After finishing the meal, without taking a nap, he shouldered his tools and left the base to search for new ore veins.
Finding ore was a technical job; one couldn't just search randomly. Science had to be trusted, and superstitious methods were out. So, Jiang Ye painstakingly recalled the knowledge he had learned, then took off his shoe and tossed it into the air. "Go!" Da Feng Novel Network.
The shoe spun and fell, its toe pointing north.
Jiang Ye put on his shoe and headed north.
As he walked, he carefully sniffed the air.
Unfortunately, there was little wind that afternoon, and the air was stagnant, not conducive to the scent of ore drifting over.
The distance from the base grew longer.
One hundred meters, three hundred meters, five hundred meters, eight hundred meters…
This area was a plain with no undulations; the base was visible behind him.
Finally, at one kilometer, Jiang Ye stopped abruptly.
A slightly different scent drifted over.
But the smell was too faint to identify precisely.
He continued forward, adjusting his direction as he walked, moving towards the area where the scent was strongest.
1.3 kilometers, 1.5 kilometers…
The smell was now quite strong, a complex aroma, like wine spilled on pomegranates, with a hint of lemon.
Jiang Ye had already noticed a pattern: the special ability he had for smelling ore veins meant that the scents of the ores he detected were generally related to food. For example, the ice crystal ore last time had smelled like a pear.
Thinking about it, it was actually quite humane. If the ore smells were all related to excrement and bodily fluids, this job would be impossible; going to work every day would feel like cleaning latrines.
He walked short distances in all directions to determine the center point where the scent was most concentrated.
Following his previous experience, he first drew a large circle with his shovel for a test dig.
He spat on his hand, gripped the shovel, and swung with all his might!
Through days of labor, Jiang Ye's digging posture had become increasingly skilled.
He exuded a subtle aura of a seasoned miner.
Especially since he hadn't shaved in a while, his stubble made him look even more weathered.
The soil in this area was loose, making digging easy. In less than half an hour, he had dug over a meter deep.
The scent of wine spilled on pomegranates with a hint of lemon grew stronger. Clearly, the ore was deep underground.
Jiang Ye's heart leaped with joy. Just as he was about to continue digging, he heard a sound.
The sound was strange: muffled, distant, and grand, like thunder from afar.
He looked up, his eyes widening instantly, and saw a sight he would never forget:
The clear blue sky was cloudless, and a striking crimson beam of light, sharp as a sword, pierced the entire sky from horizon to horizon, a seamless, complete tear across the heavens!
The spectacle resembled a deity cleaving the heavens with a fiery sword, vast and terrifying. Believers would likely have fallen to their knees in prayer.
Jiang Ye had a strong intuition that this was the trajectory of some weapon, as it was too straight and sharp, like a bullet hitting a target the moment it left the barrel. He had seen artillery exercises on television as a child; the shells passing through the night sky were also straight, crimson beams, fierce and domineering.
He then considered that it might be the contrail of some high-speed aircraft, similar to how airplanes leave straight white trails.
Jiang Ye was utterly stunned. He could tell that the light was at an extremely high altitude, possibly in outer space or grazing the atmosphere. So, how long was this beam of light? A thousand kilometers? One hundred thousand kilometers? Even a light-year? One thing was certain: it was visible in broad daylight, its brilliance comparable to a supernova explosion!
In the few breaths he stood there in astonishment, the red light gradually faded, like burning embers turning to ash, and finally disappeared completely.
Only the clear blue sky remained, as if nothing had happened.
Jiang Ye stood in the meter-deep pit, gazing at the sky. A gentle breeze brushed his face, and the surroundings were silent. Suddenly, he felt the immensity of the world and his own insignificance, like an ant.
A few minutes later, he collected his thoughts.
He lowered his head and bent over, swinging his shovel to dig.
Whatever was happening in the universe, whether it was interstellar war or a fight between God and Buddha, was temporarily irrelevant to him.
