Chapter 500: The Dilemma of Having Nothing
Du Cheng picked up a piece of braised pork and ate it. He was not afraid of being poisoned. In this world, most poisons were ineffective against mystics, and most poisons were ineffective against fourth-level mystics.

"Mr. Duan, I also brought some food. If you don't mind, can you make do with it?"

"Then it's better to be respectful than to obey."

The two of them ate as they walked. Although they had different ideas, they looked like close friends who had known each other for many years.

The moon in the desert is exceptionally bright. There is no light pollution here and the air is dry. As long as there is no sandstorm, visibility is still good.

About two or three hours later, Du Cheng and Lu Juan saw a tall tower in the distance.

The tower was about a hundred meters high and red all over. It rose from the ground like a pillar of fire and reached the sky.

Du Cheng pointed at the tower and said, "We are here. Since you invited me to dinner, I have to remind you that there may be danger. Otherwise, there is no need for me to return to Banbianquan, right?"

Lu Juan snorted and said, "Of course. Mr. An, will you stay or leave?"

"I won't compete with you for magic treasures, but if there are other good things, I will not be polite to you."

After receiving this promise that was not really a promise, Lu Juan breathed a sigh of relief: "It's feasible."

The two of them were getting closer and closer to the tower, and they realized that quite a few people had gathered around it. Among them, there were a few whose ranks were unclear, but they were obviously higher than the fourth rank.

Du Cheng and Lu Juan's first reaction was to retreat.

To be precise, Lu Juan wanted to escape, while Du Cheng wanted to watch the fun from a distance to avoid being hurt by mistake.

The two of them stopped in tacit understanding, then looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

Lu Juan was the first to break the silence: "Mr. An, it's almost dawn, how about I treat you to breakfast?"

Du Cheng smiled and shook his head: "Now that we are here, let's wait and see. A level 5 fighting a level 5, wouldn't the one who gets the upper hand be a level 4?"

Du Cheng's confidence was justified. On the way back to Banbianquan, he had already charged the energy core for 10 minutes. 1140 tons of TNT was enough to blow a sixth-level mystic into powder. If the timing was right, it would be no problem to blow up a seventh-level mystic.

There was a sixth-level mystic and three fifth-level mystics at the bottom of the tower. The strength gap was so great that the battle had not yet begun.

This sixth-level warrior was named Li Hao. He walked around the tower again and again and was basically sure that the entire tower was made of first-level smelting stone.

Smelting stone is not rare, but using such a huge amount of smelting stone to build a high tower is a big deal, even better than some low-end occult societies.

After a fourth-level occultist has proposed a theory and published a paper, he or she can form an occult society.

The Mystic Society is divided into levels one, two, and three, and the corresponding presidents are levels six, five, and four respectively.

Above the Academy is the Mystic Society, which is divided into five levels, and the president is at least level seven.

Li Hao's reasoning process is this: ordinary seventh-level strongmen cannot build such a high tower, so the treasures in the tower are at least seventh-level. Therefore, as a sixth-level mystic, it is very unsafe for him to enter the tower.

Li Hao asked again: "Three gentlemen, who among you would like to go into the tower first?"

The three of them saw that Li Hao's level was higher than theirs, so they each found excuses to refuse.

"Well, it seems that I am too polite to you." As he spoke, a black hand emerged from behind Li Hao. The black hand grabbed a fifth-level mystic and threw him directly into the tower.

The door to the tower was open, and the mystic entered and immediately disappeared.

The other two fifth-order scholars immediately became nervous. Although killing mystics without war was not recommended in this era, the sixth-order was ultimately overwhelming the fifth-order. The other party could do whatever they wanted, and they were powerless to stop it.

Seeing this scene, Lu Juan wanted to escape even more, and Du Cheng wanted to blow people up even more.

Lu Juan didn't want to stay for a moment: "Mr. An, I have something else to do, so I'll leave first."

This person was leaving, which just made it easier for Du Cheng to do what he wanted to do next: "I want to take another look. Goodbye, I won't see you off."

Lu Juan turned and walked away, but after walking a dozen steps, he looked back and asked, "I wonder if Mr. An has joined the academy?"

Du Cheng was still watching the game. He answered without turning his head: "Maybe when I have some free time, I will consider forming a school club. What about you?"

"I wonder, if someone like Mr. An lives for another few decades, what level will he reach?"

"Level 10, or higher."

