Chapter 40: Are You Sure?
After leaving the white town and passing through a desolate area, Su Xiao arrived at the Lost Withered Forest. He still used the old method of creating seal stones to clear the path.
Walking through the Lost Withered Forest, Su Xiao was bare-chested, wearing a white-gold mask, and holding the [Sinfall Celestial Relic]. The last time he went to find the Paradise Team, he was dressed like this, and of course, he wouldn't change this time.
Following the direction of the tracking mark, Su Xiao quickly exited the Lost Withered Forest and headed straight for the area where the Prince Team was located. Beside him, Bubu Wang blended into the environment, while Baha entered an alternate space.
To Su Xiao's surprise, Bubu Wang searched for over an hour without finding the Paradise Team's mine tunnel. They had gotten smarter.
"Bubu."
"Woof."
Bubu Wang activated its "bloodline ability" and started digging a hole in the ground. There was no mine tunnel on the surface, but Su Xiao didn't believe there wasn't one underground either.
Meanwhile, 3195 meters underground.
It was still the same nearly thousand-square-meter underground space, still with the stone-blue "liquid flow" clinging to the surrounding rock layers, and still with small machines flying low, detecting air pressure, air quality, and so on.
Apart from the sounds of machinery and the crisp noises of digging, no one spoke in the underground space.
Prince planted his alloy mining pick into the ground and turned his gaze to a man several dozen meters away. This was his newly hired combat-type contractor, named Haijini. Before they met, the negotiations went well—300 Soul Coins per day. But after meeting, the other party suddenly raised the price, without reason and without bothering to fabricate an excuse.
400 Soul Coins per day. Either Prince paid up, or Haijini signed a confidentiality contract and left. Two choices.
This sudden price hike made Prince resentful, but he had no choice. Bodyguards weren't easy to find, and having just been robbed once, Prince and his three companions had no choice but to grit their teeth and accept it.
After Haijini arrived, Prince began to relocate, heading to the location of the second ore vein. He had his eye on this one for a while, planning to come here after finishing the first vein. But now, the first vein was too dangerous, so he had to come to the second.
Having been robbed before, Prince was extra cautious, but he soon discovered another problem: Haijini also pulled out a mining pick.
What shocked Prince even more was that the other party actually wanted to join the operation? Upon hearing this, Prince almost spat blood. They were paying 400 Soul Coins per day, and now they had to give Haijini a fifth of the mined ore? The mining efficiency of a miner and a combat-type contractor was not even comparable.
In Haijini's words, this was called "bundled employment." Not only would he protect their safety, but he would also help increase their output. Thinking about this, Prince sighed inwardly.
"Brother, how about you take a break?"
Prince tentatively spoke. The air clone, which was swinging the mining pick rhythmically, ignored him. Prince was even more speechless. Haijini himself was a magic-type, so he didn't personally dig but let his air clone do the work.
Tap, tap, tap~
Footsteps came. Someone was walking over the hardened "liquid flow" on the ground. Hearing these footsteps, Prince suddenly shivered.
"Could it be..."
Prince turned his head and saw a bare-chested man wearing a white metal mask.
"You... are here."
Prince raised his hand, slicked back his wet blonde hair, and performed a hair-gel move. This time, the bodyguard he hired was a magic-type, incomparable to Red Gold. Although this magic-type was greedy, his strength was undeniable.
A man in a gold-blue magic robe with long hair stood up from an alloy box. He was Haijini.
"Prince, is he the one who took your ore?"
As Haijini spoke, air clones appeared around him.
"It's him. Attack!"
Prince shouted. Unfortunately, Haijini didn't act immediately, only continuing to form more air clones.
"Repelling him is free. Killing him costs 3000 Soul Coins."
A smirk curled at the corner of Haijini's mouth. He was ready to extort a hefty sum from Prince. Just then, a spatial fluctuation occurred, and Su Xiao was already a few meters in front of Haijini.
With a snap, Haijini snapped his fingers, and all the surrounding air clones exploded. Prince and his three companions felt an impact from the front, crashing into the ore vein behind them. Their internal organs churned, followed by numbness.
Water mist spread through the underground space. Prince felt a powerful water-attribute magic energy converging ahead. A series of booms came from the front, and the surroundings shook violently.
"This bodyguard was worth the hire."
Prince felt a surge of satisfaction. He once again experienced how powerful a magic-type was. In the water mist ahead, only water-attribute magic energy fluctuations were present. The enemy was clearly being suppressed. Although Prince wasn't a combat-type, he could still judge who was stronger.
