Chapter 17: Mining
Red light scattered all over the cave. Lei Xinfeng was surprised. “Magma?”
“That’s right, there’s an underground magma flow here. It flows in all direction, but don’t worry, this flow is very safe.” Xin Zhaolun said. “As long as you’re careful, you’ll find many valuable materials depending on your luck. There are many materials that even Sages can’t use, or would be wasted on a Sage.”
Even Jin Daya, who rarely spoke, commented. “Old Xin….you’re really a Sage with high standards. To tell the truth, there are many materials here that Ah Feng needs, only even if he doesn’t come here, he can still trade for or buy it elsewhere.”
Xin Zhaolun nodded and took out a beast skin, giving it to Lei Xinfeng. “Show it to everyone. This region produces a variety of materials, but please look out for this material in particular, as I need it.”
Lei Xinfeng doesn’t know much about the materials since he never had much use for them. As a result, he always grabbed whatever he saw so when he did need the materials, he didn’t need to scramble to find them. Because of the large size of his Hidden Wheel space, he could toss materials in without needing to worry about room.
Looking at the skin, he didn’t recognize the material. Biyasi?
“What is this?” Lei Xinfeng asked.
“That’s what I need.” Xin Zhaolun answered. “It’s a material only found here, on the walls. Help me scourge the place. After I find enough, you’ll see what it’s for.”
Everyone answered affirmatively.
When the magma flowed, it created a stone shell where the surface of the rock cooled enough to solidify. Where the shell cracked, a warm glow from the molten rock flowing beneath radiated.
In other words, the group were standing on top of the stone layer created from cooled magma. If they weren’t careful, they could break the surface and fall in. As a result, everyone treaded lightly, floating in the air. Someone supported Lei Xinfeng, Chuizi, and Futou at all times.
Soon, Xin Zhaolun found a stable spot, letting the three of them that couldn’t fly down. Generally, spots that were far from active magma flows were solid enough to stand on enough worry. “You shouldn’t have any problems if you walk here,” he said.
They came along a wide strip of solid rock along the wall. Xin Zhaolun rushed forward and called back, “Here! Everyone come have a look!”
Lei Xinfeng caught up and stood next to him. “Where?”
After everyone was gathered, Xin Zhaolun pointed at the path. “Here it is…”
Lei Xinfeng saw a hint of green thread against the black stone. It felt nice to touch. “Interesting. So this is the Biyasi?”
“Nope. This is ore. Only after processing does it become Biyasi. Please memorize the feel of it and look for it based on that. After you find it… ah, I’ll dig it out as a demonstration,” Xin Zhaolun said.
He took out a small hammer and tapped the wall. Instantly, the rock face crumbled and, impossibly, a whole stone fell into his hands. He gave the stone to Lei Xinfeng. “This is the ore, much harder than the rock surrounding it. If you break the rock, it will pop out rather effortlessly.”
This fist sized green ore was extremely dense, dense than even gold. Lei Xinfeng didn’t expect that just this small rock would weighed over a dozen jins. “It’s heavy!”
“It’s even heavier after you purify it,” Xin Zhaolun commented.
Lei Xinfeng nodded. “I’ll start looking then.”
“If you can find around a hundred to three hundred jins of it, it will be enough for me. If you find any extra, keep it. You’ll definitely need it.”
Lei Xinfeng understood that it was a rare opportunity and nodded.
Fengying and Shihu both understood that they will ever get the chance to use it, they both went to help Lei Xinfeng dig.
Since Chuizi and Futou were both brought here by Xin Zhaolun, all the ore they got went to him according to their agreement. Jin Daya also helped Xin Zhaolun but, like Lei Xinfeng, once he had enough, he could keep the rest himself.
It was Lei Xinfeng’s first time mining for ores himself, so when he found an ore deposit, he discovered that he didn’t have any tools to dig out. Instead, he took out a steel spear and began to hit the wall. Shattering the rock around it without effort, he quickly excavated the Biya ore.
It was only a small ore the size of a walnut, glowing green. He estimated it probably only weighed two or three jins.
Fengying and Shihu also split up to look for ores. There were more places that they could look in, like the ceiling, while Lei Xinfeng could only look along the walls below.
Sounds of tapping came nonstop in the cavern as everyone looked for ores.
Since the cavern was hot, Lei Xinfeng only wore a pair of pants and a sleeveless shirt, putting everything else into his Hidden Wheel space.
By chance, Lei Xinfeng looked down, and found a cluster of green rocks on the floor. He knelt down, joy and pleasant surprise mixing. If he was correct, there was at least a dozen Biya ores.
