Thunder Stones were relatively smooth, and each one was very similar in size. Even the largest was only twice the size of the smallest. At the same time, Thunder Stones contained traces of lightning energy. This made Luo Feng speculate that these Thunder Stones were probably a strange type of stone created when the Realm Within the Realm was formed.
128,926 pieces!
Even if he could grab 100 pieces every second, it would still take nearly 1,300 seconds. Not to mention that although the Moyun Vine could split into many vines, and even smaller branches, it still needed to burrow underground, which consumed a lot of time.
“Even picking up Thunder Stones takes quite a while.” Inside the underground cave, Thunder God sighed.
“We have the Moyun Vine, so we are relatively fast. If we relied purely on warriors to search, even if there were Spiritual Nian Masters, burrowing underground would still be troublesome. I estimate that thousands of people would barely match the speed of one Moyun Vine.” Luo Feng smiled.
As a plant, the Moyun Vine was naturally skilled at penetrating soil with its roots. Combined with its thin structure, it could burrow underground extremely quickly.
If it were humans, considering the toughness of the soil and rocks in the Realm Within the Realm, it would indeed take a very long time.
……
The five of them waited quietly inside the cave, leaving everything to the Moyun Vine.
More than two hours later.
“Everything is finished.” Luo Feng was extremely excited. He could not help but touch a section of vine wrapped around his arm. “Moyun, thank you for your hard work. You will have to help us these next few days as well. Here, have a Mu Ya Crystal.”
Luo Feng threw a Mu Ya Crystal to the Moyun Vine, and the extended vine immediately twisted excitedly.
Because it had become Luo Feng’s master-servant companion during its first evolution, the Moyun Vine was extremely attached to Luo Feng, almost like a child was attached to its parents.
“This is a Thunder Stone.” Luo Feng flipped his hand, and a Thunder Stone appeared in his palm.
The extremely smooth stone contained a faint trace of lightning energy, but the amount of energy was extremely small.
“Let me see.” Thunder God curiously took it.
“More than 120,000 Thunder Stones.” Hong could not help but sigh. “To encounter such an opportunity, we really have incredible luck.”
“Save time. Right now, time is Thunder Stones! Time is treasure!” Luo Feng said repeatedly with a smile, then led the way towards the surface.
“Let us go up.”
The five quickly reached the surface.
“Luo Feng, the Thunder Stones in this area are probably spread across more than 20 kilometres. Search around a bit more.” Babata’s voice sounded in Luo Feng’s mind.
“Understood.”
The five of them began rapidly moving around the surrounding area again.
“There are 16,924 Thunder Stones within this 20-kilometre range.”
“There are 9,156 Thunder Stones within this 20-kilometre range.”
“There are 3,208 Thunder Stones within this 20-kilometre range.”
“There are 853 Thunder Stones within this 20-kilometre range.”
……
“Hahaha, we are rich! Luo Feng, there are actually 159,835 Thunder Stones within this 20-kilometre range, almost 160,000!” Babata shouted excitedly.
Indeed.
The distribution area of the Thunder Stones in this region covered nearly 100 kilometres. There were two places where they were more concentrated. One was the place Luo Feng and the others had first excavated, containing 128,926 pieces. The other was the newly discovered area containing nearly 160,000 pieces. Other locations had more than ten thousand at most, while some had fewer than a hundred.
Fortunately, Babata’s detection was extremely precise.
“This is truly a huge treasure.” Thunder God was extremely excited.
“So many treasures.” Tie Nanhe and Ao Gu, the two servants, were also amazed. These Thunder Stones represented those incomparably precious treasures. Those were treasures even World Masters valued. If used to purchase ninth-level Stellar Rank slaves, they could easily form a powerful army.
“Start digging.” Luo Feng’s eyes shone as he gave the order.
Immediately, the five began burrowing underground.
With the Moyun Vine, they rapidly collected Thunder Stones.
