36: Chapter 36 Discovery of a New Mineral Vein

Even with a map as a reference, reaching the mine was not easy. The mountain roads were rugged. After bypassing the houses and villages along the road, Cao Xiao gradually entered the deep mountains. He put his motorcycle into his space and proceeded on foot with a backpack. The place he was heading to was an old mine without a paved road. Most new mines used modern machinery for extraction, and their road conditions were much better. The village he had just passed was originally established because of the chicken blood stone mines here, but now that the chicken blood stone had been depleted, the villagers had begun to develop planting industries. Those large walnut forests were artificially planted.

It wasn't yet time for the walnuts to ripen, and no villagers could be seen in the mountains. It took half an hour to reach the vicinity of the mine. The small paths were blocked by wire fences with danger warning signs. Crossing the wire fence and carefully walking over the gravel road, he finally saw that low mine entrance.

Cao Xiao chose this as his first target because this mine had been excavated for hundreds of years. The extraction methods were manual, using knives and axes. Large-scale mining had stopped over ten years ago, but even now, villagers still found high-quality chicken blood stone here. This indicated that there was still a lot of undiscovered chicken blood stone, unlike those mining sites using modern methods that directly excavated on a large scale until nothing was left. Here, people just dug randomly here and there. The internal tunnels were intricate, and those who entered frequently could get lost if they weren't careful. Since no one could clearly describe the internal situation, the so-called depletion of resources was not reliable.

Changhua chicken blood stone is divided into four major categories: Jelly Ground, Soft Ground, Rigid Ground, and Hard Ground, with Jelly Ground being the best. Jelly Ground chicken blood stone is a natural aggregate mainly composed of cinnabar, dickite, and kaolinite. It includes varieties such as great red robe, Glass Jelly, tianhuang jelly, mutton fat jelly, Ox Horn Jelly, cinnabar jelly, Lotus Root Powder Jelly, Multicolored Jelly, Peach Blossom Jelly, Bean Green Jelly, Agate Jelly, Wood Grain Jelly, Fish Brain Jelly, Fish Roe Jelly, Snake Skin Jelly, Snowflake Jelly, etc. These are translucent or semi-transparent, usually with a hardness around level 2 to 3. Soft Ground chicken blood stone is mainly composed of cinnabar, dickite, and kaolinite, with a certain waxy luster, opaque or partially translucent, and a hardness between level 2 and 4. Rigid Ground chicken blood stone is a product of kaolinite and alunite rock undergoing later silicification, with a hardness between level 4 and 7. Hard Ground chicken blood stone is a product of silicification during the mineralization process, geologically known as cinnabar silicified tuff or cinnabar-bearing siliceous rock, mainly composed of silicon dioxide, with a hardness greater than level 7.

The quality of Changhua chicken blood stone is determined by the 'blood' and the 'ground.' Blood colors include bright red, deep red, true red, purple-red, etc. The shapes of the chicken blood include block red, strip red, star red, sunset red, etc. It is best if the blood is vivid, condensed, and thick, with a deep and penetrating quality. It is ideal to have concentrated clusters or balanced distribution of chicken blood spots.

Therefore, mining chicken blood stone requires not only extracting the 'blood' but also taking out the 'ground' that comes with it as a whole so that the piece of chicken blood stone is complete. The distribution of blood in the chicken blood stone layers has four major forms: Block Blood, Strip Blood, Plum Blossom Blood, and Floating Cloud Blood. Block Blood distribution is irregular, appearing here and there; some blocks have a large red area on the surface but no red inside, while others are the exact opposite. Strip Blood distribution is regular and generally layered in strips. Plum Blossom Blood is like plum blossoms in bloom, with the entire stone covered in star-like spots. Floating Cloud Blood occurs at the junctions of wide bands or strips, resembling both Strip Blood and Plum Blossom Blood, with the blood shape looking like floating clouds in the sky. The colors of chicken blood stone include bright red, light red, purple-red, dark red, etc. The most precious is the active bright red blood shape. It is best to extract Strip Blood and Floating Cloud Blood as whole pieces to maximize their value.

These were all necessary studies, all of which were in his AI brain's database. Cao Xiao had spent time researching them thoroughly before coming; otherwise, if he mined recklessly and destroyed some good things, it would be too late for regrets.

The ground of the mine was very dirty and the height was low, requiring him to bend over to move forward. Walking like this for a while would be very uncomfortable, so Cao Xiao directly used the collection function to create a wide passage along the mine tunnel. He wasn't afraid of being discovered; he had observed carefully when entering that no one had been in this mine for a long time, and thick moss had grown on the ground. He planned to collapse the entire mine after he was done. In any case, after his sweep, it was impossible for a single piece of chicken blood stone to remain inside. Burying it directly would prevent villagers from entering and facing danger later.

