Remove all restrictions and transform into a bizarre girl.

The dark red light inside the crystal column was suppressed to the point of being almost invisible.

The entire space fell silent. The ore stopped pulsating, and even the air became still. Only Chen Nian's own breathing echoed in the emptiness.

"Alright." Xu Xue's voice came from the doorway. She let out a breath and continued, "The data has come down. Hold on, I'm going to take samples."

Chen Nian nodded, maintaining her ice-type output while keeping her gaze fixed on the crystal pillar.

The surface of the ice layer was smooth and uniform, and the dark red light inside was suppressed so tightly that almost no gaps could seep out.

After waiting for about three minutes, Xu Xue finished collecting the data.

Chen Nian then asked, "Should we take this crystal with us?"

"Can you move it?"

"certainly."

Upon hearing Xu Xue's reply, Chen Nian used the ice vines to sever all the connections between the crystal and the rock, then raised his hand and put the crystal into his spatial storage, intending to bring it back for Xu Xue to study later.

This is only the outer perimeter of the mining area.

There are still many more areas to explore.

Chen Nian also knew that earning 1 gray coins wasn't easy.

The moment the crystal pillar was absorbed into the space, Chen Nian clearly felt the ground beneath his feet tremble slightly, like an aftershock caused by something losing its support.

Although the surrounding ore was still frozen, fine cracks appeared on the surface of the ice, as if it had been broken through from the bottom by some kind of internal stress.

"Let's go." Chen Nian didn't linger and grabbed Xu Xue's arm, pulling her towards the iron gate.

The ice membrane, leaving no trace on the snow, spread out beneath her feet, and she practically glided across the ground as she exited the door. Behind her, the pulsation of the minerals, no longer suppressed by the crystal pillars, began to recover at a visible speed.

First, a few scattered pieces bounced again, then a dozen or so, and then all the ores in the space began to bounce in a chaotic rhythm, with dark red light flickering uncertainly beneath the ice layer.

The two retreated into the stairwell. Chen Nian closed the iron door and used her ice-type ability to freeze a thick layer of ice at the door seam, temporarily isolating the movement behind the door.

She breathed a slight sigh of relief after finishing all that, then turned to Xu Xue and asked, "Where is the next area?"

Xu Xue had already put away the sampler and pointed to the direction where the stairs continued downwards: "This is just the dispatch center of the mining area. The real entrance to the ore vein is on a lower level. The energy fluctuations of those crystal pillars originate in that direction."

Chen Nian looked in the direction she was pointing, and the stairs continued downwards after turning a corner.

This time, there was no iron gate. Instead, there was a narrow passageway with exposed rock strata on both sides. Traces of mineral veins could be seen sporadically embedded on the rock surface, their color dark, like remnants that had lost their vitality.

"Let's go." Chen Nian stepped down.

The passageway was even narrower than the stairwell, allowing two people to pass sideways, one in front of the other.

The ground beneath our feet was no longer a smooth staircase, but a naturally formed rock surface, uneven and pitted, with some areas covered by a thin layer of dark red slag, which made a slight cracking sound when stepped on.

The air grew increasingly cool, carrying a deep dampness and a mixed smell of residual mineral heat; it was hard to tell whether it was cold or stuffy.

After walking for about seven or eight minutes, the passageway suddenly opened up ahead.

Chen Nian slowed her pace, and the beam of her flashlight swept across the front, revealing a natural cave in her field of vision.

The ceiling was much lower than the previous dome space, but it was very deep. The walls of the cave were lined with regular recesses, like grooves carved by hand, and each groove contained a piece of ore the size of a fist.

The colors range from dark red to dark green, and they are quietly embedded in the rock wall, showing no signs of movement.

Chen Nian stopped at the entrance of the cave and carefully shone her flashlight around.

The grooves on the cave walls are arranged very neatly, with almost perfectly uniform spacing, unlike any naturally formed traces.

She approached one of the grooves and saw a very thin, transparent crystalline layer on the surface of the ore, as if it had been wrapped in something and then peeled off, leaving behind a remnant.

"These grooves..." Xu Xue walked over to her and shone her flashlight on them to examine them carefully. "They look like places where something used to be placed."

Chen Nian's gaze swept over the grooves, and a bad thought surfaced in her mind.

She didn't voice the thought, but simply looked away from the groove and continued walking forward along the cave.

The color of the remaining ore in the grooves on the cave wall becomes lighter as it goes, from dark red to gray, and then to almost transparent white, as if the energy within it has been drawn away layer by layer.

"The ore here doesn't look like it's been mined out; it looks like it's been sucked dry," Xu Xue said.

Just as Xu Xue finished saying that sentence.

Another strange event occurred.

The previously stable mine shaft suddenly began to vibrate violently.

This time, the mutation came very quickly, and unlike in C, it wasn't meant to guide them to devour each other, but rather to strangle them.

Rumble!

With the moment the mine changed.

The ice vines that Chen Nian had prepared long ago came in handy at this moment.

The ice vines were launched out the instant the anomaly occurred.

One rock pierced into the rock wall above their heads, another wrapped around Xu Xue's waist, and a third quickly spread out along the ground, forming a temporary stable platform beneath their feet.

The vibrations throughout the mine became extremely violent in that instant. The rock walls on both sides seemed to come alive and squeeze inward, with gravel and dust falling from above. The beams of flashlights were almost useless in the thick dust.

The way out disappeared in an instant.

And it kept squeezing until the space between the two people was compressed to only one cubic meter.

Grass!

Chen Nian snorted coldly and slashed out with her sword.

Although the rock was split, it healed itself in the next instant, and at an extremely fast speed.

When Chen Nian slashed out the second time, the wound had already healed.

"This mine is so eerie, it's unbelievable!" Chen Nian exclaimed in surprise.

The one in Zone C couldn't control her, so is this one even stronger?

No, that's definitely not the reason.

Chen Nian did not rush to deliver her third strike.

She sheathed her sword and instead held the Miao sword horizontally in front of her. Her gaze quickly swept across the healing rock walls around her. As the cracks closed, a very thin layer of dark red light would briefly appear at the edges, as if something was stitching up a wound behind her back.

Then, he looked at the individual grooves.

Just after Chen Nian struck with her sword, a portion of the ore instantly turned white.

She stared at the light membrane for two seconds, then said, "It's drawing energy from the ore to heal its wounds!"

Hearing Chen Nian's words, Xu Xue also looked at the ores and indeed discovered something.

But there are so many ores here, it would be difficult to get out if we just fight like this.

However, with the ice vines forming a circle to block them, the mining area cannot devour them in the short term.

……