Age of Evolution

Chapter 458: 458: The Treasure Hunting Duo

With the power of the Black Hole Period, it’s unclear who would win or lose if he seriously fought Lin Zhen. But Lin Zhen’s clever tactics coupled with the power of the Phantom God Strike turned the tide in his favor.

The dwarf made another mistake – he turned and ran.

Lin Zhen barely chased after him when with an upward wave of his hand, a powerful gravitational force swept out, pulling the fleeing dwarf back to him.

Seeing Lin Zhen’s skillful handling, the dwarf became more and more certain of his previous suspicion that this man was indeed hiding his true strength and he couldn’t match him.

“Hey, hey! Buddy! Go easy on me, I mean no harm, I’m a pacifist.”

The dwarf struggled in Lin Zhen’s grasp, twisting and squirming.

“I too am a pacifist, as long as you tell me your purpose here.”

“You’re a pacifist my ass! You’re a ruthless killer, I swear I was just passing by… Ah! Stop, stop, stop, I’ll talk…I’ll talk…”

Lin Zhen’s flaming hand forced the dwarf to change his tune.

Setting the dwarf on the ground, the first thing he did was fix his somewhat disheveled hair.

“Can I trust you?” asked the dwarf tentatively.

“You’ve seen for yourself, I am powerful. We might stand to gain from cooperation.”

“Hell no, how did I run into you? How did you know I’m from the Spirit Clan? This was my first time on Hills Star. If it wasn’t for my grandmother’s indiscretions leading to mixed blood, I’d have been a pure dwarf warrior…”

Lin Zhen, seeing the dwarf ramble on, casually raised his hand and forcibly removed five rings from his hand.

“What does a dwarf need with so many rings? They’re mine now.”

“Hey, hey! Give them back.”

A sweep with his Spiritual Power revealed that these rings were full of Cosmic Crystals, and also held many other odds and ends that were rare and precious.

“As I expected, you’re a Spirit Clan, able to find so many treasures.”

Lin Zhen handed the rings back to the dwarf, surprising him. He thought Lin Zhen would rob him, but he didn’t take his things.

“Now we can talk about cooperation. We’ll be twice as efficient working together.”

The dwarf didn’t avoid it this time, he looked serious and said, “If you don’t intend to backstab me, we can consider.”

“Of course not, and I believe you have your ways of protecting yourself. When I pulled you back, you weren’t scared because you had defensive measures.”

The dwarf finally nodded, “That’s right, but I can only locate the general direction of the treasure, not too precise.”

“That’s ok, I have strong Spiritual Power. You find the general area, and I’ll find the specifics, we’ll cooperate.”

“There!”

The dwarf raised his hand, pointing to a depression in the valley, “That kilometer-wide depression, there’s a strong treasure presence.”

“Let’s go check it out!”

Lin Zhen grabbed the Yin-Yang Spear and walked ahead. The sight of the spear made the dwarf shudder, “Your attack earlier was sick, I thought I could take you out first, but I am no match for you. What’s your name?”

“Lin Zhen. And you?”

“My name is… Ni Ke.”

“Ni Ke?” Lin Zhen turned to ask.

“Yeah … basically, everyone calls me that.”

Lin Zhen turned back around, not laughing at the dwarf’s flushed face. His face was expressionless, but he was laughing inside, what a name for a short, stocky man.

It was clear that Lin Zhen’s poker face pleased the dwarf, “You know, you’re the first person to learn my name and not laugh at me. For that alone, I feel like we can have a good cooperation.”

“Of course, respecting a person’s name is the least one can do. And besides, I think the name sounds quite nice, it’s good.”

“Really? I have fifty-six elder brothers, and my mother always wanted a girl, so she came up with this name, and didn’t change it after I was born. This name was given by a passing human mage who visited our cave, it involved astrology and cost a lot of silver coins and a jar of wine…”

Amidst Ni Ke’s chatter, they arrived at the valley dip.

Guided by the dwarf, Lin Zhen released his Spiritual Power.

“Wow! We struck it rich!”

With his Spiritual Power covering hundreds of meters, Lin Zhen located a large number of Cosmic Crystals.

What his Spiritual Power saw, he could immediately transmit to Chris. She immediately made the most accurate judgment.

“Master, this is a rich region of Cosmic Crystals; 487,266 crystals in the east, 578,822 in the west, 399,821 in the south, 577,369 in the north. Including the area beneath our feet, there’s a total of 1,900,000 Cosmic Crystals!”

Upon hearing these figures, Lin Zhen was ecstatic.

The most satisfying way to seek is to find the lair of the Cosmic Crystals.

