Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Digging Through Earth and Carving Mountains, An Unexpected Discovery

“`

Boom!

The roaring sound of a big tree falling echoed through the night.

In the sky, Zhou Chun, while riding a bamboo-leaf-shaped flying artifact, pursued and controlled the two crescent blades divided from the Moon Blade Meteor Wheel, alternately attacking the Purple Flame Marten.

The Purple Flame Marten was indeed incredibly agile, it leaped and hopped within the forest, and although Zhou Chun’s Divine Sense had locked on to it, it still managed to repeatedly dodge the Moon Blade’s attacks.

However, because it needed to dodge Zhou Chun’s attacks, its speed inevitably slowed down.

Therefore, Zhou Zhengyong’s Red-Tailed Monkey gradually caught up, joining the battle.

In nature, there’s always a predator for every creature.

Although the Red-Tailed Monkey is not considered particularly strong among first-grade superior Demon Beasts, when dealing with nimble creatures like the Purple Flame Marten in the forest, it proved to be quite effective.

Once it joined the battle, the Purple Flame Marten was forced to drop the Flame Rat corpse it had held in its mouth and, while busy dodging the Moon Blade’s attacks, was struck by its claw, leaving a bloody paw print on its body.

The injured Purple Flame Marten no longer dared to fight Zhou Chun and only thought of fleeing for its life.

It darted through the pine forest with a man and a monkey in pursuit, leaving Zhou Zhengyong, who was running on foot, far behind, out of sight.

After flipping over several mountaintops, the Purple Flame Marten, now with several more wounds on its body, suddenly burrowed into a certain cave and disappeared from Zhou Chun’s Divine Sense detection range.

“Has it hidden inside a cave? It seems this is most likely its den!”

Zhou Chun looked at the entrance to the cave at the bottom of the rocky cliff, his face showing a touch of solemnity.

The entrance to the cave wasn’t very large, only a seven- or eight-year-old child could squeeze through; an adult like him had no chance of getting inside.

Of course, his Divine Sense probe informed him that the space inside gradually increased in size, with inner chambers deep enough to accommodate a standing person.

The problem was that the thick rocky mountain body was an obstruction, and trying to widen the entrance to reach the depths was not something that could be done in a short time.

And as the saying goes, “a crafty rabbit has three burrows.” Zhou Chun didn’t believe the Purple Flame Marten’s den only had this one entrance.

So, it was necessary to prevent the Purple Flame Marten from escaping from other exits!

Immediately, Zhou Chun couldn’t wait for Zhou Zhengyong to arrive and used the Smoky Method to pump smoke into the cave, then flew up to see where the smoke emerged.

Upon inspection, he quickly found three places that were emitting smoke.

He sent the Red-Tailed Monkey to one location, while he and the Rock Earth Turtle blocked the other two spots to prevent the Purple Flame Marten from slipping away before Zhou Zhengyong could get there.

However, the Purple Flame Marten had more endurance than Zhou Chun had imagined and didn’t come out of any of the holes, even after Zhou Zhengyong arrived at the mountain, panting heavily.

“Use poison smoke, I have dried Black-Spotted Stinkweed in my Storage Pouch. Let’s find some more poisonous fresh leaves, burn them all together, and toss them into the cave. I refuse to believe that beast can truly endure and not come out!”

After understanding the situation from Zhou Chun, Zhou Zhengyong quickly came up with his own strategy.

The Zhou Family had rebuilt the Monkey Garden and Zhou Zhengyong usually took care of the Monkey Garden and other Demon Beasts. Hence, he was prepared with various items for punishing and taming Demon Beasts.

Therefore, it was not surprising to Zhou Chun that his Storage Pouch contained Black-Spotted Stinkweed, a poisonous plant.

Zhou Zhengyong quickly gathered the materials and tossed the ignited mix into the cave.

But to their bewildered surprise, even after all the Black-Spotted Stinkweed had been burned, the Purple Flame Marten did not show any sign of appearing.

“Could it have been fumigated unconscious inside?”

Zhou Zhengyong, with a doubtful expression, voiced his speculation.

Zhou Chun also thought this was likely, but he said instead, “Let’s excavate the mountain. We have nearly two days left, with only one tunnel to dig, there’s still a chance.”

“Alright, let’s excavate the mountain!”

Zhou Zhengyong gritted his teeth, realizing this was the only viable solution.

So, the two of them promptly used rubble to block the other holes and placed large stones atop the cave entrance to pin it down.

They then had the Rock Earth Turtle and Red-Tailed Monkey take turns digging at one of the cave openings.

When it came to digging holes, the Rock Earth Turtle was indeed quite skilled. Its claws were sharp and strong, able to shatter hard rock with a single swipe.

Despite its size being a boon initially, it could only help at the start. Beyond that point, the Red-Tailed Monkey took over, scraping away with its claws.

“`

For the sake of Zhou Zhengyong’s wife-to-be, who had not yet been married into the Zhou Family, the poor Red-Tailed Monkey had completely become a construction monkey at this time, forced to continuously use its two paws to dig soil and break rocks.

