บท 55: Abandoned Mine
Chapter 55 – Abandoned Mine
"Ouch!"
Xu Miao didn't remember how high he fell from the collapsed ground. He only recalled that he activated the Qi Barrier and the usual body strengthening to protect himself from the fall impact.
Looking around, Xu Miao couldn't see anything as there was no light. He looked up to see the hole that he had fallen from, but it wasn't there anymore. No light or anything could be seen in the darkness.
Xu Miao circulated a few strands of Yang Qi to create a small fireball to see the surrounding. As soon as the light was lit, he found himself in a tunnel. Traces of human-made structures, such as wooden ceiling, walls, and pillars, were everywhere. However, they looked archaic and worn as if they had been there for several hundred years.
By reflex, Xu Miao muttered a meme line with Gandalf's voice, "I have no memory of this place."
*RUMBLE*
As if the abandoned mine didn't like the meme, the tunnel shook. Dirt fell from nearby soil and a landslide followed.
Xu Miao's legs automatically moved, running inside the mine toward a location where the ceiling and the walls looked sturdier.
*BOOM*
Dark soil and stones fell onto the place where Xu Miao had stayed a few seconds ago.
The entrance hole had collapsed and sealed a way out of the mysterious underground mine.
'Seriously!?'
Xu Miao was shocked that he was trapped underground. Now, he could only enter the mine to search for an exit.
Despite being in a crisis, Xu Miao wasn't panicked. He kept his cool and followed the path while using his mini fireball to light the way.
The abandoned mine tunnel was linear at first. After a few minutes of walking, Xu Miao found himself in a wide room. Cart railways, rusty carts, broken mining tools, and craters of unknown rocks were everywhere, but none of them had been arranged in order.
Because of the dark and the wide-area, Xu Miao summoned more mini-fireballs to illuminate the room.
As soon as the room was lighted up, a horrifying scene could be seen.
Dried corpses and skeletons of goblins, trolls, and unknown monsters scattered on the ground. Traces of combat was still present as arrows and knives got stuck on the corpses and bones.
Yet, Xu Miao was unperturbed. He took out his magic dadao and began chopping the dried corpses and bones, searching for leftover loot.
Within five minutes, Xu Miao found what he had been looking for, a monster core.
'Free loot!'
The young master didn't care about potential danger. He cut more dead bodies and skeletons to find monster cores, treasures, or usable items.
Unfortunately, Xu Miao could only secure 107 monster cores in this room. The arrows and knives were no longer usable as they had decayed through time. Judging from the corpse condition and the rust on metal weapons, they were at least several decades old.
Now, Xu Miao packed 180 cores in his leather bag. Since each monster core's size was the same as an adult's thumb and weighed a kilogram. He could no longer carry them normally anymore. Without a spatial ring, carrying these items became an issue.
'Can my system inventory hold these balls? Can I stack all of them in one slot?'
Xu Miao didn't return his magic dadao to the inventory. Since he was aware that his actions were being watched, Xu Miao crouched and panned his system screen on the ground. Then, he opened the inventory menu while the semi-transparent monitor lined with the ground level.
One of the monster cores was shoved into the inventory. It occupied one of the slots.
Xu Miao pushed another one into the same slot, hoping that the item would stack.
<<Ding>>
The second monster core went in. The inventory slot showed a monster core icon with a number [2] on the box's bottom right corner.
The experiment was a success. Xu Miao managed to solve his item problem.
'I should have done this a long time ago.'
Without hesitation, he shoved the rest of the monster cores into the inventory. Now, he didn't have to worry about carrying a heavy bag of small crystals.
After storing all monster cores, Xu Miao looked at the mysterious ores in the broken craters. He picked one of them and examined it.
'I can sense Qi from these ores. What are they, system?'
<<Ding>>
<<These are raw demonic stones.>>
'Oho? Raw demonic stones? So, the Qi I sensed were Demonic Qi?'
Xu Miao's eyes glittered. He freed up space in his system inventory by taking out a magic knife. Then, he shoved a raw ore into the available inventory slot.
Trying his luck, he grabbed another ore and tried to add to the same inventory slot.
