Chapter 71

Perhaps the heavens were fulfilling Cheng Yang's request, for just as he shot out the last ice ball, another large rat emerged from the stone cave.

Cheng Yang was no longer calm. When he said he had disturbed a rat's nest, it was just a complaint. If there really was a large group of late-stage first-rank rats here, he would definitely try to stay as far away as possible. Although he considered himself very powerful among warriors, he would still be overwhelmed by a group of late-stage first-rank magical beasts.

Cheng Yang attacked the rat while retreating. However, after two attacks, he found more rats emerging from the stone cave, and this one seemed to have already discovered him, directly chasing after him.

Seeing this, a thought suddenly popped into Cheng Yang's mind: Could the treasure he was looking for be related to these rats? If so, running away seemed meaningless.

Cheng Yang threw another ice ball, killing the rat in front, then looked around for a good hiding place.

The terrain here was very advantageous for Cheng Yang, with stone caves everywhere. The only thing he needed to pay attention to was whether the chosen cave was sturdy.

However, before he found a suitable cave, he noticed that the rat chasing him had turned around and run back, meeting another rat that had just emerged. These two large creatures were now guarding the cave entrance.

"Indeed, there's something fishy." Cheng Yang's heart stirred. These rats guarding the cave behind them must have another reason besides it being their nest.

Cheng Yang's mind raced, and he decided to approach the cave again without looking for a hiding place.

As Cheng Yang gradually got closer to the two rats, they let out shrill screeches. In less than a few seconds, more noise came from the cave, and two more rats emerged.

All of these rats were late-stage first-rank beings. Just the three that Cheng Yang had killed earlier, plus the four in front of him, were enough to wipe out an entire main city.

Cheng Yang slowly moved forward, trying to determine the range at which these creatures would attack.

Eighty meters...

Sixty meters...

Fifty meters...

The rats' screeches became increasingly sharp, making Cheng Yang feel uneasy.

However, Cheng Yang remained calm and continued to move forward. When he advanced another ten meters, the four rats could no longer hold back. They leaped forward with their hind legs, chasing after Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang was prepared. When the creatures had moved ten meters, he swung his bone staff, and an ice ball appeared, striking the middle rat.

"Bang..." The rat let out a screech, luckily triggering a slow effect, causing it to fall behind.

The other three rats continued to charge without hesitation. Cheng Yang didn't want to prolong the battle, so he used the freezing spell to freeze another rat. He then slowly retreated while attacking the remaining two rats.

Cheng Yang's retreat speed was about half that of the rats. When they were about to catch up to him, one of the rats was already dead. The remaining rat accelerated with its hind legs, attacking Cheng Yang.

At this point, Cheng Yang couldn't dodge in time. The explosive power of the rat's hind legs was at a professional level, and its sudden burst of speed completely negated Cheng Yang's advantage.

"Bang..." The rat collided with Cheng Yang, and his large size made Cheng Yang lose his balance, falling backward. His health points instantly dropped by fourteen, showing that the attack of a late-stage first-rank magical beast was not something just anyone could withstand.

Although the pain in his chest was intense, such an experience was not uncommon for Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang immediately circled around a stone pillar to the left and shot an ice ball...

At the same time, the other two rats, whose speed had been slowed, also recovered and quickly chased after him.

This time, Cheng Yang didn't dare to take risks and had to retreat while fighting. After killing the rat that had collided with him, he had already retreated nearly a hundred meters. At this point, the remaining two rats ignored him and ran back to the cave entrance.

"I knew you would do this." Cheng Yang sneered and began to meditate to recover. When his magic power was fully restored, he went to provoke the rats again.

This time, the remaining two rats did not summon any more companions, or perhaps they had no more companions.

Cheng Yang easily dealt with these two opponents but immediately felt a headache. Why weren't any more monsters coming out? Did he have to enter the cave himself?

Cheng Yang looked at the dark cave and finally mustered the courage to step in.

