"Damn, he killed himself?"
When Jiang Kai found Madu, he discovered that the guy had already committed suicide.
Although the final strike wasn't from Jiang Kai, the kill still counted toward his total.
After killing three people, Jiang Kai could plunder experience points—each person gave him over ten million.
However, Jiang Kai didn't hesitate to instead deduct the three's "Soul Transaction Value."
This stuff was far harder to get than experience, and there might even be an upper limit.
After all, no one in their right mind would trade away all their soul.
After Feng Lijun and the other two died, they turned into points of light and dissipated.
Madu and Xia Yan had already reported the incident about the Seventh-Level Pagoda to their superiors, but Jiang Kai wasn't worried at all—
the Seventh-Level Pagoda was about to be relocated soon.
Even if those people came, they'd come for nothing.
From his fight with Feng Lijun's trio, Jiang Kai also realized there was still a gap between his strength and that of a sixth-tier abomination.
Although he still had a few trump cards left, by the time he actually had to use them, it would already mean he was in a dangerous situation.
Like right now—if a strong enemy suddenly attacked, with his current stamina, he'd probably die after just two hits.
"I'd better find a chance to get a set of extraordinary-grade armor. At least something that can block a few hits," Jiang Kai thought to himself.
"And maybe some treasure equipment too—extraordinary-grade ones are said to be insanely powerful."
After a short rest, once he'd recovered about twenty percent of his stamina, Jiang Kai turned around to look at the tall tower.
The outline of the tower had already grown faint—it looked like it was about to disappear.
He didn't dare linger here any longer. The Wheel of Fate had already been used up for his class change;
if he ran into another enemy like Feng Lijun now, he'd be in real trouble.
"Little guy, come on—let's go check out that red glow over there."
In his Observation state, Jiang Kai could see a cluster of dazzling red light.
Around it were scattered veins of Blood Essence Stone and other minerals,
and in the center area was some unknown substance.
While Feng Lijun's comrades hadn't yet arrived, Jiang Kai decided to seize the moment and go take a look.
Now that he no longer had the X-ray Vision, he could only estimate the general direction and pick a tunnel that seemed to lead that way.
After going about four or five hundred meters deep, the tunnel ended.
"It's roughly this direction, but the passage stops here."
Jiang Kai examined the wall in front of him.
It was just soil and rock, no different from the rest of the tunnel walls.
The X-ray Vision could see the red light, but it couldn't determine the exact distance.
And since Jiang Kai had only remembered the general location, it was hard to tell exactly where he was now after going so deep underground.
Jiang Kai frowned in frustration.
He could start digging through the soil ahead,
but if his direction was even slightly off, he might end up digging through to the other side of the Ghost Star and still not find the place.
"This is going to be a pain…" Jiang Kai muttered, brow tightly furrowed.
Just as he was stewing over it, the little creature suddenly jumped down from his shoulder.
It landed by his feet and began rapidly digging at the wall with its two claws.
Before long, it had already burrowed its way inside.
"Huh?" Jiang Kai crouched down curiously and looked at the small hole, "Hey, you're not running away again, are you? What are you doing?"
As he called out, a spray of dirt burst from the hole, right into his mouth.
"Pfft—pfft! Damn it, you little bastard…", Jiang Kai cursed, standing up angrily.
Well, it wasn't like he'd raised the thing from childhood, it had run off again.
"When you followed Chang Siyu, you didn't run. But when it's me, you take off? You're definitely a male!" Jiang Kai grumbled harshly.
The mention of Chang Siyu made Jiang Kai's chest ache.
Last time, in order to keep her inside the Great Snow Mountain Secret Realm, he'd almost knocked her out cold with a single hand chop.
And this time, he'd thrown her hundreds of meters away again…
"Siyu, I really didn't mean it…" Jiang Kai said painfully, voice full of regret.
"Ah… next time I see her, I'll make it up to her properly. Otherwise, I'll never get another chance."
He looked down at the little hole, then back at the wall in front of him, and sighed.
"Well, I'm already here. Might as well give it a try. Let's dig and see."
