38: Chapter 38: The Mysterious Female Cultivator

Manager Wang gave Xiao Yuan a deep look, didn't ask much, and checked off the ledger: "The count is right. Remember to be on time next year."

"Got it." Xiao Yuan put away the Storage Pouch, turned around, and was about to walk back. He wanted to see who had sent these two people.

Right at that moment, a flippant commotion suddenly came from the side.

"Junior Sister, are your Spirit Stones not enough?"

Xiao Yuan tilted his head to look.

A male Disciple at Qi Refining Stage 8 with triangular eyes and yellow teeth was blocking a female cultivator.

The female cultivator was dressed in black, and her figure was truly wonderful. Even though she was wrapped up tightly, it couldn't hide that aloof aura.

Her face was veiled in black gauze, revealing only a pair of eyes—cold like a freezing pool in the twelfth lunar month, enough to freeze a person into ice shards with a single glance.

Her aura was also at Qi Refining Stage 8, but the faint Evil Qi around her body clearly showed she had seen blood, and quite a lot of it.

"You're still short two hundred Spirit Stones." The male Disciple rubbed his hands, his gaze sweeping back and forth over her body. "How about... Junior Sister accompanies Senior Brother for a few days? Dual Cultivation will help me with my Breakthrough, and Senior Brother will cover these two hundred Spirit Stones for you?"

A burst of jeers and whistles immediately sounded around them.

There were few female cultivators in the vein, and one with such temperament was even more of a rarity. Quite a few people craned their necks to watch the commotion.

The female cultivator didn't speak.

She simply raised her eyes and glanced at the male Disciple.

Just a glance.

The smile on the male Disciple's face froze, and cold sweat inexplicably broke out on his back.

But he was caught in a dilemma with so many people watching around him, so he could only bite the bullet and continue flippantly: "What, is Junior Sister unwilling? That's fine too. Kowtow three times to Senior Brother and call me a good brother, and these Spirit Stones..."

Before his voice fell.

The female cultivator moved.

She didn't even draw her sword; she simply raised her right hand, brought her index and middle fingers together, and gently tapped forward—

Chi!

An ink-black finger beam burst through the air, so fast that only an afterimage remained!

"Ah—!"

A bloody hole exploded on the male Disciple's chest, and his entire body flew backward, crashing into the rock wall and sliding down limply, passing out on the spot.

The entire scene was dead silent.

Those who had been jeering just moments ago all shut their mouths, shrinking their necks like quails. Although everyone knew that none of the people here were to be trifled with, those with higher cultivation were even harder to mess with.

But everyone hadn't expected that this woman would dare commit violence right here. In the mineral vein, you could kill however you wanted and no one would care, but right here, those who dared kill would be punished.

And this punishment was not something an ordinary person could endure.

Right at that moment—

"Make way! Everyone make way!"

Six figures wearing gray robes pushed through the crowd, with the word Enforcement embroidered on their chests. The mine's enforcement team consisted entirely of Qi Refining Stage 8 cultivators.

The leader was a horse-faced man. He glanced at the unconscious male Disciple on the ground, then looked at the black-robed female cultivator, and said with a cold face: "Private fights are strictly prohibited outside the mineral vein. Violators will be punished with seven days of torture, or have their mining time limit extended by three months—which do you choose?"

The female cultivator withdrew her hand, her voice as plain as if she were talking about today's weather: "He's not dead."

"Severe injury is still fighting!" The horse-faced man snorted, "According to the rules..."

"Then extend it by three months." The female cultivator interrupted him.

Hearing this, the horse-faced man looked toward Manager Wang, who nodded.

At this time, the woman took out another eight hundred Spirit Stones from her Storage Pouch and threw them onto Manager Wang's desk, "That's all there is!"

Manager Wang glanced at her and slowly said: "Gravely injuring a fellow sect member, penalized for three months. Unpaid Spirit Stones numbering two hundred, according to the mining rules, one day offsets one Spirit Stone, extended by another two hundred days. Total... extended by ten months."

A gasp of air sounded all around.

