Queen Red Gold Mantis Egg

The players all knew why Fang Qingyang had done this: to stop Yang Ling from staying behind.

If Fang Qingyang really succeeded, players like them would lose a rare backer.

At that thought, one player gritted his teeth and said:

"Once we're out of the mine, we'll beat Fang Qingyang to death. That bastard is truly despicable!"

"Supervisor Yang, whatever you say, we'll do!"

The ordinary miners all looked toward Yang Ling with solemn expressions.

Li Tianye and the others paused, then suddenly understood.

This incident had instead shown the ordinary miners which side they needed to take next in order to protect their own interests.

A steward who sacrificed miners' lives for political infighting would naturally be abandoned at once!

"First, we need to deal with the Red Gold Mantises. Fang Qingyang's matter can wait until we get out."

"Remember, this is the Zhao Kingdom, where laws exist. We can't disregard human lives."

Yang Ling reminded them, "Once we're out, I'll personally escort Steward Fang and Wang Er to the Green Mountain City government office and hand them over to the Iron Garment Division."

The players felt a chill in their hearts. They had nearly forgotten that this game was too realistic—they couldn't just kill NPCs whenever they wanted like before.

"Brother Yang, like last time?"

Chen Xu suddenly became rather excited.

Yang Ling nodded. "Like last time."

No one knew what "like last time" meant.

But they understood soon enough.

Yang Ling held the Red Gold Pickaxe and dug through the stone as if it were tofu. Before long, he had excavated countless huge rocks and blocked off all the major branching tunnels.

In the end, he left only one passage open!

Even that passage was blocked until it was only about the size of a fist.

Li Tianye, Wang Haodong, and the others' eyes lit up, as though they had understood something.

"Can Divine Realm monsters be killed too? Do these Red Gold Mantises give experience points?"

Their hearts immediately burned with excitement.

But when they thought of how dangerous the Red Gold Mantises were, they quickly calmed down.

Even if killing monsters granted experience points, it wasn't something players who weren't even martial artists could get involved in.

"Yang Ling looks like he's planning to trap the monsters."

"I suspect he used to be a professional gold farmer."

The three players who had always refused to reveal their identities as players, all of whom had reached Level 10, secretly watched the scene with strange looks in their eyes.

They were gold farmers too, and they were especially familiar with trapping monsters.

After the setup was complete, the question was how to lure the monsters over.

Yang Ling looked at Wang Er. "Do you have any pig's blood left?"

Wang Er said awkwardly, "No, I used it all up..."

"Is that so..."

Yang Ling smiled. "Then I'll have to borrow yours."

What!

Mine!?

Before Wang Er could react, a bowlful of blood was forcibly drained from him.

His face turned pale as he curled up in a corner, trembling.

With Wang Er's blood as bait, everything was ready.

Yang Ling sprinkled his blood in front of the fist-sized passage, then waited quietly.

The ordinary miners' eyes all lit up.

Those mine rats earlier had probably been killed this way!

"Supervisor Yang has excellent methods. If we deal with the Red Gold Mantises, Mine Cave No. 1 will definitely become less dangerous!"

"Sooner or later, all the ore worms in here will die out. Mining will be even safer then!"

They were somewhat excited, and they grew even more awed by Yang Ling.

The previous supervisor had never cared about such things!

About half a minute passed.

A Red Gold Mantis crawled out.

Before it could make another move, it was cleaved in two with a single slash.

A cold aura flowed into Yang Ling's body.

It seemed to give slightly more experience than a mine rat!

Chen Xu and Chen Guoqing gripped their Fine Steel Pickaxes tightly, ready to get a little share of the rewards.

Yang Ling glanced at Li Tianye.

"Tianye, take your pickaxe and stand nearby. If any Red Gold Mantises slip through, leave them to you."

"Oh, yes!"

Li Tianye was somewhat excited and immediately took his position alongside Chen Xu and the others.

"The rest of you aren't suited to dealing with Red Gold Mantises, so don't get too close. Your lives come first."

Yang Ling gave the other players and ordinary miners a reminder.

Although some players were envious of Chen Xu and the others, they knew their own limits and didn't dare approach.

They gained experience from mining anyway. There was no need to do something dangerous.

The Red Gold Mantises came more and more fiercely afterward.

Unfortunately for them, the passage was only that wide, so they could only enter one at a time.

One came, one died.

Yang Ling would occasionally deliberately let a few through for Chen Xu and the others to practice on.

At first, they were somewhat flustered, but after two or three encounters, the Fine-Steel Pickaxes in their hands became increasingly accurate.

Before they realized it, the pile of Red Gold Mantis corpses before Yang Ling had already reached his waist.

He had the ordinary miners come over and clean them up.

The number of Red Gold Mantises should have fallen considerably, and they were appearing less frequently as well.

Yang Ling was still uneasy, so he drained another bowlful of Wang Er's blood.

The number of Red Gold Mantises immediately increased.

Official Saber durability is about to reach zero.

A message suddenly appeared before Yang Ling's eyes.

He looked at the Official Saber in his hand. It was covered in chips and notches.

Sure enough, after he killed a few more Red Gold Mantises, the Official Saber instantly shattered!

Yang Ling immediately pulled out the Red Gold Pickaxe and continued luring and killing Red Gold Mantises.

Only then did the players present understand just how impressive the top ten rankings were.

There were even moments when they couldn't clearly see Yang Ling's movements.

If Yang Ling had been killing them rather than Red Gold Mantises, it would have been easier than killing chickens!

"Supervisor Yang's martial cultivation is profound—deeper than even the previous supervisors'!"

The old miner who had recognized the Red Gold Mantises spoke with a face full of emotion.

At that moment, a pleasant sound suddenly rang in Yang Ling's ears.

Congratulations, you have leveled up and gained 1 free attribute point.

What's going on? I just leveled up. I've only killed a little over a thousand Red Gold Mantises this time, so how did I level up again?

Yang Ling was somewhat puzzled.

Although the Red Gold Mantises gave plenty of experience, each one was only worth about as much as mining the Red Gold Ore twice.

Logically speaking, even if he had mined Red Gold Ore for an entire day, it might not have been enough.

Could it be that experience from killing monsters receives a bonus?

Yang Ling pondered it, then immediately added the free attribute point to Spirit.

Spirit: 29

Twenty-nine points. One more level and it'll be thirty. That should count as a threshold. Breaking thirty points in a single attribute is very likely some sort of standard.

Yang Ling rejoiced inwardly, then continued killing Red Gold Mantises.

Two hours passed.

No new Red Gold Mantises had appeared for a quarter of an hour.

Seeing this, Yang Ling immediately widened the tunnel.

"Wait for me here. I'll go get the Red Gold Ore Essence and come back up."

This thing was evidence. He didn't plan to take it for himself; he intended to use it to completely nail Fang Qingyang.

After today, the ownership of the Red Gold Ore would more or less have a conclusion.

Holding up a torch, Yang Ling soon found the Red Gold Ore Essence.

There was no sign of any Red Gold Mantises nearby. He unconsciously took several steps forward, then stopped, a look of surprise appearing on his face.

Behind the Red Gold Ore Essence was something that looked like a mass of flesh and blood.

It was covered in blood vessels and seemed to breathe, expanding and contracting.

Yang Ling's expression turned strange. After examining it closely for a few moments, information appeared before him:

[Queen Red Gold Mantis Egg]

[Unowned. Bind and recognize as master?]

"Can it recognize an owner? Has the Spirit Pet System been unlocked?"

After considering it for a while, Yang Ling decided to bind it and see what happened.