Chapter 1 Seeking Wealth

While Xu Jingming and the others were searching for mineral deposits in the Yuan Gold Mountains, there were naturally other high-dimensional lifeforms within the vast mountain range.

Whoosh!

A strange beast carefully advanced through a cavern within the Yuan Gold Mountains.

"The outer regions of the mountains have been searched countless times. It's lucky to even find a single piece of yuan gold," the beast's yellow eyes gazed into the distance. "So, if you want to make a big score, you have to risk entering the depths of the mountains!"

"I don't ask for much! As long as I dig up 100 Yuan Gold Pearls, I'll immediately leave the Yuan Gold Mountains," the beast thought to itself. "100 Yuan Gold Pearls are enough for me to exchange for the resources needed to break through to the Eternal Realm."

He was a naturally born high-dimensional lifeform named Yi San.

At birth, he had two brothers, named by their mother as Yi Da, Yi Er, and Yi San. When their mother was alive, she sheltered the three weak, nascent high-dimensional lifeforms, and they lived fairly comfortably.

Later, their mother went to a trading ground and never returned. She died. Over time, the three brothers separated completely due to various conflicts and lived alone.

"Unconsciously, I've already cultivated to the peak of the Nascent Realm. But how should I cultivate from here? I have too many questions about the inheritance left by my mother," Yi San lamented.

"Mining and exchanging for better and more detailed inheritances, even exchanging for personal guidance from an Eternal Realm expert, I will definitely be able to break through," Yi San thought as he walked, while his hairs transformed into avatars.

His avatars also probed ahead.

The avatars' strength was very limited, so Xu Jingming dispatched actual bodies to scout.

However, most high-dimensional lifeforms had no choice, as they only had one true body! And they couldn't afford to hire experts from the Heart World lineage to help, so they could only condense simple avatars to explore the path.

"Pfft." An avatar probing ahead died, and Yi San didn't know the exact danger, as the avatar was too weak.

"Change routes."

With his avatar dead, Yi San immediately turned back to the original fork in the road and went to another cavern.

Deep within the new cavern, Yi San was pleasantly surprised to sense a faint aura.

"The aura of yuan gold," Yi San rejoiced. "Although the aura is weak, there's probably only a small amount, maybe one or two Yuan Gold Pearls."

Yi San looked at a mountain wall ahead and immediately took out his two short spear weapons, wielding them to strike at the wall. Bang, bang, bang! The mountain rocks of the Yuan Gold Mountains were extremely hard and were also good high-dimensional materials. If refined, some 'Yuan Gold Stone Liquid' could be extracted.

However, this type of material was everywhere in the Yuan Gold Mountains, so it was worthless. Yuan Gold Stone Liquid could fetch a good price, mainly because it was troublesome to refine.

"Bang, bang, bang." Yi San, as a high-dimensional lifeform at the peak of the Nascent Realm, exerted all his strength, furiously smashing with his twin spears for half an hour before finally breaking off a small piece of stone and seeing a Yuan Gold Pearl.

"Another Yuan Gold Pearl. I've already accumulated 19," Yi San happily picked up the Yuan Gold Pearl.

But the moment he touched the Yuan Gold Pearl, buzz! A darkness completely enveloped Yi San, engulfing the area around the cavern.

Yi San instantly felt a chill in his heart, realizing he was in a desperate situation.

"Mother, Big Brother, Second Brother," at the moment of his death, Yi San thought of his closest relatives since birth. He had conflicts with his two brothers, but at the moment of death, he only felt longing and affection for them. "Big Brother and Second Brother, you must live well."

In the dense, ink-like darkness, Yi San didn't even last a single breath before completely losing consciousness.

In the darkness, a faint abyss shadow descended, taking the high-dimensional lifeform away.

More than ten minutes later.

A gray-robed figure appeared here leisurely. He looked at the darkness enveloping the area and casually reached out a hand, and large swaths of darkness poured into his hand.

"This time's prey is just a high-dimensional lifeform in the Nascent Realm. Sacrificing him to the abyss will give me pitifully few rewards," the gray-robed figure said with some disdain, looking at the artifacts left behind after Yi San's death.

"Oh? This Nascent Realm expert is quite wealthy. Counting these Yuan Gold Pearls, he's accumulated 20,000 drops of Abyss True Blood," the gray-robed figure said, finally somewhat satisfied. He glanced around, "Time to set up a trap somewhere else."

…

The Yuan Gold Mountains were too vast, and some high-dimensional lifeforms even established cave dwellings and palaces here.

Inside one of these palaces.

After returning, the gray-robed figure looked at a gold-armored figure in the distance, "Nato, I'm the one who has to work hard to set up traps and collect prey every time. You're so comfortable… just spacing out here."

"I'm gazing into the abyss," the gold-armored figure stood there, with the shadow of the abyss in his eyes. "The abyss is omnipresent. Even in the depths of the Yuan Gold Mountains, you can still observe it. Du Ying, how was the harvest this time?"

"How much can you get from a small prey in the Nascent Realm? Including the rewards for sacrificing to the abyss, it's a total of 20,000-plus drops of Abyss True Blood," the gray-robed figure said, "Oh, by the way, we need to go to the trading ground to sell some of the spoils we've hunted over the years."

All sorts of items; many of them they didn't need, so they would sell them to exchange for things they did need.

"How much have our spoils accumulated to?" the gold-armored figure asked.

"Worth about 470,000 drops of Abyss True Blood," the gray-robed figure said.

"When we reach 500,000, we'll go to Ancient Tree World to trade it all off," the gold-armored figure decided.

