Ryan suddenly turned around, only to see the blue-haired girl with glasses raise her hand, and dark energy emanated from her, rushing towards Ryan.
"As long as I control you... Morax will surely come to me..."
The blue-haired girl sneered.
She had relied on this dark energy to control the miners, making them dig this tunnel.
However, to the blue-haired girl's surprise, Ryan suddenly licked his lips when faced with the dark energy.
Then, he opened his mouth and inhaled, and the dark energy instantly transformed into black threads, which he sucked into his stomach.
"The taste is not bad..."
Ryan rubbed his stomach and looked at the somewhat stunned blue-haired girl.
Then, Ryan weighed the measuring heaven ruler in his hand.
"You, what are you going to do?"
"Don't come over, I am your Martial Grand-Aunt..."
The blue-haired girl, realizing that the dark energy couldn't deal with Ryan, retreated cautiously, but Ryan grabbed her arm and pulled her close.
"Martial Grand-Aunt, huh!"
"—" *Slap*
Ryan lightly tapped the measuring heaven ruler on the blue-haired girl's palm.
"...!"
The blue-haired girl hastily tried to pull her hand back, but she couldn't.
She was actually very fragile now; otherwise, she wouldn't have been helpless after Ryan absorbed the dark energy.
"Bastard... I am your Martial Grand-Aunt, let me go!"
Unable to pull her hand free, the blue-haired girl angrily said to Ryan.
"I'll teach you for impersonating my Martial Grand-Aunt!"
"I'll teach you for damaging the environment!"
Then Ryan tapped her palm twice more.
"Enough! Stop hitting me!"
The blue-haired girl, whose palm had been hit a few times, was in so much pain that tears almost welled up, but she was currently only a partial manifestation of power and couldn't actually cry.
"If you dare to do this again next time, I'll hit you again."
Seeing her pitiful state, Ryan finally released the blue-haired girl's hand.
"My Martial Grand-Aunt loved to sleep the most when she was alive; no one could disturb her rest."
Just as the blue-haired girl pulled back her hand and bared her teeth at Ryan, Ryan suddenly looked towards the seal and spoke.
His words made the blue-haired girl stunned for a moment.
'Morax, is there a quiet place where I can rest? Every time I lie down to rest, humans mistake me for an unseen mountain and climb onto my back.'
'Last time, an old man even said I was blocking his doorway and kept calling his children to dig me to another place, and if they couldn't finish, they'd have their grandchildren continue digging...'
A blurry memory surfaced in her mind, but she couldn't recall much.
"Hey, you're quite strong too. Help me pull someone out; I need to fill this tunnel back in."
Just then, Ryan's voice brought the blue-haired girl back to her senses.
Then she saw Ryan grabbing the miners with both hands and lifting them up.
But Ryan could only grab a limited number, and one unconscious miner remained on the ground.
"Oh."
The blue-haired girl responded, walked over, grabbed a miner's hand, and dragged him along, following Ryan.
Seeing her cooperate, Ryan ignored her and turned around, carrying the miners out.
"Heh..."
Seeing Ryan's actions, the blue-haired girl sneered, took the opportunity to turn back, and came before the seal.
In fact, digging the tunnel had already caused some damage to the seal; although it wouldn't release the entity below, it was enough to open a passage in.
Thus, the girl reached out and pressed her hand on the seal, but because it was the hand that Ryan had struck, she almost pulled it back in pain.
But she still endured the pain and released the dark energy, corroding the outermost layer of the seal.
As this layer of the seal was destroyed, a huge suction force emanated from within the seal, instantly pulling the blue-haired girl inside.
"Hmm?"
Ryan, who was almost out, suddenly found that he couldn't take another step; some force was pulling him from behind.
The suction grew stronger and stronger, causing Ryan to lose his balance and forcing him to release the miners.
The unconscious miners were unaffected, while Ryan was sucked in by the immense force, disappearing into the tunnel.
When Ryan opened his eyes, he found himself in a vast underground space, with a flat area in the center and various underground structures on the periphery.
And in the center of this spacious underground area, seven rock pillars stood, with a golden barrier forming a seal between them, and mysterious runes flowed on the barrier.
In the very center of the seal, a massive rock dragon with huge dragon horns lay sleeping on the ground.
Its tail, even in its dormant state, remained upright; looking closely through the golden barrier, one could see that its tail bore some resemblance to the Fulong Tree on the ground.
Just then, the rock dragon slowly opened its eyes.
In Liyue legends, the rock dragon was given eyes by Lord Rex Lapis, but at this moment, these eyes were covered in red light, making it impossible to tell whether they were the rational human pupils or wild beast eyes.
"...Mar-Martial Grand-Aunt?"
It was Ryan's first time seeing the rock dragon, and upon realizing it was looking at him, he couldn't help but cautiously call out.
Hearing Ryan's call, the rock dragon slowly raised its right foot and stomped the ground; the entire earth seemed to tremble, and the rock pillars were shaken askew.
"Roar—!"
Accompanied by a roar, the rock pillars were all shaken away, and the seal could no longer restrict the rock dragon's movement in this underground space.
"My dear disciple's grandchild, come here and let me stomp you to death!"
The rock dragon stared at Ryan's method, and a majestic, deep voice came from its mouth.
"Ahem, don't, don't, Martial Grand-Aunt, I didn't mean to disturb your rest. It was all that blue-haired girl just now; she even impersonated you..."
Ryan coughed awkwardly and hastily explained.
The rock dragon did not wantonly release its pressure like Osial, because unlike Osial who had been out of the seal for some time, it was still within this seal, merely temporarily awakened and gained some mobility.
But even so, Ryan still felt a chill in his heart as he looked at the majestic rock dragon before him.
After all, this rock dragon was Azhdaha, who accompanied Lord Rex Lapis in battles.
His power was not weaker than Lord Rex Lapis's.
"That was me!"
Azhdaha let out a roar, then walked towards Ryan, the ground trembling with every step.
"...Huh?"
Ryan froze, a few drops of sweat trickling down his forehead.
He never expected that girl to actually be Azhdaha..."Since that's the case, Martial Grand-Aunt, how about we be fair? I used this to hit you, so why don't you use it to hit me too?"
In a moment of crisis, Ryan had a flash of inspiration and quickly took out the measuring heaven ruler, proposing.
"Alright, I'll let you die knowing why."
Azhdaha agreed directly and raised a claw towards Ryan.
Ryan looked at Azhdaha's claw and brought the measuring heaven ruler to it, pressing it against the claw.
"Then you promised, you can only hit me with the ruler, your claw can't touch me, okay."
Ryan pressed the measuring heaven ruler against Azhdaha's claw and reminded him.
"..."
Azhdaha raised his claw and took a look, realizing that the measuring heaven ruler attached to it had been deliberately manipulated by Ryan to be only a few centimeters long.
'This way, Martial Grand-Aunt won't be able to hit me, hehe...'"
Ryan covered his mouth, secretly laughing...