Chapter 359: The Place of Incident

Chapter 359: The Place of Incident

“Whew… it was finally finished.” Zheng Yichen looked at the bottle of Magic Potion in his hand, the Awakening Potion… well, it should be called a Semi-Awakening Potion. This thing did not have the original effect; the duration was only temporary, unlike the initial design where once used, it would produce a permanent effect.

But even so, Zheng Yichen was not worried about this item’s sales. The reason was simple: its effect was quite power ful! Of course, all of this was still theoretical for now. To understand it more concretely, he needed to let Annie take it for a try. Right now, Zheng Yichen was drawn to another matter—a team of Alchemical Puppets that went out had not returned…

Zheng Yichen had always been developing the area near the Underground Base. After all, to be self-sufficient, many aspects needed to be covered. Not to mention other materials, at least basic materials could not be lacking. Some of those materials could be bought, and many others only required finding Ore Veins. There were many hidden and undeveloped Ore Veins in this world, and Zheng Yichen had long made relevant preparations for development.

This used to be a difficult problem. Now? It was just a trivial matter. As for Ore Veins, as long as they were found, he just needed to figure out a way to send a few Alchemical Puppets over. How would the Alchemical Puppets operate there?

It was very simple. Among the Alchemical Puppets sent over, two were special types. They were ‘commander’ types specifically made by Zheng Yichen, with effects similar to the summoning Ring used by Lily. They did not need to perform any extra actions at the mining site; what they did was simple, just responsible for replenishment and statistics.

The mined minerals could be sent back after going through the Pick-up Zone. After the Pick-up Zone was established, Zheng Yichen had done related things, so now many Alchemical Puppets were distributed outside. It did not matter if those Alchemical Puppets were discovered; their existence was already known by the Sanctuary Church. If discovered, as long as he himself did not show up, there would be no problem at all.

Moreover, each mining area had relevant preparations. Even if the location was discovered, he just needed to recall all the Alchemical Puppets there.

Everything progressed very smoothly. Those dispatched Alchemical Puppets transported back a large amount of basic materials, maintaining the development and construction of the Underground Base. But today, just as he finished the work at hand, an Alchemical Puppet responsible for records submitted the recently recorded abnormal information to Zheng Yichen.

That record-keeping Alchemical Puppet was the most advanced in the entire Underground Base. Its Alchemy Core was made from that high-grade Soul given to him by Loris back then, with very high intelligence.

“Did not return… Hmm, it was the scheduled maintenance they did not return for.” Zheng Yichen muttered, looking at the abnormality in this record. Every once in a while, the mining Alchemical Puppets had to return for maintenance. This interval was not too long, just about three to five days. The maintenance also did not take too long, basically done in about half an hour.

So even if something happened, Zheng Yichen could immediately determine exactly where the problem was, and it was a problem that occurred recently!

“Mining Zone Twenty-Three, even the commander puppet lost contact? Could it have been discovered and wiped out in advance? Who has nothing better to do?” Zheng Yichen frowned more tightly the more he looked. Mining Zone Sixty-Three—flipping through the records—that place was just an iron ore area. If there was anything special about it, well… the quality of the iron there was higher. In special terms, it was ‘cold iron,’ a bit better than ordinary iron but not Enchanted Material.

An in-between level, the value was still acceptable. If left to grow slowly for a while, that Mining Zone might really transform into one that could produce Enchanted Material. Well, that would be at least several hundred years later. More importantly, that place was remote enough, and the terrain was extremely poor—it was a bottomless Canyon. Even if that Ore Vein was discovered, anyone wanting to develop it would need to think for a while about whether to develop here.

This place was difficult to supply, and deep in the Canyon, Dark Element spilled outward. That Elemental Power was not very dense, but due to the terrain’s constraints, it accumulated in the depths of the Canyon. Over time, it formed a kind of tidal reaction. When the accumulated Elemental Power became excessive, a small outburst would occur. The Black Mist produced by the Dark Element outburst would spill out from that Canyon.

If ordinary people encountered it, after being eroded by the Dark Element, they would have to go home to recuperate.

Such a place was definitely not a suitable mining location. Otherwise, if a few people died every few days, even using slaves to fill in might not yield corresponding returns. It was precisely such a place that suited Zheng Yichen’s use of Alchemical Puppets for this operation. In fact, the environments of several other mining areas were similar to this one, with significant environmental factors. Otherwise, why would he maintain the Alchemical Puppets so frequently?

