Chapter 133: The Ore Vein [Please Subscribe]

Zhou Yi waded forward, but after only a dozen steps, the water rose above his shoulders, forcing him to swim. He checked his headlamp; its waterproofing seemed reliable, so he dove straight toward the depths.

The water was relatively clear, as it had been stagnant for a long time. The walls here were rough, clearly left in an unrefined state from when they were first excavated.

Rounding a nearly right-angled corner, he reached the end of the mining tunnel just a dozen meters ahead. The ground was littered with debris. Zhou Yi swam over quickly; as he neared, the sense of warmth intensified, and his heart began to race.

Clearing away the rubble, he saw a light blue object the size of a fingernail flickering in the center of the tunnel's end. When Zhou Yi touched it, a surge of warmth washed over him, nearly making him moan aloud.

He quickly pulled his hand back, needing to return to the surface for air, as the dive had been significant.

But the moment he turned, a dark shadow coiled around his ankles, dragging him downward. The surrounding water churned into motion. Zhou Yi panicked—was there something else in here?

Bubbles clouded his vision. He was dragged and spun around so many times he lost all sense of direction. With a flick of his wrist, he summoned an ice pick. He curled his body and stabbed repeatedly at the sides of his ankles—two, three, four times. By the sixth strike, he seemed to hit something solid, and the grip on his ankles vanished instantly.

Zhou Yi kicked off the wall, struggling desperately to stay afloat, and broke the surface just as he was about to suffocate.

Sophia saw him and realized something was wrong. She waded over and helped the exhausted Zhou Yi to his feet. Once they reached a dry section of the tunnel, she asked urgently:

"What happened? Is the water too deep, or did something occur?"

Zhou Yi spat out water and glanced at his ankles. The skin was torn in two places, raw and bleeding, though the wounds weren't deep.

"I reached the end of the tunnel. There’s a light blue stone there—I don’t know what it is, but it felt incredibly warm, much like a water-element spirit stone. Before I could even pry it loose, something grabbed my ankles. It tried to slam me downward, then the water filled with bubbles. The creature spun me around so many times I lost my bearings. I just started stabbing wildly with my ice pick; I don't know if I injured it, but I managed to escape."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the temperature in the tunnel plummeted—not by a degree or two, but to the point of freezing. The water on the ground began to ice over before their eyes.

Sophia stepped back, her feet slipping on the thickening ice. She grabbed her walkie-talkie and whispered, "Cheng Zhi, Fatty, get over here! We have a situation!"

The walkie-talkie crackled, and Fatty’s voice came through. "Got it, we're on our way!"

Zhou Yi moved to Sophia’s side, grabbed her arm, and retreated a few steps. She thought he was planning to pull back, but he stopped.

"I don't believe this. I'm a water-element user, too. Whatever this thing is, it’s agile in the water, but can it be just as agile without it?"

Zhou Yi flicked his wrist, clawed at the ice on the ground, and roared, "Turn to water for me!"

Seeing this, Sophia quickly conjured several fireballs and hurled them at the ice. With a loud bang, the ice didn't shatter; the fireballs bounced off and struck the ceiling, dislodging several rocks.

Zhou Yi didn't stop. He formed hand seals and chanted an incantation. The ice before him began to melt rapidly. He made a grasping motion toward the water and flung it against the back wall.

"Spray!"

In an instant, the water surged like a dragon, slamming into the wall, where it seemed to be absorbed and vanished entirely. Zhou Yi was stunned. Did the wall have such powerful absorption capabilities?

There was no time to dwell on it. Zhou Yi continued to wave his wrists, the water dragon spraying continuously, and the wall continued to drink it in. The water level dropped visibly.

Soon, the ground at the corner was exposed, and the end of the tunnel was largely revealed, yet Zhou Yi saw nothing unusual.

Rapid footsteps echoed as Fatty and Cheng Zhi arrived. Fatty was panting heavily, his eyes immediately locking onto Zhou Yi’s bleeding ankles. "What happened?"

Sophia explained the situation briefly. Zhou Yi didn't stop; he had cleared almost all the water away. He then produced several weapons he had brought back from Qingcheng Mountain. Fatty had a hoarding habit and had kept anything that looked exquisite or complex.

Fatty picked up an axe-like weapon, his small eyes widening as he stared at the tunnel corner. "What are you afraid of? There are plenty of us—let's go!"

Zhou Yi nodded; that was exactly what he needed to hear. "Be cautious. I don’t know what that thing is. Have your spells and incantations ready. We go together."

The three nodded, weapons in hand, and walked toward the end of the tunnel.

As they rounded the corner, their four headlamps illuminated the light blue stone at the end of the tunnel. They scanned the area carefully, but found nothing.

Zhou Yi’s anxiety deepened. Had the creature left with the water?

They reached the spot and examined the rubble. Fatty sighed first. "Nothing here. Are we seeing things?"

Zhou Yi shook his head. He took a hammer to the edge of the light blue stone and struck it several times. Perhaps due to the long-term water immersion or some other cause, large chunks of rock fell away under his blows.

The light blue stone was revealed to be the size of a palm.

Cheng Zhi stepped closer, picked up a fragment with a layer of the blue stone attached, and examined it with a magnifying glass. "I don't know what kind of gemstone or crystal this is, but the arrangement is very orderly. Looking at the exposed part, we’ve likely found a vein. It feels incredibly soothing to the touch. Sir, does it feel like a spirit stone to you?"

Zhou Yi nodded. "A water-element spirit stone."

Sophia came over, touched the stone, and nodded as well. "It should be. I don’t know the purity, but there’s so much of it! I’ve never seen such a massive quantity of spirit stones, let alone a vein. Without a control console, I can't measure the purity."

Cheng Zhi shook his head. "I don't think it needs testing. It’s a perfect single-crystal structure with no impurities. It looks like quartz, but it’s not transparent. The cloudiness is just the result of the crystal alignment, which creates the light blue color."

Zhou Yi didn't understand the technical terms, but the warmth radiating from the stone was far more intense than the water spirit stones in the Five Elements Tomb. Whatever its purity, the sheer volume made it an overwhelming find.

"If we can't find that thing, we'll stop looking. Sophia, you keep watch. We’ll be careful and start mining. Fatty, use your earth-element skills—try to alter the rock around the stone, turn it into sand, and we can extract the vein!"

Sophia shook her head. "That thing came from the water. Just like your water-element arts, it's naturally at odds with my fire. I’ll burn the surrounding rock, you spray some water, and it’ll soften. Fatty, you take point on security."

Fatty shuddered and pointed a trembling finger at his own nose. "Me? You’re joking. My ability is based on my brain, not physical labor! I can't do manual labor, absolutely not!"

Zhou Yi shot him a look. Fatty shivered, then pointed toward the distance. A bowl-sized rock formed ten steps away, clattered against the wall Zhou Yi had just sprayed, and rolled to the ground, splitting in two.

"Boss, look, that's all I've got—just enough to manifest a rock the size of a bowl for defense. If you want to skip stones, I’m your guy, but what is this going to hit?"

Before he could finish, a brown, furry object appeared on the wall he had just struck. The creature shrieked and dove back into the wall as if it had never existed.

Fatty was terrified, jumping high into the air and hiding behind Zhou Yi. He rubbed his eyes, looked left and right, and stammered, pointing at the wall.

"Did... did you guys see that? What was that?"