*WHOOSH*
The ore went in.
"MUAHAHAHAHA!!"
All of a sudden, Xu Miao burst into laughter. He grabbed the raw ores and stacked it into the ore slot. Sometimes, the ores were incompatible and Xu Miao couldn't stack it with the others as they were ordinary stones. However, more than half of them were demon ores.
After three hours, Xu Miao ransacked all craters. The demonic ore icon had [392] number on it, showing the total of ore pieces that he had looted.
"More! Where are the ores!?"
The young master forgot about the crisis. He looked around and found five more passages. Without caring if these paths were dangerous or not, Xu Miao wielded his magic dadao and magic knife, walking to the left-most tunnel. He picked the path randomly.
Small fireballs still rotated around Xu Miao, lighting the pathway. He looked at everything for monster cores and raw ores. The corner of pillars, the dirt, the ceiling, and the dead bodies were searched as if Xu Miao was a new Skyrim player who collected every lootable item.
Xu Miao lost track of time while he was exploring the underground mine and collecting ores. 12 Hours later, his stomach roared and snapped him back to his senses.
'Huh? When was the last time I ate something?'
Xu Miao secured a place to sit down and have his meal. It had been more than half a day since he was teleported into this world. He started to get tired.
'I guess I have to sleep here. Oh well…'
Xu Miao took out his prepared food packages and water bottles from his inventory. He rested in the mine for now. Before he went to sleep, he didn't forget to drag a few broken craters to cover his body, camouflaging himself with the environment in case there were harmful monsters nearby.
…
4 Hours later, Xu Miao woke up. He didn't spend a long time in the Isolation Training Space since he only absorbed energy from refined stones, which he had stored in his inventory. His Qi in his dantian was replenished and increased a bit.
.
*********************************************
.
[Stored Qi]
Yang Qi: 90,164
Yin Qi: 39,120
.
*********************************************
.
No spare refined spirit stones were left in Xu Miao's inventory. These backup Qi strands were his source of power.
Xu Miao still had demonic ores in his inventory. If he were to spend all of the stored Qi, he could still absorb those demonic stones and convert them like how he converted Wei Yuan's energy. However, he wanted to keep them to himself for now, just in case he could find a way to use them other than absorbing its Qi directly.
After packing his weapons and supplies in the inventory slots, which had been freed after all refined stones had been used, Xu Miao continued exploring the mine.
Xu Miao found several rooms with more corpses and traces of battles. Again, he looted everything useful.
After Xu Miao found the fifteenth room, he stumbled upon a blockaded door. Over a hundred skeletons and dried corpses of humanoid monsters packed in front of the entrance as if they had gathered to siege the sealed room.
Sitting skeletons with horns in rusty armor faced the opposite direction of these dead monsters. They seemed to be warriors who had stood and protected the sealed room until death.
Attracted by the sealed door, Xu Miao inspected the area after he looted all the monster cores and ores.
'What were you guys trying to enter, and what were you lot trying to protect?'
Xu Miao peeled off the dead bodies and broken barricades to create a path to the sealed door. After an hour of hard work, he reached the suspicious area.
The narrow passage entrance was blockaded by stones and old wood, which seemed to be deliberately made in urgent.
Xu Miao patiently dug through the stones and barricades, making his way to the other side of the tunnel. When he got through, he found another long passage, but it led to a dead-end.
'Huh? I'm sure these guys are protecting something.'
Xu Miao scanned through the section behind the barricade to see what they were protecting or what the monsters tried to reach.
In the dead-end tunnel, several dried skeletons laid around. Xu Miao couldn't say that they were humans as two horns extended from each of their skulls.
'These dead bodies, were they demons?'
Most bones in the abandoned mine were either grey or white. However, these skeletons glittered in rainbow colors. Illuminated by Xu Miao's wisp-like fireballs, the glowing and glittering bones were like jewels under the sunlight.
Xu Miao's eyes shone. He had never seen shining bones before, so he thought that these people's dead bodies should be something valuable. He stored one of the dead bodies into his inventory.
Then, a skull with two curvy horns image appeared as the item's icon. The description in the menu said, "Skeleton of Oni Priestess."
