Chapter 23

“Tick…tick…”

In the dark and damp underground space, there was the intermittent sound of dripping water, a faint but undeniable fishy smell, and the inexplicable feeling of being stared at by cold eyes.

Is the sound of water drops really the sound of water drops falling?

Gu Qi stood on a moss-covered stone. There was a small cave behind him. Light shone through the cave, making this underground space not so dark that one could not see one's hand in front of one's face. However, the visibility was not high. A little further away, one could only see darkness.

The stone was not big, only enough for one person to stand, so Gu Qi directly took the mutant cat and mutant dog that followed into the cave and asked Jiu Cang to take care of them.

Just as the progress of the cave restoration was improved, there were several more arable fields in the planting area.

Gu Qi lowered her eyes and glanced at the ground below. The water flowed steadily and the spiritual energy was very abundant. Just standing there was almost as much spiritual energy as she had absorbed from serious meditation and practice.

With such abundant spiritual energy, it seems normal to raise a level five mutant animal.

A creature hiding in the dark finally couldn't hold back and started moving at such a fast speed that you could faintly hear the sound of it breaking through the air.

Gu Qi raised his head and looked to the front left. His right hand holding the hilt of the sword did not draw out the sword to fight against the suddenly attacking creature. He just raised his index finger slightly and pressed it down again.

"Splash!" The heavy object was dragged into the water by the vines that suddenly appeared.

Gu Qi remained motionless, and none of the splashing water fell on her, as it was all blocked by an invisible barrier.

"squeak!"

The creatures that fell into the water struggled to swim to the surface, making shrill cries, which shook the rocks on the top of the underground space to fall.

When he met the scarlet eyes of the mutant animal, a look of understanding flashed in Gu Qi's eyes.

In this apocalypse, abundant violent energy can rapidly increase one's strength, but it can also pose huge hidden dangers.

Just like the mutant mouse in front of Gu Qi, its scarlet eyes showed that it had lost its mind and was acting only on instinct. It was more bloodthirsty than mutant animals such as mutant groundhogs, mutant cats and dogs. No matter whether it was a human or other mutant animal, even its own kind were just food in its eyes.

Before discovering the mutant mouse, Gu Qi realized something was wrong.

How could there be no living creatures in such a place filled with so much energy? There were no ordinary creatures or mutants, which was clearly very wrong in the apocalypse.

The abundant energy has a great attraction to mutant creatures, just like the mutant cat that was digging the hole earlier. It was attracted to dig after the ore blocking there was dug out and was attracted by the energy.

Now it seems obvious that there should have been other creatures here, but they were all eaten by mutant rats, and nothing was left.

Gu Qi drew out his sword, tapped his toes, and attacked the mutant rat with light and sharp movements.

This kind of mutant animal that has gone completely berserk cannot be taken into the cave. Of course, even if it has not gone berserk, Gu Qi has no interest in mutant mice.

The mutant rat was struggling constantly. Some vines were broken by it, while others were cut off by its special ability. As the vines broke one by one, new vines were entangled. The mutant rat, unable to struggle free, let out angry growls.

Seeing Gu Qi rushing forward with a weapon, the mutant rat's eyes became even redder, and more wind blades appeared. Some continued to cut the vines, while the other part flew towards Gu Qi, as if wanting to cut him into pieces.

Facing the overwhelming wind blades that left no place to hide, Gu Qi's face remained calm, without a trace of fear.

The long sword was swung forward, and several wind blades were cut off instantly. Gu Qi directly used the long sword in his hand to cut out a path.

With a "chi" sound, the sword tip penetrated into the mutant mouse's eyebrows, and with another flick, a deep blue crystal core was brought out by the tip of the sword.

The mutant mouse's scarlet eyes dimmed, revealing a hint of disbelief and fear.

Gu Qi put away the cleaned crystal core and his eyes fell on the mutant rat corpse wrapped in vines. He burned it clean with fire, leaving no ashes.

This completely crazy mutant creature has nothing to use except a crystal core, and it will even pollute the environment, causing other creatures to go crazy.

Suddenly, Gu Qi recalled the epidemic in his previous life that almost destroyed the Hope Base.

In the previous life, not long after Xiang Haoyu and others left the Hope Base, a highly contagious epidemic broke out in the Hope Base. Many people died from the epidemic, and many people turned into zombies, including some with superpowers.

What impressed Gu Qi and concerned him a lot was that Xiang Haoyu didn't seem surprised after hearing about this, as if... he had known it would happen.

Gu Qi's gaze fell on the underground river under his feet. The direction of this underground river was the Hope Base.

Coupled with the extremely dark-colored wind crystal core in Xiang Haoyu's hand in his previous life, Gu Qi's eyes darkened slightly. Was the matter really as she had guessed?

Gu Qi raised his eyes and looked forward, flying his sword to follow the remaining scent of the mutant rat.

During the time when she lost him, Xiang Haoyu not only obtained the crystal core that was slightly different from the ordinary wind crystal core, but also a piece of something he called "energy white jade".

She had never seen the "energy white jade", but now that she thought about it, Xiang Haoyu's description of it was very similar to something she knew.

As he got closer to the place where the mutant rat's scent remained the most, that is, its nest, Gu Qi felt that the spiritual energy contained in the air was becoming more and more rich.

She held a flashlight in her hand and could clearly see that the spiritual energy in the place where the light shone was so dense that it had formed spiritual mist.

