Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

"Why do you need Ye Jin?" Wang Xiong questioned.

"Can't I just come to meet senior brother?" Ye Jin said charmingly.

"Ahah, of course you are free to come here always." Wang Xiong replied.

Ye Jin's smile bloomed like a rose under the moon upon hearing it, tugging at the strings of Wang Xiong's heart. 

"Senior brother is just too easy to tease. How can I waste your time? I'm here with something," Ye Jin finally said.

She took out a box from her spatial storage treasure and put in on the table in front of Wang Xiong.

"What's this?" Wang Xiong asked..

"A few of the junior disciples we recruited into our faction found this box on one of the spies. They intercepted him in the Di Guan mines, and stopped him. But before they could manage to extract anything from him, the spy killed himself.

This was the box he was carrying though. We suspect that the spy was working for the opposing faction of the elders." Ye Jin spoke in a serious tone.

Hearing this, Wang Xiong furrowed his brows and looked at the box. It looked to be a plain wooden box and had a simple latch on it. There were no markings of any kind on it that would point to any ownership.

"Why were they at the Di Guan mines, though?" Wang Xiong questioned.

"We do not know, but if they are there, then there must be a reason. Our juniors were there on a hunting mission and encountered the spy." Ye Jin answered.

"A hunting mission? But how did they know the man was a spy?? Wang Xiong questioned.

"The mission itself was the reason. The hunting mission was assigned to our sect as there was an unknown beast wreaking havoc in the mines. The mines themselves are owned by an independent cultivator by the name of Lai Hai.

The man is a merchant by profession and the mine is one of his assets. The mine mostly contains some iron, but in the depths, there are some rare metals found as well, some of which are useful in high grade spirit tools.

Lai Hai is a supplier of our sect and has often transacted with us. Because of the beast, a lot of miners were killed and thus he asked us for help. The man himself is barely in the Core Condensation realm and thus couldn't be bothered to fix the problem himself.

Since the mines were closed due to the beast, our juniors found it suspicious that someone was there in the mines. No one would dare to enter it for the fear of death." Ye Jing answered.

Hearing this, Wang Xiong furrowed his brows and thought for a bit. About ten minutes later, he spoke again.

"This spy… what did he look like?" Wang Xiong asked.

"He ate a flesh bone melting pill, thus we were unable to tel that." Ye Jing spoke.

~gasp~

Hearing this, Wang Xiong couldn't help but take in a breath. The flesh bone melting pill was a poisonous alchemical pill. It was rather terrifying and could kill anyone below the Dao Shell realm if consumed.

Its effects were also terrifying and could melt the flesh and bones of a cultivator into a puddle of blood and grime. It was a cruel and painful way of dying and yet the spy had not hesitated in doing it.

"A Flesh Bone melting pill is not something that can be obtained by just anyone. It would need at least a Nascent soul realm alchemist to make one." Wang Xiong spoke.

"Exactly, and that is why we suspected it to be someone from the elder's faction. After all, it would be very easy for them to get it." Ye Jin stated.

"Hmm… but that's not enough proof. It could be any other power as well. Besides, what would they even get from the mine? The spy being there makes no sense." Want Xiong reiterated.

"Well… there were rumors that there might actually be a spirit stone mine in the unexplored depths of the Di Guan mines." Ye Jin spoke.

"Huh? That's impossible. If there were a spirit stone mine anywhere, the sect would have found it already." Wang Xiong replied.

"That's the thing. It might actually be a new mine that matured in the recent years. Plus, it is still buried under several hundred meters of solid rock, thus it may have managed to stay hidden." Ye Jin spoke.

Wang Xiong nodded his head and found her words to be reasonable. If there truly was a spirit stone mine there, it would be enough of an incentive for the elders to try to obtain it. If they truly managed to do it, they would basically have the capital needed to mount a resistance freely.

Right now, since the elder faction that was in the opposition of the sect patriarch was being suppressed and thus they could not use the resources and capital they had in the sect. They had to give a reason and report for each use and thus it was made difficult for them.

Not to mention the punishment that was meted out to several of the elders, making it so that they received reduced resources while some were directly forced to stay in seclusion for the coming few years.

Them obtaining the mines might be the new lease on life that they needed.

"That does seem like something they would attempt to do." Wang Xiong spoke.

"Although that spy took the flesh melting pill, we still managed to take this box before that. If fear if we were late even by a few seconds, the man might have destroyed it as well." Ye Jin replied.

"Hmm… So this box potentially contains the clues to what the elders are planning." Wang Xiong stated.

"Indeed, senior brother." Ye Jin confirmed.

"Let's take a look then. It looks normal enough…" Wang Xiong said before he used his spirit sense to probe it.

But after doing that, his eyes went wide in shock.