Chapter 7: Strange Copper
As it turned dark, Song Zhong did not dare to continue digging. Although the surroundings of the Mystical Sky Yard appears to be peaceful, it does not mean that it is safe. There are countless low level demonic beasts here, especially in the Sky Ravine. Although it was relatively safe in the day, but once dusk arrives, these ferocious demonic beasts would come out to hunt for food. Song Zhong is not strong currently, and does not wish to die a foolish death here. Plus, he had a hard day, thus he simply went to hide in his Natal Artifact and began meditating.
After having dug up to to about 30 feet over the span of 3 days, Little Fatty numbly picked something up. As he was about to throw it away, the pearl unexpectedly started shaking, giving Song Zhong a great shock. He immediately realised that he may have finally found the item. Quickly withdrawing his hand, he began to investigate the item.
It was a piece of broken copper fragment, about the size of the palm, and 2 fingers thick. By the looks of it, it could be a broken piece from a particular tool. Song Zhong was unable to feel any Spiritual Qi from it, and he could not tell what was so special about it. ‘Did I make a mistake, and this isn’t what my Natal Artifact is looking for?’
Thinking about it, Song Zhong wanted to throw it away, but the pearl unexpectedly began shaking again. Song Zhong then realised that this was the item he was searching for.
Immediately, Song Zhong took the copper fragment and came into his Natal Artifact. Waving the copper in his hands, he asked, “Baby, this is the crap you’re looking for? What is the use of this?”
Nobody answered him, and there was not an iota of change in the dimensional space. Song Zhong was greatly disappointed, thinking about how he dug waste for 3 days here for this insignificant thing. In a fit of anger, he directly buried the copper fragment into the black soil and fiercely said, “Since I can’t tell your use, I shall disassemble you first!”
After doing all these, Little Fatty went out of the dimension and flew back to his hut on his sword. After going back to his hut, a weary Little Fatty collapsed on his bed and fell asleep.
In the following days, Song Zhong never left the house, but remained in his dimension, meditating. Although he was mostly picking waste in the 3 days he was out, but the collected waste was not in vain. Under the pile of waste, there were many good items. In other words, these 3 days were not in vain. He found countless of magical tools and artifacts, which filled the pearl’s dimensional space to the brim. If not for this, he would not even consider coming back! It was just that the amount of high grade items are not many, and the majority of the items were low grade magical tools.
Regardless, even the lowest grade magical tool is still a magical tool! There would still be some good materials mixed within. The magical black soil did not disappoint Song Zhong too. Regardless of the grade of the treasure, as long as it was buried, it would be decomposed. Following which, many mountains of various precious materials were formed.
The speed of decomposition for the black soil was not fast, but it definitely could not be considered slow. A common magical tool would be decomposed within a day, magical artifacts would take 3 days at most. At any one time, 10 items could be buried. Thus, in about a fortnight, the hundreds of items which Song Zhong collected had mostly been disassembled.
This time, Little Fatty’s Natal Artifact had completely changed. It was no longer had that rundown look. First, the size was multiplied by a hundred times, up to 500 feet in diameter. All this can be attributed to the dimensional storage items.
In addition, as the size of the dimension increased, the magical black soil also increased in size. It was already 5 square feet wide, and more than 10 feet in depth. The increase in size seems to be due to the assimilation of bones, horns and other organic products. This was because Little Fatty realised that out of the many products resulting from the decomposition, there were plenty of metal and jade but no bones. Of the treasures that were decomposed, many were made from animal horn and bones.
Furthermore, the amount of yellow soil in the dimension also increased greatly. Also, puddles filled with dense spiritual energy appeared. Up until now, Little Fatty does not know how these puddles appeared.
But, these did not affect Song Zhong’s harvest. The hundreds of treasures were decomposed to form over a thousand materials. The one with the largest quantity was still the low grade black iron, of close to 10 feet in height, shaped like a mountain’s peak. Apart from that was wind copper, refined silver, purple gold and other rare low grade materials, a fist-sized at its smallest and a watermelon-sized at its biggest. The ones which really made Song Zhong happy was the high grade materials, such as fire essence jade, steel essence and cold iron. There were also many more items which he did not recognise, although they were mostly as big as peas, the smallest being a grain of rice, and the largest being an egg. However, just based on the value, it was all worth many times more than black iron.
According to Song Zhong’s understanding, black iron is the lowest grade and most commonly seen material. A hundred catties was only worth a low grade spiritual stone. Purple gold and other more uncommon materials, a single tael (T/N: 1 catty=500g. 1 tael=1/10 catty) was worth at least a few hundred, up to ten thousand low grade spiritual stone, which are all needed by foundational cultivators. As for precious materials like fire jade essence, they are materials being pursued by those of the JinDan stage or higher. As for its worth, it is not something which can be measured by a peasant like Song Zhong. Besides, because of the lack of knowledge, Song Zhong can only recognise at most 1% of the materials here. There were still many materials which he could not recognise, and those might be materials of an even higher grade. If there was something which a YuanYing expert wanted, even if it was only a grain, it could still be exchanged for a relatively good magical artifact.
