Book 8 - Chapter 18: Mining

Chuizi laughed. “We can stay for forty days, or even forty five, but you can’t. If we leave in around twenty days, it would be just about right.”

Lei Xinfeng understood what he was implying. He was the weakest one here. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and this group can only last as long as its weakest member. He nodded reluctantly. “I’m dragging everyone down…”

“It’s fine, twenty days is more than enough. Even if we only had ten days, we could still gather enough Biyasi to fulfill my requirements. There’s no need to apologize,” Xin Zhaolun said, comforting him.

After a simple meal, Xin Zhaolun had everyone rest, but Lei Xinfeng went out to search for more ores. After just a day, he’d realized the joy of mining. He would mine as much as he could; after all, there’s no telling when he’d get another chance to come.

Lei Xinfeng walked along a magma flow in a cave without knowing where it led, or how deep it went. The cave wasn’t deep and he quickly came to a dead end, so he retraced his steps and continued on to the next.

Soon, Lei Xinfeng found that the path ahead disappeared. There was a large gap in the stone, with both banks separated by a river of red hot magma a dozen meters wide. He grimaced. He couldn’t fly, and there was no guarantee that he would be able to jump the gap. He wasn’t that he could, but there was always a chance of failure, and he wasn’t sure if his barrier would be able to block the heat of the magma. He sighed and turned to go back.

A short distance back, he saw Fengying. “What’s up?” his guard asked.

Lei Xinfeng shrugged helplessly. “I can’t get across. Uh, Uncle Ying, can you carry me across?”

Fengying walked over to take a look and laughed. “Of course. Who would’ve thought that the floor would break away.”

“No, let me carry it. I can’t find any ores anyway,” Shihu cut in, coming up behind them.

Fengying nodded, agreeing. “In that case, I’ll mine near the ceiling. I think it’s easier to find ores up there.” Saying that, he flew up while Shihu knelt down to let Lei Xinfeng climb on his back.

“I’ll stay by you. If you find anything, I’ll mine it for you,” he said.

“You know, mining gives a nice sense of satisfaction,” Lei Xinfeng replied.

Whilst carrying Lei Xinfeng, Shihu flew across the gap. When they passed over the gap, a wave of heat rushed up to meet them and Lei Xinfeng instantly increased his defense. Luckily, Shihu was fast and cleared the gap in just a few seconds.

It hadn’t even been a long time since they crossed, but Lei Xinfeng already found a band of Red Gold ores seven meters wide. He laughed. “My luck is good today. Look, Uncle Hu, it’s Red Gold. You can mine it; I’ll look further on ahead.”

Shihu looked, but couldn’t see anything. “Red Gold ore? Well, okay, I’ll look.” Doubtfully, he began to mine.

After he broke the rock, he realized that Lei Xinfeng wasn’t kidding. It really was red gold. Impressed, he began to mine vigorously. Even he had uses for Red Gold. It was a material with many uses, but it was scarce.

Lei Xinfeng himself went on ahead, and found another kind of material that looked quite similar to Red Gold. It’s a material called Blood Sand, a catalyst material. It was rare as well. Lei Xinfeng dug it out.

During their stay of more than a dozen days, all seven people rushed about mining. Not a single one slacked off. The one who was most diligent was Lei Xinfeng, more than even Xin Zhaolun. Of course, he gathered the most. Even without counting the three hundred jins Biyasi he gathered for Xin Zhaolun, he had gathered close to seven hundred jins for himself. In other words, he’d mined around a thousand jins of Biyasi alone, even excluding what Fengying and Shihu got for him.

Xin Zhaolun’s progress wasn’t bad either. Putting together the materials his helpers gathered, he had enough Biyasi. For the past few days, he was nothing but smiles, causing Lei Xinfeng to poke fun at him.

“We still have a few days. Everyone should pick up their pace. I’m finished, so you get to keep everything else you mine, haha!” Xin Zhaolun said happily.

Lei Xinfeng agreed. “Yes. I’m going to mine a few more days. I’ve gathered a lot of fairly valuable stuff…but there’s one thing that I think none of you have found.”

“What is it?” Jin Daya asked. “I’ve gathered six kinds of materials. This place is just like a holy land of treasures. It’s a pity we might not be able to come back.”

“Indeed. There’s a large variety of materials here. Although there’s not a lot of it, but there’s many kinds and the quality is excellent,” Xin Zhaolun said. They both looked at Lei Xinfeng for him to continue.

Lei Xinfeng complied, flicking his hands and summoning a cone shaped crystal with a rich purple hue in his palm. “Do you know what this is?” he asked.

Xin Zhaolun’s eye bulged and grabbed the crystal, jaws agape in shock. “Purple Crystal! Top quality Purple Crystal! You, where did you find it?” Even his voice changed.

Even Jin Daya had a shocked expression, showing a hint of jealousy. “What luck…damn it, why didn’t I find one? My heart…”

Lei Xinfeng laughed. “Do you want to know where?”

“Of course, damn it. Quick, quick, tell me!” Xin Zhaolun urged.

