148: Chapter 148 was prepared long ago.
"Dig, dig, dig!" Li Yingzhen urged anxiously.
Zhao Yi raised the great sumeru treasure hoe, "Do I need you to remind me?"
He had enough experience points for a Breakthrough to the Late stage of Mahayana Realm, but how could Zhao Yi worry about advancing his cultivation now?
Excavating the immortal fate was more important.
The blinding white mine wall and the earthy yellow glow made Zhao Yi swing his hoe not with the broad, sweeping strokes of yesterday, but instead carefully carving around the perimeter of the earthy yellow light.
The System prompts kept ringing in his mind: γ You have dug up a Top-Grade Spirit Stone, experience points + 1. γ
γ You have dug up a Top-Grade Spirit Stone, experience points + 1. γ
The once pleasant notification sounds now felt a bit noisy to Zhao Yi.
"I can't do it anymore, I really can't dig anymore."
It is often said that the mountain looks close but the horse dies running to it. The earthy yellow light looked like it could be dug out at any moment, but in reality, Zhao Yi had spent the whole day digging cautiously.
His extreme focus, combined with the hard mine wall, left him incredibly exhausted.
"I'm exhausted."
"This Mahayana Stage cultivation feels fake. Who would believe that mining could actually make one tired?"
Li Yingzhen leaned against the mine wall, panting, "Keep digging, why did you stop?"
Zhao Yi...
He threw the great sumeru treasure hoe in front of Li Yingzhen, "If you want to dig, then you dig it yourself. I can't move anymore."
As he spoke, he looked towards the exit of the Branch Mine, whether intentionally or not. The aura there was becoming increasingly chaotic.
Just in case, Zhao Yi couldn't possibly put his full effort into digging for Spirit Stone now.
If he ended up physically weak and drained of Qi, wouldn't he be like fish on a chopping block, left to be slaughtered?
It must be said that Li Yingzhen understood Zhao Yi very well. With just one gesture, she understood what Zhao Yi meant and also lay down against the mine wall, "Damn it, I'm exhausted."
"Brother Yi, bring some Spirit Stone to recover my Qi."
Zhao Yi had black lines all over his head.
This... wasn't it a bit too dramatic?
But as Li Yingzhen expected, he still passed three Top-Grade Spirit Stones over.
Li Yingzhen had originally intended just to put on a show, but once the Top-Grade Spirit Stones were in her hand, she couldn't help herself.
She sat cross-legged on the ground and closed her eyes to begin recovering her Qi; after all, the consumption from that day was truly significant.
As for Zhao Yi, he was looking at the System panel, γ Miner: Zhao Yi γ γ Cultivation: Middle Mahayana Stage (Can be upgraded) γ γ experience points: 526 / 400 γ γ Reward: None γ
Today's haul was another 134 Top-Grade Spirit Stones, pushing his experience points straight to 526. After a Breakthrough to the Late stage of Mahayana Realm, he would still have 126 experience points left.
Looking up at the earthy yellow color on the mine wall, Zhao Yi resisted the urge to Breakthrough immediately.
To emphasize once again, the immortal fate was important.
The night passed without incident. The next day, Zhao Yi swung the great sumeru treasure hoe and began again.
A dull thumping sound echoed, and his speed was more than twice as slow as yesterday.
What left Zhao Yi most speechless was that the Spirit Stones surrounding the immortal fate had also become much scarcer.
That day, he only dug up four Top-Grade Spirit Stones.
"What the hell is this?"
Zhao Yi looked at the Top-Grade Spirit Stones in his hand and then at the increasingly golden mine wall. Had he been set up?
"Damn it!"
"Silly Dog, what are you doing?"
It turned out that some of the rocks he had dug out were speckled with yellow, and Approximate was licking those yellow rocks clean.
Seeing Approximate's belly looking like it was pregnant, Zhao Yi became worried.
Would he explode?
Heaven knows, a few days ago Zhao Yi fed him ten Top-Grade Spirit Stones, and he hadn't seen his belly grow big.
"Silly Dog, it seems you are destined to be stuffed to death."
Approximate...
He rolled his eyes at Zhao Yi, then immediately transformed into a string of characters and merged into the space between Zhao Yi's eyebrows.
