Chapter 252 Excavation

Sensing its master's pleasure, the golden eagle's crest stood up, shimmering with a pale golden light, its fine hairs glowing in the setting sun.

It let out a screech and flew across the green field toward the fiery red land in the distance.

The pine trees, like clusters of fiery clouds, swept across the sky, giving one the feeling of walking in the heavens.

In the gourd field, the neat gourd trellises stand like soldiers in formation, with purple gourds peeking out from under the leaves.

Several spirit vines shimmered with light, clearly second-tier spirit plants.

Now, Crimson Flame Peak can stably produce second-tier Purple Flame Gourds every year, and cultivating spirit gourds has become a pillar industry.

"Lower altitude and land in the gourd field."

Ji An patted his tamed beast; he was going to take a stroll in the spirit field to check the dryness of the soil.

He personally oversaw all the second-tier spirit fields, without entrusting them to anyone else.

The golden eagle began to slow down and finally landed steadily in an open space.

When it landed, it was like running a few steps as if an airplane were landing, with no turbulence at all.

This service is truly excellent.

Ji An leaped down from his beast and laughed:

"Tomorrow, I'll have Yulian buy some fresh Foundation Establishment stage venison to reward you properly!"

The golden eagle let out a clear cry and shook its head.

Ji An raised an eyebrow slightly and chuckled:

"Still want to enjoy the thrill of hunting? You'd better forget it."

Through the blood pact, he fully understood the beast tamer's thoughts.

Although the Foundation Establishment stage deer demon usually eats vegetarian food, it is unknown what survival methods it will use when faced with life-or-death danger.

If the second-tier spiritual plants here are damaged, the loss will be too great.

Ji An walked through the spirit field, occasionally bending down to pick up the red soil to feel its moisture, and soon inspected the half-acre spirit field.

He poured the red sand piled up nearby into the spiritual field, and then released the Thick Earth Returning to Origin Spell.

These red sands contain the corpses of fire crystal ants.

The warm, yellow light mingled with the soil, calming the earth's energy and nourishing its profound aura; all of this was concealed within the earth.

These spirit ants grow up on this land, and after they grow old, they are buried here again, which can be considered as returning to their roots.

As Ji An's hands moved in different mudras, his movements possessed a unique beauty.

The white mist that just enveloped the gourd field churned and rolled, revealing golden glitter within.

Spring breezes and raindrops fall gently, their droplets pattering on the leaves like shattered jade beads, making a crisp sound, and then falling silently into the soil.

The rain stopped after only a quarter of an hour, and the fog dissipated.

Ji An bent down again, grabbed a handful of soil, felt the texture of the soil, and nodded in satisfaction.

He can now not only control the size of the rain area, but also precisely control the timing of the rainfall.

Walking with hands behind his back, a gentle breeze caresses him, and his shadow follows him across the fields.

He arrived at the fire crystal ant's nest and released his aura.

Currently, there are 96 second-tier Crimson Cloud Pine beads in this spirit field, and all the spirit trees in the mid-grade spirit field have reached the second tier.

Nourished by so many high-grade spirit trees, the ant queen has grown to the fourth level of Foundation Establishment.

The number of fire crystal ants has decreased slightly, to only 270,000 to 280,000.

This is because with the increase in second-tier spiritual plants, it is necessary to cut down more spiritual pines to ensure that the spiritual fields can support them.

Although the number has decreased, the quality of the ant colony has improved significantly, with several demonic ants emerging at the foundational level.

A moment later, the queen ant, as thick as a thigh, crawled out of the hole and excitedly stretched out her antennae to touch her owner's palm.

Because of the blood pact, although it doesn't see its master often, it is still very attached to its master.

Unlike queen ants on Earth, this queen ant, despite being quite large, did not have any difficulty moving around.

If needed for combat, it can even expel 'fat' from its body in a short period of time.

Ji An was communicating with the ant queen telepathically, his eyebrows slightly raised.

The queen ant told him that the fire crystal ant colony had opened a passage to the underground and discovered a strange blue plant growing in the magma.

"I'm bringing the golden retriever over tonight. Have the soldier ants guide it and have it dig a tunnel!"

Ji An immediately made a decision: most plants that can grow in magma have fire elemental energy, and the color of this type of energy must be fiery red.

The cyan spiritual plant grows in the land of flames; it must be a precious plant or a rare object.

After having dinner, Ji An hurriedly went to the underground cave.

The Soul-Nourishing Wood is now two feet seven inches tall and about the thickness of two fingers held together.

Now that it has truly taken root, it has about seventy or eighty leaves.

The moon had not yet risen, and the cave was somewhat dim. Ji An cast the Thick Earth Returning to Origin Mantra, and a yellow spiritual light rippled outwards.

The black leaves of the Soul-Nourishing Tree gleamed with a purple sheen, and the nearby Earth Spirit Fruit Tree glowed brightly with fluorescence.

"Golden Retriever, come with me, a big deal is coming!"

The golden retriever leaped onto its owner's shoulder, its bushy tail swaying in the air.

It didn't understand what a big deal was; it only knew that when its master spoke in that tone, it meant it was time to put in its effort.

For the Spirit-Seeking Rats, working hard is nothing, because the pay is excellent and they can eat top-quality Earth Spirit Fruits!

Ji An unleashed his Wind Control Technique and flew out of the underground cave.

Before even reaching the cave entrance, he took out a flying shuttle from his storage bag.

He found the rock bear in a cave not far away. "Big Yellow, come with me."

