Chapter 66: Tofu Dregs

  "Who can tell me what on earth this is all about? Is it a copper block or a tofu block?"

  Looking at the copper powder floating in his hand, feeling as if he had inserted it into a cotton ball, Chen Xu couldn't help but exclaim out loud, thoroughly experiencing what was meant by "silver-like gun head".

  The seemingly solid red copper ore in front of him was like a pile of powder stuck together with glue, and it didn't take any effort to break it, just a pinch with his hand would shatter it. This truly lived up to the saying of later generations: it was indeed tofu dregs!

  Unbelievably, Chen Xu's hand swept out in a frantic motion. Despite his eyes being wide with anger, he couldn't change the outcome before him. With this one move, at least a meter of space in front of him was cleared out, and all the red copper inside turned to dust.

  A dark golden powder danced in the air, under the reflection of the flames, it seemed like a blood-colored dragon, and also like an unknown ghost face, emitting a ferocious smile.

  Ding Ding Shen, Chen Xu turned his head back and found that the second leader of Hei Yan on the side was also obviously taken aback at this time. A big mouth opened wide, with drool constantly flowing from the corner of his mouth, huge yellow teeth protruding from his mouth, mixed with the nauseating stench that rushed out in a hurry, thoroughly revealing the tremble in his owner's heart.

  The leader of the Black Rock tribe, Hei Yan, had a reputation for his crimson copper knife that was renowned far and wide. As the second-in-command of the Black Rock tribe, he had personally witnessed the power of the crimson copper knife and had long coveted this divine artifact. This time, apart from trying to curry favor with Chen Xu, the great Fire God, he also wanted to obtain a weapon for himself.

  Believing in the greatness of the Fire God leader, after having so much red copper, he would definitely not be stingy and give him one. However, the scene unfolding before his eyes made Hei Yan Er's heart suddenly cool down by half.

  What he wanted was a divine weapon that would not shatter, not this crimson copper powder which was almost as fragile as rotten wood. For a time, due to his shattered dreams, the Black Rock Second Leader appeared even more disheartened than Chen Xu, the Fire God.

  Seeing this scene, Chen Xu guessed out the general situation of things and didn't say much. It was obvious that Hei Yan Er's leader had no idea that something like this would happen.

  Judging from the scene before him, Chen Xu inferred that no one had come here for a long time. The dust in this corner was almost a foot thick. It seemed that after he accidentally obtained the red copper knife from this place, the Black Rock leader, in order to prevent others from also obtaining the copper knife and threatening his position, had thoroughly sealed off this place.

  Not even he himself had come down here over the years, which could be seen from the dust in the cave. Perhaps it was to maintain a sense of mystery, or perhaps he considered Chi Tong as his own private property. In any case, this place was completely sealed off by Hei Yan's leader, waiting for the right day to open.

  Hei Yan's leader never had this opportunity, he died on the way to Huo Shen tribe because of his greed, and this deep pit finally had a chance to see the daylight again.

  "Goodness gracious, this really does look like malachite, and the color is right too. How did it all turn into powder? I don't believe it, not a single solid piece of copper in this whole corner!"

  He rubbed his nose, Chen Xu took the torch from a nearby ape-man, carefully leaned forward to shine it, and found that this copper ore was not protruding abruptly in the corner, but a part of the rock wall.

  The copper ore in the corner is just an extension of this copper ore. There are still a lot of copper ores in the mountain wall.

  At the thought of this, Chen Xu directly took his silver long horn and swung it like a rolling pin, dancing the silver long horn to sweep down all the mountain rocks built with red copper.

  "Ding Dong!"

  A few soft sounds were heard, and amidst the flying red powder, Chen Xu's eyes couldn't help but light up slightly. He found that the silver corner in his hand seemed to have touched something solid, and the copper in these corners didn't seem to be all counterfeit goods, but rather some genuine materials.

  After the dust settled and visibility was restored, several copper blocks the size of human heads appeared on the ground under the illumination of the flames, entering the eyes of the crowd.

  "That's strange. The copper ore that looked like a tofu block earlier, how can it support such a heavy copper block? This seems to be somewhat inconsistent with the basic principles of mechanics."

  He scratched his head, Chen Xu picked up the copper blocks and weighed them in his hand. He found that these copper blocks were indeed genuine copper blocks without any water content. Each block weighed about a dozen or so pounds, and there were four of them in total. If they were forged properly, he could make four very good weapons out of them.

  But this way, it seems that things are a bit fishy. Such a heavy copper block is actually placed in the copper ore that looks like flour, and it hasn't even fallen to the bottom. Thinking carefully, this really goes against common sense.

