Chapter Thirteen: Breakthrough

  Bang, bang, bang.

  The other hand grasped the pickaxe, lightly chiseling three times on the rock wall with extreme lightness. Three white spots immediately appeared on the rock wall, and the rock wall below was covered with white jade stone. Without any effort, the accuracy was 100%, and the time did not exceed thirty seconds, with an efficiency that could be described as extremely high.

  At this speed, it's no problem to collect thirty or forty pieces of white jade in an hour. Thinking of this, Xiao Hong's face revealed a joyful expression.

  Compared to before, he could only collect ten pieces with all his might, which was a world of difference. This was also the direct benefit that the second-level demonic steed and the same level of magic pattern brought to Xiao Hong.

  At this moment, if Xiao Hong said he didn't feel proud in his heart, that would be a lie.

  After walking about 100 meters, more than 100 holes appeared on the rock wall on one side, including white jade and crimson war blood stone.

  He retrieved the probe thread and put it away in his pocket, then began to dig out the white jade stones on the rock wall one by one. In his mind, he was thinking of designing a kind of automatic mining magic pattern, so that even the labor for mining could be saved.

  In just over twenty minutes, Xiao Hong's wooden box was already full to the brim with more than 20 high-quality white jade stones and two battle bloodstones casually piled inside.

  Carefully placing two high-quality white jade rough stones into the hidden compartment, Xiao Hong carried the wooden box and held onto the pickaxe, leaving the fourth level of the mine at a moderate pace. As for the other excavation points on the rock wall, Xiao Hong didn't bother with them either, thinking that he could come back to work on them tomorrow; after all, no one would be coming here anyway.

  The foreman in charge of purchasing stone materials and distributing wages was a middle-aged man in his 40s named Mu Yang.

  As for Xiao Hong, Mu Yang was naturally familiar with him. He was the only one who could provide high-quality white jade, and his relationship with Xiao Hong couldn't be described as friendly, but there were no grudges between them either, just a casual acquaintance.

  "Hey, Xiao Hong, you're out so early? Looks like today's harvest isn't great, no wonder, after all, you still have a year of life left, and it's not worth taking risks." Mu Yang teased, his expression filled with ease and playfulness as he saw Xiao Hong walking slowly towards him.

  Xiao Hong is an exception among miners, but after all, he is still a miner. In contrast, Mu Yang can be considered a small leader no matter what.

  Although he disliked it when others made fun of his illness, Xiao Hong didn't say much and directly placed the wooden box on the inspection table, opening the lid and saying softly, "Inspect the goods, calculate the wages."

  "Don't worry, not much goods, very soon..." Before Mu Yang could finish speaking, as he cast his gaze into Xiao Hong's wooden box, the rest of his words were abruptly swallowed back. Inside, it was packed to the brim with all sorts of rough stones, several of which had their edges chipped off just to fit in.

  "Wow...so many..." Mu Yang muttered to himself, subconsciously rubbing his eyes, hardly daring to believe that Xiao Hong had entered the mine and come out again in less than 40 minutes.

  How did this guy do it? Mu Yang muttered to himself, feeling a bit dizzy for a while. Judging from the quality of the original stone, it was obviously high-quality. In less than half an hour, he had collected a full box, which was too strange. The previous ease and playfulness were replaced by a face full of incredulity. His astonished gaze kept wandering between Xiao Hong and the wooden box.

  "Uncle, count it yourself, I'm busy." Xiao Hong said calmly, looking at Mu Yang's surprised expression.

  "Uh... uh." Mu Yang's mind was a bit dizzy, so he started counting one by one, and still occasionally glanced at Xiao Hong, feeling strange in his heart.

  "I've calculated it before, there are six raw stones that can be cut into three pieces of white jade, 20 that can be cut into four pieces, and two battle bloodstones, totaling 8 silver and 10 copper." Xiao Hong saw Mu Yang slowly detecting the raw stones one by one, his expression calm as he said, he had already understood the raw stones he collected very clearly through the detection of magic patterns.

  Mu Yang slightly raised an eyebrow at Xiao Hong, but didn't respond to his words, continuing to inspect the blocks one by one. In her heart, she thought: "If you're also being controlled by him, then what's the point of me doing anything? Does he really think he's a demon master?"

  However, just as Mu Yang was repeatedly muttering to himself in his heart, his expression had already begun to change gradually, and the data given by the instruments around him one by one showed that the results were indeed biased towards Xiao Hong's previous words.

