Temptation

During this period, Xue Hua and the others surveyed the area and marked out several sites convenient for mining.

Kuang Ping first led the Ministry of Works craftsmen over to choose one, selecting a site to begin extraction.

Then Wang Cong made his choice.

Xue Hua and the others divided up the remaining mining sites.

Those who had come with the ships immediately claimed sites for their respective factions and began mining with a clatter, while also assigning people to build smelting furnaces.

Pan Yun had given every faction ample time to prepare, so they all had craftsmen who knew how to smelt.

As for the independent prospectors, they lacked the ability to smelt, so they began contacting the various factions. They planned either to sell the mined silver ore to them or entrust them with smelting it, then divide the silver according to an agreed ratio.

Other than Kuang Ping, who represented the Imperial Court, every faction agreed.

Thus, Shijian Silver Mountain began to ring with the clanging sounds of mining.

To keep the local villagers from discovering them, they had deliberately chosen mining sites deep in the mountains.

The villagers at the foot of the mountain occasionally heard the sound of stones being struck, but assumed they were quarrying stone to build a Taoist temple. They had no idea mining was underway.

Pan Yun selected an auspicious day and brought the three divine statues out from the Spirit Realm Space, placing them atop three enormous boulders halfway up the mountain.

After tying red cloth around them, all the Daoists from the academy changed into Daoist robes and joined her in consecrating the statues and establishing them that day.

Not only did the villagers come to watch the excitement, but even the monks from Qingshui Temple on the little