Chapter 636

Chapter 636: Mining Seedlings

“This door…” Li Hui was a bit shocked. In the vision formed by Bai Ze’s divine eye, there was no door ahead, only a strange whirlpool. As this whirlpool twirled, the time force from all directions gathered.

Before the cage stopped swaying, the door already opened with a Boom, and the time whirlpool shrank inward, revealing a tunnel leading deep into the earth.

“Impressive! Cultivating the mine veins on their own and mining at different times means that any place underground can be converted into Miao Jade veins! And with the seedlings buried just a few hours ago, we can start mining a few hours later. Time is treasure!”

Many young miners raised their arms and shouted, “Let’s go! Only by daring to fight and venture can we quickly rise. Those old hands lack the drive. We are the future owners of all the major mines, and we will match those young mine owners in the large cities!”

With dreams in their hearts, the youths embarked on their journey. Li Hui was the last to enter the tunnel, observing the rules of time within the mine, feeling a constant sense of dislocation.

“Oh? A sense of dislocation! It seems we haven’t entered the era of the mine vein yet; we’re still in the normal time and space sequence, but we can influence things corresponding to this timeline and fish them out later.” As Li Hui walked and looked, once he was out of everyone’s sight, he suddenly raised his hand to push against the rock wall.

The chain mail gloves made a clattering sound, instantly guiding the time force, leaving a clear handprint without any echo.

“Now I understand; these gloves are the key to mining. There are indeed better tools for mining, but for a level five small miner like me, they are far too extravagant; I simply can’t afford them. Moreover, these gloves are just a backup; the handy tools were lost in the mining area along with the original owner.”

“This is going to be tough. I originally wanted to send out a hundred ghosts to mine, but they lack tools, and I don’t know how to forge.” Li Hui pushed against the wall again; it remained silent, and within three zhang, the rock shattered and collapsed, reducing even the ore to powder, leaving him feeling quite frustrated.

“Three zhang is the maximum mining range for these gloves. Beyond this range, no matter how strong the momentum, it will be useless. Bai Ze’s divine eye can’t see through the time barrier to locate the ore, and this ore…”

Li Hui took action for the third time, this time using much less force, just enough to shatter all the rocks within three zhang and extract a piece of Miao Jade. However, this piece was gray and dusty. While it could be held, a layer of time force formed a barrier, and to use it, he would need to apply a marvelous method to remove the obstruction.

At that moment, the bear cub, crouching at his back, reached out to grab it and opened its mouth to swallow the ore. A blue mark appeared around the cub’s left eye, and when its eyes turned completely blue, it meant that it was full of ore.

“Using this bear cub as a storage bag is truly unique,” Li Hui shook his head and smiled bitterly. It seemed that this level five small miner had to buckle down and work; it wasn’t that he couldn’t take shortcuts to enjoy the fruits of others’ labor, but he simply didn’t have the conditions to do so right now.

“Let’s go! Punch, palm strike, punch…”

Even if he could only clear three zhang, with Li Hui’s physical strength, he could push forward. To avoid raising suspicion, he didn’t mine according to set rules; instead, he alternated his strikes, hammering one side then the other.

Thus, he tirelessly mined for two hours, and the first bear cub’s eyes had turned deep blue.

“Hey?”

After filling the first bear cub, it wasn’t long before Li Hui discovered a dry corpse.

“It’s a miner who perished. Something drained his energy. What is a time phantom? The original owner had only heard of it; he had never seen it.”

A light touch turned the dry corpse to black ash, leaving behind a hoe and a pair of old chain mail gloves, along with a withered purple bear cub.

Li Hui’s eyes lit up, and he raised his hand, releasing two ghost emperors, instructing, “Carry the hoe and chain mail gloves, and transform into my appearance to mine in other directions. Be careful not to use too much force; these tools can’t withstand it. Also, watch out for any irregularities in the mining area. If you find any miner corpses, be sure to collect the mining tools.”

“Yes!” The two ghost emperors quickly responded. Recently, they had been practicing the cultivation methods bestowed by their predecessors and had received treasures to nourish their souls, giving them the potential to become extremely powerful heavenly ghosts among the ghost emperors. Therefore, they obeyed Li Hui with utmost respect, even treating him as their Master.

As the two ghost emperors left, Li Hui examined the withered purple bear cub, realizing it was a hybrid between a spiritual beast and an item. As long as he infused it with spiritual energy, it could be “revived.”

He casually drew a cloud talisman, attracting spiritual energy to inject into the bear cub. The little creature instantly came to life, bouncing around energetically, still very useful.

The two ghost emperors diligently carried out their tasks, and half an hour later, they surprisingly found a circle of corpses. From the scene before they died, it seemed they had huddled together in panic, only to encounter disaster in an instant.

These corpses also turned to ash when touched, but their tools and bear cubs remained intact, further bolstering Li Hui’s team as he sent out dozens of ghost emperors to start digging.

Three days later, he filled two hundred thirty-six bear cubs and found the corpse of a level five small miner named Li Hui, from whom he obtained a stork beak chisel. The corpse turned to dust upon contact, so he didn’t even need to dig a grave.

Li Hui activated a storage talisman to store the two hundred thirty bear cubs, deciding to bring the remaining six back to report; this harvest was already substantial.

The other bear cubs could be sold on the black market. Big Kui had done this before and exchanged them for luxury items and strange tools. In fact, as miners, the base salary was tied to the miner’s level, so unless absolutely necessary or in special circumstances, miners would not sell ore outside.

The distant sound of a bell rang, signaling the miners to head back. After three chimes of the bell, if they didn’t return to the cage, they would die of old age here, so everyone withdrew.

Li Hui did not leave immediately because he had sent the ghost emperors deeper into the mining area to search for seedlings. He just received a message that there had been a significant discovery.

“Oh? A significant discovery? It seems there’s more than one seedling.”

Before the second bell rang, Li Hui hurried to the location indicated by the ghost emperor’s message and found circle after circle of milky white Miao Jade raw ore embedded in the ground, with three one-foot-tall emerald branches resembling coral at the center.

“Three seedlings?” Li Hui was somewhat astonished.

The leading ghost emperor, looking troubled, said, “Exactly three. We’ve tried digging, but every time, we ended up wrong and couldn’t reach the physical form.”

“You all go back to your robes and leave this to me.”

“Understood!” The ghost emperors sighed in relief. These seedlings were unheard of and unseen, and they were nurtured by Miao Jade veins. It was incredibly strange that no matter what they tried, they couldn’t fetch them.

Li Hui began to circle around the seedlings, examining them carefully and was quite shocked: “What profound techniques! They’ve forcibly altered the Dao Principles of supreme Miao Jade, transforming all supreme Miao Jade on the Extreme Huan Continent into seedlings. These seedlings are like spindles entwined with time force, allowing them to be planted and harvested as mine veins.”

The mysterious veil of the Extreme Huan Continent was lifted slightly, but this was far from enough.

“To see three seedlings appear together is exceedingly rare, and they’re of emerald quality, better than green jade, blue ground, and white chapter in quality. Collecting these seedlings requires…” Li Hui slapped his chest’s heart shield, which immediately emitted a green misty emblem, spinning and instantly swallowing the three seedlings.