Looking at those characters, Zhao Yi didn't know if it was his imagination, "They seem to have gotten bigger and thicker."
Li Yingzhen, who had just woken up after recovering her Qi, was a bit confused, "What got bigger and thicker?"
"Oh, you can't sit in this mine tunnel. Let's go, let's go to Fuyu Palace to rest."
"I really brought this suffering upon myself. Why did I recover my cultivation in the mine tunnel for no reason?"
"My butt hurts~"
Zhao Yi...
"Then what about this immortal fate?"
"Not digging anymore?"
Li Yingzhen's eyes swept past the mine exit, "Dig, why wouldn't I dig?"
"But can you still dig?"
Zhao Yi shook his head, "Can't dig."
Li Yingzhen spread her hands, "Then that settles it."
Outside the Branch Mine, dozens of the Mahayana Spirit Clan sat cross-legged like statues.
Regardless of what actions Zhao Yi and Li Yingzhen took inside, they ignored them completely, not even opening their eyes.
But the silent atmosphere in the mine tunnel showed that their hearts were not as calm as they appeared.
In the days that followed, Zhao Yi and Li Yingzhen dragged out the time to the limit.
Today they dug ten centimeters, tomorrow thirty centimeters, and the next day ten centimeters again. There was progress every day, but the speed was slow.
Just like that, Zhao Yi and Li Yingzhen dragged it out for a hundred days.
A hundred days is a long time for a Mortal, but for a Cultivator who has reached the Mahayana Stage, it is just the time it takes to drink a cup of tea or take a nap.
Inside Fuyu Palace, the two held Top-Grade Spirit Stones and wrote on the floor to chat.
Zhao Yi wrote: "The Immortal Dynasty should be about ready, right?"
"It's been over a hundred days; we can't delay any longer."
Li Yingzhen: "How would I know? Aren't I trapped in the mine tunnel just like you?"
"But we have dragged it out for so long; we have done our best. If we can't delay any longer, we will dig out the immortal fate tomorrow."
Li Yingzhen looked at Zhao Yi, having made up her mind.
Zhao Yi didn't have any thoughts, he just wrote "Good".
As the characters on the floor faded, Zhao Yi began to conserve his energy; there might be a great battle tomorrow.
In his mind, the System panel flashed, γ Miner: Zhao Yi γ γ Cultivation: Middle Mahayana Stage (Can be upgraded) γ γ experience points: 1284 / 400 γ γ Reward: None γ
1284 experience points; this was Zhao Yi's harvest over the past hundred-plus days.
Now, let alone the Late stage of Mahayana Realm, Zhao Yi even had enough experience points for a Breakthrough to Undergoing Tribulation.
Unfortunately, there were enemies surrounding the mine tunnel, and inside the mine, the immortal fate was about to emerge; there was simply no time for Zhao Yi to Breakthrough.
Early the next morning, Li Yingzhen gave Zhao Yi a look, and Zhao Yi understood.
Li Yingzhen was asking him if he was ready.
Zhao Yi raised the shrunken great sumeru treasure hoe in his hand, signaling that he was ready.
Li Yingzhen took a deep breath and nodded. She rarely brought out a bone club.
Zhao Yi...
"Approximate is in seclusion. Is this bone club to feed him?"
Li Yingzhen stumbled and almost fell. She turned around and glared fiercely at Zhao Yi: "Damn it, what bone club? This is my life-bound Spiritual Artifact, the Thunder Profound Bone."
Zhao Yi covered his mouth, "Your life-bound Spiritual Artifact~"
"It's truly unique."
"Less nonsense, are we digging for the immortal fate or not?"
"Dig, dig, why wouldn't we?"
With this bickering between the two, the tense atmosphere immediately vanished.
After putting away the Fuyu Palace, Zhao Yi took the great sumeru treasure hoe, now the size of an ordinary shovel, and walked to the mine wall, taking a deep breath.
"I'm going to start."
"I've been ready for a long time," Li Yingzhen roared.
Thump, mountain rocks fell away.
A half-meter-long yellow earthworm was dug out by Zhao Yi, and at the same time, the System prompt rang in his ears.
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