Chapter 21
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Chapter 21: Great Harvest
Yue Qianchou materialized inside the mine cave and listened carefully—the surroundings were very quiet. He put down his basket and pickaxe, put on the Mountain-Piercing Claws and channeled true qi into them. The gloves immediately became one with his palms, the ten claws gleaming black and bright. He swiped a claw at the cave wall—swoosh! Stone chips flew everywhere.
‘Didn’t they say these gloves could sense spiritual energy? Let me try then!’
He pressed both claws against the cave wall, and just as he calmed his mind, he felt the gloves seemed to have an impulse to pull him toward the left. Yue Qianchou’s heart pounded—he really sensed spiritual energy! His hands moved following the sensation from the gloves until he had moved about three or four meters from his original position before stopping.
Though the distance moved wasn’t far, it was completely different from the direction he had originally planned to dig. Right ahead, he could clearly feel that there were spirit stones he wanted to mine. Yue Qianchou felt extremely fortunate—without these gloves, no matter how fast he dug, it would all be useless effort.
‘Here I come, my treasures!’ Yue Qianchou excitedly called out silently. His ten claws danced as he charged at the stone wall ahead with claws bared. Swoosh swoosh… There was no ding-ding sound—it was like sharp blades cutting through paper. The stone wall was defenseless, instantly ravaged beyond recognition.
Before long, he had carved out a tunnel several meters deep, and the sensation ahead grew stronger and stronger, encouraging Yue Qianchou to forge ahead bravely.
When he struck with one claw and saw a section of crystalline white emerge from the fluorescent light of the stone wall, he couldn’t help but cheer, then quickly covered his mouth and laughed secretly. He had finally mined spirit stones!
Suddenly remembering that his basket and pickaxe were still in the outer tunnel, he immediately crawled out, looked around to make sure no one had noticed, grabbed his things and shrank back into the cave.
He pried out that spirit stone and held it in his hands for careful examination. This was the first time he discovered that spirit stones were actually so beautiful—crystal clear and lovely no matter how he looked at them. Unfortunately, this was only a low-grade spirit stone. Shaking his head, he had just thrown the spirit stone into his basket when he slapped his forehead again, remembering something. He picked up the pickaxe and the basket containing one low-grade spirit stone and threw them directly into his space.
‘Keep working hard—maybe high-grade spirit stones are just ahead.’
With income earned, he became even more excited, following the sensation from the Mountain-Piercing Claws without stopping.
Before long, spirit stones in the stone wall went from occasionally appearing one or two at a time to gradually appearing several together, all of which he happily pointed into his space with his finger. Though they were all low-grade, he accepted them all without wasting any fruits of his labor.
“Holy crap! Great harvest—one, two, three… nine, and ten more low-grade stones.”
Ten low-grade spirit stones appeared together, disappearing one by one as he counted and pointed at them.
When he had mined nearly a hundred low-grade stones, a section of dense white crystal appeared before his eyes—exactly the same as the mid-grade spirit stones his master had given him to use. Needless to say, his first mid-grade spirit stone was in hand.
Continuing to dig, Yue Qianchou grew more and more excited. The density of spirit stones increased, and for every hundred low-grade stones, he could find one mid-grade stone. When he had mined nearly a hundred mid-grade spirit stones, he suddenly felt an unusual sensation from the Mountain-Piercing Claws.
‘Could high-grade spirit stones be about to appear?’
After a slight pause, he immediately dug desperately in that direction.
Correct judgment naturally wouldn’t disappoint.
When a pale golden spirit stone emerged from the stone wall, Yue Qianchou carefully pried it out, took off the Mountain-Piercing Claws and held it in his hands for close examination. That’s right—this was a high-grade spirit stone. This was his first time seeing a high-grade spirit stone. He had heard about them from his master before—they were pale golden.
The pale golden spirit stone was as beautiful as amber, radiating charming brilliance under the fluorite’s illumination. Yue Qianchou was dazzled and mesmerized. Feeling the rich spiritual energy in the spirit stone in his hand, he really wanted to absorb it into his body in one breath, but he still controlled that impulse. For no other reason than there would be more and more high-grade spirit stones.
He swallowed and said: “You want me to turn in such good stuff? Hmph! I’d rather die than do it!”
The amber-like crystal disappeared from his hand.
The white fox inside the golden bead confirmed his guess. Sure enough, not long after Yue Qianchou disappeared, spirit stones began raining from the sky, falling precisely into the courtyard and piling up into a small heap. She just shook her head—those things held no temptation for her. For someone whose cultivation had reached the late Tribulation Crossing stage, she was already at the peak of the cultivation world, and spirit stones had no effect on her.
Yue Qianchou also discovered the pattern of mining spirit stones. Each time he dug in one direction, the first ones he’d mine would always be low-grade, with one mid-grade surrounded by every hundred low-grade stones, and only one high-grade would appear among nearly a hundred such groups.
After learning this pattern, he was no longer interested in those low-grade spirit stones—they wasted time and weren’t cost-effective. He went straight for the high-grade ones, with one high-grade worth ten thousand low-grade stones. Only when convenient would he point the mid and low-grade stones he saw into his space.
Calculating the time, about a day had passed. Excluding the wasted half day, in the remaining time he estimated he had mined nearly a hundred high-grade spirit stones, several hundred mid-grade, and thousands of low-grade. His mood had changed from initial excitement to nonchalance—this was the psychological change from poor person to rich person.
