Hours passed, the boat sailing through the channel.

It was a rather slow ride...

Initially, Shan Qiang had been talking about random things, but the guardian spirits shut him up and began to play Battlegods instead.

That board game... Shan Qiang remembered visiting Sundered Earth's sect master's residence, where the sect's ultimate weapon was displayed proudly.

From this junky piece of wood, an immense spatial aura could be felt, even above the sect weapon?

What sort of monstrous sect accepted Liu Qiang?

At last, the boat arrived.

Without anything to read, Mei had fallen asleep and was shook awake by Wang Wei.

She looked around and saw that they were within huge caverns that reached 10 metres high. Numerous rocky stumps could be seen on the ceiling, the remains of removed stalagmites.

The boat had docked in an underground lake, the waters faintly purple, oddly enough. Street lamps were placed alongside the lake, illuminating the surroundings dimly, and a strange bluish grass dotted the surrounding soil.

A lone building was beside the lake, reaching all the way to the ceiling and functioning like a pillar.

"The disciples don't like it when visitors bother them, so now the sect sends visitors to areas they haven't colonised yet. That building you see there? That's one of the sect's many exchange centres, where you can redeem various items or jade for bringing them what you harvest." Shan Qiang explained. "That 80% you don't keep won't be wasted, since they'll still be traded for resources. Though, it's way below market rate, haha!"

At least it was better than nothing... From how he previously described it, she thought the sect was essentially performing highway robbery.

Shan Qiang led them to the exchange centre, returning the boat and registering them yet again.

From there, they headed off into one of the many tunnels that lined the cavern...

"Su Qing... what are you doing..."

Mei stared as Su Qing gleefully picked up pretty rocks off the ground, stuffing them into a basket fused into his back.

The basket in question had been made on the spot by Su Qing. As for where the wood came from?

Moments ago, Shan Qiang watched in awe he saw the wooden puppet break its wooden armour, freeing its perfect muscles from their shell. He stared at Mei, giving her a strange look.

She wanted to bury herself... those stupid carpenters!

Mei thought the little spirit had gotten over his "rock nest" craze; even the disciples seemed to have lost interest in making the mountains of rock taller. But it seemed like seeing prettier underground rock had fired up Su Qing once again...

The group had to wait as Su Qing slowly picked up rock by rock.

"Oi, Mr Muscle. If you don't quit fooling around, we'll never get anywhere. Once we get mining, you'll find much prettier rocks!" Shan Qian said.

"Really?" Su Qing's interest was piqued.

"My Sigil senses Fire-veined Iron not too far away. The rocks around it tend to glow a pretty yellow."

"Ehhhh? Fire! But... I'm scared of fire..."

...

In the end, Shan Qing grabbed Su Qing by the arm and dragged him along by force, the spirit complaining the whole time.

Finally, they reached a section of the tunnel where the walls glowed a faint yellow.

The burly man handed out masks to each of them.

"When you mine, you'll more often than not inhale small particles. These should keep you safe."

Mei wordlessly put on the mask.

"Your mask is upside down..." Xiuying said.

Mei didn't hear her.

The disciples took out their pickaxes. Mei used Harmonic Strength with every strike, removing chunk after chunk of rock, with the incredible cutting power of Roseblood. This was actually kind of satisfying?

She felt strangely motivated as she struck the rock, again and again, digging out a rather large hole. She turned to check her friends and realised she had destroyed the most rock! Hehe, finally, something she wasn't last at.

10 minutes passed. By now, Mei had made a hole that could fit several people snugly. She began to feel proud of herself for whatever reason.

Behind her, Su Qing happily picked up various dislodged rocks.

Shan Qiang watched from the back, silently raising a rock pillar from the ground to the ceiling, in case of cave-ins.

"Hey, you over there! You're digging away from the ore vein, try digging to the left more." he suddenly shouted.

"Oh."

Mei compiled. As she dug, the walls began to glow brighter. They walls gew tougher, her pickaxe no longer carving into the wall with ease. A while later, she was only making slight chips.

Wait... was this how hard the walls were for her friends? Then, she wasn't actually doing better than them?

She turned back and saw that Su Qing had gone out to collect rocks from her other friends...

Feeling a bit sulky, she walked back into the main tunnel and took a seat.

"What's wrong?" Shan Qiang asked.

"Water break." Mei took off her mask and retrieved a small gourd bottle from her bag.

She watched Su Qing as she drank, noticing something weird.

For what felt like an hour, the little spirit had been continuously picking up rocks. How was it possible his basket still had space? It wasn't even that big!

She watched as he threw another pile of shiny rocks in, only for the rocks below to tumble downwards. Huh?

"Su Qing, how do you still have space in your basket?" she said, walking over.

"Eh! Erm... erm..."

Mei had a feeling if he had sweat glands, he would be covered in droplets.

She picked up the basket and shook it, letting some of the bigger rocks from the bottom rise up. It was all yellow rocks! Not a single one of the previous rocks remained.

"Where did the old rocks go?"

"I... threw them away? To make space..." Su Qing looked away.

"I didn't see you do that."

"I was being sneaky?"

Mei stared at Su Qing wordlessly.

Finally, he fessed up.

"Sorry... my teachers gave me a spirit jade with storage space... but they said I had to promise not to tell you, or you'd waste all my space with useless garbage...."

Mei: ...