Steel ants join the mining team one after another. The vitality stone is a node, or a collection, where vitality is condensed. The vitality stone is stronger than the surrounding stones and soil, so the steel ants rarely stay there forever. It bites the solid vitality stone, but ignores the vitality stone and the dug-out gravel.
Um?
Zhang Changkong was a little confused. Although the steel ants were digging tunnels, they did not move the excavated soil from Stone Brother to another place. It seemed that they were not digging, but loosening the soil, and they were not digging. Knowing how the steel ants used to deal with the rocks and soil excavated from so many tunnels here, they probably ate them directly, but this time they did not use their mouths.
As a last resort, Zhang Changkong could only let some smaller steel ants carry the excavated rocks and soil.
Steel ants carrying rocks and soil passed by Zhang Changkong. As long as Zhang Changkong scanned the vitality stone, he would use his magic power to take it out.
Half a day later, almost tens of thousands of steel ants had gathered in the mining area, and about eight thousand steel ants were mining.
But the rock here in the Yuanqi Stone vein is too hard. Even with the sharp mouthparts of the steel ants, the deepest mine can only advance less than fifty meters in half a day. This is still divided into several mines and dug inward. of.
Zhang Changkong didn't know which direction was the deepest part of the mine. His spiritual consciousness was very poor at penetrating the rocks here. He could only let the steel ants dig holes at will. As long as he dug more holes, he could always analyze where they were in the future. This is the direction leading to the depths of the mineral vein.
After half a day, Zhang Changkong continued to issue orders to the steel ants with his mind, and he always used his spiritual consciousness. He also felt a little tired mentally, and he also saw that many steel ants were also losing physical strength, so he Disbanded the steel ants, allowing them to rest or look for food freely.
"I got about 5,000 Yuanqi stones, all of which were low-grade Yuanqi stones. There was not a single medium-grade Yuanqi stone, and the number was much less than expected. Therefore, those steel ants who mined independently in the past were all experienced, and they were very knowledgeable about Yuanqi." Mining veterans with sensitive sensitivity, most of the steel ants summoned this time do not have such talent as novices." Zhang Changkong looked at a pile of vitality stones around him and thought, tens of thousands of steel ants are better than hundreds of steel ants. How many times can a veteran ant improve his efficiency? "The mineral veins here are not full of vitality stones as I thought."
Zhang Changkong stood up, walked to the edge of a mine, and put his hands on the stones on the wall of the mine. "These stones are so hard, do mortals really have the strength to break them? Even a strong man among mortals may need special digging." Mining tools, tools similar to those made of black steel, can be used for excavation work. It seems that the Xiangshan Sect's vitality stone veins use strong men as miners."
Zhang Changkong had a thought in his mind and activated "Earth and Stone Mastery" directly. However, the chaotic vitality in the soil layer had a great impact on the spell. It took a lot of time before the stones in the direction of Zhang Changkong's palm slowly squeezed away to both sides. A half-meter-wide passage is exposed. The length of the passage is no more than ten meters. Moreover, if the width of the passage is to be expanded or the length of the passage is increased, the amount of mana required will rise sharply.
"Fortunately, I have insects as miners. If not, even if I had the ability to find a large number of strong men as miners, this mine would not be hidden for long before it would be taken away by the Xiangshan Sect. Even if I dig it myself, it would be a waste of time and delay in cultivation. Not to mention, it’s not very efficient yet.” Zhang Changkong stopped running the spell.
For half a month, Zhang Changkong summoned steel ants to collectively mine every two days. More and more steel ants were summoned later. However, after half a month, some steel ants were not sure whether they were tired or had eaten too much. The hard stones caused indigestion and kept dying, and many steel ants also had their mouthparts damaged.
Zhang Changkong had to stop this kind of high-intensity work. He planned to let the steel ants rest for ten days and a half. With the strong vitality of the insects, they should be able to recover, and they would be full of energy by then. of putting in work.
"For half a month, I kept adjusting my position. The deepest mine is already six to seven hundred meters deep. However, all the vitality stones dug are low-grade vitality stones, and the vitality content inside has not changed much. It seems that, This work is done on a yearly basis. If you want to speed up the progress, you need to consider increasing the number of miners. First, expand the number of steel ants. There should be 80,000 to 90,000 steel ants in the gray iron mine. You should consider relocating some. Come here, there is plenty of food over there in the gray iron mine, and the living environment is even better for steel ants than here. In the past, bloodthirsty fruits were needed to reproduce. A few years ago, it seemed that they could reproduce independently without bloodthirsty fruits, so The number will increase in one go. I don’t know how many insects were born from the many steel ants over there. The steel ants in the gray iron mine cave can be considered, but considering the food problem here, it is not suitable to increase the number all at once. There are too many. In two or three months, I think there will be many steel ants here who have been seriously injured during mining. These disabled people will be brought to the gray iron mines with a favorable environment to reproduce their offspring or provide for their retirement, and replace them with a new force." , Zhang Changkong considered how to speed up the progress, "The second is to introduce new miners. The insects in the Centipede Mountains that he named the Blade Centipede are also good at mining. Their densely packed blade-like legs may be better at mining than steel ants. There’s also efficiency, but there’s a problem.”