The closer the distance, the higher the concentration of the spiritual mist. In the end, even with a flashlight, it is difficult to see the surrounding situation clearly. The whole person seems to be trapped in the clouds, and can only see a vast expanse of white.

A few more minutes passed and Gu Qi finally arrived at his destination.

The underground river is not as wide as before. No water can be seen ahead. There is a stone wall across the front. There is a hole more than one meter high on the stone wall, a few centimeters higher than the water surface.

Spiritual energy continuously gushed out from the cave entrance, some of it dissolved into the water, and some of it remained in the air.

Gu Qi did not rush in, but used his mental power to investigate the situation. After confirming that there was no danger, he bent down and entered.

After walking a few steps, they arrived at a small stone chamber. After seeing the situation inside, Gu Qi's eyes lit up.

What a big piece of spiritual jade!

Directly in front of Gu Qi, a piece of spiritual chalcedony almost as tall as her was embedded in the stone wall. The source of the spiritual energy was this piece of spiritual chalcedony.

Even the stone walls surrounding the spiritual jadeite showed signs of transforming into spiritual stones, which showed how abundant the spiritual energy contained in this piece of spiritual jadeite was.

In this stone chamber, the spiritual energy is richer than outside, but the visibility is not as low as outside, because the spiritual mist has turned into spiritual liquid and fallen into the groove below the spiritual jade.

Judging from the marks around the groove, this bowl-sized groove should have been dug out by the mutant rat's claws.

After a moment's silence, Gu Qi took out a bottle and collected all the spiritual liquid, then summoned the mutant groundhogs, mutant raspberries, mutant sparrows, and mutant cats and dogs that were staying in the cave.

"Squeak?"

Where is this? It feels so good. Boss, is there something you want me to do?

The mutant groundhog was holding a hoe in its hand and looking around curiously. The mutant raspberry and the mutant cat and dog next to it were also holding hoes. It can be seen that they were farming before being summoned by Gu Qi.

The mutant sparrows also chirped and ran straight to the spiritual jade marrow, squatting on it together.

The next second, Jiu Cang also ran out, fluttering his wings and landing on her shoulder.

When he saw the spiritual jadeite that was as tall as a person, Jiu Cang waved his hand, and several pickaxes appeared out of thin air, floating towards the mutant creatures present, not even the mutant sparrow fell.

Seeing the pickaxes of particularly suitable sizes, Gu Qi's lips curled slightly. As expected, Jiu Cang guessed her intention at a glance and equipped them with the tools without her saying anything.

After seeing the pickaxe, the mutant raspberry and the mutant dog asked at the same time:

[Should we dig this?]

“Woof woof…”

Does the master want us to dig this white stone?

"Yes." Gu Qi nodded and pointed at the piece of spiritual jade, "Dig it out, dig out as much as you can."

Gu Qi looked at Jiu Cang again and said, "Jiu Cang, help me keep an eye on them. If they... well, get drunk on spiritual energy, send them back to the cave to rest for a while before continuing."

Excessive energy concentration is not necessarily a good thing for mutant creatures, just like the mutant groundhog and mutant raspberry were almost "bursted" by a small piece of spiritual jade, because they had reached the threshold of what they could absorb within a certain period of time.

If we don't pay attention, they might go crazy like the mutant rat, which would not be worth it.

"No problem, I'll help Ah Qi keep an eye on them." Jiu Cang nodded, thought for a moment and said, "Actually, there's no need to send them to the cave. I've recovered a little now, so we can put up a barrier to isolate them."

Gu Qi: "...That's fine."

It’s not a big deal if the mutant creatures don’t rest for a day or two.

"Dig hard and there will be rewards." Gu Qi took out the spiritual wheat, steamed buns and crystal cores, and took out some to feed the mutant creatures whose eyes lit up instantly.

After eating, the mutant creatures started working excitedly.

The mutant sparrows used their claws, beaks, or even wings to pick up pickaxes and dig at the top of the chalcedony. The mutant raspberries also dug at the top, the mutant groundhogs dug at the bottom, and the mutant cats and dogs dug at the middle. Their movements were full of energy, and their speed...

"Bang!"

The strongest mutant groundhog used his pickaxe to dig out a large piece, but he only made a hole half a finger deep.

The mutated little sparrow even only left a white mark on it, which shows the hardness of this spiritual jadeite.

Jiu Cang raised his hand to his forehead and gritted his teeth, "Have you forgotten what I taught you before? Use your spirit... your supernatural power!"

After they started to move, Gu Qi stopped watching and took out a cushion and sat down in a corner.

Of course, one must practice quickly in a place with such abundant spiritual energy! Blocking his hearing, Gu Qi quickly entered the state of practice.

This training lasted for an entire night. When she opened her eyes again, Gu Qi's cultivation had already reached the late stage of foundation building. This was the result of her deliberate suppression.

Looking to the side, the spiritual jade was gone, replaced by a hole as high as a person. After Gu Qi removed the auditory shielding, he could hear clanging sounds coming from the hole.

"Hasn't it been dug out yet?" Gu Qi was a little surprised. Could it be that there was a spiritual ore behind that piece of spiritual jade?

If there really is a spiritual ore, plus that piece of spiritual jade, then she will not only have no shortage of spiritual stones for the next two, three, four and five levels, but she estimates that after the sixth and seventh levels, she may not even need to find ways to collect resources such as crystal cores that can be used as spiritual stones!

Thinking of this, Gu Qi stood up and walked towards the dug hole. After seeing the situation inside, her eyes froze.

It turns out that there really is a mine.

But it was not the spirit stone mine she thought it was.