Just as Zhang Che was about to leave the cave, he suddenly noticed a tiny hole in a blind spot on the other side of the cave in his peripheral vision.

If he hadn't caught a glimpse of it thanks to the flames as he was turning around, he wouldn't have discovered the hole.

"Could there be something more to this cave?" Zhang Che immediately grew curious.

He immediately raised the torch and strode forward. In the illumination of the flames, what was revealed was indeed a small hole.

-A cave within a cave!-

The hole was about half a meter wide. He shone the light into it, and saw that the hole seemed to be filled with twists and turns, not knowing where it led to.

The Dark-Scaled Lizard Commander, who originally lived here, was surely unable to fit into such a small hole.

Zhang Che's curiosity was thoroughly aroused. He really wanted to check it out.

Of course, to keep himself safe from any hidden dangers, Zhang Che didn't directly crawl into the hole to check things out. Otherwise, it would be too late to retreat if he encountered any exotic beasts.

Furthermore, there wasn't anyone among his subdued beasts and pets who was suitable to scout the hole in his stead.

The only one whose size was suitable was the Cold Abyss Flood Dragon. However, the flood dragon was Zhang Che's darling. Naturally he couldn't bear to let it brave any risks casually. If he were to lose his life in there, it would be too late for regrets!

"That leaves me with no other option than to look for some small-sized exotic beasts…"

Zhang Che suppressed his curiosity and turned to leave the cave. He summoned the Purple Jade Condor and had it look for small-sized exotic beasts nearby, while he waited on standby. Once there was news, he'd immediately ride the Cold Abyss Flood Dragon to where it was.

The Purple Jade Condor's scouting ability was indeed top-notch. Less than a minute later, it informed Zhang Che via their spiritual link that a group of exotic beasts that fit his requirement were moving about to their northwest, in a huge valley located a few mountains behind their location.

"Ah Zi, bring back a beast card for me!"

After thinking about it for a little, Zhang Che couldn't be bothered making the trip himself. Instead, he had the Purple Jade Condor do the job for him, killing the small-sized exotic beasts it discovered and return immediately after obtaining a beast card.

A short while later, the Purple Jade Condor came flying back, holding a two-star black iron-quality beast card in its beak.

"Very good. Although daddy won't be using you as a mount in the future, you're irreplaceable when it comes to battling and scouting for information."

Zhang Che grabbed the beast card from the Purple Jade Condor's beak with a smile, quickly triggering spiritual resonance with it. After branding his spiritual imprint onto the card and waving his hand, a subdued beast that resembled an enlarged mouse appeared by his feet, its length slightly shy of half a meter.

This body was totally capable of taking on the mission of exploring the cave within a cave!

Returning to the cave once more, the subdued beast whose species he couldn't even bother to commit to memory quickly crawled into the tiny hole upon his command.

Zhang Che waited for close to twenty minutes.

When that trash beast whose name wasn't worthy of being remembered finally came crawling back out of the hole and vaguely reported what it saw to Zhang Che, an excited smile immediately showed on his face.

"Mm, it's very s.p.a.cious behind the tunnel? And there's a lot of s.h.i.+ny things?"

-That is some precious material, isn't it!?- Zhang Che immediately jumped up in antic.i.p.ation.

He knew that there weren't only herbs and exotic beasts in the beast world. There were also unique minerals, which were extremely precious and important to the humans on Mercury, especially the minerals with shocking properties. The prices of those minerals were no less than low-tier beast cards, and were valued by grams!

It would simply be torture for Zhang Che to crawl through the tiny hole that was only slightly wider than half a meter. He had no prior training for this, and was likely to tire out before crawling too far out.

That didn't matter, however. Zhang Che had a killer technique!

First he summoned the Swamp Crocodile King armor, covering himself. Then, he bent down and crawled into the hole, the Rotten Ent Prowler whip in his hand.

That's right; Zhang Che's plan was to make use of the whip's extending and retracting function, pulling himself along. He didn't have to use any strength at all! It was as easy as it could get.

He didn't have to worry about being injured from the turns in the tunnel, either. With the Swamp Crocodile King armor's defensive strength, he could just ignore the little b.u.mps here and there.

Thus, Zhang Che allowed himself to be pulled in just like that, speeding further into the hole.

He only spent about ten minutes before he reached the other end of the tiny hole. This speed left his unnamed scouting beast on the verge on tears.

------

Zhang Che found the situation had changed. It seemed like the hole he had just gone through couldn't be referred to as a cave anymore. Calling it a tunnel would be more accurate.

The other end of the tunnel was actually another huge cavern. It was several times more s.p.a.cious than the Dark-Scaled Lizard Commander's nest.

The reason why Zhang Che could vaguely tell the situation in this cave was because of what the cannon fodder beast informed him earlier. The walls of this cavern were dotted with many glowing green dots.

These glowing green dots were as numerous as the stars in the sky, densely packed across all four sides of the wall, like the galaxy had been hung on a wall. It was an indescribable, magnificent sight to behold, leaving Zhang Che slightly drunk on its beauty.

However, as he came back to himself, Zhang Che couldn't help feeling somewhat disappointed.

These green-glowing things weren't rare minerals at all, but a common type of mineral, fluorite. They were glowing brighter than those found on Mercury, with barely any difference in their basic composition.

These knowledge was pa.s.sed on from the previous owner of Zhang Che's body.

Although the previous Zhang Che's spiritual strength was average, and he was no top student, he was very interested in minerals found in beast worlds. He would search for relevant information on the Web when he had nothing better to do. However, as his father pa.s.sed away early and his mother was ill, he had no money to purchase any mineral samples. Otherwise, perhaps he could have made some contributions toward research in this field.

"A pity that the personal terminal can't be used here, or I could have taken a picture of this beautiful scene. Maybe I could even become the next internet celebrity."

Although he didn't discover any rare minerals here as he had hoped, Zhang Che didn't feel much regret. Instead, he stood in the cavern, admiring this beautiful scene that was the natural work of the G.o.ds.

Well, one couldn't be too greedy. He had already gotten himself a three-star dark gold-quality subdued beast. What more could he wish for?

Did you really think this was a treasure trove, with whatever you desired in here?, he mocked himself.

After admiring the fantastic natural view found in the beast world, Zhang Che was ready to return. There weren't any more natural tunnels to be found in here; he had to go back the way he came from.

"Hm? Why do I feel like something's not quite right?"

After taking a few steps, Zhang Che stopped doubtfully, his eyes looking carefully on the walls. However, he didn't make any new discoveries.

"I seem to have overlooked something?"

Zhang Che couldn't make out what he overlooked, feeling the urge to slap himself on the back of his head.