It was like excavating an underground palace, where a vast race of moles lived.
If the thousands of moles that had attacked Li Xi earlier could be considered numerous, then the number of moles Li Xi could see here was simply overwhelming.
As far as the eye could see, wherever the magical fluorite could illuminate, there were moles, countless of them, large and small.
In the dense underground tunnels, like a beehive, countless pairs of eyes fiercely stared at the intruder, Li Xi.
The moles that had fled back chattered noisily downwards, likely reporting Li Xi's massacre.
Then, from below, more than a dozen moles, as large as wild boars, emerged. Their crimson eyes appraised Li Xi, and every hair on their robust bodies was as stiff as steel needles.
"To think they're Rank 1 magical beasts."
From the aura emanating from these robust moles, Li Xi could clearly sense that they had all completed their evolution and become magical beasts.
If an ordinary E-rank mercenary were to encounter such a situation, they would have no choice but to run. However, it was Li Xi who had come, a man equipped with a Sharingan system.
"Roar!"
The Rank 1 magical mole let out an enraged roar at Li Xi. Instantly, the ordinary moles rushed towards Li Xi like a tide, one after another, so numerous that they would make someone with trypophobia's scalp tingle and faint on the spot.
At this moment, large-scale ninjutsu was naturally the most effective.
"巳－未－申－亥－午－寅"
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
The fireball, four meters in diameter, perfectly blocked the entrance to the underground palace dug by these moles, leaving not even a crack.
In the roaring flames, countless moles were burned to death. The underground palace they had dug lacked water to extinguish the fire. The thousands of degrees of heat could melt iron, let alone these moles, which were rich in oil.
They would basically catch fire on contact and die for sure. If they weren't ignited directly, they could be set ablaze by other moles running around on fire, and for a time, the flames seemed to spread from mole to mole.
The entire underground palace, except for the exit, was also burning.
Four seconds later, Li Xi didn't even look. Before the moles could react to the previous Great Fireball, he stepped closer, performed the hand seals again,
"巳－未－申－亥－午－寅"
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
This time, the large fireball directly entered the underground palace. Screams echoed endlessly. Black smoke from the burning moles emerged from the exit, and black ash continuously fell.
Li Xi didn't know how many moles he had killed, but as long as he could still hear sounds from within, he couldn't stop.
Four seconds, then another four seconds, one Great Fireball after another, Li Xi only stopped when the chakra in his body was less than half.
Looking into the underground palace, the screams had become faint. Most of the moles that could burn were gone. Some parts of the ground were even melted away, forming flowing molten rock.
As for those dozen or so Rank 1 magical moles, as large as wild boars, only a dozen black magic crystals remained on the ground. Not even a single hair was found.
Li Xi happily picked out the magic crystals from the black ash pile, fifteen in total.
The magic crystals were very hard and had not been destroyed by the Great Fireball Jutsu.
As Li Xi surveyed the underground palace dug by the moles again, looking for any survivors, the ground beneath him suddenly shook, as if something was about to break through the soil.
Just as the ground was about to crack and the thing below was about to emerge, Li Xi vanished from his spot with the Body Flicker Technique, appearing in the sewer.
"Boom!"
From the ground, which had been reduced to powder by the Great Fireball Jutsu, a large mouth emerged. Its two rows of sharp teeth were like two saw blades, swallowing the entire patch of ground.
"What is that?"
Seeing the grandeur of its entrance, he initially thought he had returned to the Agricultural Temple and encountered the unknown demon he met while clearing farmlands.
However, from the pit emerged a magical mole as large as a buffalo, its crimson eyes emitting an unnerving gaze.
"A Rank 2 magical mole."
As soon as the mole appeared, it lunged at Li Xi with all four limbs. Li Xi dodged with the Body Flicker Technique. In the moment of his escape, he seemed to see a large number of moles crawling up from the void left by this Rank 2 magical mole. If not stopped, the rapid influx of moles would quickly restore the area to its previous state.
"So there's a second underground level."
Li Xi lured the Rank 2 magical mole not too far away. While the mole frantically pursued him, Li Xi suddenly appeared above the sewer.
Performing hand seals, he attacked from above,
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu."
The Rank 2 magical mole truly did not expect Li Xi to appear above it. Caught off guard, it was directly hit by the Great Fireball Jutsu. Its buffalo-sized body struggled within the fireball, but it absorbed the full power of the Great Fireball Jutsu without any loss. Its body strength as a Rank 2 magical beast was completely insufficient to withstand it.
A partially burned corpse fell to the ground, and a Rank 2 magic crystal, larger than that of the Rank 1 magical moles, fell to the ground. Su Dan Novel Network.
Li Xi picked up the Rank 2 magic crystal, wiped it, and put it in his embrace. "This is good stuff."
Feeling that the chakra in his body was less than half, Li Xi took a soldier pill and threw it into his mouth. The hunger after the great battle was relieved, and the chakra in his body also recovered by 40% in an instant. Although not full, it was enough.
His battle with the Rank 2 magical mole lasted only ten seconds. The number of moles that crawled out of the tunnel was not yet large.
Li Xi directly aimed his mouth at the tunnel and unleashed a Great Fireball Jutsu, piercing the ground and sending high-temperature flames into the second underground level.
Li Xi didn't know what was happening inside, but since they were all moles that needed to be cleared, he just burned them.