  Chen Xu looked around and checked, but didn't find anything unusual, so he cursed silently and temporarily put it aside, letting the apes behind him pick up these copper blocks first.

  He himself then converged on the direction of the rocky wall in the corner, under the agitation of the silver long horn, the originally dark red rock layer on the corner also fell to the ground like a tofu block, revealing a hole with a diameter of more than one meter. A few strands of cool wind kept seeping out from the hole, making this underground deep pit not stuffy at all.

  At this time, Chen Xuan suddenly discovered that there were many holes the size of fingertips on the surrounding rock walls. When he touched them with his hand, all the holes had some dark red powder in them.

  Occasionally, a gentle breeze seeps out of these small holes, keeping the air in the deep pit smooth.

  "I said why the environment here is closed, but there is wind coming in. It turns out that it's because of these small holes. Looking at it this way, the reason why these small holes appear on the rock walls should be because they were originally composed of chalcopyrite. For some unknown reason, most of the chalcopyrite was transformed into powder and collapsed during the vibration, leaving behind air passages."

  "It seems that this side of the cliff isn't solid after all?!"

  Holding the torch to illuminate the corner, Chen Xuan could clearly see that the direction in front of him was pitch black, and this hole seemed to lead to some unknown place.

  He took the silver long horn and continued to stir the wall, getting rid of all the powdered red copper ore. Before long, a dark passageway that could hold several people walking abreast slanted downward and revealed itself.

  After thinking for a while, Chen Xu turned his head and decided to go down and visit. This time, his main purpose was to come for the copper mine, but so far he had only obtained four pieces.

  Although these four pieces are of high purity and can be forged into good weapons, they are only useful for a few people, and for a tribe, their utility is not as good as a large amount of copper ore.

  Although it's troublesome to refine, as long as it's refined, it can be equipped with a large number of tribesmen. However, looking at the current situation, it seems that apart from this red copper mine, he can't even find other copper mines.

  So Chen Xu had no choice but to continue exploring with a hard heart, otherwise the matter of the copper device would be over.

  One of the apemen took four pieces of red copper and went outside, calling more people to come down and keep watch. The remaining apemen held torches and followed the great fire god comrade on the road to an unknown journey.

  As they moved forward, the crowd continued to use their hands with bamboo spears to remove the tofu-like red copper ore from the rock wall, expanding the area of the passage. Before long, a passage that could allow four or five apes to walk side by side was created.

  As they walked forward for about six or seven meters, Chen Xu suddenly felt the silver horn in his hand lighten, and a seemingly mottled rock wall in front of him fell down, turning into countless dust particles that completely engulfed them.

  "Cough cough! Where is this place?"

  Before he could even dust himself off, Chen Xu took a step forward and, without any reaction, fell into the thick rock layer as if he had fallen into a cotton pile.

  When he opened his eyes again, he found himself no longer in the original passage, but had arrived at a place where fluorescent lights flickered.

  Looking up at an angle, on the cliff wall seven or eight meters away from where he was standing, several flickering flames were hovering in mid-air, and under the light of the flames, the faces of a few long-haired apes could be vaguely seen flashing.

  "My goodness, no way?!"

  Speechless, Chen Xu stood up from the knee-deep dust and quickly realized his situation. It seemed that he had taken a wrong step and directly crashed into the thick copper wall, thoroughly punching through what was originally an illusory passage, and arrived at another pit connected to it.

  "What in the world is this place? Quartz? Agate? Dammit, with so much malachite, it can't all be just a bunch of worthless rock!"

  Loudly shouting two sentences, Chen Xu let the apes above not panic, some people stayed on top to keep watch, while others went into the jungle to rub out long strips of vines and then brought them over for use. He himself began to observe his surroundings.

  Fortunately, there was an old warrior from the Fire God tribe among the entourage this time, so it wasn't difficult to tie the rope. Otherwise, he would have found it hard to climb up.

  After calming down, Chen Xu carefully observed his surroundings and only then did he realize that he seemed to be an unexpected guest and didn't belong in this space.

  Not far from where he stood, there were many large and small piles of rocks, all emitting a reddish glow. If everything was okay, these should be copper ore, but it's unknown whether they were those tofu dregs projects or not.

  Above the red copper ore, about seven or eight meters away, is a thick rock top, with some starry crystals scattered on it, constantly reflecting cold light in this dark world.

  With Chen Xu's eyesight, relying on this faintly glowing body, he could see the scene in front of him fairly clearly. The range of the red copper mine was only about 7 or 8 meters away, and further ahead was endless darkness. Even the glowing bodies on the top of the cave were gone, as if that side belonged to another world.

  (Sweat, too late, atone, run)