Chapter 377: The Unprecedented Crystal

Chapter 377: The Unprecedented Crystal

After learning from Irene that the phenomenon Lily was currently experiencing would not truly cause much impact, Zheng Yichen felt relieved. Initially, he had been worried that Lily might have witnessed scenes related to the River Styx on the spot and was affected by that river. Irene’s explanation, however, was that what Lily saw were merely past events, like when a person recalls things from their memory. As long as it wasn’t a deadly memory flashback, it would not bring any harm to oneself.

It was simply reliving that scene at the time. Lily’s situation was that part of that ‘memory’ appeared directly, so when reliving it, it felt like experiencing it for the first time.

Since Lily’s matter was resolved, Zheng Yichen sent her back to the Academy. Previously, he had thought about getting Lily a new skin. Without a soul to track, the Undying Witch should not be able to find her anymore. But later, Loris said it was unnecessary.

The Undying Witch would not come to Kaja to cause trouble for herself again. After all, her goal had already been achieved. Why would she come here to punish herself? The previous trick worked once, but a second time… Did she really think Dan Marina was blind?

“…Why do I feel so useless?” Carlin looked somewhat conflicted at Lily being sent back to the Academy and scratched his hair vigorously. As an Infiltrator, he had actually lost track of his target silently. Even though it was his Boss who took her away, he still shouldn’t have lost track. How exactly did he lose track? He couldn’t remember the process. It just felt like he blanked out for a moment, and then the target was gone. “I think I should ask for leave and go train hard with my teacher for a while.”

After struggling for some time, Carlin eventually went to find Zheng Yichen. Now that Lily had obtained the power of the Demonic Sword Evil God, she had absolutely no issues with self-defense. Would it be a problem to ask to leave at this time?

“Oh? Feeling not strong enough? Planning to train hard for a while?” Zheng Yichen thought for a moment. He somewhat did not want to let him go. After this, they would specifically deal with matters related to the Undying Witch. The attention on Kaja would drop sharply. Having a High-Rank Infiltrator around would undoubtedly solve many future troubles.

“Is it very urgent?”

“Uh, not exactly urgent… It’s just that I feel I’ve been failing often recently, so I think it’s very necessary to improve myself.” Carlin said. He also knew that this kind of failure was because the levels he was dealing with were too high. Honestly speaking, he used to do quite well in areas matching his own level. But suddenly, he found himself in the endgame area. Enemies he could normally handle had now become elite-level foes. And the frustrating part was, in this area, those were still just normal small fry.

His pressure was immense.

“I see. Wait another month then.” Zheng Yichen said after some thought. The matter with the Undying Witch, she probably wouldn’t take too long. According to Dan Marina’s analysis, what she was doing was largely related to Windwhisper Valley. Once the matter at Windwhisper Valley was resolved, what she intended to do would probably be mostly completed.

“No problem.” Carlin nodded. After leaving Zheng Yichen’s room and returning to his post, he immediately communicated with his elder sister: “It seems something big is about to happen soon!”

Zheng Yichen didn’t reveal too much information, but from his words, one could guess some things. Why ask him to wait a month? Probably during this time, Zheng Yichen needed to handle some extra matters. These matters forced him to keep this extra manpower around.

“It has nothing to do with us. Do our job well.” Karin said. Some things should be avoided if possible, and not participated in if unnecessary.

“Understood… Sigh.” Carlin sighed helplessly. High-Rank was pretty much the highest achievement ordinary people could reach. Accumulating and improving further would enter the transcendent level. However, that not only required time but also Talent and effort. After all, this world didn’t have the kind of breakthrough where attributes would make a huge leap forward. That wasn’t possible. All attributes were accumulated bit by bit.

The so-called breakthrough was only in the power one mastered, gaining a new level of understanding on how to exert that power. In reality, one’s own attributes still didn’t change much.

“The Undying Witch has probably obtained the crucial key item. What she wants to do, her goal is unclear for now. But we can try to make her take more actions to help us judge. The best point of entry is Windwhisper Valley.”

“That place, isn’t it a place specifically meant to attract the attention of the Sanctuary Church?” Zheng Yichen thought for a moment and asked, slightly puzzled.

“That’s indeed correct. The purpose of attracting attention is to buy time, isn’t it? Originally, I could easily solve the problem there myself. However, Kasha knows about our relationship. If I act directly and push her too hard, we would also have trouble. So, at this time, we should borrow some external force. Are you interested in the Wind Element Vein?”

