Richard lost track of time while training.

The one thing he noticed was that the rain had stopped. It hadn't lasted very long.

But around 3 or 4 in the morning, he suddenly opened his eyes on instinct after sensing a faint, glowing light.

The moment his eyes opened, he immediately stood up.

That faint glow was actually radiating from the rocky land below.

Swiftly, he spread his wave of perception deep underground.

He discovered more chunks of Spirit Nature buried in the mud, which had now almost reached the surface.

About 300 kilometers underground, he finally saw enormous chunks.

They were full of aura and energy.

Just sensing their presence made Richard feel comfortable.

And they kept moving upward.

Though not too fast, Richard believed they would reach the surface in a few hours.

It might even be faster, because the higher they rose, the faster their movement became.

Compared to the rising of the mine itself, its aura spread much faster.

Its glow even started expanding farther and became brighter.

This couldn't be stopped. The emergence of a Spirit Nature mine was something that everyone nearby would inevitably notice.

Moments passed before Richard suddenly saw a massive bolt of lightning rushing in from the distance.

He narrowed his eyes to observe it—only to realize that it was actually a huge flying ark covered in lightning.

On top of that ark, Richard saw a group of large, bare-chested men.

He rolled his eyes as soon as he saw them because they were from the Thundervale Clan.

It seemed they had happened to pass by and came here after noticing the phenomenon.

Even though he remained inside the cabin, Richard was easily spotted by Roland and the others.

After them, several other individuals also appeared. They had clearly been passing through as well.

"It looks like a large mine is about to appear here…" someone said.

"Right, since no one owns it, we can share it. Whoever gets more depends on their own abilities."

"I agree. Let's compete fairly."

"Fair? No, this mine belongs to the Thundervale Clan. We discovered it first. Anyone who dares to seize it will become an eternal enemy of the Thundervale Clan!"

Roland suddenly announced loudly, causing the others to fall silent.

Become an eternal enemy of the Thundervale Clan?

More people were afraid than not.

However, a response immediately came.

"Roland, right? Hmph, do you think your far-away Thundervale Clan can claim this mine? This is within the territory of our Dark Abyss Clan."

The reply came from a middle-aged man in a black robe flying alone.

His aura was calm, but just meeting his eyes made everyone feel oppressed.

He was a Lord—and a stronger one than the Lord Richard had defeated.

Even so, Roland gazed sharply at him.

"Who are you? Do you think your little clan can compete with us?" he said contemptuously.

"Even our small clan does not fear the Thundervale Clan," the middle-aged man answered coldly.

"Hahaha…" Roland suddenly burst into laughter.

"Don't think your tiny clan can wag its tail just because you're backed by a powerful faction… If we destroy your clan, do you think the force behind you will help you avenge it?"

"Boy, don't be arrogant. You think you can destroy us?" a loud shout came from an ark flying rapidly from afar.

It carried elderly and middle-aged men with power in the Grimoire Realm and the Lord Realm, including the man who had intercepted Richard at the border.

They wore black robes—clearly members of the Dark Abyss Clan.

The ark approached the middle-aged man.

"Lord Ronan, we were sent by the Patriarch to assist you. The Patriarch sent a message saying that we must claim this mine because we need a large amount of Spirit Nature to help the young master." one of the old men on the ark said.

The man named Ronan nodded.

After that, the old man asked, "Lord Ronan, did you see the second young master? He came to this region after detecting a Spirit Nature chunk."

"No, I haven't seen him…" Ronan shook his head.

"Strange, they shouldn't be far from here, and they should've arrived by now. Besides, my younger brother was with them." The old man looked confused.

"Could something have happened to them?" someone else asked.

Ronan slightly furrowed his brows, then stared at Richard with narrowed eyes, as if he suspected something.

"Grace, let's go. Enter my Dragon Hall," Richard said as Grace arrived with an expression of disbelief that this desolate place had become crowded.

Grace nodded without asking anything.

Whoosh!

