Double Happiness Arrives

Meanwhile.

After leaving Azure Stone Mountain, Ling Yunhong did not return directly to Lingxiao Mountain. Instead, he first went to the Profound Water Mineral Vein in Azure Stone Lake next to Azure Stone Mountain and asked Ling Ruxian, who was stationed at the mine, how much Mystic Water Iron Ore had been extracted since mining began in mid-February of this year.

When Ling Yunhong learned from Ling Ruxian that more than six thousand jin of Mystic Water Iron Ore had been mined over the past two hundred-odd days, he was utterly shocked. After asking further, he finally learned why.

The ten humanoid Mining Puppets at the Early-Stage Qi Training given by the Hundred Spirits Sect only needed one Spirit Stone each month as energy. They could then keep mining without pause and did not need rest like cultivator miners did.

Moreover, these humanoid Mining Puppets possessed immense strength, and their mining speed was not slow in the slightest. One humanoid Mining Puppet could match the mining speed of three Early-Stage Qi Training cultivators.

Ten humanoid Mining Puppets were equivalent to thirty Early-Stage Qi Training cultivators mining together.

This meant that each puppet could mine more than thirty jin of Mystic Water Iron Raw Ore every day.

A mine that originally would have taken a hundred years to exhaust would likely be completely mined out in less than ten years.

This situation truly made Ling Yunhong inwardly marvel at the Mining Puppets' formidable usefulness. He also greatly coveted those puppets with such powerful mining abilities.

Unfortunately, the methods for refining Mining Puppets, as well as other offensive puppets, were even rarer than the methods for refining ordinary magic artifacts.

Even within the vast Yan Kingdom, few factions possessed methods for refining puppets, and most of those factions only mastered the refinement of First Rank and Second Rank puppets.

The only faction capable of refining Third Rank puppets comparable to Golden Core cultivators was the Hundred Spirits Sect.

It was said that the great artifact-refining sect, the Hundred Spirits Sect, had three Third Rank puppets with Golden Core Stage combat strength standing guard. One of those three puppets could even contend against a Golden Core Completion expert.

"Thirteenth Uncle, it is already late August. In a little over three months, at the end of the year, the Hundred Spirits Sect should send people to collect the five thousand jin of ore required for this year. When the time comes, just give them five thousand jin of Mystic Water Iron Ore—not a jin more, not a jin less. Otherwise, if we deliver the fifty thousand jin of ore required by the Hundred Spirits Sect ahead of schedule, they may take back these ten humanoid Mining Puppets early!"

"Without these ten puppets, with the Ling Clan's current manpower, it will be somewhat difficult for us to send people to mine the remaining Mystic Water Iron Ore!" Ling Yunhong instructed Ling Ruxian.

Ling Ruxian rarely spoke in his daily life, and he was the same now, saying only two words. "Understood!"

"Thirteenth Uncle, I'll leave this place to you!"

After saying this, Ling Yunhong transformed into a streak of light and departed from the mine.

Ling Ruxian also sat back down cross-legged on the Meditation Mat on the ground. With a wave of his hand, he set up a Soundproof Restriction around himself, blocking out the "clang, clang, clang" of the ten puppets ceaselessly mining with Spirit Iron Pickaxes.

Without that clamor, Ling Ruxian felt as though the world had become several degrees quieter. His slightly furrowed brows relaxed, and he closed his eyes to meditate quietly.

After leaving the Mystic Water Iron Mine, Ling Yunhong did not immediately return to the Ling Clan either. Riding the Immortal Spirit Crane King, he painstakingly spent considerable time searching the entire territory of An Yang County, where the Ling Clan resided, with his divine sense, checking whether there were any undiscovered mines or Spirit Veins.

Unfortunately, Ling Yunhong found nothing.

Mineral veins were rare things in this world, even scarcer than Spirit Veins. For a small place like An Yang County to contain a small Mystic Water Iron Mine was already quite good.

Even if An Yang County still had other mines, mineral veins had a special layer of rock on their surface. Unless one dug three feet into the ground, merely relying on divine sense—even Foundation Establishment Cultivators, let alone Golden Core cultivators—would find it difficult to detect underground mineral veins.

