A week passed easily inside the mine where Alex actually spent his time mining.
He had set up a base deep inside the mine and had mined there for a week. As someone who had been to the Endless Tunnels where the strong Starforged Tungsten ore was damn near impossible to mine, the Golden mine felt like a walk in the park.
All he had to do was heat up the wall in front of him in a small radius up to a certain temperature and the gold would simply melt down the wall, forming clumps in the bottom.
Once the gold was out of the mine wall, Alex could use just a bit of Qi to strip the wall of any other material, clearing it up, and showing a new wall behind it.
He continued doing this for an entire week before he stopped. He had collected plenty of gold and he didn't feel like he needed any more of it.
The Yin Qi in his dantian was also piling up and he needed to take care of it.
Alex looked toward Pearl and Whisker that were next to him and asked, "Do you still want to continue mining?"
Pearl nodded. "I don't really want to cultivate, so I'll continue mining," he said.
Alex shrugged and let him. Whisker wanted to do so too, so the two beasts continued mining while Alex simply cultivated.
There wasn't much else to do inside the mine so he brought out some ingredients and started practicing with them. He still had the Wood pill to make and the Spirit pill to downgrade.
He continued making the pill, focusing every so often on the progress in the mine. The two beasts were strong enough that they could move the mines many meters in a single day.
Alex looked back and could see that they had moved hundreds of meters from the original portion. And there were hundreds and hundreds more meters to go up front.
Alex went back to cultivating and learning about the ingredients while the two beasts focused on mining.
Alex could vaguely tell that another 2 weeks had passed, in which time they had come another hundred meters further. It was only a week more before they were supposed to walk out.
However, the monotonous journey here ended when Pearl smashed the wall and it came crumbling down to reveal an opening on the other side.
Alex was surprised by the sound and looked toward the wall to see that it wasn't there anymore. What was there was dust and glittering gold in the air, illuminated by light coming from the other side.
It wasn't natural light, however, and was instead lantern light that hung from the ceiling. There was a more spacious room on the other side of the wall and in it sat a young man whose eyes were wide with surprise at the sudden collapse of the wall.
The young man seemed around the same age as Alex and had long braided hair coming down his side. He wore a golden robe that was completely covered in gold from head to toe.
He had a pretty face, which right now had an open mouth as the young man was in shock.
The young man was seated on a chair with a leg perched on top of his other leg. He held something in his hands that looked a lot like a brush.
Alex quickly stood up and cleared away his station before walking up front. He looked around the other side of the wall and realized that he had come crashing into the base of someone else.
"My apologies, brother," Alex said quickly. "I didn't realize that there was—"
Alex's words stuck to his mouth when he realized something. He looked at the man, especially his eyes. They were staring at something.
Alex looked in the direction of where he was looking and saw Pearl.
At first, Alex didn't think much. However, the very next moment he realized something that he should have worried about from the start.
Pearl's fur was white.
"Is that white… tiger yours?" the young man asked.
"Shit!" Alex realized he had made a mistake. Midnight flew out of his storage ring and he teleported next to the young man with the sword next to his neck.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," the young man shouted in panic. "Don't kill me. Don't kill me."
Alex frowned a little. "Make an oath right away that you will never reveal to anyone what you saw here today," he said.
"I promise, I do. I don't know what you are talking about, but I will never tell anyone what happened here today. I promise," he quickly said.
Alex felt the oath slowly settle on the young man and finally sighed.
"Pearl, eat your pill please," Alex said.
"My pill?" Pearl asked before quickly looking down and seeing his own fur. "Oh!"
He quickly pulled out a pill from the storage bracelet he always wore and ate the pill. Within seconds, the white fur on his body turned slick and darkened to the point that it became black.
At that point, Pearl was barely recognizable from the white tiger he was just moments ago.
"Woah! That is so cool," the young man in the chair said. "Wait, don't kill me. I won't tell anyone."
Alex pulled away the swords and placed them into his storage bag. "I won't hurt you now that you have spoken the oath," he said. He moved forward and took Pearl into his beast storage.
It was better to keep him away.
Whisker climbed up onto him and settled on top of his shoulders, looking around from there. He looked back at the gold and wanted to gather them, but he had to wait for whatever was happening here to be done with.
Alex looked at the young man and frowned a little. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "You don't seem to be mining at all."
"I wasn't mining," the young man said, raising his hand to show the brush he held. "I was painting."
He looked to his right at the rubbed where his canvas lay.
"Oh, my apologies if my beasts caused your painting to be ruined," Alex quickly said.
"That's alright," the young man said. "I hadn't started yet."
"I see. That is good," Alex said. "What were you drawing exactly? The mine?"
"No, a mountain," the young man said.
"A mountain?" Alex asked with a confused look. "Why not draw it outside where you can see the mountain."
"I wanted the mountain to be made up of gold," the young man said.
"Okay…" Alex said. "You could just use golden paint to draw the mountain outside then."
"How am I supposed to understand what gold's aura is like if I stay outside?" the young man said. "I needed to be here to understand gold's aura, Metal's aura. Only by learning it all can I make my next masterpiece."
"A masterpiece that will certainly enter the Hall of Fame once again," the young man said.
"Once again?" Alex was a little surprised and turned curious. "May I know what your name is, brother?"
"Me?" the young man turned to Alex. "I am Tian Honglui. What is your name, brother?"
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