Chapter Sixty-Two: The Soul-Stabilizing Nail Fused Once More

Although the people at the bottom of the pit didn't know what was happening, Mu Chen's command had already been given. The slaves at the bottom of the mine, carrying their pickaxes, began to make their way up one after another.

Once everyone had exited the mine, the Carrion Beast finally rose slowly, leaped into the pit with a bound, and under Mu Chen's direction, began to dig downward.

Boom! Boom!

Large chunks of ore were constantly being unearthed at the bottom of the pit. Although some weren't immediately smashed apart, the Carrion Beast would simply toss them aside after flipping them over.

Before long, the massive figure of the Carrion Beast had vanished entirely, leaving only a five-meter-wide hole in the ground...

"Now this is truly a breakthrough in mining!"

Mu Chen went down and gathered the excavated ore into his backpack—over three hundred pieces in total. At the same time, he called the Carrion Beast back out of the hole.

At this moment, Mu Chen decided to reorganize the mining operations. From now on, all ore collection would be handled by the Carrion Beasts, taking over the work previously done by the slaves.

The freed slaves would now be tasked with gathering wood and hemp. With such a division of labor, he believed that the territory's resources would soon see a tremendous surge.

Thinking of this, Mu Chen no longer found the Carrion Beast's pointed head so frightening; in fact, it even seemed rather endearing. Those sharp, powerful claws were nothing less than top-tier mining equipment.

After giving instructions for everyone to disperse, Mu Chen handed the remaining recruitment scrolls to Mu Jiu'er.

"Jiu'er, from now on, you'll be in charge of ore collection. Summon the remaining Carrion Beasts—this will make things simpler."

Because the Carrion Beasts were not very intelligent and slow to understand, Mu Chen had spent quite some effort teaching them to obey Mu Jiu'er's commands. Fortunately, he ultimately succeeded, and the first summoned Carrion Beast understood his intentions.

Believing that time was money, Mu Chen entrusted all the remaining recruitment scrolls to his sister. After he left—

Near Mu Jiu'er's petite figure, a dark radiance flickered, and soon five massive forms appeared before her, their arrival marked by piercing, mournful howls.

...

...

Returning once more to the rest chamber, Mu Chen glanced at his own status.

[Name: Mu Chen]
[Race: Human]
[Title: None]
[Contained Item: Eyeball of ??? (Click to view)]
[Level: Lv11]
[Territory: Level 1]
[Skills: Mental Entry: Fusion (Click to view), Expulsion]
Mental Entry: Fusion (Fused Soul Artifact: Soul-Nailing Spike x1)
Constitution: 7
Spirit: 11 (7)
Potential Points: 3

This time, he didn't hesitate to use all three stored potential points, investing them into his spirit stat, bringing his spirit value directly to 14.

"Spirit and sanity are now synchronized; this raises my sanity cap by quite a bit."

Thinking back to the two hours of recent loss of control, Mu Chen couldn't help but be cautious. As for reading the [Strange Manual], he decided to postpone it.

He took the second Soul-Nailing Spike out of his backpack. Gazing at the jet-black, razor-sharp tip, Mu Chen hesitated.

The memory of fusing the first spike flashed through his mind. Just recalling the pain made his palms break out in a cold sweat.

He gritted his teeth.

"If I want to grow stronger, I must be prepared to pay the price!"

He no longer hesitated. He took out the Source of Turbidity he had prepared in advance.

The fusion of the second Soul-Nailing Spike officially began!

...

In the dimly lit room, Mu Chen sat slumped on his bed, his entire body convulsing.

Thanks to his previous experience, he quickly entered the second stage of "spirit draining." When his spirit value dropped to half, the Source of Turbidity immediately replenished it.

Twenty minutes later, drenched in sweat, Mu Chen crawled up from bed.

This time, the Soul-Nailing Spike's tattoo appeared on his left arm. Looking at the tattoos on both arms, Mu Chen felt relieved, but a trace of anxiety lingered.

The placement of the Soul-Nailing Spikes was easy enough to understand: left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg...

But the problem remained.

Where would the fifth Soul-Nailing Spike go...