Chapter 337

The third year of Great Xia, the twelfth day of the eighth month.

Deep in the inner city, the Star-Plucking Hall behind the main building.

The Star-Plucking Hall is only thirty meters long, at most one-third of the main building in front, but because its height is equivalent to the main building and it is built on a high altitude of more than thirty meters above the main building, and because the area is small, the coal stoves are arranged relatively densely, and there are more light sources. As a result, it appears even more domineering and luxurious than the main building.

Especially since seven days ago, after Li Ying Xuan Ling successfully gave birth, Xia Hong took the Sacred Cauldron out of her room and placed it on the open-air high platform at the top in the center, which undoubtedly added a few more points of divine aura to the entire Star-Plucking Hall.

On the Star-Plucking Platform, Xia Hong is sitting cross-legged in front of the Cold Ruins Cauldron, looking down at the Yang Origin Pill in his hand, his brows tightly knitted.

"Fifty-two manes. Only four manes were raised in eight months. Sure enough, the further back you go, the slower the cultivation speed. The breakthroughs of the previous three years seem to have been too optimistic. At this rate, I'm afraid it will take more than four or five years!"

He has been in this world for less than five years in total. Thinking that it would take so long to break through to the peak of the Cold-Resisting Realm, Xia Hong's face was suddenly full of worry.

The Cold-Resisting Realm, where strength is calculated by manes, sounds very strong, but in the end, it is just the initial qualification to get a glimpse of the Frozen Abyss world during the day. It might be okay here in the Pingxi Plain, but in a larger area, it certainly doesn't count for much, and in the entire Frozen Abyss world, it is even more insignificant.

Not to mention anything else, that so-called Nine Towns of Mo'ao Mountain must have many Cold-Resisting Realm members, and even experts above the Cold-Resisting Realm, which is highly probable.

"Breaking through to the peak of the Cold-Resisting Realm will take four or five years. After breaking through, completing the third round of flesh and blood reorganization, I will have to start impacting the Xianyang Realm. According to Li Tiancheng and Hou Jing, it is to guide the medicinal power to temper the bones and produce marrow. That process is more than a hundred times slower than the previous one. I can't just wait for five!"

With Hou Jing and Li Tiancheng, two Cold-Resisting Realm peak experts, Xia Hong was fortunate enough to learn some news about the Xianyang Realm in advance. Actually, it was mainly Li Tiancheng; guiding medicinal power to temper bones and produce marrow was what he heard from his elder brother Li Tianhua.

When Li Tiancheng described it, it was clearly somewhat ambiguous.

Thinking about it, it makes sense. When Li Tianhua left Longshan four years ago, he hadn't broken through to the Xianyang Realm either. How much could Li Tiancheng know from his mouth?

"No wonder Li Tianhua didn't break through to the Xianyang Realm even at ninety-something years old. My talent is above his, and it takes so long to break through to the peak of the Cold-Resisting Realm. If I can't think of a way, I guess I'll have to wait until I'm fifty or sixty to break through. Tsk tsk..."

Xia Hong turned his head to look at the Cold Ruins Cauldron behind him and sighed slightly.

You know, practicing within the radiation range of the Cold Ruins Cauldron comes with a three-fold cultivation increase of the Martial Arts Hall, plus an unlimited supply of Yang Origin Pills. Under such circumstances, the cultivation progress is so slow; one can imagine how it is for others.

And his so-called thinking of a way naturally refers to the camp system.

"It's the seventh day. The first batch of silver ore should be pulled back immediately. The limit of the Earth-Digging Realm is only about 100 jin of mining volume per day. Calculating over four days, there should be 1.2 million jin. Converted to the system, that is a full 240,000 points of silver resources. All seven buildings can be upgraded, and the small wooden table can finally be clicked out. The cultivation speed should be able to be a little faster."

Although he said he handed over the silver mine matter entirely to Xia Chuan, Yu Wendao, and Yuan Cheng, Xia Hong was still somewhat uneasy, so he personally went over to watch the next day, so he had already mastered a lot of the silver mine situation.

The mining difficulty of silver ore is much higher than that of iron ore. First is the tools; one must use intermediate gnawing chisels to mine. Then there are the miners. Because the toughness and strength of silver are much higher than iron, the basic strength must be above 20,000 jin to have the initial qualifications for mining.

Xia Chuan has already tried it. With a basic strength of 20,000 jin, one can only mine one piece per day at most, which is about thirty jin. Only those at the limit of the Earth-Digging Realm can barely mine 100 jin.

At the same time, silver ore has an extremely strong attraction to cold beasts, and cold beasts will come to harass it from time to time. Moreover, these cold beasts do not act alone, so when mining, one must send people to watch on the side to strictly guard against the cold beast groups that may attack at any time.