Fortunately, this region was extremely far from the core area. Luo Feng and the others had flown continuously from daytime until late at night before arriving here. Meanwhile, the more than ten thousand adventurers were mostly searching near the core area. After all, there were many Thunder Stone regions.
Compared to the number of Thunder Stone regions, more than ten thousand adventurers were truly too few.
“Moyun, thank you for your hard work.” Luo Feng was extremely happy, feeling as if his blood was boiling.
This time, after spending more than eight hours, they finally excavated all the Thunder Stones in this area without leaving a single one behind.
“How many?” Hong could not help asking.
“Third brother, how many Thunder Stones do we have now?” Thunder God also could not help asking.
“Adding the 128,926 pieces we first excavated, our total number of Thunder Stones is……” Luo Feng smiled. “396,201.”
“Damn, nearly 400,000?” Thunder God widened his eyes.
“Just this one area alone has made us rich.” Hong smiled.
Indeed.
If another team had come to excavate this region, they would probably have had great difficulty clearing it completely. Some Thunder Stones were densely distributed, while others were scattered sparsely. Luo Feng relied on Babata’s detection and removed every single Thunder Stone. They obtained nearly 400,000 pieces at once, while the fifth-order Origin Force weapon, Heavenly Fire Wheel, only required 100,000.
“Go, save time. Let us head to the next place.” Luo Feng immediately said.
On their way here, Babata had discovered two locations while travelling. This was only one of them.
“Yes, the next place.” Thunder God’s eyes shone brightly, like a beggar who had seen a mountain of gold.
……
It took nearly 10 hours to travel from the core region to the first excavation point. Excavating the Thunder Stones took another nearly 11 hours.
Luo Feng and the others continued flying.
After nearly 38 more hours, they finally reached the mountain region where the second excavation point was located.
……
The sky was completely dark.
This was a vast mountain range covered with lush plants and trees.
“According to the simplified Thunder Stone distribution map, there are two Thunder Stone regions within this 20,000-kilometre radius. However, a range of 20,000 kilometres is huge! Each region will consume a great deal of time. Ordinary detection equipment is useless. Only the two most advanced devices can work. Even with those two devices, how long will it take to search a 20,000-kilometre diameter area?”
“Stop complaining and focus on the task.”
A massive team of more than a thousand people was spread out, continuously searching. The previous conversation came from two members of this search team.
18 kilometres away from this group.
Luo Feng, Hong, Thunder God, Tie Nanhe, and Ao Gu were crouching on the ground.
“This is troublesome.” Hong whispered.
“The two-million-strong army has already arrived.” Luo Feng looked anxious. “At least in this mountain forest, there is a team of nearly ten thousand people.”
Earlier, they had planned to head to the second excavation site, but unexpectedly encountered a thousand-person team halfway there, so they immediately changed direction. However, after changing their route, they encountered another thousand-person team.
Adding the people they had spotted flying in the distance.
They guessed that there was probably a large force of nearly ten thousand people gathered in this mountain range.
Originally, there were only a little over ten thousand adventurers. It was impossible for so many people to suddenly appear. Therefore, there was only one possibility.
The two-million-strong army had arrived.
In fact, when the castle publicly revealed the treasure list, the vanguard of the two-million-strong army had already arrived, but they had only been in the surrounding areas at that time. After two or three days passed, many regions of the Realm Within the Realm had begun showing the presence of different units from the two-million-strong army.
The simplified Thunder Stone distribution map had obviously also fallen into the hands of the two-million-strong army.
“Quick, continue changing direction.” Luo Feng ordered.
In the darkness of the mountain range.
The five quickly changed routes again. Along the way, they encountered another thousand-person team and changed direction once more. After flying several thousand kilometres, they finally reached the second excavation point.
“They have not excavated here yet.” Luo Feng and the others hid in a thorny bush, extremely excited.
Clearly, there were no signs of excavation in this area.
Babata’s detection also showed that there were many Thunder Stones underground.