Time slipped away in the blink of an eye, and before anyone knew it, the Autumn Equinox had arrived once more.

Around the Autumn Equinox was the season when all manner of plants ripened.

After the Autumn Equinox, the more than three thousand villagers of Azure Stone Village launched a vast undertaking to harvest ten thousand mu of rice fields.

Although the villagers in the fields stood beneath the blazing sun, faced the yellow earth, and toiled amid the stifling rice stalks, their bodies drenched in sweat until even their clothes were soaked through, not one of them harbored any resentment. Instead, their faces revealed an impossible-to-hide joy.

With every mu of rice field harvested, the joy in their hearts grew by another measure.

This might look like mere rice, but it was the harvest of their yearlong toil, as well as the source of money that would improve their families' lives in the coming year.

Because the rice fields had nearly tripled compared to last year, the time required to harvest ten thousand mu of rice fields also increased severalfold. It was not until mid-October that this grand undertaking of harvesting ten thousand mu of rice finally came to an end.

On the day it ended, Azure Stone Village also held a grand Harvest Feast.

The meat at the feast was still provided by the hundred-odd Lingxiao Guards of Azure Stone Village, who hunted wild beasts.

Only the relatively inexpensive rice and vegetables were provided through pooled funds from the villagers.

That night.

Ling Pengyun, who was stationed on Azure Stone Mountain, was also full of joy.

"Today truly is Double Happiness!"

"Not only did I refine another Azure Bamboo Sword after thirty-three days, following thirty-two failures, but after four long years, I have finally comprehended the second level of the Lingxiao Ripening Technique!"

"Now, I need only wait for my Natal Spirit Plant, the Thorn Vine, to reach the Qi Training Middle Stage. Then my spirit plant rank can advance to First Rank Middle Grade!"

The first time he refined an Azure Bamboo Sword, he had failed forty-three times before succeeding once.

Yet now, he had refined another Azure Bamboo Sword after only thirty-two failures. Such progress was no small matter, and it allowed Ling Pengyun to see hope of fulfilling Ling Yunhong's expectation of raising the success rate of refining Azure Bamboo Swords to thirty percent.

For a spirit planter's rank to advance, two hard conditions had to be met. The first was that the spirit plant secret technique had to reach the corresponding rank.

The second was that the Natal Spirit Plant had to reach the corresponding rank.

Neither could be lacking.

"Based on the current speed at which I use my own spiritual power to nourish the Thorn Vine and help its cultivation grow, it should be able to challenge the Qi Training Middle Stage around June or July next year!"

"But when that time comes, I must still suppress it somewhat. I cannot rush to break through in spirit plant rank and forget the matter I planned long ago!"

According to Ling Pengyun's long-held plan, when the Thorn Vine advanced from the Early-Stage Qi Training to the Qi Training Middle Stage, he intended to suppress its breakthrough until after his own cultivation broke through to the Qi Training Sixth Layer. Only then could he make use of the vast spiritual power feedback from the Thorn Vine's breakthrough to challenge the bottleneck between the Qi Training Sixth Layer and Qi Training Seventh Layer, known as the most difficult bottleneck in the Qi Refining realm.

There was reason for calling it the most difficult bottleneck. Within the Ling Clan alone, no fewer than ten clansmen at the Qi Training Sixth Layer were trapped at this bottleneck, unable to break through into the Qi Training Late Stage and receive double their stipend.

When something was praised by everyone, eight or nine times out of ten it had a basis. Naturally, Ling Pengyun also held some reverence for the bottleneck between the Qi Training Sixth Layer and Qi Training Seventh Layer.

That was why he intended to use the wondrous effect of spiritual power feedback from his Natal Spirit Plant's advancement, employing a little clever trickery to cross this bottleneck known as the hardest in the Qi Training Stage.

"Right now, my time is incredibly tight. Judging by my current cultivation progress, even if I cultivate every day with medicinal pills to assist me, I fear it will still take at least three years to break through from the Qi Training Fifth Layer to the Qi Training Sixth Layer!"

"If I want my cultivation progress to be faster, then unless I squeeze out more time to cultivate, I can only start with cultivation resources!"

Squeezing out more time was naturally impossible. His daily schedule was already extremely packed.