"So he asked Commander Yi for over ten tons of graphite to eat...?"

"No way, even if he has pica... he couldn’t possibly eat through ten tons, right?!"

They had now assumed that Wang Ye had pica. Aside from this, they couldn’t think of anything that could explain Wang Ye’s current behavior.

In reality, among Earth’s seven billion people, those with pica aren’t rare; some love eating oil, some enjoy sand, some prefer raw rice... Of course, there should also be people who love graphite, but most people don’t know this.

And Wang Ye might just be one of them.

"Maybe... he just wants to stockpile some food? After all, he’s in great shape, with a large appetite, so these ten-plus tons might just be his annual consumption."

"Makes sense."

As the two discussed, a man at the back interrupted:

"No... it seems like he’s eating way too much..."

They turned their heads and saw Wang Ye still continuously stuffing large chunks of graphite into his mouth.

Each piece of graphite weighed nearly ten kilograms,

and Wang Ye had already stuffed dozens of pieces into his mouth.

His mouth continued chewing constantly, seemingly enjoying the taste.

Moreover, as he consumed more and more graphite, his belly visibly bloated.

Even his limbs and cheeks vaguely appeared much "fatter."

"Wow, that’s definitely a lot!"

"How many pieces has he eaten? Why is he still stuffing more into his mouth!"

"Roughly estimated, it must be a few hundred kilograms by now. Is he some kind of gluttonous beast?"

"Still stuffing, still stuffing!"

Everyone watched in disbelief,

seeing Wang Ye’s bulging stomach looking as if it might explode at any moment.

But Wang Ye remained oblivious, continuing to stuff graphite into his mouth.

This terrifying scene could easily be part of a horror movie.

Wang Ye’s eating process went on for fifteen minutes.

Finally, when his belly swelled to its limit, he stopped eating.

He wiped the graphite residue from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and let out a burp.

Instantly, his bloated stomach subsided a bit.

"Digesting so quickly..."

"Is his stomach acid super strong or something?"

"Even strong acid isn’t this extreme, his stomach acid probably has tens of times the corrosiveness of strong acid!"

The geologists, upon seeing Wang Ye’s rapidly flattening belly, were even more shocked.

It takes normal people hours to digest just a bowl of rice.

Not to mention this kind of mineral, almost impossible to dissolve with stomach acid.

Yet Wang Ye digested several hundred kilograms, maybe even tons of graphite, in just over ten minutes?

"Finished eating, if you don’t need anything, I’ll continue digging." Wang Ye said, rubbing his belly.

"No problem, no problem, feel free!" The man in white quickly responded.

Wang Ye responded with a light "mm," then went directly to the pit, leaping. His body plunged into the pit, descending towards the deepest area, 50,000 meters down.

For easier access, he had dug the tunnel almost entirely straight, only deviating slightly around unavoidable obstacles, which he would later correct. This made the tunnel almost completely vertical, so Wang Ye could free-fall directly to the deepest area.

Seeing Wang Ye jump in without a second thought, the geologists were dumbfounded.

Man, you’re not taking any protective measures and just jumping? This pit is as deep as 50,000 meters; at least tie a rope or wear a protective suit!

Falling from 50,000 meters is like plummeting from the stratosphere to the ground, where acceleration would turn an object into a fireball resembling a meteor crashing down.

But Wang Ye jumped in without a blink, indicating he might not fear the damage from such a fall.

After about five minutes,

Wang Ye reached the deepest point.

His descent caused a reverberating "boom," directly creating a deep crater in the extremely hard basalt.

Yet his body suffered almost no harm, and even any minor injury quickly healed. Landing without hesitation, he continued to catalyze fermentation metabolism, expanding his right arm’s muscles to eighty percent of their potential, beginning to dig deeper.

With the support of a Diamond Skeleton, his digging speed more than doubled, and with the aid of the [Earth Escape] Skill, he traveled underground as nimbly as a Land God might.

However, while digging, Wang Ye gradually realized the drawbacks of the Diamond Skeleton. While diamonds have decent wear resistance, their pressure and heat resistance weren’t much better than chrome metals.

Temperatures slightly higher, like the underground heat combined with intense bodily activity, approached a thousand degrees Celsius,

causing his Diamond Skeleton to begin oxidizing and quickly shrink. Wang Ye had to replenish more Carbon Atoms to ensure the diamond wasn’t entirely consumed by fire.

As he dug deeper, the increasing underground heat exacerbated the situation, making his excavation more challenging.

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For the next few days, Wang Ye repeated the cycle of digging, devouring, and evolving.

The geologists, clad in protective gear, occasionally collected mineral samples or other specimens from the excavated areas to study in the labs above, judging by their beaming faces, they had made substantial discoveries.

They strictly adhered to Wang Ye’s instructions, never disturbing him during excavation, only rushing into the pit to research during his two-hour graphite consumption sessions.

Wang Ye, seeing their understanding, let them be. He remained entirely focused on his evolution.

Every day, he devoured over a ton of graphite, transforming it into pure Carbon Atoms, compressing these into one or two hundred kilograms of diamond by 5 AM and molding them into the bones throughout his body.

Everyday evolution allowed him to replace about a quarter of his bones with diamond.

Thus, over three days of steady evolution, his Skeleton completely metamorphosed into diamond.

Deep underground, feeling his Diamond Skeleton gene fully fortified, Wang Ye’s face radiated with irrepressible joy.

"Finally... my Skeleton is entirely diamondized!"

Wang Ye introspected his body, admiring his crystal-clear skeleton, feeling the unprecedented potential strength. If before his consolidated full-body strength could only punch through a tank, now releasing all muscular potential to one hundred percent and applying Combat Skills to integrate all muscles, a single punch could destruct anything within hundreds of meters.

Far more terrifying than a missile.

The diamondized skeleton significantly boosted combat capabilities to such an extent, Wang Ye dared not imagine his power level post-conversion to carbon acetylene.

He might truly transform into a Homelander by then, impervious to Earth’s technology.

While the Diamond Skeleton seems robust, it still has many flaws, like poor heat resistance, high brittleness, and not the best pressure resistance. But carbon acetylene, forty times harder than diamond, would perfectly resolve these issues.

However, the environment needed for synthesizing carbon acetylene is extremely rigorous, beyond what the natural world can offer, only feasible under luck in laboratory settings.

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