Super God Pet Shop

Chapter 68 Nether Stone

Fan Ganglie stared at the bottomless cliff ahead, then at the direction of the footprints, which disappeared at the edge of the cliff. His expression changed. "Could it be...?"

"There are other footprints here. It must have been chased by something and probably fell off a cliff," Ye Chenshan said tactfully, glancing at the surrounding environment.

Fan Yujing and Li Ying both looked grim. They had gone through so much trouble to find them, and in the previous battle, Fan Ganglie had lost his Serpent Winged Azure Dragon. If the Blood Fox Flame Tail Beast had also fallen off the cliff and died, wouldn't all their efforts have been in vain?

Su Ping remained silent, his gaze slowly sweeping over the surroundings. He took in the scattered footprints on the ground, the few signs of battle, the remaining fiery red hair, and the shattered bones.

He suddenly jumped off the demonic beast, came to the edge of the cliff, and lay down to look into the cliff.

He lay prone to prevent being attacked and pushed off the cliff. Although he knew that Fan Ganglie and the others had no reason to do so, he could not be too careful.

The cliff was pitch black; it was nighttime and visibility was extremely low.

"Do you have any glow sticks?" Su Ping asked Fan Ganglie and the others behind him.

Seeing Su Ping reach out to the edge of the cliff, Fan Ganglie and the others felt embarrassed to continue sitting on the demonic beast and got off. Li Ying said, "Yes, we have some." He took out a few glow sticks from his backpack and handed them to Su Ping.

Su Ping unscrewed one and threw it into the cliff.

The glow stick plummeted straight down, illuminating the steep cliffs along its path with crystal clarity. The rough, brown rock face was incredibly rugged. Dozens of meters away, Su Ping saw a tuft of fiery red fur fluttering in a crevice – the fur of the Blood Fox Flame-Tailed Beast. The glow stick continued its descent, skimming over the rough rock face and illuminating some withered vines sprouting from the crevices.

Suddenly, Su Ping seemed to see a strange object, but the firelight was too weak and the falling was too fast for him to see clearly.

He unscrewed the switch and threw down another glow stick, following the same trajectory as before.

This time he saw it clearly: it was an irregular, hard block with dark gold particles embedded in the cliff face, and its surface was rough.

"Could it be a gold mine?" Su Ping was stunned. In this unknown region, where no humans had ever mined, it was not surprising to find a gold mine. This was the charm of pioneering. Countless pioneers had become rich by finding a gold mine or other rare mineral resources such as uranium.

Su Ping was surprised and delighted to have such a good thing on his first visit. However, it would be too difficult for him to pick this thing on his own, and he would need the help of others.

Moreover, it's unlikely that he can keep it all to himself. His storage space is too small. If it's really a metal ore, even if he fills the storage space, the value extracted won't be high. He can only rely on his pet beast to carry it back.

At this moment, Fan Ganglie picked up a stone and threw it off the cliff. He listened carefully, but there was no response after a long time. His face turned grim, and he turned to Li Ying and said, "Use your earthworm beast to go down and search. Find the body if you find it. Bring it back."

Li Ying nodded, summoned his earthworm beast, and burrowed into the rocks at the edge of the cliff.

Although both are Rock-type pets, Mountain Giant does not have the ability to burrow underground.

Upon hearing Fan Ganglie's words, Su Ping's previous joy vanished instantly. He sighed inwardly, realizing that his mission was also doomed to fail.

A moment later, Li Ying suddenly opened his eyes and exclaimed in surprise, "The Earth Beast found the Blood Fox! It's still alive!"

"Huh?" Su Ping, Fan Ganglie, and the others were all taken aback.

Found them? Still alive?

Given the depth of this cliff, how did the Blood Fox Flame Tail Beast, a pet beast without the ability to fly, manage to survive the fall?

Seeing their astonished expressions, Li Ying laughed and said, "The earthworm was found in a cave inside the cliff, and the blood fox was inside."

"A cliffside cave?" Su Ping's expression was strange as he suddenly thought of some elderly men who had been waiting patiently.

