"According to what Deacon Deng said, the material coefficient of this Tier 4 weapon is not low. To bring it in and out of here, one must be at least a Tier 5 professional..."
Su Chen weighed the Formless True Blade in his hand, watching it gradually transform into a tal pickaxe. This was an unexpected surprise.
With a slight shift in his thoughts, dark gold scale armor surfaced over his body, followed by his boots and mask. His full set of equipnt was completely materialized.
Su Chen hopped in place a few tis, his sense of security increasing significantly. He was also quite amazed in his heart. 'This Nether Realm is truly special. I originally thought it was a purely illusory world, but Netherstones can be brought out, and physical matter like weapons can also exist here. It seems a bit different from what I imagined.'
The Formless True Blade quickly turned into the shape of a slender pickaxe. Su Chen looked down at it, unable to help but think, 'Once my spiritual profession also advances to Tier 5, these weapons in my hands can be upgraded. The Artifact Hall... that Zhou Yunyang seems to be a deacon of the Artifact Hall.'
A small amount of tal materials wasn't a problem for him. Theoretically speaking, as long as the quantity wasn't too large, he could easily acquire whatever he needed just by showing his face.
As he pondered, a chill ran through his heart. His spiritual body felt faintly cold, accompanied by the distinct sensation of being watched.
Gray mist drifted around him, obscuring his vision so he couldn't see too far. He could only vaguely sense that sothing had locked its sights on him.
Perhaps because the flas had just extinguished, even though he was currently far away from the sect's core area, no Nether Realm creatures had popped out for the ti being.
'According to what Deacon Feng said, the old mining area has been mostly hollowed out. If I go there again, it might be discovered that soone has been digging around,' he thought to himself.
He thought for a mont, shifting his gaze toward another direction where a new mineral vein lay.
However, Deacon Feng had only pointed him in a vague direction at the ti. He would have to explore the exact location himself.
After a brief mont of contemplation, Su Chen was fully prepared to set off. With the enhancent from his boots, his speed had increased significantly. Sweeping across the landscape, he gained a deeper understanding of his state.
'In the Nether Realm, the spiritual body is just like the physical body, and it can even receive weapon enhancents.'
Bam!
He casually struck down a charging purple tiger-lion. It possessed the emaciated body of a wolf and two heads—one resembling a lion, the other a tiger.
However, both heads only had a single eye, with two mouths distributed above and below it. Its tier was very low, appearing to be only Tier 2 or 3. Upon being smashed by the pickaxe, it instantly collapsed into mist and dissipated into nothingness.
Su Chen had already grown largely desensitized to the bizarre appearances of these Nether Realm creatures.
The terrain of the Nether Realm rarely had any undulations, so when Su Chen saw a hazy mountain range erging in the distance, he ca to a halt.
'That should be it.'
The rolling mountain range swelled in the distance, mostly hidden within the gray mist. The fog drifted like a slow-moving tide, gently swirling between the mountainsides and valleys. At tis it swallowed an entire ridge, and at others, it revealed a corner of a steep rock wall.
The visible portion at the front of the mountain range displayed a cold, hard, silver-gray texture. It looked as if it were covered in a peculiar layer of tal, shimring with a dull luster similar to aged pewter.
Gathered all around it were nurous strangely shaped Nether Realm creatures.
This place was quite far from the core area controlled by the sect. Many of the Nether Realm creatures that had originally accumulated here had already been cleared out.
However, a steady stream of new Nether Realm creatures continuously converged upon the area, which was why it had never been fully put into operation.
Su Chen recalled what Deacon Feng had said. If the flas burned day and night without extinguishing, mining here wouldn't pose any trouble. Unfortunately, during the Dark Sun period, Nether Realm creatures would reclaim the territory.
'If I get close now, I'll definitely be eaten.'
Su Chen could even see so of the Nether Realm creatures already casting greedy, yearning glances in his direction.
His spiritual body gradually began to change. His facial features vanished, but quickly resurfaced.
However, a fundantal transformation had taken place—he had mimicked the form of a Faceless Ghost Priest.
His Faceless Ghost Priest state possessed the special ability to mimic others, which naturally ant it could also mimic his original self.
'This is the core of the sect, after all. It's better to be careful.'
His external body also underwent changes at the sa ti. At least from the outside, there was no major difference, unless soone were to inspect his spirit.
Only after transforming into a Faceless Ghost Priest did Su Chen continue toward the stretching mineral vein. He could clearly see a cave entrance on the rock wall; it looked like it had been forcefully chiseled out, leaving highly irregular edges.
"Screech!"
A fierce cry echoed from the sky as a bizarre three-headed bird swooped toward him. However, the mont he transford into the Faceless Ghost Priest, it frantically flapped its wings and retreated in terror. So of the Nether Realm creatures gathered around the mountain range also seed startled. A mammoth-like behemoth covered entirely in black eyeballs trumpeted at the sky before its six thick legs hastily trampled off into the distance.
