Chapter 318: Mining
"Jump." Li Futian shouted as soon as his feet touched the ground.
However, he didn’t need to.
Everyone was on high alert and they reacted even before they heard his shout.
Yu Nianzhen flew five metres away, Yang Xu held his wife and jumped up.
Li Futian also jumped while Xuan Ke skipped to the side.
A moment later, the five reunited and Xuan Ke couldn’t help but look at Li Futian incredulously.
"Brother Li, didn’t you say that this space is relatively safe?" He asked.
"Only compared to others." Li Futian answered and everyone looked around.
When they entered the space, a crack appeared directly under their feet.
Fortunately, they reacted quickly and avoided it. Otherwise, they would have sunk into the crack and possibly lost some limbs when the crack closed.
"There are many hair-sized cracks in this space. We have to be careful or we won’t know how we died." Li Futian warned.
"We know." Xuan Ke said and nodded fervently.
"Brother Li, which way should we go?"
"Let’s head south." Li Futian answered and no one argued.
With his ability, Li Futian could easily determine the best route for the team.
Although the ability wasn’t foolproof, Yu Nianzhen wasn’t worried about missing any treasures.
Before Jiang Yue went into seclusion, he left the treasure compass with Yu Nianzhen.
At the moment, the compass was pointing south which was in line with Li Futian’s deduction.
"There are other groups in this space." Yang Xu said and looked west.
"Are there any in the south?" Bing Lan asked.
"No. There are two groups in the west and they are fighting over a void stone mine."
"Even if we get a lot of void stones, we have to refine them before we leave the secret realm." Xuan Ke stated and everyone was a little depressed.
Void stones were mostly refined into space rings, space bracelets, and other space accessories.
If they could take the void stones out, they would be worth a lot of spirit stones.
Unfortunately, the Nine Treasures secret realm didn’t allow that.
Whatever they got in the secret realm must be refined in the secret realm.
In that case, even if they found a refiner to refine the void stones, it would be difficult to convince them to spend too much time on that.
"There will be an opportunity to trade what we don’t need." Yang Xu informed.
The nature of the Nine Treasures secret realm encouraged trade.
After a few years, a market would appear and cultivators would have a chance to trade what they didn’t need.
"It’s best to accumulate a lot of treasures." Yu Nianzhen said and the others agreed.
Their group of six had different origins and required a lot of origin treasures.
If they could, it was best to find some in the trade area. In that way, the time spent searching for treasures would be greatly reduced.
"This space doesn’t seem to have any beasts or plants." Bing Lan observed as they walked.
"The space plane is too hostile to life. It is too difficult for beasts and plants to survive." Yang Xu said and pulled Bing Lan to avoid yet another space crack.
While walking and talking, five hours passed in the blink of an eye.
In that time, the six did not encounter any treasures but escaped from more than three dozen hair-sized space cracks.
By the time Li Futian stopped in front of a small hill, everyone was tired and more than half their qi was gone.
"This place has the best opportunity in this space." Li Futian said and pointed at the hill.
"Brother Li, do you want to enter the ancient palace to recover?" Yu Nianzhen asked.
Li Futian had been divining along the way and his consumption was a lot more than the rest.
Without his guidance, the group would not have been able to avoid most of the space cracks.
Even with their abilities, one or more would have been injured.
"Brother Li can leave the mining to us." Xuan Ke assured.
Bing Lan and Yang Xu also agreed.
After this first experience, they all understood the importance of having Li Futian in the group.
Although it was a little more dangerous to mine without Li Futian’s guidance, it was more important to let him rest for when they entered the second space.
"Then I won’t be polite." Lu Futian said and cupped his hands.
"We should also recover in turns." Yang Xu said.
"Nianzhen, take your brothers to rest first. Your mistress and I will take the first mining shift."
"Master, mistress, be careful." Yu Nianzhen agreed and Yang Xu waved his hand in dismissal.
After that, Yu Nianzhen handed the ancient palace to his master and took his two brothers into the palace.
"Brother Yu, let’s meet in six hours." Xuan Ke said and Yu Nianzhen nodded.
He then turned to Li Futian, "brother Li doesn’t need to come out in six hours. We will let you know when it’s almost time to take the core treasure."
"Good."
After everything was arranged, everyone went their way to recover.
However, Yu Nianzhen didn’t immediately go to replenish his qi. Instead, he went to the training room Jiang Yue was using for retreat.
Since he planned to retreat for a few years, Jiang Yue didn’t use their shared training space on the third floor but chose a room on the second floor.
The room had nothing but a cultivation mat and a defence formation automatically opened when someone was in retreat.
At this time, Yu Nianzhen sat outside the training room and stared at the door.
"XiaoYue, I miss you very much." He muttered and sighed.
It had only been a few months but he felt like he hadn’t seen his Taoist companion for a decade.
He missed Jiang Yue’s energy, missed his smile, and missed the feeling of holding him in his arms.
For an hour, Yu Nianzhen indulged his nostalgia before he resolutely entered the adjoining training room.
Five hours later, he came out of the training room.
His qi had already recovered to peak condition and his eyes were filled with determination.
"Are you ready?"
"My qi has fully recovered." Xuan Ke answered and the two left the ancient palace.
When they reappeared, they were in front of the small hill.
An indent of about one metre wide and half a metre deep had already been dug out of the hill to expose jade-like white stones.
"Are those void stones?" Xuan Ke asked excitedly.
"Digging them out is harder than we expected." Bing Lan said and the two brothers turned to her.
Compared to when they first arrived, Bing Lan’s complexion was several shades paler.
Her qi was almost exhausted and she looked a little sluggish.
"Mistress, are you okay?" Yu Nianzhen asked and then looked at his master.
His look was filled with disdain. As if he was mocking his master for not knowing how to take care of his wife.
However, Yang Xu was innocent and helpless.
When his wife’s condition began to deteriorate, he begged her to take a rest.
Unfortunately, Bing Lan was a righteous person.
Since it was agreed that void stones would be shared equally, she didn’t want to slack on the mining.
At a loss, Yang Xu could only reluctantly agree.
"I am fine. Nianzhen doesn’t need to worry." Bing Lan answered with a smile on her face.
"We will take a rest and come out in six hours." Yang Xu said and Yu Nianzhen nodded.
Yang Xu handed over two ancient palaces and planned to enter his own.
"Seniors, take a good rest." Xuan Ke said and Yang Xu nodded before taking his wife into their ancient palace.
In this way, the two sides alternated every six hours and two months later, they finally excavated to the core of the mine.
"I can’t believe it took so long." Xuan Ke complained sullenly.
Even more unfortunate, they only excavated eighty-seven pieces of void stones from the entire mine.
"There is a reason why void stones are rare materials." Yu Nianzhen comforted.
However, his mood was also not good.
In the two months of mining, they faced more than one hundred space cracks.
They managed to avoid most of the cracks but some could not be avoided.
Even Yang Xu who had the highest cultivation was also affected and lost three fingers when he couldn’t avoid a crack.
Fortunately, they had all prepared a lot of pills before they entered the secret realm.
As long as they didn’t directly lose their major limbs, their preparations were enough to handle the accidents.
"We can’t go on like this." Bing Lan said and the others agreed.
The first space was supposedly the safest but they were delayed for more than two months.
If they continued in the same way, they would probably die before they reached the last space on the tenth path.
"Don’t worry, I have made preparations." Li Futian suddenly said.