Lu Juan threw out a business card: "I haven't joined the academy either. When you are free, I will go to your place and be the vice president."

Du Cheng took the business card and glanced at the name and contact information on it: "It's just a business card. It doesn't show enough sincerity."

"Let's talk about sincerity next time we meet. I'm leaving the restaurant tonight. I guess we'll have a chance to meet again."

Du Cheng was not opposed to forming an association with another fourth-level mystic. He turned around and said, "Okay, bye."

If Du Cheng is an ambitious person, not only will he not reject it, but he will most likely bring the other party into the group now. Whether he treats this person as an ally, an experimental subject, or a shield, he will not lose anything.

But Du Cheng was still a long way from being an ambitious person. He was not in a hurry to establish the academy, and he did not intend to use the academy as an experiment or a shield, so he did not move. The original body thought so, and he thought so too.

Du Cheng watched Lu Juan walk away, then put the card into his pocket, turned around and continued to watch the dispute below the tower.

About four or five minutes later, Du Cheng saw the person who had entered the tower come out. Although he was empty-handed, he seemed to be safe and sound.

So Du Cheng walked closer, wanting to hear the conversation more clearly.

Li Hao said to the people coming out: "What's in the tower? What did you see?"

The man replied unhappily, "There's nothing in there. If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself."

Li Hao didn't argue with this man too much. What he valued was the treasures in the tower, not teaching the younger generation a lesson: "Okay, since you're out now, I'll go in."

After saying this, Li Hao entered the tower.

Soon after, Du Cheng also came to the edge of the tower. Since he was far away from the entrance of the tower, no one paid attention to him.

Du Cheng activated the fission energy core, gathering the heat energy to his fingertips and releasing it. He had tried to test it before coming here, and the energy core hidden by the system could not be discovered by outsiders.

Du Cheng placed his fingertip about two centimeters away from the outer wall of the tower, and then moved his finger.

The red bricks and stones melted, forming hot magma that slowly flowed along the wall. He used the flames to leave an arc-shaped scratch on the Gang Tower, and then he grabbed a bulge on the outer wall and pulled it out, pulling the wall out.

Everyone who saw this scene was stunned.

Especially those fourth- and fifth-level mystics were incredulous: "You are also a fourth-level mystic, how could you lack this little ore? Aren't first-level smelting stones very common? The stone you dragged away weighed about ten tons, which is still precious to a second-level person, but you have reached the fourth level, do you need to do something like this to lower your status?"

Du Cheng dragged the wall for a distance, then went behind it and pushed it forward.

Since everyone was quite disdainful of such behavior and they also looked down on this batch of ore, Du Cheng easily dug out a large piece of the wall in full view of everyone.

A big hole was left on the tower, through which people could clearly see the structure inside the tower.

There are many spiral stairs in the center of the tower, and there is a stone pillar in the middle of each spiral staircase. The curves and straight lines complement each other, and at first glance they look like dozens of strangely shaped red weeds. People speculate that there may be treasures hidden in the stone pillars, but the strong man who entered the tower earlier has not come out yet, so they dare not act rashly.

Du Cheng pushed the stone for a long distance and made sure that there were no outsiders nearby before he turned on the system to scan the ore.

"System, strengthen the fission energy core."

More than a dozen tons of ore disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving no trace.

At the same time, Du Cheng saw that the energy nuclear data displayed on the panel had changed slightly.

The maximum continuous input time has been increased from 10 minutes to 10.5 minutes.

Yes, of the seven numbers, only this one has changed.

Even though Du Cheng was a very calm person, he couldn't help but roll his eyes at this moment: Although there were plenty of ores, the input time was only increased by 0.1 minutes. Wasn't that too rude? Are the materials used to strengthen the seventh-level treasure so arrogant?

Du Cheng came to the edge of the tower again and used the same trick to dig out another large piece of stone from the wall.

This time he did not call the system verbally, but silently recited this sentence in his mind, and the ore disappeared.

The maximum continuous input time increased from 10.1 minutes to 10.2 minutes.

Du Cheng's face turned even uglier: Could this kind of ore only increase the maximum continuous input time? The system's functions are not comprehensive enough. It doesn't even classify the functions of the ore. Could it be that all ores can only increase the input time?

When Du Cheng cut the wall and moved the stones for the third time, people looked at him with particularly strange eyes.

"This man is really embarrassing us fourth-level mystics! We are all here to find treasures, but you are the one who dug away the walls piece by piece. What, you want to move the whole tower?"

