Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  In the Yulan continent, the only thing comparable in value to a magicite gemstone mine was a mithril mine.

  “We’re going to be rich, Chief! We can fill up a bag of gemstones, and they’d easily be worth over a hundred thousand gold coins. We’re going to be rich!” The young man was wildly overjoyed.

  The chief frowned. “Don’t be hasty. This should be a magicite gemstone mine…let’s take a look and see how large this mine is.”

  Book 10, Baruch – Chapter 31: Magicite Gemstone Mine

  “Yes, Chief.” The young man suppressed his excitement, forcing himself to continue surveying the area with the chief.

  “Here as well.” The Chief’s eyes lit up.

  “Chief, there’s magicite gems here as well.” A hundred meters away, the young man, Kaya, was extremely excited. The older man surveyed his surroundings, and then immediately ran next to Kaya, so excited he was panting for breath. “Kaya, this clearly is a magicite gem mine. We’ve discovered that it is at least a few hundred meters wide. Such an enormous magicite mine is rarely seen in the entire Yulan continent.”

  Kaya nodded repeatedly as well.

  Magicite gems. A single sack of them was more than a thousand times the value of a sack of gold. This definitely was an enormous sum.

  Kaya looked at his chief, then scanned the surrounding area. Seeing no one else was here, he immediately lowered his voice and whispered, “Chief, we’re both rich. We were able to find so many gems in the area around us. The price of the gems in this area alone has to be worth several hundred million gold coins, or maybe even more.”

  The chief surveyor was also a surveying expert. Naturally he could tell how much this location was worth.

  “Kaya, what are you trying to say?” The chief could already see the greedy look appear in Kaya’s eyes.

  Kaya suppressed his excitement and hurriedly said, “Chief, think about it…what’s our yearly surveying salary? Now, as long as we keep quiet about it and don’t tell anyone, we can secretly excavate a bag full of gems, then sell them. Then we’d be rich! It would be possible for us to become two of the richest people in the entire Yulan continent because of this mine.”

  The more he thought about it, the more excited Kaya became.

  There was nothing that could be done. Magicite gems were a hot commodity, and there were many channels for it to be sold through. In addition, even the lowest of magicite gems were worth ten gold coins. One could imagine how valuable this mine was.

  “Kaya, calm down. Even if you have money, you have to be alive to spend it.” Just as Kaya was getting so heated up that it seemed to be summer, his chief poured a bucket of verbal ice water over him. Kaya shivered, then looked at his chief. “Chief, what do you mean?”

  The chief said seriously, “You should know how tightly we surveyors are managed and overseen. Those senior people are always worried that we will find some valuable mines, then secretly steal from them. The kingdom is extremely strict in its oversight of us.”

  Kaya sneered and laughed, “Chief, what are you afraid of? Yes, there is oversight, but all we need to do is to make one trip then leave and never return.”

  “You are still too young.” The chief berated him. “You should know that every day, there are records in the headquarters of the areas we have excavated. If we disappear, they would definitely come investigate this area. By then, they would definitely discover the magicite gem mine.”

  “And secondly…” The chief looked at Kaya solemnly. “The kingdom has quite a few experts. Once the kingdom discovers what we have done, they would definitely pursue us. Our families would most likely get caught in the mix as well.”

  Kaya suddenly remembered that back in Baruch City, his chief had a very good family.

  But he, Kaya, was different. His parents had passed away a long time ago in the chaotic wars. He was all by himself, and hadn’t yet married. He had nothing tying him down. Kaya was very confident…that he could take away an enormous fortune, and live a life of luxury.

  “Kaya.” The chief looked at him. “If we report this to the headquarters, the headquarters will reward us for discovering the mine.”

  “How much would the reward be?” Kaya scoffed. “Ten thousand gold coins would be the most we could expect from them.”

  Actually, ten thousand gold coins was an enormous sum already. An ordinary family only used a few dozen gold coins a year. Ten thousand gold coins was enough to allow an ordinary family to live off of for a hundred years. But to enjoy the life of a magnate…ten thousand gold coins truly was nothing.

