Jiang Zhaoyue walked at the very front, her silver moon emblem flashing at regular intervals.
The mine tunnel grew narrower as they walked, and the Red Nitre Stone Mine veins on the rock walls on both sides gradually beca sparse.
They reached another fork where three tunnels branched out, each one pitch-black with no end in sight.
Jiang Zhaoyue stopped and closed her eyes to scan.
This ti, her scan took much longer than usual; the silver moon emblem on her forehead flashed rapidly, its light particularly conspicuous in the dim tunnel.
A mont later, she opened her eyes, the corners of her mouth curving into a aningful arc.
"I've discovered sothing interesting." Her tone carried a hint of a smile she couldn't hide.
Feng Qingyan leaned in and pressed for more: "Sister Jiang, what is it? Don't leave us hanging!"
Jiang Zhaoyue didn't answer directly, instead pointing toward the tunnel on the left: "Walk forward about fifty ters. There's a thin rock wall; you'll know once you open it."
The group exchanged looks, and Lin Feng nodded, taking the lead into the left tunnel.
Fifty ters wasn't a long distance, but the tunnel was winding, so it took about two minutes to reach the end.
Ahead was a rough rock wall with an uneven surface, showing no signs of anything unusual.
Lin Feng reached out and touched it; the wall wasn't very thick and the rock texture was relatively loose. A few hard strikes should be enough to break it open.
"Let do it!" Tie Dun had stepped to the front at so point, a piece of flatbread in his mouth and his cheeks bulging.
He gripped the troll bone shield with both hands, took two steps back, and lunged forward, slamming the edge of the shield hard against the rock wall.
*Boom!* A crack appeared in the wall.
Tie Dun stepped back and struck again, widening the crack.
On the third strike, rubble ca crashing down, revealing a dark opening behind it.
The hole wasn't large, but it was big enough for a person to crouch and crawl through. A dark red light emanated from within, much brighter than the tunnel outside.
Tie Dun took the flatbread out of his mouth and poked his head inside to look, only to be completely stunned.
"Good heavens..." His voice even changed pitch.
Inside was a sizable warehouse, roughly half the size of a basketball court, with dry gravel covering the floor.
The surrounding rock walls were embedded with Red Nitre Stone Mine veins, and the dark red light illuminated the entire space.
But what drew the most attention were the several piles of ore stacked in the corners of the warehouse.
The Red Nitre Stone Mine was piled into small mountains, glowing red like heaps of dying embers.
Beside them were two more piles: one of greenish copper ore and another of silvery-grey tin ore.
The copper ore chunks were large and of excellent quality, giving off an oily luster under the dark red light.
The tin ore was fine-grained and shimring with silver light, clearly high-grade ore.
Lin Feng's eyes suddenly lit up. Copper and tin ore—his Great Qin Elite Camp was currently lacking these two things.
The batch of Copper Ingots and Tin Ingots previously transported from Zhenyue City was almost used up.
He had been worrying about where to get another batch, and now, there were actually veins right here in this Dungeon.
"Copper ore! Tin ore!" Wang Wu also squeezed in, his voice full of pleasant surprise.
"Lord, we don't have to worry about weapon materials now!"
Zhao Hu crouched down, picked up a piece of copper ore to weigh it in his hand, then flipped it over to check the color of the cross-section and nodded: "The quality is good, better than any we've dug before."
Feng Qingyan and Jiang Zhaoyue also crawled inside. Seeing the three piles of ore, Feng Qingyan's eyes went wide: "So much? Are these marmots hoarders?"
The owners of the warehouse, about a dozen Cave Marmots, were gathered around the ore piles.
So were standing, so crouching, and so lying flat, all staring at the intruders with their small, black-bean-like eyes in terror.
Their reaction wasn't to attack, but to pounce onto the ore and spread their short forearms.
Like a hen protecting her chicks, they shielded the ore behind them, letting out sharp and frantic "chi chi chi" protests, as if they were cursing.
Tie Dun was taken aback by the display and couldn't help but laugh: "Are you guys protecting your food?"
He tried to walk over, reaching out to take a piece of Red Nitre Stone Mine.
A larger marmot suddenly lunged forward, gripping the ore tightly and refusing to let go.
Its round body hung from the ore as Tie Dun lifted both the ore and the marmot together.
The marmot kicked its short legs in the air, its tail lashing back and forth, squeaking even more fiercely, but it simply would not let go.
Tie Dun held it up, staring eye-to-eye in a standoff for three seconds, before setting the ore and the marmot back down together.
"Alright, alright, it's yours, I won't take it," Tie Dun muttered, withdrawing his hand.
Just then, a smaller marmot cub poked its head out from behind the ore pile.
Its fur was lighter, almost greyish-white, and its eyes were larger and rounder, like black grapes.
It was holding a piece of copper ore, lifting it above its head as it wabbled toward Tie Dun.
Walking up to Tie Dun's feet, it looked up and pointed the ore toward the flatbread in Tie Dun's hand.
"Zhi zhi," the little marmot squeaked twice, its voice thin and not as sharp as the adults'.
Tie Dun looked down at it, stunned for a mont, then understood: "You want to trade with ?"
He crouched down, took the copper ore from the little marmot, and placed it on the ground.
Then he broke off a small piece of the half-eaten flatbread and handed it to the little marmot.
The little marmot reached out with two small paws to hold the bread, bringing it to its nose to sniff.
Then it began to nibble ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ on it bit by bit, eating very slowly as if savoring so rare delicacy.
Seeing this, the adult marmots' protesting squeaks gradually quieted down.
A few even approached curiously, tilting their heads to watch the cub nibble on the bread.
"Wow—so cute!" Su Yurou couldn't help herself; she crouched down and carefully reached out to pet the little marmot's head.
The little marmot's ears twitched, but it didn't move away, continuing to nibble the bread.
Feng Qingyan also leaned in, leaning her staff against the wall and crouching beside Su Yurou to poke the little marmot's round belly.
The little marmot wobbled slightly from the poke, looked up at Feng Qingyan, and then went back to eating.
"Its belly is so soft!" Feng Qingyan exclaid, her eyes sparkling with delight.
Seeing that the cub wasn't being hard, the adult marmots gradually relaxed their guard.
One bold one even walked up to Tie Dun's feet, sniffed his boot, and let out a "zhi," as if confirming sothing.
Lin Feng stood behind them, watching the scene with a slight smile.
A thought occurred to him: these marmot monsters were natural-born miners; their digging, transporting, sorting, and storing were more professional than human miners.
If he could ta them to help Fenghuo County with mining, efficiency would at least double.
He rembered that Qingmu County seed to have an Interdiate Beast Tar.
After returning, he would have Liu Ming make arrangents to see if these marmots could be tad.
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