The two stood on the cliff, gazing down at the massive black beast at the bottom. For a moment, neither spoke.

After a while, Su Rui cleared his throat. “What about those straw rabbits of yours? Throw one down and see what happens.”

Cen An thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Let’s not. Xiao Lin can sense them. He’s in poor health—we can’t rush things.”

Su Rui snorted lightly. “It’s just a straw rabbit with a seed inside… Don’t worry. It only reacts when you’re in danger—it’s designed to protect its master. Throw it down, and I’ll use my wood-elemental ability to trigger it. He won’t even know.”

Cen An knew Su Rui wouldn’t lie about something like this, so he took out a grass rabbit and tossed it down.

Su Rui summoned a gust of wind to carry the grass rabbit toward the dark figure, then released a thread of wood-elemental ability.

Several vines burst open; from a distance, it looked as though a purple flower had bloomed on the black shadow’s body. Due to the contrast, the purple flower actually appeared quite dainty and cute.

The Thorn Wisteria had grown to fight, naturally. It looked around, sensing the massive figure beneath it moving, and without hesitation, lashed out with its spiked vines to attack.

Cen An and the others watched intently from above—

To the black shadow, the Thorned Wisteria’s spines were no thicker than toothpicks; they felt like nothing more than a tickle. Sure enough, the black shadow was tickled to the point of irritation. Its skin began to ripple, and it let out a cry: “Yoo-ha~ Yoo-ha~.”

It had a bit of rhythm to it and was actually kind of funny.

That distinctive cry reminded Cen An of something, and he suddenly realized, “Oh, I remember now—this is the Rock Crystal Colossus!”

Su Rui wasn’t at all surprised that Cen An knew so much; instead, he asked, “Is it a mutant beast?”

“No,” Cen An shook his head. “The Rock Crystal Colossus isn’t a mutant beast, nor is it an ordinary animal. Like the Green Shade Rat, it belongs to the category of strange creatures.”

It was precisely because strange creatures were so rare that Cen An hadn’t recognized it even after encountering it twice.

“Rock Crystal Colossus live in mine shafts and survive by absorbing the energy there. They’re said to have a very gentle temperament—as long as you don’t harm them, they won’t attack you. Also, when they’re happy, they can produce a rare mineral called Rock Crystal Stone, which can be used to make offensive gear—er, weapons.”

“Like that?” Su Rui pointed downward and saw the dark figure below roll over after being tickled by the thorned wisteria, continuing to emit that “ya-oh-ha” cry, while some purplish-black ore clattered down.

“…Yes.” Cen An’s mouth twitched; the giant beast had a pretty low sense of humor.

As the colossus rolled over, an entrance appeared in the corner—they could go down now.

It was actually quite easy for the two of them to descend; Su Rui simply had to channel his wind-elemental ability.

True to form, the Rock Crystal Colossus showed no reaction to their arrival. As Cen An passed by it, he couldn’t resist bending down to touch a rock crystal on the ground.

【Congratulations! You have obtained 12 Rock Crystals】

“Ahem, let’s go.”

And so, the two made it through the twenty-sixth level without incident and arrived at the twenty-seventh.

No sooner had they landed than a flash of cold light streaked toward them. Su Rui pulled him aside to dodge, and the rope ladder behind them was sliced clean in two by the cold light.

“It’s a Gemstone Demon!” Cen An shouted. “A Level 4 mutant beast, formed from gemstones. High attack, high defense, and decent health…”

These were the mutant beasts that gave Cen An the most trouble in the mine. Each one was like a mini-boss, and they always appeared in large swarms.

“Its weak point is the neck. There’s a small gap between the head and the shoulders. If you sever the head there, it’ll die.”

The Gemstone Demon was a humanoid form composed of transparent gems, radiating a dazzling, jewel-like glow all over its body. Finding that tiny gap was no easy task.

However, as Cen An shouted, the Fire Dragon in Su Rui’s hand vanished as he charged forward, transforming into a long sword with a cold, piercing gleam.

With a single swing, the first Gemstone Demon was decapitated, collapsing into a pile of gem fragments. Amid the shards, a faint yellow glow could be glimpsed.

Cen An perked up. “It’s a yellow gemstone! Every Gemstone Demon drops a gemstone. We’re still missing one purple gemstone and three yellow ones… oh, now it’s two… just one left!”

As he spoke, Su Rui slashed another Gemstone Demon to death, and sure enough, the fragments that fell were yellow.

A Gemstone Demon that would take Cen An ages to grind down was instantly rendered helpless in Su Rui’s hands—he cut them down one by one.

Before long, he’d slain two more, not only gathering the required Yellow Gems but also scoring an extra Ruby.

“Rubies can be sold for money or used to craft fire-element gear… Ah, we’re still missing an amethyst!”

