Swallowed Star Volume 8 - Chapter 12: Mineral Resources

Volume 08 Chapter 12 – Mineral Resources
Luo Feng was shocked to see the pyramids, while they were degraded on the surface, their overall structures were still almost perfect.
There were a total of nine pyramids, there seemed to be no rule to their arrangement, however their construction was definitely uniform! Together, from a glance, they seemed to form one enormous pyramid!
“Pyramids, and below them are…” Luo Feng was extremely shocked, “Cities, Cities?”
Below the pyramids, was the silhouette of an old city, one could almost see where the transport roads and pathways used to be along with the construction of several buildings. It was clear however, it was abandoned many years ago.
Sou!
Luo Feng flew directly towards it before swiftly descending, landing in the sand filled surface of Mars.
“It’s been abandoned for a very long time.” Luo Feng looked at the crumbling fences and dilapidated walls, all the more filled with surprise and suspicions. “Babata, what’s going on here?”
“Why are you surprised.” Babata said, “It’s a normal occurrence.”
“Normal?”
“Of course it’s normal. This is a starfield, before being governed by its owner, it belonged to the Silverblue Empire’s territory.” Babata said, “And Earth, is but one of two planets with life within a 1000 light year radius!”
“There is another?” Luo Feng was curious.
“The other planet with life, is about 100 light years away from Earth. Even at light speed, it would still require almost 100 years to reach there.” Babata said, “Only by reaching light speed and passing through the universe directly! Can one swiftly reach it.”
Luo Feng nodded.
“Earth, as a planet of life, is but a low level planet in the Silverblue Empire, naturally it’s filled with many humans.” Babata said, “It’s original use was…a livestock planet, used to collect and breed powerful different kinds of monsters, selling them out for money after taming them. The population of humans was estimated to be a few million, they were all for raising and taming the livestock.”
Luo Feng knew too.
A planet with life was categorized into; one with a large density of humans living, a holiday sight-seeing planet, livestock planet, forestry planet, agriculture planet, industrial planet, etc. For example, some large powers in the universe would use a whole planet to build a whole industry on.
“Earth’s breeding, had many valuable monsters, it was one of the Silverblue Empire’s more important assets, that’s why it arranged for a interstellar fleet to be stationed there.” Babata said, “Of course, they also relied on the interstellar transport ships to transport large amounts of mining apparatus to the nearby mineral planets to dig and mine.”
Babata said: “Back then, there were a lot of miners here on Mars working. As a result, they built this mining base.”
“Later, the owner of the interstellar fleet was killed in one blow.”
“No interstellar transport ships could come, the miners on Mars couldn’t receive any resources, even if they created their own resources, they couldn’t maintain it for long. That’s why, it’s all gone now.” Babata said.
Luo Feng was shocked.
So that was the story, this was a mining base?
“These pyramids are energy towers.” Babata said, “These type of energy towers, are based on the automaton race’s more low level models of energy sources, their quality-price ratio is higher. With the use of these pyramids, the human races will never catch up to the automaton races.”
“The automaton race is very advanced in their technology.” Babata couldn’t help but say, “The human races have no way to compete with them, for example, humans can only rely on evolution to step into the Undying level, but the machinery races, actually belong to the AI lifeforms, while they don’t have souls, they can still possess the battle ability of the Undying.”
Luo Feng was shocked within.
AI lifeforms, while they have human emotions etc, they were still AIs, without souls. Just like Babata!
The automaton race had no souls, and yet they were capable of producing Undying fighters.
Scientifically speaking, they were indeed very strong.
Hu…hu…
A strong wind blew past, rustling up a large amount of sand.
Luo Feng stood on the ground.
“Babata, scan for minerals.” Luo Feng said.
“Activating mineral scan.”
The Black Dragon ship which was floating in mid air immediately initiated its mineral scan function, a short time passed!
“Luo Feng, Mars has wealthy deposits of Black iron mineral resources.” Babata said.
“Black iron?”
“Right, translated into Chinese, you can call it Black iron.” Babata said, “Black iron, is an A8 grade metal, it’s extremely sturdy, it’s one the best sellers in the universe.”
“No B grade metals?” Luo Feng’s eyebrows creased.
His current self, was a Star level Golden Horned Beast, swallowing B grade metals would have a higher efficiency.
“No!” Babata said excitedly, “But the amount of black iron is large! Within them there should be quite a bit of Black iron essence.”
Luo Feng’s heart skipped a beat.
The Black iron was A8 grade, the Black iron spirit would be B8 grade, and the incredibly rare Black iron essence, would be C8 grade!
Just like the Yun Mo Planet ship, almost all of the ship’s body was made from the Hybrid copper essence. This Hybrid copper by itself was a D9 grade metal, the spirit would be a E9 grade and the essence was a F9 grade!
A large Black iron mineral, having one Black iron spirit out of 10,000 normal Black iron would be not bad already. A Black iron essence, out of 10,000 Black iron spirit would be not bad.
The examples are extremely exaggerated!