"Alright, I'll listen to you," the gray-robed figure was very well-behaved. He did all the dirty and hard work, but when it came to distributing the spoils, he could only take 30 percent, while the other party took 70 percent. The gray-robed figure obediently walked into the depths of the cave dwelling. "I'm still too weak. If I were strong enough, I wouldn't need to rely on Nato. I could act alone, and all the benefits would be mine."

"But now? If I encounter a powerful prey while setting up a trap, I won't be able to handle it. I still have to rely on Nato," the gray-robed figure thought.

******

Xu Jingming bathed in the Black Lotus flames, flying powerfully through the cavern. Wherever he passed, the flames spread everywhere.

As a member of the Heart World lineage, and only a clone, his exploration and travel were many times more powerful than Yi San's.

"Hmm?" Xu Jingming flew to a place and felt spacetime fluctuations. The surrounding scenery had changed.

"Where is this?"

Xu Jingming looked around. The surroundings were chaotic spacetime. Relying on his connection with his other clones, Xu Jingming could deduce his approximate location. "This should be the spatial layer between the Nanting 3609 Sector and the Bagu 1107 Sector."

"Return." Xu Jingming returned to the Heart World with a thought, and then, through Heart World teleportation, he returned to the Yuan Gold Mountains. With other clones as coordinates, it was easy to directly descend to other clones through the Heart World.

Xu Jingming, Principal, Tower Master, and Island Master began to turn back.

"The clone I sent to explore encountered spacetime distortion," Xu Jingming said. "That spacetime distortion wasn't too dangerous; it sent me to a chaotic spatial layer region outside this sector."

"Sent to a chaotic spatial layer and it's not too dangerous?" Principal laughed, "If Tower Master and I were banished there, neither of us would be able to return."

Xu Jingming and Island Master both had ways to return. Especially Xu Jingming, who could return in a few seconds, so he naturally didn't think it was a big deal.

"The dangers of the Yuan Gold Mountains are still controllable. The main thing is spacetime distortion," Xu Jingming sighed. "If it were some more dangerous perilous land, I wouldn't be able to handle it so easily."

"We chose this place precisely because we considered your strengths, Jingming," Tower Master said. "Of the ten most dangerous places in our sector, this is the most suitable for the four of us to join forces."

Xu Jingming nodded.

…

Spacetime distortion, Xu Jingming encountered it almost every ten days or so.

Other regions within this sector, chaotic spatial layers, other sectors, the inside of the abyss, unknown mysterious places! Xu Jingming was banished to each of these places by 'spacetime distortion'.

"Where is this?" Xu Jingming looked at a huge dark vortex in front of him, somewhat shocked. "Here, I can't lock onto the location of other clones. I can't even sense the Heart World."

Unable to sense the Heart World, Xu Jingming had no way to leave.

"Whoosh." The terrifying power of the dark vortex enveloped him, and Xu Jingming couldn't escape. In the end, he could only choose self-destruction.

Boom! His body was completely annihilated, self-dissipated.

The annihilation of a clone was a small matter. Xu Jingming didn't dare to touch unknown dangers, as it might affect all of his clones.

…

In the blink of an eye, Xu Jingming and the other three had been in the Yuan Gold Mountains for more than five years. There were only two truly uncontrollable dangers that made Xu Jingming immediately self-destruct his clone. His clones could return from other dangers.

"More than five years, and I've only obtained 20 Yuan Gold Pearls in the Yuan Gold Mountains," Xu Jingming bathed in the Black Lotus flames, flying at high speed through the cavern.

"I haven't found a single mineral deposit. Every time, it's just one or two scattered Yuan Gold Pearls. The most I've found at once was three Yuan Gold Pearls," Xu Jingming shook his head. A Yuan Gold Pearl was already the smallest unit.

Xu Jingming dreamed of seeing a Yuan Gold block the size of his palm.

After all, such a large Yuan Gold block could be worth a thousand Yuan Gold Pearls.

"According to Principal's plan, we're preparing to explore for a thousand years. There's no rush," Xu Jingming had enough patience.

Whoosh.

Xu Jingming flew to a place and suddenly stopped.

"Hmm?" Xu Jingming looked at a mountain wall and could sense the aura of yuan gold.

Immediately, the Black Lotus flames scorched the area. Crackle, crackle, the mountain wall stones were quickly burned and cracked, revealing a Yuan Gold Pearl.

"Another Yuan Gold Pearl." With a wave of his hand, the Yuan Gold Pearl flew towards him.

At the instant the Yuan Gold Pearl flew up and moved—

Buzz!

Dense, ink-like darkness instantly enveloped the surrounding area, naturally engulfing Xu Jingming as well.

Xu Jingming was somewhat surprised. With his strength, he instantly sensed a lot of information. "This isn't naturally formed spacetime distortion; it's a trap deliberately set by a high-dimensional lifeform to deal with mining high-dimensional lifeforms?"

At that moment, in that cave dwelling, the gray-robed figure, Du Ying, remotely sensed that one of the traps he had set up had been triggered. "Trap number 19 has been triggered. Is it an Eternal Realm prey?"

"Hmm? An Eternal Realm expert from the Heart World lineage, Wu Ming from Myriad Star Island?" Du Ying immediately identified the prey, and his head started to ache.

He knew the intelligence of most of the Eternal Realm experts in the entire sector, so he naturally knew that Myriad Star Island was not easy to provoke! Myriad Star Island killed Yu Fangtuo and Abyss Thousand-Eyed Spider Demon in the demonstration battle when they first arrived in this sector.

"Nato, my trap number 19 has trapped Wu Ming from Myriad Star Island," the gray-robed figure immediately informed his companion.

"Those three monsters from Myriad Star Island are not easy to provoke! Release Wu Ming and let him go," Nato responded.