She entered the Dragon Hall as Richard released the portal.

"I can feel it! There is my brother's aura in that portal!" the old man suddenly shouted, startling Richard.

To think he could sense the aura of the old man Richard had captured earlier.

Because of that, Richard immediately stored his ark into his Storage Artifact, causing himself to fall to the ground.

Then he activated his earth power, making his body emit an earthy brown glow.

He then sank into the ground, something impossible for those without earth affinity.

If they wanted to enter the underground, they could only brute force their way through, which required far more power.

But as soon as Richard entered the earth, he felt like a fish returning to water.

He could swim—and even faster than flying.

"Damn… He actually has earth power too," someone said upon recognizing Richard.

"Who is he really?" someone unfamiliar asked.

"He's Richard, the famous one from the Eastern Territory."

"Really?"

Richard's name was already well-known to everyone because he often caused sensational incidents.

"Is he trying to reach the mine first?"

"It seems so. He should already be able to sense its location, so he dares to dive underground."

"Hey, don't you have earth power?"

"Yes, but my earth affinity is only 15%. I can only go about 100 meters deep."

"I hope that brat doesn't take all the Spirit Nature."

"Don't joke around. How could it be that easy to extract Spirit Nature from the mine?"

"…"

Contrary to Richard's expectations, no one else could replicate his action.

Meanwhile, members of the Dark Abyss Clan and the Thundervale Clan looked annoyed for their own reasons.

But over time, more groups came—even the Holy Snow Clan led by Elise, who had also happened to pass by.

However, most groups only had juniors with them, making it difficult for them to match the seniors from the Dark Abyss Clan.

Inevitably, they had to notify their elders, who could arrive soon.

Richard, already deep underground, no longer knew what was happening above. He was too lazy to monitor them anyway. He focused solely on sensing downward, realizing that the mine sometimes moved faster and sometimes slower.

He kept moving underground, ignoring the Spirit Nature chunks in the mud he passed by.

They were nothing compared to what was in the main mine.

At only 300 KM deep, he naturally didn't need long to reach it.

Down there, there was no more mud, only solid earth—harder than most soil.

He stopped right in front of a massive chunk that contained hundreds of thousands of Spirit Nature.

It was covered by earth. Without his earth power, he wouldn't have been able to move here at all, considering the pressure at 300 KM depth was immense.

BANG!

Richard smashed the chunk, scattering its Spirit Nature, which he then absorbed into the Dragon Hall.

This created an open space large enough for several people.

Ahead, an even larger chunk awaited.

Because of that, he sent Grace out of the Dragon Hall so she could see it as well.

"This?" Grace was startled when she found herself in the small underground chamber.

She looked upward first, blinking several times because she knew she could never break out from here.

Excavating the earth from such depth upward—even a Ruler might not be able to do it, unless it was a Peak Ruler.

Still, Grace spread her Sixth Sense to observe.

She could see the entire mine underground.

Ahead, behind, and beneath her feet—everything was chunks of Spirit Nature.

BANG!

Richard punched the chunk below with his Dragon Fist to cause greater destruction, widening the open space.

But right after that, the mine suddenly rose even faster, compressing the space he had just opened.

"Grace!" Richard quickly pulled Grace back into the Dragon Hall.

"I'll support you with my domain." Grace's voice echoed.

Her domain spread outward from the Dragon Hall as Richard allowed it to flow outside.

It could not spread as far as it could above ground due to the massive pressure of the earth.

But the domain did more than help Richard move. It used its pressure to destroy the Spirit Nature chunks.

As more domain spread, its pressure shattered many chunks.

This result shocked Richard. Instead of punching again, he focused on collecting the scattered Spirit Nature.

However, he noticed one more problem.

The faster the Spirit Nature mine was destroyed, the faster it rose.

Richard estimated that within a minute, it could ascend up to five kilometers.

In fact, it didn't even need to reach the surface. After two-thirds of the distance, the people above could already start digging down—without causing landslides from the surrounding volcanoes.

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