Miners Have It Hard (IV)
Volume 4 Dungeon Instance Chapter 194 The Miner's Dilemma (Part 4)
It was Li Wei's idea: to use object manipulation techniques to control the Eight Desolations and kill the enemy.
Moreover, this wasn't the first time Li Wei had used the Art of Manipulating Objects. Using this True Force didn't put any strain on his body; as long as he controlled the output of True Force, he could continue using it.
Suddenly, Li Wei was taken aback.
That's right. Since the Art of Manipulating Objects can use true energy to control the Eight Desolations and kill zombies, why can't true energy be used to control an iron pickaxe to mine?
This idea suddenly enlightened Li Wei. He quickly threw the iron pickaxe on the ground, then separated a wisp of true energy to wrap around it. Using the incantation of the Object Manipulation Technique, the iron pickaxe quickly flew up on its own and crashed into the wall with a loud bang.
"It really works!"
Li Wei was overjoyed. He quickly used his true energy to control the iron pickaxe to mine the ore at a speed more than twice as fast as before. To the naked eye, one could only see a series of afterimages.
At this moment, two more zombies came running over howling. Li Wei glanced at them, and with a flick of his hand, the Eight Desolations Sword flew over, and more than a dozen blades flashed. The two zombies turned into a pile of rotting flesh, and a Zombie Bone fell out.
Upon seeing this, Li Wei's eyes lit up.
An idea popped into his head.
After quickly putting away the Zombie Bone, Li Wei Shifting Forms and Changing Positions to the entrance of the mine. At that moment, the reincarnators in charge of mining in the other three teams were working busily. More than a dozen of them took turns working, and their speed was quite fast.
The ground around them was littered with pickaxes used for mining. One pickaxe was worth one field point, and three reincarnation teams were worried that it wouldn't be enough, so they bought a lot of iron pickaxes, but they didn't expect to be completely useless. Because they were extremely heavy, it was considered good if eight people in each team could swing them at the same time.
The reincarnated beings were all startled by Li Wei's sudden appearance.
Even the captain had to curry favor with this person, so the reincarnators dared not offend him. Even when they saw Li Wei roll up his sleeves and take away the seven or eight iron pickaxes placed on the ground, these reincarnators only glanced at him before hurriedly continuing to mine.
Li Wei smiled and returned to the depths of the mine. He piled up the iron pickaxe, including the one he was carrying, on the ground. Li Wei then separated nine strands of true energy and wrapped them around the iron pickaxe.
Instantly, all nine pickaxes flew up. With a change of Li Wei's magic technique, they began to mine the ore on their own, as if controlled by nine people.
That's right, this was the idea that Li Wei came up with on a whim.
Using his true energy and the art of manipulating objects, Li Wei tried to control multiple iron pickaxes to mine at once. Unexpectedly, this method actually worked. At this moment, nine iron pickaxes were rapidly mining the wall, and a large amount of ore was falling. All Li Wei had to do was maintain the output of his true energy and then squat down to pick up the ore.
"Obtain quest item, quality ore"
"Received quest item, quality: Iron".
"Received quest item: High-quality iron ore"
"Received quest item: quality copper ore,"
In less than two hours, Li Wei saw that the amount in the task item column on the Yellow Paper had changed dramatically.
"Iron Ore Knife, Old" Copper Ore, Zombie Bone Heart.
With four days remaining, this achievement has far exceeded Li Wei's previous estimates. He can now be confident that he can collect all the necessary items by the fourth day.
Of course, this is contingent on a continuous supply of true energy.
Li Wei had his own solution to this problem. He sat down cross-legged on the spot, closed his eyes slightly, and began to cultivate the Penglai Island Basic Immortal Arts, Three Chapters. One of these techniques could continuously absorb the surrounding spiritual energy and convert it into true essence. When the true essence reached a certain level, one could learn more advanced techniques.
These Penglai Island Basic Immortal Arts, Three Chapters, judging from their names, can be seen as having three parts. In the Demon Suppression Pagoda, he has already completed the cultivation of the first part. Because of the martial artist's inner core, he was able to condense the True Essence Pill in advance. Now he is going to cultivate the second part.
Holding his breath and concentrating, Li Wei adjusted his breathing, then exhaled two streams of stale air from his nostrils and began to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy in this mine is quite thin, but it's still enough to maintain the output of true essence for a certain period of time. Anyway, Li Wei's initial goal wasn't to practice his skills, but to prolong the output of true essence.
Time flies in the mine; three days passed in the blink of an eye.
During this period, Li Wei changed mining sites once, and spent the rest of his time using his true energy to control the iron pickaxe to mine, occasionally killing the zombies that came from the surrounding area.
At this moment, the quest items are almost complete.
Four iron ore deposits have been collected, a few copper ore deposits have been collected, but seven Zombie Bones are still needed. I believe they will be collected in a little while.
