The good news for the Qi refinement cultivators that went inside was that, due to the overwhelming attacks of the Foundation Establishment Elders, the swarm of rats had split up into much smaller groups.
At the edge of the mines most rats could only be seen in groups of 2 or 3 but as you go deeper into the mine, the pockets of mineable spirit gold become larger and so do the swarms of rats, with many mid stage and late stage gold eating rats being amongst them.
Now, with a rough overview of the situation inside the mine, Fang Yang quickly got started.
He had a giant debt wearing down on his back, so he couldn't afford to idle around like the other disciples.
After getting a pickaxe from one of the stations, Fang Yang didn't wait around any longer and headed inside the mine.
After walking inside for a few minutes and making sure that nobody was around him, Fang Yang brought out his Battle Saint corpse puppet and placed a mask on both the puppet and himself.
You could never know what would happen inside these mines, and Fang Yang just felt it better this way if he used a mask.
This way Fang Yang could freely use his system without worrying about being recognised.
But more importantly, it was for his own safety.
As much as the sect wanted to suggest that disciples should work together, they didn't enforce it.
After all, the Corpse Ghost Sect was not a righteous sect. Although the sect wasn't a Devil sect, if a group of disciples saw a 2nd level Qi refinement cultivator alone by himself in the mine. They wouldn't mind if he was forced to "donate" his space bag to them.
And if that same cultivator was so unfortunate as to meet an unknown end to the hundreds of gold eating rats in the mine, then nobody would know that this donation ever happened in the first place.
Likewise, Fang Yang wouldn't mind if some kind-hearted fellow disciples decided were kind enough to "donate" their space bags to him. But also, as a person who was embarrassed to receive such kindness, Fang Yang also knew it would be best not to reveal his face or it could lead to a very embarrassing situation if they were to ever meet again.
After putting on his mask, Fang Yang took out a map of the mine that he had been given.
From This point onwards, the map had split into three sections.
The northern sector, eastern sector and the western sector.
When it came to the danger of each sector, the eastern sector was easily the safest of the three.
The eastern sector had mostly been mined and explored for the high quality nodes of spirit gold available.
Of course, there was still an abundance of low quality spirit gold, but because of its low quality, the gold-eating rats don't particularly like this area.
The only rats you would find would be early stage demon beasts and a few mid stage demon beasts not posing much of a threat to the cultivators.
The Western region was better than the eastern region in the sense that there were still pockets of high quality spider gold that had yet to be mined.
Because of this, the number and strength of the gold eating rats in the western sector is much higher. The average strength of them would be in the mid-stage of Qi refinement and the late stage of Qi refinement.
But this couldn't compare to the northern sector.
The northern sector was the most recently opened up region of the Spirit Gold mine. Because of this, the nodes of High quality Spirit Gold remain practically untouched. If one worked there for a week, Fang Yang could easily earn over his 200 spirit stone debt.
The only downside was that the danger of the northern region was the highest.
Because of the High concentration of high quality spirit gold, it was the best environment for high-ranking gold eating rats to breed and advance their strength.
Because of this most of the gold eating rats there have a strength comparable to the late stage of Qi refinement and there were even rumours that deep in the mines, there is a Gold eating rat that had advanced to the levels of a Rank 2 demon beast with strength comparable to a foundation establishment cultivator.
Naturally, with all these problems surrounding the northern sector, Fang Yang had designated it as completely off limits. The western sector was also unsuitable for Fang Yang's current strength, so for now, he would only move around in the eastern sector.
With this, Fang Yang did not wait around, so after taking out a large black cloak that he could use to cover his outer sect robes, Fang Yang started walking deeper and deeper into the mine.
....
5 minutes later, the strange creepy sight of a masked and robed figure could be seen walking through the mine with a giant masked zombie on his left and a skeleton on his right.
The mineshaft was dimly lit, with the only light source being the small piece of glowstone that Fang Yang had in his hand.
The eerie silence of boots and bones clicking along the mineshaft floor put Fang Yang on edge.
After several minutes of walking through the mine with no sign of any gold-eating rats, you would expect for his nerves to go down. But the lack of rats did the complete opposite, only making him more and more on edge.
Suddenly, as Fang Yang was walking, something caught his eyes.
It was a faint glimmer that teetered on the edge of the radius of light created by the glowstone.
If it wasn't for the fact that Fang Yang's eyes were constantly scanning the mine for any sort of gold-eating rat activity, then he may have missed it.
But the second Fang Yang saw the light source, a bright smile appeared on his face as he quickly rushed over.