Cen An was getting a little excited watching this. Though he was too embarrassed to say it, watching Su Rui fight was actually… kind of thrilling…

Su Rui still had enough energy to turn and glance at him once, then again, his voice rising at the end: “Well, I don’t know what it’ll drop either.”

Cen An laughed too. “So what do you suggest we do?”

Su Rui tilted his head like a puppy. “Then let’s just kill them all!”

Half an hour later, he had indeed slaughtered every single Gemstone Demon on that floor.

The floor was covered in sparkling shards; the dazzling glow was quite a sight, though it was a pity. “Ah, Gemstone Demons don’t drop crystal cores.”

Cen An shook his head, instantly losing interest in the glittering mess on the ground and focusing solely on mining the gems inside.

【Congratulations! You have obtained 1 Ruby】

【Congratulations! You have obtained 1 Emerald】

【Congratulations! You have obtained 1 Diamond】

“Huh, there’s actually a diamond here too?” Cen An gasped, quickly and carefully stowing it away. “Diamonds can be used to craft diamond swords—they’re among the weapons with the highest attack power.”

Su Rui gave a noncommittal response. He wasn’t particularly interested in weapons, but since Cen An wanted one, he’d keep an eye out for them in the future.

After gathering all the gems, their total haul was as follows: 【White Gems x10, Yellow Gems x6, Green Gems x7, Red Gems x5, Blue Gems x2, Purple Gems x1, Diamond x1】

“There really is a purple gem!” Cen An picked up the purple gem and examined it closely. “We’ve collected all the intermediate-grade ores. Next up are the advanced-grade ores!”

It had been three days and two nights since they entered the mine. To say they weren’t anxious would be a lie; Cen An had even dreamed of Xiao Yi crying alone because he couldn’t see him. He just kept his feelings to himself.

Now that they saw a glimmer of hope for returning home, how could they not be happy?

He happily pulled out the recipes for the Spatial Gate and the key, checking them off one by one. “The minerals still missing are: Spatial Stone x1, Stellar Iron x2, Yellow Earth Root x2, Sky Blue Sapphire x1, Starlight Ore x1…”

As he recited the list, Su Rui listened nearby. Suddenly, he reached out and yanked Cen An away. “Watch out!”

A cold gleam grazed his back and struck the ground, sending a shower of crystalline shards flying.

A Gemstone Demon—whether it had been sleeping or was simply cunning by nature—had been hiding among the scattered debris the entire time, only striking now.

Though the ambush failed, Su Rui wasn’t about to let it off the hook. With a furious swing of his blade, he severed its head in an instant, then, before the gem spirit could collapse, sliced its body in two.

Cen An glanced at Su Rui in surprise, wondering why he was so angry. But the next second, his attention was drawn to a flash of blue, and he hurried over to pick it up.

“This is…” Though blue, it wasn’t a dazzling, sharp polyhedron, but a lustrous bead. “It’s a sky-blue sapphire!”

Cen An hadn’t expected that such a minor scare would lead to such a pleasant surprise; now, only four types of high-grade ore remained.

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

Feeling lucky today, Cen An didn’t want to waste too much time, so he whipped up a few quick dishes for lunch.

Though quick, they didn’t look half-hearted.

He pan-fried the dried fish he’d dug out of the haystack yesterday, shredded it, and tossed it with seasonings. He also simmered a pot of ground fruit soup, lining the pot’s edge with a circle of wheat flatbreads.

The flavorful dried fish paired surprisingly well with the warm ground fruit soup.

After finishing their meal, the two of them headed back down into the mine.

Their luck ran a bit dry on the twenty-eighth level of the mine—it was a monster level, and they encountered Level 5 Rock-Shelled Giant Turtles. Not only did these beasts have higher defense than the Gemstone Demons, but they also dropped almost nothing.

Fortunately, the Rock-Shelled Giant Turtles weren’t a mutant beast—there were only five of them. In the end, Su Rui used his hammer to chip away at the stone turtles bit by bit until he finally took them down.

As a result, they only managed to collect 10 Silver Crystal Cores from the entire level.

Before they knew it, they had reached the twenty-ninth level.

The terrain of the twenty-ninth level was extremely peculiar. There were no ore deposits to be seen, but instead, massive boulders as tall as artificial hills stood everywhere, one after another, as if they had stumbled into some tourist trap.

Cen An, however, smiled. “Yellow Earth Root!”

Su Rui looked at him. “Are you sure?” His eyesight was sharp; he could see all the way to the end of the mine shaft at a glance, yet he saw no yellow ore.

Cen An replied confidently, “Why do you think it’s called Yellow Earth Root? It’s hidden inside these massive boulders—you have to break them open to see it.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Su Rui, ever the sensible one, pulled out his hammer.

The two of them began hammering away at the rocks.

