“Uh…” Li Ye, who had been jabbering and ridiculing Yang Ling, suddenly stopped. His jaw dropped.
Pei Qiqi’s face was also filled with shock, as she had never expected that Yang Ling wouldn’t even be able to withstand a single blow from Nie Tian, and died before his spiritual incantation was finished.
Only after a long time did Li Ye snap out of his daze and say, “This seems a bit too easy, doesn’t it?”
“This guy…” Pei Qiqi frowned slightly as she found herself unable to remove her gaze from Nie Tian, who now seemed shockingly mysterious.
Although she had the confidence to kill Yang Ling on her own from the start, she was prepared to go through strong resistance to achieve that and didn’t believe that she would have been able to kill him as quickly and effortlessly as Nie Tian had.
Nie Tian seemed somewhat bashful as he looked Pei Qiqi in the eye, smiling. “All their belongings are mine now, right?”
“Yeah, I meant what I said,” Pei Qiqi replied.
Nie Tian’s eyes lit up as he rapidly stepped toward Yang Ling’s body with a broad smile on his face. Without any hesitation, he bent down and began searching the body for valuable items.
The early Greater Heaven stage Yang Ling also possessed a ring of holding. Nie Tian took it off with a swift motion and was about to examine what was inside of it.
“Now is not the time. Let’s get out of here first,” Pei Qiqi reminded him.
Li Ye also stepped over and reminded Nie Tian, “All sorts of storage spiritual tools lose their effects here, and you can’t use your psychic power while we’re in here. Otherwise, you’ll suffer from a lethal backlash.”
Upon hearing their words, Nie Tian immediately stopped and put Yang Ling’s ring of holding into the pocket by his waist.
After a thorough search, Nie Tian didn’t find any other valuable items.
Then, he stepped over to the bodies of the other three Wild Fire members, took off their bracelets of holding from their wrists, and put them away in his pocket.
“Every ring of holding has a spatial energy shield to prevent others from using it,” said Pei Qiqi. “I’ll help you disengage it when we’re out of here.”
“Oh, great! Thanks in advance then!” Nie Tian said, smiling.
He had also heard that a low-grade bracelet of holding didn’t have a restrictive spell, so once its owner was killed, the killer would be able to snatch and use it.
Rings of holding, however, were different. Since they were more advanced, a restrictive spell was always built within every ring of holding.
Only by cracking the restrictive spell would a person other than the owner be able to check and loot what was in them.
Since Pei Qiqi’s mastery of spatial magics and spells was outstanding, helping Nie Tian disengage the ring of holding’s protective shield was as easy as ABC to her. If she hadn’t offered to do that for him, he would have had to go through a great deal of trouble doing it himself.
“You’ve hit gold, Hua Tian!” Li Ye said excitedly. “One early Greater Heaven stage and three late Heaven stage experts! They must have quite a few spiritual materials and spirit stones in their storage tools! You’ve made a great fortune by coming to the Void Illusion Mountain Range with me. The items you’ve gained today will be enough to get you through quite some time in Shatter City.”
“Thank you,” Nie Tian said, smiling.
He was in a good mood after killing four powerful experts and plundering their belongings.
He had been worrying about getting more spirit stones since the day he had come to Shatter City. Working for Li Ye hadn’t turned out to be productive for him.
He had never expected that he would obtain three bracelets of holding and one ring of holding from such an easy battle.
This was definitely a great fortune for him.
“It’s like what they say: people can’t get rich without good luck!” He thought to himself.
Pei Qiqi didn’t have any expression on her face as she said, “Alright, it’s time to get down to business. Don’t forget the reason why we’re here. Now that both members of the Wild Fire and Dark Moon have learned about this mine, we’d better mine as much Space Spirit Jade as we can this time. Otherwise, I’m afraid that it will be an empty mine the next time we come back.”
“Exactly, the Space Spirit Jades are what we’ve come for,” Li Ye said.
“Let’s get started then.” Pei Qiqi picked up a shovel and walked to a corner of the cave. Without any delay, she started digging.
