The Gold-Munching King Mouse clan — most of these people had never even heard the name, and they certainly had no idea what this race meant in the vast expanse of the Heavens.
However, once word spread that even the four great Divine Beast clans dared not provoke this race lightly, they more or less figured out the answer on their own.
For as long as anyone could remember, rat-type bloodline races had always been looked down upon in the world of martial cultivation.
The idea that a rat clan could be so formidable caught Prince Huo and the others a bit off guard.
"Gentlemen, I can summon a million Gold-Munching Mice. Moreover, I can guarantee that they will participate in the mining operation. Under these conditions — can the mining timeline be shortened to within three months?"
Jiang Chen cast an inquiring look toward the craftsmen.
The group of craftsmen were stunned speechless. They had heard of all manner of outlandish mining proposals in their time, but using rats to mine Ling Shi — that was genuinely a first.
Summoning a million rats — that was an absolutely staggering undertaking.
But there was a problem.
The craftsmen deliberated for a moment before one of them spoke up. "Young Master Jiang Chen, we don't doubt your Divine Ability or your capabilities. It's just — a million rats of a foreign race… can they really be trusted? What if they eat the Ling Shi behind our backs? What then?"
Jiang Chen laughed. "I will be monitoring them the entire time. Besides, I am more than ninety percent confident that these Gold-Munching Mice will not steal any Ling Shi — and wouldn't dare to."
"If you can guarantee they won't eat the Ling Shi, then that's fine. But will these Gold-Munching Mice actually obey the commands of us craftsmen?"
"There's no need to worry about that. The Gold-Munching Mice are quite intelligent — they understand the human language. And I will be supervising the entire operation. They must obey, and they wouldn't dare refuse."
The craftsmen all nodded. Since Young Master Jiang Chen had laid things out so thoroughly, there was no room for further objections.
To keep pushing back at this point would be to fail to appreciate a good thing. After all, Young Master Jiang Chen had already thought of the solution — if they refused to carry it out, the problem would be on them.
One of the craftsmen said, "As long as these Gold-Munching Mice follow orders, don't eat the Ling Shi, and don't slack off, completing the mining in three months is entirely feasible. Of course, that's only if they actually follow orders and don't cause chaos."
The advantages of the Gold-Munching Mice clan were obvious. They possessed a gnawing ability that was incredibly well-suited to mining Ling Shi — they could effortlessly chew away the waste rock surrounding a deposit and extract the Ling Shi with ease, often without any need for further processing.
Moreover, the Gold-Munching Mice were small in size and crawled along the ground, which meant they took up virtually no space. Compared to human miners, their advantage was enormous.
The Gold-Munching Mouse King quickly assembled a million of its kin. The sheer spectacle of it left every onlooker with a scalp-tingling sense of dread.
Even those cultivators at the upper echelons of the Heavenly Seat realm felt their pores go rigid upon seeing the dense, writhing mass of Gold-Munching Mice.
This was too terrifying. If these mice swarmed forward en masse to attack, even upper-level Heavenly Seat cultivators would have no choice but to flee for their lives.
The Gold-Munching Mouse King began to address its subjects. "Without Chen Shao, there would be no Gold-Munching Mouse clan as we are today. Only by following Chen Shao can our clan grow strong, can we hope to build a world of our own. Therefore, Chen Shao's business is our business. Chen Shao's orders must be carried out without fail. For this Ling Shi mining operation, every descendant I have summoned is one I personally deem trustworthy. Tell me — during the mining process, will any of you eat the Ling Shi?"
These Gold-Munching Mice were among the more awakened and higher-ranked of their kind. Upon hearing the Mouse King's words, they cried out one after another in perfect unison, voicing their absolute loyalty and swearing they would never steal a single Ling Shi and would never do anything to betray Young Master Jiang Chen.