THE MARTIAL KING, VOLUME 4 - Season 12 Episode 47

Zen took out the ores from the body of the mineral-devouring bug and handed them to Camilla.

He did get a lot of life stones, but the number was nowhere near his goal.

Letitia’s life energy was on the verge of drying up and these life stones could probably wake her up, though they couldn’t restore her life energy to her original state.

Allowing Letitia into this kind of a situation had always been a great shame for Zen and he’d been deeply remorseful. The only way he could make it up to her was by obtaining as many life stones as possible.

There was no Soul Core in the body of this mineral-devouring bug. Most of the divine-level talents were disappointed.

They knew that even if Zen dug out a Soul Core from this bug, they probably wouldn’t be able to get their hands on it. But they couldn’t help but hope for a Soul Core when they saw Zen catch the bug.

Once he had dealt with the body of the mineral-devouring bug, Zen turned to Randy, curiosity written on his face. “Why is this so-called Soul Core so important?” he asked.

This was not a secret. Even the divine-level talents that entered the Feather Holy Sea for the first time seemed to be very clear about it. Randy simply told Zen, “Remember the Heavenly Stellar Secret Land that I mentioned to you?” Zen nodded.

Many of the Soul Sea Realm masters weren’t interested in the Feather Emperor Secret Land, the Mysterious Dream Secret Land, or the Divine Emperor Secret Land. They were only interested in the Heavenly Stellar Secret Land, which was way more important than the other three secret lands. And that was where the secret of the Dragon Lineage Human and the Ancestral Dragon’s egg were located.

“Could it be that the Soul Core is somehow connected to entering the Heavenly Stellar Secret Land?” Zen continued to ask.

“That’s right. Only by obtaining a Soul Core can we become qualified enough to go to the grand graveyard in the Divine Emperor Secret Land and control the corpses of the Dragon Lineage Humans,” Randy said with a smile.

Zen’s eyes flashed at Randy’s words. He simultaneously felt a slight tremble in his mind and recognized it to be the vibration of the cyan dragon’s soul.

Zen had promised the cyan dragon that he would get the Ancestral Dragon’s egg, but that was only if he had the chance. Even a powerful warrior at the Soul Sea Realm found it difficult to enter the Heavenly Stellar Secret Land. With Zen’s current strength, he might not be able to do anything.

It was a good thing that the Feather Holy Sea opened every year. If Zen didn’t get through this year, he would only need to accumulate enough life stones. He would first go back to the Central Region and replenish Letitia’s life energy, and then when the time was right, he could come back to this continent.

It had been so many years, but the four divine kingdoms hadn’t taken away the Ancestral Dragon’s egg from the Heavenly Stellar Secret Land. It would probably be impossible for them to do so in such a short period of time.

Before the cyan dragon could say anything, Zen told him in his mind, “If I can obtain a Soul Core from this mine, I will make sure to make a trip to the Heavenly Stellar Secret Land.”

The cyan dragon’s face lit up at Zen’s promise. Although he was in Zen’s mind, he could not ask too much of Zen. With his current strength, he was barely able to fight against the warriors at the Soul Sea Realm. Dealing with the emperors alone would be a difficult test for Zen, not to mention how dangerous the Heavenly Stellar Secret Land actually was. What was worse was that Zen had already pitted himself against the York Divine Kingdom and made sure that they would hold a grudge against him.

So the cyan dragon and the red dragon didn’t say anything, closing their huge eyes in peace. They had previously helped Zen withstand a soul attack from the little monster, which wasn’t a small loss for them. Their souls needed to rest for a while.

Zen didn’t probe any further as to why he needed a Soul Core to control the corpses within the Divine Emperor Secret Land. The course of action was that Zen would obtain the Soul Core. So no matter how many other answers he knew, it would not change anything. Right now, he still had to hurry and excavate the life stones.

Camilla had accumulated all of Zen’s ores and started a new round of trading with many warriors. This time, the ores attracted all of the warriors who were mining, and there must be many of those who had managed to dig up the life stones. Camilla was sharp and would naturally seize this opportunity.

