Chapter 70: The Rock Fissure

Wu Yuan stood at the edge of the jagged tear in the earth, clutching Little Yellow in one paw.

“I’m going to jump now.”

He offered the warning out of consideration; he knew his hamster lieutenant had a severe case of acrophobia.

Little Yellow immediately slapped his tiny paws over his eyes, his voice trembling. “I… I am ready!”

Wu Yuan bent his knees and launched himself into the abyss.

Despite the warning, a high-pitched, terrifying scream rang in his ears the entire way down.

“Noooooo!”

A dozen breaths later, Wu Yuan landed with a heavy, controlled thud. The fall had been deep.

He shook the furry lump in his hand. “We’re down. Open your eyes and look.”

Little Yellow remained frozen, his fur puffed out to three times its normal volume, transforming him into a vibrating yellow sphere of terror. Hearing his boss’s calm voice, he slowly lowered one paw and cracked an eye open.

“Wow!”

The fear vanished instantly, replaced by awe. “So beautiful!”

They were standing in a subterranean grotto awash in mystical light.

The walls were inlaid with raw veins of Purple Jade, casting a hazy, violet luminescence across the cavern. Amidst this purple fog, countless tiny specks of red light drifted like embers, swirling and dancing in the silent air.

It looked like a purple galaxy scattered with crimson stars.

The atmosphere was quiet, almost holy. It didn’t feel oppressive; rather, it emptied the mind, inviting a state of deep meditation.

Directly in front of Wu Yuan stood a massive gray rock, looming like a fortress wall. In its center lay a narrow vertical fissure, barely half a meter wide. From this crack, the red motes spewed forth, spinning into the cavern before fading into nothingness.

Little Yellow was mesmerized. He hopped out of Wu Yuan’s hand, chasing the red sparks like a kitten chasing laser pointers. He leaped and snatched at the air, but the lights were elusive as spirits, slipping through his fingers every time.

Wu Yuan let the little guy play. He took a moment to appreciate the scenery himself. unlike the industrial precision of his copper mines, this place possessed a wild, chaotic beauty.

But business came first.

Wu Yuan approached the massive gray rock. It was dense, interwoven with dull streaks of Purple Jade.

He rapped his knuckles against the stone. Clang.

“Hard,” he muttered. “It seems there’s a significant amount of Low Grade Purple Jade forming a protective shell around the core.”

He peered into the narrow fissure.

The interior was a warped kaleidoscope of violet and angry crimson. The air inside rippled with heat, distorting his vision and preventing him from seeing the bottom.

“Purple is the Marrow,” Wu Yuan analyzed. “But the red? Is that Fire Qi? Molten jade?”

He frowned and punched the rock wall.

BOOM.

Dust rained down, but the rock didn’t even crack. His physical strength, enough to shatter boulders, barely scratched the surface.

“This entire structure is solidified into a single entity,” he realized. “Brute force won’t work.”

He switched tactics. Summoning his Demon Power, he wove thick vines and sent them snaking into the fissure.

Hiss.

The moment the vines crossed the threshold, they disintegrated into ash.

“Anti-Qi field?” Wu Yuan’s brow furrowed. “Or perhaps the energy density is too high for construct techniques.”

He dusted off his hands. “Well, if I can’t do it, and Qi can’t do it… it sounds like a job for the interns.”

Moments later, a stream of rats rained down from the ceiling, landing agilely behind Wu Yuan.

Within minutes, fifty able-bodied rat demons stood in formation, eyes wide, awaiting orders.

Wu Yuan walked down the line, selecting the smallest, toughest-looking ones. He pointed a claw at the glowing, ominous fissure.

“You lot. Get in there and dig out the Purple Jade Marrow.”

The rats didn’t question him. They formed a single file line and squeezed into the crack, disappearing into the red glow one by one.

Wu Yuan sat back and waited.

Half an hour passed.

Suddenly, a chaotic noise echoed from the depths of the fissure. A wave of heavy, suffocating air washed over Wu Yuan.

“Earth Qi,” Wu Yuan noted, his eyes lighting up. “Pure and heavy.”

Then, the miners returned.

They scrambled out of the crack in a panic, squeaking in agony. Yet, disciplined to the core, each rat clamped its jaws firmly around a chunk of dark, opaque crystal—Purple Jade Marrow.

But the price was steep.

The rats looked like they had been dragged through a furnace. Their fur was scorched black, their skin blistered and cracked. Blood oozed from heat-split wounds, and their breathing was ragged.

Wu Yuan acted instantly.

He grabbed a handful of Bone-Penetrating Grass, crushed it into a fine powder, and infused it with his Demon Power.

“Wood Spirit Vitality!”

A wash of green light erupted from his hands—the [Wood Spirit Vitality] technique he had copied from Little White.

The emerald light enveloped the dying workers. Under the potent life energy, their bleeding stopped, and raw flesh began to knit back together. Little Yellow jumped in to help, stuffing more healing herbs directly into the mouths of the stunned victims.

Wu Yuan watched their breathing stabilize and nodded. “Good. Assets preserved.”

He plucked a piece of Purple Jade Marrow from a trembling rat’s mouth. It was heavy, dense, and radiated a profound stability. Excellent quality.

A scrawny, slightly less-charred rat crawled forward, coughing.

“Great King,” it rasped. “We… we cannot go deeper.”

“It starts normal,” the rat explained, terror in its eyes. “But the further we go, the temperature skyrockets. At the deepest point… we saw magma. And Earth Fire!”

“Magma? Earth Fire?”

Wu Yuan froze.

“Yes! The rocks are glowing red hot. It’s an oven in there! Any deeper and we’ll turn to ash!”

Wu Yuan’s face changed. He immediately pocketed the Marrow and scooped up Little Yellow.

“Something is wrong,” he muttered. “This is a shallow vein. There shouldn’t be magma here.”

He thought back to the intelligence report. It mentioned the Marrow, but said nothing about volcanic activity.

Just like Snake Valley, he thought bitterly. The green intel mentioned no hidden dangers.

“We’re leaving,” Wu Yuan decided instantly.

He turned to the scorched, panting workforce.

“Brave warriors!” Wu Yuan announced, his voice booming with regal authority. “Rest here and recover your strength. Once you are healed, summon the next shift to continue the extraction.”

He dumped a massive pile of Moon Spirit Grass onto the cavern floor.

“The Purple Jade Marrow supply must not be interrupted! This spirit grass is your reward!”

Whoosh.

Before the rats could even say thank you, Wu Yuan activated his Demon Power and vanished up the exit shaft, sealing the hole behind him to “protect the bamboo roots.”

Silence descended on the cavern.

The fifty rats looked at each other, battered and confused.

Then, the scrawny rat who had given the report stood up. A cunning glint flashed in his beady eyes.

He snatched up a stalk of Moon Spirit Grass and shouted, “What are you idiots waiting for? Didn’t you hear the Great King? This is his benevolence!”

The other rats, starving and in pain, realized what was in front of them. They rushed the pile, devouring the expensive herbs.

The scrawny rat watched them eat, a smirk playing on his lips.

“The Great King is kind,” he preached, acting the part of the loyal foreman. “Eat up, heal up, and then get back in that fire! We cannot let the Great King down!”

“You guys do the digging,” he thought to himself. “I’ll stay right here and supervise. The Great King’s orders, after all.”