Su Chen already had experience with this, but he also noticed that a few Nether Realm creatures didn't make a single move.
The most striking among them was a deford monster entrenched upon the mountain range. Two rows of black clawed limbs lined its underbelly, making one's scalp tingle at first glance.
It resembled a centipede, but its body was incomparably thick and sturdy. Covered in scales, its head surprisingly bore a sowhat draconic appearance. Its pair of pure white eyes swept over to look at him.
Su Chen's footsteps paused slightly, his heart tightening. The tier of this Nether Realm creature was definitely not low; it likely possessed more than just a fragnted intellect.
"Believer of the Faceless God..." an eerie voice whispered by his ear.
Su Chen remained silent for a mont before adopting an indifferent expression. He coldly rebuked, "How dare you directly utter my Lord's true na!"
Hearing Su Chen's utter lack of politeness, the centipede-like Nether Realm creature showed no reaction. It simply shifted its gaze away, treating him as if he didn't exist.
Su Chen breathed a sigh of relief internally. It seed that his identity as a believer of the Enigmatic God was indeed an unhindered pass within the Nether Realm.
He didn't speak again, walking straight into the mine shaft. Until his figure completely vanished into its depths, he suffered no interference whatsoever.
The mine shaft was quite spacious and bore the marks of previous excavation. At regular intervals, crystal lamps reminiscent of fireflies hung upon the stone walls.
Su Chen leaned in for a closer look, only to realize that what lay inside the Netheriron crystal covers were knuckle-sized bugs. Their fingernail-sized heads were completely covered in dense compound eyes.
Su Chen's face darkened, and he gave a visible shudder. Losing all interest, he tried his best to avoid the crystal lamps as he walked straight toward the end of the tunnel.
The mine shaft wasn't very deep, roughly two to three hundred ters, before it branched off into several diverging paths.
He casually picked one and walked for another few hundred ters before reaching a dead end.
The color of the rock wall gradually transitioned from silver-gray to a pure silver, even giving off a faint, radiant glow.
"Netherstones..."
Su Chen looked at the pitted ore before him, swung his pickaxe, and smashed it down. With a loud clank, sparks flew as a fragnt of silver stone chipped off.
"Just this little bit from one strike?" Su Chen stopped, his brows tightly furrowed.
Any movent in the Nether Realm consud spiritual power, let alone exerting forceful swings. The more force he applied, the more spiritual power it drained.
'How long is it going to take to mine a single Motherstone at this rate?'
Su Chen frowned slightly. Despite his thoughts, the movents of his hands didn't stop. The rhythmic clinking and clanging echoed throughout the mine shaft.
He didn't know how much ti had passed, but a dark brown, irregularly shaped chunk of rock finally popped out of the silver ore.
Su Chen's body jolted. He hurriedly picked it up to take a look, but was vastly disappointed. "Its color doesn't reflect any light, and it has natural fissures inside... This is a Childstone."
Su Chen sighed. Motherstones and Childstones of the Nether Realm were not naturally ford together; their connection was established post-extraction through special thods.
Therefore, whether one unearthed a Motherstone or a Childstone relied entirely on luck.
And according to the materials he had reviewed beforehand, this piece of raw ore was clearly a Childstone.
He had mined for so long, only to dig out a single Childstone.
Su Chen gasped for breath, estimating his own consumption. He had already drained more than half of his spiritual power.
Even factoring in the reserves stored by his Glutton ability, he wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer, let alone mine anything substantial.
'No wonder the sect has to mobilize so many people. This stuff is seriously hard to mine...'
Su Chen leaned against the rock wall and pondered. He estimated that even if he advanced to Tier 5, it would still be exceedingly difficult to mine efficiently.
'Smashing away like this might yield so results, but if I want to purchase the power of the Enigmatic God in bulk, this is far from enough.'
'The strength of a single person ultimately cannot compare to an entire sect... If only I could...'
His brows remained tightly knitted. Just as he was deep in thought, a sudden flash of inspiration hit him, and he hurriedly ran out of the mine shaft.
Sure enough, in that brief span of ti, quite a few Nether Realm creatures had gathered outside the cave once again.
The mont he erged, however, they scattered in all directions like startled birds, their movents incredibly swift.
Su Chen projected a ripple of spiritual fluctuation and shouted, "Halt, all of you!"
Accompanied by the aura of the Enigmatic God radiating from his spiritual body, the vast majority of the low-tier Nether Realm creatures stiffened. They wanted to move but didn't dare, wanted to run but lacked the courage. They could only stay rooted to the spot, trembling violently.
He glanced at the size of the mine shaft, swept his gaze around the area, and pointed his finger. "You, you, you, and you. Stay here."
Given the fragnted intellect of these Nether Realm creatures, the ones he singled out—whether they had facial features or not—all displayed extre terror.
As for the creatures that weren't selected, they acted as if they had received a grand pardon and hurriedly scurried away.
