Chapter 595: Return to Mercenary City (One)
The distance between the vein of tungsten alloy and the Bloodmoon Mercenaries had not been too far apart at about fifty kilometers behind the castle. This location however, had been surrounded by another hundred kilometers of forests that was vile in both environment and the wildlife alike. Poisonous creatures, swamps, and dangerous beasts all cohabited this one single place.
But the location to the vein of tungsten alloy was indeed here. At the very center of this forest was a single cave that could only be seen and entered by through a ravine.
Evening in this place was a place with little to no visibility thanks to the fact that the sun would drop far beneath the horizon and bask the entire forest with darkness.
The darkness had been pierced however by a single orb of azure and yellow. It had been Jian chen and Tynes who were traveling to the entrance of the ravine with Jian Chen’s flying abilities.
The arrival of the two figures had immediately alerted the figures hidden in the forest down below. At the sight of Tynes, they had all moved to salute the two, “Captain!”
Tynes had turned back to look at Jian Chen, “Imperial Protector, these are all men of the Earth Saint Master level and are men worthy of my trust to protect the secret of this mine.”
“Satisfactory work.” Jian Chen smiled to each and every single one of the men there.
Laughing, Tynes spoke to his men next, “Scatter yourselves and hide once more. But keep a watch out for anyone else that approaches. Kill them on sight!”
“Yes!” Each person saluted in response before transforming back into the shadows and out of sight to blend in with the surrounding of the ravine.
“Imperial Protector, the vein of tungsten alloy was completely discovered by accident in this ravine.” Tynes pointed out.
“Come, show me the way.”
Jian Chen and Tynes quickly descended down into the rather shallow and narrow ravine. It was more of a gully rather than ravine due to the fact that there had been grass growing here and there in large quantities.
Surveying the grass from above, Jian Chen slowly closed his eyes and allowed his presence to expand into the surrounding fifty kilometers and penetrating any solid wall that might obstruct his way.
Under the strong detection abilities of his presence, Jian Chen had been able to see through the boulders and walls as if they weren’t even there. But, when his presence snaked into the area below, Jian Chen couldn’t help but let out a sigh from his lips.
This place was practically a giant mountain of tungsten alloy with a purity that matched perfectly with Tynes’ description. The tremendous quantity of the tungsten alloy had been enough to leave even Jian Chen tongue tied, and with his presence, he had been able to dig five meters deep into the ground to probe out the area even more. It had been to his even bigger shock that there was even more tungsten alloy that what was initially measured--the extent in which the vein extended to was more than enough to leave any man utterly inconsolable even.
Now knowing the situation behind the hidden caveside, Jian Chen could finally let out a breath in relief. Before, his heart had been pacing wildly from what he was witnessing, but now, he was already back to his original state of mind.
And now that his emotions had been completely quelled, Jian Chen began to extend outwards with his presence once more. Deeper and deeper, his presence had started to investigate just how deep this hidden vein of tungsten alloy had gone.
With the vast speed of his presence extending into the ground, Jian Chen had soon enough reached roughly ten kilometers deep into the ground. Thanks to his skill with spreading his presence, Jian Chen could conclude that this had been a very pure vein all in all. The deeper he looked, the purer the vein was. And now that he was ten kilometers deep, Jian Chen could see that the purity of this vein was at least ninety percent or perhaps even close to a hundred. In other words, this was no longer a mine of tungsten alloy but a subterranean area completely made of tungsten alloy.
Faced with such a discovery, Jian Chen had been hardpressed to quell his emotions this time. It had been with such excitement that his entire body began to shake, but he did not stop his investigation and continued onwards.
Eleven kilometers….
Twelve kilometers….
Thirteen kilometers….
Fourteen kilometers….
Soon enough, Jian Chen had reached his limits to with he could extend to with his presence at fifteen kilometers. But at that point, Jian Chen’s expression had took on a startled change.
Just slightly beneath the fifteenth kilometer point, Jian Chen could just barely detect an abnormally strong surge of energy with his presence. It was almost as if there had been a barrier preventing him from detecting anything else underneath the protective layering. Even the immensity of the barrier itself was an unknown variable to him.
“What is that?” Jian Chen murmured to himself. This sudden oddity had been far outside Jian Chen’s expectations. It had been unfortunate that his presence was not enough to go beyond this fifteen kilometer stop point as he had no other way to investigate what this strange energy was.
The next step had been to investigate the surrounding area with his presence before finally withdrawing it. It had been with furrowed eyebrows that he stared down below at the ground as he tried to think. This occurrence had brought a great deal of curiosity onto him and completely overshadowed the joy he felt from the discovery of far down the tungsten alloy went.