Fan Ganglie was overjoyed and quickly said, "Take us there."

"Okay," Li Ying said, "I'll have the earthworms drill the tunnel open."

Before long, a slanted passage appeared beneath their feet. It was carved out by the earthworm using its bodily fluids to melt the rocks. The group slid down the passage, supporting themselves with their arms. At the end of the passage was the cave where the Blood Fox was staying.

After landing in the cave, Su Ping quickly surveyed his surroundings and discovered that it was hardly a cave at all, but rather a depression in the rock wall, only four or five meters deep. The Blood Fox Flame Tail Beast was resting inside. Upon seeing the group, it immediately stood up and assumed an attack stance. However, when it recognized the familiar faces of Fan Ganglie and Fan Yujing, its hostility vanished instantly, and a look of surprise appeared in its long, narrow, fox-like eyes.

"Finally found you." Fan Ganglie couldn't help but smile. Although he suffered heavy losses, at least the mission was completed.

The Blood Fox Flame Tail Beast lay down in front of Fan Ganglie and rubbed against him affectionately. Although Fan Ganglie was not its owner, he would usually feed and play with it, so they were very familiar with each other.

Seeing that the blood fox only had some wounds and was otherwise unharmed, Su Ping breathed a sigh of relief. His mission was now complete; thank goodness.

"So there were withered vines here. It probably used the withered vines to slow down and jump here," Ye Chenshan said, looking at the situation on the concave wall.

Su Ping recalled the protruding object he had seen that resembled a gold mine, and guessed that the Blood Fox had used it to slow down. He immediately said to Li Ying, "There seems to be a metal mine up there. Have your earthworms dig a tunnel there, and we'll go take a look."

"Metal ore?"

Li Ying was taken aback, and Fan Ganglie, Ye Chenshan and the others also turned their gazes over, somewhat astonished. Then, joy quickly appeared in their eyes. They all knew what it meant to find a metal mine in the Starry Sky Rift. If it was a gold mine, they would make a fortune!

"Go and take a look quickly," Fan Ganglie urged hurriedly.

Li Ying was also very interested and immediately ordered his earthworm to open a passage. The group climbed up the passage and sure enough, they saw a hard object in the soil that was seven or eight meters in diameter and four or five meters wide.

Fan Ganglie pulled a small instrument out of his backpack and scanned the object to determine its gold content.

Others also had such instruments, but they didn't take them out; they just gathered around Fan Ganglie to examine them.

"Uranium content... 0.002%, gold content 2.902%... silver content..."

The contents of numerous elements appeared in a list, and when Fan Ganglie saw the contents of uranium and gold, the smile on his face disappeared, replaced by disappointment.

The content of other metallic elements such as iron, copper, nickel, and vanadium is also extremely low; none of them exceed 5% in any of the elements listed in the element table.

Su Ping glanced at the list on the instrument and felt a little strange. If such a large lump of minerals didn't contain these elements, then what kind of substance could it be? Just then, the little skeleton at his feet suddenly became excited and stretched out its skeletal claws to stroke the lump of minerals, looking very greedy.

Su Ping was somewhat surprised, but then realized that this was most likely not an earth elemental ore, but some other unknown mineral that was useful to undead creatures.

"System, can you identify it?" Su Ping asked silently in his mind.

The system replied, "Okay."

Su Ping was immediately delighted: "Then what is this?"

"The appraisal fee is 100 energy points per appraisal," the system said.

Su Ping nearly coughed up blood. This is supposed to be a paid service?

Thinking of the six or seven hundred energy points he had left, he gritted his teeth and paid.

The system first displayed an energy deduction message, and then said, "This is Netherstone ore, a collection of necromantic energy. It can be refined into Netherstone, which can be used for cultivation and is also the currency used for trade between the underworld and the realm of the dead."

"Netherstone?" Su Ping was stunned. "So, it's something similar to spirit stones?"

"That's one way to understand it."

Su Ping suddenly realized, and then asked, "Can you refine this stuff?"

"Can."

"Really? That's so touching..."

"Refining fee: 100 energy."

"..."

(End of this chapter)