Chapter 197: There is a Conspiracy

Seeing a stranger walk in, the miners in this mine tunnel subconsciously looked up at him together, then continued to lower their heads and work hard to dig for mines, hitting the stone wall with pickaxes without saying another word.

Long Xuan nodded and didn't greet these people much, turning his attention to this mine tunnel.

After scanning inside a few times, he finally knew why mortals couldn't be used to dig the Geng Metal mine vein, and only Gu Cultivators good at body refining could be used.

Because there was no soil here, only stones, and they weren't ordinary stones. The stones here were extremely hard. Ordinary pickaxes couldn't break them at all; only spirit pickaxes could be used. The higher the quality of the spirit pickaxe, the faster the digging speed.

And Geng Metal was the hardest metal in the Gu World. Anyone could imagine how rare this thing was.

So even if this was a giant Geng Metal mine vein, Geng Metal couldn't appear in clusters. The density must be extremely small. Each miner needed to dig for a very long time before they could dig up a piece.

And what they dug up were all crude ores full of impurities. About dozens of crude ores could form less than fist-sized Geng Metal after being purified by fire.

Geng Metal Essence was even harder to come by. Digging for two years and being able to dig out walnut-sized Geng Metal Essence was already not bad.

Moreover, the stones here were truly too hard. If Earth Mover Beetles were used to dig tunnels, they could break their teeth. Therefore, only manual digging could be used here, and the output was very low.

Otherwise, how could the Western Lands Long Clan be so generous to allow this group of geniuses to dig for mines here for a month?

Because even if they were given a month, they wouldn't be able to dig out much Geng Metal.

At this time, there were too many people here, and it was inconvenient to dig for the Geng Metal Essence here. Long Xuan's eyes turned, a plan came to mind, and he took out a pickaxe, starting to chisel the stone wall very far from the location of the Geng Metal Essence.

In his line of sight, a piece of Geng Metal crude ore happened to be hidden behind this stone wall.

This batch of geniuses who went down to the mine received special care and all used top-grade spirit pickaxes, while the remaining ordinary miners all used lower-grade spirit pickaxes.

This top-grade spirit pickaxe of his appeared, immediately attracting the attention of many miners, who looked at him a few more times, revealing looks of envy.

Long Xuan himself was a body refining expert with powerful strength, plus he had a good top-grade spirit pickaxe. Naturally, the mining speed was far beyond what ordinary miners could compare to.

Under his knocking, the stone chips fell in pieces. The hard stone wall couldn't withstand his chiseling at all. Not long after, he saw the Geng Metal crude ore hidden behind the stone wall, which was as big as a basketball.

Of course, this was just a crude ore with many impurities; after purification, there wasn't much left.

Long Xuan was overjoyed, hurriedly dug out this piece of Geng Metal crude ore, and then went to dig for the next piece of Geng Metal crude ore with a clear goal.

Others were all using the fish bone mining method to guess blindly. Even if they dug a hundred times, it would be difficult to dig out a piece of Geng Metal crude ore.

But Long Xuan, every time he made a move, he would definitely be able to dig out Geng Metal crude ore. As long as he dropped the pickaxe, there would be a harvest.

This was the reason he asked Long Qian for a pile of storage bags, because with his mining efficiency, one storage bag was simply not enough. If he kept digging like this, let alone one, he might not even be able to fill five.

Not long after, Long Xuan dug out five pieces of Geng Metal crude ores, then inserted these five pieces of Geng Metal crude ores into a stone wall hiding two pieces of Geng Metal crude ores, and then excitedly shouted and called out.

"Hahaha... This mine tunnel is so rich. I actually dug out five pieces of Geng Metal crude ores connected together with a casual dig. Truly good luck!"

Long Xuan's loud laughter immediately attracted the attention of all the miners.

"What? Digging five pieces in the same location! Where? Let me see!"

Hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up, revealing looks of excitement, and then ran into that mine tunnel where the sound came from in a swarm.

"Let me see!"

"Let me see too?"

"There really are, they really are five pieces of Geng Metal crude ores!"

After seeing with their own eyes Long Xuan chisel down five pieces of Geng Metal crude ores on the stone wall, everyone's eyes turned red, and then they swung the spirit pickaxes in their hands together, starting to chisel the stone wall next to Long Xuan.

According to normal people's thinking, digging out five pieces of Geng Metal crude ores here with a casual dig meant the density of Geng Metal crude ores here must be very large. They would naturally scramble to dig here.

Everyone scrambled to dig the stone wall near Long Xuan. The more people there were, the more crowded it became. Soon, Long Xuan was squeezed to the outside.

Long Xuan shouted in exasperation: "Hey! I discovered this first!"

However, no one paid attention to him. Everyone was like crazy, fiercely chiseling this stone wall. With many people and great strength, soon this stone wall was smashed down by countless spirit pickaxes, and soon the two pieces of Geng Metal crude ores hidden inside were revealed.

The crowd immediately turned red-eyed, and there was a sound of rapid breathing.

"Hahaha... There really are! This is really a rich mine!"

"Mine! No one is allowed to scramble with me!"

"What yours! Clearly I discovered those two pieces of Geng Metal crude ores first!"

"You fart! Was it me who dropped the hammer first, okay?"

"You are looking for death..."

The crowd was first filled with noise, and soon it became chaotic, with the sound of fighting.

It was also because there were truly too many people rushing in here, and all thought they were the ones who discovered those two pieces of Geng Metal crude ores first. In order to compete for those two pieces of Geng Metal crude ores, they actually started fighting.

