The original plan was to send people to investigate Origin Territory after winter.

However, hearing Marshal Wang’s experiences and descriptions filled Su Mo’s heart with an inexplicable sense of crisis.

The same went for Lu Kuan, Ai Jianfeng, Su Deben, and others.

There was a possibility that not everyone in Blazeland had been killed and had used some extreme measure to survive. They escaped when the ruins were re-opened and started to cause chaos.

These Blazelanders would have enough time to react if they waited for winter to pass.

It would be safe if they were good people, but if they were ambitious wolves that wanted to challenge the order of the New World, it would be advantageous for them to be informed and prepared in advance to avoid losing their ground when the time came.

“You’re agreeing so quickly. Don’t tell me you’re planning to escape after leaving my territory, right?”

Su Mo teased as he stood up and pat off the snow on his butt.

Based on the things Marshal Wang had shared, Su Mo could not find any holes in his story.

Even if minor parts were made up for the purpose of telling the story, at least 90% of his narrative made sense.

Su Mo was not worried about him running away, but he was concerned that Marshal Wang would deviate from the plan without authorization or do something stupid to expose information about the basin.

People were unpredictable, and it was essential to take precautions.

“That won’t happen, Su Mo. Don’t worry. Since the day I escaped to the Demon clan, my wife and children were already dead to me.

“As a husband and father, the only thing I can do is to avenge them!

“And you… are my only chance for revenge!”

Marshal Wang was a lord that led thousands of people. Naturally, his understanding was not one-sided like ordinary people’s.

“Marshal Wang, do you know why only my territory is different from others?”

“Is it because… you’re strong?” Marshal Wang carefully answered.

This time Su Mo did not refute him and nodded lightly, waving toward the distance.

It was as if his consciousness was connected to the ground, or possibly the ground drove his consciousness.

Boom!

Boom!

The invisible sounds began to ring like the majestic chimes of Big Ben. The sounds echoed and resounded throughout the land in an instant!

With one tremble from the ground, the snow on the mountain could no longer stick to the surface of the stones and began to slide down.

Su Mo stood on top of the mountain and rooted his feet in the ground.

Seeing him from behind, his figure was like the scorching sun that was inexplicably majestic.

“This…”

Another wave of tremors came again, and this time Marshal Wang lost his balance and fell on his rear.

Marshal Wang would not have been surprised if the events were caused by a missile or explosives prepared in advance if this was in modern civilization.

However, he was with Su Mo when they traveled back to the territory. They ate and hiked the mountain together.

It was impossible for Su Mo to prepare such a “performance” according to the timeline and there was really no need to do such things.

That could only mean…

‘Could it be that the Almighty Su really had the power of the gods as the rumors have said?’ thought Marshal Wang.

The image that he had pictured was right in front of him, and Marshal Wang could not cope with the sudden astonishment.

He was unable to react even when Chen Shen climbed up to the mountain’s peak in excitement.

“Shelter lord! Is this another…?

Chen Shen paused and did not continue his question after seeing Marshal Wang’s stunned and flustered figure.

“Bring him down first. I think the lord of Origin Territory would be very willing to share the details!”

Hearing the word “lord”, Chen Shen’s expression immediately changed, and he subconsciously squinted his eyes.

There was no struggle whatsoever.

Su Mo watched as Chen Shen dragged Marshal Wang, who was still stunned, down the same path they climbed and nodded gently before averting his eyes.

A person’s rule did not have to be proven through excessive words.

For a lord like Marshal Wang, the most effective means was to show him so-called “true strength”!

Once Marshal Wang was made aware that all his ambitions and wishes could be realized through him, he would definitely cooperate obediently until he found out the truth.

As for whether or not they could find out the truth…

Seeing the light blue panel upgrade of the heatstone mine reaching the last 10%, Su Mo smiled sentimentally.

When he obtained the heatstone mine it was only at Level 2.

However, the cost to upgrade it was the highest and it took ten points for the upgrade.

Considering Lu Kuan and Ai Jianfeng’s analysis of the properties and the mysterious hint of upgrading the alchemy furnace, Su Mo did not hesitate to upgrade the heatstone mine this time.

The ten-second upgrade quickly came to an end, and the ground stopped trembling.

Su Mo closed the upgrade panel and looked for the properties panel. He quickly went over the upgrades.

[Mineral resources (? Mine)… Level 3]

[Resource state: Complete, yet to be mined.]

