Chapter 1090 - 887: Mining Theft_2

Each ore piece is the size of a fist, with an extremely faint dark red glow circulating inside.

The Duke stopped in front of a mining sack and placed his hand on the surface of the largest ore piece.

The touch was warm, and the life energy contained within was purer and denser than the Philosopher’s Stone he had seen in the first layer of the Count’s Treasure Vault; though not yet reaching the level of Victor’s statue, it was superior in quantity.

He hesitated no longer, placing his hands on both sides of the rock wall, spreading his spiritual power to sense the direction and concentration of the ore veins.

Then he began large-scale extraction.

The power of the Earth Element Rules spread along the rock layers, peeling off the dark red crystals from the mother rock piece by piece.

Patches of Philosopher’s Stone ore fell from the mining sack, guided by his spiritual power, transforming into streams of dark red light pouring into the entrance of the Light God Court.

Inside the Light God Court, the World Tree Seedling reacted instantly when the first batch of Philosopher’s Stone ore flowed in.

The two tender leaves trembled slightly, and the root system silently expanded in the water.

The ore was directly transported by the Duke’s spiritual power to the edge of the Spring of Life, piling up into a continuously growing small hill.

The seedling’s roots stretched out from the spring, like countless thin and flexible light-golden threads wrapping around the surface of the ore.

The dark red life energy within the ore was extracted at a speed visible to the naked eye by the roots, converging along those golden threads into the seedling’s slender stem, then transferred to the two tender green leaves.

The light golden glow circulating within the leaf veins grew brighter, each pulse triggering an extremely delicate halo ripple on the leaf surface.

The ore from which life energy had been extracted rapidly faded from dark red to ashen gray, its surface covered with dense cracks, before silently crumbling into a pile of gray-white powder.

The Duke moved continuously deep within the ore veins, releasing yellow sand at each concentration node to devour the ore before moving on to the next location.

After the main vein was completely devoured, he turned to the branches.

There was a branch on the northwest side with a slightly lower grade but impressive thickness, while the northeast had several narrow veins of exceptionally high grade.

Estimating in his mind, he determined that although the scale of this ore vein was far less than the magic metal ore veins he had collected in the Oracle Plane, the value of the Philosopher’s Stone far exceeded that of magic metals.

As he continued to scour, he swiftly calculated in his mind that the harvest of this journey was enough for the World Tree Seedling to have a good feast.

The Duke stood in the center of an emptied mining sack deep within the ore veins, placing his hands on the rock walls on both sides; the power of the Earth Element Rules continued to spread along the rock layers, peeling away untouched concentrated mining sacks layer by layer.

Inside the Light God Court, the World Tree Seedling’s roots had already turned the first batch of ore into gray-white powder; new ore continued to pour in from the entrance, forming an ever-growing dark red hill at the edge of the Spring of Life.

Nourished by the continuous life energy, the seedling’s leaves unfurled, and even a bud of a third tender leaf emerged on the slender stem.

Just as he was preparing to turn to the next branch, a faint vibration suddenly emanated from the rock layer above.

The vibration initially began as a few grains of stone peeling off the ceiling of the mining tunnel, falling onto the gray-white powder at his feet with a barely audible rustling sound.

But the vibration did not stop; instead, it became more frequent, turning from a few grains into a continuous stream, while dense cracks began appearing on the rock walls on both sides of the tunnel.

The Duke withdrew his hands from the rock wall and glanced at the rapidly expanding network of cracks overhead.

This ore vein concentration area had been hollowed out too much by him. The Philosopher’s Stone crystals, originally embedded in the limestone layers, had acted like a skeleton supporting the entire structure of the ore vein.

Now, with the crystals massively peeled off, the rock layers lost support, making collapse inevitable.

Just as he realized, the rock layer above broke with a dull snapping sound, and a large granite block detached from the ceiling, striking the ground not far from him, stirring up a choking cloud of dust.

The Duke frowned, his form merging into the rock wall once more, plunging deeper into the yet-to-be-mined areas along the path of the ore veins.

The chain reaction of collapses occurred faster than he’d anticipated; the tunnels behind him crumbled section by section, and rubble and dust surged along the tunnels like a torrent bursting its banks.

The guards from the Stone Hammer Tribe at the entrance had long fled the mine in panic, frightened by the earthquake-like tumult.

When the news of the mine collapse reached Byron’s ears, he was raising the Totem Pole to strike at the forebear’s protective light screen once more.

A warrior of the Stone Hammer Tribe, covered in dust, stumbled over from the direction of the ore vein, kneeling on the stone beach, gasping for breath as he haltingly reported major events occurring at the mine vein—everything was collapsing, and the collapse zone was continuously expanding.

Byron laid down the Totem Pole, his brows furrowed into a knot.

He glanced at the layer of the light screen still emitting a faint golden glow before turning to the elders of the Black Stone Tribe still struggling on the Central Square. After weighing his options for a few moments, he gestured to Oraque beside him, signaling him to go over to the mine and check what was happening.

Oraque, wielding his massive stone hammer, strode towards the direction of the ore vein; with his Tier Three High Stage powerful physique, he traversed the rugged stone road as if it were flat ground, each step crossing several yards.

In barely a moment, he was standing on the stone beach in front of the ore vein entrance.

He crouched down, picking up a piece of gray-white ore residue from the depths of the mine, squeezed it with his fingers, the residue instantly crumbled into powder with no energy fluctuation.

His face suddenly darkened; the energy of the Philosopher’s Stone within the ore had been drained, indicating that someone was stealing the mine.

He tightened his grip on his stone hammer, charging towards the depths along the collapsing mine tunnel.

His Tier Three High Stage perception spread out, quickly capturing the source of energy absorption not far ahead.

Tracing the energy fluctuations, he arrived at a crumbling mining sack ruin and raised his stone hammer, striking forcefully at the dusty end of the mine tunnel.

The hammer wind tore open a huge breach in the dust, revealing the figure standing in the center of the ruins.

The person clad in a dark gray robe was pressing both hands on the rock walls on either side; piles of dark red ore still unabsorbed were stacked beside him, while more ore was fading, fracturing, and crumbling into gray-white powder at a visible speed.

Oraque’s pupils suddenly contracted before he issued an enraged roar; the giant hammer enveloped with force sufficient to smash a whole hill descended on the person’s head.

The Duke didn’t even turn; he merely withdrew his right hand from the rock wall, spreading his fingers, as dark red, earth yellow, pale blue, and azure four-color rule lights converged at his fingertips, instantaneously forming a translucent giant hand swirling with four colors.

The giant hand grew in the wind, colliding head-on with Oraque’s giant stone hammer while still several feet from the Duke’s back.

Upon contact with the Four-Color Divine Light, the hammer head began fracturing from the impact point, crushed by rule level power directly into its most primitive mineral particles.

Oraque’s hammer-wielding fists burst simultaneously, and after the Four-Color Giant Hand shattered the stone hammer, it showed no sign of stopping, advancing forward to imprint solidly on his chest.

His chest armor along with his breastbone were flattened, shattered, and pierced in an instant; his entire person was struck as if by an invisible siege hammer head-on, flown backward from the tunnel, smashing countless support columns and rock walls until he was buried in a pile of completely collapsed rubble.

The Duke retracted his right hand, the four-color light at his fingertips slowly dissipating, then returned his hand to the rock wall to continue peeling away the Philosopher’s Stone from the next mining sack.

From the moment Oraque charged into the tunnel until he was buried beneath the rubble, the entire exchange lasted but a moment.