The Dawn of the New World Chapter 1538

One of Hao Xuan's eyebrows began to rise as interest built up, "Many of them? How many?"

"I dunno, MANY!"

"More than the number of people that are here?"

"Mhm!"

"Huh..."

Hao Xuan scratched his chin thoughtfully.

'Spirit stones that are the size of a person's foot and warm to the touch. They must be infused with the yang energy of the wasteland after it was concentrated to the extreme over many thousands of years. Although not enough for the city, these crystals still outa be ridiculously valuable in this place. If I can get my hands on a few of them then it would set me up for a long time.'

"Show me where they are!"

Ryuk led Hao Xuan to the deepest part of the tunnel and pointed straight towards the crystals.

"That side!"

"How far in?"

Ryuk moved fifteen meters back, "Uhhh, that much?"

"That's not too far. Let me see if I can get to it today."

Hao Xuan began to dig deeper inch by inch, moving several tons of rubble around in the process. Roughly 2 hours later he had hit a literal and figurative wall.

The area ahead was blocked by thousands of small spirit stones etched into the walls.

"Damn, this is as far as I can go," he muttered in disappointment.

"Why?? It's not far now!" Ryuk exclaimed.

"If I dig any more the entire rock formation will come down on top of us," he explained while pointing at the side walls, "There needs to be support put into the other two sides opposite to us so it can hold everything up. I have no choice but to wait for some of the other slaves to catch up to me, it's not possible alone."

Putting his hand against the wall of spirit stones he could even feel the heat permeating through the other spirit stones. Hell, some of them already had a tinge of orange in them.

Ryuk threw his hands into the air in frustration, "Argh! So close and yet so far! Is this good luck or bad??"

"Could be either," Hao Xuan chuckled lightly, not taking it to heart, "A bit too soon to tell right now."

But just as he pulled back his hand some of the dirt gave way to reveal a bright orange light.

"Hmm?"

It was bright enough to illuminate more than half the tunnel.

Hao Xuan quickly cleared out the dirt around it to reveal a small crystalline shard that was no more than a centimeter wide and ten centimeters long. It came out with relative ease and just by holding it in his hands he could feel the pure yang energy flowing into him.

"My god! This small and still this powerful?!"

Ryuk crept up from the side like a thief in the night, "Mmmm, so warm~"

Hao Xuan frowned while moving the shard away, "You can't even do anything with it, why do you like it so much?"

Ryuk swayed left and right trying to get closer to the shard, "It feels nice~"

He almost sounded hypnotized. Wherever Hao Xuan moved the shard he would subconsciously follow after trying to cozy up to it.

'Huh, that's a first. He is spellbound by its mere presence,' Hao Xuan realized, which sent a chill down his spine.

He looked around warily. If such a small shard's energy could tempt even Ryuk, a being unable to even absorb its energy, then just how potent would it be to other beasts?

He cautiously stepped back, 'Such a precious mine can't be unguarded. There is always some kind of monstrous creature that attaches itself to these lands of power!'

After making a swift exit Hao Xuan ran to the outskirts to examine the rock formation from a distance. No foreign energy, no broken extremities, no blood. None of the usual signs were present.

'There are no signs of a fight so they haven't come face to face yet. That could only mean one of two things. Either the beast is away and will return at a later time, or...it is already here.'

"Ryuk!"

"Hmmmmmm?~" he almost floated over to him.

"Go down. Check the bottom of the rock formation and then all around it. See if there is anything there."

"Hmmmmmm....whyyyy?~"

"Oh for fuck sakes!"

Hao Xuan stored the yang stone away in one of the empty spots of the pendant, breaking its hold on Ryuk and immediately returning him to normal.

"Huh? What happened? Why are we outside?" he looked around in confusion.

"Don't worry about that. Just go down and explore the area around the mine. Tell me if you see anything out of the ordinary."

"Out of ordinary? Like what?"

"Anything! Anything living!" Hao Xuan stressed trying to push him into the sand but ended up passing right through Ryuk as he talked to himself.

"Eeeh? Living? Like the big hairballs? Are they living? Does it matter if there is a lot of them?"

"...."

"The what?"

"The hairballs sleeping under the sand," Ryuk casually repeated.