"Do you have a flashlight?" Zhou Ran asked, looking at the cliff.
"Yes, this is a special flashlight for treasure hunting. It's extremely bright." He Ziming immediately took out a black flashlight from his backpack and handed it to Zhou Ran.
Zhou Ran took it and shone it down the cliff.
Sure enough, the light was exceptionally bright, illuminating the cliffs and sheer walls along the way clearly. However, the cliff was too deep for the flashlight's range, and no traces of the six-tailed spirit fox were visible.
"Use the glow sticks," Han Chengyong said at that moment.
He Ziming quickly rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a few glow sticks, handing them over.
Han Chengyong twisted one and tossed it toward the cliff.
Several glow sticks slowly fell downward. When they reached a height of about ten meters, Zhou Ran suddenly noticed a crack in the cliff face with a tuft of red and white fur hanging from it.
There also seemed to be some strange objects in the crack, but the glow sticks fell too quickly to get a clear look.
"That thing looks familiar. Could it be...?" Zhou Ran quickly twisted another glow stick and threw it over.
This time, Zhou Ran saw clearly that the crack was not filled with ordinary rocks, but a vein of ore!
This type of ore is called spirit stone, an indispensable material for crafting beast armor. However, due to the疯狂 mining on Blue Sea Star over the years, this spirit stone vein has become extremely rare. Now that a complete vein appeared before him, how could he not be excited?
Earlier, when he entered through the system plane, he had seen similar veins and attempted to transport the entire vein back. However, the storage space of the Star Ring was simply too small to accomplish this, and such Spirit Stone veins often contained extremely powerful Star Spirit Energy, meaning they were inevitably guarded by powerful beasts.
Zhou Ran never expected to encounter such a fortunate opportunity again, and he was overjoyed. However, his strength alone was limited, so he would need the assistance of others. Additionally, he must be cautious of the beasts guarding the spirit stone vein. Last time, he encountered an incredibly powerful lizard and had no choice but to quickly relocate, only managing to take a small portion of the spirit stones.
"Han Team Leader, look over there—there's a tuft of fur hanging there. It must be from the six-tailed spirit fox," Zhou Ran called out to his teammates.
"Hmm... you're right. It must have fallen into that crack."
"Wait! Am I seeing correctly? Is that a spirit stone vein in the crack?"
"Ziming, send your lion-headed magic eagle to check it out immediately, but be careful!" Han Chengyong shouted excitedly.
He Ziming nodded hurriedly and commanded the lion-headed magic eagle to fly down.
However, something strange happened. As soon as it approached the crack, the lion-headed magic eagle felt an overwhelming sense of pressure and couldn't get any closer.
"It's no use. That crack seems to have a powerful restriction, and flying beasts can't get close to it," He Ziming said hurriedly.
Zhou Ran was startled and said, "No flying? It seems that there is a very powerful guardian beast in this spirit stone vein!"
"Guardian beast?" He Ziming was puzzled.
"I heard that every spirit stone vein, due to its incredibly powerful star spirit energy, attracts powerful beasts to reside there," Zhou Ran explained.
Everyone immediately understood. Zhou Ran hadn't been lying to them; it was just that spirit stone veins were extremely rare in reality and hadn't appeared in a long time, so they hadn't reacted immediately.
Han Chengyong's expression darkened. "This seems tricky..."
"By the way, don't you have a burrowing beast? In terms of digging ability, it should be the strongest. Let's just dig a tunnel and go in. Be careful not to disturb that strange beast." Zhou Ran suddenly said.
"That's right! I completely forgot about that. Ou Xiong, your six-tailed spirit fox should also be in that crack." Han Chengyong said.
Ou Chen hurriedly nodded and commanded the Earth-Drilling Beast to burrow into the cliff's rocks. At the same time, he was overjoyed inside—he never expected to stumble upon a spirit stone vein. It was truly a stroke of luck.
After a moment, a wide tunnel appeared before everyone. Without hesitation, they all rushed inside.
To everyone's surprise, this narrow-looking crack had such a vast interior space that even the massive bodies of the beasts could easily enter. It was truly神奇.
"I can smell the scent of the Six-Tailed Spirit Fox! But the scent is very faint; I fear the situation is dire!" He Ziming suddenly exclaimed anxiously.
"Hm?" Ou Chen and Zhou Ran were all startled.
Found it! The scent is very faint; it must be severely injured.
After all, given the height of this cliff, a beast like the Six-Tailed Spirit Fox, which cannot fly or burrow, must have suffered severe injuries.
"Take me there quickly," Chen Xue said excitedly, grabbing He Ziming's clothes.
Soon, under the guidance of the Lion-headed Magic Eagle, they saw a blue mineral vein, with a six-tailed spirit fox lying beside it, covered in blood. It looked very dire.
"Finally found you," Chen Xue said tearfully, looking at the six-tailed spirit fox.
Seeing the dying Six-Tailed Spirit Fox, Ou Chen and Chen Xue bowed deeply to Zhou Ran and the others, expressing their heartfelt gratitude.
They quickly bandaged its wounds and returned it to the beast space for rest. The injuries were too severe; if not for the powerful starlight energy of the vein keeping it alive, it would have already died.
Zhou Ran quickly scanned the surroundings and said, "Something's off. This mineral vein seems to have an issue!"
Zhou Ran was greatly surprised. Clearly, the star spirit energy fluctuations were strong outside, indicating a complete mineral vein. Yet why was there only this small portion here? It felt as though something had drained its power...
Everyone else was equally shocked. He Ziming quickly pulled out several small devices from his backpack, placed them on the mineral vein, and began scanning.
"Spirit stone content: 5%... Waste rock content: 65%... Unknown mineral content: 30%..."
As everyone looked at the scan results, their earlier excitement vanished, and their faces turned utterly disappointed.
"What a pity! This spirit stone vein is damaged, with 65% being waste rock,"
"The massive star spirit energy around here must be leaking out from the damaged spirit stones. As for the undetectable unknown minerals, they're probably useless too," Han Chengyong said disappointedly.
Zhou Ran looked at the scan results and felt increasingly puzzled. If this was just an abandoned vein, why was there a no-fly zone restriction? Where was the guardian beast now? And what was this 30% unknown mineral?
At that moment, the Liu Ying Huan Yue Dog beside Zhou Ran suddenly emitted an extremely excited consciousness, stretching its huge head to bump against Zhou Ran's buttocks.
Zhou Ran paused for a moment before suddenly realizing that if even the instrument couldn't detect it, it must not be a mineral listed in the Blue Sea Star's mineral table. And since Erbao was so excited, could it be useful for the beast?
"System, can you detect it?" Zhou Ran silently asked in his mind.