Exotic Metal Ore Worth Three Billion Energy! (5k)
by spirapira【In the core area, vast quantities of dense spiritual energy rushed toward you, and the spirit fields were filled with countless spiritual herbs.】
【But these spiritual herbs were beyond your current alchemy level to refine.】
【So you bypassed those spirit fields entirely and extracted all the spirit stones from the spirit-gathering formation.】
【You did not disturb Perfected One Myriad Wood in his bronze stone coffin. Before leaving, you cast one last lingering glance at that Spirit Vein Dragon.】
【After leaving the ancient tomb ruins, you took out Old Dog Zong’s Diary and located the position of Five Elements Mountain.】
【Before the formation array of the Five Elements Mountain ruins, a slight pain throbbed between your brows.】
【This meant that if you stepped into the Five Elements Mountain ruins, your life would be in danger.】
【Out of caution, you decided to shelve the exploration of the Five Elements Mountain ruins for now and continue collecting more Spring Dew Purified Water instead.】
【In the twentieth year, you returned to the real world and continued collecting Spring Dew Purified Water.】
【That year, your total Spring Dew Purified Water reached one hundred and ninety drops.】
【From then on, you collected Spring Dew Purified Water every year on the day of the Awakening of Insects, and trained diligently.】
【In the blink of an eye, another four years passed.】
【In the twenty-fourth year, after the day of the Awakening of Insects, you had already accumulated two hundred and thirty drops of Spring Dew Purified Water.】
【Although you had intensified your cultivation of the Separation Fire Technique, you found that you were still a considerable distance from achieving Major Mastery in it.】
【The biggest issue was that your current spiritual power was insufficient to push the Separation Fire Technique to its ultimate extreme temperature.】
【Perhaps after reaching the Void Return stage, when your cultivation surged dramatically, you would be able to better channel the Separation Fire Technique.】
【In the twenty-fifth year, several hundred Legendary-rank demon beasts broke through Demon-Sealing Pass, and large numbers of powerful human cultivators died in battle.】
【A small number of human powerhouses escaped back to the real world, preparing to mount a final resistance.】
【As for you, after collecting that year’s Spring Dew Purified Water, you prepared to explore the Age of Immortals and Martial Arts dungeon once more.】
【You arrived at Five Elements Mountain, shattered the ruins’ formation array, and walked into the ancient tomb.】
【According to the information you had obtained, the one slumbering within this tomb should have been a powerful cultivator from the Five Elements Sect, a mighty immortal cultivation sect from thousands of years ago.】
Seeing this, Su Xing felt a slight stirring of anticipation.
“Inside the Myriad Wood Sect ruins, the one sleeping was Perfected One Myriad Wood…”
“Could there also be a Body Integration stage powerhouse slumbering in the Five Elements Sect ruins?”
At this thought, Su Xing felt a faint tension mixed with eager anticipation.
After all, the Myriad Wood Sect ruins had contained quite a number of good things — spiritual herbs, spirit stones… even a fully-formed Spirit Vein Dragon!
And if the Five Elements Sect ruins had similar treasures, then Su Xing would really hit the jackpot!
“Tsk tsk, once this young master reaches Body Integration stage, I’m going to pry open every last coffin lid belonging to you old fossils!”
Su Xing had initially had a somewhat favorable impression of these powerful cultivators, but after learning what Perfected One Myriad Wood had done, all his goodwill had vanished instantly.
With that thought, Su Xing turned his gaze back to the simulation panel.