For the first few meters, the light from outside allowed him to see the ground clearly, but as he continued, he had to feel his way along the wall.

Cheng Yang's heart grew heavier. If it were in a bright environment, he wouldn't fear facing seven or eight giant rats. But here, with the rats' night vision, he would be at a complete disadvantage, unable to even counterattack.

But things had come to this point, and retreating wasn't Cheng Yang's style. Besides, he still had a few health potions. Even if there were more giant rats inside, he could withstand their attacks and escape.

After about a minute, Cheng Yang suddenly felt a bright light ahead. The cave walls were glowing faintly, extending far into the distance.

"What is this..." Cheng Yang was puzzled.

Seeing no magical beasts ahead, Cheng Yang ran over. When he saw what was on the walls, his shock was indescribable.

"How can this be? How can there be so many?" Cheng Yang's eyes were filled with surprise and a hint of frustration.

These glowing objects were called spirit stones, which, as the name suggests, were minerals containing spirit energy. The amount of spirit energy in each stone depended on its grade.

In his previous life, Cheng Yang had seen someone obtain these on a "forum," with pictures showing the same stones as those on the cave walls.

However, that person had only a few 1st-grade spirit stones, each containing only ten points of spirit energy. Although the amount was small, it pointed to another way for humans to obtain spirit energy.

Until the moment of his death, humans had not found a single vein of spirit stones, no matter how small.

Now, just over ten days after his rebirth and the start of the apocalypse, a vein of spirit stones was right in front of Cheng Yang. How could he not be excited? However, his excitement was mixed with frustration because he had no way to deal with the spirit stones in front of him.

Not to mention that he didn't have mining skills, even the arbitrary teleportation portal was enough to discourage any greedy thoughts.

These were only 1st-grade spirit stones. Even if he had 1st-grade mining skills, how many could he mine in a few hours? To absorb the spirit energy from the stones, they had to be mined out, a rule of the game that Cheng Yang couldn't violate.

While deep in thought, Cheng Yang suddenly noticed some shiny objects on the ground ahead. He ran over and picked them up, discovering they were spirit stones.

Cheng Yang instantly understood. These spirit stones were likely the reward for entering the arbitrary teleportation portal. However, he didn't know how many there were. If the number was too small, he wouldn't be very interested.

Cheng Yang held a spirit stone and, with a thought, extracted the spirit energy, which added ten points to his account. The spirit stone in his hand instantly turned into a pile of dust.

Cheng Yang had known how to use spirit stones in his previous life but had never tried it himself. Now, successfully extracting the spirit energy gave him a sense of accomplishment.

Cheng Yang roughly estimated that there were at least twenty spirit stones in sight, equivalent to over two hundred points of spirit energy.

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang quickly ran over, picked up the spirit stones, and absorbed their energy.

As he moved further in, he found that spirit stones were scattered along the way.

Cheng Yang speculated that either the deity had intentionally left some mined spirit stones when transforming the world, or these stones had been transferred from somewhere else, with miners working on them. Due to a sudden event, some of the stones had fallen to the ground.

Cheng Yang couldn't be sure which was the case, but for him, obtaining spirit energy was a great thing. He had long been hoping to break through the 100,000 spirit energy mark to unlock eight times the training speed.

Moreover, spirit stones weren't just for warriors to absorb; they could also be sacrificed to increase the spirit energy of a territory.

If it weren't for the size of the spirit stones, which were as big as fists, and the limited space in his backpack, Cheng Yang would have packed them all to increase the territory's spirit energy.

After advancing over a hundred meters, Cheng Yang had collected over a hundred spirit stones, increasing his spirit energy by over a thousand points.

Just as Cheng Yang was reflecting on the gains from this mission, he noticed a change in the spirit stones on the wall. The originally white stones now had some light blue stones, which were smoother in texture.

Cheng Yang's mind worked quickly. When he saw these stones intermingled with the spirit stones, he immediately thought they might be higher-grade spirit stones.

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