'Oni priestess? An oni? A Japanese ogre?'
Xu Miao recalled a monster oni from Japanese folklores. An oni was a giant ogre with two horns, red skin, and long fangs that extended out of its mouth. Because of the cultural influence of the country, it usually wielded either a long katana or a long spiked mace and wore samurai plate armor.
The remnant clothes of these dead bodies also resembled kimono, which didn't belong in a deep mine. As Xu Miao examined closer, many of these skeletons hid sheathed short swords for self-defense.
Xu Miao picked up some of the tantos and unsheathed them. All of them already decayed, showing rusty broken blade and core.
Not giving up searching for usable items, Xu Miao stripped these dead bodies, looking for monster cores or any hidden treasure.
'Oh?'
He found several white crystals, which was at the same size as a monster core. However, they were from these dead onis. There were 23 of them in total in this sealed section.
<<Ding>>
After storing one of the crystals, the inventory identified the items for Xu Miao.
Refined Demonic Stone
Xu Miao's eyes glittered. He found more valuable items.
"HAHAHA! I'm rich!"
After collecting all the white orbs, Xu Miao planned to free some spaces in his inventory to store these glittering skeletons, hoping to bring them back to the outside world.
*Click*
While Xu Miao was busy sorting his inventory, one of the abandoned katana in this room moved. It unsheathed itself, revealing its sinister dark light.
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
DamnPlotArmor
DamnPlotArmor Spam, flame, and annoy your author here
.
Discord: https://discord.gg/gRSnV3B
บท 56: Sentient Katana
Chapter 56 – Sentient Katana
*CLICK*
The black katana emitted a dark aura. It slowly floated and rotated its edge to the ceiling as if someone was wielding it.
Xu Miao sensed the cold Qi, which had been emitted by the weapon. He turned around and brandished his magic dadao.
Upon seeing the ghost sword floating in mid-air, Xu Miao's jaw dropped.
"Wow. A real ghost?"
The ghost katana pointed its sharp edge at Xu Miao and flew toward him.
Xu Miao swung his saber.
*SHANK*
The katana was deflected back. Yet, its dark aura expanded.
*Piki*
A crack appeared on the magic dadao where it contacted the black katana.
'The hell?'
As the wielder of the saber, Xu Miao could sense the residual Qi within the magic saber. It was considered a low-grade artifact in this world, but it held the strength of a 3rd stage cultivator. Just one hit from the katana, this thing was almost broken.
Moreover, Xu Miao could tell from the flow of the dadao's Qi. Its energy was being drained by the ghost katana.
'So, it can drain other magic weapon's energy? How about this?'
Xu Miao activated his body strengthening skill and another stolen skill, Wind Slash +10.
Wind Slash was a basic ranged attack technique that everybody could learn. By swinging an aura-coated weapon and making an arc, anyone could create a wind cutter energy, which could cut through their enemies a few meters away.
The sword energy hit the floating katana.
*CLANK*
As if the katana had sentience, it deflected the energy with ease.
But Xu Miao already used the momentum and rushed closer to the ghost sword.
He seized its handle!
'You're mine! Energy Drain!'
<<Ding>>
<<You have absorbed 157 Demonic Qi!>>
<<Ding>>
<<Your Demonic Body has converted 157 Demonic Qi to 1,570 Yang Qi and 1,570 Yin Qi.>>
Similar to when Xu Miao absorbed Wei Yuan's Qi, he obtained Demonic Qi from the katana.
The ghost sword attempted to free itself from Xu Miao's grasp. It wiggled, trying to chop his arm.
*CLANK*
Xu Miao swung his magic dadao at the sharp edge of the katana, pushing it away from him.
*SCREECH!!*
The katana screamed in anger. It looked down on the magic dadao and began consuming its energy. As the katana lost its demonic Qi because of Xu Miao, it stole the saber's residual Qi to make up for the loss.
*CRACK*
The dadao shattered and disintegrated, but the katana kept losing its energy. Every second, Xu Miao stole 450 – 500 strands of demon Qi from it, but the sword could only get 2,500 strands of Yang Qi in return.
