Why is my territory in a 2D anime art style?

"What incredible luck you have..."

Erhu shook his head helplessly. The two stood in the pitch black, feeling somewhat resigned.

In just half a day, you've encountered such a baffling situation.

But Sui An couldn't afford to complain anymore. He quickly shouted to the two of them, "There's a car over there, it belongs to the He family. These two groups of people fought their way here from there, and there are signs of battle all over the place."

"Erhu, can you drive around and destroy these traces for me? Brother Zhen, could you drive that car away for me, taking their bodies with you? It would be best if you could destroy it."

Wang Zhen and Erhu exchanged a glance and nodded. Both of them were seasoned veterans and naturally understood Sui An's concerns.

Compared to the two of them, Sui An was relatively unfamiliar with these matters.

The two men each carried two corpses and threw them into Erhu's new car. Then they drove off, erasing all traces of the fight, leaving only tire tracks.

As for the car, it was also driven away by Wang Zhen, and Erhu quickly disappeared into the distance.

A full half hour later, Erhu drove back with Wang Zhen.

Wang Zhen jumped out of the car, looked at Sui An who was digging in the dirt, and said softly, "It's all taken care of, don't worry!"

"Thank you both, brothers!" Sui An said with a smile, thanking them quickly.

"Hey, you're always there when you need something, like brother, and never again when you don't. You're such a jerk!"

Erhu got off the cart, carrying two large bags, and threw them at Sui An.

"These are the materials from their vehicle. These things are hard to sell in the city, so I'm giving them all to you. I'll split the remaining source stones with Wang Zhen as a delivery fee."

Sui An nodded, quickly took the large bag and glanced at it. He found that there were many light spheres of basic materials in the bag, totaling about 30 portions.

The other pocket contained some special materials.

"There are even 21 Gray Steel Rock cores..."

"There are four more that I don't recognize. I'll keep them for now; I might need them."

Sui An was overjoyed. He had risked his life to kill these two groups of people, and the reward was so great. It added up to 350 source stones.

Erhu watched Sui An with a sly smile: "Little Anzi, that smile of yours, you're not addicted to double-crossing, are you...?"

"How could that be? I'm a good person!" Sui An put away the two bags and explained to the two men what had happened that day.

The two men shook their heads, concluding that Sui An's fate was simply not right.

He could get involved in all sorts of petty theft and thieverything, living a more exciting life than an adventurer.

"Putting everything else aside, your line of thinking is flawless. If either of these two groups survives, you'll die!" Erhu patted Sui An on the shoulder with great admiration.

"Ruthless, decisive, and daring—you're a promising talent for wilderness survival!"

Sui An stored all the materials in the Lord's Core; leaving them outside the gate was never a safe bet.

"Let's not talk about that anymore. How's it going over there?"

Wang Zhen said softly, "A considerable harvest, much more than your two bags."

"Most of the minerals there are crystalline minerals. As long as you have the strength, you can just use a hammer to break them down. In the end, they will all be given to the alchemist to refine anyway."

"However, the quantity is a bit large, so we can't come frequently. We need to extend the time. After we finish digging this time, I suggest we rest for 10 days to prevent anyone from being envious and eyeing our work."

Erhu nodded and said softly, "After we finish this job, we'll have money to buy supplements for cultivation. Once our physiques are up to par, we'll go to the surface of the secret realm and hunt down a bunch of source beasts. Then we can advance to level 5!"

"It's only 1 o'clock. Take us there first; maybe we can dig up some more. You can pick us up at 3:30!"

"OK!"

Sui An dropped the two off and then drove back.

He stood guard on the watchtower for more than half an hour, but no other vehicles passed by. It seemed that no one would know about Xu Jun's death in a short time.

Looking at his materials, he realized he had enough to upgrade his current wall to level 2, but he lacked Originium, especially level 2 Originium, so he had to wait.

Things must be done one by one, and steps must be taken one at a time.

After Sui An cleared most of the blood-storing area, the communicator in his pocket finally rang.

"Come pick us up."

"Okay, I'll be right there!"

