Lu Chen glanced at the large pit and then at himself, wrapped in bandages from head to toe. He took out some clothes he had looted from the Stone Pearl and quickly put on two layers.

Once he was thoroughly covered, Lu Chen used the Soaring Heavens Step to descend into the deep pit. After a few leaps, he reached the bottom.

The stench was overwhelming, but through his Soul Power, Lu Chen discovered that the Earth-Element Spiritual Energy below was even denser, surpassing any place in Tianyuan City.

Excited, Lu Chen picked up a discarded weapon from the trash heap and began digging furiously into the side of the pit.

An hour later, with the aid of his Spiritual Power, Lu Chen had dug two meters to the side and five meters down, doubling the concentration of Earth-Element Spiritual Energy.

Delighted, Lu Chen continued digging downward, sending all the excavated soil into the Stone Pearl World, thus eliminating the need to transport it outside.

Time passed slowly.

After three hours of effort, Lu Chen had dug nearly thirty meters deeper. Suddenly, a surge of Earth-Element Spiritual Energy erupted, and he finally struck the ore vein.

At that moment, the mist-like Earth-Element Spiritual Energy sprayed onto Lu Chen's face, revealing a dazzling sight of golden Earth-attribute Spirit Crystals.

"We've hit the jackpot! With this Earth-Element Ore Vein, there's no need to worry about Spirit Crystals for cultivation before reaching the Martial Grandmaster level," Lu Chen laughed heartily.

In his joy, Lu Chen smashed at the Earth-Element Ore Vein and frantically tossed the extracted Spirit Crystals into the Stone Pearl World.

Unbeknownst to him, dawn was breaking.

By this time, Lu Chen had extracted over ten thousand Earth-attribute Spirit Crystals, piling them into small mountains within the Stone Pearl World.

As he continued to extract Spirit Crystals, the ore vein developed a large cavity, and the deeper he dug, the higher the quality of the Spirit Crystals.

Stepping outside the cave to check the sky, Lu Chen decided to temporarily stop extracting Spirit Crystals. He frowned at the nearly mist-like Spiritual Energy spewing from the pit.

The Spiritual Energy was so dense that if left unchecked, the ore vein would soon be discovered.

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To prevent the ore vein from being found, Lu Chen filled the deep pit with the soil he had previously sent into the Stone Pearl World and added more soil from another part of the back mountain.

After filling the pit to the brim, Lu Chen compacted the soil until the leakage of Spiritual Energy was significantly reduced.

However, even so, the Earth-Element Spiritual Energy around the pit remained much higher than in other parts of Tianyuan City, at least 1.5 times more.

Lu Chen was still worried about the ore vein being discovered, but with dawn approaching, he had no choice but to put the matter aside. He quickly changed out of his dirty clothes and returned to his room.

Back in his room, Lu Chen carefully adjusted the bandages on his body. Once he was sure nothing seemed amiss, he went to sleep.

During the day, after sending off Lu Zhan, Lu Kuang, and Lu Yi, who came to visit and bring him food as usual, Lu Chen entered the Stone Pearl World.

After a night of toil, he first slept for a few hours in the Stone Pearl World. Upon waking, he picked up a Spirit Crystal and began cultivating with the Yin-Yang Canon.

Soon after, a surge of energy released from Lu Chen's body during cultivation, causing a ripple in the surrounding Spiritual Energy, and he smoothly broke through to the 7th-level Martial Apprentice Realm with his Yang Dantian.

Having broken through to the 7th-level Martial Apprentice Realm, Lu Chen continued cultivating with the Spirit Crystals.

By nightfall, after everyone had gone to sleep, Lu Chen returned to the deep pit in the back mountain. Seeing that the pit remained untouched, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Upon reflection, Lu Chen understood.

At its peak, the Lu Family dumped trash into the deep pit daily. Now, with the family dwindling to just fifty-seven members, they likely hadn't dumped any trash today.

Moreover, most of those responsible for dumping trash were servants unable to cultivate, so the 1.5 times increase in Spiritual Energy was unlikely to catch their attention.

Relieved by the Lu Family's decline, Lu Chen changed into his dirty clothes and wasted no time jumping into the pit to dig out the previously filled soil.

Since the soil was loose, what originally took four hours to dig through only took one hour this time. Afterward, Lu Chen resumed mining.

In one night, Lu Chen extracted over fifty thousand Spirit Crystals from the ore vein. At dawn, he filled the pit with soil again and returned to his room to feign sleep.

For the next week, Lu Chen repeated the cycle of mining at night and sleeping and cultivating during the day, living quite comfortably.

In a week's time, Lu Chen's dual Dantians both broke through to the 1st-layer Martial Warrior Realm, and the Spiritual Energy in his Dantian transformed into Spiritual Liquid after breaking through to the Martial Warrior Realm.

Additionally, over the course of seven nights, Lu Chen extracted more than five hundred thousand Earth-attribute Spirit Crystals from the ore vein, creating a massive space within it.

Meanwhile, as Lu Chen busied himself, the number of people relying on the Lu Family dwindled to just twenty-nine, with those who left joining the other three major families.

Since Lu Chen hadn't looted any more shops, Tianyuan City returned to its usual calm, and the City Lord's Manor, unable to catch the culprit, eventually gave up.