Fan Ganglie followed the pawprints until he reached the edge of the cliff.
“Don’t tell me—”
“I saw trails left by other creatures. Maybe something’s chasing it. With nowhere to go, it jumped off,” said Ye Chenshan.
Fan Yujing and Li Ying didn’t look pleased. The journey had cost them dearly. And Fan Ganglie’s most precious Astral Pet had almost been killed. If the Fire-tailed Blood Fox had already died at the bottom of the cliff, all the time and effort would be for nothing.
Su Ping slowly scanned the area and also noticed the messy remains that suggested a fight. There were bright-red fur remains and broken bone chips everywhere.
He jumped off from the Magical Corpse Beast and looked below the cliff, while not forgetting about keeping an eye on who was behind him. The others in the group probably would not push him off, but he preferred to err on the side of caution.
There was nothing to look at. It was nighttime.
“Did anyone bring any flare sticks?”
Everyone had stepped down from the Magical Corpse Beast to check what was beyond the cliff. It was Li Ying who took out several flares from his backpack and handed them to Su Ping.
Su Ping popped one and tossed it away. Using the falling light source, he could see the brownish cliff wall, some small plants growing on the wall, as well as strands of red fur randomly tucked between pointy rocks.
He also caught a glimpse of a strange object somewhere, but failed to recognize it since the flare was dropping too fast.
He threw another in the same direction. This time, he successfully found the object to be some kind of irregularly-shaped stone with dark-golden sparkles on its surface. It was lodged inside the wall.
“Is that gold ore or what?”
This place was supposed to be uncharted. Finding valuable minerals was no surprise. In fact, this was why settlers loved their job—by finding a gold or uranium mine, they’d become richer than most of their peers overnight.
Naturally, Su Ping would love to bring such a nice trophy back. But there was no way he could climb down there and excavate the ore all by himself. He needed help.
Besides, his storage space was too small to contain too many unrefined minerals. His best option was to ask an Astral Pet to transport them back in bulk.
Fan Ganglie tossed a stone over the cliff and listened, but no one heard the final drop.
“Li Ying, send your earthworm down there. If the fox is dead, I want to see its body.”
Li Ying nodded and ordered his pet worm to start digging.
Su Ping was still unhappy about the situation. If their target was dead, it meant he had failed his mission.
A moment later, Li Ying opened his eyes and exclaimed happily. “I found it. It’s alive!”
“Really? It can’t fly. How did it survive the fall?”
“There’s a cave down there, I saw the fox inside.”
“A cave, huh?” Su Ping wondered how long the poor creature had been waiting there.
“Quickly, get us there.” Fan Ganglie looked thrilled after that.
“Of course. I’ll tell my earthworm to dig a tunnel.”
Soon, the worm creature released some acidic body fluid to uncover its path until it was big enough for humans to pass through. By following the downward slope, they were able to reach the said cave.
Or, it was not really a cave. At least Su Ping would only see it as a small burrow in the wall.
The Fire-tailed Blood Fox was resting in its depths. Upon sensing intruders, it immediately went into a battle stance. Though it quickly calmed down when it recognized Fan Ganglie and Fan Yujing.
“Thank goodness, there you are,” Fan Ganglie smiled slightly. At least he completed his task.
The fox affectionately nudged Fan Ganglie. Fan Ganglie was not its master, but they were close friends nonetheless.
Su Ping checked and found no fatal injuries on the fox apart from some scratches. Good news for him.
“It used those vines creeping on the wall to slow down while falling, I think.” Ye Chenshan looked above.
Su Ping remembered the pointy stone which could also be used as a stepping stone. Then he spoke to Li Ying, “I saw exposed minerals up there. Tell your earthworm to make another path so we can check it out.”
“Mineral?”
Everybody was glad to hear such a thing. They could earn big money if they got their hands on gold or even something better.
“Let’s do it!” Fan Ganglie urged.
Li Ying complied and gave the order to his pet, which dug another tunnel in the cliff. The tunnel ended up where a sturdy object was buried in the wall. It was something several meters in both length and width, like a really massive boulder.
Fan Ganglie found a small device and began scanning the object.
“Uranium… 0.002%. Gold, 2.902%. Silver…”
Such disappointing readings.
The device was meant to detect the element composition of the object. However, none of the displays was above 5%, which meant this thing was nothing too useful.
As they wondered what such a large object was doing there, Little Skeleton suddenly put both hands on it and eagerly stroked its surface as if it really wanted it.
Su Ping quickly realized that the unknown object might be something useful to Undead-type pets.
“System, do you know what this is?” he asked in his mind.
“Affirmative.”
“Nice. Tell me.”
“Appraisal cost, one hundred energy points.”
Crap.
Su Ping checked his balance, which was a little less than 700, and decided to pay the price.
“This is ‘Nether Ore’, a compressed form of Undead energy. When refined, it will produce a Nether Stone. You may use it as an enhancement tool, or as a currency to trade with residents in the Realm of the Undead.”
“Nether Stone, huh? Just like spirit stones?”
“You may put it that way.”
“System, can you refine it?”
“Affirmative.”
“Awesome. Can you—?”
“One hundred energy points.”
“…”