On the Heavenly Screen, Yin Hongye held the Ice God's Heart in his palm.
Red Lotus Karmic Fire ignited, enveloping the ice-blue crystal.
Flame collided with extreme cold, and the Ice God's Heart instantly turned red.
But as its energy dissipated, a surge of cold air poured out, and its ice-blue glow grew restless.
"It's reacting." Mu Hongchen leaned closer. "Sure enough, the problem is the ultralow temperature. But extracting all this energy feels a bit..."
"The return isn't proportional to the investment, right?" Yin Hongye had noticed it too. The rate of return was truly pitiful.
"Exactly. Let's not bother with something that pays so little." Mu Hongchen had no interest in a losing deal either. To think this thing would be so ineffective.
Yin Hongye and Mu Hongchen clearly weren't going to make a losing deal like this. As a rule, they didn't do anything that offered no benefit.
Yin Hongye withdrew the Ice God's Heart from the flames and casually put it back in its glass case. The red slowly faded from the crystal's surface, leaving it ice-blue again. "Seal it up."
He brushed the frost off his hands. "Keep it as a collectible. Maybe we'll find a use for it someday?"
"All that research for nothing. This thing isn't worth much in practical terms." Mu Hongchen sounded regretful.
The matter of the Ice God's Heart was set aside. Yin Hongye didn't dwell on it and paid it no further mind.
He returned to the lab bench, spread out a geological map of the area around Mingdu, and began drawing lines on it. His pencil started at Mingdu's west gate, skirted the folds of the mountains, crossed two underground rivers, and extended westward.
"What are you drawing?" Mu Hongchen leaned over for a look.
"A tunnel." Yin