After three consecutive Great Fireball Jutsus, he could no longer hear any sounds from below. Li Xi waited cautiously for a while longer, but still heard no sounds from below. Only then did he jump into the hole opened by the Rank 2 magical mole.
First, there was the residual high temperature and a ground full of mole corpses. Li Xi even found several Rank 1 magic crystals among them. He didn't know which unlucky magical mole had been burned to death by the Great Fireball Jutsu.
Apart from that, no other traces of moles were found. Li Xi guessed they had probably escaped.
With no more danger, he carefully examined the second underground level. Unlike the first level where the moles had dug out a palace using the sewer, the walls here clearly showed signs of artificial construction. This was because neither moles nor any other magical beasts could have dug such straight and smooth tunnels. In fact, there were magical lamps burning every few meters, illuminating the tunnel brighter than the outside.
Looking at all this, Li Xi realized that someone was clearly engaged in illegal and criminal activities. Otherwise, what kind of good person would build a secret base under the sewers?
Li Xi remained still, contemplating for a long time. The enemy was unknown, and their strength was also unknown. If he rushed in rashly, he might encounter someone who could instantly kill him. Wouldn't that be curiosity killing the cat? Building a house by the sea... washed away to home!
But if he didn't move forward, if he didn't explore the secrets hidden here, he felt like a cat was scratching his heart.
"Whatever, I'll go take a look."
Li Xi took out a few wooden sticks from his backpack, throwing one every twenty meters. This was the limit distance for the Substitution Technique. After throwing wooden sticks far into the upper level, Li Xi began his exploration.
The space on the second underground level was much smaller than the first. There were no diverging paths. Following the tunnel, he soon reached the center of the underground.
Here was a spacious plaza, the size of a basketball court. Except for a mysterious altar in the center, there was nothing else.
Li Xi cautiously walked along the edge, finding nothing. Then he walked towards the center.
Various skeletons were scattered around the altar. Li Xi could recognize human, mole, and many carnivorous animal skeletons. There were also several bone clubs, three to four meters long, which likely belonged to a very large creature, but Li Xi couldn't identify it.
The intertwined skeletons indicated that at least a hundred creatures had died here. In the center of the altar was a half-person-tall stone covered in blood. The characters drawn on it, although Li Xi didn't recognize them, he knew that this was the language of Abyssal demons.
The Abyssal demon language carried the will of the abyss. As long as someone uttered Abyssal words, the omnipresent will of the abyss could sense it and bring down disaster. This knowledge came from his inherited memories.
Fortunately, Li Xi did not understand the Abyssal language. Otherwise, the moment he saw it, he would have involuntarily uttered it. If the abyss really teleported something over then, Li Xi would have no place to cry.
Li Xi dared not touch the Abyssal Demon Stele, but other things were debatable.
Beneath the Abyssal Demon Stele were dozens of magic crystals, each the size of a ping-pong ball. There was even one the size of a fist. It went without saying that the magic crystals here were at least from Rank 2 magical beasts, and the one the size of a fist was at least from a Rank 4 or 5 magical beast.
The market value of Rank 1 magic crystals was ten gold coins, Rank 2 was twenty-five gold coins, Rank 3 was one hundred gold coins, Rank 4 was eight hundred gold coins, and Rank 5 was three thousand gold coins. Rank 6, it was said, was worth over ten thousand gold coins. Beyond that, Li Xi didn't know. Those were items that had value but no market, and as soon as they appeared, they would be collected by major powers as strategic resources. They would certainly not be seen on the market.
According to Li Xi's estimation, the total value of the magic crystals here was at least ten thousand gold coins, or even seven to eight thousand if not ten thousand.
Seven to eight thousand gold coins, what did that mean? Li Xi's house was definitely a luxury item worth only ten gold coins. Seven to eight thousand could buy the small manor of the wealthy merchant Belos.
He couldn't miss such an easy opportunity to make money. Without a second word, Li Xi drew his curved saber and began to pry off the magic crystals.
As he pried them, he muttered,
"This magic crystal is Rank 2, worth twenty-five gold coins."
"This magic crystal is Rank 3, worth one hundred gold coins."
"These two are both Rank 2, that's fifty gold coins. I'm rich, I'm rich!"
Just as he was excitedly prying them, a faint dark red light flashed across the Abyssal Demon Stele. It was only a fleeting, very subtle flash, and Li Xi, bent over prying magic crystals, didn't notice it at all.
Just as Li Xi had pried off half of the magic crystals, a change occurred. A faint black vortex formed on the Abyssal Demon Stele.
The black vortex initially was only fist-sized, spinning silently, but the next moment, the skeletons around the altar seemed to have undergone thousands of years in an instant, like sand dunes on a beach being flattened by a large wave.
All the skeletons turned into dust and fell to the ground. Streams of invisible energy were absorbed by the black vortex on the stele. The vortex grew larger, and after absorbing the energy of all the skeletons, it became half-person-sized.
Li Xi, despite his excitement and greed for money, saw such a huge change.
"What is this?"
The vortex didn't stop after absorbing the energy of the skeletons; it began to encompass the stele.
The remaining fifty magic crystals that Li Xi hadn't had time to pry were drained at a visible rate, turning into ash-white crystals, and then shattering into worthless powder.
After absorbing the energy of all the magic crystals, the vortex was two meters tall. The chaotic, interwoven energy lines looked like a gateway to another world.