74: Chapter 74 Infinite Mineral Farming? I've Got it!

Bang!

Bang!

The guardians slammed into the sealed earth, sending gravel flying.

But the reinforced tunnel walls held for the time being.

"The convoy retreat to the Underground Space. Troglodytes, evacuate through the side tunnels."

Xu Qin issued a series of commands, and the troops in Tunnel No. 1 retreated in an orderly fashion.

Then he turned to look at Tian Ming with an expected smile.

"How about it? I was right, wasn't I?"

"How could a legendary mineral vein be so easy to exploit?"

"As soon as you dig, they pop up."

Tian Ming replied, "Master is wise."

"Haha, cut the flattery."

Xu Qin waved his hand, then looked at the four to five hundred red dots on the panel.

"All forces, hear my command, prepare for battle. Wipe out this entire batch of guardians!"

The seals on the eighteen old trap tunnels were still intact.

Soon, the seals of six of them were smashed open by the guardians.

Rumble! The swarm of guardians immediately split and poured in.

The same battle situation as the previous round repeated itself.

Serpentine curves, with a set of shaft traps every thirty meters.

Thud!

Thud!

One after another, they plunged down.

This batch of traps was deeper than the last, a full fifteen layers deep.

But this time, the number of guardians was around four to five hundred.

The traps within the six tunnels were not enough to divert them all.

Before long, the remaining guardians, in their violent bashing, discovered the buried entrance of Transportation Tunnel 1.

Bang!

The sealed earth was smashed open!

Dozens of guardians poured into Transportation Tunnel 1.

But once they entered, they were met with seven or eight side-tunnel forks.

Which one was the main tunnel?

They didn't know.

The guardians, whose intelligence was practically zero, squeezed into any opening they saw.

More than thirty of them plunged straight into the side tunnels, wandering around inside, unable to find their way out.

Seven guardians found the right direction and rushed along Transportation Tunnel 1 toward the Underground Space.

"Chuan Yun! Fire!"

Chuan Yun raised his bone bow.

The exit of Tunnel No. 1 directly faced the firing platform of the Underground Space.

Just as the seven guardians emerged from the tunnel exit, they were greeted by an open space of twenty thousand square meters.

Before they could figure out what was happening...

Whoosh!

Chuan Yun's voice rang out.

[Precision Volley]!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

One thousand one hundred and thirty bone bows released their strings simultaneously.

Bang, bang, bang!

Eight hundred and forty muskets fired in unison.

Hum!

The rain of arrows and barrage formed a screen of light interwoven with orange and white.

It slammed into the first guardian.

-57! -57! -39!

A volley of nearly two thousand soul energy arrows and projectiles shot out.

The guardian, which possessed a hundred thousand health points, had its carapace shattered and collapsed instantly.

"Huh?" Xu Qin blinked.

The first guardian was insta-killed?

He quickly opened his panel to check.

The true damage of the +20 Skeleton Elf Archer's skill was 57?

One thousand one hundred and thirty arrows,

with 57 points of true damage each,

meant they could deal over sixty thousand damage.

Plus the Musketeers' armor-penetration damage of over thirty thousand.

A single volley could deal over a hundred thousand damage?

"It even overflowed!"

Xu Qin was shocked.

But even as he was calculating, the second guardian fell to the ground.

Followed immediately by the third and the fourth.

From the moment the seven guardians rushed out of the tunnel exit to when they all collapsed, it took less than ten seconds.

"..."

Xu Qin stood with his mouth agape, looking at the seven orange remains on the ground.

When the previous batch was only enhanced once, it took over thirty seconds to kill just one.

Now, seven of them were completely wiped out in ten seconds.

"That is so damn fierce."

Xu Qin jumped up from the command platform, hands on his hips.

"A +20 Ranged Troops unit can deal over a hundred thousand true damage in a single volley? The guardians only have a hundred thousand health! Insta-killed in one volley!"

"Awesome!"

[Battle Settlement!]

[Killed Targets: Mineral Vein Guardian ×7]

[Base Drops: Mineral Vein Guardian Remains ×7, soul energy ×2240]

[Talent 'War Gift Lv.10' triggered! All loot quantities ×11!]

[Final Acquisition:]

Mineral Vein Guardian Remains ×77

soul energy ×24640

[Battle Evaluation: B]

[Upgrade Progress: 4780/6000]

Xu Qin put the delivered remains into his inventory.

"Tian Ming!"

"Present."

"I'm going back to the Forging Area to salvage these remains. I'll leave the command to you."

"Clear out the ones in the side tunnels and traps in batches."

"Yes, Master."

Tian Ming took over the command,

and began deploying the troops to clean up the guardians in the various tunnels and side tunnels.

Xu Qin sprinted all the way back to the Floating City's Forging Area.

He stuffed the 77 remains into the dismantling furnace.

Boom!

Orange flames engulfed everything.

Ding!

[Dismantling complete! Obtained: source crystal essence ×77]

Plus the 7 remaining from before,

he now had 84 of them.

Looking at the number, Xu Qin began to ponder whether to enhance his heroes or his unit types.

Suddenly, he felt inspired by a force of will.

A bold idea popped up.

"Wait..."

Xu Qin suddenly recalled the description of the "Mineral Vein Guardian Remains".

[If the remains are not processed within 600 seconds, they will automatically reassemble and resurrect, restoring all health points.]

Resurrect...

Automatic resurrection?

Xu Qin's pupils contracted sharply.

In other words,

if... he didn't dismantle all the remains,

and intentionally left ten or twenty remains,

allowing them to resurrect?

He could kill the resurrected guardians all over again.

After killing them, War Gift would trigger.

One remains would become eleven.

Out of those eleven, he could dismantle ten and leave one to continue resurrecting.

Then kill it again.

And get more drops.

One becomes eleven.

Eleven becomes one hundred and twenty-one.

An infinite loop...

"No..." Xu Qin's hands began to tremble. "It doesn't need to be that complicated."

"I only need to leave 10 remains, let them resurrect into 10 guardians, and then kill them."

"War Gift will multiply that directly, turning them into one hundred and ten remains."

"Dismantle one hundred, and leave ten to continue resurrecting..."

"Anyway, the undead don't need to rest, so there's no need to worry about rotation."

"Which means, one round every 10 minutes yields a net profit of one hundred source crystal essences?"

Xu Qin stood stiffly in the center of the Forging Area, staring at the dancing orange flames in the furnace.

One hundred per round.

Six rounds an hour, six hundred.

In a day...

Fourteen thousand four hundred legendary universal auxiliary materials.

Xu Qin's mouth twitched.

"Did I... just discover something incredibly mind-blowing?"

Although it hadn't been verified yet, what if?

If it really worked,

wouldn't he be able to just quietly farm and develop,

and then sweep across the continent with an invincible posture?

Xu Qin clenched his fists.

"If so, it would be equivalent to having an endless supply of source crystal essences."

Legendary universal auxiliary materials, with no upper limit on production.

Xu Qin exhaled deeply, his lips curling up fiercely!

"Let's test it first!"

"Tian Ming!"

"Present."

"For the next batch of killed remains, leave twenty of them at the bottom of the traps and wait for them to resurrect."

"Once they resurrect, kill them again."

"Yes, Master."

Tian Ming didn't ask any questions.

Xu Qin closed the command panel and turned to walk out of the Floating City.

In just ten minutes, he would know the answer.