At the same time as Fang Ping checked into the inn.
About a hundred miles away from Gigantic Willow City.
Three silhouettes moved like lightning, flashing through midair then disappearing.
Li Hansong was panting, grief and anger on his face, “I wanted us to recover from our injuries, yet you fellows wanted to rake in a fortune—now look at what you’ve done!”
Behind, about ten powerhouses were after them.
Li Hansong was not stupid. The enemy had been able to find them so quickly, and they were unable to shake them off their trail; even if they tried to hide they would still be discovered in no time. As a result, he had realized something.
As he looked at Wang Jinyang and Qin Fengqing in front of him who were both carrying huge packages on their backs, Li Hansong could not stop himself from saying, “Just get rid of those, otherwise, we won’t be able to lose them!”
“I won’t!”
Qin Fengqing quietly scoffed.
“You’ll die!”
“Even if I do, I’m not getting rid of this!”
Li Hansong looked agonized. Did this fellow want money so badly that he wanted to give up his life?
If he did not throw it away, he was going to die.
Wang Jinyang was more reasonable; he was steadier compared to Qin Fengqing. At that moment, he was panting as he directed, “Take that energy stone out, the three of us can absorb it as we run. Just absorb as much as we can...”
Li Hansong objected, “That energy stone isn’t pure enough, there are too many impurities...”
“That’s not a problem, just absorb more—when we get back you can just get rid of the heterogeneous energy.”
Wang Jinyang was obviously very experienced; he said quickly, “Even though it will be very wasteful, it’s still faster than cultivating on your own. Relax, there won’t be any side effects.”
“Then...”
Before Li Hansong had even finished his sentence, Qin Fengqing had taken out the energy stone and was already absorbing furiously.
So what if there were a lot of impurities?
He would just absorb more now, and spend some time later to filter it through; no matter what, it would be faster than cultivating on his own.
Wang Jinyang did not say anymore. He went forward, grabbed hold of the energy stone, and began absorbing rapidly.
Li Hansong saw this and could not help bursting out, “Leave me a place, you fellows are running too fast—I can’t keep up!”
Even saying this was embarrassing—he could not even run as fast as Qin Fengqing.
Qin Fengqing turned his head with a disdainful look before giving it some thought. He then smiled, no longer contemptuous.
It was better to run slow because if he were to run too fast, Iron Head Li would be useless.
After much effort, Li Hansong managed to catch up with them and catch hold of the energy stone. He panted as he absorbed the energy and suggested, “After we throw away the energy stone, we should find a place and hide out for a few days to see if Fang Ping will come looking for us...”
“Come on, are you hoping that he’ll find us? Do you think he’ll even bother to come and look for us? That fellow is probably loitering around somewhere by now.”
Qin Fengqing pointed out frankly, “Instead of waiting for him to find us, we might as well wait at the passageway entrance. He’s probably infiltrated the city to eat and drink to his heart’s content.”
“Isn’t that unlikely?”
“If you don’t believe me, that’s fine.”
Qin Fengqing felt that if he had Fang Ping’s Secret Techniques, he would already be able to go into the city. Who would want to hang around in the wilderness?
Li Hansong felt that whatever Qin Fengqing said did not ring true, but...when he thought of Qin Fengqing and Wang Jingyang, and then thought of Fang Ping who was also close to them, it seemed that this might not be impossible.
‘Sigh. I shouldn’t have come this time!’
Li Hansong sighed inwardly; they were all so unreliable.
...
At the inn.
Fang Ping was sprawled under the bed as he lifted the stone flooring underneath it. His Mentality probed about briefly, then his pupils contracted slightly.
“There are roots in the ground—I knew it!”
He used his Mentality to scan again and felt as though the energy-filled roots in the ground responded faintly.
After all, this inn was still a few thousand meters away from the inner city.
The inner city was also huge. The Willow Tree Monster’s main root system was not even here—it was maybe around ten li away from Fang Ping’s current location!
“I can’t release Mentality and I can’t release Vitality; if I provoke a reaction in the Willow Tree Monster, I’m dead for sure!
“Old Man Li, I can’t take you with me. Your Vitality may be weak, but it’s still there. You’ll be easily attacked and skewered in seconds.
“There’ve also been martial artists from the Catacombs who came to mine as well and most of them are dead. Not only are the Willow Tree Monster’s roots in the ground, but there are also Gigantic Willow City’s guards. Let me see if I can get some of the energy essences; once I get them we’ll make a run for it.
“If I can’t come back, you’ll probably die as well, so you should pray for more luck.”
Fang Ping did not leave Old Man Li outside the city. He was unfamiliar with his surroundings; if he left him outside the city, he might not be able to find him again. Moreover, he did not even know if he would have any opportunities to look for Old Man Li if he lost him. It was safer to bring him here; at least he would not be eaten by monsters.
“I’m going down now!”
As Fang Ping said this, the lump of meat shivered for a moment.