*SCREECH!!*
As if Xu Miao was riding a wild horse, the katana kept moving and shaking, trying to harm or kill the wielder. It slowly got out of his grip because of its overwhelming strength.
Xu Miao sacrificed 5,000 Yang Qi to cast another special skill.
Shadow Restraint +5!
Under the illuminated light of small fireballs around Xu Miao, his shadow turned into a blob monster, covering the katana's shadow.
Suddenly, the ghost sword's movement became rigid and slow. The Shadow Restraint +5 skill showed its effect.
The skill itself was useful in many situations, but it has a serious drawback. Every second that the target was restrained, Xu Miao had to pay several thousands of Yang Qi to upkeep the skill, depending on the target's strength.
If the target was weak, Xu Miao might not even need to use this skill. But against a strong foe, such as this unknown ghost sword, he rapidly lost his Qi to restrain the sword's movement.
<<Ding>>
<<You have spent 7,552 Yang Qi to upkeep the Shadow Restraint technique.>>
<<Ding>>
<<Your Demonic Body has converted 155 Demonic Qi to 1,550 Yang Qi and 1,550 Yin Qi.>>
As Xu Miao struggled to keep it at bay, he was also making a loss. At this rate, his Yang Qi would be depleted soon.
"Hey, you stupid sword! Can you understand my words!?"
Trying his luck, Xu Miao attempted to negotiate with the ghost katana.
*SCREECH!!*
As if it roared back or cussed him, the katana screamed again. However, its struggling power got weaker.
"Now, listen! I have no grudge against you or whatever you're trying to protect! I'll stop using my technique now. Can you stop trying to kill me!?"
*SCREECH!!*
It screamed again, and It didn't stop moving.
"I guess that my words can't get through you. Fine! Let's destroy each other! I can keep draining your power indefinitely while keeping you trapped like this. Do you think you can escape from me!?"
Xu Miao bluffed while he was pretending to be angered.
The ghost sword resisted harder for a moment, but it also trembled in fear. After a few seconds of struggling, it stopped moving and released a low humming voice, telling Xu Miao to stop.
The young master immediately stopped his techniques to save his energy.
The tug-of-war lasted only 10 seconds, but damages had been done to both sides. The ghost katana looked weak while Xu Miao lost a lot of Yang Qi in the process.
.
*********************************************
.
[Stored Qi]
Yang Qi: 45,660
Yin Qi: 54,210
.
*********************************************
.
More than half of Xu Miao's Yang Qi was gone in an instant. Even though his Yin Qi increased, the exchange wasn't worth it.
Xu Miao released the sword, but he took out another magic weapon, a short knife, just in case the ghost sword still wanted to kill him.
"Can we talk now?"
*VIIING*
The katana moved around for a moment. Then, it floated closer to Xu Miao.
When the young master let his guard down, it rotated its edge and grazed his skin. It drank a drop of his blood.
"Ow! You ingrate! I spared you and you ambushed me!?"
*VIIING*
The sword released a sharp noise, which stunned Xu Miao, stopping him from harming the katana.
[Ahem, can you hear my voice now, you ape demon?]
"???"
A young girl's voice echoed in Xu Miao's head. It sounded rough and haughty.
"Oh, is that you, swordy?"
Xu Miao adapted fast. Since the only one who interacted with him at the moment was the sentient katana, his words might get through it, or her.
[My name is NOT Swordy! I'm the great sacred treasure of the Oni Tribe! You hornless mongrel should be worshiping me!]
"Okay… What should I be calling you, great sacred treasure?"
Xu Miao took a humble stance despite his advantage. The first rule of negotiation was to throw his ego away during the first encounter, so he could understand the character of whom he was talking to.
[My subjects used to call me Killer Queen!]
"…"
Xu Miao almost retorted that she didn't deserve that great name. At least, she should be able to make an edgy posture and activate a remote bomb skill to earn the name.
"Okay, I mean, your majesty. Why did you attack me out of nowhere? I'm just a lowly scavenger."
[Bullshit! I saw you did something to my subjects! You stripped them and stuffed one of them into a mysterious space. What the hell are you!? Are you siding with those hornless demons!?]
