Chapter 1798: Chapter 1798: Digging Deep

Devin refrained himself from following Zen into the cave.

The members of the Tie clan above the giant pit had paid close attention to Zen's activities. They showed interest when they felt Zen had discovered something.

But needless to say, right now they felt a bit disappointed.

They could only watch helplessly while this outsider called Thad kept digging in their territory. It was obvious that nobody would be happy about it.

And the frustrating part was that they could not even identify the object!

They had spent all their time digging on the mountain which by now had formed a huge pit. But they still could not find any more mud. Whereas, Zen had just arrived and already found some clues.

“Even if Thad finds some mud, should we just let him take it with him?”

“I am not in the favor of allowing some random outsider to take us for granted!”

“But what options are we left with? Suppose we find the mud. Then what do we do about it? What good would that do? Should we ask Linn to sell it? Don't you know that there are mud sellers everywhere in the Money Alley right now?”

Some of the Tie Clan members realized the crux of the problem. They were in deep thought with this realization.

Even if they found the mud that possessed intelligence, they wouldn't be able to sell it for much money in the Money Alley. Others would definitely show hesitation in believing their words. Who could affirm that it was the same sort of mud that Zen had bought from them? And if at all it could be proved that it was the similar mud, what use could it bring to others? Nobody knew the purpose of this mysterious mud except for Zen himself.

And to make matters worse, there were rumors that Zen and the Tie Clan had joined hands to sell a nominal piece of mud for an enormous price just to deceive those who were completely unaware of the truth.

The elders of the Tie Clan were not dimwitted. They had listened to Devin's suggestion and allowed him to invite Zen over to the Tie Clan after careful consideration. Even if the mud that Zen wanted was indeed rare, it was the result of Zen's discerning eyes. They would have to allow Zen to take it.

The tunnel that Zen had created was horizontal. He kept changing positions in the long and narrow cave, going by the movements of his inner world.

As he followed the path in the cave and excavated a distance of over a thousand feet, his inner world suddenly became still.

“Looks like I've gone too far,” Zen concluded.

He turned around and walked down the tunnel as he paid close attention to the changes in his inner world. When his inner world became active again, he immediately stopped, “This is where it is! It should be around here!”

Zen did not let others know that he was not very confident in his judgment. He was completely relying on his inner world's reaction towards the mud. Hence, he could only roughly sense a location.

With this current location in mind, he began digging downwards with his Great Weighty Sword.

So now he created a vertical tunnel.

Earlier, Zen had returned from the bottom of the pit, and climbed up 400 feet. Now, after he went downwards and dug 400 feet, his Great Weighty Sword touched the solid gangue and made a sharp clanging sound. He had reached the gangue layer!

Although the top layer of the earth was soft, its texture and weight were not to be underestimated. In truth, the soil in the divine land was very heavy. A handful of soil here could be as heavy as a mountain in the Evolutionary Universe.

As for the solid gangue below, it was even more astonishing. Even if Zen wanted to dig deep into it, it would be quite an arduous effort. Therefore, the Tie Clan had to stop at the gangue layer after they dug a huge pit here.

After arriving at this spot, Zen found that the consciousness in his inner world was becoming more active. Because the consciousness was not that of a living being, it could not clearly express what was down there. Anyway, this was the same case when Zen got the mud in the Money Alley.

Of course, Zen wouldn't give up here. No matter how hard the gangue was, he would put all his efforts in going down.

Bang! Bang!

Zen kept hammering his Great Weighty Sword downwards.

It had been very easy for him to dig into the soil. He hadn't used too much strength, and only used a certain amount of skill to easily carve out a smooth opening. But now, he had to use more of his strength source. ℝ𝐀NꝋＢЁȘ

Because of the power packed intensity of the Great Weighty Sword, the solid gangue was suddenly covered with cracks. He thrust the sword once more, and the cracked gangue crumbled into miniature rocks and scattered everywhere.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Zen continued to cut through the solid gangue situated under the ground. Although he was about three thousand feet underground, the hammering sound still reverberated back to the surface of earth, along with the violent tremors. The people of the Tie Clan felt like there were earthquake tremors under their feet.

