It wasn’t hard to understand why he ended up in such a weakened state.
The jump from C to C++ represented at least a twenty- to thirty-fold increase in attributes.
He had forcefully pushed himself to that level through consecutive skill activations—at that state, he could probably even kill King-class monsters with ease.
However, after this battle, as long as Li Qingshan put in a bit more effort and secured one of the top-three rewards from the Tower, once he later synthesized a Transcendent item card, he would only grow stronger.
Right now, he was merely an ordinary Berserker with four item card slots, relatively strong equipment, and highly proficient, effective skills.
Li Zhongjun glanced at Li Qingshan and quietly let out a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, they had brought Bai Qiu along—otherwise, this large-scale raid might have ended in a total wipe!
After all, this dungeon was originally meant for 150 players at level 30 or even 40 and above.
Yet here they were—even Li Qingshan, their main combat pillar, had only just reached level 30.
Without Bai Qiu’s support along the way, even if they hadn’t provoked those two Monarch-class monsters, they would have already lost more than half their forces just getting this far…
Others—including Bai Qiu himself—might not see it that way, but Li Zhongjun understood clearly: before every monster attack, Bai Qiu had always scouted ahead and provided early warnings.
During this time, the soldiers had rotated through sleep six times due to exhaustion—only Bai Qiu had remained awake the entire time, continuously conducting reconnaissance, allowing him to rest without worry.
He had also used his abilities to clear away dust during mining, and even guided the Casters, Lancers, and Archers in the team…
And in the end, he had personally slain two Monarch-class monsters.
At this point, seeing Li Qingshan’s battered state and Bai Qiu completely unscathed, no one questioned Bai Qiu’s value anymore.
Li Zhongjun took it all in.
In his eyes, Bai Qiu now seemed like a priceless treasure—though unfortunately, such a treasure could only grow stronger if allowed to develop naturally.
After settling Li Qingshan and confirming that all threatening monsters in the dungeon had been eliminated, Li Zhongjun finally gave the order for the main force to advance.
The location of the two Monarch-class dragon worms’ nests contained the most valuable resources in the entire dungeon—as well as all the treasure chests…
It took the group nearly an hour of marching to reach the nests of the Star-Iron and Star-Silver Dragon Worms.
Their lairs were easy to identify—one was a Star-Iron ore vein, the other a Star-Silver ore vein.
Knocking out a piece of raw Star-Iron ore, Li Zhongjun held it up excitedly and said, “We’ve really struck gold this time!”
A massive C- rank dungeon actually containing B- grade Transcendent materials—this was beyond their expectations.
Bai Qiu, however, wasn’t particularly surprised.
Although the Star-Iron and Star-Silver veins were quite large, their actual content of those materials was extremely low—less than 5%.
Instead, the veins were filled with Black Iron, Crystal Iron, Mithril, Crystal Silver, and various C-grade elemental ores.
These materials surrounded the Star-Iron and Star-Silver, mixed with impurities—but even so, to Li Zhongjun, this was already an invaluable treasure trove!
Of course, deep within the monster nests, they also discovered a total of fifteen treasure chests…
Three wooden chests, three iron chests, three silver chests, three gold-inlaid chests, and three brilliantly radiant chests.
Interestingly, the wooden chests were scattered in various corners, while the iron, gold-inlaid, and one of the radiant chests were all piled together in the deepest part of the Star-Iron Dragon Worm’s lair.
The remaining chests were found in the Star-Silver Dragon Worm’s lair, though its style was different—it seemed to treat the chests as decorations, hanging one here and placing another there.
One was a collector, the other a decorator.
That said, they were surprisingly consistent in one regard—they both ignored wooden chests…
Bai Qiu declined the invitation to open the chests, letting Li Zhongjun choose the luckiest player in the team to do it.
Instead, Bai Qiu was allowed to pick items from the results in advance—anything he liked, he could take.
After observing and thinking for a long time, Bai Qiu selected three items: a Transcendent Source Water Element Crystal Ore, a Complete Compendium of Ores, and a Minor Planet Surface Teleportation Card.
There were plenty of other good items as well, including a Berserker-class skill book and a B- grade Transcendent Greataxe, but Bai Qiu only chose those three.
Li Zhongjun’s smile practically reached his ears.
The Transcendent Source Water Element Crystal had come from a radiant chest, which actually contained three different elemental source crystals—Bai Qiu had only taken the water one.
As for the Complete Compendium of Ores, it came from a silver chest.
It recorded the names and grades of various minerals—useful enough to read like a reference book, though in practice, one could simply identify ores directly when encountered.
Then there was the Minor Planet Surface Teleportation Card.
After checking its basic information, Li Zhongjun specifically warned Bai Qiu not to use it lightly…
Because it was extremely dangerous.
Transcendent Source Crystal Ore (Water) — B- Grade
Description: A crystal containing a trace of primordial water essence. When used on a target with high affinity for water elements, it can enhance their bloodline talent!
Bai Qiu planned to give this to Ah Yuan, after all—it possessed a high-potential talent: Devour.
