Xu Xian) Chapter 1166: Chapter 643: Suppressing and Killing (Thanks to the Leader, Xu Xian) Yin Qingmei and Xie Yuntian set off discretely and quickly.

Chen Mobai naturally used the technique of One-Leaf Blindness to conceal his own figure and followed behind them.

Meanwhile, at Giant Tree Ridge, his Formless Puppet had been appearing continuously in Shenmu Hall for half a month, dealing with various sect affairs accumulated for a long time with Yue Zutao.

Passing a false message to the undercover agent.

Traveling from Jian Country to Rainbow Country required crossing the majority of the Barren Eastern Wilderness. Even with the convenience of a teleportation array, it still took half a month for Yin Qingmei and her companion to reach a border market in Rock Country.

“This Changzhuan Mountain Market was the first to surrender and be developed by the family Zhuang after the Sect Leader led an army into Rock Country. Because it’s close to two spirit stone mines, it used to attract quite a number of cultivators and was fairly bustling, but now it’s no longer the case…”

Xie Yuntian led Yin Qingmei out of the Changzhuan Mountain Market’s teleportation array and shook his head as he looked around the deserted and desolate surroundings.

The spirit stone mines here had successively belonged to Mountain Shaker Peak, the Divine Wood Sect, and the Nanxuan Sect, before ultimately returning to the grasp of the Divine Wood Sect.

After over a hundred years of excavation by the three major forces, the mines had become exhausted ten years ago.

An exhausted mine didn’t mean that there were no spirit stones left.

It meant that all the easily mined large-scale veins of spirit stones had been depleted; what remained were deeply buried, scattered, low-value fragmented spirit stones.

In the Divine Wood Sect’s eyes, the contribution of resources to mine these spirit stones even exceeded their value, so they withdrew their workforce and left the mines for loose cultivators to dig.

No matter who mined how many spirit stones, they just needed to pay half of their haul when leaving the cave.

This is why places recently declared as exhausted mines would quickly attract a large number of loose cultivators.

The Changzhuan Mountain Market developed precisely for this reason.

Back then, cultivators, dreaming of riches, cram-packed every tunnel in the mine.

Unfortunately, after ten years, the remaining spirit stones within the abandoned mine had been extracted nearly entirely.

When a month’s digging might not even unearth a single spirit stone, the mine was formally abandoned by the loose cultivators.

Consequently, the once crowded Changzhuan Mountain Market became as it is now.

If it weren’t for the teleportation array set up by the Divine Wood Sect for transporting spirit stones, Xie Yuntian and Yin Qingmei wouldn’t have come here to transit.

“So that’s what happened. Senior Brother Xie is truly knowledgeable and well-informed.”

Yin Qingmei, looking at the dust-laden buildings of the market, showed a sudden realization on her face.

She had been protected for long-term cultivation at Giant Tree Ridge and had hardly dealt with the outside world. The word ‘exhausted mine’ was also new to her.

“Then what about the original owners of this Changzhuan Mountain Market, the Zhuang family? This is still a Rank-2 spirit vein, which seems to be a good cultivation spot for Qi Practitioners,” Yin Qingmei asked again, thinking that cultivator families shouldn’t give up their ancestral land so easily.

“Junior Sister Yin, this Changzhuan Mountain originally had a Lower-grade Rank-3 spirit vein. But as the spirit stone mines were exhausted, the spiritual energy gradually weakened, eventually falling to the present Lower-grade Rank-2,” Xie Yuntian explained.

“The old ancestor of the Zhuang family naturally tried to save this ancestral land, even inviting Junior Brother Weng, a Rank-3 Earth Master here, but still failed to stop the depletion of the spirit vein.”

“After realizing that nothing could be done, the Zhuang family’s ancestor led the elite of their family to collectively relocate and settle in Northern Abyss City. However, there should still be guardians left by their family here.”

Xie Yuntian explained, but suddenly sensed something amiss.

Although the spirit vein of Changzhuan Mountain was continuously weakening, the concentration of Rank-2 spiritual energy was still decent. Moreover, this was still the ancestral land of the Zhuang family; it shouldn’t be devoid of any human presence.

And because there was a teleportation array for transfer purposes here, the Divine Wood Sect even paid the Zhuang family a hundred spirit stones annually for maintenance and guarding.

Logically, they should have seen the Zhuang family’s Qi Practitioners as soon as they emerged from the teleportation array.

A loud thud!

A human head was tossed from behind a nearby building, rolling to the feet of Xie Yuntian and Yin Qingmei.

Afterward, a mysterious person shrouded in a black robe walked out from the shadows.

“Junior Sister Yin, make sure not to stray too far from me,” Xie Yuntian tightend his eyes when he saw the robed figure, sensing spiritual power fluctuations similar to his own and immediately telepathically warned Yin Qingmei.

He hadn’t expected that somebody would dare to make a move against a Heavenly Spiritual Root of their Divine Wood Sect in the Barren Eastern Wilderness.

Anger surged in his heart, but Xie Yuntian’s rich combat experience did not cause him to lose his senses; instead, he started to observe the surroundings.

But what subsequently appeared made his heart suddenly sink!

Thump, thump, thump!

Three more heads were tossed out, and three cultivators, also dressed in black robes, stepped out from different buildings in various directions.

Their spiritual power fluctuations, although not as strong as the first, were still in the Foundation Building Realm.

“Senior Brother Xie, I can take on two of them,” Yin Qingmei said; despite her lack of combat experience, she was after all an Eastern Wasteland Cultivator and showed no fear. She drew out her Divine Wood Sword and Divine Wood Shield, covertly clutching the Haotian Mirror within her storage bag, ready to use this Rank-3 magic artifact given by her foster father should the situation turn dire.