Shen Shitao was already worrying whether her spatial ring was large enough, and whether she should contact some of her fellow sect members to come help with the mining.
This was the greatest opportunity of all — who cared about the spiritual herbs and medicines outside? As long as she had enough Sacred Crystals, wouldn't she be able to buy anything good?
Thinking of this, Shen Shitao suddenly looked at Yang Kai with blazing eyes, as if trying to see just how thick the hidden fortune in his body must be, to have casually led them to such an immense treasure.
Just in case, everyone still went to investigate the other passages, wanting to see if there was anything besides Sacred Crystals. As expected, in the three or five passages they explored, all they saw upon entering were massive high-grade Sacred Crystals exposed to the open air.
"There's still plenty of time. Let's each go our separate ways and mine as much as we can before the Flowing Flame Sand closes. If we can exhaust the entire vein here, that would naturally be ideal. But if we can't..." A flicker of hesitation crossed Shen Shitao's face. She glanced at Yang Kai, and seeing no reaction from him, could only say, "Then we'll bring the news back to the sect, and when the Flowing Flame Sand opens next time, we'll have the others come to mine!"
In her mind, the right thing to do now would naturally be to contact her fellow sect members. The more people came, the faster they could mine, and the more benefits they would reap. But besides their five from the Qiantian Sect, there were also Yang Kai and Chang Qi — two outsiders. Shen Shitao couldn't very well call other sect members over, for fear of offending them.
Chang Qi was easygoing enough. It was this young man named Yang Kai who possessed considerable fortune, and Shen Shitao really wanted to stay on good terms with him — perhaps in the future she could follow him and gain some benefits.
This decision satisfied Yang Kai, and he immediately nodded in approval.
The seven of them immediately scattered, each finding a passage to enter and employing their methods to harvest Sacred Crystals.
Yang Kai naturally chose the passage he had been eyeing earlier. He hadn't walked ten zhang before the path was blocked by enormous Sacred Crystals. He condensed Devil Flame in his hand, shaping it into a sharp blade, and effortlessly cut into the crystal vein, slicing off chunk after chunk of Sacred Crystal larger than washbasins, then tossing them into his spatial ring.
Though Yang Kai wasn't as enthusiastic about mining Sacred Crystals as the others, having more of them was certainly not a bad thing.
He worked hard at the mining while carefully probing his surroundings, trying to figure out where that small snake-like spiritual creature had hidden itself. Though he was certain it had entered this passage, there was no other exit. Yang Kai couldn't find anything suspicious either.
The spiritual creature seemed to have vanished the moment it entered, which left Yang Kai greatly puzzled!
After thinking it over, the only reasonable explanation he could come up with was that it had burrowed into the crystal vein itself. But could a spiritual creature really burrow into Sacred Crystals? He had never heard of any spiritual creature with such an ability.
Moreover, this place had its own peculiarities. Logically, with such a massive Sacred Crystal vein underground, the plains above should have been covered with spiritual herbs and medicines. Yet above ground there was nothing but weeds.
He couldn't figure it out. All he could do was continue probing as he dug deeper, tossing chunk after chunk of Sacred Crystal into his spatial ring. The crystal vein in his passage was depleting at a rapid pace.
The blade condensed from Devil Flame was incomparably sharp and could slice through Sacred Crystals with ease. However, Devil Flame possessed the characteristic of burning all things, so during the cutting process, there was considerable loss.
A loss here and there was insignificant, but over a longer period, the losses would become incalculable.
After a moment's thought, Yang Kai directly forced out a drop of his Golden Blood. He shaped the Golden Blood into the form of a short sword.
The Golden Blood sword merely needed to glide across the crystal vein casually, and the Sacred Crystals fell away like sliced tofu. The ease of it was beyond imagination — not only had his speed increased dramatically, but there was no longer any waste. Yang Kai was very satisfied.
After one day, Yang Kai had harvested a massive quantity of Sacred Crystals, but the small snake-like spiritual creature was still nowhere to be found. His passage had penetrated roughly a dozen chi deeper into the rock.
Just as Yang Kai was working hard at mining the Sacred Crystals, faint footsteps suddenly came from the entrance, and Chang Qi's figure appeared from there.
The Elder had an expression of indescribable excitement on his face, suppressing both his aura and his footsteps. Seeing Yang Kai looking over with suspicion, he couldn't help but wave him over, looking extremely secretive.
One look at his expression, and Yang Kai knew he must have found something good. His eyes brightened immediately, and he quietly hurried over.
Following Chang Qi out, Yang Kai sent out his Divine Sense to ask, "Did you find the spiritual creature's trail?"
"Is it hiding here?" Chang Qi was taken aback, his face blank with confusion.
"It is hiding here. It went through my passage, but unfortunately I couldn't find it."
Chang Qi shook his head and sent back, "I didn't come for that. But I found something very special. This old man's eyes are too dull to identify it, and I didn't dare touch it rashly. You come from the outside world — you've seen much and know much. Perhaps you'll recognize it."
Though slightly disappointed, Yang Kai also felt a surge of anticipation. He fell silent and followed Chang Qi into another passage.