29: Chapter 29: The Dead Spirit Stone Mine

"As for running away?" Manager Wang pointed at the top and surroundings, "See that layer of light film? The Sect formation is covering it, spanning tens of li, three hundred zhang underground, and three hundred zhang in the sky, sealing it in all directions. Want to force your way through? Hehe, your corpse will be scattered to the winds!"

"And—" His gaze swept across the Storage Pouches at everyone's waist, "You must be checked upon entering, and undergo a full-body search even more upon leaving! Want to hide anything? Unless you can stuff the Spirit Stone into your Dantian!"

Everyone's faces turned even paler.

However, Xiao Yuan's eyes flickered slightly.

Creation Cauldron Space! It could perfectly hide all auras! Even Nascent Soul experts couldn't probe it, and they wanted to check him?! If he was lucky, this mineral vein might allow him to make a windfall.

He forcefully suppressed the smile at the corners of his mouth, lowering his head to put on a terrified expression.

Looking at the expressions of this group of "lambs to the slaughter," Manager Wang nodded in satisfaction: "Alright, the rules have been explained. One last thing—the Spirit Stone you dig up can be used by yourselves to Cultivate. The premise is that you must first hand over enough quota!"

As he said this, the mockery in his eyes was almost overflowing.

Hearing this, a glimmer of hope and light welled up in the eyes of some Disciples. If they could really have Spirit Stone to Cultivate, perhaps this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Now, divide into groups and go down the mine!"

One hundred people were divided into twenty groups, five people in each group, led by a few veteran miners, walking toward different mine entrances.

The other four in Xiao Yuan's group were two men and two women, all with cultivation levels around the third or fourth layer of Qi Refining. Every single one of them had a deadpan expression and hollow eyes.

The veteran miner leading the way was a hunchbacked old man with a cultivation level of the fifth layer of Qi Refining, his face covered in coal ash and wrinkles.

Without a word, he led the five of them into a pitch-black cave entrance.

The mine tunnel was quite spacious at first, wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The further inside they went, the narrower it became, and the air became more damp and turbid.

After walking about three to four hundred meters, five fork roads appeared ahead.

The veteran miner stopped and spoke in a hoarse voice: "Each of you choose one and walk inside. Being able to dig up a Spirit Stone is luck, but if you can't... God help you."

Finished speaking, he turned and left, disappearing into the darkness from whence he came.

The remaining five looked at each other in dismay.

"I, I'll choose this one..." A small male Disciple pointed at the leftmost fork and hurriedly ran inside.

"I'll choose this one!"

"This one!"

The other three also hurriedly chose their paths, afraid of falling behind.

In the end, only Xiao Yuan was left, standing in front of the five pitch-black cave entrances.

He closed his eyes, operating the Great Turtle Breathing Technique, and his perceptive power quietly spread out.

Within a radius of a hundred meters—

In the first fork on the left, that small Disciple was tremblingly tapping the stone wall with a mining pick, the sound hollow.

In the second fork, there was the sound of dripping water.

The third... Huh? There was a faint Spiritual Qi fluctuation?

In the fourth, air circulation was relatively poor.

The fifth... Deep inside, there seemed to be rustling sounds, like... bugs?

Xiao Yuan opened his eyes, thought about it, and chose the third fork.

Walking into the mine tunnel, the light completely vanished. He took out an illumination stone from his Storage Pouch—this was bought at the market earlier and could last for three months.

The dim yellow light illuminated ahead.

The mine tunnel was only wide enough for one person to pass through, and the stone walls on both sides were damp, growing moss. The air was permeated with a musty smell and... a faint smell of blood?

Xiao Yuan frowned and continued deeper.

After walking about a hundred meters, a small mine cave appeared ahead, roughly three meters square. On the stone wall, a few fingernail-sized, dusty stones were sporadically embedded.

Low-Grade Spirit Stone raw ore.

Xiao Yuan used the mining pick to knock off a piece, held it in his hand, and felt it—the Spiritual Qi content was low; a single piece of such raw ore could at most refine half a standard Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

Moreover, the distribution was sparse, with only seven or eight pieces in total on this wall. This kind of Spirit Stone could barely be used to Cultivate, but as for handing it over, it was unqualified.

"It really is depleted..." Xiao Yuan muttered.

Being able to let him find these few pieces of trash Spirit Stones proved that the people who mined previously didn't even have the interest to collect this trash.

Xiao Yuan thought about it and still put them away. Although such trash wasn't of much use, he had the creation cauldron, so perhaps there might be an unexpected pleasant surprise.

He continued walking forward, and all the way, he didn't see even that kind of trash again.

He couldn't help but frown; at this density, wanting to dig enough one thousand Spirit Stones in a year was somewhat difficult.

If he dug day and night, it might be possible to dig enough, but if so, the time to Cultivate might not be enough!

He looked around, his mood somewhat solemn.

He had previously thought that relying on the creation cauldron, he could make a windfall here; now it seemed he had thought too much.

The rules mentioned by that manager were clearly meant to use these incoming Disciples as coolies.

As for letting people freely use the Spirit Stone inside to Cultivate, damn it, that was just a pie painted in the sky.

He came here to find a quiet place to Cultivate; could it be that he was really going to waste time here?

Or rather, rob others?! Once this thought arose, Xiao Yuan was somewhat tempted, but... he suppressed it, even though this idea was not bad.

But if he even lost his own conscience, then he... would he still be himself?!

However, if someone came to rob him... hehe... sorry, then he wouldn't be polite at all!

But then again, Xiao Yuan had perceptive power equivalent to the Divine Sense of Early Foundation Establishment, which perhaps could make him different from others.

Saying and doing it, he released his powerful perceptive power, letting it overflow toward the surroundings. In the tunnel, there was no obstruction to his perceptive power, completely bringing the distance of a hundred meters ahead and behind into his perception.

After his Divine Sense reached the cave wall, it encountered obstruction. However, although this obstruction consumed his perception range, it also allowed his perceptive power to reach fifty or sixty meters into the surrounding soil.

He continued to probe toward the faint Spiritual Qi fluctuations he perceived; the deeper he probed, the stronger the Spiritual Qi fluctuations became.

Soon, his perceptive power reached its limit and could no longer probe further inside. Looking at the cave wall before him, Xiao Yuan picked up a shovel and began to dig.

As the cave wall was dug open and his figure pushed forward, that wave of Spiritual Qi fluctuations became more and more intense.

When Xiao Yuan dug nearly five or six hundred meters in, in his perception, he actually saw a glittering Spirit Stone mineral vein, and its scope was extremely large. A surge of wild joy welled up in his heart.

This was... finding a small Spirit Stone pit.

Although he couldn't specifically estimate how many Spirit Stones were in this Spirit Stone pit, the quantity was definitely not small. At the very least, it might be close to ten thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

When he dug into the Spirit Stone pit, looking at the blinding Spirit Stone mine before him, the smile at the corners of his mouth could barely be suppressed. Nearly ten thousand Spirit Stones! If he could find a few more places like this, wouldn't he make a fortune.

He cautiously began to excavate, sending all the Spirit Stones into the Creation Cauldron Space. With this batch of Spirit Stones, even if he didn't go out for four years, he would still be able to take Spirit Stones out to fulfill his assignment!