  “Hard to say. It depends on the size of this mine. If the magicite gem mine is fairly large, they might give us several tens of thousands of gold coins, or even a hundred thousand gold coins.” The chief tried to persuade him. “Kaya, the gold that the kingdom gives us, we can spend without fear, and we don’t have to be forced to leave our home.”

  Kaya looked at the magicite gems in the hole beneath them, then looked at his chief. After struggling a long time mentally, he slowly nodded.

  A hint of a smile appeared on the chief’s face.

  The chief thought of his wife and his three kids. He truly didn’t want to make the kids go fleeing with him.

  But just at this moment, a sharp dagger suddenly thrust out at the chief. Kaya’s eyes were filled with a hint of madness. “Die!” But as his dagger stabbed at the chief, Kaya suddenly found that he could no longer push the dagger forward.

  Because the chief had seized him by the hand.

  Kaya’s face instantly changed.

  The chief stared at him coldly. And then, he exerted some pressure with his hand. “Crack!” Kaya’s hand and wrist was shattered. Kaya howled wildly, while at the same time attacking the chief with his left hand. Sadly…he was a warrior of the third rank, while the chief was of the fifth.

  The difference was too great.

  “Bang!”

  The chief, with a simple punch, hit Kaya in the chest. A bone-splintering sound was heard while Kaya went flying backwards, slamming against the floor. Kaya’s chest was caved in and blood was flowing from his mouth.

  “You….” Kaya’s life was fading from his body. He truly couldn’t accept it…he had ambushed the chief at such a close range. Clearly, the chief had been ready for him.

  The chief sighed as he looked at Kaya. “Kaya, if I was twenty years younger and didn’t have anything holding me back, perhaps I would have made the same choice as you, to abscond with a large amount of treasure and leave and become a magnate. Thus, I understand how you are feeling.”

  The chief had guessed that Kaya would ambush him, and thus had been on high guard, and the battle-qi in his body had been activated as well.

  Kaya listened to these words, and then his eyes turned dim. He had no life left in him.

  The chief sighed and shook his head as he looked at Kaya’s body. But he didn’t mind too much; when he was young, the Baruch Kingdom hadn’t yet been founded. He had killed quite a few people, and he was rather used to it. For the sake of letting one’s self live a good life, far too many people had lost their lives.

  The chief immediately covered up the hole with dirt, then turned and left at high speed to the nearby Nifeng City.

  The news that the Baruch Kingdom’s small city of Nifeng had discovered a magicite gem mine quickly spread throughout the kingdom. The area around the mine had been immediately sealed off by thousands of soldiers, forbidding anyone from going near it. They quietly awaited orders from the capital.

  Mt. Blackraven.

  Wharton was running at high speed through the mountain. He passed through the thick woods, then followed the creek to the place where Linley was training.

  “Big brother.” Wharton called out from afar.

  Linley, who was meditating in the center of the lake, couldn’t help but open his eyes. Seeing Wharton, a hint of a smile appeared on his face. “Wharton, what has you here in such a rush?”

  “Big brother, make a trip with me.
” Wharton hurriedly said.

  “Little Wharton, what’s going on?” Bebe popped out of a nearby wooded area.

  Wharton explained, “Big brother, in the eastern borders, our people have discovered a large magicite gemstone mine. Right now, the scope of the deposit is at least a thousand meters wide. And that’s just the surface layer. Exactly how large it is…hard to say. But even if it’s just a thousand meters wide, the value of it is definitely several billion gold coins!”

  “Oh?” Linley was shocked. “There’s such a large magicite gem deposit?”

  Magicite gemstones weren’t like iron or copper deposits. Magicite gemstones usually formed only after countless years of accumulating elemental energy. They would constantly compress it…and then finally take form. Some magicite gemstone deposits were only a few dozen meters in diameter.

  “Let’s go, big brother.” Wharton said repeatedly.

  “Alright, let’s go together.” As soon as Linley spoke, Bebe chimed in. “I’m going too.”

