158: Section 158

"I do feel something abnormal here, an indescribable sensation!"

"I just feel a bit dizzy," Taciturn's voice also came through.

"I hear some kind of sound in my ears..." Thousand Miles said. "But it's very faint; I don't know if I'm hallucinating."

Star Shatterer said over the walkie-talkie, "Since their people have heard sounds too, it's likely not a hallucination."

"I feel a kind of mental pressure, just like what I felt when we encountered that Phage Beast last time. Do you think there could be a sleeping Phage Beast here?"

Thousand Miles' idea took everyone by surprise.

Jing Yuan went as far as to expand his Mental Power scan.

After scanning, he could confirm that there was no aura of a Phage Beast in the vicinity.

"Although we don't know what's going on, I feel it should be safe down there. It's just that ordinary workers can't resist this mental pressure, but Awakened Practitioners can! Leader Uto!" Thousand Miles said. "Since your workers can't go down, why not let Awakened Practitioners do the mining?"

Uto smiled and said, "You know as well as I do that the price of hiring an Awakened Practitioner is not the same as the price of an ordinary worker."

Star Shatterer glared at Uto.

The deal they had originally agreed upon was one they hadn't completed, so the responsibility lay with them.

Uto understood this as well, so he proactively said, "However, if you dig the ore yourselves, you won't need to hire anyone else!"

While Star Shatterer was still hesitating, Thousand Miles said from below, "Then we'll do it ourselves!"

Uto waved his hand and said to the person beside him, "Send a set of tools down to them."

Star Shatterer asked, "If we do the mining, how much time will you need for the refining?"

Uto thought for a moment and said, "According to the original schedule, it would take at least a week. However, since this was our problem, as long as you can mine enough quantity, I'll have them put all the energy into refining. In at most two days, we can make up for the shortfall."

At this point, Star Shatterer had no choice but to agree. "Fine!"

Down in the mine, Thousand Miles and Taciturn began mining the ore. As Awakened Practitioners, their strength and endurance were superior to ordinary people, and their mining speed was faster as well.

However, because of that strange mental pressure, they couldn't hold out for long.

Soon, the two of them came up, and Star Shatterer and Jing Yuan went down to replace them.

Jing Yuan never expected that coming here for a trade would actually involve mining!

Curious, Jing Yuan followed Star Shatterer down into the mine.

Through the searchlight, Jing Yuan saw the rock walls of the mine; they were just ordinary rock layers, nothing special.

But when they descended to a position about a hundred meters deep, some crystals appeared around them.

Star Shatterer said these were the minerals they wanted.

Jing Yuan asked curiously, "What exactly is this?"

Star Shatterer said coldly, "A type of ore."

Seeing that Jing Yuan was unsatisfied with this answer, she added, "I'll tell the boss later to count this toward your workload, so you won't have to come out with us next time."

Jing Yuan smiled. "I'm fine with working, but you have to let me know what this is! Otherwise, I'm not doing it!"

Star Shatterer felt somewhat helpless; Jing Yuan was not the kind of person who was easily fooled.

Just then, Jing Yuan felt a faint, flickering sound.

"It's here!"

Jing Yuan suddenly said.

"What's here?" Star Shatterer hadn't reacted yet.

"The sound they mentioned earlier!"

Star Shatterer frowned; she didn't hear any sound, nor did she feel the mental pressure they spoke of.

"It's gone!"

Jing Yuan was also puzzled; that sound had vanished all of a sudden.

Star Shatterer said, "I didn't hear anything, and I didn't feel anything."

Jing Yuan looked around in confusion, while simultaneously scanning continuously with his Mental Force.

At a certain moment, Jing Yuan discovered that there seemed to be something special within the rock layers.

From a long distance, Jing Yuan's Mental Force could only sense life signatures. Only after getting closer could he perceive non-living objects.

Luckily, Jing Yuan had come down; otherwise, if he were scanning from above, he wouldn't have been able to discover that there was something underground.

"Star Shatterer, have them send a few drill bits down. Just the heads will do."

"Why?"

"I've found something! But I need to drill into the rock wall to take a look."

Star Shatterer quickly said over the walkie-talkie, "Leader Uto, please send a few drill bits down; we've made a discovery."

Soon, three drill bits were sent down.

Jing Yuan directly controlled the drill bits to begin excavating the rock wall.

With Mental Force control, the three drill bits exerted force simultaneously, and the excavation speed was quite fast.

Before long, a small hole three meters deep was drilled.

As the drill bits continued forward, they struck a hard object, producing a piercing sound of metal grinding.

"There's something there."

Jing Yuan shone the searchlight over and found that there was indeed an object ahead, its surface possessing a metallic luster.

He originally wanted to pull it out directly with his Mental Force, but he found that it was very large and required the surrounding rock layers to be cleared before it could be removed.

There was no other way.

Jing Yuan could only slowly clear the rocks around the object.

After about ten minutes had passed, Jing Yuan finally cleared a passage and retrieved the object.

By this time, Star Shatterer had already gone back up.

With the cooperation of those above, Jing Yuan was slowly pulled up. The object was controlled by Jing Yuan's Mental Force and followed him up.

It wasn't until Jing Yuan took the object out of the mine that he could clearly see its appearance.

It was actually a metal cylinder two meters high!

Seeing this thing, everyone was extremely surprised.

Uto never expected that there would be such a thing in his own mine.

He asked with a face full of confusion, "What kind of thing is this?"

Chapter 162: Antimatter Catalyst

When the metal cylinder was unearthed, everyone looked on with eyes full of amazement.

Even the people from Steel Flame Fortress didn't know what this thing was.

This was a mine; before they had excavated to this position, this thing had been buried underground.

Uto immediately sent for technical experts to examine the object.

While waiting for the experts to arrive, Jing Yuan asked, "Leader Uto, why don't you send two more workers down now and see if they still lose consciousness?"

Uto's face was full of suspicion; Jing Yuan's words were essentially suggesting that the object before them was the culprit behind the workers' fainting.

However, Uto himself was also very curious, so he immediately sent two more workers down.

While the people from Steel Flame Fortress were off to one side using workers for an experiment, Jing Yuan took the time to carefully observe the metal cylinder.

The entire cylinder was about two meters high and about 40 centimeters in diameter, with its whole body presenting a metallic silver-white luster.

There were no signs of joints on the surface of the metal cylinder; it looked like a single solid piece of metal.

Its surface was extremely smooth, looking absolutely like an artificial creation rather than a natural one.

Furthermore, to be able to polish such a surface, the industrial standard must not be low.

This was as much as Jing Yuan could observe with his eyes; the rest would have to wait for the technical experts to check with their instruments.

On the other side, once the workers were lowered to the hundred-meter position, their voices were transmitted back.

This time, these two ordinary workers did not lose consciousness.

This was the first time in several days that ordinary workers had gone down into the mine without fainting.

Jing Yuan walked over and said to Uto, "Lord Uto, since they haven't fainted, the remaining mining tasks can be left to them."

Uto glanced at his subordinate beside him, who immediately issued an order via the walkie-talkie.

Uto walked over to the side of the metal cylinder and asked Jing Yuan in confusion, "How did you discover that there was such a thing down there?"

"My potential grants me super-strong perception!"

Jing Yuan casually made up a lie.

Soon, the technical experts from the base also came running over, bringing a heap of instruments and equipment with them.