Mining Origin Stones

As Zhou Zheng and the other two prepared to search the distant mountains, Wu Jiuxin suddenly asked, "Who exactly are the three of you?"

"We're not enemies." Zhou Zheng knew Wu Jiuxin had finally sensed that something was wrong, but his answer remained the same: they were not enemies.

"I see!"

Wu Jiuxin nodded slightly, then said, "Everyone, my injuries have mostly recovered. I'm planning to return to the mortal world. Will you be coming with me?"

"That won't be necessary!" Zhou Zheng knew Wu Jiuxin was saying farewell, so he said directly, "Brother Wu, may we meet again if fate allows!"

"May we meet again if fate allows!"

Wu Jiuxin nodded slightly. He said nothing more. After cupping his hands in salute, he transformed into a streak of Flowing Light and swiftly vanished from the trio's sight.

"Captain, we're just letting him go?" Mo Zitong asked.

"There's no need to make things difficult for him. We might still work together later!" Zhou Zheng did not elaborate, and Mo Zitong did not ask further.

The three did not hesitate any longer and entered the lair of those Native Transcendents.

The place where this group of Transcendental natives lived was enormous. Amid more than a hundred overlapping mountain peaks, it covered an area of over a thousand li.

With such a vast area, they naturally could not search it inch by inch. Under these circumstances, relying on the effects of rule mysteries was undoubtedly far more efficient.

Using the Mystery of Wind, Zhou Zheng could sense conditions in areas touched by faint breezes. Using the Mystery of Light, he could learn about places within a certain range that were illuminated by light.

Feng Zhuhong had mastered the Mystery of Darkness, allowing her to detect certain things hidden within darkness.

Meanwhile, Mo Zitong sent out Illusion Clones to investigate.

During battle, she could only create two clones, but for scouting, there was no need for the clones to be particularly powerful. She could actually create a whole swarm of them.

Thus, among the three, Mo Zitong's scouting ability was instead the strongest.

The Illusion Profound Mystery indeed had an advantage in reconnaissance. If it could evolve into the Void World, then under Void Realm Reflecting Reality, its scouting ability would undergo another qualitative transformation.

However, Void Realm True Meaning was a Second-grade True Meaning. The difficulty of evolving the Illusion Profound Mystery into the Void World could not be explained in just a few words.

The three investigated for about half an hour when Mo Zitong suddenly sent a message to Zhou Zheng and Feng Zhuhong.

"Captain, Sister Zhu, come quickly!"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zheng immediately headed toward Mo Zitong.

A moment later, he arrived in a cave three hundred meters underground.

"This is..."

Zhou Zheng surveyed everything within the cave. Here, grayish stones were embedded throughout the rock walls. They appeared utterly ordinary, but that was not actually the case.

"An Origin Stone vein?"

Zhou Zheng looked at Mo Zitong and asked.

"It is indeed an Origin Stone vein!" Mo Zitong nodded, then said, "However, according to my investigation, there are only a little over ten thousand jin of Origin Stones left that can be mined here. If we extract any more, this small Transcendent World may collapse!"

"Mm!"

Zhou Zheng nodded slightly.

In a Transcendent World, all kinds of transcendent materials, including Origin Stones, formed because its rules were incomplete. In truth, this was harmful to the world.

The mere formation of these transcendent materials harmed the world. If they were then mined extensively, the damage would become even greater and could even cause the Transcendent World to collapse.

Although a collapsed world would absorb energy from the Space Fold and gradually evolve into a new world again, that would happen only after a very long time.

Therefore, people generally did not overmine Origin Stones.

Although Zhou Zheng and the others did not belong to this world, their mission was not yet complete. If this small Transcendent World collapsed now, it would practically mean mission failure. Naturally, they could not overmine it either.

In fact, a small world could generally yield around a million jin of Origin Stones. With this vein located here, it was impossible for the Transcendental natives living here not to know about it.

They should have mined this vein as well.

However, the Transcendental natives were probably more worried than anyone else about their world collapsing. Thus, when there were still more than ten thousand jin left before the limit, they had not dared to continue mining, allowing Zhou Zheng and the others to profit.

"Captain, should we mine it?" Mo Zitong asked.

"Of course we should!" Zhou Zheng nodded without hesitation. More than ten thousand jin of Origin Stones was definitely an enormous windfall. There was no reason not to take it!

"However, those Native Transcendents who left may return at any time. We have to stay on guard!" Zhou Zheng continued.

"Mo Zitong, send Illusion Clones to keep watch in the distance. Feng Zhuhong, set up an ambush formation nearby. The moment those Native Transcendents return, we'll leave immediately!"

"Alright!"

"Yes!"

Mo Zitong and Feng Zhuhong each responded.

The three began acting separately. Feng Zhuhong went out to set up the formation, while Zhou Zheng and Mo Zitong, who had already sent out her Illusion Clones, each took out their weapons and began digging within the cave.

Although the two had both become miners, they were delighted inside.

After all, what they were digging up now were genuine Origin Stones. Whether they brought them back to the Temporal Temple to exchange for Time-Space Points or used them themselves, it would be immensely profitable.

Mining Origin Stones involved two steps. The first was separating the Origin Stones from the stone walls, and the second was stripping away the outer shell surrounding the pure Origin Stones.

These seemingly dull gray stones were actually the shells of the Origin Stones.

However, removing those shells required extreme care. Zhou Zheng and the others clearly did not have the time for that, so they were only extracting the stones for now. As for the second step, they would naturally do it after reaching safety.

Time passed second by second. In the blink of an eye, Zhou Zheng and Mo Zitong had already extracted nine thousand jin of raw Origin Stones. Once the shells were removed, they would probably obtain seven thousand jin of pure Origin Stones.

It was at this moment that Mo Zitong's expression suddenly changed.

"Captain, they've returned!" Mo Zitong said directly.

"Retreat!"

Zhou Zheng made the decision immediately. Although there were still many Origin Stones left unmined, stubbornly continuing would lead to trouble.

Zhou Zheng was not particularly afraid of the Saint Level Native Transcendent named Shockwave. Although he had only mastered a Proto True Meaning, it was still a Second-grade True Meaning. Even if the other party's Wave Domain True Meaning had reached the Third-tier, Zhou Zheng could handle him.

Although Zhou Zheng was somewhat lacking in terms of fundamentals, he had cultivated the God Tier Secret Technique, Ninefold Spiritual Light Domain. That was something the Native Transcendents could not compare with.

That said, Shockwave had a whole group of Flying Celestial level Transcendental underlings beside him. Zhou Zheng not fearing them himself did not mean Mo Zitong and Feng Zhuhong were unafraid as well.

Moreover, while Zhou Zheng was not afraid of Shockwave, he was not confident that he could defeat him either. There was no point in staying.

Therefore, he naturally chose to retreat without hesitation.

For the sake of that Special Lifeform's body, they would have to clash with these Transcendental natives sooner or later—but not now.