Farming Games are All About Grinding

[Ice Phoenix Spread Wings]!

The phoenix cloak behind Han Qiwu flashed brightly, and his speed surged abruptly.

But even so, his speed was still slightly slower than the lava golem.

It wasn't that Han Qiwu wasn't trying; it was just that the golem was bouncing around at such an absurd speed, as if it were running in chaotic 2.5x speed mode—ridiculously fast!

"This won't work. I can't catch up now, and once the accelerated effect from Ice Phoenix Spread Wings fades, it'll be even more impossible to catch up." Han Qiwu quickly thought of a solution.

A few seconds later, his eyes lit up.

He had a plan!

Since the Wind Wheel can increase speed based on ambient temperature.

Why not raise the temperature around it?

Han Qiwu assumed a speed skating position, took out the [Thermostone], bent over, crouched down, and while skating, pressed the Thermostone against the Wind Wheel.

The Thermostone was something retrieved from magma—its surface temperature was self-explanatory. As soon as it made contact with the Wind Wheel, it immediately pushed its speed boost to the maximum—50 points!

Moreover, Han Qiwu noticed a detail: As the Wind Wheel skimmed across the molten ore-layered ground, it seemed to be absorbing metallic mineral dust from the surface, and it was still continuously absorbing.

"Could it be that the Wind Wheel has further upgrade opportunities under high temperature conditions?" Han Qiwu didn't hesitate, holding the Thermostone in one hand and a Silver Star quality Flame Iron Ore in the other, moving it closer to the Wind Wheel.

Under the Thermostone's effect, the voracious Wind Wheel devoured the Flame Iron Ore rapidly, causing its speed to steadily climb.

As his movement speed increased more and more, the real challenge shifted to Han Qiwu's ability to control it.

"Left tilt 15 degrees, right tilt 21 degrees, maintain balance!"

Luckily, his physical fitness had improved significantly recently; otherwise, he would've already crashed head-on into the rock walls.

Within just over ten seconds, Han Qiwu successfully caught up with the lava golem.

"Running? I'll show you running!" Han Qiwu used his ultra-high speed to dart to the right flank of the lava golem, using the tip of his ice sword to strike at its weak point!

The weak point became the final straw that shattered the lava golem!

"Boom, boom, boom!"

The lava golem froze in place, then crumbled into fragments and disappeared in a burst of white light.

But at this moment, Han Qiwu's movements didn't stop.

Not because he didn't want to stop.

But because the Wind-Fire Wheel wouldn't let him stop!

He could still steer, but he couldn't control stopping.

Simply put, he had a steering wheel and accelerator—but no brakes.

Luckily, the directions of the Wind Wheel and Fire Wheel were aligned; if they weren't, this would've been a mess.

"Hurry up and stop so I can collect the loot!" Han Qiwu glanced helplessly at the dropped items that had long been left behind.

"Looks like stimulating the Wind-Fire Wheel with heat to gain speed is a double-edged sword—prone to causing the wheels to go out of control." Han Qiwu silently noted the situation, continuing to feed the Wind-Fire Wheel with the Thermostone and Flame Iron Ore.

"Glug, glug."

Twenty minutes later, the Wind-Fire Wheel's speed finally began to decrease gradually, collapsing to the ground, emitting a dense red glow that enveloped its entire body.

[Wind-Fire Wheel upgrade in progress, estimated completion time: 15 minutes]

"Huff, huff."

Han Qiwu leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths.

Too exhilarating.

This thing puts pirate ships to shame.

Seeing that the Wind-Fire Wheel's upgrade would take 15 more minutes, Han Qiwu decided to go check out the lava golem's loot in the meantime.

Thankfully, he had kept the Wind-Fire Wheel moving in circles!

If it had been running straight for 15 minutes, the loot would've been a pipe dream.

Returning to the area where the lava golem had fallen, Han Qiwu immediately spotted something on the ground resembling

[Ray Essence]

[Usage: Feed to pets]

[Special Effect - Ray Emission: Pets fed with this item can acquire ray-type abilities.]

[Note: The origin of death rays lies here.]

"I see now. No wonder that golem could emit rays—it must've eaten this thing." Han Qiwu happily bent down and picked it up.

It came at the perfect time. Previously, he had felt that Xiao Lai's abilities were starting to lag behind the main team.

After all, Xiao Dian had emerged from a hidden realm, and along the way had been eating fruits and pine nuts, steadily growing stronger; by contrast, Xiao Lai, aside from the snake venom amber, hadn't had any good opportunities to improve his abilities.

"This will be for Xiao Lai when I get back. Hopefully, he can grasp some powerful new skills." Han Qiwu thought while storing the Ray Essence.

Seeing that the Wind-Fire Wheel still needed some time to upgrade, he briskly walked to the circular stone at the center of the mine, successfully claiming this area as his own!

[Guardian Lava Golem defeated. Do you want to claim the current mining area?]

[Current Mining Skill Level: 5. Max Claimable Areas: 5. Already Claimed Areas: 2.]

[Mining Area: Level 82 Cave Primary Flame Iron Ore Mining Zone]

[Total Capacity: Flame Iron Ore ×224]

[Daily Output: Flame Iron Ore ×18]

[Abandoning the claim will revert it to standard mining mode.]

"Good thing all the effort wasn't for nothing—the output is decent. And the total capacity for this area isn't bad either." Han Qiwu nodded in satisfaction. Though he still didn't fully understand the correlation between total capacity and daily output, numbers are always better when they're bigger, right?

"If all the ore gets automatically extracted, does that mean I'll lose the mining area?" Han Qiwu pondered while heading back toward the Wind-Fire Wheel.

As he approached the Wind-Fire Wheel, he felt a wave of heat from a distance.

It was just in time for the Wind-Fire Wheel's temperature to gradually subside. The surrounding red glow slowly retracted into the Wheel's body, giving it an extraordinary, mystic look.

A few dozen seconds later, a message popped up.

[Wind-Fire Wheel upgrade successful!]

[Maximum speed boost of the Wind Wheel increased to 80 points]

Perhaps due to simplistic forging conditions this time, the upgrade effect on the Wind Wheel was rather singular—but undeniably powerful!

An 80-point speed boost meant Han Qiwu could practically run his way to the heavens.

Han Qiwu quickly equipped and tested it. With the current lava temperature calculation, the Wind Wheel granted him a 45-point speed boost!

A short jog sent gusts swirling all around him.

He could practically cosplay as someone doing instantaneous teleportation.

"Swish!"

Indeed, all martial arts under heaven bow to speed!

If it weren't so late already, Han Qiwu might even eat a lava eel and test the 80-point speed boost in the magma river!

Maybe he could break the sound barrier!

As his excitement slowly faded, Han Qiwu began to register the burning pain in his palms. He looked down to see scorch marks, likely caused by the surrounding lava during combat and while piloting the Wind-Fire Wheel.

"Thank goodness I found some Dragon Hollyhock earlier, or I'd really be in trouble again." Han Qiwu took out the Dragon Hollyhock, tossing them into his mouth one by one as he rode the Wind-Fire Wheel toward the cable car station.

The night had fallen—it's time to head home and have dinner!

What should I make of that Gobi lamb leg?

Spicy? Sichuan style?

Feels kind of weird, honestly.