X-Dragon Era

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Although the work was effective, Xin Yun was greatly discouraged. He had only dug a hundred meters in a day, meaning it would take a hundred days to dig out a ten thousand meter tunnel—three full months of time. Wouldn't he just drop dead from exhaustion?

However, there were no other options available to him now. At dusk, Xin Yun had made several trips hauling ores to the cave entrance, exchanged them for a large amount of food, and then returned to the cave. This time, instead of rushing to dig, he calmed his mind and began to cultivate.

The Divine Artifact was very important, but his own strength was even more so. No matter how powerful an external object was, it had to be based on one's own foundation. Moreover... while cultivating, he was actually resting—cleansing his muscles and meridians with energy and refreshing his mind and brain, which was necessary.

In terms of spirit and body, Xin Yun didn't actually need to sleep anymore. But with prolonged fatigue, the soul also grew tired. Without sleep, his spirit might hold up, but the soul would start to drift, with a feeling of wanting to leave the body and detach from the brain.

Don't think this is an illusion. If one really doesn't sleep for a long time and keeps working hard, the soul can indeed separate from the body. When that happens, a person can suddenly die on the spot, no matter how strong their body is.

After three hours of cultivation, Xin Yun slept for five hours. He then got up, ate the meal he had brought down, and continued digging. However, this time, Yinglong could no longer help; the tunnel was dug too deep, and its diameter at the entrance was only two and a half meters—much too small for Yinglong, who couldn't even stretch his tail inside.

But since the tunnel was dug so deep, Xin Yun was not in a hurry. He carved out a space for Yinglong to stay near the entrance and then dragged the prepared waste rock in front of it to block the entrance.

To be safe, Xin Yun specifically observed from the outside. The three-meter-high, five-meter-diameter waste rock, once dragged over, perfectly fit into the recess he had carved out earlier, creating a seamless shield. Especially after Xin Yun's modifications, even upon close inspection, it was difficult to discover its secret.

Inside the entrance, Xin Yun had carved out a huge space for Yinglong and laid out air passages. Yinglong remained there, continuously spraying mist and generating wind to enter the cave and replenish oxygen. Otherwise, in such a sealed dead-end, Xin Yun would have likely suffocated to death long ago.

In the following time, Xin Yun was consumed with his work, forgetting to sleep and eat. Every day except for cultivation and sleep, he was buried in digging, piling the mined ores haphazardly against the cave wall.

As time slowly passed, Xin Yun was surprised to discover that through his relentless efforts of consumption, his strength was increasing very fast. Though he only meditated for three hours each day, the effect was at least twice as strong as any previous time!

Although his body was very tired, Xin Yun's spirit was quite joyful. He dug with even more energy, the efficiency doubled, spending sixteen hours digging each day and the rest eight hours for cultivation, sleeping, and eating—it was a full schedule.

Days passed by, and after nearly two months, Xin Yun finally reached the area where the Divine Artifact was located. Even though he was underground and unaware of his current position, he could tell there was a change based on the colors of the surrounding ores.

The ores around him were no longer the usual dark cyan. Upon closer inspection, they were like rainbows, separated into green, yellow, red, white, and black—five colors with exceptionally clear striations and an evenly distributed pattern.

In his previous life, when Xin Yun arrived here, it had already become a vast underground space with a diameter of over tens of thousands of meters. Although he had marked the position of the Divine Artifact then, he had no idea where he was now and couldn't judge at all. However, one thing was certain—he was closing in on the area where the Divine Artifact lay.

"Dang!" Waving the mining shovel excitedly, the sharp Essence Gold cut through the ore, emitting a crisp sound. Carefully observing, the rainbow-colored ore was as tough as Vajra—not even the Essence Gold shovel could chop off more than a fist-sized piece!

Seeing this, Xin Yun was stunned. How was he supposed to dig? How large was the area of this colorful mine? If he continued digging this way, how many years or months would it take to reach the Divine Artifact? It seemed that it would take years.

After much thought, Xin Yun finally made a decision. He couldn't keep digging blindly. The Divine Artifact wasn't large and if he dug haphazardly, he might pass within a meter of it and not even realize, wasting ten times the effort for possibly no result.

Now, the most scientific method was to determine the scope of this rainbow mine first. Generally speaking, the Divine Artifact should be at the very center of the rainbow mine. Once that was confirmed, the rest would be easy.

While pondering, Xin Yun reluctantly began to dig around the rainbow mine. After his persistent digging, he finally... unearthed a ten-meter-diameter rainbow ore sphere, perfectly round in shape. Looking at the massive, perfectly spherical, colorful mineral ball, Xin Yun's heart soared. Presumably... the so-called number one Divine Artifact, should be within the heart of this ore sphere!

Now, what Xin Yun had to do was to carve out a passageway on this mineral ball, aiming straight for its center, to extract the Divine Artifact for himself!

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