"The Cold Ruins Cauldron can be used to deter and kill ghosts and monsters, and silver can too. Both have an extremely strong attraction to cold beasts. There should be some connection between them!"

Xia Hong pondered for a moment, walked to the storage compartment behind the Star-Plucking Platform, and took out the corpse of a special frost wolf from inside.

The frost wolf was more than a meter long, and its supple fur emitted a silvery-white luster as bright as moonlight in the night. The circle of barbs on its neck also shone with a bright silver light. Although the two eyes had lost their luster, one could vaguely see the pupils inside, which were originally black.

"The beast-king-level cultivation of this frost wolf should have been forcibly raised by the White Dew Ghost. Except for the abnormal protrusion on the brow bone and the layer of silver crystals condensed on the outer layer of the bones, the difference between other parts and high-level frost wolves is not big. It's a pity. If one could really harvest a beast-king-level frost wolf, then maybe one could discover more things!"

Xia Hong shook his head slightly, knowing that his idea was somewhat unrealistic.

If this frost wolf king had genuine beast-king-level cultivation, the result that night in the Yang Dew Realm would be hard to say.

From the end of last year to now, for more than eight months, Xia Hong has basically studied this frost wolf with quasi-beast-king-level cultivation almost thoroughly.

"The protrusion on the brow bone is clearly an unformed circular bone pill, plus the silver crystals surrounding the outer layer of the bones. Therefore, for high-level cold beasts to break through and become beast kings, it is highly probable that they also need to temper their bones. But unlike humans, their way of tempering is to eat silver. That's why cold beast groups all like to occupy silver mines!"

This is not an unfounded speculation. The gnawing rats in the silver mine on the north slope of the mountain wall were all cleaned up by Xia Chuan leading the army. Five days ago, Xia Hong personally cut open the abdomen of a high-level gnawing rat there and saw with his own eyes the silver that had not yet been digested.

"If this is the case, it means that all silver mines, as long as there are cold beast groups occupying them, have a high probability of giving birth to beast kings. Those that already exist may give birth to more. In this way, the two silver mines newly discovered by Li Tiancheng and Hou Jing this year, plus the two original ones in Longshan, are four time bombs. If they are not handled in time, wait for the cold beasts to grow..."

Thinking of this, Xia Hong's brows knitted slightly, and a sense of urgency rose in his heart again.

Coincidentally, at this time, the voice of the maid Hanyue came from below.

"Lord, the Chief Administrator has returned. He is waiting for you in the Council Hall."

"Finally back!"

A look of joy suddenly rose in Xia Hong's eyes. He hurriedly got up, left the Star-Plucking Platform, and walked hurriedly toward the main building.

"Big Brother, the first batch of silver is all here, totaling 1,096,247 jin!"

In the Council Hall of the main building, as soon as Xia Hong walked in, he was attracted by the eleven boxes of white silver ore in the middle of the hall. He didn't even respond much to Xia Chuan's words, but walked up quickly, picked up a piece of silver about the size of half an adult's fist, and his expression vibrated slightly.

During the Longyou War, Great Xia used condensed fire oil to exchange four hundred jin of silver from Zhaoyang and Longshan, so Xia Hong was not ignorant of silver.

Under the same volume, the weight of silver is about four times that of iron ore, so this piece the size of half a fist weighs more than eighty jin.

"Small volume, heavy mass, plus super toughness and hardness—silver is clearly more suitable for casting weapons than iron ore, especially for Cold-Resisting Realm members whose strength exceeds one mane."

Xia Chuan's expression was also very excited, clearly knowing the value of this batch of silver ore.

"Casting weapons?"

Xia Hong raised his brows slightly, a smile appearing on his face: "I'm afraid that won't work for the time being. By the way, what is Mudong's estimated output?"

Great Xia has already mined dozens of iron mines. Mudong had long ago figured out a way to calculate the output of ore veins, basically being able to guess it quite accurately. Five days ago, when the silver mine was obtained, Xia Hong immediately sent Mudong to calculate the total output.

Hearing this, Xia Chuan's expression immediately sank, and he said in a deep voice:

"The output is about between 50,000 and 70,000 tons. It's a micro silver mine!"

The Craftsman Department will classify ore veins according to the estimated output: below 100,000 tons is micro; 100,000 to 500,000 tons is small; 500,000 to 3 million is medium; 3 million to 10 million is large; above 10 million is a giant ore vein.

At present, no giant ore veins have been discovered in Great Xia. The three large iron mines with the highest estimated output have two in Longshan and one in Red Wood Ridge.

Hearing that it was a micro ore vein, Xia Hong's face did not show any surprise. Seven days ago, when he saw the silver mine, he already had a premonition.

In any case, this silver mine was an unexpected joy sent by heaven. It's good enough to have it; where would one have the qualifications to pick and choose.