Ten months, nearly a year! Staying in this ghost place for another year was no different from a death sentence.

Yet the female cultivator didn't even lift her eyelids.

"Whatever." She spat out two words and turned to walk toward the mine cave.

That back was lonely, her black clothes fluttering in the wind. Her spine was clearly straight, yet it inexplicably exuded a kind of... ashen despair.

Xiao Yuan narrowed his eyes.

This woman wasn't right.

People who had mixed in the mineral vein for a long time either had greed, numbness, or a fierce glint in their eyes. But in her eyes... there was nothing at all.

Hollow, dead silent, like a stagnant pool that could stir up no ripples.

Moreover, seeing that she didn't have the slightest reaction after hearing about the extension of nearly a year, her time spent mining was probably not short.

"There's a story here..." Xiao Yuan muttered inwardly.

However, he didn't have the time to think much more—those two viper-like gazes stuck to him again. A sneer hung on the corner of his mouth, and he immediately walked toward his own mine cave.

In the corner, Li Sha and Tie Tu were so excited their hands were shaking.

"Follow closely!" Li Sha lowered his voice, "Make a move once we enter the mine cave!"

The two of them silently blended into the crowd entering the mine cave, trailing far behind Xiao Yuan.

Xiao Yuan pretended not to notice and continued walking forward.

Manager Wang watched the backs of the three disappearing one after another into the depths of the mine cave, shook his head, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.

"Someone is going to die again... I just don't know which side will die this time."

He put down the teacup and continued shouting:

"Next!"

Outside the mine cave, the sunlight was blinding.

Inside the mine cave, murderous intent surged in the dark.

Deep within the mine cave, at the end of the fork.

Xiao Yuan stopped, turned around, crossed his arms, and leaned against the rock wall, watching the two "tails" following behind him at his leisure.

Li Sha and Tie Tu walked out from the shadows, both startled when they saw Xiao Yuan's stance of "I'm waiting right here for you."

"Yo, not hiding anymore?" Li Sha reacted and scoffed, "What, knowing you can't run away, you're preparing to obediently await death?"

Tie Tu was even more direct. With a clang, his long saber was unsheathed, its tip pointing at Xiao Yuan: "Saving us the trouble of chasing, consider you sensible."

Xiao Yuan blinked, wearing an "innocent" face: "Two Senior Brothers, I have no grudges or enmity with you, why are you chasing me relentlessly?"

"No grudges or enmity?" Li Sha laughed in anger, "Do you fucking know how much suffering we've endured in this ghost mineral vein just to find you?! One year! A full year! Laozi has worn through eight pairs of shoes!"

Tie Tu was also holding back anger: "The reward of the foundation establishment pill, just because you hid so well, has dragged on until now!"

Xiao Yuan raised an eyebrow: "A foundation establishment pill? Who is so generous?"

"What are you feigning ignorance for!" Li Sha snorted coldly, "Senior Brother Chen Yin and Elder Zhao Tianlei both want your life! You sure are capable of stirring up trouble."

Understanding dawned in Xiao Yuan's heart—it really was these two fellows.

"So... you guys just came?" He asked tentatively.

"You know and yet you ask!" Tie Tu grew impatient, "Cut the crap, will you end it yourself, or shall we help you?"

Xiao Yuan sighed and shook his head: "Two Senior Brothers, have you ever thought about a question?"

"What?"

"How did a piece of trash like me at the Qi Condensation 4th Layer manage to hide for a year under the pursuit of two Qi Condensation 9th Layer cultivators like you?"

Li Sha and Tie Tu both startled at the same time.

Right.

If this brat were really that useless, he should have been dragged out by them long ago. Being able to hide in the mineral vein labyrinth for a year in itself indicated there was a problem.

But the arrow was on the string and had to be fired; the two of them couldn't care about thinking too much.

"Care how you hid, today is your death date!" Li Sha vibrated his long sword, unleashing the full pressure of the Qi Condensation 9th Layer, "Die!"

The two of them lunged forward simultaneously from left and right!

Sword light like a rainbow, saber momentum like a tiger.

Then—

Xiao Yuan moved.