"I…"

Zhang Ce was speechless for a moment. He was still waiting for news, and he probably wouldn't be able to sleep well tonight. How could he wait any longer?

But there's nothing we can do; we have to wait whether we want to or not. The outcome will only be certain after the pile driving is completed.

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Ce thought for a moment and then looked through his schedule.

After reading it, he picked up the landline and called his secretary.

"Give me the itinerary for Dingping Village, I want to go and see it in person."

"Yes, that's right, okay."

Whether he can make it or not, he has to go to the site to see for himself.

"The food is a bit bland today," Chen Feng said after taking a bite.

"Brother, if we really find rare earth deposits in the next day or two, don't worry about the food being bland, I'll arrange it for you even if you just want to eat a whole roasted beef," Qi Minglin said.

"Then I really want to try what roasted whole cow tastes like."

Chen Feng nodded seriously. This thing just sounds... delicious.

That's it for tonight, there's not much work to be done. Around 4 a.m. the next day, Chen Feng was woken up by the noise outside.

He glanced at his phone, rubbed his eyes, put on his coat, and went outside.

They discovered that Qi Minglin was already up and directing the vehicles to enter the site; the pile drivers had arrived.

Chen Feng returned to the tent, put on his clothes, slipped on his shoes, and went outside.

“Perfect timing, you’re awake. You can decide how many stakes you want to drive, where to drive them, and how deep,” Qi Minglin said to Chen Feng.

"Perfect my foot! I woke you up while you were sleeping soundly."

Chen Feng yawned and said.

Qi Minglin smiled but didn't say anything.

"Smash six, about two thousand meters deep. Shall I tell them the location now?" Chen Feng asked Qi Minglin.

"Okay, take a worker to locate it."

Qi Minglin answered.

"Who cares about location tracking? Follow me!" Chen Feng shouted, straining his neck.

"Coming, coming!" Upon hearing this, two workers rushed over, holding flags in their hands.

"Brother, we can't just walk there, can we?" Chen Feng said, sounding somewhat helpless.

"Oh right, Zhang, Zhang, bring one of your cars over here."

The worker probably arrived too early and was still a bit dazed.

Chen Feng quickly got into the car with the workers, but he did not plant the flag at the location where he had found it.

The place he found was on the edge; he needed to go further in for a safer approach.

Chen Feng wanted to distribute these six stakes evenly across the rare earth mine so that their measurements would be accurate.

Moreover, attacking just one is not enough, as the rare earth mine covers a huge area, which is why Chen Feng had to drive.

"parking."

Chen Feng got out of the car, felt around for a bit, and pointed to the ground, saying, "Put one in here."

Upon hearing this, the worker grabbed a flag and forcefully planted it in the ground.

This is where they're going to break down the piles later.

"Walk."

Chen Feng got back into the car and drew a circle around the area, setting all six base points.

When Chen Feng and the others returned, everyone in the camp was already up.

"Have you finalized the booking?" Qi Minglin asked casually.

"It's done." Chen Feng nodded.

"We'll be getting the equipment ready to start driving the piles in a little while. The instruments are all set up on site."

"We can analyze the composition and determine the elements as soon as we find the soil," Qi Minglin explained to Chen Feng, worried that he might not understand.

"To put it bluntly, this world is just a giant Luoyang shovel," Chen Feng laughed.

"Pretty much," Qi Minglin said, laughing as she spoke.

By noon, the piles had been driven nearly 100 meters in, and the soil that had been brought out was being tested.

"How's it going? Have you found anything?" Qi Minglin asked the testing personnel.

"Not yet, no traces of rare earth elements have been found," the staff member replied.

"Yes, it's just the beginning, no rush." ​​Qi Minglin nodded and sat back down in her seat.

Every bit of soil they brought up from underground had to be tested, but by nightfall, even though the stake had been driven nearly 500 meters in, they still found nothing.

"This is a new batch of soil."

"Okay, go and deliver it to Xiao Xu. I still have three batches that haven't been tested yet."

"Boss, have you found anything?"

"No!"

The staff who were previously idle are now extremely busy, and it's uncertain whether they'll be able to finish their work even if they work overtime until late tonight.

The piles were driven down more and more slowly, and in order to meet the deadline, they worked through the night. By the next day, the depth of the probe had reached 900 meters.

All I can say is that the geology here is relatively soft with little rock, so the drilling speed was already quite fast.

If this were in a place with poor geology, it would be good if we could only penetrate a few hundred meters.

Qi Minglin didn't sleep well all night. When she came out in the morning, she went to the testing personnel.

"So, any new discoveries?"

"No, the soil elements at 900 meters are no different from those on the surface, this..." The staff member shook his head, not finishing his sentence.

"Okay, let's continue." Qi Minglin nodded, a hint of worry in her eyes, but since we're only halfway through, there's no need to be too negative.

Before she could say anything more, she received a phone call.

"Boss, why are you calling so early?"

"What did you say? You're here?" Qi Minglin asked, her eyes wide with shock.

“Yes, send the driver your location, I’ll be there soon. What stage are we at now?” Zhang Ce asked from the car.

"We're driving piles now, aiming for a depth of 2,000 meters. We've reached about 900 meters so far," Qi Minglin replied.

"Have you found anything?" Zhang Ce didn't care how deep they dug; he only cared whether they had found any ore.

"Not yet," Qi Minglin said, pursing her lips.

"Okay, I got it. Send me your location, we'll talk when I get there." Zhang Ce said and hung up the phone.

He took a deep breath and looked at the dense forest in the distance.

We mustn't let him make a wasted trip.

About two hours later, Zhang Ce arrived at the scene.

"lead."

"lead."

When everyone saw Zhang Ce, they greeted him. Qi Minglin, Li Guanghao, Zhang Richeng and others quickly went up to greet him.

"Hello, hello, how are things now?" Zhang Ce asked as he walked.

“We’ve reached a depth of one thousand meters, but we haven’t seen any signs of rare earth elements yet,” Li Guanghao replied.

"Are all six stakes the same result?" Zhang Ce frowned slightly.

“Yes.” Li Guanghao nodded.

"Alright then." Zhang Ce didn't say anything else; there was still half left, so saying anything more wouldn't make a difference.

"Boss, have you eaten yet? Why don't you grab something to eat first?" Qi Minglin asked.

"I ate some bread in the car, so I'm not hungry right now. Where is Chen Feng?" Zhang Ce looked around and asked.

Since he had nothing better to do, he wanted to see what kind of person Chen Feng was. He had always been very curious about Chen Feng.

"Look, that's him, leaning back in his chair, half asleep." Qi Minglin gently raised her head, gesturing for Zhang Ce to look.