Huge mineral vein

After speaking, 8524 gave them another bitter smile.

He couldn't tell if he was comforting them or telling them to accept their fate.

Then he continued, "Please remember, both of you, you need to turn in the mined Ore every hour."

"When the bell rings, it's time to turn in the Ore."

"Although there's no limit to how much Ore you turn in each time, the total daily amount must not be less than ten thousand catties."

"It's getting late now, brothers, you'd better get to work quickly!"

"If you can't complete the task today, the Spirit Stones you receive tomorrow will be deducted, and you won't get replenishment, so your Physical Body will decline even more severely."

"If you fall into a vicious cycle, then you're truly not far from death!"

In the mine, everyone had a strong sense of time.

In less than half an hour, they had finished explaining everything to Zhong Qing and Xiang Fei.

Then they immediately plunged into mining.

For a time, the sound of clanging echoed through the mine.

Xiang Fei and Zhong Qing exchanged glances.

"They didn't even give us tools, could it be that we have to dig this Ore with our bare hands?"

Xiang Fei's face was bitter.

Zhong Qing stepped forward and patted his shoulder.

"Just a few more days."

"Then, I'll take you out!"

Xiang Fei gave a bitter laugh, assuming Zhong Qing was just comforting him.

"Brother, let's not say anything else."

"Let's get to work quickly!"

"Looking at your delicate skin, even though you live in a remote area, you probably haven't experienced much hardship before!"

"Let me see if I can help mine more Ore to ease some of your pressure."

"Let's get to it!"

There were many branch tunnels in the mine.

Xiang Fei randomly chose a branch tunnel and scurried inside.

Before long, the sound of clanging already came from within the branch tunnel.

Zhong Qing watched Xiang Fei's disappearing figure, a strange feeling in his heart.

Even at this point, the other party not only had no complaints about him but was also prepared to do his best to help him.

Xiang Fei was indeed a good person.

"I'll find another Opportunity later to give him some Opportunity, as compensation."

While Zhong Qing pondered, he also chose a branch tunnel and walked in.

The branch tunnel was very small, barely wide enough for one person.

It's said that Three Yin and Three Yang Realm masters can easily destroy mountains and rivers.

Mining ten thousand catties of Ore daily, even with bare hands, wouldn't be difficult.

However, this was the Central Region.

Compared to the Four Regions, the Law of gravity in the Central Region was clearly different.

In the Eastern Region, a Sanyin Realm master could probably flatten thousands of miles of mountains and rivers alone.

But here in the Central Region, at most, they could only break rocks or collapse small hills.

What's more, they were wearing copper rings that suppressed Qi, allowing only a small portion of Qi to be used.

Mostly, they could only rely on the strength of their Physical Body to mine.

The difficulty, once again, sharply increased by a large margin.

And although the surrounding grayish-white jade stones looked very fragile, their hardness was no less than that of metal.

Ten thousand catties a day, while not completely leaving people without a way to live, could also drain them to the maximum extent.

Compared to this, those entrepreneurs in his previous life who proposed 996 could be called conscientious businesses.

Zhong Qing's fingers were like blades, casually cutting off several pieces of Ore.

In fact, this Ore was essentially Spirit Stone.

It only needed to be refined to remove its Impurities before it could become Spirit Stone.

The Law power within his body surged, and before long, the grayish-white Ore was refined by him.

Although the copper ring on his hand could suppress Qi.

Its principle was suppression by Formation runes.

As long as it was a Formation, for Zhong Qing, it was all immune.

This thing was completely ineffective against him.

As Zhong Qing exerted his power, the Ore in his hand was quickly refined into transparent Spirit Stones.

These Spirit Stones varied in quality.

There were Low-Grade Spirit Stones, Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, and even High-Grade Spirit Stones.

In the cultivation world.

The ratio of Spirit Stones was one to one hundred.

That is, one High-Grade Spirit Stone could be exchanged for one hundred Mid-Grade Spirit Stones.

One Mid-Grade Spirit Stone could be exchanged for one hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Each standard Spirit Stone weighed about one catty and was the size of a fist.

Zhong Qing's eyes suddenly trembled.

He could feel that the storage of High-Grade Spirit Stones here was very high.

If he were to devour the entire Spiritual Vein, perhaps his strength could increase significantly.

He opened his Heavenly Eye and checked the Spiritual Vein's reserves.

The Spiritual Vein was very large and very long.

With his strength, he was confident he could devour the entire Spiritual Vein in a few days.

But Zhong Qing did not act immediately.

He came here to find clues about his Disciple.

Now that he hadn't found his Disciple, if he caused a huge commotion, it would inevitably add complications to this master-Disciple relationship.

Everything would have to wait until he found information about his Disciple.

Before long, a melodious bell rang in the mine.

Zhong Qing was slightly stunned.

8524 had said that when the bell rang, it was time for them to turn in the Ore.

In this place, Zhong Qing didn't want to appear too special.

He exerted a slight force and shattered a large area of Ore.

Casually putting some Ore into his Storage Pouch, he exited the branch tunnel.

8524, 8525, 8526, and even Xiang Fei were all rushing to the Ore turn-in mine.

Zhong Qing stepped to follow them.

The various mines were interconnected.

The turning in of Ore took place in a large hall in one of the mines.

When Zhong Qing arrived at the mine hall with the crowd.

Hundreds of people had already gathered in the thousand-square-foot hall.

Although there were many people in the hall, it did not appear chaotic.

There were mine slaves responsible for weighing and recording, and several supervisors watched from the side, maintaining order.

Those who had been weighed quickly returned to their workstations.

Those who hadn't been weighed waited in line.

Those who dared to cut in line or cause trouble were met with the brutal beating of a lightning whip and ruthless suppression.

The entire process was extremely dull.

Soon, Zhong Qing handed over the Spirit Stones in his hand.

They were registered.

A total of one thousand and thirty catties.

This meant he still had to turn in nine more times to complete his task for the day.

After the handover, Zhong Qing saw Xiang Fei, looking depressed and dejected, rushing back from a distance.

"What's wrong?"

He strode forward and patted Xiang Fei's shoulder.

Xiang Fei forced a smile that was uglier than crying.

"Nothing!"

"It's just that this Ore is a bit difficult to mine."

"This time, I only turned in five hundred catties."

"Today's task is still very heavy!"

"What about you, how much did you turn in?"

"About the same as you."

Zhong Qing's situation was a bit special, and he couldn't tell Xiang Fei directly yet.

He would explore the situation further before preparing to remove the copper ring restraint from the other party.

The two talked as they headed back.

This mine was interconnected in all directions.

Dozens of mines were connected, and each main tunnel had countless small branch tunnels.

One could see sparse figures, some going to turn in Ore from various mines, and others constantly rushing back.

Like ants.

Throughout the process, there was not much communication among them.

Clearly, the heavy tasks made them breathless.

Despair and numbness were evident on every face, like walking corpses.

Just as Zhong Qing and Xiang Fei were rushing back, a scene in one of the mines caught their attention.

...