Chapter 282: Act 49 – The Silver Mine (10) (Second Update, Seeking Support, Must Keep Going to Recover)
First to launch an attack was Brendel—
Facing the already renowned Sword Master, he did not dare to underestimate the situation and opened with a full-force strike using the White Crow Sword Technique.
The long sword shattered in the wind as it came down, creating wind pressure that formed a crescent-shaped swordwind sweeping towards Kuran and the soldiers beside him. The airflow emitted a sharp wail along its path—either being compressed into a thin blade edge or pushed away by the tremendous force from both sides. However, the displaced cyclone still held tremendous lethality; with several loud booms, the impacting airflow surged toward the side rock walls, snapping the supporting wooden columns.
Xi couldn’t help but glance at the mine tunnel, worried it might collapse at any moment due to the impact.
Yet sturdy wood could not block the cyclone’s force, let alone the security soldiers lacking black iron strength. The swordwind swept through the entire passage, and ten soldiers immediately fell in a heap—some decapitated, others severed at the waist.
The White Crow Sword Technique was at least a mid-level sword technique. Kuran did not dare to directly confront it; he leapt upwards, evading the sharpest front edge of the swordwind, bracing his hand against the top of the tunnel to break through the cyclone at both ends—at the same time, his long sword lunged toward Brendel.
Among these battle-hardened veterans who experienced a decade of war, the most relied upon was the classic Erluin military sword technique, and Kuran was no exception. However, Brendel was all too familiar with this technique. Seeing the attack coming, he swiftly retreated, letting the incoming Xi raise her war lance and block his long sword with a resounding clang.
“Gold Tier!” Kuran assessed Xi’s strength immediately upon engagement. “—Get back!” The elder roared angrily, pressing his sword down—the shock made Xi’s eyes widen in surprise as she retreated seven steps before stopping.
But Kuran was also taken aback; he thought she would at least retreat to one side of the tunnel, yet she only stopped after such a short distance. Clearly, he hadn’t anticipated that as a divine envoy, her physical capabilities would far exceed those of an ordinary person.
The elder dropped from the air, immediately launching an aggressive attack toward a retreating Brendel. The Chief of Security had a clear objective—he aimed to break through—
But Brendel would not allow that. Although his sword had shattered, he was well-prepared and quickly drew another long sword. Kuran then realized the young man had prepared so many long swords, but it was ridiculous for a Gold Tier swordsman to lack one suited to himself.
The elder scoffed, stepping forward, his long sword descending like a silver chain to slash at Brendel. The technique wasn’t particularly refined; it was merely the most basic form of battle formation swordsmanship, but used by this elder swordsman, it bore a sense of earth-shattering pressure.
“Damn it!” Brendel suddenly felt he might have misjudged the situation. Whether it was Conrad or Viscount Test, the Gold Tier swordsmen he had encountered before could not be compared to this elder; even Bud, who had absolute strength, felt less pressure than Kuran was currently imposing.
The reason was clear to Brendel; the former were merely swordsmen, while the latter was a soldier. Such an unstoppable momentum and swordsmanship he had only seen in one person before.
The White Knight Aibodun.
One could say that apart from the Earth Divine Envoy, Aibodun had pushed him the hardest, and Aibodun was only at the Silver Tier—though of course, Brendel’s strength was also quite poor, others might not have fared as well.
The military swordsmanship was bold and aggressive, filled with an innate killing intent and momentum, making it seem as though he wielded not a sword but a wall, giving an illusion of unavoidable disaster.
Aibodun’s swordsmanship was already among the best, and as a veteran of the decade-long war, Kuran was even superior; when his sword was unleashed, even the battle-hardened Brendel almost felt a chill of fear.
However, a veteran was still a veteran. At the last moment, Brendel grit his teeth and dodged to the side; Kuran’s sword immediately missed—suspended in the air, yet the airflow cracked down like a whip, and with a loud bang, a deep dent appeared in the ground, stretching over ten meters.
The whole mine seemed to tremble.
Brendel felt a chill down his spine, for the first time considering that fighting here might not be the smartest choice; this mine did not seem like it could withstand the chaos from all of them.
But the elder seemed unfazed, somewhat surprised that Brendel managed to evade that blow; his gray-white eyebrows raised slightly. However, surprise aside, the elder’s movements did not slow; he immediately swept another sword toward Brendel!
He aimed to force Brendel back.