【The Five Elements Sect’s formation array was sturdier than you had imagined, but you still managed to shatter it and enter the ancient tomb ruins.】
【Passing through the long, narrow tomb corridor, the path ahead gradually widened. Your heart immediately went on high alert as you activated your primordial energy armor and raised your Protective Hardened Qi.】
【After walking several more li forward, a dark shadow suddenly flashed before your eyes.】
【A staggering force slammed into your Protective Hardened Qi, shattering it to pieces in an instant.】
【Even with the Protective Hardened Qi cushioning the blow, you were still sent flying by a single punch into the tomb’s stone wall, your entire chest cavity wracked with pain.】
【You were instantly alarmed, and at the same time got a clear look at the figure before you.】
【It was a living-dead!】
【However, this living-dead was far, far more powerful than the living-dead puppets in the Myriad Wood ruins.】
【In life, this living-dead had been at least a late-stage Void Shattering realm cultivator — perhaps even approaching Void Shattering Grand Perfection!】
【You scrutinized this living-dead carefully and noticed that his hair and beard were entirely white, even his eyebrows. He looked very much like the White-Browed Daoist from a certain movie.】
【But his current state was utterly wretched — his pale hair was tangled into a mess, his complexion was ashen, and his body radiated boundless resentment!】
【Seeing the living-dead charging at you again, you didn’t hesitate for even a moment — you immediately raised your Protective Hardened Qi once more and bolted toward the ruins’ core area.】
【Fortunately, your movement speed had improved considerably, and this living-dead seemed to have some kind of leg disability, so it couldn’t catch up to you immediately.】
【Running at full speed and fleeing for your life, you reached the core area of the Five Elements Mountain tomb ruins within just a few breaths.】
【Strangely, this tomb’s core area seemed to have no formation arrays…】
【No — it seemed there had once been formation arrays, but they had been violently destroyed!】
【While fleeing for your life, your mind was filled with shock and doubt. Could Old Dog Zong have been here before?】
【But you quickly dismissed the idea, because Old Dog Zong’s diary clearly described that he had never dared set foot in the Five Elements Sect ruins.】
【Soon, upon entering the core area, you noticed an enormous bronze stone coffin.】
【Similar in shape to the one in the Myriad Wood ruins, the difference was that this bronze stone coffin was not engraved with vast forests, but with the five elemental forces of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth…】
【What puzzled you even more was that this bronze stone coffin had already been opened, and the cultivator who should have been slumbering inside had vanished without a trace.】
【A thought immediately rose in your mind — the living-dead pursuing you was the very cultivator who should have been sleeping in this coffin!】
【For some unknown reason, this cultivator who should have remained in slumber had awakened prematurely and turned into this living-dead form.】
【But with the living-dead still relentlessly pursuing you from behind, you had no time to ponder the reasons.】
【You began searching for useful treasures in these ruins.】
【Your divine sense rapidly swept across every corner of the core area, but you found no vast fields of medicinal herbs, nor any other living-dead puppets.】
【All you saw were several skeletons, their bones as translucent as jade.】
【To your disappointment, there was no trace of a Spirit Vein Dragon in these ruins.】
【However, you did discover a considerable number of spirit stones in one corner.】
【And at that moment, the living-dead behind you had caught up once again.】
【Gritting your teeth, you raised your Protective Hardened Qi once more and charged straight toward the spirit stones.】
【You swiftly stored the spirit stones in your storage artifact, but by then the living-dead had launched another attack from behind.】
【This time, its assault was even more ferocious!】
【Fortunately, with your Protective Hardened Qi absorbing the blow, you didn’t die outright — though you were grievously wounded, your condition utterly wretched.】
【An idea struck you — you would flee into the spirit field grotto-heaven to temporarily evade the living-dead puppet’s attacks.】
【However, within these tomb ruins, there seemed to be a spatial formation array that slowed your entry into the spirit field grotto-heaven by one second.】
【And that one second was fatal!】
【Your body was battered beyond repair under the living-dead’s relentless attacks.】
【You were forced to project your soul from your body, hoping to escape with your life.】
【But the living-dead gave you no chance whatsoever, directly annihilating your soul.】
【You died!】
【Ding — this simulation has ended!】
After the simulation ended, Su Xing furrowed his brows tightly, deep in thought.
“Why are the Five Elements Sect ruins different from the Myriad Wood Sect ruins… Why is there no Spirit Vein Dragon?”
“And why… is Perfected One Myriad Wood still sleeping, while the Void Shattering Grand Perfection cultivator from the Five Elements Sect awakened prematurely?”
Su Xing’s mind seemed to grasp several key pieces of information, but he couldn’t quite connect them yet.
“Wait… Perfected One Myriad Wood intercepted the world’s spiritual veins, gathered them into a spirit dragon, and used it to nourish himself…”
“Could it be that the cultivators of the other sects had absolutely no idea about this?!”
“And precisely because the spiritual veins were severed, spiritual energy rapidly depleted over the span of several hundred years…”
“As for that Five Elements Sect cultivator turning into a living-dead… that’s probably related to Perfected One Myriad Wood as well!”
Su Xing seemed to have seized upon the crucial information.
“If that’s the case, then the sky-high resentment emanating from that living-dead… can be explained…”
“Perhaps someone discovered Perfected One Myriad Wood’s scheme, and that’s why a chaotic battle erupted in the Myriad Wood Sect ruins — which is also why there are living-dead puppets in the Myriad Wood ruins?”
Su Xing nodded thoughtfully, feeling that following this line of reasoning would lead him close to the truth.
“It’s just that the specific details of what happened… can only be found by searching through historical records in the Age of Immortals and Martial Arts dungeon…”
Su Xing let out a sigh. After thousands of years, those historical texts would surely be difficult to find.
Still, the three major sects currently existing in the Age of Immortals and Martial Arts dungeon might retain some traces.
Su Xing planned to explore this when he had time. Perhaps this information would prove helpful for his future exploration of the ruins and ancient tombs.