Fang Ping patted him and said in a low voice, “Don’t move, I won’t die that easily. Even those Rank-7s or 8s aren’t as safe as I am.”
He could mask his aura, and become like a dead thing.
If it were not for the fact that he had to make himself seem like an ordinary person, he would have no need to gather energy particles on his body surface.
As an inanimate, lifeless object like a stone, the chances of discovery were minimal.
Of course, Fang Ping was not too sure whether or not he could deceive a Rank-9, and he had not had the opportunity to try either.
At that moment, he could only trust that the product of the system would be something good.
“I’m going down!”
Fang Ping replaced the bed boards in the proper position but he did not put Old Man Li on the bed. He just threw him in the corner— the more casual, the less people would notice. Old Man Li just had to pray for luck now.
Right now, Fang Ping did not use a blade to dig—he went straight in with both hands and dug the soil out. He then kept the soil in his storage space.
After digging for a while, he sent the gathered soil back to the surface and continued to dig deeper.
On the way, he found a few translucent roots, but they were like dead objects—there were no movements whatsoever.
Fang Ping was very careful, he dared not come into contact with them and tried his best to avoid touching the roots.
A human might not notice the ants crawling beneath their feet. At the moment, Fang Ping was trying to make himself seem even more insignificant than an ant so the Willow Tree Monster would not notice him.
‘Wealth can only be found in danger!
‘Moving under the eyes of a Rank-9—I ought to have bragging rights after this.’
The Willow Tree Monster should be Rank-9 and was probably a stronger presence among the Rank-9s.
It was as though he were wandering beneath its feet—was that not exciting enough?
As he dug his way down, Fang Ping had not yet come across a water source. The soil deep in the earth was dry as well, lacking moisture.
‘Just as I suspected—there are mine reserves here, and it’s not too far down either.’
If the energy mine was a few hundred meters deep, he should be able to dig out some water now.
‘It should be just below here.’
Fang Ping dug with his bare hands, and after a while, he felt something hard. Glee flashed in his eyes—as expected, the energy mine was not too far down.
Right now, he was completely covered in mud.
Fang Ping did not care anyway. He did not even bother to send the soil back up anymore and started to go around the periphery of the rocks, continuing forward.
At that moment, Fang Ping felt a twinge of regret that he had not finished honing his skull. Otherwise, if he were like Li Hansong, he would be able to create a passageway using the top of his head, which would make things much easier.
As he followed the direction of the mineral vein, Fang Ping’s expression began to change.
No wonder no one could go underground to mine!
Beneath the ground, empty areas were beginning to appear!
These empty spaces were densely covered with translucent roots. The roots had weaved themselves into a gigantic cage, surrounding the entire mineral vein!
Even though the roots showed no signs of movement, the second they sensed threats, they would turn into killing machines in an instant.
‘The martial artists from the Catacombs are a brave lot; they even dare come here to mine in secret.
‘If a Monster Plant city is like this, would a Monster Life city be easier to steal from?’
As Fang Ping went forward, it seemed as though the underground was lighting up.
A few impure energy stone ores were emitting a faint light. It was not the light reflected from the sun as energy stones did not rely on that to emit light, but it was an innate faint light.
Even though these ores were not very pure, there were copious quantities of them!
This was not a matter of one or two pieces; the ores were like a mountain range that extended from all four corners. They were everywhere!
Fang Ping did not look at them for long; he was unable to take away such low-purity level energy ores anyway, so he continued to dig deeper.
The further he went, the more cautious and careful Fang Ping became.
The energy in front of him was getting richer; he guessed that he was nearing the inner city.
There were plenty of powerhouses in the inner city. Even though he was currently about ten to twenty meters below the earth with no energy fluctuations, if he made any bigger moves, somebody would hear him and he would be in trouble.
Fang Ping carefully wriggled his way through. He did not get too close to the energy mines but moved through the soil above them.
In the mineral veins below were the closely weaved roots; they were very strong and hard. Fang Ping did not want to make too big a movement.
As he continued to inch forward, Fang Ping himself did not know how long he had been crawling. Sometimes when he felt that something was not right, he would stop.
This continued until he started wriggling forward again and felt an emptiness in front of him. This gave him the shock of his life and he quickly grabbed on to the falling soil.
A passageway appeared in front of him!
Fang Ping had now entered the mining area!
Below the surface, there was light everywhere.
The energy mines of the Royal City were continuously being mined. It was not left completely unused, otherwise, martial artists in the Royal City would not have the resources to cultivate.
He listened intently at that moment. Far away, he could vaguely make out sounds of movement—perhaps it was a patrol, or perhaps it was miners.
‘This is like entering a lair.’
Fang Ping subdued the palpitations of his heart and carefully dropped down from the hole above, landing near the dense roots which still showed no signs of movement.
When he dropped to the ground and stood up in the passageway, Fang Ping was not in a hurry to investigate the situation. He quickly patched up the hole above him to make it look as though nothing was out of the ordinary.