The other two crystals were fire and metal.
They weren’t very useful to Bai Qiu, since his most compatible attribute was wind.
More importantly, Li Zhongjun was clearly very interested in such high-quality rare resources.
The military needed to cultivate more pillars like Li Qingshan.
Bai Qiu didn’t feel right taking everything, so he only took the one best suited for Ah Yuan.
After all, Ah Yuan’s loyalty and favor toward him were maxed out—any resources invested in it would be worthwhile.
Complete Compendium of Ores
Although it had no formal grade, this book recorded a vast range of minerals—from F- all the way to B++—including many Bai Qiu had never seen or even heard of before.
To others, it might seem like a rather useless book, but for Bai Qiu, it was essentially an all-purpose encyclopedia…
With it, whenever he took interest in a material, he could cross-reference it with the Fragment of Mountain River Map.
As long as the material existed in places he could reach, he could pinpoint its exact location through the map!
Minor Planet Surface Teleportation Card — B Grade
Description: Allows teleportation to the surface of a minor planet. Requires Strength, Endurance, and Magic to all reach B rank. Only usable if the user can survive on the planetary surface.
Li Zhongjun naturally understood its importance—it represented a future super resource point.
However, it was a single-use, solo teleport card.
Moreover, the stat requirements were extremely high.
It would take an unknown amount of time to reach that level.
Compared to that, immediate resources were far more practical.
In fact, he was more worried that Bai Qiu might take an interest in the skill book—or suddenly decide to try using the Greataxe—that would give him a real headache.
After distributing the chest rewards, Bai Qiu suddenly remembered that the little Black Iron Worm was still inside Ah Yuan’s contract space.
He took it out, fed it two Darksteel ores, and it quietly curled up inside his cloak and went to sleep.
As everyone continued mining with great enthusiasm, Bai Qiu once again helped clear away the dust.
Meanwhile, Li Qingshan—who had looked half-dead earlier—was already back on his feet after just an hour, lively as ever, swinging a pickaxe again.
When he received the Greataxe and the skill book, he was so happy he looked like a child.
Soon, the exploration progress of the Asteroid Ore Vein reached 100%, and resource collection exceeded 90%.
All recorded monsters had been eliminated—aside from some larvae—and every treasure chest had been gathered…
With a flash of white light, everyone returned to Zone 2201, all members alive.
Only after returning to the safe zone did everyone finally let out a long breath of relief.
During their time in the minor planet vein, while there hadn’t been much danger, the conditions were undeniably harsh—and the environment equally brutal.
No bathing, no brushing teeth, not even washing their faces the entire time.
In the dim cave, it was either fighting monsters or mining nonstop—an experience that felt like hellish training…
Only after coming out did they realize that more than 80 hours had passed outside!
This dungeon run had lasted over three full days!
When Li Qingshan found out, he rushed toward the Tower like a madman.
After asking around, Bai Qiu learned that he hadn’t cleared the Tower yet this week—and the settlement time was almost up.
Bai Qiu rubbed his forehead, thinking the guy was absurdly patient.
Still, there were benefits—after this dungeon, Li Qingshan had reached level 32 and obtained suitable skills and a weapon.
His performance in the Tower would likely surpass Zhang Shiyao’s.
As for surpassing Bai Qiu—better not even think about it.
At his current level, Li Qingshan still couldn’t solo a Transcendent creature.
This dungeon run didn’t just raise the entire army’s average level to above 26—even Bai Qiu himself gained one and a half levels, reaching level 33, with less than 20% remaining to hit level 34.
With shared experience, Bai Qiu solo-killed two Monarch-class monsters, and also gained nearly full experience from the rest.
That was the advantage of this dungeon.
Though everyone came out dirty and exhausted, their levels were far ahead of others, leaving those who didn’t participate extremely envious!
Finally, it came time to distribute resources.
Resources from personal kills belonged to the individual and were not included in the shared distribution.
This wasn’t done for Bai Qiu’s personal benefit.
After all, Bai Qiu had only killed two Monarch-class monsters, obtaining high-tier materials and items.
Meanwhile, all the Normal, Elite, Lord, and King-class monsters had been handled by the main force.
When combined, those resources were enough to cultivate an entire batch of elite players!
If split 70/30 with Bai Qiu, they might gain one or two powerful items—but the lost 30% could instead nurture hundreds or even thousands of players.
So Li Zhongjun proposed this arrangement, and Bai Qiu agreed.
The number of people he considered friends was small—he simply didn’t need that many resources.
The remaining portion was the gathered resources.
Bai Qiu received 30%, which was an enormous amount.
Aside from high-grade materials, for basic ones like Darksteel and Mithril, he alone obtained over a hundred thousand units of raw ore.
At Bai Qiu’s suggestion, he traded away some elemental ores he didn’t need in exchange for all the wind-element ores, as well as dark-element and water-element ores.
In the end, he also compensated them with some Sanctum Coins and items, leaving Li Zhongjun beaming with joy.
— The end of the Chapter–
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