The maintenance interval for the Alchemical Puppets working in Mining Zone Twenty-Three was four days, so the loss of contact must have been within the past four days.

“Hmm… tsk, even the pre-placed Alchemical Puppets lost contact?” Zheng Yichen frowned slightly. Besides the commander Alchemical Puppet, each mining area had an additionally placed special Alchemical Puppet. That Alchemical Puppet contained a Projection Magic Rune Array, which Zheng Yichen could activate remotely to use them.

These Alchemical Puppets were usually sealed in an egg chamber, and the location was also hidden, meant to deal with just-in-case situations… But now even the preventive measures had encountered problems, showing the issue was not minor. Zheng Yichen hesitated for a while, then simply waved his hand: “Forget it, let it go…”

Just a piece of land; if it was gone, it was gone. The situation was unclear, why should he bother going to check? Even the hidden mechanism was dismantled… Just like that, he agonized in the Laboratory for quite a while, and finally slapped the record on the table. Alright, he really could not just let it go.

If the pre-placed measures had problems, shouldn’t he quickly think of a way to figure out what was going on? What if someone traced it back to his Underground Base?

Although Zheng Yichen had a long-term plan to build the Underground Base into a fortress-like existence, preferably one that could move and even fly, like a sky city, this was, after all, a long-term plan. Right now, he did not have so many resources; if he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t. If this place was discovered, if he could eliminate future troubles, he could continue developing. If he couldn’t resolve it, and even attracted the Sanctuary Church… Damn it, this dragon just wanted to ignore worldly affairs, focus solely on his own development. Why were there so many troubles?

Crack—

In a hidden burrow, an egg chamber disguised as a stone developed a crack. An Alchemical Puppet walked out from inside. It closed the egg chamber and glanced around, then walked forward along the narrow passage ahead. After some distance, the narrow space suddenly opened up. Dozens of Alchemical Puppets were working vigorously, transporting the mined ores to a designated location. Once accumulated to a certain amount, these ores would be transferred by the commander Alchemical Puppet to the Underground Base, then refined into usable basic materials.

Regarding Zheng Yichen’s appearance, those Alchemical Puppets acted as if they did not see it, still carrying out their assigned tasks. Zheng Yichen had no intention of interfering either. He dug a tunnel and left this place. The entire Mining Zone was enclosed. This Mining Zone was Number Twenty-Two, considered the closest to Mining Zone Twenty-Three.

After leaving, Zheng Yichen controlled this Alchemical Puppet, looked left and right, and after seeing no one, his finger swiped to the side, pulling open a large rift. He pulled out a Magic Cycle from inside and rushed straight toward Mining Zone Twenty-Three. Upon arriving near the destination, Zheng Yichen immediately noticed the abnormality here.

The Black Mist from the depths of the Canyon spilled outward intermittently. Sometimes Black Mist would surge out, but most of the time, it was just a state of chilly winds. But now, the Black Mist inside was continuously dissipating outward. Could it be that this place was about to produce some rare treasure!?

Seeing this, Zheng Yichen’s spirits lifted, and he could not help but think, treasure… This world had natural treasures. To give the simplest example, in some Elemental Veins, besides being able to produce rare Element Crystals, there was also a very small chance of producing something beyond the norm, called an Element Heart.

What effect did that thing have? Put it this way: whether Elemental ore or Element Crystals, those were just like batteries or high-energy batteries, while the Element Heart was a nuclear reactor… This analogy was not precise either, because the Element Heart was already something of another level.

Using it for consumption was a minor matter. In many cases, the rate of consumption was not even as fast as the rate at which the Element Heart produced Elemental Power. Therefore, to this day, arguments persisted about this thing: was it that special kind of Ore Vein that created the Element Heart, or did the Element Heart create an Ore Vein?

The reason for the argument was that once the Element Heart was removed, that Elemental Vein would become an ordinary Elemental Vein. But the production of such things was very random. Some super-large Elemental Veins might not have one, while some medium-sized ones, with purity levels comparable to super-large Elemental Veins, would appear.

Therefore, these two theories had always coexisted and were still in a state of debate.

Zheng Yichen did not know what special thing was in this Canyon. Anyway, as long as it was not caused by human actions or some strange thing, such abnormal changes definitely meant something with peculiar power was triggering it. Regardless, he should first check the situation at the mining area. Right now, the concentration of Black Mist overflowing from the Canyon was not high… it would not be discovered for the time being.