  The final result is: 6 blocks can be cut into three pieces of white jade, 20 blocks can be cut into six pieces, and two blocks of war bloodstone ore are attached.

  Exactly what Xiao Hong said before.

  "It's really unbelievable." Mu Yang looked at the final result, his mouth slightly moved, and then took out 8 silver coins and 10 copper coins from the money cabinet and threw them into Xiao Hong's wooden box.

  "Have you taken the wrong medicine today?" Mu Yang asked again, sizing up Xiao Hong with a strange expression.

  Xiao Hong didn't respond, but instead gave Mu Yang a faint smile, then picked up the wooden box and prepared to leave. His mood was exceptionally good now that he had started to taste the sweetness of cultivating his driving force. Using the detection talisman, it was only half an hour's worth of work, which was enough to surpass his own four days' worth of work previously. The efficiency boost wasn't ordinary at all.

  Returning home, Xiao Hong, who had just tasted the convenience brought by his strength, did not stop cultivating his driving skills. With the existence of the cyan-black magic bead, as long as Xiao Hong was willing to spend money, he could suppress his heart and upgrade, so Xiao Hong's upgrading speed would be twice that of ordinary people.

  And being able to drive the third-order battle pattern means having a certain degree of attack power, and also being able to defend oneself. This is also a huge temptation for Xiao Hong.

  After several hours of busy work, according to the previous formula, Xiao Hong manufactured a few large dishes of Yu Xiang, which was three times larger than before. The cost was also enough for two gold coins, fortunately, part of the materials were collected by Xiao Hong himself.

  Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Xiao Hong began to continue using his breathing training method to enhance his control over his power!

  This time, Xiao Hong had already thought it through and planned to use up all the remaining driving force today, plus all the driving force that the cyan-black magic pattern bead could provide!

  In short, it is to upgrade one's driving level at the fastest speed.

  Until the second half of the night, the available energy in his body was less than ten points, which was already the limit of consumption. Looking at the last incense stick burning out, Xiao Hong's eyelids were already drooping heavily.

  He glanced at the faintly flickering candlelight and then fell onto the broken bed, fast asleep.

  With this fragrance, combined with the cyan-black magic bead, in just one day, Xiao Hong's driving force increased by more than 30 stocks, from the original 202 stocks to 239 stocks, making rapid progress, but also spending a lot of money.

  For ordinary people, one gold coin per day is equivalent to 10,000 copper coins. What's the point of burning money? However, in order to upgrade to level three as soon as possible, Xiao Hong was desperate because he knew that his time was extremely precious and the higher his level, the greater his chances of self-rescue.

  Like this, for three whole days, Xiao Hong devoted his absolute strength to cultivating his driving force every day. Apart from that, he spent an hour each day mining and collecting materials, as well as training his knife skills, which was also indispensable.

  Xiao Hong's study of knife work was mainly based on the stop Tong magic pattern given to him by Sang Hongyun, and it can be said that Sang Hongyun's knife method is absolutely gorgeous.

  Although feelings about Sang Hongyun are complicated, this does not affect Xiao Hong's mimicry.

  Before he knew it, the time had come to the afternoon. After practicing knife work for a whole morning, Xiao Hong picked up another plate of Yu Xiang, but this time with a much smaller volume, because Xiao Hong only had enough materials on hand to make so many Yu Xiang. The income from mining was clearly no longer enough to meet Xiao Hong's expenses.

  What's more important is that as the internal driving force increases, Xiao Hong feels that the effect of Yu Xiang has begun to become less obvious and must be further improved and strengthened, but that requires a most basic premise, which is money!

  Xiao Hong's three years of hard-earned savings were almost all gone in just a few days.

  Fortunately, Xiao Hong's driving force has now grown to 290 shares, which is still enough for this small plate of fragrant driving.

  With a hint of fragrance, Xiao Hong once again calmed his mind and focused on cultivating his driving skills.

  This time, with Yu Xiang, it only took 20 minutes to burn, and when Xiao Hong stopped cultivating, the Yu Li in his body had successfully reached 301 strands.

  Slowly opening his eyes, Xiao Hongping's calm eyes had already flashed a hint of excitement, and then he clenched his fists!

  Although it still hurts to burn money, for Xiao Hong at this moment, he has taken another step closer to his hope!

  Moreover, as the level of his driving force increased, Xiao Hong could also clearly feel that the power within his body had become even more vigorous. Just in terms of driving force alone, Xiao Hong was now completely capable of rivaling Xu Qing, the main person in charge here.

  Dong, dong, dong.