A guide from a dwarf could possibly equate to several days’ worth of my gathering efforts. I need a total of 20 million, and with this, I’ve just acquired a tenth.

“Are you good at digging?” asked Lin Zhen.

“I am excellent at it, you should know that we dwarves live in underground lairs. As a dwarf, I’m naturally good at digging holes, and besides, I’m in the Black Hole Period, I could turn this piece of land upside down within ten minutes if I wanted to.”

“There’s no need to turn the ground upside down, all you have to do is dig deeper in certain areas according to my guidance.”

Lin Zhen raised his hand, and countless Holy Lights in his palm converted into glowing dots and marked those key areas.

“Go on, dig according to these glowing spots. I assure you there will be a great harvest.”

“Great! Back then, my biggest headache was choosing where to dig when faced with numerous Cosmic Crystals. You know, when countless Cosmic Crystals surround me, my senses become dull.”

Ni Ke said a few words, then suddenly jumped, spinning the giant ax in her hand downwards like a drill, and burrowed into the ground.

Lin Zhen was also not idle, using the Yin-Yang spear as an excavation tool he flicked the Cosmic Crystals then used gravitational force to absorb them.

However, instead of storing them all secretly in Dark Star Space, Lin Zhen placed them in the Space Ring – being transparent was crucial when working together.

At first, Lin Zhen contemplated using Spiritual Power for a Soul Lock to control the dwarf, but it would not be easy. The dwarf’s spiritual concentration is dense, and she’s also in the Black Hole Period. A heavy-handed approach might cause her to retaliate desperately – all this trouble for some Cosmic Crystals is not worthwhile.

Furthermore, he sensed that this dwarf wasn’t bad, perhaps they truly could become friends.

Their mining went on for three solid hours. When they piled up the Cosmic Crystals, Ni Ke’s eyes lit up.

“Wow! This haul would take me half a month to gather. If only I had met you earlier.”

“Ha ha! This isn’t bad. As long as we work together, a fortune will be ours. Come on, let’s split these, half each.”

Lin Zhen made the suggestion to split the Cosmic Crystals evenly, but surprisingly, Ni Ke objected, saying: “It isn’t right, even though we both contributed, your strength is greater. The Strong Ones should reap greater benefits, I think I should take a third, and you take two thirds.”

Lin Zhen didn’t want to take advantage of Ni Ke, and rejected her offer. But Ni Ke was insistent.

“Okay then, if we encounter any treasures, I’ll have the first pick, but the Cosmic Crystals are still to be split evenly between us.”

“Okay, but let me tell you, the treasures here aren’t easy to find. I’ve sensed something special in several places, but I didn’t dare to approach.”

“Oh, where are these places?” Lin Zhen casually separated almost two million Cosmic Crystals between the two, splitting it evenly while asking.

“At one spot on the Asura Road, is where Asura and Asura King gather. It’s extremely dangerous there, and there are many people from the Heavenly Tower guarding the entrance, forbidding anyone from entering. There must be something important there.”

“Heavenly Tower…” Lin Zhen pondered: “What do you think is their objective?”

“What else could it be? That place is also a rich source of Cosmic Crystals. They’re digging there and slowly eliminating the Asura Warriors as practice.”

“Will they finish soon?”

“According to my estimation, they might reach the Asura King in about ten days.”

Lin Zhen nodded, “Alright, we’ll hang around outside for eight or nine days, then we will go there and see.”

“Alright, I’ll go with you.” Ni Ke’s eyes flashed with excitement, probably because she had a grudge against those from the Heavenly Tower. Now with Lin Zhen by her side, she had plans for revenge.

This was human nature, Lin Zhen didn’t expose or blame her, and continued digging with Ni Ke.

With Ni Ke’s guidance and Lin Zhen’s accurate detection, the efficiency of the pair soared.

On the first day, after giving half to Ni Ke, Lin Zhen acquired more than 2 million Cosmic Crystals.

On the second day, 1.8 million!

On the third day, 1.5 million!

On the fourth day, 3 million!

On the fifth day, another 2 million!

On the sixth day, Lin Zhen returned 10 million Cosmic Crystals to the staff of the Dimensional Universe Company, asking them to look for the first page of the golden registry.

Then Lin Zhen returned to the Asura Path and continued the search with Ni Ke.

On the sixth, seventh, and eighth days, Lin Zhen gained a total of 5 million Cosmic Crystals again.

Until the morning of the ninth day, they both went to the deepest part of the Asura Path together. There they found the Asura King and numerous Asura Warriors as well as many Gangsters from the Heavenly Tower.

Regardless of whether they held any grudges, if the golden registry was there, Lin Zhen was determined to seize it!