This series of attacks unfolded in an instant. Xi had just stabilized her position when Brendel saw that Medisa had charged forward, but they were still a step away—at this moment, Kuran’s sword was already just within reach, but he could not retreat.
But Brendel was also enraged; he was no sickly cat just because the tiger didn’t roar!
He activated his charge skill, and after a burst of speed, the young man vanished from Kuran’s sight. When he reappeared, he had already evaded the edge of the opponent’s sword and thrust at Kuran’s throat.
What blazing speed!
The old swordsman recognized this as the Sun Knight’s skill. He countered with a block, and the swords met, each sensing the other’s understanding of swordsmanship—they were both utilizing the Erluin military swordsmanship, but at this moment, a difference had to be established.
Kuran suddenly felt a surge of excitement, but as he saw Brendel step back, tilting his sword slightly to the side, a flicker of brilliance flashed in his eyes.
This wasn’t Erluin’s military swordsmanship!
The elder immediately retreated a step, countering with a sword to deflect Medisa’s spear thrust. However, he did not make another move, but instead, he solemnly shouted:
“Stop—!”
……
When Brendel and the others began to engage with Kuran, the entire mine pit felt a series of gentle tremors.
Joeka felt dust falling onto his shoulder. He touched it and looked up at the top of the pit, unable to help but worry, “What’s going on? Is there a cave-in?”
Then he turned to his companions and asked, “Did you all feel that?”
Mahler and others were currently caught up in their work; they had nearly dug that thing out of the rock wall. Due to its sharpness, they had to begin from the edges, gradually revealing the shimmering silver object from the deepening rock wall.
As the rock layers were peeled away, they began to see the general outline of the object. It was not a sword; it resembled more a silver sphere—though why would a sphere be so sharp? They pondered over it.
Now the sphere had gradually protruded from the rock wall, and someone even cautiously touched it, finding nothing wrong, which reassured them quite a bit.
However, just then, the girl shivered, “I feel a bit cold.” She looked around anxiously, as if something lurked in the darkness: “It feels like the temperature has dropped.”
Kewen’s attention was focused on the silver sphere, as the smooth silver surface retained a hint of strange pale gold; he had seen this metal’s name in the tomes left by the monks—mithril.
The boy’s eyes couldn’t help but grow intense; in his memory, compared to mithril’s value, cold iron was practically like a stone, negligible.
Upon hearing the girl and Joeka’s comments, he shook his head, “Minor earthquakes can occasionally be felt beneath the mine; they’re quite light, nothing to worry about. Don’t scare yourselves.”
He then turned back, saying, “You know, we’ve struck it rich this time.” He smirked, “That way we won’t have to risk going out, and we can live the life we want—”
But before he finished, Mahler suddenly exclaimed, “Eh?”
Everyone turned their heads.
They saw Mahler’s pickaxe strike down, and suddenly a large chunk of the rock wall detached—revealing a layer of smooth black rock behind it—everyone froze. They had thought the azure cold iron seam was at least half a meter deep, but they never expected something like this to be behind!
“This isn’t naturally formed!” someone suddenly shouted, “Look, there are words on it!”
Everyone looked, and indeed, they saw a dense line of text written on the black rock wall; however, it seemed faded and unclear due to age. No one could see what was written clearly. Kewen slowly walked over and touched it—with a cold touch.
Turning his hand over, his palm was dark. “It’s rust,” he said, “This thing is made of iron.”
“What is this?” someone asked.
But the youths present exchanged looks, and Kewen himself couldn’t answer; although he had some knowledge, it was limited. This bizarre excavation made him feel nervous yet subtly excited.
Even within the boy’s naive understanding, he could roughly guess that they unearthed something extraordinary.
“Come on, let’s keep digging and get it out.” Mahler was action-oriented and immediately said.
“Wait, do you even know what this is?” Joeka scolded. He had been worried from the beginning: “Besides, something this large, you can’t even carry it out once you dig it up.”
The latter remark struck Mahler, and he paused, casting an inquiring glance at Kewen.
“First, let’s dig out that silver sphere.” After checking that the iron wall yielded no further discoveries, Kewen lost interest; he decided it was better to secure tangible profits first.
But just as he was about to finish his sentence, the entire mine tunnel suddenly shook violently. This was unlike the previous light tremor; it felt as if the entire underground was shaking furiously.
All the youths were instantly knocked to the ground.
“Look, that thing is glowing!”
In a panic of screams, a voice suddenly shouted.
……(To be continued. For further developments, please log on for more chapters; support the author, support genuine reading!)