A clanging din filled the mine. The Green Shade Mouse had intended to go down and look for herbs, but wherever it ran, rocks fell from the ceiling—to the little mouse, these were all massive boulders! Terrified, the mouse scurried back and hid inside Cen An’s sleeve, too scared to move.

Cen An struggled to break the first boulder, but found nothing inside. After all, Yellow Earth Root was a high-grade ore; its drop rate couldn’t possibly be very high.

He shook out his wrist, just as he was about to continue digging, when Su Rui asked, “Is it this thing?”

He flicked his wrist, and an ore landed lightly in Cen An’s palm: yellow, transparent like jelly, shaped like a flower’s pistil.

【Congratulations on obtaining Yellow Earth Root x1】

“That’s it. Just one more and…”

Before he could finish, Su Rui flicked another one over.

It wasn’t that he was lucky; it was simply that he was faster than Cen An. While Cen An was chipping away at one, Su Rui could chip away at five—so naturally, he’d get the item.

Cen An had no immediate use for the Yellow Earth Root, and chiseling through these massive boulders was exhausting. So, seeing that they had enough, Cen An made a snap decision to head straight to the next level.

Level 30.

The new level of the mine gave the two of them another shock: there was nothing on this level.

No ore, no monsters—just an empty space… and more crucially, there was no entrance to the next level.

The two circled the mine, then exchanged puzzled glances. Could the information they’d received be wrong? Was this mine really only thirty levels deep?

“I don’t think so,” Su Rui mused. “I can sense a faint fluctuation of spatial energy—but it’s very regular.”

Cen An tried to make sense of it. “You mean there’s a faint spatial energy disrupting this level’s space? What we’re seeing might not be the true appearance of this level?”

Su Rui nodded. “It’s possible we’re still on the thirtieth level, but what we’re seeing is what the sixtieth level looks like.”

“No wonder there’s no entrance to the lower levels…” Cen An nodded in understanding, then asked, “If this energy is so weak, can’t we break through it?”

“We could, technically,” Su Rui hesitated, “but isn’t one of the minerals we’re looking for called a Spatial Stone?”

“You mean this might be the effect of a Spatial Stone?” Cen An was startled, but upon reflection, it wasn’t impossible—after all, Spatial Stones are described as ores imbued with the power of space!

In that case, they couldn’t just smash through it. If they destroyed the Spatial Stone, they might not be lucky enough to find a second one anytime soon.

“Spatial Stone…” Cen An frowned in thought, feeling as though he’d overlooked something…

High-grade ore…

“Ah, I remember now!” The young man clapped his hands lightly. “The mine trial!”

Obtaining high-grade ore in the mine is a bit trickier. Encountering it is only the first step; getting it into your backpack is a whole other story.

Take the Yellow Earth Root from earlier, for instance. It’s relatively common among high-grade ores, and the trial isn’t difficult—as long as you can pry it out of the rock, you’ve succeeded.

Some high-grade ores are guarded by mutant beasts, while those without mutant beast guardians come with mine trials.

Mine trials come in all shapes and sizes… but Cen An had never encountered one like this: even discovering the “mine trial” itself counts as part of the trial.

Cen An circled around again, feeling the rock walls and the ground, then took out a few pieces of coal and began scribbling on the ground.

Su Rui, who had been staring blankly nearby, snapped back to attention. “What are you doing?”

Cen An: “Have you ever used a pencil?”

Su Rui shook his head.

Cen An: “If you lightly trace over a mark on white paper with a pencil, the mark will appear… Look, like this.”

As he spoke, black characters indeed appeared on the ground: “Please.”

Please what?

Cen An continued to rub downward.

Su Rui touched the ground; there was indeed a faint mark—one his hand could feel, but his eyes could barely make out.

He took a piece of coal to help.

The ground was soon blackened by the two of them, revealing a question: Please tell me, what is this world called?

“What kind of question is that?” Su Rui tugged at his hair. “Does this world even have a name? I’ve never heard of it.”

Cen An, however, tilted his head in thought and wrote four characters with the coal: Starry Sea and Vast Sky.

“Your answer is correct.”

The characters appeared and then gradually faded away. A rumbling sound echoed through the stone cave, and the surrounding walls shook, yet they didn’t feel a thing.

Su Rui shielded him and asked curiously, “How did you know that? Do humans have this term?”

Cen An smiled but said nothing. Of course, he didn’t know the name of this world; “Starry Sea, Vast Sky” was the name of the company that developed *Happy Farm*. Every time he logged into the game before, those four characters would pop up immediately and fill the entire screen.

At the time, he’d even thought the game company was a bit self-absorbed. But when he saw the question in the mine’s trial just now, for some reason, that answer popped into his mind.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that his farm system wasn’t just an ordinary cheat code—it was somehow connected to this world.