The few high-tier Nether Realm creatures entrenched at the peak of the mountain range rely lowered their heads to sweep a glance over the scene, not uttering a word.
Their limbs were either latched onto the mountainside or drilled deep within it. Faint tendrils of black mist could be seen being extracted from the mineral vein and absorbed into their bodies.
With both sides keeping to themselves, Su Chen led the four Nether Realm creatures he had chosen into the mine shaft.
None of these fellows were particularly tall. One looked like an ape, while another crawled on its belly, resembling a turtle.
They followed behind him with their heads drooping, looking utterly crestfallen. Su Chen guided them to the end of the tunnel, pointed at the fresh excavation marks, and mid a striking motion. "Smash!"
These guys had simple intelligence, so they were at least capable of understanding this basic command.
After a brief mont of hesitation, the black, ape-like Nether Realm creature was the first to act. It stepped forward, wound up all four of its arms in wide arcs, and slamd them into the rock wall.
"Bam! Bam! Bam!"
Crushed stones flew everywhere. Su Chen's eyes twitched as he stepped back to avoid the debris. "Such high efficiency?"
He couldn't help but be amazed. This Nether Realm creature was probably only around Tier 5, but it moved ceaselessly, as if it didn't need to worry about exhausting its spiritual power at all.
'That makes sense. They are native creatures of the Nether Realm, so they're naturally different. coming here is like a normal person diving underwater; I have to consu oxygen.
'But they are the fish living in the sea. Naturally, they don't have any extra consumption, and they can even recover on their own.'
A sharp gleam flickered in Su Chen's eyes as he realized this point.
The ape's movents were both fast and heavy. In just a short mont, Su Chen saw a Childstone get blasted out of the wall.
He took the other Nether Realm creatures to the different branching paths and put them to work as well. These creatures showcased their unique abilities—so ramd with their heads, so smashed with their fists, and others even spat out beams of energy.
'This is more like it!'
He felt completely satisfied. What future was there in mining by himself? He still had to rely on these fully automated production assembly lines.
He walked over to the intersection and quietly listened to the commotion, checking to see if any of the Nether Realm creatures were slacking off. His identity as a believer of the Enigmatic God was undeniably effective; none of those guys dared to neglect their duties.
Calculating the ti, an hour or two had passed when he heard a crisp "Ding!". Su Chen's eyes shifted, and he darted into one of the branching paths.
Sure enough, lying on the ground was a translucent, glossy, fist-sized irregular dark brown stone. The turtle-like Nether Realm creature stopped its movents, its mung-bean-sized eyes staring at it greedily.
"A Motherstone."
Su Chen imdiately picked it up and examined it closely. Its surface refracted a faint light. A single piece was worth tens of millions of star coins. Just five or six of them would be equivalent to a single portion of essence.
"What are you looking at? Keep working." Su Chen glared at the black turtle. The little turtle shuddered in fear and resud smashing its head against the stone wall.
Su Chen left in deep satisfaction. He only drove away all these Nether Realm creatures an hour before the Dark Sun period was about to end.
It wasn't that he didn't want to keep them working, but rather that during the period when the flas burned, the sect would also send people to inspect the area. Moreover, if he wasn't there to supervise them, Su Chen suspected these Nether Realm creatures wouldn't obediently mine on their own anyway.
'The intelligence of these guys is too low. They rely mostly on instinct.'
'If I could strike a deal with those big guys outside, maybe I could turn this into a 24-hour non-stop assembly line.'
After commanding these few Nether Realm creatures, Su Chen realized that he hadn't even begun to fully exploit his identity as a believer of the Enigmatic God.
If he could find the right thod, this Nether Realm would be an absolute treasure trove for him.
Normal believers of the Enigmatic God, even if they had this advantage in the Nether Realm, wouldn't develop it so deeply.
All they needed to do was act as the tentacles of the Enigmatic God, ceaselessly spreading its pollution.
Su Chen stroked his chin. There were many special resources within the Nether Realm that fetched astronomically high prices in the outside world and were completely irreplaceable.
But figuring out how to make those Nether Realm creatures with highly developed intellects obey his commands, or even cooperate with him, would be no simple task.
The reason the low-tier Nether Realm creatures feared him was due to the natural deterrence brought about by the aura of the Enigmatic God.
However, the high-tier creatures clearly understood that a believer of the Enigmatic God was just a believer, while the Enigmatic God was the Enigmatic God.
The best he could manage was mutual non-interference. But if he wanted to command them...
'I still need to think of a way,' Su Chen thought, his gaze landing on the pile of dark brown stones before him.
His harvest this ti had been quite bountiful. He had extracted two Motherstones and a whole pile of Childstones.
Right now, the only thing left to do was to bring them out.
'Wrapping them entirely in spiritual power will allow to bring them out.' Su Chen recalled the thod Deacon Feng had briefly ntioned. His spiritual power surged forth as he attempted to envelop the Netherstones.
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