[Mineral introduction: A kind of ore that can absorb energy. After absorbing large amounts of energy until its limits, the energy will be slowly released over a long period of time.]

[Mining value:? (Peak: ?)]

[Mining difficulty: High]

[Special Ability:?]

[Remaining reserves: 30 tons]

‘?’

It was completely different from the total rebirth that Su Mo had imagined. Compared with the Level 2 heatstone mine before, the interface had three abrupt question marks.

Su Mo was puzzled because the reserves of the mine had actually been reduced in half.

“What the f*ck? There’s a decrease of 20 tones after one upgrade. Did I make a loss for this upgrade?”

Su Mo was unable to see the special ability and mining value of the ore, but according to the introduction, the properties of the heatstone mine had not changed.

The thought that it might have been a reverse upgrade made Su Mo nervous. He turned off the unreliable game panel and quickly strode down the mountain with a sense of urgency.

Despite not being in his demigod body, Su Mo used all the strength of his original human form because of the immense pressure.

It only took a few seconds for him to catch up and surpass Chen Shen and Marshal Wang, who had yet reached the foot of the mountain.

The two were taken aback by him rushing past them, but neither dared to question anything.

After waiting for a minute or two, Su Mo’s figure disappeared from sight, and Marshal Wang swallowed his saliva and muttered:

“That… village chief, has the shelter leader always been like this?”

Chen Shen was taken aback. “Huh?”

“The shelter leader… seems to have some abilities that we can’t explain with science…”

Curiosity killed the cat.

Marshal Wang was curious and desperate for knowledge about the mysterious wonders of Su Mo, and his heart slowly opened up to them.

Suddenly, Chen Shen’s reply caused him to choke on the unfinished words in his throat.

“Are you seriously just realizing it now?”

Chen Shen looked Marshal Wang up and down and shook his head condescendingly.

“Huh? No, I knew but what I meant was…”

“What you meant was whether he could cultivate into an immortal or whether his flesh was bulletproof?”

Chen Shen was able to predict his thoughts, and Marshal Wang dumbfoundedly nodded at him, then quickly shook his head.

Chen Shen could not contain his joy and burst out laughing.

“Why are you laughing?”

“I’m laughing because… Hmm? You’re even curious about why I’m laughing?”

Seeing Marshal Wang struggle to free himself after being mocked, Chen Shen’s hands did not let go of him, but a flash of reminiscence resurfaced in his mind.

Once upon a time, he was also as “naive” as Marshal Wang when he first met Su Mo in the Kobold base camp.

The difference was that he thought Su Mo was an ancient general that transmigrated to this world, while Marshal Wang thought that Su Mo might be an extraterrestrial being who possessed mysterious powers.

The two more a less had similar ideas that were slightly different. Both had fantasies of mysterious higher power and strength.

“You don’t have to think too hard about it. You’ll never figure out how much strength and strategizing abilities he has!

“You only have to remember that as long as you obediently follow his leadership, you’ll have a chance to rise to the heavens with us!

“However, if you become our enemy, you will find out the true power of the shelter leader!”

Chen Shen did not give a direct answer nor did he outright deny the question.

After understanding the meaning of Chen Shen’s words, Marshal Wang stopped struggling and lowered his head obediently.

“Let’s go! Cooperate well and you’ll be part of us from now on!

“You seem to be very capable so when the time comes after you complete our shelter leader’s task, I’ll request to have you promoted as my deputy and help me manage the village!”

The seeds of “ambition” were like dandelions, taking root deeply in the ground and spreading widely after finding a suitable place.

Chen Shen skillfully painted an extraordinary scenario, and Marshal Wang nodded silently.

Moments later, they continued their journey back to the village happily as if the conversation had never happened, but there was a subtle change in their attitude.

Chen Shen’s no longer had a firm grip on Marshal Wang, while the latter no longer struggled and instead showed a little bit of…

Expectation?

…

Su Mo was naturally unaware of what had happened behind him.

He rushed toward the parking garage behind the village and hopped in Earth Tiger. Stepping on the accelerator, he speeded in the direction of the heatstone mine.

Delaying the electricity supply by even one day would mean trouble and disaster for the basin.

Su Mo’s anxiety was growing greater, especially after learning that there may be a group of people in Origin Territory that was going on a rampage.

‘After upgrading the heatstone mine, I have 4.2 territory points left.

‘I’d have to find a way to restore the hearthstone mine or find a way to accumulate enough points for another upgrade if something wrong happened with this upgrade!

