Chapter Eight: Accidentally Stole a Mine
The mountain region covered nearly a kilometer in radius, guarded by numerous Steel-Iron Sentinels, leaving no blind spots in its 360-degree defense. The entrance to the mine was even more tightly secured.
“Damn, do they have to be this serious? Can’t they leave a gap somewhere?” Qin Chuan circled the perimeter, feeling quite frustrated.
He was only level 8 now; to kill a level 9 Steel-Iron Sword without being caught was nearly impossible, as these swords were incredibly resilient.
“Ugh, this is such a headache. What am I supposed to do?”
“Maybe I could dig a tunnel?”
The thought sparked in his mind, and his eyes lit up. “Haha, I really am a genius!”
Without hesitation, Qin Chuan found a concealed spot and began digging.
With a soft hiss, his true form—the Black Dragonwood Sword—sank smoothly into the earth.
“With my current sharpness and toughness, digging a tunnel is nothing.”
Qin Chuan drove his body into the ground, earnestly burrowing forward. At first, it was easy, but as he went deeper, he started to struggle. The underground rock was extremely hard, and the noise of striking it was loud enough to risk exposure.
“Damn, what kind of cursed rock is this? Why is it so tough?” he grumbled, relying on the faint blue light of his body, noticing the rocks glinting with a weak reflection.
“Huh? Could these be Steel-Iron Ore?”
“Whatever they are, let's give it a try.”
“Devour!”
With a sliver of hope, Qin Chuan launched his devour skill at the stones.
Moments later, the crisp sound of the system rang out.
“Ding! Successfully devoured the Steel-Iron Ore source. Gained 0.1 evolution points, and quality improvement chance increased by 0.01%.”
“Damn! They really are Steel-Iron Ore!” Qin Chuan was overjoyed—his luck was extraordinary.
“Well, in that case, I won’t hold back.”
“Devour, devour, devour!”
Qin Chuan followed the Steel-Iron Ore vein, devouring as he dug. He soon lost track of where he’d tunneled to.
Steel-Iron Ore was incredibly tough. Most spiritual weapons struggled to refine it, needing a long time to extract even a trace of its essence. But for Qin Chuan, it was effortless.
“Ding! Successfully devoured the Steel-Iron Ore source. Gained 0.1 evolution points, and quality improvement chance increased by 0.01%.”
...
The system’s constant reminders became so frequent that Qin Chuan grew numb to them.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when he heard a system notification that set his blood racing.
“Ding! Source full. Quality improvement chance has reached 100%. You may now choose to evolve and upgrade quality simultaneously.”
“Damn! I must be an idiot—why was I so fixated on reaching 100%?”
Only now did Qin Chuan realize that he’d been mindlessly devouring, almost in a daze.
“Ding! Congratulations, host, on gaining simultaneous mutation evolution and a 100% quality upgrade chance. Permanently increases quality improvement chance by 10%.”
“What?! Haha! Damn, I guess being a fool paid off!”
Qin Chuan nearly soared with delight. A permanent 10% improvement chance—how much trouble would that save him in the future?
“This is awesome, truly awesome.”
“Evolve!”
“Ding! Evolution chosen, please wait.”
“Ding! Perfect evolution successful.”
“Damn! Another perfect evolution!”
“Wow, I’ve really hit the jackpot this time—the stats should have increased a lot.”
Qin Chuan quickly checked his status panel.
[Host]: Qin Chuan
[Type]: Black Iron Sword
[Rank]: First Tier, Supreme
[Quality]: Exceptional
[Level]: 8
[Attributes]
Sharpness: 104 + 20.8
Toughness: 93 + 9.3
Speed: 93 + 9.3
Evolution Points: 0/6400
Experience: 2500/25600
“Damn! This is insane—sharpness and toughness both up by 20, speed by 10.”
Looking at these overwhelming stats, Qin Chuan’s heart bloomed with joy. Now he could absolutely obliterate a level 9 Steel-Iron Sword in seconds.
“Huh? What’s going on? Why is there no more Steel-Iron Ore source?”
“Yeah, I felt it too—while refining, it just suddenly vanished.”
“Look! What’s that?”
The Steel-Iron Swords refining ore in the mine suddenly sensed something amiss. At that moment, Qin Chuan’s true form—the Black Iron Sword—bore dark dragon patterns with a faint green glow, its tip protruding a foot above the ground.
“Bastard! I get it now—the ore was stolen!”
“Get out here! Who are you, daring enough to steal all our ore?”
“Why bother asking? Just kill him!”
“Yeah, refine him for compensation!”
Fuming with righteous indignation, the Steel-Iron Swords surrounded Qin Chuan.