Clink clank! After a few moments of smashing rocks with his spear, Lei Xinfeng harvested seventeen Biya ores. The biggest one was the size of an apple, over twenty jins in weight, and even the smallest was the size of his fingertips; altogether there was at least a hundred jins of ores. Lei Xinfeng grinned.
In the mean time, Fengying also found a few ores. Shihu had a nasty expression since all the locations he searched in lacked even a single ore.
In contrast, the more he mined, the more excited Lei Xinfeng became. He had talent! While others needed to search for a long time to find a ore, he could find the ores instantly based with his instincts. In the time that Shihu took to find one ore, Lin Xinfeng found another seventeen.
Biya ores are strange. For one person, finding them might be easy, but for others, there was nothing harder. Up until that point, the person who had the largest harvest was Lei Xinfeng. The others only found six or six ores at most. Chuizi and Futou didn’t find a single ore between the two of them.
Little by little, Lei Xinfeng got further and further from the ground. Lei Xinfeng kept finding ores all along a deep passage. “Huh. Finding these aren’t difficult at all! I’ve already finished the task Brother Xin gave.” In just a few hours, he had found a few hundred jins of ore without any difficulty.
At that moment, Lei Xinfeng found another kind of ore, Red Gold.
Red Gold isn’t a type of gold. It’s a special metal that shares some characteristics with gold, and is much more valuable, especially when forging weapons. Red Gold and Biyasi is different in that although there are many locations where one can find it, those locations never yielded a large amount at once. Red Gold appeared in small amounts, like looking like specks of sand in the stone.
It is also impossible to purify Red Gold. The natural purity is the only purity of red gold. It had a appearance of a crystal, but could be worked in the same way as a metal. By pouring the ore into a cauldron, the pieces of red gold will be attracted to each other and stick together. By breaking away the remaining rock, all that was left was the pure Red Gold.
When Lei Xinfeng spotted the Red Gold, he was really happy. Shattering the rock, he picked up a piece, looking at the tiny specks of red gold embedded in the rocks. The vein that he found a three meter long band on the wall. As the pieces of ore and rock from the broken wall fell on the ground, he put them in his Hidden Wheel space. It took him an hour to finally clean out the vein, and when he was done, the hole he excavated could fit two people lying end to end.
They worked for a whole day. When they felt hungry, they ate some dried food. When they were thirsty, they drank some cool water. It wasn’t until Chuizi and Futou’s incessant cries for food became overwhelming that Xin Zhaolun called the group together.
Gathering at a flat spot, Xin Zhaolun was all smiles. “How was your harvest?” He was satisfied with his. In just a day, he had gathered over a dozen ores and two other kinds that he came across by chance.
“I got eight ores, maybe seventy jins.” Jin Daya reported.
Chuizi was embarrassed. “I, I only mined three. They’re all small..haha…”
His shame was nothing compared to Futou, who only gathered one.
Xin Zhaolun waved it off. “It’s fine, it’s fine! Ah Feng, how many did you get?”
Like the two before him, Lei Xinfeng was embarrassed, not because he did poorly, but because he gathered much more than everyone else. If he spoke truthfully, will someone knock his head? “Ahhh, it was okay. I completed my task without any problems…”
Fengying and Shihu didn’t report. Since they were Lei Xinfeng’s bodyguards, everything they gathered belong to their master Lei Xinfeng.
Xin Zhaolun relaxed with a sigh. “We can’t stay for too long, so let’s pick up our pace,” he said.
“Why? We brought enough food. There shouldn’t be any problems even if we stay a bit longer,” Lei Xinfeng argued.
“I know. As for when exactly we leave, we’ll listen to Chuizi and Futou.”
“It’s okay if we stay a bit longer, but we mustn’t stay over thirty days. No matter what, we cannot stay past thirty days, or it will grow colder—” Chuizi said, but Lei Xinfeng’s unbelieving voice interrupted him.
“—What? What do you mean it will grow colder? It’s already freezing!”
“It will grow so cold that you will literally freeze to death,” Futou explained.
“Don’t you two have any problems with it?” Lei Xinfeng asked.
Notes:
Hello! I’m Emily, a worse translator than Puttty, so please go easy on me. What takes her one hour to translate, I will take two. This will also be my second chapter ever, so it might be bad!
Puttty translated 真人 as True Master. I personally prefer Sage. I can revert back if you like. Same with Hidden Lun and Hidden Wheel, since Lun means wheel.
Biyasi is 碧牙丝, or bluetooth silk/thread.
When I typed Brother Xin, the raw said 师兄, meaning an older disciple under the same master.
I translated 斤 or ½ kilograms as jin or jins for plural.
PS: I have a discord server. I don’t check email often, so Discord might be the best way to find me.