Chapter 405 Three Years of Success

The horned demon dragon said angrily, "What's so exciting about the late stage of foundation building!"

His body was trapped in the black tortoise bone. No matter how rich the spiritual energy here is, he couldn't use it, and he was unhappy.

He was unhappy, so he had to pour cold water on Shi Feng, "Boy, although the spiritual energy here is good, it's not breathable. Do you run into the black tortoise bone to breathe every quarter of an hour after you sit in meditation?"

"Of course not." Shi Feng shook his head.

Practicing breathing is about entering into a state of concentration. A cycle is often half an hour. How can you breathe in every quarter of an hour?

Besides, holding your breath all the time, feeling chest tightness and shortness of breath, and looking anxious, is not suitable for sitting in meditation.

"Then what good ideas do you have?"

Shi Feng took out the five-clawed flying dragon again, "There is no good idea, but there is a stupid way."

Speaking, Shi Feng aimed at the rock above his head and started to dig again.

The Horned Demon Dragon said in a lost voice, "Boy, you don't want to dig a passage directly to the ground for ventilation?"

"Exactly!"

The Horned Demon Dragon couldn't help laughing, "You are too fanciful, don't you know that the mining site was opened by the joint efforts of your Taiji Sect and Lingxiao Pavilion. And now you are alone, and you want to dig a thousand-foot vertical shaft?! And they dig from top to bottom, you dig from bottom to top, the difficulty is countless times greater."

"Then what brilliant ideas does Mr. Long have to solve the problem of ventilation and breathing?"

"I don't! But you are full of bad ideas, can't you think of other tricks?"

Shi Feng shook his head, "I can't think of it either, so I have to try this stupid way."

"Your method is not stupid, but it is impossible."

"Is it possible? How can you know if you don't try it!"

Shi Feng didn't listen to the Horned Demon Dragon's dissuasion and continued to dig upwards.

Although Shi Feng didn't require a large diameter of the vertical shaft, only five feet, which was enough for him to drill in and out, digging a vertical shaft was still a huge and complicated project.

First of all, because the place is located in the magma area, the temperature is extremely high. Shi Feng is stuck in a confined space and controls the five-clawed flying dragon. After a while, he sweats like a pulp and his physical strength is quickly consumed.

The second is the problem of breathing and ventilation. If it were someone else, it would be impossible to dig a tunnel from the bottom up, because there is no breathing here, and there is no way to work.

And this problem is easy for Shi Feng to solve, that is the black tortoise bone, but every quarter of an hour, he can go to the black tortoise bone to breathe and drink water to replenish his physical strength.

Of course, such frequent in and out, breathing and drinking water have greatly reduced Shi Feng's excavation efficiency.

The third problem is that the rocks deep in the earth's core are very hard. Shi Feng used four or five days to dig a small cave before, not to mention that now he has to dig a thousand-foot-long vertical shaft that goes straight to the ground.

Half a month later, Shi Feng had to drill out along the previous tunnel after digging fifty or sixty feet. Because he had drunk all the clean water he brought, and at the same time, the air in the black tortoise bone was also exhausted.

Shi Feng walked three miles and found a small river at the foot of the mountain. He filled it with clean water, changed the air of the black tortoise bone, and then went down to the magma land again to continue digging.

But this time, after only four days of digging, Shi Feng encountered new troubles!

It turned out that he was unlucky and dug up to the iron ore layer.

"How thick is this iron ore?" Shi Feng knocked on the ore layer above his head. He didn't know the gold escape technique and couldn't drill in to check.

"How about bypassing it?" Shi Feng thought.

He performed the stone escape technique and escaped along the stone next to the iron ore layer. This time, he was dumbfounded. He didn't know the thickness of the iron ore layer, but the width was three or four miles, and it was impossible to bypass it.

Shi Feng gritted his teeth, took out the five-clawed flying dragon, and began to dig the iron ore. As a result, he only dug ten feet and the five-clawed flying dragon was scrapped.

Seeing this, the horned dragon laughed, "Silly boy, I told you it's no good, but you didn't believe me!"

Shi Feng ignored him and stroked the iron ore layer carefully with his hands. It was rough to the touch. This was just primary iron ore, which contained a lot of granite chips.

The melting point of granite is lower than that of iron.

Thinking of this, Shi Feng put down the five-clawed flying dragon and took out the seven-fire gourd.

He opened the gourd plug, chanted a spell, and a stream of green flames sprayed out, facing the iron ore layer above his head.

The hot flame continued to burn for a cup of tea, and the granite chips in the ore were melted first, and the iron ore loosened and fell down.

Shi Feng did two things at once. While adjusting the gourd's fire spray point and burning it continuously, he chanted a spell to absorb the molten stone slurry and loose iron blocks into the black tortoise bone.

Before using the five-clawed flying dragon to chisel the stone, Shi Feng didn't have to worry about the falling stone chips. Anyway, the shaft was vertical, and the stone chips that fell down were all piled up in the cave at the bottom, and they would be cleaned up at that time.

But using fire to melt through the iron ore layer is different. If you ignore the melted stone slurry and iron blocks, these things will fall down and block the cave below and the previously dug tunnel after cooling.

Therefore, Shi Feng burned through the iron ore while collecting the slag into the black tortoise bone. Both must be done at the same time.

Shi Feng was fully focused. The tunnel was already stuffy, and with the seven-fire gourd turned on, it was like the Eight Trigrams Furnace of Taishang Laojun. In a moment, Shi Feng was stripped of all his clothes except for a pair of calf-nose shorts, but he was still sweating like a pulp.

