Jiang Ye found a sloping path down at the edge of the cave.
He slid down cautiously.
The collapsed ground had already broken many stalagmites.
Jiang Ye picked up a stalagmite from the ground that looked about a meter long and grabbed it with his hand.
It was as cold as ice!
His hand stuck to it directly from the cold!
"Damn it," he couldn't help but whisper, shivering.
This stalagmite was quite heavy, weighing several dozen kilograms. Its surface was rough, but it had a jade-like smoothness.
He carried it on his shoulder, climbed back to the surface, entered the base, and placed the stalagmite into the trading pod.
With a slight effort, he pulled his frozen hand free.
After a brief scan, information appeared on the panel:
[Item: Barite Stalagmite]
[Item Description: Nature's masterpiece, a mark left by Father Time. Barite is a common barium-containing mineral, often found in tabular or prismatic crystals, but also in cock's comb, fibrous, botryoidal, concretionary, and floral aggregates, the latter being known as desert rose. Barite is also an important economic ore, used in the production of oil and natural gas. Occasionally, it forms stalagmites with beautiful cross-sections.]
[Appraised Value: 10,000 yuan]
Jiang Ye specifically looked at the cross-section. Indeed, it was composed of numerous concentric circles, much like the growth rings of a tree.
The price was quite good; picking up this one stalagmite was worth ten thousand yuan!
"Sell!"
His account balance increased to 620,200 yuan.
Jiang Ye left the base empty-handed and climbed back down into the mining pit.
The stalagmites were very heavy; he could only carry two at a time. Carrying more would be too tiring.
Jiang Ye picked up a one-meter-long broken stalagmite and then a two-meter-long one. He climbed back to the surface and placed the stalagmites into the base's trading pod.
The one-meter-long broken stalagmite sold for eleven thousand yuan.
The two-meter-long broken stalagmite sold for twenty thousand yuan!
Jiang Ye seemed to have figured out the pricing for the stalagmites: about one hundred yuan per centimeter.
Therefore, the longer, the better!
For the next two and a half hours, he repeatedly entered the underground cave and collected the broken stalagmites.
Almost all of them were thick stalagmites over a meter long, and they were all quite valuable!
Once all the broken stalagmites in the underground cave were collected, it would be time to break off the intact ones.
Jiang Ye took a pickaxe from the base.
Standing in the cave, he adopted a golf-like stance and struck the base of the stalagmites!
The stalagmites were harder than they looked, requiring significant force to break them with a single blow.
Some of the thicker stalagmites needed several strikes to be knocked down.
Jiang Ye was fast. In one hour, he had knocked down stalagmites in half of the underground cave.
After a short two-minute rest, he began transporting them out.
To save time, he first piled all the stalagmites on the ground.
After piling up dozens, he carried them to the base and stuffed them into the trading pod.
One! Five! Ten!
Twenty! Thirty! Forty!
As evening fell, Jiang Ye checked his account balance.
A colossal number:
[1,578,800 yuan!]
He looked at the underground cave; more than half of the stalagmites remained unexcavated.
He climbed into the cockpit, happily started the base vehicle, and returned.
Jiang Ye felt particularly lucky today. This mine was incredibly simple to exploit, and it was also very valuable.
A few swings of the pickaxe, a few steps, and ten to twenty thousand yuan were in his pocket. Where else could he find such a satisfying experience?
He realized his knack for sniffing out mineral veins was quite effective. This underground stalagmite cave, though separated from the surface by only a thin layer of rock, was virtually undiscoverable by ordinary people.
The snow had not stopped, and the accumulated snow was already ankle-deep.
However, the base vehicle's tires were large, allowing it to easily speed across the snowy wilderness.
Jiang Ye dared not drive too fast, maintaining a speed of fifty miles per hour.
As soon as it got dark, he reached the wall. He spent ten minutes getting the vehicle inside and removing the coal bags from outside the wall.
Jiang Ye went back, fried a piece of bear meat to eat, and then immediately went out.
He needed to reinforce the wall.
The attack by the blood kangaroos the previous night had truly frightened him.
At the same time, he secretly admired himself; the decision to build the wall was incredibly wise!
Without the wall, so many kangaroos would have surrounded the base vehicle at once.
With hundreds of kangaroos blocking it, the vehicle would be unable to move, and he wouldn't even be able to escape.
The situation would have been extremely dangerous.
After the fire last night, the ice on the wall had melted, and it needed to be re-iced.
Jiang Ye went to the hot spring.
He collected some ice blocks from the lake surface and threw half a pool of them in.
He poured black coal chunks into the fire pit and lit it!
The ice blocks gradually melted, and the water level rose.
While waiting by the hot spring, Jiang Ye vigilantly held his Kaisi assault rifle and scanned his surroundings.
He suddenly noticed that the previously calm snow cover was moving in large patches!
It looked like many small animals were running rapidly beneath the snow!
A chilling sensation ran through his entire body.
Jiang Ye's first thought was, "What the hell is coming now to attack the base?"
But he quickly calmed down and kicked the snow beside him with his foot.
He saw that seedlings of the pale blue snow oil grass were emerging from the ashes, growing stubbornly.
Jiang Ye breathed a sigh of relief. The snow was moving not because of animals, but because the snow oil grass had all grown back.
The poet was right, after all: "Wildfires cannot burn them out; they grow again with the spring wind!"
Oh, wait, they grew again with the winter wind!
The ice in the hot spring had completely melted. Jiang Ye used a pot to scoop water and carried it to splash onto the wall.
The wall quickly began to freeze. After splashing water, it turned white in just a few seconds and solidified in about ten seconds.
At minus thirty degrees Celsius, it was an extremely harsh temperature.
After working hard for over two hours, he finally finished icing the entire wall.
Jiang Ye's clothes were covered in ice shards and snow. He brushed them off and returned to the base.
He fired up the stove and took off his thick cotton-padded jacket.
Jiang Ye smelled the sweat on himself.
It had been a long time since he last showered.
He opened the chat channel. Today, there were no restocking messages from the citizens of Cao County.
She could now pick up popular goods herself.
However, she still transferred the profits she owed him on time.
Sixty-seven thousand four hundred yuan.
Jiang Ye's personal account balance was 1,646,200 yuan.
To save up the 3.6 million yuan needed to upgrade to a level nine base, he still needed 1,953,800 yuan.
"The road ahead is long!" he muttered.
He opened the chat channel, intending to see everyone chatting idly.
Unexpectedly, a prominent pinned message immediately caught his eye.
[Function Update Notification!]
[In the past thirty days, the M78 Nebula Branch of the Galactic Empire Information Bureau has been established and has launched 6 satellites to this planet.]
[After thirty days of satellite scanning, the map of this planet has been largely completed!]
[All Colony Commanders can open the initial page to view the planet map function!]
[This function will continue to be improved, so please look forward to future updates!]
Jiang Ye was startled. He blinked, his mind racing with a thousand thoughts.
This news was quite significant. Overall, it was both good and bad!