A boy who was stricken with poverty a few days ago became rich overnight. This made Song Zhong feel as though he was living in a dream. However Song Zhong quickly calmed down, because he realised a fundamental problem. He would not be able to continue obtaining such a steady supply of these abandoned treasures. These high grade treasures were scarce to begin with, therefore those discarded would be even rarer. It took a few days of digging in the Sky Ravine in order to find all these, in just a few years, this gold mine would definitely be depleted. At least it is still early now, and there was no need to worry. Just thinking about the things he possessed now, he had more than enough to splurge for a few hundred years.
The next problem, was how he was going to spend it. At this moment, Little Fatty remembered that when he was young, he went to a place called Firmament City. It was a city established by cultivators, about 10 000 miles away from the Mystical Sky Yard. It was managed by the various large sects of the regions, and was specially for trading with cultivators. There were plenty of shops with great reputations, some of which were even passed on for thousands of years. If he could fly there on his own, he would definitely be able to spend all these spiritual stones.
There are 2 ways to go to Firmament City, one of which was to fly there by oneself. With Little Fatty’s ability, he would have to fly for a few months. Along the way, he may even meet powerful demonic beasts, or even robbers. As such, with Little Fatty’s abysmal battle prowess, to tread such a path is simply seeking death.
The other way would be to use the specialised teleportation portal. The merits were that one can directly reach the city, no risk at all, and extremely fast. Back then, Song Zhong went with his parents via this method. But, the teleportation portal collects a fee of 20 low grade spiritual stone per person. This posed a trouble to Little Fatty.
Although the value of items he has is enormous, he does not dare to flaunt it. He does not even dare to sell the lowest grade black iron, because he had a low status and was impecunious in Mystical Sky Yard in the past. If he suddenly took something good out to sell, it would arouse suspicion for sure, and he would be courting his death.
After much thought, since he could not come out with a solution, he could only temporarily give up. Out of boredom, Little Fatty suddenly realise that the items in the black soil were almost completely decomposed. In order to fully utilise the black soil, Song Zhong grabbed a red sword by the side and stabbed it into the black soil, intending to continue the decomposition process. Concurrently, he felt the hand that was grabbing the sword shake violently, as if he stabbed into something foreign.
Little Fatty was startled, ‘How can there be anything hard inside? All the things from before should have been disassembled already.’ Song Zhong used his spiritual sense to scan the black soil out of curiosity. Very quickly, he found the piece of hard object, and it was actually the copper fragment which he buried in the black soil.
Little Fatty was shocked. He hurriedly channeled his Qi, and sucked the copper fragment into his palm and investigated it. After which, he got further shocked! The copper fragment which seemed so ordinary, had not decomposed in the slightest! One has to know that this was buried half a month ago! With the ability of the black soil, even the fragments of magical artifacts would be disassembled completely in 3 days. But the copper fragment was not affected at all, this made Song Zhong very startled.
Subconsciously, Little Fatty determined that this must be an extraordinary treasure. If not, his Natal Artifact would not have forced him to search for it,
However, Little Fatty became depressed and thought to himself, ‘This is but a single fragment without any practical usage. Even if it was a treasure, it is useless in my hands. Unless I can complete the entire set, it may even be~’
Thinking of this, Little Fatty’s eyes lit up. He couldn’t help but mutter, “This fragment was found in the Sky Ravine, there might still be other fragments in it. With my Natal Artifact’s sense, as long as I am near it, I would be able to find it. If I really manage to complete it, I may unleash its potential!”
With this thought, how could Song Zhong still sit still. He flew out of the house, and sped towards Sky Ravine on his flying sword.
Three months later, Little Chubby, who was weary all over, returned back into his hut. Although he lost a lot of weight, was much more tanned, and had a weathered face, he was still smiling, as though he picked up a good deal.
In this three months, Little Fatty only returned once to take food. As a outer court disciple, even if he took some food, nobody would say anything about it. As for the rest of his time, he was completely focused on searching and digging. After having searched hundreds of miles of Sky Ravine for a whole 3 months, he finally assembled 36 copper fragments.
These copper fragments really did not come easy. Some of it was picked up, some dug, and some of it was stolen from the nests of demonic beasts. Thankfully it was only a low level demonic pig, which did not know how to fly. After Song Zhong lured the tiger out of the mountain (T/N: This is a chinese idiom. Of the famous 36 stratagems, one of it is to lure the tiger away from the mountain.), he easily got the fragment. It was only that he was chased for a few hundred miles by the pig afterwards, and almost died.
After spending so much effort to collect all the fragments, Little Fatty did not want to stay there any longer. He hurriedly returned and took a good sleep on his bed first.
As Little Fatty slept, he slept for an entire day. He only awoke the next day’s evening. He was also lazy to go to the canteen, so he took out his spare rations and ate some of it. After which, he took out the last fragment and went straight into his own dimensional space.