Chapter Five: Treasure Gained Once More!

Inside the room.

1.2%!

Jiang Taichu had refined the Five-Xuan Qi-Nourishing Pill, increasing his internal cultivation value by 1.2! The yin and yang Dao rhythm within him became slightly richer.

He lay down and entered mech training.

Gunfire erupted, he sensed bullets, intercepted bullets, dodged bullets...

He kept practicing until late at night, only falling into a deep sleep when exhaustion finally set in.

The next morning, Tang Yu woke him up early.

"It's only four o'clock! Are you two insane?" Jiang Taichu looked at them speechlessly.

For the sake of treasure hunting, the two truly seemed mad.

"Everyone's up already; they've started working," Zhang Jing said.

Tang Yu urged him, "You've got good luck—what if you find another treasure?"

"Treasures aren't cabbages; it's not that easy," Jiang Taichu sighed, putting on his mech suit. He knew if he didn't go out with them, they'd never stop nagging.

He understood this was just a burst of enthusiasm.

Once a few days passed without finding treasure, they'd return to their previous state.

Operating his mech, he soared into the sky and activated the particle radar.

He gazed at the distant mountain peaks; the darkness did not affect his Mountain Observation skill.

The earth vein patterns flowed—another empty mountain.

The next one, empty again... still empty...

Jiang Taichu searched quickly; Tang Yu and Zhang Jing actually burrowed into the mountains.

The result, naturally, was nothing but wasted time, and Jiang Taichu left them far behind.

The whole day yielded nothing. After dinner, everyone went back to their own cultivation.

The next day, the two were back to normal—their enthusiasm lasted only a day.

Jiang Taichu focused on his work, not running around aimlessly in search of treasure.

After all, he was just a laborer and couldn't freely roam other people's areas.

Time passed—another ten days went by.

Jiang Taichu began his work as usual. After leaping over a flat plain, his eyes fell on a thousand-meter-high mountain ahead.

The earth vein patterns were thick; if previous ones were as thin as chopsticks, this one was as thick as a fist!

And at the mountain's center, where the veins crossed, a pure golden stone shone brightly.

The radar was still unresponsive, still in its settling period.

Jiang Taichu slipped into the mountain, reached the center, and found a stone the size of a human head, with energy fluctuations far surpassing any previous earth vein source stone.

Gengjin Ore!

Compared to earth vein source stones, Gengjin Ore contained much more energy.

However, it wasn't suitable for making energy sources.

This kind of ore possessed both toughness and sharpness, required for armor-piercing bullets, gun-sword ammunition, and mech shields.

It could be called the universal ore!

Beep beep.

The radar stirred again, and Yang Xuan's uncertain voice came through his earpiece: "Jiang Taichu?"

"It's me. I found a chunk of Gengjin Ore, about the size of a human head," Jiang Taichu replied.

"Damn, what kind of luck is this? Go straight to the rest point—I'm coming over right now!" Yang Xuan shouted in surprise.

Even as a supervisor, he rarely saw Gengjin Ore of this size.

Two months ago, the Gengjin Ore discovered on Star Six was only the size of a fist.

Jiang Taichu didn't linger; he rushed to the rest point immediately.

"Taichu, why are you running off?"

Tang Yu and Zhang Jing asked over the comms.

"Struck a lucky break. Heading to rest—Supervisor Yang is coming."

"Damn, what kind of outrageous luck is that?"

"This godforsaken place is so barren even dogs would avoid it, yet you've found two gems—was it another earth vein source stone?"

The two shrieked with envy, jealousy, and frustration, wishing the fortune had been theirs.

Back at the rest point, Yang Xuan had already arrived. Although he wore a Mountain Patrol mech suit, he could unleash much more power and fly faster.

"Quick, let me see, let me see," Yang Xuan said impatiently, far more eager than when he saw the earth vein source stone.

Jiang Taichu hurriedly handed over his backpack.

Yang Xuan's hands trembled as he gazed at the head-sized Gengjin Ore inside.