“Thunder Stones are different from Universe Crystals. They are very difficult to detect. From the conversation of those search members just now, this large force only has two of the most advanced detection devices.” Babata said proudly. “And that Thunder Stone distribution map is only a simplified map. The entire Realm Within the Realm stretches millions of kilometres. At most, it tells people that Thunder Stones exist somewhere within a certain tens of thousands of kilometres area.”
“Start digging.” Luo Feng decisively ordered.
The five quickly burrowed underground, while Tie Nanhe concealed the surface traces of the excavation.
Underground.
“There are 210,397 Thunder Stones within this 20-kilometre range.” Babata said.
“Moyun, it is up to you.” Luo Feng did not dare hesitate. With a thought, countless slender vines extended from his arm, rapidly penetrating the soil and spreading in every direction.
Babata guided the process.
The Moyun Vine collected the Thunder Stones one by one. The vines extended into the rocks and soil, and whenever they encountered a Thunder Stone, they immediately grew leaves that wrapped around it and pulled it away.
……
A length of 20,000 kilometres required nearly an hour of flight for a ninth-level Stellar Rank expert under the terrifying gravity of the Realm Within the Realm. More importantly, a diameter of 20,000 kilometres required repeated flights back and forth. These top-level devices were extremely detailed in their detection, but their detection range was not large. Babata’s 20-kilometre detection range was already considered very powerful.
Even if they scanned 20 kilometres at a time, a width of 20,000 kilometres would require 1,000 scans.
Flying one scan route required one hour. With two devices, it would still take a full 500 hours to completely scan the area.
……
Underground.
After more than three hours of excavation.
The slender vines rapidly retracted, shrinking continuously before merging back into Luo Feng’s skin.
“Good. This area has been completely excavated. Let us search around.” Luo Feng transmitted through his thoughts. “Everyone be careful. Do not get discovered.”
“Understood.”
The five carefully emerged from underground and began rapidly exploring the surrounding area. Soon, they had searched the entire vicinity. This Thunder Stone region was 96 kilometres long and 129 kilometres wide. Within this enormous area, there were three concentrated locations. They contained 210,397 pieces, 128,302 pieces, and 198,355 pieces respectively.
The other areas contained fewer than 50,000 pieces, with the smallest having only a few hundred.
Overall, this region contained slightly more Thunder Stones than the previous region Luo Feng excavated.
“Go to the next area, the place with 198,355 Thunder Stones.” Luo Feng immediately ordered.
Every second counted!
Every minute represented a large number of Thunder Stones being collected. While Luo Feng and the others were nervously excavating underground, some teams occasionally flew overhead, unaware that people were hidden beneath them.
“You, go over there and search. That area has not been detected by the instruments.”
“Yes, Captain.”
A small team finally rushed directly towards the area Luo Feng and the others were excavating.
“Captain, Thunder Stones, there are Thunder Stones here!”
“What? Thunder Stones?”
“Quick, report to the team commander and the World Master!”
……
Underground.
“Luo Feng, hurry, someone is coming underground.” Babata’s voice sounded in Luo Feng’s mind.
Luo Feng’s expression changed.
Meanwhile, the Moyun Vine was still rapidly excavating. The number of Thunder Stones collected every second continued increasing.
“They found Thunder Stones and reported it. Hurry, many members are coming down. Leave!” Babata shouted.
“Moyun, quickly, quickly, quickly.” Luo Feng immediately ordered.
The Moyun Vine rapidly retracted, no longer caring about the remaining Thunder Stones. In just the blink of an eye, it had completely returned to Luo Feng’s arm.
“Go!” Luo Feng shouted.
“Everyone be careful. Once we reach the surface, immediately follow me and move quickly. There are already more than a thousand ninth-level Stellar Rank experts outside. However, this is a mountain forest area, so we still have a chance to escape.” Luo Feng quickly transmitted through his thoughts. The other four nodded slightly.