Lord Shadow

Chapter 2023 2023: Secret Mine

Katarina touches the wall the mine and her eyes narrows. The energy is quite weird.

”Itʼs like there is a thrumming of life in this energy. It should not be there. And this is not exactly a living mine…. not entirely” Katarina did not know how to describe this weird feeling he felt about this mine.

From what Katarina understood, the Order of Thinkers classified the kind of lodes whether the ones in the underground or the one in the surface.

There is also the kind of vertical pillar kind of lode.

A perfectly vertical cylinder of mineralized energy that extends from the deepest core of the earth up to the highest reaches it could reach in the subterranean surface

Sometimes, a lode of ten kilometres deep but only fifty meters wide, a literal nail. Hence, the name….vertical pillar.

This kind of lode is pure but it has mining hazard. Energy blowouts could happen. If the miner cacks the crystalline shell of the pillar, without some measure, the raw unrefined energy of heaven could leak out like high pressure gas, vaporizing anything nearby. Hence out of the many lodes of energy stones, this kind of thing is usually supervised by the reigning power of that territory.

Then there is the crystalline ocean. A geographic shift kind of energy lode.

Instead of finding energy stones in the dirt, the dirt itself has been converted.

Usually, it would be an entire valley where the ”Earth Energy” was so thick that the soil, water, and trees all petrified into different grades of energy stone.

Katarina saw it. His brother has one of these mines. It is hidden by concealing dome. The size of two Grand Canyon made entirely of translucent , glowing crystal.

Then there is the living lode. A mineral that has some kind of sentience

The lode moves.

It grows toward sources of conflict, prayer, or high-level beings. It is attracted to energy

The lode isnʼt a fixed size; it is ever growing. It might start as a pebble and, over a thousand years of absorbing heaven and earth energy , grow into a crystal monolith that displaces an entire city.

Earth is special in that the energy that is flowing between heaven and Earth is truly pure. Hence, it did not need a thousand years to crystalize

Only a few years is enough to create such a crystal monolith.

There is mining city in this kind of living lode. In this new world that they live in, gold is not as valuable as energy stones. Because this is a world powered by energy. Level up? Energy

Battlestar?

Energy stones to power graviton drive and black hole core.

To power up the FTL drive? Energy liquid.

To power up the Vipers? Energy stones.

Some sophisticated magical shield that stands there indefinitely guarding your fortress, castle, palaces? Energy stones.

All of it is sourced from energy stones.

You break it down; you refine it either to become liquid or gas and uses these essence that comes out from the energy stone to power all kinds of things

It is like the fuel of this new world.

If the old world depends on oil, then this new world depends on energy stones.

It is many…...but it is also easily used.

Everyone could use it. You rarely use oil that you put on your car to drink. But you can drink energy stones if you knew how to refine it.

Sometimes when you are low on energy, you could simply crush the energy stones in your hand and recover some of your energy.

But the more powerful you are the more you need. And when you reached a certain realm, energy stone is not that important anymore. When you reach a realm where you yourself could synthesise the energy of the world by yourself, the allure of energy stones is not that high

Azief and Katarina for example, if they lost a lot of energy and need to quickly refill it, it would probably need an energy stone mountain the size of Everest just to replenish it

Trying to use amine to replenish their energy is not cost effective.

Not to mention the energy that is crystalized had to be mined out before it could be purified.

If you crush energies stone, even though there is energy in it, the energy is unrefined.

Some beings like Azief could refine this energy instantly.

But most people did not have Orb or Disk in their Inner World to refined these energies.

And the use of energy stone is not to replenish all of their energy. Only a part of their energy.

The stronger a being is, the more energy they needed.

Of course, for most people who did not break the barrier of Disk Formation realm, a mountain of energy stones is like striking it rich in this new world

It is enough to make sure that they would not lack energy when they do want to take that step entering the Disk Formation realm

”This is the Abyssal vein” Azief suddenly said.

”itʼs big, isnʼt it?”

He mutters and Katarina could not help but nodded.

It is truly big. This isnʼt some kind of large pit

It is almost like subterranean continent of crystal. Pandemonium is of course larger than any continents in the world

If all of the continents of Earth before the Fall are merged their widths and their length could not even fill Pandemonium size even if they are multiplied by ten

That is how large Pandemonium is.

And that is also the reasons why there is so many unused land and human populations gathers only in some cities.

The Earth after the Fall did not have a housing problem, it has a population problem.

Compared to the space of the Earth, there is only a few living beings or humans

Even if Earth somehow multiplied human in the numbers of seven billion the next months, it would not even make a dent at the resources of the world and it would not even fill the earth

”No one notice such a large mine”

Though when Katarina think about it, this mine itself is very deep underground.

It would be hard for anyone to notice unless they were searching for it. Azief keep walking forward and Katarina follows while she looks at the left and right, up and down

This place...entering it is like entering a new dimension.

Up and down, loses its meaning

As they walked Katarina is surprised to find that they actually did not yet reach the bottom.

Azief waves his hand and suddenly the ground in front of him depressed and then a sound of a click could be heard

The ground suddenly segmented downward, revealing a staircase down.

”Letʼs go”

Katrina smile

”Are you showing off your wealth in front of me?ʼ Azief hearing this only laugh.

”Well, I would not mind if you see it that way” Azief walk downward.

And Katarina follows.

And as he descends down, Katarina could see that the more she descends down, the weirder this place is.

They pass through a somewhat crust of compacted soil crust, into a hollowed-out expanse.

This is why Katarina said this is a subterranean continent. It has its own internal weather system, like a lost world covered inside a cave.

The ceiling of the mine sits so high above, it would make the height of Everest insignificant.

Katarina look up and she doesnʼt see rocks.

She sees a jagged inverted landscape of glowing energy minerals that mimics the stars

”Is that naturally formed or is that a protection array?” she thought to herself.

Katarina also knew that the Senate have their own energy mines. Of course, Katarina herself rarely checked these mines.

After all, she did not another herself for most of the administrative works.

Her position while possessing great power….she did not use it.

She is not interested in it.

But the power and influence are there.

Jean seated her there because she is close to Death Monarch and because she is the only one that could stabilize Boris.

Her brother wanted her there because she is the only one would could make the Senate truly listen

Of course, this relates to foreign affairs and not internal affairs. It is not like Katarina herself is some helpless little girl in the Senate. If she wanted to, she could always assume the power and take it.

The title is there.

The only reason she did not is because that would create unnecessary conflict.

The highest method of govern is governing by doing nothing.

The more you do, sometimes the greater the harm.

If the system is already sound and good, doing anything else is superfluous.

”The atmospheres pressure is weird” Katarina suddenly said

”I called it Mana Mist. Though I bet those Order of Thinkers guys would also name it someday. ”

”Mana mist?”

Katarina breathes in the mist and she nodded. These are clouds of raw , unrefined power drifting between the crystallin pillars

If people below Energy Dispersing stage realm came to this place, they would feel pressure by this energy.

Of course, this energy itself did not have ”intention” so, even if you are a Pillar Forming realm, if you can reach this deep, then even though this energy would give pressure, you could just breathe this energy, take it into your body and quickly raise your level.

If someone with a Pilar Forming realm came to this place, just by breathing in all of this mist, they could quickly form a Perfect Pillar

Of course, if they wanted to pursue Path of Perfection like her man, that is not easy.

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