Of course, during this time, Li Wei also kept in touch with Zheng Yutong and Nina from time to time. The two girls had already entered the deepest part of the mine, where there were a large number of zombies. If it weren't for them, Li Wei's Zombie Bone wouldn't have reached the Zhaoge level so quickly.
Just then, Li Wei suddenly opened his eyes.
A strange aura wafted over, but it was extremely faint.
Li Wei carefully sensed it and found that the aura was similar to that of a zombie, but much stronger. Moreover, there were other auras mixed in with it.
Li Wei had mastered this ability to sense auras while cultivating internal energy, but this skill became even more acute when he gained true energy.
They dug for three days and three nights straight; even an iron man would find it unbearable.
Li Wei got up and stretched his limbs. With a wave of his hand, the iron pickaxe stopped mining and flew back into his hand. Li Wei put the iron pickaxe into his storage space, then took out the Eight Desolations and walked towards the place where the aura was coming from.
Along the way, Li Wei saw a large number of zombie remains, some of which were clearly from zombies killed in the past few days. Obviously, he was not the first to enter this passage.
After winding and turning, Li Wei entered a small passage. Wooden supports appeared on the walls every few meters, and judging from their decay, it seemed as if the top of the passage would collapse if touched.
The aura grew stronger, clearly indicating that Li Wei was getting closer and closer to his target.
Just then, Li Wei heard the sound of chains clanging, along with shouts.
"They are reincarnators!"
Li Wei immediately understood that the other auras mixed in with those auras were unique to those who had reincarnated.
After a while, Li Wei saw something that surprised him through the passage.
The captains of the three reincarnation squads, along with more than a dozen reincarnators whose combat power has reached level 3, are fighting against a giant zombie.
Although the number of reincarnators is large, they do not seem to have the advantage based on appearances alone.
Li Wei glanced at the tall zombie and inwardly cheered.
"The Corpse King, the dead of the mine, possesses Yang strength, agility, and a combined HP of four, along with formidable combat power. It is powerful, but what it can offer adventurers is even more abundant!"
Even with the combined strength of the three experts at the Guiding level— Seventy-Two, Viper, and Bisky —along with a group of Guiding level reincarnators, they couldn't defeat them, let alone maintain a balance.
This is because the Corpse King didn't have any special combat skills. He relied solely on his strength, speed, and the thick iron chain in his hand, which left the group of reincarnators helpless.
As they were talking, a high-level reincarnator was struck by the iron chain, and a series of cracking sounds echoed through the mine. The reincarnator didn't even have time to scream before he was smashed into a pile of mangled flesh.
"Such powerful strength!" Li Wei's eyes narrowed.
While its physical strength is undeniable, the Corpse King's greatest strength lies in its speed. Its agility makes each attack resemble a supersonic aircraft, generating a powerful sonic boom that injures or even kills the Reincarnators.
At this moment, even with the combined efforts of Seventy-Two, Viper, and Bisky, they could barely survive the Corpse King's attacks, and all three of them were secretly lamenting their fate.
Originally, the mission was to hunt zombies to obtain the quest item Zombie Bone. However, after collecting almost all the quest items, they suddenly discovered a hidden entrance in a mine.
That entrance leads to the Zombie King's Hall.
Legend has it that the location of the Corpse King was first discovered by Bisky, who, as a woman, was extremely observant; otherwise, she would not have discovered this hidden place.
However, when she opened the entrance and discovered the Corpse King, she realized she had made a mistake.
That means she overestimated her own combat strength.
Although she possessed magical attacks, she didn't have any time to chant spells when facing the Corpse King. If it weren't for her powerful subordinates, she would have become the Corpse King's snack long ago.
Even with the arrival of Seventy-Two and Viper, who joined the hunt, the situation remained unchanged; the Corpse King's power was completely beyond their expectations.
If this continues, in a few minutes all the reincarnators will die here.
Seeing Viper, the viper was already having second thoughts. After exchanging a few glances with his confidants, he and his men quickly retreated.
"Captain Viper, what are you doing?"
Bisky and Seventy-Two were shocked to see this. With the enemy running away, their already insufficient fighting strength would be greatly reduced, which would only hasten their own demise.
"Captain Bisky, what do we do now?" Seventy-Two asked, still shaken, after dodging the Corpse King's chain attack.
He also began to consider leaving.
The latter, however, gritted her teeth, her heart filled with resentment. This time, she had lost the most subordinates; three level-1 reincarnators and one level-2 reincarnator had died.
The loss was considerable; the dead were her key players. At this moment, all she wanted to do was kill the Corpse King, but the fireball spell she unleashed could only take away a tiny bit of the Corpse King's health.
As the group fought and retreated, their retreat direction happened to be right where Li Wei was, and soon Seventy-Two spotted Li Wei.
"Brother Li! Brother Li, help me!"