Zen nodded at Randy and continued on his way to enter the 30th layer of the pyramid.

Zen had originally thought that the higher the level, the higher the probability of discovering the life stones. But after ages of searching, he was left disappointed.

It was harder for him to dig ores in the leaves of the 30th layer. Yet the number of life stones in the 30th layer was less than that in the previous layers.

No wonder Randy had suggested that Zen dig ores between the 25th layer and 29th layer. The number of life stones in these five layers might probably be the most.

The problem was that Zen had already gone to every door, right from the 25th layer to the 29th layer. He had probably dug out most of the life stones in these five layers himself. Some of them might have fallen into the hands of other warriors, but those numbers would probably be tiny.

Zen estimated that the other warriors only had a few more than a hundred life stones with them. And adding Zen’s life stones to the count would mean that he would end up with only around three to four hundred of them. But his goal was to obtain a thousand life stones.

‘This mining tree absorbs all sorts of ores from unknown places every year. The warriors of the four divine kingdoms dig them out every year and new leaves sprout only the following year, which means that…’

Zen’s thought halted abruptly as he realized what the trouble was going to be. There would probably be only about 500-600 life stones from this year’s production.

Zen’s heart sank. Perhaps the life stones he had gathered were enough to sustain Letitia’s life energy, but he knew it was still too far from his goal.

He let out a long breath.

Even so, all he could do was dig for ores and collect as many life stones as he could.

Crack! Crack!

Zen continued to excavate, and in the process, the quantity of the other ores increased, but the number of life stones didn’t increase significantly.

From the 30th layer up, the life stones were becoming increasingly rare.

He continued to dig upwards layer by layer, and as the leaves became sturdier, Zen continued to borrow more power of the dragon scales.

Six hours later, when Zen went out again, the multi-colored ores around Camilla had already piled up into a human-sized mountain.

These ores flickered with a variety of colors, a result of Zen’s random picking. If he had not done that, the number of ores could have been higher.

There were, of course, a lot of precious ores among them. However, there were also some that were not very valuable. Zen didn’t know how to identify ores so he was very casual as he mined them.

This mountain of ores had attracted almost half of the divine-level talents to watch what was going on.

“This Thad Luo looks like a puppet that doesn’t know exhaustion. His efficiency is terrifying. Tsk! Tsk! Even a mighty warrior at the Soul Sea Realm wouldn’t have been as good as him, right?”

“I have nothing to say anyway. Let’s forget about what’s happening this year. Next year, I will definitely advise my father not to let him in. If this goes on, he’ll be able to dig out all the ores in the mine by himself!”

“Alas! I want that Saint Forging Stone, but the price offered by that woman is too high. She wants 50 life stones in exchange for it. I really can’t take out fifty life stones! Not even one!”

Many of the divine-level talents were also envious, but they didn’t dare rob Zen openly. Zen wasn’t afraid of anyone, and he had even dared to look down upon Fredric, the crown prince of the York Divine Kingdom. If they as much as tried to rob him, it would be difficult for them to escape.

Zen’s mining efficiency was not inferior to that of the mighty warriors at the Soul Sea Realm. After borrowing the power of the dragon scales, his pure strength was comparable to that of some powerful warriors at the Soul Sea Realm, and he might even prove to be stronger than them.

Moreover, the powerful warriors at the Soul Sea Realm would need to use up the reserves of their physical strength to mine like this, while Zen directly borrowed the endless power of the dragon scales. Although the power of the dragon scales would also be consumed eventually, with Zen’s current strength, the rate at which he used the power of the dragon scales was much slower than his recovery.

This meant that he had an unending source of power. Given all this, who could compete with him when it came to mining efficiency?

Moreover, the mining efficiency wasn’t the problem. The number of life stones was the problem here.

“Camilla, how many life stones have you got?” Zen walked over and threw a brightly colored ore on top of the small mountain. There were at least a thousand ores piled up there.