“If only my presence was strong enough. As things stand now, it’s futile to try and see what lies beyond that barrier; but I can at the very least explore it in the future.” Jian Chen thought to himself.
Right by Jian Chen’s side, Tynes had noticed the puzzled look on Jian Chen’s face and asked out in concern, “Imperial Protector, what is the matter?”
“Tynes, what is the history behind this valley, is there perhaps any legends about this place?” Jian Chen asked.
“I have heard no such thing before.” Tynes shook his head after wracking his mind for any pertinent information.
Letting out a sigh in defeat, Jian Chen looked around the entire valley with his presence. For about twenty meters beyond this area, the tungsten alloy had already deteriorated into a purity rate of fifty percent. And by fifty meters, the amount of tungsten alloy was practically nil with just stone and dirt left in its place.
With the entire valley investigated, Jian Chen could finally ascertain that the heart of the tungsten alloy was located within a diameter of a hundred meters of this place. The tungsten alloy at the very heart of the valley was the purest at about eighty five percent purity.
Now that his investigations was completely over, Jian Chen and Tynes returned back to the headquarters of the Bloodmoon Mercenaries.
At the very top of the castle in which the Bloodmoon Mercenaries were located at, Jian Chen could be seen conversing with Tynes and the other high-ranking members of the Bloodmoon Mercenaries.
“Excavate the tungsten alloy as soon as you can while ensuring that no one learns of its existence. There should be no reason that anyone should learn about it. Tynes, I’ll leave it up to you to deal with this.” Jian Chen commanded.
“But, Imperial Protector, the purity of these ores is already an issue to be considered. Combined with the magical properties of the tungsten alloy that makes it a hundred times stronger than reinforced steel, a year wouldn’t be enough time to make even a single dent in the amount of ores.” A black-robed elder spoke. This elder in particular was an Earth Saint Master and a senior figure of the mercenaries.
“Imperial Protector, I’ve already notified the head of the other six heads, should we tell them the news as well? Perhaps have them choose a single reliable person to go extract the ore?” Tynes offered.
“Yes, I can agree to that notion. Wait until those six arrive and then tell them the news.” Jian Chen spoke.
Half a month later, the rest of the six heads had finally assembled at the headquarters of the Bloodmoon Mercenaries. With all seven gathered, Jian Chen could re-engage in another series of secret discussions and allowed for everyone to be delegated on their tasks to extract the ore.
This meeting had taken a significantly longer amount of time as Jian Chen had to discuss several aspects of confidentiality with the seven Heaven Saint Masters. Preliminary matters such as who would extract the ore, who would transport it, and who would refine it in secret.
On the second day, Tynes had immediately led five hundred of his most trustworthy men to go extracting the ore on pretense of hunting for magical beasts. Simultaneously, the other six leaders had dispatched several of their men in different areas of the mountain range for reconnaissance.
With the combined actions of the seven, information of the tungsten alloy had been completely suppressed, and the tungsten alloy was finally being extracted. Under the command of Jian Chen, the entire valley had been surveyed and mined.
He had still been very curious about that mysterious barrier several kilometers down beneath the earth, but because of the tungsten alloy in his way, Jian Chen had no way to get closer to it. The only way would be to dig a path down.
The next few days had been very calm and peaceful. For the sake of hiding the fact that they were extracting tungsten alloy, Jian Chen had been the only one left to oversee the miners along with Tynes. The other leaders had returned to their own territories so as to avoid any insightful person from connecting the dots and realizing something was amiss. But even with that, the seven had established a means of quick communication between each other. If there was even the slightest deviation away from the plans, they would all be notified and would arrive at the castle of the Bloodmoon Mercenaries as fast as they could.
Ten days later, the Flame Mercenaries had all been rushed to the Bloodmoon Mercenary’s territory. Finally garrisoning themselves within the castle, the three Heaven Saint Masters and five hundred Earth Saint Masters had been included into the group, making the Bloodmoon Mercenaries stronger than before.
Jian Chen had not hidden the fact of the tungsten alloy from Ming Dong and the others and had told them about it. But Zhan Tian, the other captains, and the Heaven Saint Masters remained clueless about the ore.
When the time came for them to understand the magnitude of the tungsten alloy, each one of them had been so shocked that their jaws dropped wide open.
“A tremendous deposit of tungsten alloy like this is extremely rare on the continent. Should this make its way out, there will definitely be turmoil all over the place. Even a few of the isolated families or the Eight Great Powers would mobilize with such an event. With our strength alone, it would be difficult to maintain this.” Huang Luan remarked grimly.
Equally grim, Jian Chen nodded his head, “I’ve already locked down on the information. If the time comes for this to leak out, then I will have the Qinhuang Kingdom step in.”
“My Huang family is strong, if there is a need for it, then I’ll have the ancestor of my family step in as well.”