His guess was correct; it was impossible for ancient mining methods to extract everything. Scattered bright red colors began to appear in Cao Xiao's vision. No fewer than several hundred pieces of chicken blood stone appeared within a hundred-meter range, and their quality and size were quite good. Although he hadn't found top-tier varieties like great red robe, Glass Jelly, tianhuang jelly, or mutton fat jelly yet, there were several pieces of cinnabar jelly. The others were Jelly Ground and Soft Ground; there wasn't a single piece of Rigid Ground or Hard Ground. These few hundred pieces of chicken blood stone alone made this trip worthwhile.

Discovery was one thing, but even with the collection function, Cao Xiao had to extract them one by one according to their shape, which was quite time-consuming. These alone took half an hour. As he went deeper, he found more large chicken blood stones, and the texture became better and better. Of course, there were also poor-quality ones, but he didn't pass them up. Even if he didn't sell them, they would have some value if kept for a few years. Leaving them buried underground meant they might never be discovered. Some had poor texture but were massive. Cao Xiao even found a piece of chicken blood stone weighing forty tons. Although its shape wasn't great, its size alone would make it a high-end sculpture with a bit of carving.

There were also some chicken blood stones with internal patterns of Strip Blood and Floating Cloud Blood that Cao Xiao extracted as whole pieces. They were also very large; one with Floating Cloud Blood even reached over a hundred tons. This would be shocking to the world. One must know that a few years ago, when a piece of chicken blood stone named 'Dragon Turtle Offering Auspiciousness' was excavated, it caused a sensation. That 'Dragon Turtle Offering Auspiciousness' was only fifty-some tons and wasn't even Jelly Ground. It is currently displayed in a museum as the largest chicken blood stone discovered to date. Taking out this piece of Agate Jelly would scare people to death. However, such large pieces were difficult to handle; if the price was too high, no one would buy it, and if it was too low, it would feel like a loss. Therefore, Cao Xiao planned to place these massive pieces in the forest land he had bought to decorate the landscape.

Harvesting happily like this, he unknowingly reached the end of the mine. He was following the main tunnel, and he had explored all the branch tunnels that weren't deep, digging out everything that should be dug. Furthermore, he made a major discovery: fifty meters beyond the end of one branch tunnel, he found a large cavern. The four walls of this cavern were covered in deep red blood color. It should be an undiscovered chicken blood stone vein with no traces of manual mining. If not for him, no one would ever have found that place. However, Cao Xiao didn't dig through immediately; he wanted to finish exploring here first. It was getting late, and he didn't want to spend the night in such a deep and eerie mine. He had just seen many disgusting things and had killed them all, throwing them into the energy space as contributions. There were rats as big as lynxes and snakes as thick as arms; a single bite from these things would leave one half-dead if not killed.

He could no longer find a single piece of chicken blood stone in the tunnels. There were probably no less than a thousand tons of chicken blood stone in his collection space. Of course, large pieces accounted for nearly half. Cao Xiao couldn't even estimate the value of these stones. If he could really sell them all, five hundred million would be a small matter. But the difficulty lay in how to sell them. He was thinking about whether to sell some after returning to Huanghe City, then build a processing workshop and buy a few storefronts to sell the finished products. Because the quantity was simply too large and the quality was excellent. This ancient mine had once produced many extremely high-quality chicken blood stones, some of which might have been made into finished products and become national treasures. He could only sell them slowly; otherwise, the price of chicken blood stone would plummet.

He quickly went to that branch tunnel and carved out a passage to the cavern. Entering the cavern, his flashlight shone on the four walls, and the air seemed to shimmer with a red hue. This unmined chicken blood stone vein had incredibly rich reserves. Using the Detection Function, he could see that within a hundred-meter range in all directions, it was densely packed with chicken blood stone, and most of it was Jelly Ground. Moreover, a hundred meters was not the end. This time, he didn't collect them piece by piece. Instead, he directly took whole sections into his space. He didn't follow the cavern but went wherever there was chicken blood stone. He went into a frenzy for nearly half an hour before cleaning out all the chicken blood stone. Several spaces in the Crafting Mother Machine were filled and reorganized twice before he finished. Of course, these couldn't all be chicken blood stone; otherwise, millions of cubic meters of chicken blood stone would probably weigh no less than ten million tons. Even if all of Changhua were turned upside down, there wouldn't be millions of tons. If that were the case, chicken blood stone wouldn't be valuable. Most of what was in the space was soil and rock; the actual chicken blood stone wasn't that much.