A lot of people had gotten Blood Essence Stones before, and Jiang Kai had been honestly jealous.
Unfortunately, back then he was only fourth-tier, fighting over minerals with those beasts and fifth- or sixth-tier war gods would've been suicide.
Not to mention, he'd been too busy trying to confess to Chang Siyu to go mining anyway.
Just thinking about those Blood Essence Stones, Sky Crystals, and materials similar to the Demon-Slaying Sword, all worth a fortune, even with just one arm left, Jiang Kai's enthusiasm burned bright.
"Clone!"
Jiang Kai summoned his duplicate.
"What for? There's no enemy here," the clone said coldly, looking at Jiang Kai with disdain, then seemed to realize something.
"Wait, don't tell me you want to fight me again? You're in such a sorry state right now. I don't bully the handicapped."
Jiang Kai's face darkened. "You can't beat me anymore. I'm fifth-tier now."
"F–Fifth tier…? That's cheating!"
"Eh, stop whining. I'll go find Old Willow later and get you upgraded.
But getting him to upgrade you will probably cost a fortune.
Earlier, I found a place that looked like a mineral vein—right past this soil.
Help me dig it out."
The clone gave him a skeptical look. "You sure it's in this direction?"
"Positive!"
As arrogant as the clone was, the moment there was talk of making money,
he got more fired up than when they were fighting.
Before long, the two of them had dug more than twenty meters.
Just then, there was a faint sound behind them—
the little creature came running back.
It froze for a moment when it saw two Jiang Kais,
but quickly ran to the one-armed real Jiang Kai.
Chitter chitter chitter!
The little guy stood upright, frantically gesturing toward the direction it came from.
Jiang Kai frowned, staring for a while before finally understanding.
"No way… we dug in the wrong direction?"
The little creature nodded furiously.
The clone straightened up, squinting at Jiang Kai,
and after a moment of silence, spat out with utter contempt,
"Idiot."
Then followed the creature to start digging the other way.
Jiang Kai, knowing he'd messed up, could only follow along sheepishly.
Still, at least the little creature hadn't run away—it had gone to find the treasure.
That was a comforting thought.
Now, as long as they followed the path it dug, they wouldn't go wrong.
Digging was boring work. Jiang Kai asked,
"Hey, clone, do you know what that Old Willow's deal is?"
"No."
"Then why did Old Willow leave behind a clone? What's it for?"
"Go ask Old Willow yourself."
"You're impossible to talk to."
"I am you. Now you know how annoying you are."
The clone snorted. "Just hurry up and make money so you can upgrade me. I'm going to defeat you myself!"
"Heh… you little punk…"
Jiang Kai never thought he'd live to see the day he got roasted by his own copy.
Though they didn't get along, both of them worked hard.
Before long, they had dug nearly a hundred meters.
The clone, using the Chasing Life combined form, drilled through the earth ahead—
and suddenly, the combination attack pierced through the soil layer completely!
When Jiang Kai looked up, he was completely stunned.
Before them was a vast, natural cavern.
The inner walls of the cave were embedded with countless Blood Essence Stones,
their red glow bathing the entire space in a dim crimson light.
Between the red stones, a few transparent crystals were half-buried in the wall.
They looked just like the Blood Essence Stones, except colorless and clear—
as if streams of water flowed inside them.
"Sky Crystals!"
Going deeper in, there was a huge mineral deposit,
towering like a bamboo shoot growing out of the ground,
standing silently in place.
Most of it was still encased in rock,
but the exposed parts of the mineral gleamed with a deep black sheen—
its texture almost identical to that of the Demon-Slaying Sword.
And not far from that mineral,
a ball of red light floated quietly in the air.
Earlier, Jiang Kai hadn't seen what was inside that glow.
But now, up close, he finally saw it clearly.
Within the red light—
was a card.
The card slowly rotated on its own, suspended in midair.
Seeing that card, Jiang Kai instantly forgot about all the minerals around him.
His heart started pounding violently.
"Could that be… the Main God Card!?"