Cultivation Online

Chapter 2638: Following the Trail

"What should we do? It’s clearly inviting—provoking us."

"There’s only one thing we can do. Our mission."

"Stay alert, everyone. And don’t engage without instructions."

The group of soldiers slowly followed the trail of Unknown Ores while keeping their presence concealed to the best of their abilities.

Meanwhile, not too far away, Yuan just finished clearing a tunnel all by himself. But before he could even exit the tunnel, he sensed several presences outside the tunnel.

’They are...’

Once he exited the tunnel, he could see several familiar-looking soldiers gathering the Unknown Ores that he’d left behind outside.

When Yuan came out of the tunnel, these soldiers stopped their movements to look at him.

"Huh? Aren’t you that corporal with the Ironwoman? Did you just come out of that tunnel?" one of them asked out loud.

These soldiers were the ones that Yuan had encountered while he was still with the Ironwoman.

"Indeed, I did come out of the tunnel," Yuan replied.

"..."

The soldiers didn’t say anything else and fell silent, but they continued to stare in Yuan’s direction, almost as if they were waiting for someone else to show up.

Eventually, one of them asked, "Where’s the Ironwoman?"

"She returned to the city," Yuan admitted.

"Huh? The Ironwoman left you—a mere corporal—all alone in the Black Zone? There’s no way..."

"I don’t believe you. I bet she’s still inside that tunnel."

The soldiers found Yuan’s explanation difficult to believe. Given the Ironwoman’s reputation, they couldn’t imagine her deliberately leaving a low-ranking soldier behind to fend for himself in such a dangerous place.

Yuan shrugged and said, "What do I gain from lying about this? You’re free to check the tunnels if you don’t believe me."

"N-No... It’s fine..."

"But what were you doing inside the tunnel all by yourself? If you were looking for a place to hide, it’s actually much more dangerous inside than outside."

"No, I was clearing it."

"You...? Clearing a tunnel? All by yourself?"

The soldiers fell silent again before they suddenly burst out laughing.

"Hahaha!"

"Now that is definitely a lie!"

"There’s no way a Fifth Ascension cultivator like you could accomplish something alone that would normally require an entire squad of Sixth Ascension cultivators!" one of them stated.

Yuan merely shrugged before turning to leave without another word.

"Hey! Where are you going?" one of the soldiers called out to him.

"Why does it matter where I am going?" Yuan asked.

"T-That’s..." the soldier fell silent.

"If you have nothing else for me, I’ll be taking my leave now."

"Aren’t you going to ask about these Unknown Ores?" another soldier suddenly asked.

"Unless you’re going to share them with me, I don’t really care."

The soldiers raised their eyebrows. It should be obvious that they weren’t going to share them with a soldier from another city.

"No? Then goodbye."

Yuan left shortly after, with nobody stopping him this time.

"Should we really have allowed him to leave?" one of the soldiers asked out loud after Yuan was no longer in their field of view.

"What else were we supposed to do? He’s none of our business."

"I guess so..."

Some time later, the soldiers finally stopped gathering once their storage cubes were filled to the brim with Unknown Ores.

"After we clear this tunnel, let’s return to the base and grab more storage cubes for the rest."

Although they wanted to continue collecting the ores, they simply had no space left to store them. Thus, they decided to clear the tunnel first and harvest the Unknown Crystals within before returning for the remaining ores.

"Just where the hell did all these Unknown Ores come from, anyways?" one of them asked as they ventured deeper into the tunnel.

"Why bother questioning it? Just treat it as some strange phenomenon—and a fortunate encounter for us."

"What are the chances that Corporal actually cleared the tunnel all by himself?" another wondered out loud.

"Seriously? There’s literally no chance. If I am wrong, then I will eat my suit."

A few hours later—

"Hey... we haven’t encountered a single Void Specter in hours..."

Although no one said it aloud, the same thought gradually began creeping into their minds.

’Could that corporal have really cleared this entire place by himself...?’

The deeper they ventured, the more believable the seemingly impossible feat became. Meanwhile, the soldier who had sworn he would eat his suit if Yuan had truly cleared the tunnel by himself began sweating more and more with every passing minute.

Eventually, they reached the end of the tunnel. Without encountering a single Void Specter, of course.

"What are the chances of a tunnel spawning without any Void Specters...?"

"Probably less likely than that Corporal clearing the tunnel alone..."

After staring down into the hole for a moment, the soldiers swallowed nervously before finally jumping through the opening.

Moments later, they landed at the bottom.

"N-No way..."

The soldiers stared at the empty chamber, their expressions dumbfounded, their eyes wide with shock and disbelief.

"He actually cleared the tunnel by himself?!"

"W-Wait! Let’s not jump to conclusions!" said the soldier who swore he’d eat his suit. "If that were the case, why didn’t he harvest the Unknown Crystals?!"

"How the hell would we know?"

"If he doesn’t want them, we’ll gladly take them for him!"

The soldiers started harvesting the Unknown Crystals after snapping out of their daze, unaware that they were essentially collecting pretty crystals with no energy.

Once they were done, they made their way back up the tunnel.

However, when they emerged from the tunnel, they were taken aback to find nine unknown soldiers wearing crimson uniforms surrounding the entrance.

"Soldiers of Ember City?!"

"W-We’re being ambushed!"

The soldiers immediately armed themselves and prepared to fight.

"Wait! We’re not here for you, soldiers of Spirit City!" exclaimed the soldiers of Ember City.

"What?"

"We’re currently investigating a certain entity, and we’ve been following the trail of Unknown Ores it left behind," explained one of the soldiers from Ember City. "However, the trail abruptly ended here, so we suspected that it might have entered this tunnel."