Cao Xiao returned the way he came, clearing the soil and rock from his space as he walked, completely blocking the tunnels behind him. When he reached the entrance, he used his Space Cutting Ability from dozens of meters away to collapse the mine. It would be completely impossible for anyone else to enter.

It was already dark. He checked the time and saw it was eight o'clock in the evening. Today was a full harvest. He didn't want to go to any other mines; the chicken blood stone in his space was enough to give him a headache. He didn't want to spend the night outside either. It was impossible to return to Hangcheng now. He could stay in Changhua for a night, take a bus directly to Hangcheng tomorrow, and then return to Huanghe City. It took forty minutes to get out of the mountains. The mountains were high and the forests dense; even though Cao Xiao was quite brave, he felt quite anxious. He kept the Detection Function fully active along the way and had some unexpected gains, catching many wild chickens and rabbits.

When he reached the road at the foot of the mountain, he took out his motorcycle and rushed to Changhua. Although Changhua was just a small town, the hotel standards weren't bad. Cao Xiao found a three-star hotel to stay in, had dinner in the hotel restaurant, and returned to his room for a good hot bath. Lying on the soft, large bed, he prepared to organize his space. Unexpectedly, just as he started, he heard a knock on the door. Cao Xiao thought it was a hotel waiter, but when he opened the door, it was actually a fairly pretty young woman. However, her makeup was a bit thick, and the scent of perfume hit him. He thought she had some business with him, but she opened her mouth and said, 'Sir, do you need service?' Without a word, Cao Xiao slammed the door shut. This person was simply dreaming too much. How could someone like her covet his twenty-six years of profound virgin cultivation? And she even wanted him to pay; there was no such good deal.

Cao Xiao continued to organize his space. He first moved the soil and rock to one side and put all the chicken blood stones into the research space. Good heavens, there were at least ten thousand tons of these chicken blood stones. Even after clearing away the excess stone and surface impurities, there would be several thousand tons. This time he had really struck it lucky; he was rich. Other people's chicken blood stones were measured in grams, but his had to be calculated in tons. He feared that the entire country's production of gem-grade chicken blood stone wouldn't even be one-tenth of his own. It seemed he had to go back and learn about chicken blood stone appraisal from his teacher. The price estimated by his AI brain was only an approximation. For one or two pieces, it didn't matter, but with such a large quantity, selling a piece for a bit less would result in a huge loss. The best way was to take them to auction, but the quantity couldn't be too large; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to sell them all even in decades. There was still a lot of blue amber in his space that hadn't been processed. In the future, there might be many such things, so he should establish his own sales channels.

The quantity of chicken blood stone was too large. Cao Xiao categorized them as he cleaned, a process both painful and joyful. The quality of the chicken blood stone from that old mine and the new vein he discovered was very high. According to Cao Xiao's estimation, that new vein should be the best chicken blood stone mine in the country, because so far, no place had such a high probability of producing high-grade chicken blood stone. After finishing the organization, there were over ten tons of the top-tier Full-blood great red robe of various sizes. Other Jelly Ground chicken blood stones added up to over two thousand tons, and those of slightly lower quality totaled more than three thousand tons—and that was the weight after cutting away excess impurities. Of course, this was the entire output of a whole mineral vein. Other mining areas might produce several thousand tons of unprocessed raw stone a year without a problem, and over decades, it would add up to a large number, but the quality was poorer and the proportion of high-grade stone much lower. This new vein he discovered was only a small to medium-sized vein, but the chance of producing high-grade chicken blood stone was terrifyingly high. If he released it all, he would have no friends left.

Early the next morning, Cao Xiao headed straight for Hangcheng and boarded a flight to Huanghe Xianhe International Airport. He didn't have anyone pick him up and took a taxi home. When he arrived, he found no one was there. He hadn't eaten anything along the way, so while no one was around, he processed the wild game. He skinned and plucked six wild rabbits and two wild chickens. He braised the rabbits and stewed the chickens. Once finished, he left a portion in his personal space to show respect to his teacher. He didn't wait for the others; since he was hungry, he served himself a portion and ate first.

After eating, he brewed a pot of tea and moved a lounge chair under the shade of a tree in the front yard to rest. The weather was beautiful, and he was about to fall asleep when he was woken up by a phone call. He took out his phone and saw it was a call from Hao Linger. Cao Xiao realized he seemed to have neglected the company's affairs; he hadn't even visited his company since coming to Huanghe City for so long.