Page 3: Fire trouble

The next day was noisier, livelier and more exciting compared to the previous morning they had. The atmosphere of the city gave them less stress of being anxious about their environment. Everyone this morning went on their own to the streets of the city while one of them was getting out from the place.

Long Bai was back to the mountain ranges specifically on the mining area. Since it is still bright, he decided to check the population of the area. While hiding from the few trees and some rock formations, he roamed the place safely because of his <ghostly steps> that cancels out the sound of his motions. After an hour of rounds, he was able to check that there were only eight guards in total who have an average cultivation of the third level of the core foundation layer. It's a good thing that there was no commanding officer in the area. Just yesterday, the man named Corporal Mountain was someone he needed to stay away from since his strength was a layer higher than him. Add the skills that he may posses, he could even be more problematic than just his strength. Of course if its about escaping, he is still confident as long as it's a one on one match but if the fight will be contained in a small space, the speed he possesses will become inefficient.

As the time meets the high noon, the heat in the area just gets more and more unbearable. The eight guards that were standing on guard outside of the mine took shelter inside the mouth of the mine.

'This is no good, they all went to the entrance. I need some distraction.'

Long Bai was thinking of how he would distract the guards when he saw some movable boulders near the area. If he's going to cause a commotion, the guards will definitely get out of the large adit which will give him the chance to enter the mine unnoticed. Without taking too much time, he immediately pushed the rock for it to fall, hid near the entrance and activated his <ghostly steps> the moment the rock hit the ground. Long Bai used the sound as a distraction for his entrance since the guards will have their attention be focused on the source of sound.

Finally, he was inside the mine. Unlike outside, the passage was still dark. His eyes were still trying to adapt with the new environment so for the moment, he was relying on his tactile sense. After a few minutes, the walls that he was just touching became visible. At least 5 meters radius around him, he can already see things. Long Bai walked for three minutes and he never saw anything yet aside from the cold wall and dirt around him. Surprisingly, the tunnels were wide enough to fit in a deluxe bus and have it drive in. Since Long Bai doesn't have a map of the area, he was going everywhere while making a mental map. While he was occupied walking in a slow paced manner, he came into three tunnel opening. Undecided on which tunnel to choose, he sat in front of them for a while. Just when he let his bottom fall on the floor, he sensed his red core reacting to a certain direction. The red core in his core system was spinning erratically like it has found something delicious to devour. The uncontrollable spinning gave Long Bai the idea that his core might be reacting to something good. He immediately stood up and followed the direction in which the core was reacting the greatest.

That right tunnel was almost twice smaller than the other. If the left tunnel may have a height of 4 meters, the right tunnel was approximately 2.2 meters. Walking in a tighter tunnel was nerve wracking as the walls are more restrictive. In case something happens there, he might be having some difficulties escaping.

After following the smaller tunnel, he noticed a faint glow around 6 meters away from him. When he approached it, a small part of a fire stone was showing up. That area was also a dead end which gave the impressions that it might have been the last working area of the workers. Then the left tunnel that's larger must be the old tunnel that may lead to a deeper area.

When Long Bai touched the small part that was sticking out, the system gave him a notice that he found a fire stone. Inside his body, the red core was also moving uncontrollably. It must have wanted to absorb the fire essence that much.

Before he planned to absorb it, he thought of collecting them first and take them in in one go. Using the red core as a radar, he was able to find a fire stones that are embedded shallow on the walls of the tunnel. For a whole hour of doing such, he was able to collect more or less 2 kilograms of the it. When he reached the end of the tunnel, the tried digging using the spare sword he had since the red core was still reacting. As he goes deeper, the core was reacting even more erratically like there's something even more better in there. His digging was inefficient since he didn't had the proper tool. Unlike a while ago, the crystals were just embedded 5 to 10 centimeters on the wall but right now, his digging reach almost to a meter. Using the spare sword, instead of the manual digging, he thought of using some sword skills to make the digging faster.

Since he thought that there's no problem with it, he used all the stab skills he had in his sword style of fighting. He even imbued the sword with flame element and combined with his sword intent to enhance its penetrative power exponentially.

<head stab> 2x!, 3x!, 4x!...

<plexus stab> 2x!, 3x!, 4x!...

Using the skills repeatedly, the soil in front steadily fall off. After a minute of continuous barrage, a glowing large crystal showed up.

[System notice: You found a fire crystal vein.]

This is a huge find for him. He doesn't know how large it is but from the appearance, it might even be as large as a boulder. Seeing that a large portion is still being covered by soil, he continued uncovering the sides with his sword.

'Ah, this is great but its so huge. How can I possibly carry this? Will it even fit in my cosmic pouch? Wait.. fit? Don't I have something larger? Should I try it?'

Long Bai was thinking of transporting the large fire crystal vein in his pocket world. Since the pocket world also works like a cosmic pouch, it might also work if he will pit the thing in it.

He stopped what he's doing and kept the spare sword back to his pouch. Reaching the exposed glowing crystal, he spread out his essence around it. While he engulfs the crystal, he was also able to tell the size due to it. It was as huge as a standard city bus. It was freaking huge that he was just too overwhelmed. With such treasure, he was thinking that his cultivation will exponentially rise. Just before he could explode from excitement, he immediately calmed himself down and went back to his main objective. When he felt that he was able to entirely engulf it with his essence, he tried pulling it into the pocket world. The pocket world reacted to his action and automatically sucked it inside. Just like a cosmic pouch where the void space reacts with the owner's essence, the pocket world worked just the same.