Fortunately, after it had advanced to a first-grade superior Demon Beast, it awakened and mastered a spell called “Flame Claw,” which could enhance the destructive power of its claws with flames.

Otherwise, even if its Demon Beast physique was far stronger than that of humans, it would probably not be able to dig for long without ruining its paws.

Only after the Red-Tailed Monkey had its mana and physical strength completely drained and could dig no more, did Zhou Zhengyong put it back into the Spirit Beast Pouch. Then, he cast the “Massive Strength Technique” on himself and started to excavate with tools in hand.

When Zhou Zhengyong had expended most of his mana and physical strength, Zhou Chun took over and continued the excavation.

After a day of alternating digging in this mode, the Red-Tailed Monkey had rested and recovered some of its strength and mana, and was once again released to take over the digging work.

With the two men and one monkey working in relay, they spent roughly a day and a half to finally dig a passage that was more than thirty yards deep.

Once they reached the depths of the thirty-yard-deep cave, the width of the cave was sufficient to accommodate a person walking while bent over.

After discussing, Zhou Chun went down into the cave to find the Purple Flame Marten, while Zhou Zhengyong kept watch outside, just in case of any accidents.

In the cave, Zhou Chun held a “Sun Glow Stone” in one hand for light illumination, while carrying the dark Iron Shield Dharma Tool in the other hand, he walked slowly and cautiously into the depths, bending his body and lowering his head at every step.

The “Sun Glow Stone” in his hand was a peculiar stone unique to this world, capable of absorbing sunlight and storing it, then releasing a bright glow in a dark environment, thus commonly used by cultivators as lighting in special environments.

As he moved with cautious steps into the depths of the cave, Zhou Chun’s always-alert Divine Sense immediately detected the Purple Flame Marten pouncing towards him.

He quickly brought out the dark Iron Shield Dharma Tool in his hands to block in front of him, and not feeling entirely safe, made hand signs to cast a spell, conjuring the Five Elements Spiritual Armor Technique to envelop his body in a tri-colored spirit armor of gold, blue, and green.

Boom!

A ball of purplish-red flames shot out from the Purple Flame Marten’s mouth, sweeping towards Zhou Chun’s face.

The dark Iron Shield Dharma Tool managed to block most of the flames, but some fire slipped through the gaps, licking at Zhou Chun, who was positioned behind it.

In an instant, Zhou Chun seemed like a firefighter walking into fire, with flames completely engulfing his body.

Fortunately, this scene looked more terrifying than it actually was, as the spirit armor protecting his entire body easily kept the flames and high temperatures at bay.

And Zhou Chun was not the type to just take hits without retaliating. Seeing the defensive power of the spirit armor was even more effective than he had anticipated, he immediately reached into his Storage Pouch and drew out the Moon Blade Meteor Wheel.

The cave’s small space made it inconvenient for Zhou Chun to move his body, but it also restricted the mobility of the Purple Flame Marten.

Controlled by Zhou Chun, two Moon Blades struck from left and right, quickly severing the right hind leg of the Purple Flame Marten.

The heavily wounded Purple Flame Marten seemed to realize its inevitable death and thus unleashed its fierceness, suddenly lunging ferociously at Zhou Chun, spewing out a human head-sized fireball towards him.

Bang!!

A loud explosion echoed from the depths of the cave, startling Zhou Zhengyong outside and causing him to tense up, his face filled with anxiety as he looked toward the entrance that Zhou Chun had entered, as restless as ants on a hot pan.

“It should be fine, right? With Thirteenth Brother’s strength, even Qi Refinement cultivators in the late stage are no match for him…”

Muttering to himself, he quickly clenched his teeth and said with determination, “No, even if I can’t get married, Thirteenth Brother absolutely cannot come to harm!”

Then, he plunged recklessly into the entrance of the cave.

By the time Zhou Zhengyong followed the entrance into the depths of the cave and found Zhou Chun, he saw that Zhou Chun was not only in no trouble but was actually controlling a magic artifact to continue digging.

Seeing this, Zhou Zhengyong’s face relaxed, followed by a curious gaze towards Zhou Chun, asking, “Thirteenth Brother, are you alright? What are you doing?”

“Brother Yong, why did you come down?”

Zhou Chun instinctively replied, then quickly guessed the reason, feeling a warmth in his heart. He waved his hand and said, “Never mind, it’s good that you came down. Take a look at what I’ve discovered here.”

After saying that, he squatted down and picked out several black and red stones from a pile of rubble and mud on the ground, passing them to Zhou Zhengyong.

“Is this…”

Zhou Zhengyong looked at the stones in Zhou Chun’s hand with surprise, took them in his hands and examined them closely.

After a moment, he said in a low voice, somewhat uncertain, “This stone looks kind of like Red Shine Iron ore.”

“Right, Brother Yong, you also think it looks like Red Shine Iron ore, don’t you?”

A glint flashed in Zhou Chun’s eyes, then he made a statement that accelerated Zhou Zhengyong’s heartbeat.

“I suspect that there is a vein of Red Shine Iron ore here that we can mine!”