And Long Xuan, this culprit, after leading all the miners here to that narrow mine tunnel, returned to the original place and went to dig for that piece of Geng Metal Essence excitedly.

This time, everyone was gone, and no one would notice him digging out the Geng Metal Essence.

However, the small trick he used actually triggered a great melee. This was something he had never expected. He could only say "sin, sin."

Next, Long Xuan repeated the same trick, going back and forth between major mine tunnels, scraping clean all the Geng Metal Essence that could be dug.

He only spent less than a day digging clean the Geng Metal Essence on the surface here.

Patting the storage bag that was already bulging, Long Xuan was in a pleasant mood, grinning from ear to ear. What was loaded here was not ordinary Geng Metal; it was all Geng Metal Essence.

Now the Geng Metal Essence that could be collected had basically been collected. The remaining Geng Metal Essence was all buried extremely deep, needing a very long time to dig out, not something that could be collected in a short time. Long Xuan could only give up temporarily.

He aimed his gaze at the mine area controlled by the Bai Clan next door, his mind becoming active.

Come to think of it, although the mine area controlled by the Bai Clan was smaller than the Long Clan, the Geng Metal Essence buried on the surface was far more than the mine area controlled by the Long Clan.

How could Long Xuan not be greedy? Seeing many progress points with five decimal places next door, he wished he could fly over now and dig clean all the Geng Metal Essence.

Long Xuan's eyes turned, feeling that the risk of this matter didn't seem great.

After all, boundaries could be drawn on the ground, but how could boundaries be drawn underground?

It was too normal to accidentally dig over the boundary, and it was not easy for both sides to judge whether they had crossed the boundary. They probably didn't even know where the boundary was underground themselves.

Even if one side really crossed the boundary, both sides would just push the responsibility to each other, and then settle the matter through an arena tournament. In the end, the matter would be left unsettled.

Long Xuan was too familiar with this scene. In the Far West Region, when various clans dug for fossil mine veins, it often happened that someone dug over the boundary.

Especially the Dragon and Phoenix clans, which had countless conflicts because of this, and in the end, they were all left unsettled through the method of fighting in the arena.

Therefore, even if digging over the boundary was discovered, it wouldn't be a big deal. However, Long Xuan soon shook his head again. He was suspicious by nature and had always been cautious. He wouldn't take even a tiny bit of risk.

In his view, crossing the border to mine still carried a bit of risk; he absolutely could not be reckless. Unless he found a way to secretly kill all those Spirit Sea stage supervisors from the Bai Clan, crossing over rashly would never be one hundred percent safe.

Just as Long Xuan was thinking this in his heart, he suddenly frowned, as if he had sensed something, reached out and knocked on the stone wall next to him, actually hearing a hollow sound.

He was shocked in his heart. There was actually a secret passage leading to the Bai Clan's mine area here. He had just been thinking about whether to dig a secret passage to the opposite mine area, but he didn't expect a ready-made secret passage to appear in front of him.

Was this a coincidence? Wasn't this seducing him to commit a crime?

He had just suppressed the thought of digging a secret passage to sneak over, but now a ready-made secret passage appeared to tempt him. How could he withstand such temptation?

Long Xuan took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and revealed a look of deep thought.

No, this secret passage blocked by stones was clearly dug out by humans. How could ordinary miners have the guts to secretly connect a secret passage? It was eight out of ten done by the Spirit Sea stage overseers.

Was it done by those three overseers of the Long Clan, or done by those three overseers of the Bai Clan?

What did they want to do by digging this secret passage?

Long Xuan's brain thought quickly. Everything had to be planned for the worst, so he could directly exclude those three Spirit Sea stage overseers of the Long Clan. He could only assume that this secret passage was dug by those three Bai Clan overseers on the opposite side.

What was their intention in digging this secret passage? What did they want to do by sneaking over? It couldn't be anything good; there must be a conspiracy.

He was still foolishly sending clones to watch outside. Those few Bai Clan Spirit Sea stage Gu Cultivators could come directly from here.

Long Xuan broke out in a cold sweat instantly. At this time, how could he dare to sneak over from this ready-made secret passage? What if he bumped into those three Spirit Sea stage overseers who were preparing to come over?

Let alone going in, he didn't even dare to stand next to this secret passage now, so he hurriedly left, and stayed far away from this place, for fear of bumping into the Bai Clan overseers accidentally. This place was not suitable for staying long.

At this time, at a position some distance from the Geng Metal mine vein outside, a small boat flew across the sky and slowly landed here.

Because this place was far from the mine vein, the people in the mine vein didn't notice that a small boat had sailed here and some uninvited guests had come down.

"Hehe, finally waited for the three clan brothers to come. With the three clan brothers helping, the six of us Spirit Sea stage Gu Cultivators joining forces is enough to break that array, and it won't take more than half a month."

Bai Ye walked over to welcome the three with a smile. If Long Xuan were here at this time, he would definitely discover that this person was the Bai Clan Spirit Sea stage overseer who looked at himself with a venomous gaze before.

The only one who came here to welcome these three was him, an overseer. The other two Bai Clan overseers were still in the mining area. After all, the mining area couldn't be without overseers to watch. Being able to leave one person was already the limit.

However, these three Spirit Sea stage Bai Clan Gu Cultivators who drove the spirit boat to rush here didn't land the boat directly on the mine vein, but instead landed at a position far from the mine vein, not letting anyone discover it. This was truly intriguing.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 198 =====