He was about to dive in into the pocket world when he heard a rumble. The ground or the entire mountain was shaking. Looking at the space where the large crystal was taken out, it was slowly caving in. With that sight, Long Bai's natural reaction kicked in. It was for him to activate his speed skill to the max and get out of there as quickly as he can. Although the tunnel was dark, his instinct grew sharper due to the idea of being buries alive. In some sense, it was similar to the situation where a person experiences the adrenaline rush during a life threatening or dangerous situation.

Outside the mine, the eight guards were rushing further away from the sinking mountain. In addition, the large rocks falling from the place gave them even more scare. While they are running with all their might, they felt a strong wind that passed just beside them. They were not able to see it clearly since they were to focused in running and dusts were everywhere. All they have seen was a blur.

.

.

Three kilometers away from the mine, Long Bai leaned his back on a large tree trunk. Panting so hard while feeling the exhaustion due to essence depletion, he did not notice that he was able to traverse a vast distance within a short period of time. This experience was something he never had before. Due to the idea of being buried alive, his body reacted to the extent that it automatically activated his movement skill to its maximum. His body was pushed to the limit and for a dew seconds, he felt he was in a new realm. It was very similar to the things he heard when a person momentarily gained extraordinary strength during timesnof trouble or accidents. He described that very moment as if pure strength was welling inside him and that he never felt any thing except that. Little did he know that his inner essence was being drawn out quickly causing him to be this weak amd exhausted afterwards. Since he was still worried about his safety, he ignored all the messages from the system that kept on flashing in front of him. His mind's priority was to find a safe place for him to recover his essence back to normal. Good thing the direction he took was a good one. He ended up on a vast mountain range where there are a lot of small caves where he can rest and hide. After successfully looking for a nearby place to stay, he secured the entrance with a concealment array.

After seeing that the place was secure, he dove into his pocket world. There, elder Kong was waiting for him.

"Young one, where did you get this? This is a huge one. What are you planning to do with it?"

"Elder Kong,.. I am in a slight tro..uble right now. My inner essence is.. almost dried up."

Long Bai was pertaining to his central core having only a wisp of essence nucleus that is still struggling to attract the essence from the environment. With the current situation, it might take him at least a week if he won't use any outside resource to replenish his essence.

"Yeah. I can see that. The central core has become so dull. Its former brightness has diminished greatly that this pocket world is affected. Did you fight someone strong?"

"No, I al...most got buried.. alive. (feeling weak) Elder, can you..take over my body while I'm going to recover my essence? I laid a concealing array but better be safe than sorry."

"I see but may I just suggest something? This fire stone vein is too precious to be consumed entirely. You see, as long as you leave the core intact, it will recover it self. In the future, the excess essence that can't be contained inside the crystal will leak and form new smaller crystals outside. If we keep it here for a long time, the herbs that relies greatly with yang attributed essence will grow faster. In the new future, you'll not just have cultivation resources but also have bountiful alchemy resources."

Elder Kong zoomed out of the pocket world after seeing him nod at him. He then took over Long Bai's physical body in a jiffy. A few days ago while Long Bai was experimenting together with elder Kong, they were able to find out that elder Kong can take over his physical body as long as he wills it.

Back in the pocket world, Long Bai started absorbing the flame essence. The red core was working voraciously as it devoured the essence that's flowing into him. Inside him, it's like a flood gate has opened into his central core. The erratic red core was like an activated generator* that siphons vast amount of essence from the outside into his central core. This event gave Long Bai a blissful sensation that lead him to forget the passage of time. Enjoying the pleasurable state, he forgot all that he must remember.

Time passed silently in that world.

1 hour...2 hours...3 hours...

Because he was in a trance, he did not notice the notifications and alerts from the system. All those notice and warnings just passed by as his body suffered from an overdose.

"Young lad, wake up! Wake up! Return to your senses! YOUNG MASTER LONG BAI, WAKE UP!"

Elder Kong's yell echoed loudly in the pocket world. With his last yell, Long Bai finally opened his eyes but was surprised in pain as he was on fire. His skin was burning literally, everything except his bare body was left burning.

"Ahh! It hurts! What's happening? Elder Kong, what should I do? Ahhh"

"Stay calm. You have absorbed to much flame essence and it's spreading into your body. The essence inside your central core is too condensed that it can't accumulate any longer causing the incoming flame essence to bypass the red core and instead go to the other part of your body. If you can reverse the process, reconvert some of your inner essence back to flame essence and inject it back to the crystal. Do it!"

Long Bai followed the instructions. With the inner essence he had, he converted back 25% of it back to flame essence and injected it back to the crystal. In rerurn, the flame essence in the other parts of his body started to diminish as they are being absorbed by the red core again. After five minutes of doing so, the scalding heat of the flame essence accumulated in the other parts of the body were gone. The skin that's full of first degree burn started to heal.

After the painful sensation, Long Bai was followed with an annoying sensation from the healing skin. While the skin is healing at a fast rate, he felt itchy sensations all over his body. It was as if there were a lot of ants crawling all over his body. This feeling lasted for not less than five minutes before it had completely gone out.

Long Bai stood and looked at the large crystal that's almost out of glow. Only at its centermost area that a faint light is showing. He looked at elder Kong and lastly at his body.

"What happened? Why do I feel so light?"

"I should be asking that. You were in a deep cultivation for more than three hours. You should check your state right now."

Long Bai checked his status and was surprised by the information he saw.