‘The power supply must happen to increase productivity. I have to implement it as soon as possible!’

Su Mo’s mind was full of thoughts while he balanced the vehicle and speeded through the snow with Earth Tiger.

He let out a deep sigh of relief when the newly built mining camp and fenced-off mining area appeared in front of him.

‘Great. Lu Kuan’s face is not infuriated, which means that the mine has not degraded!’

Su Mo parked the car and hurriedly opened the door.

As Su Mo got out of the car, the ten people sitting in the snow immediately noticed him.

Lu Kuan and Ai Jianfeng rushed to greet him excitedly.

“Su Mo! Did you make adjustments to the heatstone mine?”

“Yeah. What’s the situation now?”

The fence surrounding the mine was built of simple wooden planks, which could protect it from rookies but not the experienced.

Su Mo walked inside and took the new ore from Lu Kuan’s hand to observe it.

The piece of ore in his hand was still freshly mined and had yet to absorb any energy.

Su Mo could feel his body warmth involuntarily flowing into the ore that felt like an icy cold snowball when held in his hands.

Judging by the color, the purplish hue of previous ores had faded, and the current ore was significantly darker and purer.

Under the refraction of the sunlight, the changes within the ore could be vaguely seen.

Su Mo remained silent and observed the ore for approximately ten seconds before he suddenly raised his head in surprise.

“The energy absorption rate is faster!”

“Yes. Although we haven’t had time to do further experiments yet, it seems to have improved by…

“Two-thirds!”

Lu Kuan was full of enthusiasm as he announced the statistics.

“The most exciting thing is that, unlike the data we’ve collected before, the surface area response is much stronger now. We were able to dig up such a big guy without much effort.”

Lu Kuan pointed to the ore about half a person’s height in the distance and then pointed at the small fragment in Su Mo’s hand.

Ai Jianfeng also rushed to them and reported the latest progress.

They had already come up with an ideal plan since they had gone through the possible upgrades that Su Mo could bring to the heatstone mine.

5% would be good enough, 10% would be an unexpected gain, 15% would be an excellent achievement, and 20% would be a miracle.

Anything above 20% was wishful thinking. The two would think about it once in a while after lying down and drinking after a busy day but from the bottom of their hearts, they knew very well that the possibility of that was really small and almost impossible!

However, right now the heatstone ore had improved by two-thirds, meaning the energy efficiency ratio and capacity had increased by 60%

This kind of improvement was a leap across generations of research in any field!

“Let’s go and take a look!”

The fact that the game had not identified the properties of the new ore didnot mean that the upgraded system was incapable.

As they got closer and stood at where the team had just mined the one, Su Mo’s eyes narrowed slightly. A green light appeared in thin air and began to analyze the area.

After two or three seconds, the green light vanished, and a detailed analysis report started to emerge on the game panel.

[Unnamed Ore Vein (1.69% Stellar Grade)]

[Description: According to the scale of civilization, Type 1 cosmic civilization, also known as “planetary civilization”, has the ability to mine and harness all the energy of its home planet, but is unable to perfectly store energy. The ability to perfectly utilize energy determines the cosmic civilization levels. This newly discovered ore vein has the potential to push civilization to Type 2. The ore properties allow storage of common energy and can release it under certain conditions, but the release speed is relatively low due to its low storage capacity. For now, it cannot be a factor in measuring the level of civilization.]

[Remaining reserves: 30 tons]

[Vein size: 130,000㎡ (area); 1-334m (depth)]

[Ore purity: 2.36%]

[Maximum energy absorption: 25kW h/500g]

[Energy absorption rate: 100g/0. 28kW h/24h (solar energy); 100g/1. 69kW/24h (heat energy); 100g/5kW h/24h (electrical energy)…]

[Energy release rate: Varies according to the energy absorption facilities and purity of the ore.]

[Special Abilities:]

Fragile (Easily damaged by external force according to purity. Once damaged, the energy will quickly be released, resulting in unknown consequences.)

Extension (When the ore takes up more than 35% of an object, the object will have the same abilities as the ore, but the effect will be weakened according to the content and purity.)

Energy affinity (The life span and purity of the ore depends on usage. The more the ore is used repeatedly, the higher the purity of the ore and the longer its life span. The less it is used, the lower the purity, and its lifespan is shortened.)

[Evaluation: You might like to try an umbrella made of this ore on a rainy day?]