“In any case, the objective of this simulation has been achieved!”
“Spring Dew Purified Water, spirit stones… With these, my cultivation during the Void Return stage should go much more smoothly!”
With that thought, Su Xing turned his gaze to the rewards from this simulation.
【I’m Definitely Not the Rain God】: Purple talent. Price: 1,000,000 energy points.
【Twenty Years of Alchemy Experience】: Alchemy insights, containing Rebirth Pill (mid-grade Perfection, high-grade Beginner) insights. Price: 7,000,000 energy.
【Low-Grade Spirit Stones x220,000, Mid-Grade Spirit Stones x5,000, High-Grade Spirit Stones x300】: Price: 300,000,000 energy.
【Spring Dew Pure Water, 240 Drops】: The first strand of rootless water that fell on the day of the Awakening of Insects, imbued with mysterious power. Can be used to refine Void-Refining Pills. 240 drops total. Price: 24 million energy.
【Old Dog Zong’s Diary】: Price: 10,000 energy.
【Tier 3-4 Exotic Metal Ore, 1,000 Cubic Meters】: Valued at 15 billion energy. Due to containing a large amount of impurities, the value is halved.
Su Xing looked at this simulation’s rewards without much hesitation.
After all, the purpose of this simulation had been to obtain the Spring Dew Pure Water and spirit stone resources in preparation for his future breakthrough to the Void Return stage.
But the problem was — Su Xing didn’t have enough simulation energy!
His current simulation energy, counting every last point, was only 147.56 million. But extracting the spirit stones and Spring Dew Pure Water would require 324 million energy.
Su Xing turned his gaze to the final reward option, a look of surprise crossing his face.
“The tier three and four exotic metals contained in that Red Lotus Demon Cavern are actually worth 15 billion energy in total?”
“Wait… after the simulator takes its tenfold markup… that should be 1.5 billion simulation energy!”
Seeing such an enormous sum of energy, Su Xing’s heart nearly leaped out of his chest.
1.5 billion energy — enough for him to cultivate all the way to the Void Shattering realm plus reach Grand Perfection in the Void Return realm!
“But… what’s this about the value being halved?”
Su Xing murmured in confusion.
And the simulator, in a rare display, actually provided Su Xing with an answer.
【Ding. Because the proportion of exotic metal contained in the ore is 3.7%, it is classified as a secondary-grade energy substance… If refined and purified, it would be worth 3 billion energy.】
Su Xing instantly understood what the simulator meant.
“So what you’re saying is, if I absorb it directly, it’s worth 1.5 billion energy… but if I purify it first and then absorb it, it’s worth 3 billion energy?”
Su Xing was excited. Whether it was 1.5 billion or 3 billion, either was an astronomical sum for him!
“In that case, I should head to the Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon first!”
Su Xing murmured to himself.
He had previously used the immersive simulation function to fully simulate a trip to the Red Lotus Demon Cavern.
Now, going there in the real world, success was guaranteed!
With that thought, Su Xing glanced at the sky and began applying his disguise and concealing his aura.
Once the sky grew slightly darker, Su Xing left Capital Academy and made his way outside Capital City.
After confirming no one was watching him, Su Xing activated the Heavenly Secrets Concealment Art, then took to sword flight, heading toward Mayi City in Northwest Province.
Before long, Su Xing arrived near the Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon from his memories.
As he drew closer, he indeed spotted a fully armed army of Class Users patrolling outside the Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon.
As a forbidden-level dungeon, the Red Lotus Demon Cavern was naturally under strict control.
These Class User soldiers were there not only to prevent monsters from escaping the dungeon, but also to stop anyone from accidentally wandering in.
However, these Class User soldiers were only around the Master to Grandmaster level in strength, and they didn’t dare get too close to the dungeon entrance.
Su Xing merely applied a light touch of the Eight Trigrams Divination Art, shielding their perception of him, and smoothly slipped into the Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon.
For the current Su Xing, these Grandmaster-level Class Users were no different from ordinary mortals.
Stepping into the Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon, Su Xing quickly found himself in an unfamiliar environment.
Clearly, this was no longer Earth.
“Hmm… the surrounding temperature has risen considerably. The perceived temperature is roughly fifty to sixty degrees Celsius…”
Su Xing nodded slightly, though such temperatures were no different from room temperature as far as he was concerned.
Even though Su Xing’s current strength was comparable to a Legendary powerhouse, out of caution, he still raised his Protective Hardened Qi and activated his primordial energy armor.
After a brief exploration, Su Xing discovered a nearly vertical cavern shaft plunging straight down, bottomless, barely wide enough for a single person.
“This should be the passage leading to the dungeon’s core area…”
Su Xing didn’t hesitate and flew straight into the cavern.
