Ye Tian's Black Glaze Sword shot out a Sword Aura, striking the space before him without the slightest hesitation. Although it appeared to hit nothing, the attack let out a piercing sound.
Ye Tian saw the Sword Qi erupt in an instant, flaring with a dazzling golden light. A moment later, he heard the sound of something shattering. He, however, stood his ground, not pushed back even a single step.
In other words, Ye Tian had taken no damage from any rebound force. His single strike had shattered the Gold Element Barrier.
The Snake King stared at Ye Tian, frozen. His face was a mask of pure astonishment. The shock Ye Tian had just given him was perhaps the greatest of his life, so profound it bordered on unbelievable.
Gradually, the area behind the shattered Gold Element Barrier revealed its true appearance to Ye Tian. The ground was still covered in rubble, but now, some of the fragments had a golden sheen.
"Sir, you... you actually broke the Gold Element Barrier! The Gold Attribute Vein must be underneath. What we need to do now is dig up the Gold Element Ore Crystals. This stuff is incredibly valuable," the Snake King said, finally recovering from his shock.
Ye Tian glanced at the Snake King and chuckled. "Digging for Gold Element Ore Crystals sounds like hard labor. You'd better put your back into it, Snake King!"
"Don't you worry, Sir. I've got plenty of strength," the Snake King said. "Let's head in now. The Barrier isn't completely destroyed; it might start to mend itself soon. We wouldn't want you to have to break it open a second time."
Ye Tian nodded. In a flash, he was inside the Barrier. He frowned slightly as he surveyed his surroundings.
'The glow on the Black Glaze Sword has vanished, and the weapon has returned to its normal appearance,' he thought. 'This means the attribute I activated with my blood is gone. To use it again, I'll have to use my own blood.'
He swung the Black Glaze Sword at a golden rock. Ye Tian had expected to smash it to dust with a single blow, but instead, the sword failed to break it and a powerful rebound force shot back at him.
"This rock is incredibly hard. Is this a Gold Element stone? So how are we supposed to get the Ore Crystals?" Ye Tian asked, turning to the Snake King.
"The Gold Element is known for being nigh-indestructible. With properties like that, it's naturally going to be extremely hard," the Snake King explained. "You can't be hasty, Sir. You have to dig slowly. If you just use brute force, the rebound will injure you."
The Snake King took out his Snake Bone Sword, squatted in front of a golden rock, and began to dig slowly. Ye Tian could clearly sense that although the Snake King's movements were slow, the surrounding Energy fluctuations were intense.
The surrounding rock was gradually chipped away by the Snake Bone Sword, revealing a palm-sized golden stone. After about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the Snake King had finally managed to extract the entire stone.
Meanwhile, Ye Tian, who had made no progress, watched the Snake King. "At this rate, it'll take us forever to get anywhere! Isn't there a faster way?" he asked.
It wasn't that Ye Tian lacked patience, but he didn't have much time to spend in the High-Level Demon Beast Region. Ye Feifei and Xiao Yaoyao were still waiting for him in the Ordinary Region, and he needed to get back to them as quickly as possible.
"Sir, look at this golden stone. Although its surface is golden, only part of it actually contains the Gold Element. This must be a Lower Grade Gold Element Ore. If we want to find better ore, we have no choice but to dig deeper.
And the only way to do that is to slowly clear away all the surrounding rock that isn't Gold Element Ore. The process is extremely slow, but it's a good way to build arm strength," the Snake King said.
Ye Tian took the golden stone from the Snake King and examined it closely. "The Gold Elemental Energy in this stone is impossible to absorb. It's like it's fused into it. What's the point of digging this up?"
"Even if it's useless, we still have to dig it out," the Snake King replied. "If we don't clear away these surface rocks, how will we ever reach the better Gold Element Ore underneath? Let alone the Ore Crystals."
He then resumed his digging. Left with no other choice, Ye Tian steeled himself and also began to slowly dig with his Black Glaze Sword, using the same method as the Snake King.
The tedious, mind-numbing digging was getting on Ye Tian's nerves. After an entire day of work, he had only managed to dig a small pit just over a meter wide and half a meter deep.
What was most frustrating was that the rock underneath was even harder than the surface layer. Despite the powerful Defense Power of his Divine Dragon Battle Body Third Layer, his hands were rubbed raw and blistered.
But hard work pays off. Ye Tian managed to unearth an egg-sized Ore Crystal. However, its Gold Element content was only comparable to the Magic Crystal of a Tier Two Gold-Element Demon Beast.
He tried absorbing it and found he could draw the Energy out directly. This was a great discovery; at least now there was hope. The best part was that the Gold Elemental Energy flowed straight into the Gold Elemental Pearl within his body, unlike the Gold Elemental Energy from Magic Crystals, which could only circulate through his meridians and muscles.
"Snake King, have you found any Gold Element Ore Crystals yet?" Ye Tian asked.
The Snake King's pit was quite a bit larger than his own, so if he had managed to find one, Ye Tian was confident the Snake King must have as well.
"Not yet, Sir," the Snake King replied with a smile. "But I should be able to find some if I dig for a few more days. Don't lose heart. Your efforts will be rewarded. You just can't be impatient."
Ye Tian glanced up at the spot where he had shattered the Barrier and saw that it had already mended itself. This meant he and the Snake King were now trapped inside the Gold Element Barrier.
If he wanted to get out, he would have to slice his wrist open again and use his blood to activate the Black Glaze Sword's unique attribute. For now, though, he wasn't worried about that. Finding more Gold Element Ore Crystals was his top priority.
Now filled with motivation, Ye Tian no longer found the work tedious. He wielded his Black Glaze Sword with great speed, tossing out handfuls of rubble from time to time.
Day by day, Ye Tian dug, sweat pouring down his face like rain. Then, at one point, he broke into a wide smile, laughing out loud.
Before him lay three golden Ore Crystals, each larger than an egg. Their color was a deeper shade of gold than the first one he had found.
'He finally understood that the Ore Crystals came in different grades. These must be higher-quality Gold Attribute Ore Crystals,' he thought. 'Absorbing them should be much more effective.'
"Sir, I've spotted some Ore Crystals! How are you doing over there?" the Snake King called out to Ye Tian.
Ye Tian immediately leaped out of his pit and went over to the one the Snake King was digging. He took a closer look and was shocked. The guy had dug even deeper than he had; the pit was now over three meters deep.
What shocked Ye Tian most was that, inside the pit, there were more than a dozen Ore Crystals identical to the ones he had just found.