Digging ore diligently and saving money to upgrade was the most important thing.
As dusk approached, Jiang Ye quickened his pace.
The shovel flew, and yellow earth continuously flew out of the pit.
After an hour, he had dug another meter deeper.
Finally, he discovered small, pinkish stones in the soil.
They were not ordinary stones but crystal-clear, pinkish small crystals, like pomegranate seeds.
Jiang Ye bent down, picked up two, and examined them closely. They were tender and pink, clearly not ordinary objects.
He brought them to his nose and sniffed. The scent was rich!
This was it, the ore!
Jiang Ye was ecstatic. Another shallowly buried ore vein.
What he feared most were ores buried tens of meters deep, which would be impossible to excavate even with his life. Fortunately, he had been relatively lucky so far.
Putting a few red stones in his pocket, he continued to dig down with all his might.
Half an hour later, the sun set.
The shovel hit something hard with a clang.
He switched to a pickaxe, raised it over his head, and struck hard. With a piercing cracking sound, a fist-sized ore stone jumped up.
He picked it up, blew off the dirt, and Jiang Ye exclaimed in amazement.
The ice crystal ore he had dug out before was beautiful, but not to the point of being astonishing.
The stone in his hand was a candy-like pink, with a deeper red at the bottom, gradually lightening towards the top, finally resembling the pale pink of peach petals.
It was getting dark, and he couldn't stay long.
As night fell, Jiang Ye swung his pickaxe a few more times, striking two more fist-sized pink ore stones.
Clutching the three stones in his hand, he climbed out of the pit and ran madly towards the base.
Passing the earthen stove, the fellow didn't forget to lift the lid of the pot and take away the corn for dinner.
He arrived back at the base just as it was getting dark.
Entering the base, he closed the hatch and locked it.
Impatiently, he threw a piece of pink ore into the trading pod, eager to find out what this new ore he had worked so hard to find actually was.
After a brief scan, information appeared on the base panel:
[Item: Rose Quartz]
[Item Description: A transparent or translucent variety of pink crystalline quartz, hexagonal or trigonal crystal system. It is commonly used as a gemstone for the fifth wedding anniversary. Some people also wear it against their skin, believing that rose quartz can bestow selfless and loving qualities and heal emotional wounds.]
[Estimated Value: 110,000 Yuan]
Jiang Ye was shocked by the price.
A small piece the size of his fist was worth 110,000!
He had struck it rich this time! He couldn't help but exclaim.
He decisively sold it!
His personal assets rapidly increased to 363,367 Yuan.
Jiang Ye was overjoyed and threw the second piece of rose quartz in.
The panel displayed information again. The first two items and their descriptions were the same, but the estimated value made him dumbfounded.
[Estimated Value: 6,500 Yuan]
Only six thousand five hundred?
What the heck?
The two ore stones were roughly the same size, yet the price difference was seventeenfold?
Was the machine broken?
Jiang Ye took the ore out, patted the panel, and put it back.
[Estimated Value: 6,500 Yuan]
The result was still the same.
Jiang Ye, full of suspicion, clicked to sell. His personal assets rose again, reaching 369,867 Yuan.
With the last piece of rose quartz remaining, he immediately put it in.
The first two pieces of information were still the same, but the estimated value had changed again.
[Estimated Value: 31,200 Yuan]
He sold it, and his personal assets increased to 401,067 Yuan.
Jiang Ye pondered for a moment and roughly understood.
The price of this rose quartz likely fluctuated significantly based on its quality.
It was very similar to jade on the market; jade of the same size could differ in price by ten or even dozens of times due to quality variations.
Therefore, the selling price of rose quartz was largely a gamble, dependent on luck.
If he was lucky and got all high-quality stones, he would become rich instantly.
If he was unlucky, it would just be so-so.
Overall, it was still a very worthwhile mine to exploit.
Jiang Ye gnawed on the corn and opened the chat channel.
Cao County Citizen's private message was already waiting.