Because the cavern’s terrain was narrow, he couldn’t reach maximum speed.
As a result, it took Su Xing several hours to finally reach the flame demon’s territory, thousands of li deep.
By now, the surrounding temperature had skyrocketed to three to four thousand degrees Celsius — no one below Heavenly King level could survive here.
Using his spiritual sense, Su Xing quickly detected the same flame demon he had encountered in the simulation.
There was no hesitation whatsoever.
Elemental Force Entwinement coiled around his arm, and then he threw a single punch!
In just an instant, the flame demon’s life force rapidly plummeted.
A peak Martial Emperor flame demon couldn’t even survive a single blow from Su Xing!
“This is the beauty of steady development!”
“I don’t care what level you are… once this young master has grown enough, I’ll cut you all down without exception!”
The corner of Su Xing’s mouth curled upward as he continued exploring deeper into the flame demon’s lair.
Soon, Su Xing discovered an even deeper cavern leading down to the magma layer.
“Below here should be where the exotic metal mining zone is located…”
Su Xing explored further into the cavern depths, and before long, he came upon a pool of magma.
At this point, the temperature had already exceeded five thousand degrees Celsius.
Fortunately, Su Xing possessed Protective Hardened Qi, which sealed off the interior from the exterior, leaving his body completely unaffected.
Su Xing’s gaze swept past the magma pool toward the ore deposit on the side.
Sure enough, scattered among the uneven rocks were numerous crimson-red special metals.
“Just as expected — exotic metal ore!”
“Well then… time to get to work!”
Su Xing took a deep breath and drew his spirit sword, Blackice.
The Blackice sword, nourished by his elemental force, had grown ever sharper and more resilient.
With a thought, Su Xing wrapped Elemental Force Entwinement around the Blackice sword.
Then he brought it down on the rock layer laced with exotic metals.
Under the influence of his elemental force, the uneven rocks were sliced open like tofu — smooth and perfectly flat.
With a touch of perfectionism, Su Xing cut each block of ore into precisely one cubic meter.
From then on, through the entire night, Su Xing mined without pause.
It wasn’t until noon the next day, when the very last piece of exotic metal ore had been excavated, that Su Xing finally stopped, satisfied and ready to leave.
“One thousand cubic meters of ore containing exotic metals — all mine now… This ore is worth at least 1.5 billion energy!”
“As for whether to purify it or absorb it directly, I’ll think about that later… This isn’t a place to linger. Let’s get out of here first!”
And so, Su Xing spent several more hours making his way out of the Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon.
Flying by sword, it wasn’t until evening that he finally returned to his dormitory.
He promptly entered the spirit field blessed land, and Su Xing let out a breath of relief — though his little heart couldn’t stop pounding.
“Good heavens, this is exotic metal worth a full 1.5 billion energy!”
Su Xing gazed at the mountain of exotic metal before him and began to think.
“If I absorb it directly, it’s only worth 1.5 billion energy…”
“But if I purify it first, it becomes worth 3 billion energy!”
“However, purifying this exotic metal must take quite a bit of time… I just don’t know exactly how long.”
Su Xing hesitated for a moment, then called Jin Congxue.
“Well, well, Mr. Busy. What brings you to call me?” Jin Congxue’s voice came through the phone.
Su Xing chuckled. “Ahem… I have a question for you. Those exotic metals — they need to be purified and refined, right?”
Jin Congxue’s affirmative reply came through the phone:
“Obviously! You’re the big boss who’s contracted six mining dungeon zones! How do you not know this?”
“Mining is hard work, but purification also takes time. The exotic metals you receive each week need roughly four to seven days of advance purification…”
“And of course, the higher the grade of the exotic metal, the more time the purification and refining process requires.”
Su Xing’s expression turned to one of confirmation, and he asked:
“Sis Xue, if we’re talking about one thousand cubic meters of ore containing tier three and four exotic metals, with a purity of about 3.7%… how long would purification and refining take?”
Jin Congxue hadn’t expected Su Xing to ask such a detailed and serious question.
After thinking it over for a moment, she said:
“Based on your description… I’d estimate this batch of ore would need roughly a month to purify…”
Su Xing’s eyes lit up at that. One month to purify, and 1.5 billion worth of exotic metal would instantly become 3 billion!
The profit was almost too good to be true!
“But there’s also a problem… If I purify all of it, then I won’t have any simulation energy to use in the meantime…”
After deliberating, Su Xing decided to absorb one-third of the exotic metal first — that would be 500 million simulation energy.
The remainder would be handed over to Jin Congxue for purification.
“The remaining six hundred-odd cubic meters should only need about three weeks to purify… and when the time comes, 1 billion energy will instantly become 2 billion!”