Jin Daya was curious too. He knew that it was much more valuable than Biyasi. Even a Monarch would have a hard time getting their hands on one. Disregarding the uses of it, if he brought some back to the founder, he could trade for quite a few Yin rings. These are objects used by Monarchs.

Lei Xinfeng laughed. “Follow me then!”

Everyone followed him over a path along the walls, quickly getting to the gap that he was unable to cross. “I’ll carry you across,” Fengying volunteered.

Lei Xinfeng shook his head. “There’s no need. I found it here!” he announced.

Jin Daya looked around, but he couldn’t even find a trace. “Are you messing with us? I don’t see anything,” he said.

Lei Xinfeng down into the red glow.

“Are you saying that it’s inside the magma flow?”

“Yes. I found it by chance,” Lei Xinfeng replied, nodding.

“How did you get it out? You didn’t climb down, did you…?” Xin Zhaolun asked.

“Brother, I haven’t lived enough yet. If I went down, I’ll definitely die.”

Shihu finished for him. “He pulled it up…” He had been following Lei Xinfeng, so of course he knew how he found the Purple Crystal. It really was a coincident. Lei Xinfeng was so bored of wall mining that he went over to the the magma and stuck in a long steel spear, fished around, and flung out a large chunk of rock with the crystal inside.

“Can you do it again?” Xin Zhaolun asked.

Lei Xinfeng nodded and took out his spear. “Of course, let me try. I need luck for this… there’s a good chance there’s nothing there this time,” he said. Xin Zhaolun noticed that the tip of the spear was melted. Only half of the original spearhead remained.

Lei Xinfeng pushed the spear into the flow. In an instant, the front half of the steel spear began to glow red from the heat. Suddenly, he lifted the spear and in a single motion, smashed the rock stuck to the spear tip onto the ground.

Xin Zhaolun pulled out a steel pick that he had been using for excavating hard materials and poked the rock. It was still soft so he summoning a bowl of water, emptying the contents on the rock. There a loud sizzle accompanying a explosion of white steam. When the steam was all gone, the rock had turned black. Using the pick, Xin Zhaolun broke the rock apart and saw that there was indeed Purple Crystal hidden within. Only…

“It’s too small,” Jin Daya said.

There was two pieces, both no larger than grains of sand, whereas Lei Xinfeng’s piece was as large as a fingertip. Even though they were incomparable in size and value, it was sufficient to prove that Lei Xinfeng told the truth.

Unlike Jin Daya, Xin Zhaolun was much more enthusiastic. “You’re right, there’s really Purple Crystals in there! Haha, I’ve decided. I’m not going to look for any other ores. I will never pass up on the chance for get Purple Crystals. This can be traded for so many things, and even if you just let it sit in your storage, it’s still valuable!”

Even a grain-sized crystal was extremely valuable and Xin Zhaolun instantly stored his two grains away. Seeing his actions, Lei Xinfeng laughed. “Brother, let me give you a few tips. When you’re looking for them, pay attention to the color of the magma.”

“What color?”

“If you look closely at the magma, it’s all yellow to red, but if there’s a purplish light, then there’s Purple Crystals there.”

At that, everyone looked into the magma. Then Xin Zhaolun voiced what everyone was thinking. “I don’t see any purple light. They’re all the same.”

“Me neither,” Jin Daya said, followed by everyone else.

Chuizi even rubbed his eyes to look a second time. “It’s all the same… what purple light?”

Lei Xinfeng was stunned, temporarily speechless. “What… it’s so obvious, but none of you can see it?” He was suspicious, since he already saw several purple glows. It’s just that he wasn’t concentrating, it was easy to miss.

“It’s fine, I’ll try and test my luck,” Xin Zhaolun said.

Everyone began to split up, using whatever tools they had on hand to fish for the crystal in the magma.

Lei Xinfeng had Fengying carry him to the other side. He didn’t want to crowd with everyone else. At first, he only knew that Purple Crystals were valuable, but after seeing Xin Zhaolun and Jin Daya’s reactions, he realized the true value of the crystals. It’s not just valuable, it was something he definitely couldn’t pass up. He only managed to get two crystals before. It was something that’s very elusive.

His sharp eyes picked out purple glow in the magma and immediately stabbed his spear into the magma. He already had some experience and knew how to make the magam wrap around the crystal and making it easier to pull up. It was best to put the spear beneath the mass, then tossing it up.

“Up!” he yelled.

Pulling the spear up, a clump of magma was sent flying from the flow.

This chapter was a bit shorter than the last one so I only took an hour and a half to finish. I don’t have an editor, so sorry if any mistakes slips by me any mistakes you see are completely intentional! If anyone has any questions, you can either email me or drop by my Discord. Thanks for reading!

Notes:

真君 is different from 真人 which I translated as Sage. I have no idea what rank it is corresponding to Puttty’s translation, so I’m going to go with Monarch (Puttty had it as the rank above True Master) until I get a clue. Sorry! Actually, to be honest, I have no idea about the rank system. I need a chart matching English and Chinese. *cries*