  Wharton immediately laughed. “Bebe, if you go, I won’t have to Dragonform.” Wharton, being at the ninth rank, still couldn’t fly unless Dragonformed. But Dragonforming would ruin his clothes.

  “Fine.” Bebe agreed easily.

  Bebe’s body immediately grew larger. Wharton mounted on his back, and then the three of them flew at high speed towards the east. The current flying speed of Linley and Bebe was so great that in the amount of time it took to drink a cup of tea, they traversed the three hundred plus kilometers.

  “Below.” Wharton pointed at the large area protected by a heavy guard.

  Linley nodded slightly, and the three of them immediately descended. Seeing people fly over, the soldiers didn’t dare to be too rash. Their leader ran over. Sadly, this senior captain had never seen Wharton before.

  “Are you…Lord Linley?”

  Seeing Bebe shrink then hop onto Linley’s shoulders, many soldiers let out surprised shouts. This black Saint-level mouse had virtually become Linley’s insignia! He was a legendary figure in the Baruch Kingdom, its spiritual support!

  Linley’s influence was tremendous.

  “Right. I am Linley. This is Wharton, your King.” Linley laughed calmly.

  Wharton resignedly stretched out his arms, which immediately became covered with azure scales. This was more convincing than any verbal proof. Dragonblood Warrior transformation…only the descendants of the Baruch clan could do this.

  “Your Royal Majesty. Lord Linley.”

  Loud voices rang out.

  Wharton said calmly, “Enough. Keep guarding. My brother and I are going to scan this area.”

  “Yes.” The surrounding soldiers raised their heads and their chests, keeping their backs straight. All of them wanted to make a good impression in front of their King and in front of this legendary Saint, Linley. Linley, meanwhile, had already begun to spiritually scan this area.

  The nearby Wharton just looked at Linley.

  “How huge.”

  Linley was stunned as he delved deep into the ground with his spiritual sense. Spiritual energy could easily pierce through material barriers, but material barriers would still lessen the range of the spiritual energy much more than air did. After all, in the air, spiritual energy could scan at a range of ten kilometers.

  But scanning solid, material barriers lowered that range to one kilometer.

  “Big brother, what is it?” Wharton said softly.

  Linley cracked a smile. “It seems…I need to take this a bit more seriously.”

  Wharton was astonished.

  He instantly understood Linley’s meaning. This magicite gemstone mine was so vast that Linley’s casual spiritual energy scan wasn’t able to totally investigate the size and scope of this deposit.

  “Big brother’s spiritual energy is capable of covering a very wide area, even through the ground. How large is this deposit exactly?” Wharton’s heart began to shake.

  Linley was now using his spiritual energy to scan at full strength.

  A full strength scan was very taxing on spiritual energy. Thus, unless there was some special reason, experts rarely would use spiritual energy on such a scale.

  Finally…

  Linley finished the investigation of this terrifying magicite gemstone deposit.

  “How frightening. What a terrifyingly large magicite gem deposit.” Linley had clearly discovered…this magicite gem deposit was an oval, round shape. But of course, in the area around the ‘oval’, there were still some scattered, random deposits.

  One of the nearby deposits was fairly close to the ground, perhaps just three or four meters away from the ground.

  This massive deposit was over twenty kilometers wide!

  Even someone who had trained to Linley’s level of understanding couldn’t help but feel his heart rate quicken. Linley secretly let out a breath, then looked at Wharton. Wharton asked softly, “Big brother, how is it?” Linley immediately walked to the side. “Talk about it over here.”

  Wharton and Linley came to a quiet, secluded place.

  “Big brother, how big is it?” Wharton was somewhat frantic.

  Linley said seriously, “Very big…larger than any magicite gem deposit previously discovered in the Yulan continent. At least ten times bigger.”

  Wharton was shocked. After all, in the past there had been deposits that were one or two kilometers in size. To be ten times larger than those deposits…”

  “This magicite gem deposit is at least twenty kilometers in length. In addition, it’s very deep as well…based on my calculations, this magicite gem deposit should definitely be worth at least several hundred billion gold coins.” Linley felt his heart tremble as he just thought about this number.