“Uh, I am a bit.” Zheng Yichen nodded. The Wind Element Vein beneath Windwhisper Valley, Zheng Yichen understood, was of extremely high quality and quantity. If one could occupy it, a small country could develop rapidly—provided it wasn’t wiped out by other countries beforehand.

“Then that’s settled. Let’s go mining.”

Mining… Dan Marina meant to completely exhaust that Wind Element Vein. This wasn’t like the operation of moving that Ruins before; it was much harder. Normal mining would take a very long time, let alone completely emptying it. But currently, only Zheng Yichen could do this.

The entire Ore Vein was in an unstable resonance under the ability of the Wind Dragonflies. A little extra stimulation could cause an outburst. Without Zheng Yichen’s assimilation ability, trying to act on the vein would be simply suicidal. The Sanctuary Church kept strengthening the protection at Windwhisper Valley.

Another reason was to prevent the bomb beneath their feet from blowing them all away at some moment.

As for how to operate, Dan Marina’s Avatar in Windwhisper Valley was already prepared. The way for Zheng Yichen to go there was also easy: send out a Projection through the Magic Weapon Summoning Book held by that Avatar.

“How did you find this place?” Zheng Yichen looked around the passageway with surprise. This passage looked like it had been abandoned for a long time, with many collapsed sections, yet Dan Marina had managed to find it.

“Just look into history and you can find it. This place was developed by a small country a long time ago. It’s just that the small country overestimated itself and provoked a large group of Wind Dragonflies.” Dan Marina didn’t continue further, but Zheng Yichen pretty much knew the outcome.

“After that, no one discovered this place?”

“Discovering it was meaningless. Many places here had no passable paths.” Dan Marina said. Walking forward, her body rapidly changed, flowing like water through a narrow crack. Zheng Yichen twitched his mouth at the sight. This Avatar, the disguise trait was really used to its limits by Dan Marina. However, he couldn’t pass through there; he could only disperse this Projection and create a new one.

Watching Dan Marina move somewhat stiffly, he asked: “You made it over here easily enough. Why are you so uncomfortable now?”

“How could it be easy? Changing like that feels awful. That earlier part was the last spot that needed to be passed through.” She replied. This was also the reason why even if this place was discovered, there was no way to utilize it. Digging? Not possible. Those areas would collapse if dug. Using Magic to assist would only attract Wind Dragonflies.

Unless one had the disguise and transformation ability of Dan Marina’s Avatar, one could barely pass through here. Her arriving here with an Avatar was also part of the preparations for external matters; her brief absence wouldn’t be suspected.

As they went deeper into the passage, they arrived at an abandoned Mine Cave. Zheng Yichen curiously grabbed a handful from the wall. What he grabbed was just ordinary stone, not a trace of Wind Element ore. If it were an elemental-type mine cave, the dug-up ores would contain things that looked like crushed glass—those would be Wind Element ore. The simplest refinement was to meticulously sort out those parts.

“Don’t bother looking. The ores have all become ordinary. The power they contained has all gathered elsewhere.” Dan Marina pointed upward.

“This is a Wind Element Vein! Do the Wind Dragonflies have such capability to concentrate all the power from the ores to another place?” Zheng Yichen asked with some doubt and surprise.

“One Wind Dragonfly can’t do it. But hundreds of Wind Dragonflies day and night inducing the vein’s power can achieve it. Normal Wind Dragonflies wouldn’t do something self-destructive like that. Those affected Wind Dragonflies are different. Even if those Wind Dragonflies are dealt with later, the structure of this Wind Element Vein is already damaged and will gradually disappear in the future.”

Digging from this Mine Cave to the top layer wasn’t too difficult. The essence part of the vein had all been transferred to the upper layer. The parts that became ordinary seemed somewhat fragile. Even relying on his claws, Zheng Yichen could easily dig out a passage. With Dan Marina’s guidance, he didn’t worry about digging in the wrong direction. After digging upward for a while, even without Dan Marina’s guidance, Zheng Yichen felt intense Wind Element fluctuations.

After digging through a few rocks, Zheng Yichen felt blinded by the light. A green glow was especially noticeable in the darkness. Zheng Yichen reached out and touched this giant, gently vibrating Element Crystal, somewhat stunned: “This might be the biggest Element Crystal I’ve ever seen?”

“Probably. It’s the product of integrating the entire vein’s power and gathering it here. Though it’s a bit wasteful for this vein.” Relying on the resonance method of the Wind Dragonflies to integrate the vein’s power produced such a large crystal. Even without wasting extra power, the entire vein was already completely useless.