Chapter 323: Endless Slaughter, Unrivaled

The moment Su Chen descended, he didn’t say a word. In his right hand, he already held the Silent Extinction Sword, which had been upgraded beyond its limits.

The blade, which had just been sheathed in a restrained gray light, was suddenly wreathed in five distinct waves of Attached Damage.

With a single wave of his hand, a majestic and terrifyingly long Sword Momentum slashed out.

“Urk!”

The earth and stone giant roared instinctively, hastily raising its left arm to block. But when the sword fell, its arm couldn’t take the hit. The stacked rock armor disintegrated inch by inch like paper. The Sword Momentum didn’t stop, continuing its diagonal slash down through the giant’s chest.

CRACK!

The dense rock crystal shattered like thin ice. The shield outside the Soul Core didn’t even last half a breath before it was dismantled layer by layer by the five waves of elemental Attached Damage.

The moment the Spiritual Soul within was exposed, it trembled violently, as if letting out a silent wail.

Before it could draw on more Earth Vein Energy to quickly regenerate, Su Chen’s gaze sharpened. His Lv10 Telekinesis erupted, and an invisible giant hand precisely locked onto the Spirit Body, forcefully tearing it out of the giant’s chest.

The giant’s massive body instantly froze, and the light in its eyes died. Its entire form began to collapse, the rocks weathering into sand as the Earth Vein Energy flowed back into the ground like a receding tide.

However, the Soul Core, now without a body, was still struggling frantically.

WHOOSH!

A thick fog of Earth Vein Energy spewed from the Soul Core. It began to grow outward in mid-air, a rocky shell blooming like a flower.

Not only did it try to reform its defenses, but it also fired dozens of sharp Flying Rocks from its edges, which shot toward Su Chen like a torrential downpour.

To completely crush the Spirit Body’s struggles, a Wind Vortex Skill formed in Su Chen’s palm. The high-speed cyclone enveloped the Soul Core like a millstone.

SWISH!

The storm’s blades shattered all the Flying Rocks, and its newly formed rock layers were instantly stripped away by the cutting force.

「A breath later.」

Su Chen captured it with one hand. As he unleashed a wave of his Master’s pressure, the frenzied will of the Mountain Spirit gradually subsided and vanished. Before it could muster any final resistance, a terrifying wave of devouring power absorbed it completely.

WHOOSH!

The Gravity Skill Rune in his Sea of Consciousness trembled and then upgraded.

The effects of Lv8 were already understood.

Thanks to the buff from his first Core Authority, it was now equivalent to Lv9. This brought a major boost to all of the Gravity Skill’s properties, unlocking up to five Vector Positions that could be freely combined to form complex force field structures.

The gravity anchor could also affect two targets simultaneously.

Additionally, the intensifying and weight-reducing effects were greatly enhanced. The former could instantly impose over a hundred times the normal gravitational pressure, while the latter could easily allow a Spellcaster to achieve the effect of deflecting a great force with a gentle touch.

‘What a windfall.’

Su Chen was inwardly delighted.

When he had advanced to a Six-Star Master of All Things and unlocked a major Magic Blessing talent, he could deal with a large regional hegemon like a Death Saint Venerable in just two or three sword strikes.

Now, with his strength greatly increased across the board, dealing with this earth and stone giant was even less of a challenge.

‘A Mountain Spirit?’

Su Chen was lost in thought. ‘If mountains, rivers, and lakes can all incubate powerful Soul Cores, that would certainly make my path to upgrading much more convenient.’

“Thank you, sir…”

The members of the mining team, having narrowly escaped death, thanked the figure standing in the air. They never would have imagined that a perfectly normal mountain would suddenly gain sentience and attack the surrounding humans in a fit of rage.

If no one had crushed the Spiritual Soul hidden within, it probably would have gone on a rampage.

“My condolences.”

As Pang Peng looked away, he naturally noticed that their team had lost quite a few members.

The dead can’t be brought back to life.

At least, people hadn’t yet reached the point of being able to use Res.

The mountain had plenty of ore veins, so they weren’t in competition with each other. There was no need to get rid of outsiders.

Next up was mining time.

The surface-level ore deposits were extremely easy to excavate.

After about an hour, both Su Chen’s and Yan Ruoruo’s Soul Pockets were filled with high-quality Crimson Flame and Golden Shimmering Ore Crystals.

In that short time, two more mining teams arrived.

After the crystal prism towers were erected, Dongfu City, free from external threats, entered a booming mining craze. The price of Metal Sensing Runes in every major trading hall was skyrocketing.

“To trade for one Lv7 Metal Sensing Rune, I had to throw in an extra Lv6 Rune. What a pain in the ass,” a prospecting team leader complained.

“Buying low now isn’t a loss. Who knows, tomorrow or the day after, you might have to throw in an extra Lv5 Rune,” someone said with a laugh, trying to console him.

No one knew when this ‘gold rush’ would end.

However, the new arrivals also brought a piece of news.

“I’m already regretting it. I heard that in the Western Border Forest, a mining machine drilled up some kind of mountain monster from underground. In the end, even their Teleportation Gate got blown up. Mining has its risks, too.”

With the Mountain Spirit from just now as a reference, this news didn’t seem particularly strange.

“What happened then?” Pang Peng, ever the detail-oriented one, asked for more information.

“An Investigation Legion went to check out the situation. I don’t know what happened after that,” the person said with a sigh.

‘Never mind then.’

Su Chen suppressed the urge to investigate. With the Investigation Legion’s overall strength, they were more than capable of catching the so-called mountain monster that was causing trouble.

“Let’s go,” Su Chen said.

After having Yu Ziyuan’s animal friends help carry their supplies, the group returned to camp without a hitch.

When they saw a floating elemental sentry in the camp, everyone was slightly taken aback.

After Su Chen’s explanation, they were all amazed at the unexpectedly high level of development of the prehistoric elemental civilization. Seeing this, they realized they were actually somewhat behind the times.

“If we can successfully inherit the wisdom of our predecessors from the ruins of the Elemental City, we’ll truly be standing on the shoulders of giants and developing at a rapid pace,” Gong Jun said, looking extremely excited.