After he was done patching up the hole, then only did Fang Ping carefully move forward.
After a few steps, his eyes lit up!
All throughout the passageway were haphazardly embedded chunks of energy ore. However, that was nothing compared to the abundance of energy stone ores within the passageway itself that were already mined.
But their purity was not high, and some even looked like they had already been cut through.
“Could it be...”
Something occurred to Fang Ping; after a while, he could hazard a few guesses.
The low-purity level energy stones that nearby martial artists had mined would be placed back underground in the mineral veins once they had been exchanged.
The energy within the mineral veins was rich. The energy released by high-purity level energy stones was used partly for cultivation purposes by the people of Royal City. One other part was absorbed by the Willow Tree Monster for storing, and another part was used as sources of energy for the nourishment of low-purity level energy stones.
After many years, these low-purity level energy stones might become high-purity level energy stones used in cultivation.
“Could they continue developing?”
No wonder the mineral veins within the Royal City were never depleted; it seemed like the martial artists in the Catacombs were not without forethought after all.
The mineral veins outside the Royal City would be mined to depletion once discovered.
At the mineral veins within the Royal City, only high-purity level cultivation-aiding energy stones were mined. The low-purity level stones would not be mined and would be left to absorb energy for their nourishment.
The passageway that Fang Ping was walking through had probably been abandoned for a long time.
Perhaps it might have once had a lot of high-purity level energy stone ores but now everything had been completely depleted. There was no trace of anyone here now. There were only a few low-purity level energy stones scattered on the passageway.
In the past, if he had seen so many energy stones, Fang Ping would not have cared about their purity level and would already have taken them.
Now, however, he did nothing.
Until he saw a stone that had a higher purity level, perhaps close to the purity level of a cultivation-aiding energy stone, then only did Fang Ping squat down and carefully examine the roots surrounding it in all directions. He clenched his teeth and in the blink of an eye, tossed the energy stone into his storage space.
The roots still did not move.
Fang Ping sighed with relief. It looked like the roots had not yet achieved clairvoyance.
Perhaps they could sense the loss of energy, but to the huge mineral veins, the loss of one energy stone was nothing.
‘No wonder there are guards around. If one were to count on that unreliable Willow Tree Monster, you’d never know when someone might come in and empty this place.’
After walking for a moment longer, Fang Ping’s ears twitched. He then carefully leaned against a concave surface in the passageway.
With his ear glued to the wall of the passageway, he could vaguely make out a set of footsteps in the next passageway, accompanied by the conversation of the Catacombs humans.
“The Fountain of Life is about to open. Once we’re done with these, we should find a good place to wait for the Tide of Life to erupt. Maybe we can use this chance to break through to Rank-5.”
“Not much hope of that though, unless we’re near the Fountain of Life. Only the few venerables and chieftains would be at the center and the generals would be at the periphery so we can only cultivate on the outer perimeter.”
“Even so, we’ll be stronger than usual. Once we’re Rank-5, we can enter the high-ranked life stone vein to cultivate; when that happens, we’ll be able to cultivate much faster after that.””Maybe we don’t need to reach Rank-5 to do that. This time many generals have fallen in battle. To replenish his numbers, the King might let us into the high-ranked area much earlier to cultivate.”
“Are you sure?”
“Almost.”
“...”
The two people in the next passageway were talking in low voices as they scattered the low-ranked energy stones onto the passageway.
When Fang Ping heard all of this, he concluded that he was in an abandoned peripheral mining passageway.
The real core of the city must be much further in.
The Fountain of Life was also further in and seemed as if it might be opened very soon.
After a moment of waiting, footsteps were heard from the opposite side again. Once the footsteps faded away, Fang Ping emerged from the concave area in the wall. He contemplated for a second and continued ahead.
The area below ground was huge; even if there were guards, they could not be everywhere. He would deal with that when he got closer to the core areas.
If he did not reach the core, he would not be able to get near to the Fountain of Life.
Even if he could not steal from the Fountain of Life, if he could take away some of these high-purity level energy stones, then maybe this trip would not be a complete waste.
Fang Ping, who presented no energy fluctuations, appeared mundane when he was in an energy-filled passageway.
Fang Ping had a twinge of regret. If he could turn himself invisible, even if he walked openly into the core area, took the Fountain of Life, and placed it into his storage space, his enemies might not be able to find him.
Now, even though they could not sense him, he was still a living body that could be seen physically. There was still a considerable risk.
‘That’s too bad!’
As he muttered in his heart, Fang Ping could already see the exit of the passageway. He perked his ears and listened for a second. After hearing nothing out of the ordinary, only then did he carefully step out of the passageway and probe around.
Even if he did not know where the core area was, in the energy mines, he did not need to think much. The closer he was to where the high-purity level energy stones were, the more concentrated the energy was. This, he could still deduce.
At this moment in time, the only thing that he had to watch out for was not to let himself be seen, otherwise, he would be in a lot of trouble.