"Will the first-level smelting stone be useful to a fourth-level mystic? Could it be that your academy's base is nearby and has just expanded recently, and needs this material? But can't this be done by sending a few members?"

'Why do you carry the stones back and forth so frequently? Are you going to eat them?'

Du Cheng felt very upset. He felt like he was about to lie down: Even if this broken stone could only increase the maximum continuous input time, he had to increase the time first! Anyway, this stone was free, so it would be a waste if he didn't take it. After all, taking advantage would not be a loss.

The third enhancement was to increase the input power from 0.1 grams to 0.101 grams.

Du Cheng almost jumped up in excitement: Both the input duration and input power have increased, what does this mean? Gaga gaga gaga gaga gaga gaga gaga!
When Du Cheng came to the tower for the fourth time, he still had the same sad look on his face as when he left last time. His expression was like that of a worker who was forced to work overtime for free on weekends.

Du Cheng was happy in his heart, but he didn't want anyone to jump out and "share" his joy at this time, so he had to conceal his joy appropriately.

For the fourth enhancement, the input power increased from 0.101 to 0.102.

After this strengthening, Du Cheng did not return immediately. He not only had to pretend to be sad, but also tired. Only when he was exhausted physically and mentally could he avoid suspicion.

After all, as a fourth-level mystic, it was really not decent for him to do things like moving stones many times.

When Du Cheng came to the tower for the thirteenth time, everyone chose to ignore him.

"This tower is really huge. This guy has dug out the stone twelve times, but the tower is still almost the same."

"One hundred and twenty tons of smelting stone would be a huge sum of money if sold, but this person has no taste to even want to make such money."

"Your boss is really bold to ask a fourth-level mystic to move stones! Fortunately, I have never met such a boss."

Deep in the desert, there is no one around.

Du Cheng looked at the ore he had moved and said to himself, "The first six attributes have been increased. Should I increase the maximum energy storage this time? System, strengthen the fission energy core."

With his order, the seventh number really jumped from 300 grams to 303 grams.

"Great, I wish I could add more instead of hitting the limit once more. Actually, moving rocks is pretty cool!"

The fourteenth reinforcement changed 303 grams to 306 grams.

[Maximum input power: 0.102 grams of material undergoes complete nuclear fission reaction per second (approximately equivalent to 1.94 tons of TNT)]

[Maximum continuous input time: 10.2 minutes]

[Input cooling time: 98.01 times the input time]

[Maximum output power: 0.51% of input power]

[Maximum continuous output time: 204 minutes]

[Output cooling time: 1.9602 times the output time]

[Maximum energy storage: The energy released by a complete nuclear fission reaction of 306 grams of matter]

Loosely speaking, after 14 enhancements, the overall attributes of the fission energy core increased by 2%.

The fifteenth time carrying stones.

Du Cheng called the system twice in a row, but there was no response.

"It seems that there is a limit to the strengthening of the same type of ore. To obtain a more significant effect, um... it seems that we need to move stones and move them out of the desert and sell them."

This was the twentieth time that everyone had seen someone moving stones.

This time, someone finally couldn't help asking, "Dude, your president is so short of ore? Even the fourth level has to come out to move stones?"

Du Cheng looked embarrassed: "No, I just want to move stones to exercise my body. Exercise is good for my body."

People knew he was talking nonsense, but the problem was that he only moved some stones back, so no one took him seriously.

Du Cheng returned to the tower for the twenty-fifth time, and Li Hao was just walking out.

Others had seen this man digging and moving stones dozens of times and were no longer surprised, but it was the first time for Li Hao to see it and he thought it was very strange.

Seeing that the man was young and had reached the fourth level, Li Hao immediately became interested in his talent: "Young man, are you short of ore? Why don't you consider developing with me? I have plenty of ore."

"No thanks, I'm just moving rocks for exercise."

Du Cheng decided to leave after finishing this piece of ore.

But Li Hao didn't let him do as he wished.

Li Hao wandered around the tower for a long time but didn't get anything valuable. He was getting angry. This person rejected his invitation again, so he decided to take advantage of the situation.

"Huh? Exercise? Since when does a fourth-level mystic need to exercise? Boy, do you know something?"

Du Cheng's eyes were clear and his expression was innocent: "I don't know, I was just passing by. Our president asked me to come to mine, I dare not not come, but it's too embarrassing to say it out loud. I'm just a nobody, insignificant."

(End of this chapter)