Inside the water mist, Haijini's magic robe fluttered without wind. He pointed his staff forward.
'Rushing Torrent: Supreme Pressure.'
With a whoosh, water surged from around Haijini, rushing straight at Su Xiao. Powerful water pressure acted on his entire body. Cyan Steel Shadow Energy surged on his skin. Relying on the magic-devouring properties of Cyan Steel Shadow and his own powerful physique, he withstood the water pressure and charged forward in large strides.
With his Absolute Magic Immunity physique + Crystal Layer defense + Su Xiao's own strong survivability, he directly withstood Haijini's attack. His health dropped by 1.62%. It had to be said, the power of an Eighth Rank magic-type ability was quite impressive.
Seeing Su Xiao charging without dodging, Haijini transformed into a magic-type turret.
'Aquatic Domain.'
'Drowning: Suffocation.'
'Air Dragon Roar.'
'Sea God's Wrath!'
Haijini's expression was almost twisted. Although he wasn't a Mage Lord, he could temporarily act as a magic-type turret.
Various water-attribute attacks came from in front of Su Xiao, splashing water everywhere, but he didn't stop. Entering a Space Penetration state, he closed in on Haijini and smashed his staff toward the other's skull.
Compared to Haijini's grand and imposing attacks, Su Xiao's strike was exceptionally simple and brutal.
Just as Prince was waiting for Haijini to walk out of the water mist, he suddenly heard a cry of "Oh!" followed by a series of thumping sounds.
This sound was like a nightmare, reminding Prince of the scene where Su Xiao used a long staff to smash Red Gold into pieces piece by piece.
Crack!
It sounded like glass breaking. After one last scream, the water mist in the underground space gradually dissipated.
Prince, Belle, Old Fish, and the Dark-Faced Man leaned against the ore vein, staring ahead. They had already guessed the general outcome.
The water mist cleared. Blue droplets dripped down the long staff. The ground and walls were splattered with this blue liquid. Haijini had escaped using an Immortal Rank life-saving item, but at the cost of his skull nearly being crushed, both arms broken, and his ribs shattered. Of course, this was without Su Xiao using his blade; otherwise, Haijini would have died several times over.
"Wait, I have something to say."
Prince raised his hand and shouted. Hearing this, Su Xiao stopped.
"Big brother, I know what you want. The ore will be brought out immediately. There's no need to repeat the last process, right? We're all acquaintances..."
Before Prince could finish, the white staff came crashing down.
A moment later, Prince, Belle, Old Fish, and the Dark-Faced Man were all squatting on the ground, bruised and swollen.
They took out an alloy box and placed pieces of ore into it, already somewhat practiced.
"Big brother, you really have patience. I sealed the mine tunnel hundreds of meters underground, and you still dug your way in."
Prince wasn't too nervous. Just losing the ore was acceptable to him. If he could avoid getting beaten, that would be even better.
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. He put away the alloy box containing the Light Silver Ore and turned to leave. Taking the ore was enough; there was no need to waste more time. Before the battle for Space-Time Power, killing miners wasn't a wise choice.
"Wait."
Prince suddenly spoke.
"..."
"It's like this, big brother. There are two Light Silver ore veins here. Although a lot has been mined, there's still plenty left. How about we cooperate?"
Prince's words made Old Fish break out in a cold sweat. He suspected Prince had been beaten silly.
"I don't have time to protect you."
"You don't need to protect us. From the time we started mining here until now, only you have... come to visit. How about a 50/50 split?"
"Fine."
"Then sign a contract?"
Prince's tone was a bit excited. He had realized that this area was very secluded. Besides Su Xiao coming to rob them, no one else came. As for the escaped Haijini, with the contract in place, the other party wouldn't dare to cause trouble.
"Sign a contract?"
"Yes, sign a contract."
Prince's attitude was exceptionally firm.
"You... are sure?"
"Of course I'm sure. It's just signing a contract. What's the big deal?"
Under Prince's insistence, Su Xiao drafted a physical contract.
Prince and his four companions were very cautious. Perhaps having heard some rumors, they began to carefully inspect the parchment contract Su Xiao handed over, even using a magnifying glass.
In reality, this magnifying glass was utterly useless. Tampering with the font size or patterns of the contract was a method used before Sixth Rank.
The contract parchment Prince was about to sign could be peeled into many layers. Layers 1 to 4 were all identical, normal contracts. However, this contract parchment had a total of 5 layers.
PS: (Neck pain. Two chapters today. Sorry.)