“Oh my goodness! He has dug through the gangue layer!”

“Is he really that strong enough to do that? What a feat!” “The gangue layer is so solid that it would be extremely difficult to dig deep into it even for a mid-rank True God!”

“He definitely possesses the strength! Otherwise, why would the Heavenly Han House have such high hopes on him? After all, he's a true genius who has the right to enter the Floating Island.”

The Tie Clan members continued to be in awe as the ground shook beneath their feet.

What they did not know was that Zen had earlier defeated Bentley, who was a top-rank True God. Zen had even managed to destroy several walls of the Heavenly Han House. Of course the Han Clan couldn't possibly let this news spread outside! Hence, the Tie Clan were completely unaware of these developments.

Boom! Boom!

Huge explosions reverberated in the air, and a thin layer of sweat formed on Zen's forehead.

By now, he had dug seventy to eighty feet down through the gangue layer. The consciousness in his inner world also responded more and more strongly. It became clear they were very close in reaching their target.

“It shouldn't be too far now,” Zen said wiping the sweat from his forehead. He raised the Great Weighty Sword again as he shouted, “Demolish now!”

Bang!

This time, after he thrust his sword downwards, he actually felt the sword sink. Finally he pierced through something!

It was difficult to see what sort of material the sword had sunk into. Everything was in total darkness. It was impossible for the sunlight to reach so deep within. Zen stretched out his hand and patted the area where the sword had sunk, lightly. A tiny wisp of flame clambered along the Great Weighty Sword and began to burn. Under the illumination of the flame, he saw that a fist-sized hole had formed near his feet.

“The bottom of the gangue layer is empty,” Zen's face revealed a touch of gratification. He abruptly smashed down the Great Weighty Sword through the last layer of the gangue. As he fell onto the hollow space below, he stabbed the Great Weighty Sword into the gangue, and his entire body hung on the sword hilt in midair.

Soon, with a flick of his hand, Zen summoned a ball of fire.

The fire was extremely pure, and the light it emitted was very bright. It was the ball of Elementary Fire. After comprehending the Elementary Fire Godly Way, perhaps it did not have a great increase in his strength, but it did have many other wonderful uses!

Under the illumination of the ball of fire, Zen was able to clearly see the scene below him. It was a cave with a width of over ten thousand feet. In the middle of the cave was a two hundred feet wide square brown rock.

As Zen intently gazed at the rock, he suddenly felt a movement behind him!

He quickly pulled his sword from the gangue and felt himself plummeting inside the cave. As he was falling, Zen quickly rolled over and could make out a black form at the top of the cave.

The black form looked like a figure made out of mud. The form had stretched out its thin needle-like hand and intended to launch a sneak attack on Zen's back. After that attack failed, its needle-like hand rapidly transformed into the shape of a gecko's claw that pressed against the top of the cave and began to climb up.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The mysterious thing emitted a series of strange sounds as it climbed. Its speed was extremely fast and it quickly disappeared from Zen's vision.

“This thing... Is it the same sort of mud as I absorbed?”

When Zen saw the form, he felt a surging consciousness within his inner world. It was almost exactly the same way he had felt in the Money Alley. Right now, the consciousness within his inner world was constantly reminding Zen to swallow that form. And he must do it immediately!

Of course, Zen would not let this chance slip by. The moment he landed on the ground, he infused enough strength into his legs and jumped up, shooting towards the spot where the black form had disappeared.

Bam!

Zen once again inserted his sword into the gangue so that he could hang himself at the top of the cave. He looked at the wall at the top of the cave with a slight frown.

He had clearly seen that the black thing had disappeared from this spot. Then where did it vanish? There was only a layer of glossy black gangue above him. There was no place to hide. Was it possible that the black thing had hidden itself into the gangue?