C2 Too Efficient

Henggang Mountain served as the home of the Hero Sect.

Nestled within Henggang Mountain's boundaries lay a red crystal mine, the very lifeblood of the Hero Sect. These red crystals were essential for forging fire-based magical artifacts and weapons.

For the sect's disciples, harvesting red crystals was a routine task. They relied on these crystals to trade for various necessities.

Deep within the Hero Sect's mining area, Xu Tianzhi was hunched over in thought, his hand tracing intricate lines in the dirt. The patterns he drew were complex, enough to make the average person's head spin.

An array master witnessing this would be astounded. The patterns this young man was sketching were astonishingly close to a Level 3 formation diagram! Could he be an Array Master on the verge of mastering a Level 3 formation?

Mastering such arrays was a daunting task, far more challenging than mere cultivation. Out of a hundred thousand people, perhaps one might be suited to cultivate True Yuan, and among a thousand cultivators, only one might grasp the intricacies of array formations.

Arrays were exceedingly complex; comprehending a Level 1 array could take over a decade.

Yet here was Xu Tianzhi, seemingly no older than sixteen or seventeen. It was inconceivable that he could have reached such a level of understanding, even if he had begun his studies from the womb!

If someone from modern Earth could peer into Xu Tianzhi's mind, they would see a whirlwind of activity, akin to complex circuit diagrams. His thoughts were a tangle of electronic schematics and elaborate array diagrams.

Unbeknownst to all, Xu Tianzhi's soul hailed from the chief electronic engineer of the world's largest underground piracy syndicate. For him, deciphering array formations, so similar to circuit diagrams, was exhilarating.

After three months of silent contemplation, with a final stroke of his finger, the complex pattern on the ground vanished in a flash of white light. Xu Tianzhi rose to his feet, standing tall at over 1.8 meters, his features striking.

A smile flickered in his eyes as he stood. "At last, I've grasped the Level 3 array. I wonder, how much more powerful will a treasure become once it's inscribed with such a formation?"

Xu Tianzhi retrieved a wrist guard from his storage ring. Clutching it in his left hand, a slender beam of light emerged from his right fingertip, illuminating the wrist guard.

With intense concentration, Xu Tianzhi's fingers danced, and a third-level array took shape upon the wrist guard. With the final touch, the intricate pattern, woven from fine white light, flared and then vanished into the wrist guard. The elaborate array was no longer visible, yet the wrist guard began to radiate an aura of vitality—a fully-formed magical artifact had been created.

Shortly after, Xu Tianzhi pulled out another wrist guard and etched a different third-level array onto it.

Strapping on both wrist guards, a look of eager anticipation crossed Xu Tianzhi's face. He thrust his right hand forward, and a torrent of flames erupted, streaking toward the opposite mountain wall!

Inside the cave, the temperature soared. Moments later, the opposing wall glowed an unusual red. Xu Tianzhi's face broke into a relaxed smile as he remarked with ease, "With the Level Three Blazing Flame Array inscribed, the temperature has doubled. Quite impressive."

He withdrew his right hand and lifted his left, adorned with the second wrist guard. Instantly, an icy blast surged forth, striking the mountain wall as well.

"The Level Three Ice Array seems to have reduced the temperature by only thirty to forty degrees," Xu Tianzhi mused. Yet, his smile remained content; lowering the temperature was a significantly harder task than raising it!

The icy blast hit the glowing red wall, which immediately dimmed, followed by the sound of countless objects shattering. The section of the wall, first scorched and then flash-frozen, crumbled away in a heap!

The rapid expansion from the intense heat, followed by a sudden contraction from the cold, was too much for the solid wall to withstand, breaking into myriad small stones. The mountain wall appeared as if a layer had been cleanly stripped away.

Scattered among the rubble were fist-sized, dark stones with hints of red, glistening with an odd sheen. These metallic bodies were the red crystals upon which the Hero Sect depended for its livelihood.

The subtle scarlet hues within the red crystals are the fire spirits residing in the metal. If the mining tools were to fracture the red crystal and release the sparks within, the stone's value would plummet significantly.

Every disciple from the Hero Sect who entered the mine had to excavate with the utmost caution, turning the extraction of red crystals into an exceedingly meticulous and labor-intensive task. Yet, this was not the case for Xu Tianzhi.

The red crystal's hardness differed starkly from that of the stone wall. Thanks to the effects of thermal expansion and contraction, the red crystals could be easily separated from the fragmented rock without sustaining any damage.

With remarkable ease, Xu Tianzhi extracted about a dozen red crystals from the broken stones—a feat that would normally take a Hero Sect disciple three days of labor. Incredibly, Xu Tianzhi accomplished this in under ten minutes!

As the stone walls crumbled layer by layer, Xu Tianzhi methodically stored each red crystal into his storage ring. After spending just over two days in the mine, his storage ring was now home to over four thousand red crystals! Such an astonishing haul, if word got out, would surely incite a wave of envy and resentment.