192: Chapter 192

Upon hearing these words, Zhao Yi could not help himself.

He retorted, "Actually, there is no trick to it..."

He paused deliberately at this point, looking at the many Immortals who were listening with pricked ears, his eyes filled with mockery, "It is merely diligence!"

"You—"

The many Immortals looked at Zhao Yi, their faces flushed crimson, anger surging.

How long had they been here?

The longest for thousands of years, the shortest for three or four hundred years.

Now that he said one only needed "diligence" to dig up spirit light sandstone, how could they not be furious?

Zhao Yi's words implied they were lazy.

But among the Immortals here, who hadn't been "diligent"?

And what was the result? Nothing but emptiness.

This was also the reason why Sect Master Ren was able to establish the Sect within the mine.

Without a goal, one might as well slack off and live in bliss.

"Hmph!"

"Diligence?"

"That sounds nice, but who hasn't been diligent here?"

"Take Ai You, whom you know; when he first came in, he worked day and night, persisting for a full eighty years, and what was the result?"

"Nothing gained."

"And take 'himself'; he has also been digging here for four or five hundred years, and what has come of it?" Sect Master Ren stepped out to refute Zhao Yi.

Bang!

The response to Sect Master Ren was Zhao Yi's hoe; of course, this wasn't a fight, but the sound of Zhao Yi digging into the mountain rock.

Clutching the hoe handle, Zhao Yi's heart pounded incessantly.

At this moment, the mountain rock beneath his feet was densely packed with phantoms, making Zhao Yi's scalp tingle.

Strangely, the other Immortals seemed unable to see these phantoms.

Since that was the case, there was nothing more to say.

Zhao Yi stared at a dark shadow and quietly struck it with his hoe.

The System notification sounded.

【You have dug up a piece of spirit light sandstone, experience points + 1.】

The brilliant, square-shaped spirit light sandstone was held in Zhao Yi's hand.

He raised it high, "Look..."

"It's just a stone, it's that simple."

The many Immortals were stunned.

Sect Master Ren was equally stunned, but after all, he was an Immortal who had established a Sect in the mine, so his mind worked very quickly.

He looked at Zhao Yi suspiciously, then looked at the mountain rock beneath his feet, revealing an expression of sudden realization, "I know now."

"The spirit light sandstone lode is right under your feet; being able to dig up spirit light sandstone is just a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse."

Before Sect Master Ren's voice had faded, countless Immortals descended, crowding around Zhao Yi so tightly that he couldn't even swing his hoe.

Bang!

The impatient ones had already started digging, and the tremendous noise scared the dark shadows in the rock into fleeing in panic.

Zhao Yi...

"Fine, fine, fine~"

"Go ahead and dig!"

How familiar this scene was; it didn't know how many times it had appeared back in the Qingling Realm.

It was just that previously they were ordinary Cultivators, and now they were Immortals.

These people had higher cultivation levels, but their moral character had not improved along with their cultivation.

Above the white clouds, Zhao Yi sat cross-legged.

Below the clouds were densely packed Immortals; the sheer number and density were something Zhao Yi was seeing for the first time.

The vigorous mining lasted for three full years.

One after another, the Immortals stopped their work.

Their faces were ashen, their eyes hollow, and the hoes in their hands dropped to the ground with a "clang," kicking up a puff of dust.

Three years, a full thirty-six months.

They had dug through the hillside, smashed the rock layers, and overturned every inch of land where Zhao Yi had stood.

Unfortunately, there was nothing.

No spirit light, no sandstone, no brilliant radiance that drove people crazy.

"Impossible!"

An Immortal roared, frantically clawing at the rock wall with his fingernails, his fingertips splitting and bloodied, "It was clearly right there, he clearly dug it out~"

"Yes, I saw it with my own eyes."

Another Immortal muttered, his eyes unfocused, "So bright, so pure~"

"How could there be nothing?"

More and more Immortals stopped.

They looked at their empty hands, looked at the mountain body that had been dug full of holes and looked like a honeycomb, and a huge sense of absurdity and despair, like a cold tide, completely submerged them.

They had been diligent.

They were more diligent than anyone else.

But the result was still nothing.

It was exactly the same as the past three or four hundred, or eight or nine thousand years.

"Hahaha..."

Someone started to laugh, the laughter growing louder and louder, finally turning into hysterical maniacal laughter, "Diligence? Merely diligence? Zhao Yi, are you mocking us?"

"We have been diligent for hundreds and thousands of years, and you have only been diligent for a hundred years~"

"This is not fair!"

Roars, wails, and maniacal laughter echoed in the valley, like the wailing of ghosts at night.

"Since it is not fair, then we shall break this fairness."

"This rotten mine..."

"The broken Formation..."

"And you, all go to hell!"

Zhao Yi's two pieces of spirit light sandstone were like opening Pandora's box, successfully inciting the riots deep within these Immortals' hearts.

Countless Immortals brandished their respective Immortal Artifacts, murderous intent soaring into the sky, all aimed at Zhao Yi.

"Die!"

Various Immortal arts and Immortal Artifacts gathered, the terrifying power seemingly wanting to shatter the Void Realm, but...

A boundless light suddenly erupted in the sky.

All the Immortals who had made a move were frozen in the Void Realm, maintaining the posture they were in when they attacked.

Those terrifying Immortal arts and Immortal Artifacts vanished instantly, as if they had been erased.

Ten thousand bolts of lightning appeared out of thin air, striking those frozen Immortals.

Screams rang out one after another, and many Immortals directly turned into ashes, as if they had never existed.

"Holy crap!"

Zhao Yi's hands and feet went cold.

These were Immortals, Immortals who had cultivated for at least a few thousand years, and up to ten thousand years, yet when they were killed, they were like mere chicks, without the slightest power to resist.

"It's a good thing I didn't resist just now."

"Otherwise, I would have met the same fate."

The remaining Immortals who hadn't acted had now calmed down.

Heaven help them, they were Immortals with infinite Lifespan; what they wanted was freedom, not death.

"Hmph!"

"Now everyone has calmed down, right."

"Zhao Yi~"

"No, Master Zhao!"

"Please teach me how to mine."

As the first person Zhao Yi met after waking up, Ai You stepped forward without hesitation; of course, his posture was also very humble.

Zhao Yi...

"Sigh~"

"Why would you need a master for such a stupid job as mining?"

"Doesn't it just take having hands?"

"Come, come, come, watch~"

Zhao Yi pulled Ai You along and landed on the mountain rock that had been dug into a honeycomb by the many Immortals.

Strangely, as soon as Zhao Yi landed, countless dark shadows surged in from all directions, darting around Zhao Yi.

This gave Zhao Yi the illusion that he was like bait; as soon as he landed, the fish came.

"Just watch carefully!"

Zhao Yi struck with an unremarkable hoe.

The hoe was raised, light appeared, and the System notification sounded simultaneously.

【You have dug up a piece of spirit light sandstone, experience points + 1.】

"I..."

Ai You didn't know what to say anymore.

What was this?

Not far away, an Immortal was teetering.

The place where Zhao Yi dug was where he had stubbornly dug for three years, and there hadn't been a single thing, but now Zhao Yi had dug it out with one strike of his hoe.

Did this mean if he had persisted a little longer, he would have dug it out?

Thinking of this, his heart pained, and he collapsed directly.

"Oh no, Senior Brother Xu has suffered Qi Deviation."

The many Immortals were in chaos again.

But the way they looked at Zhao Yi was completely different from before.