"Umm, there might be a misunderstanding here. I'm no demon. I'm a human. Also, I'm not your enemy. I got lost and stumbled here."
[A hoo-man? Wait, you're not a hornless demon? What kind of demon are you?]
"Didn't you drink my blood!? Wasn't it red?"
[Huh?]
Killer Queen looked baffled. She orbited around Xu Miao as if she was examining him up close.
[The heck!? Aren't you a demon? You're using one of their body strengthening techniques, aren't you? By the way, what's a hoo-man anyway? Why do you look like a hornless demon if you aren't one?]
"…"
This might take a while to explain or teach her human common sense.
…
A human and a flying sword were chatting for hours. Both exchanged their information regarding the outside world and the events in the mine.
Xu Miao taught Killer Queen about the world history that he had learned from Qi Hong. In exchange, she told him about the battles that took place here many years ago.
Roughly, three hundred years ago, all demon races and monster beasts migrated to this alternate realm after suffering severe losses during the war against human cultivators.
Killer Queen was forged after the migration had been completed. The Oni Clan had bestowed the newly-created heavenly-graded magic katana to their high priestess, so it could be her symbol of power.
The priestess gave the sword the current name, hoping that it would raise the morale of her followers.
Killer Queen slowly gained her conscience after she was being nourished by the demonic Qi of the high priestess for decades. With the strength of the priestess and Killer Queen, the Oni Tribe secured many natural resources, including this ore mine.
Unfortunately, their riches became the main reason for the oni tribe's downfall. Envious of their riches, hornless tribes, goblins, trolls, orcs, and various demon races formed a coalition and attacked the oni tribe.
The Oni Clan was annihilated and was forced to migrate back to the human world. However, some of the stragglers failed to follow after their leaders.
The high priestess volunteered to stay behind and protected the others. Yet, she failed to repel the invading forces. In the end, her troops were overwhelmed and were forced to retreat to the ore mine.
The rest of the story didn't need to be explained.
"So your master got stuck here and died."
[Pathetic, right? If only my master practiced sword techniques a bit more, she could have annihilated those mongrels before she ran out of Qi.]
"Was she weak?"
[She was an absolute TRASH!! Had she had half of your combat sense, she wouldn't have run away and trapped herself in this shit hole!]
Xu Miao guessed that KQ had a lot of pent up stress as she kept complaining about her dead master non-stop.
[Bleh, I talked for too long. My blade is getting dry. Say, hoo-man, do you have essence crystals? Can this queen borrow one or two crystals from you?]
"What's essence crystals?"
[Meh, you're a country bumpkin! It's the essence crystal! C.R.Y.S.T.A.L., do you want me to spell it?]
"What does it look like?"
[Ugh! It's something that you can get from this mine! You refine those stones with your black Qi until you filter out all the impurity. Then, BOOM, you have a crystal!]
"Does those [Stones] these things?"
Xu Miao took out a raw demonic ore from his inventory.
[Yes! That's the stone! Come on, refine it into a crystal!]
Xu Miao was about to complain that he wasn't a blacksmith or an alchemist. But when Xu Miao recalled that he was talking to a sentient weapon, he had an inspiration.
"Err, your majesty. Can you teach me how to refine a crystal? I'm sorry. I'm so stupid that I forgot what my master had taught me."
[WTF!? You HOO-MAN is so stupid! How could you forget something so simple!? Go and gather 20 of these rocks!]
Xu Miao grinned. He brought out 20 demonic ores and laid them in front of him.
"What's next?"
[Where the fuck are they from!? Oh, well. Not that I care. First, you inject hot Qi into those stones and melt the useless rubbish...]
The talking sword didn't realize that she was being tricked by Xu Miao. She continued to teach him the refining process as she enjoyed having a company after being alone for centuries.
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง
DamnPlotArmor
DamnPlotArmor
Your author is lonely in his discord. Come and read unedited chapters here.
.
Discord: https://discord.gg/gRSnV3B
ของขวัญ
-- ได้รับของขวัญแล้ว สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
200+ การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
8 หินพลัง 
ความคิดเห็นย่อย