"Good, good stuff, damn good stuff," Yang Xuan caressed the ore as if admiring a work of art.

"Ahem, Supervisor Yang," Jiang Taichu coughed lightly to remind him.

"Right, right, almost forgot the business at hand."

Yang Xuan opened his waist pack and took out six Qi-Nourishing Pills. "Here's your commission. If you prefer cash, I can transfer it to your account."

"I'll take the pills," Jiang Taichu replied.

The money in his account was enough for his brother's schooling; now he wanted to focus entirely on improving his cultivation.

"I'll go store the item. You get the day off—rest well," Yang Xuan grinned. "Let's have a drink at the end of the month."

"Thank you, Supervisor Yang," Jiang Taichu said gratefully.

With a day off, he returned to his room to cultivate; training in guns and mechs required a great deal of time.

He ate early and went back to refine the Qi-Nourishing Pills.

Each pill refined still gave a 1.2% increase.

Back in university, he was just an ordinary student, hadn't taken many Qi-Nourishing Pills, so he hadn't developed resistance, and the value could be maximized.

Once resistance built up and his cultivation improved, the pill's effect would weaken, and the increase would drop.

He refined the pill and continued simulating gun and mech training.

He trained until dinner time in the evening before stopping.

Tao Zhong and the others already knew he'd found Gengjin Ore—Yang Xuan had announced it over the comms.

Such good news, naturally, had to be shared to motivate the workers to search harder.

"Good luck."

"Have you been favored by Hou Tu?"

"I think it's Nuwa's blessing—Nuwa also governs things underground."

Hou Tu was the strongest earth-attribute starship on Blue Star, also a mech. There were videos online showing it tearing through the void and shattering a region of stars with its bare hands, intimidating the starry sky!

Nuwa was the supreme artifact, creator of worlds; it could transform ordinary stars into life-bearing planets.

Many of Blue Star's life planets were created by Nuwa.

Because of these supreme artifacts and powerful starships, Blue Star stood tall in the galaxy, deterring other cultivation worlds from launching large-scale invasions.

Of course, small-scale wars had never ceased, all for the competition over resource planets in the starry sky.

"How did you even find it?"

Everyone questioned him, and Jiang Taichu smiled, "Pure luck. I just happened to be tired and took a break, thought I'd check out the mountain, and then found it."

"No comparison, really."

"People like you make others jealous. If we didn't know Supervisor Yang wouldn't lie about Gengjin Ore, I'd suspect there was some inside deal," Lu Fang sighed.

"Ah, my luck was all spent on the college entrance exam," Tang Yu muttered.

"We're all brothers from the same university, even neighbors—how come the gap is so big?" Zhang Jing said with a complicated expression, wishing he could find a gem himself.

Gengjin Ore, even if not top-grade, was worth a month's wages.

"Um, can I search your area?" Lu Fang suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?" Tang Yu and Zhang Jing immediately turned hostile, glaring at him.

Clearly, he was trying to grab treasures!

Tao Zhong frowned. "Lu Fang, that's breaking the rules."

The others said nothing but were itching to try; some even planned to work overtime tonight to search Jiang Taichu's area.

"It's just a thousand-meter-high peak, thirty kilometers from the rest point," Jiang Taichu said openly.

"Taichu," Tang Yu and Zhang Jing frowned.

"It's fine, we're all colleagues. I hope you all get rich, too," Jiang Taichu smiled. "But let's be clear: don't blame me if you find nothing, and if you search my area, I'll search yours as well—isn't that fair?"

He knew what his advantage was. He couldn't always guard his area, so he proposed an exchange.

"Lose out, their area doesn't have any treasures," Tang Yu grumbled.

Zhang Jing added, "We'll take turns watching for you at night."

"Agreed, let's swap areas. No fixed zones—whoever finds something keeps it. Don't try to split treasures just because of whose area it is," Lu Fang said quickly, afraid Jiang Taichu would change his mind.

"Yes, whoever finds it keeps it; doesn't matter whose area it is," the rest chimed in one after another.