Industrial Cthulhu doesn't believe in the end times.

Chapter 199 'Sweeping the Streets'

Time is difficult to perceive in the secret realm. The dim world is illuminated only by a faint starlight, but this is enough for the extraordinary beings to see.

On the way forward, they would occasionally encounter relatively complete buildings—not in terms of completeness, but in terms of authenticity. It might be a ruin, but even ruins are more valuable than haphazardly piled-up structures, and this is the main target of the group of extraordinary individuals' search.

If the secret realm also has a creator, then these buildings are His meticulous creations. In such a place, even a small remnant of a building could be a valuable material, and perhaps some precious resources are buried within it.

Just as Su Xun had killed another fifth-tier mutant, the team members on the other side finally made a discovery.

A clump of soil was found by a water-elemental superhuman and brought to Su Xun.

"Commander, we followed orders and used water infused with spiritual energy to flush out the ruins, and we discovered this!"

The visitor was overjoyed, and Su Xun's eyes lit up as well. This was one of the materials he had specifically taught everyone to find. It was an earth-attribute material that could absorb water elements and grow on its own, possessing the characteristics of the legendary Breath of Earth. Of course, it wasn't as powerful; it was more like a stripped-down version.

Even the downgraded version is quite useful for humanity at this stage. As long as there are enough of them, they can be used to reinforce high walls. The walls built with them are not only much stronger than those made of ordinary materials, but they also have the ability to absorb water elements and repair themselves.

Next summer, if extreme weather occurs frequently in the south, dikes and dams can be built to resist floods.

In the previous life, people did not discover the existence of this thing in the ruins until very late. In fact, it was not rare, but without activation, it was no different from ordinary soil, so it was often overlooked. It was not until water-type superhumans fought each other in the depths of the secret realm for resources that it was brought to the attention of humans.

At that time, Su Xun had just reached the fourth level. He followed the team deep into the secret realm and used his own abilities to search for these spiritual soils in the ruins. This was an important task for him and many other water-type extraordinary beings, and it was also the opportunity for him to enter the Daizong Secret Realm.

"Sweeping the streets in the secret realm" was their self-deprecating joke at the time. Of course, not just anyone could come to sweep the streets; only high-level water elementalists could do it.

Recalling his early life, he used his affinity for all elements to work several jobs to earn the spiritual energy crystals needed for advancement... He pretended to be a water-type superhuman sweeping the streets, or a fire-type superhuman tending the boiler, or an earth-type superhuman working on construction sites. But the most profitable job was growing beans under Xu Huan's tutelage using his affinity for wood elements—that was the earliest reason he became acquainted with Xu Huan.

All of this made Su Xun chuckle to himself.

In this life, he no longer has to do these things himself; instead, he's in charge of others, and these people are much more enthusiastic than he was back then. Xu Huan is essentially planting beans under his wing, albeit potatoes.

Always focusing his energy on the struggle between the military and the environment, Su Xun didn't recall much about things related to himself. But when this piece of soil appeared before him, it stirred up many memories of the past.

"Keep searching, but don't slow down too much; focus on keeping up with the group!"

"Yes!"

The man received the order and made a crucial discovery. Many people, including Su Xun, were in high spirits.

However, their purpose in coming to the secret realm this time was not limited to this. These spiritual soils are produced in every secret realm, and this time they were just collecting them incidentally under Su Xun's guidance.

The direction indicated by the oracle bone in Tao Yue's hand was naturally of paramount importance, but in addition, they had another important goal: to find genuine natural crystalline mineral deposits.

There aren't many secret realms that can form this kind of mineral deposit at this depth. Mount Tai is one of them. It's not exactly a secret. It existed in Su Xun's memories and it basically coincides with their current route.

The spiritual energy within the secret realm is abundant, even more so than in the outside world. Deep within the secret realm, there are numerous ancient and vast spiritual energy sedimentation zones, which produce an unimaginable number of pure spiritual energy crystals, as well as many mineral derivatives. Perhaps due to the special environment deep within the secret realm, the core of these crystal mineral veins gives birth to another, even rarer and unique product.

It was a jet-black mineral, known as Void Crystal or Space Crystal, which, as the name suggests, contained a peculiar power related to space. If carefully crafted by a sixth-tier or higher superhuman, it could be used for many purposes, with storing resources being just one of them. Long before this, the high-level superhumans of Su Xun's previous life had already developed the technology to weaponize it.

It must be said that war is indeed an important force driving technological development. Attacks involving space itself are far more powerful than spiritual energy jets, and even those at the ninth rank must be careful to deal with them.

This is an important strategic resource. The origin of these space crystals is still unknown. In the previous life, even the power involving spacetime was something that even the tenth rank rarely touched.

Many high-level superhumans speculate that the extremely powerful unowned spiritual energy in the mine may have caused an impact on the spatial level. In addition, the spatial structure in the secret realm is not as stable as that in the real world, which gave rise to this unique product.

However, this is not something they need to consider in the short term. They only need to be opportunists and make good use of it. Although many operations can only be performed by the sixth level, Su Xun is quite familiar with them. With his current strength and the assistance of many past human technologies, he may be able to replicate them in advance.

Su Xun and the others continuously adjusted their route, collecting various spiritual materials along the way, and finally arrived at a dark and desolate mountain. The mountain's height was unknown, and its summit connected to a dim sky, with numerous stars seemingly revolving around it. The target mineral veins were scattered throughout this mountain, and the surging spiritual energy was as conspicuous as an erupting volcano.

Despite possessing considerable spiritual power, even alien species were unwilling to linger here. Some semi-transparent phantoms suspended in mid-air drifted like ghosts in the spiritual energy field.

These vast crystalline mineral deposits contain unimaginable accumulations of spiritual energy. Although the sheer amount makes it difficult to form a unified consciousness, they are not to be mined at will.

Those illusory figures are spirits born from the mineral vein; their existence is unknown, and they have long since lost their clear forms.
In this era, if you want to grow grain, you have to win the grain battle; if you want to raise livestock, you have to win the livestock battle.

To mine spiritual energy deposits, you often have to defeat the veins first.

Su Xun first turned around and glanced at Tao Yue, only to see her nod slightly.

Clearly, the direction indicated by the oracle bone was in the same location as the mountain where this mineral vein was situated, and the bone fragment in her hand was even trembling slightly, as if it couldn't wait.

"At the mountaintop! I can feel it, right there at the mountaintop! Something is waiting for us there!"

Tao Yue's voice was tense and expectant, but the rest of the people looked at each other, feeling that this statement was a bit strange.

Seeing that Su Xun did not raise any questions, they calmed down.

In his previous life, Su Xun obtained this oracle bone much later, by which time the opportunity behind it had already been discovered by others. Su Xun mainly studied its precognitive properties, believing that it might contain some time-manipulation abilities.

Unfortunately, it turned out that it had nothing to do with time, and we never really figured it out.

This time, perhaps we can get a glimpse of it together.

He drew the longsword he had modified. The ghosts that roamed these mines were born with powerful energy levels, but they also had considerable weaknesses. If handled properly, they could be detonated directly. This was a trick that many high-level superhumans had figured out in his previous life. Whether you wanted to mine or go up the mountain, it was necessary to clear them out.

However, at that moment, someone suddenly stopped him.

It is Yin Danyi.

(End of this chapter)