  Several hundred billion gold coins?

  “Good heavens.” Wharton found it hard to breathe as well.

  Book 10, Baruch – Chapter 32: Joining Forces

  The largest magicite mine in the history of the Yulan continent was actually discovered by the Baruch Kingdom which had only been erected for twelve years.

  “The Anarchic Lands have been an area of constant warfare and battle. In thousands of years, not a single power has had the chance to do some excavating and mining. I didn’t expect that in this area that I unified, we would immediately find such a large mine.” Linley couldn’t help but sigh with amazement.

  But at the same time, Linley felt rather curious.

  Magicite deposits were formed from a large amount of elemental essence that was slowly compressed to the point of taking solid gemstone form. To create such a huge magicite mine would require an enormous amount of natural elemental essence. Why was it that there would be so much natural elemental essence here?

  But when Linley had scanned the area with his spiritual energy, he hadn’t found anything unique about the ground below.

  “Not good.” Wharton’s face changed.

  “What is it?” Linley looked at Wharton in surprise, and Bebe did the same as well. “Little Wharton, we just found such a huge magicite mine. Why do you say, ‘not good’?”

  Wharton shook his head. In a serious voice, he said, “Big brother, you say this magicite mine is worth hundreds of billions of gold coins. Aside from the financial aspect, the most important aspect of magicite mines is…they can be used in warfare. You should know this, right?”

  Linley nodded.

  “You are talking about magicite cannons?” Linley asked.

  Magicite cannons were created from a sort of alchemy and metalsmithing. They allowed the usage of magic on a wide scale without requiring top-tier Arch Magi. In the past, the Holy Capital of Fenlai City had magicite cannons, but alas, on Apocalypse Day, even Saint-level magical beasts had descended, as well as a large number of flying beasts…this made it so that there was no time for the magicite cannons to begin firing.

  In truth, magicite cannons were a type of extremely effective attack in warfare.

  For example, some top-quality magicite cannons could co
nsume a large amount of magicite gems and, with each blast, unleash power equivalent to a spell of the seventh or eighth rank, easily killing hundreds of people. On the battlefield, if one could emplace ten large magicite cannons and release a few blasts…

  The enemy forces could instantly be reduced by ten thousand soldiers. This would have a huge impact on the outcome of the battle.

  But magicite cannons were a bottomless, money-sucking pit. The amount of magicite gems they consumed was simply terrifying. In the past, when the Baruch Kingdom had unified this area, the enemies didn’t use any magicite cannons, because an impoverished area like this simply couldn’t afford to use them.

  With each blast from the magicite cannons, magicite gems would be consumed. And these things were more valuable than gold!

  “A small amount of magicite gems can be purchased by gold.” Wharton’s face was solemn. “But a large amount would be restricted and monitored by the Empires. They wouldn’t permit any outsiders to purchase them. Although some people engage in smuggling, how much can that amount to?”

  Linley nodded. How could a nation allow an enemy nation to purchase military supplies from them in large scale?

  Wharton said seriously, “It is easy to buy magicite cannons, and our in truth, given our kingdom’s strength, if we spend some money, we can make our own. With such a magicite mine combined with magicite cannons…our military power would become truly astonishing.”

  There were still very few magi, after all. The testing procedure Linley had gone through in the past was testament to that.

  After becoming a magus, to reach the seventh rank or even higher? That was even less likely. In the continent, only the great Empires, the Holy Union, and the Dark Alliance were capable of forming entire magi corps.

  Linley’s Baruch Kingdom didn’t have the ability to set up this sort of corps either.

  But magicite cannons…ten large magicite cannons, if one had enough magicite gems, wouldn’t be one whit inferior to a magi corps.

  “Big brother.” Wharton looked at Linley. “You should know that in the continent, the four Empires and the other kingdoms, in their struggles, will not use Saints unless it becomes a life or death war. If Saints do not get involved…then magicite cannons will have the ability to change the course of a battle. If the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows discovers that we now have the largest magicite mine in the entire Yulan continent, then…”