Zhang Changkong thought that he had released several kinds of insects suitable for underground survival here, but he didn't know when all those insects were completely killed by steel ants. Even Zhang Changkong's men, as long as he If you don't pay attention, the fighting instinct between insects still prevents them from coexisting peacefully. If you think about it, if you put the steel ants and the blade centipedes together, there will be no light of friendship between the two races.
Under the wisdom of insects, because of their weak memory ability, the orders given by Zhang Changkong are often time-sensitive. Even during mining, Zhang Changkong has to issue orders from time to time, otherwise many steel ants will just dig and look after themselves. They walked away, or simply lay down to rest. Now the farms on Miao Mountain only have two kinds of mutually beneficial bugs growing together, and most of the farms only have a single species of bugs in them.
Zhang Changkong has been thinking about this situation for a long time but there is no good solution. Unless there is a new breakthrough in "Secret Technique of Slave Insect", there may be a solution, but Zhang Changkong feels that even if "Secret Technique of Slave Insect" breaks through, it will not be strengthened. The ability to control should be other abilities, because the power of control is very strong now. If you say it is control, it is more like slavery. Once you are enslaved, future generations will not be able to get rid of it. It is not known how many generations it will last before the black stone can be diluted and derived. With this kind of ability, Zhang Changkong doesn't think there is any possibility of improving this level of control.
Therefore, this may be the limitation of "Secret Technique of Slave Insect", and there probably won't be a good way to solve it in the future.
"However, for the Blade Centipede to reach a large scale, even if there are many eggs in the Centipede Mountains, it will take several years. We don't need to think too much now. If the Blade Centipede's mining ability is really better than that of the Steel Ant, there will be more Blade Centipedes in the future. At worst, the steel ants here will move to another nest."
Zhang Changkong will not consider the issue of insects' hard work and high achievements. What he values is only work efficiency.
Zhang Changkong saw that the steel ants in the mine tunnel had almost dispersed. Only a hundred "mining enthusiasts" were still mining diligently without Zhang Changkong's orders. Zhang Changkong was deeply moved by the appearance of making a living from mining. , it would be great if other steel ants were as conscious as they are.
Zhang Changkong thought, and a large pile of Yuan Qi Stones at his feet floated up, and the rocks on the ground moved like mercury. Soon, the Yuan Qi Stones were wrapped into rock containers, each container containing about a thousand Yuan Qi Stones. , the repulsive force of the containers fell on the backs of the steel ant elites who had been waiting for a long time, and the steel ant elites carried the containers in one direction.
Nowadays, the number of steel mined every day is sometimes 30,000 to 20,000, and sometimes it is more than 50,000, so the amount of vitality stones harvested every time is 30,000 to 40,000.
In the past half month, nearly half a million vitality stones have been harvested. Zhang Changkong had to lament that the Xiangshan Sect was stingy and treated its disciples too harshly. He only gave a hundred vitality stones every month at Nanman Tianguan. , simply looking down on people, and Zhang Changkong is still a late-stage warlock. Thinking about those warlocks in the early and middle stages, they are even more bleak. I don’t know where the Xiangshan Sect’s multi-dimensional energy stones are used.
"It seems that it is not without its benefits that I have always been alone. At least it is much easier to hide the secret." Zhang Changkong thought that if there were several relatives and friends, he or she would most likely be shamefully betrayed by him or her for various reasons. However, he or she is often the closest and most trusted person, and the bond between them will only leave him or her with scars and deep hatred. Thinking of this, Zhang Changkong felt a little scared. He felt It is absolutely impossible to make real friends, well, at least friends who cannot withstand the test of half a million vitality stones should not exist now.
Zhang Changkong felt that it was better not to make friends, otherwise those so-called friends would come to visit him uninvited many times, and Zhang Changkong's underwear would be seen through by others, hiding any secrets.
If a "friend" discovers the secret, there will be hidden dangers whether he is killed or not.
Thinking of the nearly half a million Yuan Qi Stones made Zhang Changkong feel how correct his previous attitude towards life was. Even the two warlocks in Heavy Rain City, the skeletons and the newcomers whose names were not written down, were threatened by Zhang Changkong that they could not Entering the Sanhe Rainforest from the direction of Miaoshan's expansion, if they want to find opportunities in the Sanhe Rainforest, they can only stay away from the Miaoshan area.
It seems that over the years, the two warlocks in Rainstorm City have been able to see the situation clearly. They know that if they dare to disobey Zhang Changkong in the Sanhe Rainforest, they may be killed by him in minutes. No one in Miao Mountain has found their traces. I don't think they will come. Chance would not risk his life to spy on his secrets.
Zhang Changkong sat on Hei Er's back and followed the transportation team. From time to time, he put back the containers dropped by the Iron Ant Elite. After walking for a long time, he came to a huge cave with many similar rock containers. , densely piled together.
Zhang Changkong was just about to put down the container on the Iron Ant Elite, when the snow-white figure of the Steel King emerged from a container with a big hole in it.