The Black iron itself is very valuable. The Yun Mo Planet ship which was built mostly from the Hybrid copper essence must have been crazily expensive! One Hybrid copper essence alone would make a Domain Lord go crazy for it. However, the materials needed for the ship’s repair, even in the vast territory of the Black Dragon Mountain Empire, couldn’t be found.
“Luo Feng, these nine energy towers have a scan blocking function. They envelop a certain area, making it unable to be scanned.”
“However, below the energy towers, there’s an Iron city. I can barely scan a small portion of the Iron city.” Babata said.
“Iron city?”
Luo Feng was shocked, underground lay an Iron city?”
“However, the few 100m that I’ve scanned doesn’t have any life. Let’s go, follow the left 12 km long tunnel to enter, you’ll be able to reach the underground Iron city.”
Mars’ surface had a particular route, what seemed like a naturally collapsed enormous tunnel with a diameter of a few hundred meters.
Sou!
Luo Feng immediately rushed into the tunnel, heading deeper underground.
“Iron city?” Luo Feng expanded his spirit energy, as a Star Traveller level 6 spirit reader, expanding his spirit energy allowed him to cover more than a 6000m area.
“Hm?”
Luo Feng landed on the ground, in front of him, was a blurry mess of mud and dust, he could barely make out a black metal. Using his spirit energy, Luo Feng had noticed early on…behind all the mud was an enormous city door.
“Number one, push it open.” Luo Feng’s thoughts moved, while he himself floated up and created a big distance between him and the door.
A black metal robot appeared out of thin air.
In strength, Luo Feng couldn’t match up to this black metal robot.
“Rumble…” The black metal robot’s strong arms were fiercely pushing against the enormous metal door, using its strength, the metal door rumbled and slowly opened, large amounts of mud falling from it, dust and sand filled the air.
“Xiu! Xiu Xiu!”
Dazzling beams of white light shot out, almost enveloping the entire metal door’s surroundings. 7 to 8 dazzling beams of light shot straight onto the metal robot’s body, knocking its entire body and slamming it into the tunnel walls, causing a large amount of mud to crumble, Luo Feng was however far away from the collapse.
“Damn, this Iron city is still operating?” Luo Feng was shocked, “The scanning from my spiritual force showed that there isn’t a single person in there; all that’s left is dust.”
“The 9 energy towers are still operating normally, hence the Iron city is still able to operate. Even with the humans all dead, the Iron city’s work and power still hasn’t vanished.” Babata said, “Luo Feng, enter. These kinds of urgently built Iron cities, their defense can’t be that strong. Also right now, the Cloud Contact Vine is a Star Traveller level 9, almost breaking into the Star level.”
Back when Luo Feng was battling the Golden Horned Beast, the Cloud Contact Vine was already a Star Traveller level 7.
When Luo Feng was nurturing his body for a little more than a year before, the Cloud Contact Vine was deep in the ocean and Babata was constantly feeding it Mu Ya Crystals. Before the year was up, it had grown to a Star Traveller level 9. The only thing was that it was trapped at the threshold, not crossing over into the Star level yet. This speed, for such a specially cultivated Cloud Contact Vine, was not at all fast.
“Iron city.” Luo Feng moved in front of the metal robot, flying deep underground into the iron city, resisting a single laser beam and rushing in.
The dark city.
With Luo Feng’s spirit energy scan, he realized the density of clusters of buildings within the city was extremely high.
“Luo Feng, almost the entire city is made from Black iron.” Babata said, “Quickly, follow what I said, first cut off the power supply, preventing some of this Iron city’s important structures from being damaged.”
“Ok.”
Luo Feng was very clear on the importance of cutting off the power supply.
“Left side.”
“Make the curve, right side, yes.” Babata was directing, very quickly bringing Luo Feng to a place where a large amount of metal pipes were densely gathered.
“Use the Hybrid copper essence, cut them, all of them.” Babata said.
Clad in the red Cloud Contact Vine armor, Luo Feng looked at the pipes 100m in front of him, his thoughts moved.
Xiu!
A blood red shard silhouette brushed past the pipes one after another, with Luo Feng being a level 6 Star Traveller spirit reader plus his Star level 3 soul’s strength, a total of 32 strong as steel threads of spirit energy surrounded the Hybrid copper essence shard, “Cha! Cha! Cha!” The ear piercing sound of the iron being slashed reverberated around.
A large amount of sparks flew, “Rumble…” an explosion from the metal beside.
“There’s still 8 more energy towers.” Babata said.
“Babata, lead the way.” Luo Feng swiftly flew.
This was a mineral base.
Since the destruction of the Interstellar Transport ship and the depletion of resources, along with the environmental impact, the miners were forced underground, relying on the large amounts of machinery to quickly build crude constructs for the Iron city. The most abundant material, the Black iron was used for most of the city. After so many years, the energy towers were still running and the city was still functional, it definitely deserved praise.
A few minutes passed.
All of the energy supplies to the Iron city were cut by Luo Feng.
“Haha, it’s settled. Luo Feng, if my guess isn’t wrong, all of the Black Iron essence dug out by the miners later should have been stored carefully somewhere. Let’s begin our excavation, whatever we deem valuable, we’ll take it all.” Babata said.
Luo Feng immediately flew within the underground iron city, and began his big excavation!