The Emerald Valley

[The host placed 1 Floating Fish card in the waters of his divine domain, gaining a school of ten Floating Fish. Divine Domain Expansion +1.]

[The host placed 3 Small Farmland cards on the plains of his divine domain, gaining three fields of small farmland. Divine Domain Expansion +3.]

[The host placed 2 Small Open-Air Altar cards on the mountains of his divine domain, gaining six Small Open-Air Altars. Divine Domain Expansion +2.]

[The host placed 1 Small Emerald Home Stone card in the valleys of his divine domain, gaining one Emerald Home Stone Cave. Divine Domain Expansion +1.]

...

[Divine Domain: Level 0 (8/100)]

With a satisfied grin, Zeng Mo looked at the Divine Domain Expansion points displayed on the panel after placing the remaining card from the pile of cards.

Soon, his consciousness condensed and returned to the highest point. He stood up, picked up Little White, and activated the Divine Domain Gate, returning to his apartment.

Then, the moment he closed the Divine Domain Gate in his apartment, he activated it once more and stepped inside.

In the blink of an eye,

his figure did not appear before the grand gate of the Divine Kingdom Temple.

Instead, he appeared in a small mountain valley in his divine domain.

The small valley looked like a scar left in the rocks by a giant spoon. It stretched in a long arc, with broad mountain slopes on either side. It lay two thousand meters from the Divine Kingdom Temple.

Zeng Mo had placed the Emerald Home Stone card here earlier.

He had spent half a day choosing a spot, and had finally decided on this small mountain valley. He named it Emerald Valley.

The entrance to Emerald Valley was wide, tapering as it went deeper. The valley walls gradually bulged outward, forming a space large enough for a football field.

Large patches of forest covered the mountain slopes and the flat ground.

Zeng Mo walked slowly into the valley, collecting everything that caught his eye. What he saw was mostly lush green plants.

As the valley floor gradually descended,

a massive cave set into the valley wall came into view. That was Emerald Cave, formed when his Emerald Home Stone card turned into an Emerald Home Stone.

Vines hung down from the cave entrance, and the grass was damp and heavy with dew. The place was dim and secluded.

From the outside, it looked like a mountain cave formed by countless years of wind and rain eroding the earth.

But from time to time, strange light gleamed from within, giving the whole cave a mysterious yet dazzling air.

Zeng Mo pushed aside the vines and stepped on the damp grass as he hurried into the cave.

In the blink of an eye,

his eyes widened.

A corner of jade, protruding slightly from the uneven cave wall, glimmered with the unique luster of emerald.

"Stunning."

"So much emerald. If I excavate it all and sell it, how much would it be worth?"

Zeng Mo crouched down and picked up a fist-sized piece of emerald from among the broken stones beneath his feet.

Before he could touch it,

a flash of light crossed his mind. He clearly sensed a special energy within the emerald, eager to flow out and spread across his body, nourishing him.

"So this is the special energy contained in the emerald..."

Zeng Mo murmured, then used his Eye of Insight to examine the emerald.

[Emerald: A white-grade material. A kind of jade containing a trace of weak divine energy. Worn for a long time, it can slightly increase one's physical attributes.]

"An emerald containing a trace of weak divine energy. It's a white-grade material."

"If materials are divided into grades according to the card color system, white grade is the lowest."

"Above it are gray grade, green grade, blue grade, purple grade, black grade, and gold grade."

Zeng Mo considered the material-grade system for a moment, then turned his gaze to the broken stones scattered across the cave floor. Among them were some small emeralds the size of pigeon eggs.

He picked them up one by one.

Then he carefully used the Eye of Insight to examine them, hoping to find out their grades.

They were all white-grade materials.

"The yield of materials above white grade from small Emerald Home Stones isn't high."

Having guessed the grade distribution of Small Emerald Home Stones, Zeng Mo picked up a dozen fist-sized pieces of emerald and put them into his storage space. Then he took out a card and left the cave, preparing to take a look outside.

Before him,

a black, armored vehicle gleamed with a cold metallic sheen. Every corner was equipped with various advanced technological components. It was eight meters long, three meters wide, and had six wheels, as well as a long, box-shaped cargo compartment.

It looked just like the mobile base vehicle from a science-fiction movie, appearing right in front of him.

This was the Small Multifunctional Excavation and Illumination Vehicle.

Zeng Mo wasn't surprised by it, but he was still a little stunned when he saw the vehicle in front of him.

In no time,

he walked around the vehicle.

It was packed with intelligence and futuristic technology.

He reached out and tapped the vehicle. Its smart interface immediately appeared on the display screen, while the interior lit up. Various data streamed across the screen, accompanied by images of every part of the vehicle, all clearly displayed.

At the same time,

a series of notification sounds rang out from the vehicle, and the components shown on the screen began to activate one after another.

"Smart ground-object detection mode activated. Select an operating mode."

"Smart lighting mode activated. Select an operating mode."

"Smart mine clearance..."

Zeng Mo glanced at the smart remote mining mode listed among the prompts.

In an instant, the entire Small Multifunctional Excavation and Illumination Vehicle emitted a low hum. On the screen inside the vehicle, a radar-like scan appeared, followed by another notification sound.

"Surveying and excavating the mine. Within a radius of one thousand meters, one Small Emerald Home Stone has been detected. Its composition is 60% stone, 35% emerald, and 5% home stone. Would you like to excavate it?"

"Yes."

Zeng Mo's voice fell.

The automated excavation vehicle immediately began operating. It drove to the entrance of Emerald Cave, then stopped. After a brief scan of the surroundings, five mechanical arms fitted with various engineering tools emerged from the vehicle and steadily made their way into the cave.

On the vehicle's display, the five machines could be seen excavating the rock face inside the cave to retrieve home stones and emerald.

Zeng Mo glanced at one of the machines. Soon, the screen displayed information about it.

[No. 001 Excavation Vehicle: Currently mining. Remaining excavation capacity: 100. (Zeng Mo can issue commands to control it.)]

Seeing the machine's introduction, Zeng Mo felt that this small smart excavation vehicle was like a slightly simplified version of the "whiny, lovable" robot from a science-fiction film.

After watching for a while,

Zeng Mo tried controlling No. 001 Excavation Vehicle, having it mine the emeralds in the cave wall. He carefully operated the controls, directing the machine to dig into the rock. He had no idea how long it took before it finally dug out an emerald as large as a braised egg.

When he felt the urge to mess with it,

he picked up the control device again.

What fun!

It had already dug up quite a bit more.

Then he switched No. 001 Excavation Vehicle back to automatic mining mode, activated the Divine Domain Gate, and returned to the apartment. He picked up Little White, who was sleeping drowsily beside the screen, and went back to his room. After picking it up, he activated the Divine Domain Gate again, intending to bring Little Black home.

But when he got there, he found Little Black curled up asleep with its siblings. Once he saw its soft, fluffy body, he couldn't bring himself to wake it. Instead, he quietly went over and sat down among the tightly huddled litter, then fell asleep.

...

The next day,

Zeng Mo picked up the phone beside his pillow, still half-asleep. He answered a call.

"Hello."

A clear voice, as sweet as a hundred-spirit bell, came through.

"Darling, you slept really deeply last night. You're still not up even though it's past ten."

Zeng Mo rubbed his eyes and thought for a moment.

"Seems like it."

"Oh, you stayed up late again, didn't you? I told you, you need to go to bed early and get up early."

"I had something to do last night, so I went to bed late."

"What were you doing?"

"Mining."

"..."