“Here. Take this.” Li Ye picked up a shovel from the ground and tossed it to Nie Tian before he grabbed another one for himself. While digging, he said, “Hua Tian, we discovered this Space Spirit Jade mine, and you’re only here because I brought you here. Therefore, you’ll give us two thirds of the Space Spirit Jades you mine from this place.”
“No problem.” Nie Tian, who was still in a good mood, agreed without thinking.
On the other hand, he was aware that if it weren’t for Li Ye, he would never have the audacity to explore the Void Illusion Mountain Range by himself, much less find this Space Spirit Jade mine.
Hence, he assumed Li Ye’s demand made sense.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The three of them laboriously swung their shovels inside the spacious mine.
Numerous glittering spots could be seen on the walls of the stone cave, which were where the crude Space Spirit Jades were embedded.
They had to separate them from the stone walls first, and then get rid of the impurities that adhered to them. Only then would the pure, translucent Space Spirit Jades present themselves.
Most importantly, they couldn’t use even the least bit of spiritual power during the process, only their physical strength.
As powerful as Pei Qiqi was in the Void Illusion Mountain Range, the unique environment made her mining efficiency far inferior to Nie Tian’s.
By the time she finished with one Space Spirit Jade, Nie Tian had already mined and processed three.
Meanwhile, Li Ye was slower than even Pei Qiqi. By the time he finished with one Space Spirit Jade, Nie Tian had already had six pure Space Spirit Jades laying on the ground next to him.
Two hours later…
There was already a sizable pile of Space Spirit Jades by Nie Tian’s side, while only about ten Space Spirit Jades could be seen lying on the ground next to Pei Qiqi’s feet, and five next to Li Ye’s.
A short while passed…
The Space Spirit Jades Nie Tian had mined and processed had already piled up into a small hill.
Pei Qiqi and Li Ye had over-consumed their physical strength and been forced to stop. After all, physical labor wasn’t their strong suit. Sweat dripping from their faces, they could only stand there and watch Nie Tian work tirelessly.
Their arms felt sore and powerless as they were thirsty and famished. All they wanted was to find a place to recuperate.
“What this Hua Tian guy is made of?” Li Ye muttered to himself. Then he turned to Pei Qiqi and asked, “Senior martial sister, how about we get out of here and get something to eat?”
All their food and water was stored in their rings of holding, which they could only use outside of the mine.
Furthermore, someone would have to carry the finished Space Spirit Jades outside and then put them away into their rings of holding.
“Alright. Let’s do that and come back after a short break. It seems Hua Tian is still doing good. Let him work then.” Pei Qiqi sounded somewhat frustrated.
She knew very well that this was their last chance to mine the Space Spirit Jades here. As much as she wanted to stay with Nie Tian and mine as many Space Spirit Jades as possible, her fleshy body didn’t allow her to do so, unlike Nie Tian’s.
Upon hearing their plan to take a break outside, Nie Tian turned to them and said, “Will you carry these jades out and store them in your rings of holding for me?”
“You can just toss them through the gate to us when we’re out,” Li Ye said.
“That works too,” Nie Tian answered.
Soon after Pei Qiqi and Li Ye stepped through the exit, Nie Tian counted the Space Spirit Jades he had mined while throwing them through the exit one after another.
Afterwards, he went back to his painstaking work to mine more Space Spirit Jades for the sake of his future life in Shatter City.
After working for several hours straight, Nie Tian still felt rather energetic.
Suddenly, after laboring for a short while, he swung his shovel at a crude Space Spirit Jade in the stone wall and a crisp clanking sound rang out.
“What?!” Nie Tian went blank for a moment before he closely examined the location where the sound had come from.
At that moment, Li Ye and Pei Qiqi returned to the mine and Li Ye said loudly, “We’re back, Hua Tian. How are you doing?”
“Hey, come and take a look. Do you know what this is?” Nie Tian said.
Pei Qiqi rapidly stepped past Li Ye and arrived at Nie Tian’s side. As soon as she did, a flowery scent entered Nie Tian’s nose, making him feel intoxicated.
In the next moment, Pei Qiqi’s gentle exclamation woke Nie Tian from his drunken state. “I didn’t expect that we’d run into one of these here!”