Only now did Qin Chuan snap out of his blissful reverie.
“Crap, I was so caught up in the thrill that I didn’t notice I’d been exposed.”
Scanning his surroundings, he found five Steel-Iron Swords nearby—and was secretly delighted.
“Luckily, it’s just a few of them. Looks like these guys are just delivering themselves to me! Heh.”
Rather than feeling threatened, Qin Chuan was pleasantly surprised. This was the perfect opportunity to test his strength.
With languid disdain, he said, “Hmm, this Steel-Iron Ore was pretty decent, though a bit on the scarce side.”
To devour an entire vein and still complain—classic behavior of someone getting a bargain yet putting on airs.
“You son of a—!” The lead Steel-Iron Sword fumed, but could not even finish a sentence, obviously too enraged for words.
“Enough talking—kill him! All together now!”
“Attack!”
The five Steel-Iron Swords charged, launching their skill Shadow Strike, filling the air with sword shadows.
“Damn! They’re not holding back!”
In the next instant, Qin Chuan blinked, teleporting four meters away.
“Clang, clang, clang!”
All five Steel-Iron Swords missed and crashed into each other instead.
“Haha! Heavenfall Strike!”
Qin Chuan’s ploy succeeded. With a single ultimate move, all the Steel-Iron Swords were caught in his attack.
Green light flashed as a hundred sword shadows rained down.
“Swish, swish, swish!”
“Clang, clang, clang!”
“Aaagh!”
“Crack, crack!”
The Black Iron Sword, after perfect evolution, had such overwhelming sharpness that these Steel-Iron Swords were utterly crushed—Qin Chuan didn’t even need to finish them off.
“Huh, they were weaker than I expected. Just one ultimate, and they’re done. I was hoping for a bit of a warm-up.”
“Ding! Killed level 9 Steel-Iron Sword, gained 450 experience points. Cross-level kill bonus: 100% extra experience. Congratulations—900 experience points earned.”
...
After the series of pleasing system notifications, Qin Chuan had netted 4,500 experience points.
“Devour the source!”
He activated his devour skill again—he couldn’t let the essence of Steel-Iron Swords go to waste.
“Ding! Devour successful, gained 90 evolution points.”
“Ding! Devour successful, gained 90 evolution points.”
...
Devouring the essence always gave fixed evolution points per level—10 for each, except for mutated or lord-tier.
However, the tier and quality of what was devoured affected the evolution chance.
Evolution Points: 450/6400
Experience: 7000/25600
After killing the five Steel-Iron Swords, Qin Chuan wasn’t in a hurry to leave—he was ready for an even bigger haul.
“Stealing the ore and wiping them out—might seem a bit ruthless, heh.”
Whatever he said, he was secretly delighted.
As time passed, the Steel-Iron Swords still refining in the mine noticed something wrong.
“What’s going on?”
“This is too strange—the source is completely gone.”
“Go investigate the area.”
“We need to find the cause.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Steel-Iron Ore was the foundation of the Steel-Iron Swords’ survival and evolution; any issue with the mine was a grave crisis.
Meanwhile, Qin Chuan lounged behind a hidden boulder, knowing the real show was about to begin.
After a while, eight Steel-Iron Swords arrived on the scene.
“Huh? Something’s up—why are they all dead?”
“Yeah, it’s so strange that they died together. It makes no sense!”
“No, it does make sense.”
At that moment, Qin Chuan’s voice drifted over, and above their heads, green light flashed as a hundred sword shadows rained down.
“Clang, clang, clang!”
“Aaagh!”
“Crack, crack!”
The eight puzzled Steel-Iron Swords didn’t even realize what was happening before Qin Chuan’s ultimate move obliterated them.
“Ding! Killed level 9 Steel-Iron Sword, gained 450 experience points. Cross-level kill bonus: 100% extra experience. Congratulations—900 experience points earned.”
...
“Ding! Devour successful, gained 90 evolution points.”
...
“Aha, wonderful. Both my experience and evolution points are shooting up.”
Evolution Points: 1170/6400
Experience: 14200/25600
Rage: 60/100
Qin Chuan looked at his stats, secretly thrilled once more.
The commotion caught the attention of nearby Steel-Iron Swords, and over a dozen more quickly arrived.
“Aha—like fish biting the hook, like the brothers in the gourd rescuing their grandfather—come, all of you!”
Moments later, green light flashed, and a hundred sword shadows rained down.
Amidst the wails, the dozen Steel-Iron Swords fell en masse.
“Haha! This trick never fails!”
Qin Chuan used his tactics from King of Glory to devastating effect every time.