  Just as Xiao Hong was still basking in the excitement, three urgent knocks on the door suddenly rang out, and from the knocking sound alone, one could hear the anxious mood of the knocker.

  "Hong ge, Hong ge, are you at home?"

  Just as Xiao Hong revealed a hint of confusion, Li Le's sharp and shrill voice came in.

  "What's wrong?" Xiao Hong asked as he put the seal on his desk into a drawer and slowly opened the door.

  "Brother Hong, something's gone wrong! Lin Zi's in trouble!" Li Le exclaimed anxiously, swallowing his saliva as he stood outside the door. Although Xiao Hong didn't have much contact with Li Le and others on a daily basis, after all, he was still the one Li Le thought of reflexively whenever he got into trouble.

  As for Lin Zi, he was one of Li Le's seven or eight companions, which Xiao Hong also knew.

  "What's wrong with Linzi? What happened?" Xiao Hong asked, judging from Li Le's expression, it seemed that something big had happened to Linzi. However, Xiao Hong remained calm and composed, after all, being anxious wouldn't solve any problems.

  "Just now when we were mining, a big stone fell from the tunnel and hit Lin's leg." Li Le wiped the sweat from his face and said, his expression filled with anxiety.

  Being hit on the leg by a rock is common in mines, and of course, it's also the most deadly. Once a fracture occurs, for poor miners, it's no different from a disaster.

  With this analysis, Xiao Hong's face also became slightly serious, and he calmly said, "Let's go, take me to see."

  Once again deep in the mine, Li Le took Xiao Hong on a wild run to the third level of the mine, near the entrance to the fourth level. This was also the territory of Li Le and several partners. Due to the abundance of raw ore on the third level, there was a strict territorial concept here, and each person was only allowed to collect raw ore from their own territory.

  This naturally gave rise to some small groups, and fights often broke out. Li Le and his companions were one of these small groups. They had to stick together in order to make a living on the third level; otherwise, they would have to go to the first or second level to mine inferior ore.

  As he turned a small bend in the tunnel, Xiao Hong saw Lin Zi lying on the ground, his skin dark and his body sturdy. He was in agony, gritting his teeth and furrowing his brow. A boulder about one meter in diameter was pressing down on his right calf.

  Around him were Li Le's companions, their faces anxious and worried. At the other end of the corridor, not far away, was a group of onlookers, but their expressions did not show anxiety, rather they seemed to be gloating at Li Le's misfortune, with some even showing schadenfreude.

  Lin Zi's body was sturdy and he was good at fighting. During the usual scramble for territory, the small groups around him had not suffered less from his actions. This time, Lin Zi was injured, undoubtedly a fatal blow to Li Le's group.

  It is even possible that they will be swallowed up by other small groups and driven out of the third layer of the mine.

  "Brother Hong, save me!" Seeing Xiao Hong appear, Lin Zi, who had been grinning from ear to ear, suddenly spoke up, looking at Xiao Hong with tears in his eyes. Although Li Le was their leader, Xiao Hong held a special position in their hearts, and whenever they encountered something big, they would ultimately look for Xiao Hong to solve it.

  "Don't move." Xiao Hong's expression was calm, squatting in front of Lin Zi, speaking softly, and fixing his gaze on the huge stone and where he had fallen, a height of about 1.5 meters, it seemed that this time, things were going to be tough.

  "How long have you been pressing down here?" Xiao Hong observed Lin's situation based on the knowledge in the medical book, and then said calmly.

  "It's probably almost fifteen minutes." One of Li Le's companions responded.

  "It's okay, not too bad." Xiao Hong thought to himself, then tore off a piece of cloth from his tattered clothes and tightly wrapped it around the end of Lin's thigh. He then ordered Li Le and his companions to slowly move the rock away.

  The cloth strip wrapped around the upper part of the thigh is to prevent the displacement of the rock, the return of blood in the legs, and damage to the heart.

  As for Xiao Hong's words, Li Le and even the little companions by his side were all obedient to him, especially at this time.

  As the stone was slowly removed, Xiao Hong's expression changed involuntarily. The calf that had been pressed down earlier had already become slightly deformed, presenting a slight bow shape.

  "It's a fracture." Xiao Hong fixed his gaze on Lin Zi and said in as calm a tone as possible.

  But for Lin and his little friends, this is absolutely a bolt from the blue!

  Fractures are not self-healing, so medical treatment is needed. Xu Nan's Miao Dan Medicine House treats fractures for at least one gold coin, which is equivalent to 10,000 copper coins, and also requires several months of unemployment.

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