All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 95: Spirit Stone Mine

Speaking of the day before Zhanyue came ashore, a major event occurred in Hundred Birds City of the Rising Sun Kingdom.

Outside the city of Hundred Birds, in a mining cave, this place was one of the purple crystal mines in the Rising Sun Kingdom. Purple crystal ore was the raw material used to forge purple crystal coins, and it was a very important place for any country.

“Hurry up, hurry up.” Under the supervision of the soldiers, one laborer after another loaded blocks of ore into small carts and pushed them out. The entrance of the mine was a continuous stream of activity.

“Hello, Brother Zhang.” A sturdy laborer greeted a soldier guarding the entrance of the mine.

“Iron Bull, it’s you kid. So big and tall. Hurry and go in, be careful and stay safe.” The soldier patted the body of the one called Iron Bull. Iron Bull was half a head taller than him, wearing a short black cloth shirt and carrying a mining shovel. Those who came to dig in this purple crystal mine were all ordinary people from nearby. Mining was a tiring and dangerous job. Long ago, it was all done by slaves. Under the efforts of the illumination Goddess and others, there were very few slaves left in this world. Now they all hired commoners to do the work, and the wages paid were much higher than farming.

Iron Bull had an elderly mother to support and was also strong and sturdy, so he naturally chose to be a miner.

After going down the mine shaft, Iron Bull started working. Their current position was already very deep.

A young man on the side greeted Iron Bull, “Morning, Brother Iron Bull.”

“Morning, Little Six.” Iron Bull replied. There was already a good amount of excavated purple crystal raw ore in the wooden crate beside them.

“Brother Iron Bull, I heard our mine vein is almost depleted. What will we do after that?” Little Six asked with some worry.

Iron Bull shook his head, “How would I know? We’ll just have to ask around at other mining sites.” There was also unease in Iron Bull’s eyes. It wasn’t easy to find such a high-paying job. Although it was a bit tiring, what he feared least was being tired. As long as he worked hard for a few more years, he would be able to move his elderly mother to live in the city, which was much safer than the village outside the city. Although their village was very close to Hundred Birds City, and they could even clearly see the Enlightenment Tower at night, it was still not as safe as being inside the city. Land in the city was worth its weight in gold. Unless one awakened a contract power or had other special abilities, it was very difficult to settle in the city, at least not by farming. But being a miner gave Iron Bull hope.

The two didn’t speak further and continued digging. As they dug, they felt the mine shaft shake a bit, accompanied by a thud thud thud sound, as if something inside had fallen.

“Brother Iron Bull, did the mine shaft just shake? Should we run?” Little Six said, a little scared.

“What’s there to be afraid of? The mine shaft was reinforced by a Spirit God Realm powerhouse. That’s a Spirit God powerhouse. How could it collapse so easily?” Iron Bull wasn’t afraid at all. To them, Spirit God Realm powerhouses were like deities.

“You’re right. Our mine shaft has never had an accident. I have a friend in another iron ore mine who is so envious of me.” Little Six immediately felt at ease. Their mine shaft was a purple crystal ore vein. The empire attached great importance to it and was the least willing to see it collapse, so they invited Spirit God Realm powerhouses to lay down formations to reinforce the mine shaft. It was difficult for it to collapse without a powerful external force striking it.

As Iron Bull’s pickaxe went down again, what appeared under a rock was not purple-colored purple crystal ore, but some jade green pebbles. Those pebbles were smooth and translucent, with some impurities inside, but they weren’t something this pickaxe could destroy.

“What is this? Are they gems? How can there be such large gems?” Iron Bull took a piece of the pebble in his hand and weighed it. It wasn’t light.

“Brother Iron Bull, we should still report this to the higher-ups.” Little Six said, looking at these strange pebbles.

“Mm, you take it and go report.” Iron Bull handed a piece of the stone to Little Six, then dug a few more swings himself. The two were at the very end of a mine shaft fork.

Not long after, Iron Bull actually dug up a very large crystal stone. What was even more terrifying was that he found this crystal stone was transparent, and something seemed to be sealed inside. He looked inside along the light from the mine shaft lamp and stumbled back in fright. Inside the crystal stone was actually a sealed skull!

That skull emitted a wisp of black smoke, which was unconsciously inhaled by Iron Bull into his nostrils. Afterwards, Iron Bull’s expression froze, his eyes changed, revealing a hint of a smile. He was seen stretching a hand into that crystal stone, and that crystal stone actually dispersed like water. He took the skull out from inside the stone, and a red cone stuck in the skull was pulled out by him.

“I never thought I would see the light of day again.” ‘Iron Bull’ said to himself, then shattered the skull into powder, and the crystal stone also disappeared without a trace.

“Looks like it was this spiritual vein that kept my soul from dispersing. I’m really lucky.” This person instantly saw that this place was a spirit stone mine. He picked up a stone from the ground and carefully examined it. “Medium-grade spirit stones? Not even low-grade spirit stones? It seems the better spirit stones are still in the deepest part.”

Afterwards, Little Six hurried over with two soldiers. Iron Bull’s eyes changed, returning to his previous honest appearance.

“What is this?” A soldier carefully examined.

“It seems the purple crystal ore vein has been exhausted. This place is connected to another kind of ore. Go find General He to come over.” That person said.

Not long after, quite a few people had gathered here. A chubby middle-aged general in armor walked over. He was the person in charge of this place, a super expert at the seventh level of the Moon Profound Realm.

“This ore? I seem to have seen it in ancient books.” General He’s eyes were filled with shock. He then ordered, “This matter is of great importance. It must not be leaked. Control all the miners working here. For now, they can’t be allowed to leave.”

“Yes!” The soldiers below nodded.

A hint of excitement flashed in General He’s eyes. “It’s really a spirit stone mine. With this mine, Lord Night Lord’s cause of revenge will surely succeed!” No one knew that this high-ranking General He was actually one of Night Lord’s people. He had no intention of reporting this spirit stone mine matter to those above, thinking about how to seize it for himself and for Night Lord’s use.

Iron Bull and the others’ work instantly changed from digging purple crystal coins to digging spirit stone ore. The difference from before was that they were required to eat and live here and were not allowed to leave.

“Why haven’t other soldiers come to take over after so long? With such a huge spirit stone mine, if that fat general really saw its value, he should have sent people to guard it and increased the mining long ago. Could it be that he wants to secretly keep it for himself?” ‘Iron Bull’ speculated. If it was the original Iron Bull, he naturally wouldn’t think too much. But he wasn’t. After he possessed Iron Bull, a part of Iron Bull’s memories entered his mind. Although they were different, it also let him know that he wasn’t in the era he was originally from. Unfortunately, Iron Bull was just an ordinary person, and the intelligence he knew was very little. Moreover, he was very weak now, his strength was less than a hundredth of what it used to be. He could only wait here as a miner for now, casually absorbing those medium-grade spirit stones to recover his strength. Unfortunately, the quality of the medium-grade spirit stones was too low, and he recovered extremely slowly.

Paper can’t wrap fire. General He underestimated the degree of control the Rising Sun Empire had over this mine. In a place he didn’t know, the army was quickly gathering, determined to capture him and the remnants of Night Lord under him in one fell swoop. His self-righteous concealment of information made those above finally completely confirm his problem.

This was also the scene Zhanyue saw earlier of squad after squad of soldiers entering Hundred Birds City through the transmission array. Because they were afraid that mobilizing troops nearby would alert General He, the Rising Sun Kingdom chose to airdrop troops from the easternmost point through the transmission array, wanting to thoroughly control General He and his group with lightning speed.