Sui An drove his large transport truck to the riverbank and saw the four of them standing on the bank guarding six large sacks. Each burlap sack was stuffed full, and they looked like they had made a great harvest.

The group looked tired, indicating that mining in that secret realm was no easy task.

After carrying the six large bags onto the truck one by one, Sui An could see with his naked eye that the truck bed had become shorter.

"So heavy!"

"Of course, this stuff is all crystalline minerals, heavier than ordinary stones. An average person might not be able to dig up more than a few pieces in a day."

Erhu gave Sui An a slight glare, but his face showed no sign of complaint, only a broad smile.

"How to sell this thing is also a problem. It's a pity we don't have our own alchemist. If we had one, it would be much easier to deal with."

"How about I handle it?" Zhao Feng suddenly said. "I know a good-for-nothing alchemist. I'll have him handle the refining. Once it's refined, it won't look like raw ore, and we can sell it without any problems."

"Who is it?" Erhu curiously came closer. Is there really such a thing as an alchemist who has no ambition?

After all, refining materials requires consuming one's own source energy, which means that each alchemist has limitations on refining speed and upper limit.

Therefore, being an alchemist is theoretically far from enough. Basically, anyone who is willing to develop can succeed. Although the synthesis recipes for alchemists may be difficult to obtain, one can still make a good living by relying on basic refining effects.

Zhao Feng was somewhat exasperated: "A guy who only managed to reach level 3 by refining skills through his professional core."

Erhu stared in disbelief and blurted out, "You haven't even mastered a single synthesis formula?"

Zhao Feng shook her head: "Yes, there is. Before, because of another alchemist, his synthesis formula was the same as the other party's, so he stole the other party's business and almost ruined the other party's special plan."

"That alchemist was of a higher rank than him and was ruthless, but he didn't kill him. He just had someone break his leg as a warning, telling him not to use that formula for a year. As a result, he was too timid and didn't dare to use it for so long, making a living by refining it."

"This..." Sui An found it rather bizarre; this person was far too timid. But then, as if remembering something, he quickly asked.

"What rank is the alchemist who broke his leg now?"

"I heard he was already level 4 a long time ago. I don't know if he's level 5 now, but he joined a level 5 territory a long time ago and became the lord's chief alchemist."

"No wonder..." Sui An suddenly felt he could understand it again. It seemed that Aunt Zhao's friend was timid to begin with, and this incident had left him traumatized. Moreover, now that the other party had powerful backing, he was even less likely to act recklessly.

Even if he only does refining, he can still make a decent living.

"Aunt Zhao, are you close to him?"

Upon hearing Sui An's words, Zhao Feng suddenly turned her head to look at Sui An, a strange smile appearing on her face.

"It's alright. I'm a regular customer of his, but your mom is probably more familiar with him."

"Huh?" Sui An was slightly taken aback. How did this matter get involved with his mother again?

Erhu and Wang Zhen quickly moved closer, their ears twitching, clearly sensing the gossip.

Aunt Chen has been gone for so long, yet they're still closer than Aunt Zhao. What kind of relationship is that...?

Wang Hu was the only one sitting on a small stool leaning against the wall, not paying much attention.

Zhao Feng's smile deepened as she looked at Sui An with a beaming smile.

"It's normal that you don't know. Before your father married Xiaoyuan, he pursued her. However, your mother has a very outgoing personality and didn't like his timid nature, so naturally it didn't work out in the end."

"Speaking of which, I was worried for your dad. After all, he's just a combat professional. How can he compare to an alchemist who's destined to become rich? It's a pity he's not ambitious enough and is still single."

"That's one of the reasons I think he's a good-for-nothing."

"Unless you're desperately in need of alchemists, I wouldn't recommend you try to recruit him, although I think he's very likely to be willing to come."

"..."

Sui An was dumbfounded, never expecting to hear such bombshell gossip today.

In my fading memory, only one image flashed by: my mother, with a fierce face, sleeves rolled up, carrying a stick and beating me all over the street...

Was my mom that charming when she was young?