The horned demon dragon looked at it and shook his head repeatedly.

Two days later, the flame of the gourd was exhausted and needed to be collected again.

This is easy to do. There is a magma pool below, and there is as much pure firepower as you want.

In this way, it took three months for Shi Feng to burn through the two-hundred-foot-long iron ore layer with fire.

After passing through the iron ore layer, there is no rock above, but a rammed earth layer.

Shi Feng was overjoyed, took out the five-clawed flying dragon, and dug out ten feet in one breath.

However, just as he was returning to the Black Turtle Bone to take a breath and rest, there was a "bang", the soil above his head suddenly loosened, and the ten-foot shaft he had just dug collapsed instantly.

Shi Feng was dumbfounded immediately, and the Horned Demon Dragon laughed loudly, "You are stupid, but you still don't believe it! You dig from the bottom up, and the weight of hundreds of feet of soil above it weighs down, and the stone and iron blocks can still support it, but how can the soil Bear it, it will be hell if it doesn’t collapse.

That's why people dig shafts from top to bottom. From bottom to top, you're the only one in history! Ha ha! "

Shi Feng thought for a long time and had no choice. He packed up his things and got out of the ground.

However, he did not return to Shigu Mountain. Instead, he began to travel around the Yan Kingdom. On the one hand, he collected classics and materials, and on the other hand, he visited the mines in the world and humbly asked people for advice.

After that, he simply disguised himself and went to the Dongyishan Mine to work as a miner.

The Xishan Mine is still managed by the Guo family. The work of miners is tiring and dirty. If someone does it and they don't care about the wages, the Guo family is naturally very happy to take it in.

While Shi Feng was doing it himself, he also asked many old miners, and finally understood the mechanics of digging shafts.

It turns out that digging a shaft seems simple, but in fact the knowledge is very profound. The treatment of different soil layers, the selection of tools, the transportation of muck, waterproofing, etc. are all very particular.

Every time a shaft is excavated, support must be provided, and how the support is provided is closely related to the excavation area, soil structure, etc.

Two months later, Shi Feng found an excuse and left the mine.

Returning to the underground cave again, Shi Feng looked up at the half-excavated shaft, secretly thinking that since he was digging from bottom to top, the bearing capacity was greater and the support must be more reliable.

When Shi Feng was excavating the iron ore layer, a lot of iron pieces accumulated in the black turtle bones, which had not yet been processed, and they could be put to use at this moment.

He raised the Five Elements Cauldron, melted the iron blocks, and forged them into iron bars that were about ten feet long and as thick as chicken eggs. In addition to the iron bars, he also made many iron plates, two feet square and about three inches thick.

After preparing these materials, Shi Feng began to dig upward again.

After the three-foot rammed soil layer was broken through, Shi Feng inserted the iron rods into the soil one by one. There were buckles on the other ends of the iron rods that could be used to install iron plates. In this way, the soil layer was supported by the iron plates and could not collapse.

Shi Feng tried it and found that it was very strong, so he continued to dig upward.

This layer of rammed earth was more than a hundred feet long, and there was a layer of rock above it. The two alternated upward. Shi Fengxuan Turtle used up the iron in his bones and went outside to buy tens of thousands of kilograms of fine iron.

In this way, after three years of work, Shi Feng finally dug the shaft completely, with a total length of more than 1,200 feet.

Shi Feng compared the opening of the shaft and found it under a pile of rubble. The pile of rubble seemed to be tight, but in fact it had been carefully processed by Shi Feng, leaving gaps between the layers so as not to affect the flow of air into the shaft.

From the outside, no one would have guessed that there would be a shaft hidden under this pile of rocks that goes straight to the center of the earth.

As for getting in and out, there is no problem for Shi Feng who knows how to escape.

After digging the shaft, Shi Feng discovered some minor problems.

First, the rich fire spirit in the center of the earth passed through the cave and emerged all the way along the shaft. Although the shaft only allowed Shi Feng to enter and exit, the opening was not large. This wisp of fire spiritual energy dispersed into the air and was not easy to detect, but Shi Feng was still worried.

Therefore, he arranged a four-dragon holding bead formation in the cave. This formation could firmly lock the aura of the cave and prevent it from leaking out at all.

Secondly, he found that rainwater is also a troublesome thing, especially during the rainy season, it will stop at once and even form a flash flood, pouring in along the shaft.

Of course, Shi Feng would not be drowned by this flood, but the rainwater poured back and sealed the shaft, making it impossible to breathe. What's worse, the large amount of rainwater turned part of the rammed soil layer into mud and collapsed.

Shi Feng thought about it and remodeled the entrance, making it two feet above the ground, and then dug three underground ditches next to it so that the accumulated water could be quickly drained away.

In fact, he could lay a magic circle at the entrance to waterproof it, but Shi Feng didn't want to use the magic circle. After all, this place is not far from the Xishan Mine, and monks patrol it from time to time. No matter how secretive the talisman formation is, there will inevitably be fluctuations in spiritual energy. Wouldn't it be terrible if it were discovered!

After repeated repairs, the shaft was completely stabilized and would not back up even if it rained heavily.

Shi Feng's second cave abode was finally successfully opened.

The Horned Demon Dragon curled his lips and said, "If you spend three or four years digging a hole, this guy's head will definitely be kicked by a donkey. You have three or four years of hard work, but if you spend it on Senior Sister Qin, the baby will call you daddy."