Jumped down, grabbed the giant shovel, and started digging furiously.

Soon, from the crevice in the rock, a piece of vermillion ore was extracted.

Stared at it with wide eyes.

For a long time, unable to hold back anymore, burst into laughter.

At this moment, even if nothing had happened, the two examiners felt their hearts skip a beat.

Every time Ji Jue laughed like this, it meant he was brewing something that would cause a blackout.

But no matter how one looked at it, the piece of rock in Ji Jue's hand was just an ordinary mineral.

During the association's construction of the observatory, they would have definitely conducted exploration. If any valuable mineral deposits were found, they would have relocated. It wouldn't make sense for a treasure to be suddenly unearthed after so many years.

The retrieved records showed that during the construction of the Luye Observatory, some geological findings were indeed reported, but they were just scattered iron pyrite, magnetite, and a bunch of other worthless minerals in Huiji Rock...

There wasn't even a need to flip through books; the masters, who dealt with various materials for years, could identify them at a glance.

But to be on the safe side, they took another look, then three, four, even five looks.

"It's just mercuric sulfide, right?" Gustav frowned.

"Yeah, it is."

Jiang Tongguang took a sip of his drink to steady his nerves, and slowly said, "In the Federation, we call this thing cinnabar, aside from being used as a pigment, it's mainly for, uh..."

He paused, his expression becoming stiff:

"...extraction of mercury?"

Thinking of this dog's track record filled with weighty achievements...

He couldn't help but take in a sharp breath.

"Dammit!"

.

.

After the first night saw the deaths of countless candidates, from the dawn of the second day, the number and frequency of deaths started to plummet, surprisingly stabilizing in the single digits each day.

Over the course of a week, less than two hundred people were eliminated.

The adaptability of the Embers was unmistakably apparent now. Once prepared, the pressure from the Mutants began to decrease significantly.

Simultaneously, many candidates were no longer content with just hiding in the shelters. Some even ventured out into the world beyond the workshop after meticulous preparation.

There were also those who, not only maintained their workshop, but also completed the entire observatory and even set up new defensive structures and equipment.

Adaptation, production, transformation...

The essence of the Embers was apparent here. Not only did the previously critical association onlookers fall silent, but even the participating apprentices felt an improvement in their abilities amidst the torment and trials.

"With this, it's complete."

In the newly refurbished workshop, Lou Feng carefully placed the final component, wiped the sweat off his forehead, took a step back, and proudly observed the Crystal Giant before him.

Reconstructed through alchemy, a giant made of spiritual crystal.

Four arms, three legs.

On the interwoven faces of insignias and totems, six points of light shone, with blue and crimson intertwined.

Just like that, under Lou Feng's command, it slowly rose, grasped a massive weapon that matched its size and weight, and emitted a menacing intent.

"With this, the security of the workshop will be temporarily unfazed."

After inspecting the internal Spiritual Intelligence Sequence and reactive structure, Lou Feng nodded in satisfaction and commanded, "Seal the workshop, isolate interference."

The Crystal Giant nodded silently, suddenly turning into a fleeting mist, flowing towards the door, and disappearing.

In the dead silence, only Lou Feng remained, along with the blazing Melting Furnace behind him.

And, one by one, fuzzy phantoms, like ghosts.

"Adjust the spiritual substance output, maintain temperature, increase the frequency of catalyst addition."

In stark contrast to his previous disheveled appearance, Lou Feng had now changed into brand-new handcrafted clothes, seated himself on a chair padded with layered animal hides, crossed his legs, and let out a contented sigh:

"Then, we can proceed to the next stage."

Silent, the servants made of spiritual substance faithfully carried out their commands.

Outside the floating light, in another frame, all light had vanished, in the dim and dark, rolling dark fog rose from the observatory, spreading and shrouding everything within tens of miles.

In the darkness, only the tireless walking of zombified monsters could be seen, ravenous, preying on any living creature that dared to enter the fog.

In other frames of the floating light, some had already turned the observatory into a fortress, and some were erecting new towers, aiming to build the highest city of Luye.

Yet others, their homes... were still ruins.

Left the observatory on the second day, abandoning their homes entirely!

After all, there's neither monsters nor mines, no resource production… there's no point staying in this novice village with nothing but an empty shell of a workshop, is there?

On the morning of the second day, Ji Jue drove his freshly repaired mud truck overnight, taking many of the workshop's equipment, and set off along the mountain road to seek another location.

Until now, even the last traces had disappeared.

Only in the darkness beneath the Nine Earths, in the thick soil and rocks, a massive frame silently stood up, evolving into a complex structure.

The roar of flowing mercury echoed throughout the night, following the island's mineral veins, silently spreading.

Besides a large quantity of iron ore of high concentration, Ji Jue also found plenty of brass ore and malachite, even digging over a thousand meters down to discover a massive coal seam.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.