Cultivation Online

Chapter 2617: End of the Tunnel

As Yuan and his squad ventured deeper into the tunnel, it gradually widened, and the number of Void Specters they encountered steadily increased.

While the others moved cautiously, Yuan could barely stop himself from rushing forward. The Void Specters within the Red Zone offered several times more Eternal Essence than those in the Orange Zone, not to mention their abundance.

’This place is a treasure trove, and I haven’t even encountered any Unknown Crystals yet!’ Yuan smiled inwardly.

After spending nearly three hours inside the tunnel, they finally discovered an Unknown Crystal. However, it was embedded deep within the wall.

"So, is there a special process for extracting it, or can I simply yank it out?" Yuan asked as the squad gathered around the crystal.

"Stop! Don’t touch it!" Shi Fa hastily said, even though Yuan wasn’t even reaching for it.

He quickly explained, "Unlike Unknown Ores, Unknown Crystals contain so much energy that it’s dangerous to touch with your bare hands."

"What’s the worse that can happen?" Yuan asked out of curiosity.

"You explode like a balloon." Shi Fa responded with a dead seriously expression.

"I see."

Shi Fa retrieved a pair of gloves that had been reinforced with a powerful defensive formation and said, "You can harvest it with this."

After wearing the gloves, Yuan grabbed the crystal and yanked it out of the wall like harvesting a radish.

The Unknown Crystal was double-terminated and roughly the length of an adult’s forearm, but most importantly, it contained an immense amount of Eternal Essence.

’This is about a million years’ worth of Eternal Essence!’ Yuan thought to himself as he quickly absorbed about fifty percent of it to see if it had any changes in its appearance.

After confirming that its appearance remained unchanged, just like the Unknown Ores, Yuan quickly absorbed another thirty percent of its energy.

Although he could have drained it completely, he chose to leave some behind. Unknown Crystals were far rarer and contained much more energy than Unknown Ores, so he would have felt far guiltier than absorbing a few Unknown Ores.

After storing the Unknown Crystal, they continued delving deeper into the tunnel, repeating the process of cleaning Void Specters and harvesting Unknown Crystals.

Four days later...

"Hey, are you really not exhausted?" One of the soldiers suddenly questioned Yuan, as he’d been cleaning thousands of Void Specters alone by this point.

"No."

Yuan clearly answered.

"How the hell is that even possible?"

"I’m starting to understand how he broke all of the Ironwoman’s records." Another remarked.

A few more days went by.

"Seriously... there’s no way you’re not tired by now."

"But I feel fine."

"..."

Another week passed in the blink of an eye.

"This tunnel is much deeper than typical."

"That just means there’ll be more reward in the end."

"What is the end of a tunnel typically like?" Yuan asked.

"It’s usually where the majority of the Unknown Crystals are hidden, but it’s protected by a powerful Void Specter. It’s not something you can deal with alone, either."

"I see. So like a guardian."

Several more hours later, Yuan suddenly announced, "I can see the end."

"Huh? Really?"

However, even with their divine senses stretched to their limits, none of the others could perceive the end of the tunnel.

Despite their superior cultivation, their soul strength was incomparably weaker than Yuan’s, preventing their divine senses from reaching nearly as far.

Eventually, the others also came within range of the tunnel’s end, though it took another two hours of travel.

There, they found a pitch-black opening that plunged straight down into the depths.

"There’s a good chance we’ll be attacked the moment we arrive at the bottom, so remain alert and be ready to use Void Control," Shi Fa said.

"Are we ready?"

Once everyone was ready, Shi Fa moved first, leaping into the hole and vanishing into the darkness below.

Yuan and the others immediately followed.

After falling for several minutes, Yuan spotted a faint light beneath them. It rapidly grew brighter, signaling that they were nearing the bottom.

Soon, they were engulfed by the light and emerged into a massive enclosed cavern. Dozens of Unknown Crystals were embedded throughout the walls, their glow illuminating the entire chamber.

However, at the center of the cavern loomed an enormous Void Specter several times larger than any they had encountered before, its massive form resembling a small mountain.

Just as Shi Fa had predicted, the Void Specter detected their presence almost immediately and launched a barrage of hundreds of tentacles from its massive body.

"Scatter!" Shi Fa shouted.

While everyone else focused on evading the tentacles, Yuan calmly aimed his minigun at the Void Specter.

"Focus on defending yourself! Your bullets will likely be ineffective—"

Before Shi Fa could finish speaking, immense Limitless surged from Yuan’s body as the minigun unleashed a relentless storm of bullets, firing tens of thousands every second at the Void Specter below.

The others assumed Yuan was panicking and expected him to exhaust his energy within moments. To their astonishment, however, he continued firing without pause for several minutes, completely overwhelming the Void Specter and riddling it with countless holes until its body ceased to exist.

"W-What just happened...?"

After confirming that the threat had been eliminated, the soldiers turned to Yuan with stupefied expressions, as though they had just witnessed the impossible.

As for Yuan, he completely ignored their stares and focused on absorbing the Eternal Essence left behind by the Void Specter. There was so much of it that, for once, he had to sit down and cultivate properly to absorb all of it.

The others didn’t question it since they figured that he’d exhausted himself and needed to rest.

"L-Let’s stop standing around and harvest the Unknown Crystals before the tunnel collapses," Shi Fa spoke after snapping out of his daze a moment later.

Shi Fa’s voice snapped the others out of their daze, and they quickly started harvesting the Unknown Crystals while Yuan continued his cultivation.