The surrounding fluctuations ceased, and only then could they clearly see the true nature of the 30th level: a layout similar to other mines, with a few scattered low-grade ore blocks on the ground… In the very center of the mine, a white ore block was embedded in the ground, emitting a faint, luminous glow.

A Spatial Stone!

Cen An quickly picked it up and stowed it away… Now, the only high-grade ores left were Stellar Iron and Starlight Ore!

With victory in sight, Cen An pressed on with renewed determination, descending another three levels of the mine.

This time, his luck had clearly run out.

From the 31st to the 33rd levels, while the mutant beasts he encountered grew increasingly formidable, he found very little in the way of ore.

Although he obtained a piece of obsidian on the 33rd level—a precious find—it was of no use in his current situation.

“Forget it, let’s go back and rest for now.” Cen An rubbed his temples; he could already hear Su Rui’s stomach growling from over there.

The guy was this hungry, yet he hadn’t said a single word.

He let out a soft sigh, his voice unexpectedly gentle. “What do you want to eat tonight? I’ll make it for you.”

“Just something simple will do.” Su Rui said casually, “We’ll continue after we eat. Aren’t you in a hurry to go out?”

Cen An paused for a moment, then broke into a smile after a long while, “I’m not that rushed. We should still eat properly.”

He thought for a moment, “You still have some lard in your spatial pocket. I’ll make you some fried flatbreads—we happen to have plenty of wheat flour.”

On the tenth floor, Lin She watched the two of them bustling about as they came up, kneading dough to make oil cakes. He raised an eyebrow. “You’re both looking so downcast. What’s wrong? Did that green mouse of yours get eaten by a mutant beast?”

“Senior!” Cen An gave a wry smile. “Little Green is doing just fine.”

“Then what’s wrong with you?” Lin She’s tone was casual, as if he were merely making small talk.

Cen An knew, however, that this was already a tone of exceptional concern on his part.

He hadn’t intended to say anything—he wasn’t used to confiding in others—but perhaps because Lin She’s question sounded so matter-of-fact, he couldn’t help but mutter under his breath, “High-grade ore is so hard to find.”

Now that the words were out, he couldn’t help but complain a little. High-grade ore wasn’t just rare—it was incredibly hard to obtain, and he was in a hurry…

Lin She listened to his mumbling complaints, a hint of a smile flashing in his eyes. “I thought it was something serious. Is this really worth worrying about? Kids will be kids.”

Cen An shot him an accusatory glance, only to have a sparkling object tossed right at him.

He reached out to catch it—

【Lucky Pendant:

Category: Jewelry

Effect: A lucky pendant crafted from a lucky stone that boosts the wearer’s luck attribute.】

Cen An blinked, suddenly startled!

“Senior Lin, this… this is too valuable. I can’t accept it…”

“Who said I was giving it to you?” Lin She said casually. “I’m just lending it to you. Return it to me when you’re done.”

Such a precious pendant—even just borrowing it was a tremendous favor.

Cen An hesitated for a moment, but eventually put on the pendant and said earnestly, “Senior Lin, rest assured. I’ll return it as soon as I’m done.”

Come to think of it, he’d been curious before: Senior Lin didn’t seem to have ventured past the tenth level of the mine, yet his collection included several intermediate and high-grade ores. It turned out that it was all thanks to the luck pendant.

Dinner was, as expected, scallion oil pancakes.

The thin pancakes were brushed with lard and fried until golden brown on both sides. When you bit into them, the crust would crackle crisply, and crumbs would fall—you had to hold your chin with one hand to eat with any semblance of dignity…

But fried carbs were truly delicious! An evil, tempting aroma!

After dinner, Cen An picked out a few herbs from Lin She’s jumbled pile of medicinal plants and brewed a large pot of herbal tea.

The three of them drank their fill of the steaming tea, then Cen An and Su Rui headed back down into the mine.

Cen An wanted to get out early and return the lucky pendant to Lin She as soon as possible, so he decided to work an extra shift tonight.

The two quickly reached the thirty-fifth level.

Cen An silently chanted to himself: Stellar Iron, Starlight Ore… Stellar Iron, Starlight Ore…

However, the lucky pendant didn’t seem to take effect immediately.

This was a standard ore-and-monster level. Although there were plenty of ores, none of them were what the two needed.

After collecting all the ores, just as they were about to leave, a sudden gale swept through the mine.

It felt as abnormal as a demonic wind; if Su Rui hadn’t been holding him back, Cen An felt he might have been blown away by the gust…

Just as the gale raged, the stone wall opposite them suddenly emitted a burst of white light. The light swirled, forming a spatial portal, and a massive suction force emanated from within.

“What is this…”

Cen An suddenly found himself at a loss for words. Had the Luck Pendant misunderstood something? It had actually led him straight to the exit.