As he spoke, he tossed out a fist-sized, dark red pill.

Dahuang, who was dozing off, immediately perked up upon smelling the pills and lunged forward to swallow them.

It has now reached the perfect ninth level of Qi Refining, and is now a very strong and robust man.

How could it be missing when doing the rough and arduous work of digging tunnels!

Ji An made a hand seal to summon the flying shuttle, and after the two beasts leaped on it, it flew straight towards the ant nest.

He did not activate the aura shield of the flying shuttle, letting the gale howl in his ears.

As the crescent moon peeked out from the mountains and swiftly landed at the ant nest, the queen ant and several strong soldier ants were already waiting at the entrance.

Ji An tossed out a feeding pill the size of a pigeon egg, and the golden retriever leaped up and swallowed it without even making a swallowing motion.

"Squeak!"

This tiny pill is far from satisfying the Spirit-Seeking Rat's appetite.

"Work hard later, and you'll be rewarded with a top-grade spirit fruit every three days!"

"Squeak," the golden retriever stood up, nodded its little head, and wagged its fluffy tail.

"Aww!"

Big Yellow opened its mouth wide, squatted on the ground, and stuck out its bright red tongue.

"Of course you're included!"

Ji An communicated with the ant queen through telepathy, forming a three-dimensional map in his mind.

He chose a spot and whispered:

"Let's get to work!"

The spiritual plants nurtured in magma are extremely precious, and the fewer people who know about them, the better. That's why he didn't invite Huang Xuan and others to participate in the excavation.

He handled this matter personally.

As he spoke, he activated the Golden Light Technique, and streaks of golden light, each three feet long and shaped like a crescent moon, shot out and disappeared into the rock.

The Golden Light Technique at the Great Perfection level is also quite effective at mining rocks.

The smaller the spell's form, the greater its destructive power. Right now, we don't need to deal damage; we just need to dig faster.

After casting several spells in a crisscrossing pattern, Ji An let out a low shout:

"Golden Retriever!"

The beast understood and immediately rushed forward, raising its sharp claws and effortlessly piercing the stone.

Its muscles are bulging, and by pulling backward, it can pull out a stone larger than its own body with little effort.

Despite its small size, it can easily lift objects weighing seven or eight hundred pounds.

With gaps now between the rocks, things became much easier.

Big Yellow stepped forward, gave him a bear hug, picked up the stone, and threw it far away.

Under the moonlight, Ji An led his two beast tamers to work diligently.

As dawn broke, they dug a semi-circular tunnel about forty feet deep and one foot in diameter.

The ramp is at an angle of about 45 degrees, quite steep, and winding.

"Squeak!"

The golden retriever bared its teeth and growled in protest.

The deeper you dig, the hotter the rocks become.

Big Yellow is a mutated monster that isn't afraid of this high temperature, but it can't.

Ji An felt the spiritual power of the pill being completely refined, and immediately stopped circulating his energy and opened his eyes.

Working on 'civil engineering' is not easy, and he has exhausted his magical power several times.

The tunnel was extremely stuffy and hot. He hadn't felt anything when he was practicing the Green Wood Everlasting Technique, but now he was starting to feel uncomfortable.

He made a hand seal and released a cold wind spell.

A sizzling sound immediately came from the rocks, and white frost condensed on the rock wall, but it quickly melted away.

After this happened several times, the temperature in the tunnel dropped significantly, and the rocks were no longer scorching hot.

The all-around cultivation method is so comfortable, Ji An thought with satisfaction.

Generally speaking, cultivators can only achieve omnipotence when they reach the Chaoyuan stage, but due to the time constraints, they don't truly master many spells.

He's different; when he breaks through to the Chaoyuan stage, who knows how much spiritual energy he'll accumulate.

Raising a Chaoyuan-stage spell to the Great Perfection level may be difficult, but raising one or two spells of each of the Five Elements to the Perfection level should be easy.

The excavation had slowed down considerably. Ji An stepped out of the cave and looked at the sky.

He took out his communication talisman sword, entered the information, and then activated it to inform Xia Yulian that he would not be eating breakfast today and that no one else was allowed to enter the Crimson Cloud Pine Forest.

Ji An returned to the cave and occasionally cast a cold wind spell to cool it down, maintaining the digging.

About half an hour later, he released the Golden Light Technique again to cut the rock, and immediately felt a rich fire elemental energy flowing out from the crack, with a faint crimson color visible behind the crack.

He was suddenly overjoyed; he was about to see results!

A wave of heat rose up, and the golden retriever darted backward with a "whoosh".

It dared not unleash its earth magic, for traversing these scorching rocks would be a disaster; it might get stuck and never be able to get out again.

"Get out of the way!"

Ji An shouted, activated the Golden Light Technique, cut out a square opening, and then pushed hard.

As the stone slab fell, a wave of heat rushed towards us, mixed with a large amount of fiery energy.

The color of the flames illuminated his eyes. He peered out and saw a lava pool about ten feet in diameter, with a three-foot-tall blue lotus standing in it.

The lotus leaves are large and fan-shaped, and next to them is a lotus bud that is shimmering with spiritual light and about to bloom.

The lotus flower is fiery red, and its halo exudes a lively aura.

Bubbles the size of bowls occasionally rise from the magma pool.

Ji An extended his divine sense and cautiously searched the surroundings.

Although he detected no danger, he still released the Rock Mountain Technique, took out the Apricot Yellow Flag, and channeled his magic power to protect himself. Then, he carefully flew towards the location of the Azure Lotus.

(End of this chapter)