He probably didn’t know that his half-day’s income already equaled this spirit stone mine’s daily output. This was naturally thanks to the fox clan treasure ‘Mountain-Piercing Claws.’
For three consecutive days, he was almost constantly digging. Unlike others who turned in spirit stones daily, he hadn’t turned in spirit stones once—the spirit stones in his hands were enough for him to turn in three days’ worth at once.
Only at the end of the second day, feeling a bit hungry—after all, he hadn’t reached Core Formation stage to practice fasting—he went into the golden bead to roast a wild chicken. Seeing the spirit stones piled up to nearly half the courtyard, he smiled very happily, sighing that his hard work hadn’t been in vain.
But the white fox warned him that if he dared throw one more spirit stone into the courtyard, she would take back the ‘Mountain-Piercing Claws.’ This threat was quite effective—from then on, all spirit stones were thrown into the forest outside the courtyard.
The three-day deadline arrived, and Yue Qianchou came out carrying a basket full of spirit stones. At the cave entrance, more than ten supervisors were counting spirit stones for the miners. He waited in line for a while before his turn came.
As soon as he approached, he heard someone say: “Let me take a look!”
Looking up, he saw Gao Shiping with his face full of fierce flesh grinning sinisterly at him.
“Junior Brother Yue, I’ve been waiting for you to come out! I wonder how your task completion went?” Gao Shiping said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
‘This guy’s attitude isn’t very friendly!’ Yue Qianchou unloaded his basket and placed it on the large table at the cave entrance, smiling: “The first time was really hard to get used to, but fortunately I barely managed to complete the task.”
A pile of spirit stones poured onto the table, glittering brightly. A barely perceptible flash of greed passed through Gao Shiping’s eyes before quickly disappearing. All of this fell under Yue Qianchou’s observation, and the corners of his mouth slightly curved up, revealing a trace of a smile. The former waved his hand, and two supervisors came over to count the spirit stones.
“Senior Brother Gao! There’s something I’d like to ask about.” Yue Qianchou made a gesture suggesting they speak privately.
Gao Shiping frowned, thinking: ‘Give you an inch and you take a mile. I call you junior brother out of politeness, but you actually dare to call me senior brother. Don’t you know what kind of place this is?’
Remembering the instructions from the two law enforcement senior brothers, he couldn’t offend too harshly—who knows, this person might gain power back at Azure Light Sect someday, and he might need to ask favors.
With a dark face, he walked to the side and said coldly: “What does Junior Brother Yue want?”
“Junior brother is new here and fears doing something inappropriate. If there are any offenses, please be understanding, senior brother.” Yue Qianchou raised his hands in salute to Gao Shiping, and a pale golden flash inadvertently appeared in his hand. Glancing around and finding no one paying attention, as his hand naturally lowered, that pale golden object slipped into the latter’s clothing.
The tempting pale golden color—Gao Shiping had seen it when Yue Qianchou raised his hand. He naturally recognized what it was, and before he could react, the object had already slipped into his clothes.
Gao Shiping’s whole body shook, his hand unconsciously pressing on that object at his abdomen. His eyes flickered as he stared at Yue Qianchou. The temptation of a high-grade spirit stone was too great—he was considering whether to accept it.
As a Core Formation cultivator, he only received twenty-five mid-grade spirit stones per month. One high-grade stone was worth four months! Although he was the guardian of the spirit stone mine, he had never dared take a single spirit stone from here. If discovered, the consequences would be unthinkable, especially with three Nascent Soul elders guarding this place.
Gao Shiping lowered his voice: “Taking care of junior brother is appropriate, but junior brother was sent here by the sect for hard labor. If you can’t complete tasks or do things you shouldn’t do, I also can’t provide protection. After all, there are three elders here, and some things I can’t make decisions about.”
Hearing the meaning in his words—protection was possible, but some things he could protect against, others he couldn’t. Like failing to complete tasks, or stealing or secretly absorbing spirit stones.
‘Damn it! Has the heart of a thief but not the guts!’ Yue Qianchou touched his nose and patted Gao Shiping’s hand pressing on his abdomen, smiling slightly: “Senior brother can rest assured. I definitely won’t do things that would put senior brother in a difficult position. I just want to live more comfortably here. I believe this won’t put senior brother in a difficult position, right?”
Gao Shiping was still somewhat hesitant when the supervisor over there shouted: “Yue Qianchou, task completed, exceeded by five hundred low-grade spirit stones. Come for inspection.”
“Senior brother can rest easy!” Yue Qianchou said softly and walked over. The supervisor shone the bronze mirror on him and found nothing abnormal.
Gao Shiping, who had been watching closely, breathed a sigh of relief and shouted to a supervisor nearby: “Keep a close watch!” Then he walked to Yue Qianchou’s side and smiled:
“Junior brother exceeded by five hundred low-grade spirit stones on his first mining attempt. In all my years here, this is the first time I’ve seen this. Truly admirable!”
This wasn’t just polite talk—if you counted the high-grade spirit stone he received, that was 10,500 low-grade stones, which really was unprecedented among newcomers.
“Luck, luck, pure luck. I just happened to hit a good mineral vein.” Yue Qianchou said modestly.
The two chatted and laughed as they left, leaving others somewhat incredulous. Gao Shiping had always been secretly called ‘Gao the Butcher’ here, with countless miners dead by his hand. When had anyone seen him show such a pleasant face to a miner?
