Shopkeeper Zhao nodded slightly. "Into the earth."
"Do you mean... into the earth the way I think you do?" Mo Hua asked.
Shopkeeper Zhao shook his head. "Of course I don't mean you'll literally be buried, Young Master Mo. I mean..." He pointed downward.
A thought stirred in Mo Hua's mind. "A tomb?"
Shopkeeper Zhao lowered his gaze and nodded.
Mo Hua said, "Living people going into the earth... You mean... robbing tombs?"
Shopkeeper Zhao shot Mo Hua a meaningful look and said cryptically:
"We don't call it that here. Going into the earth is just going into the earth. It has nothing to do with tombs or robbery."
They're particular about the wording...
Mo Hua thought for a moment, then asked curiously, "Where do we go in? What part of Kun Province has... earth we can enter?"
Shopkeeper Zhao grew even more cautious. Some things were clearly taboo; he could offer a hint or two, but nothing more:
"I can't tell you that yet... Business beneath the earth can't bear the light of day."
Mo Hua nodded in understanding, then asked, "Why are you telling me about it?"
Shopkeeper Zhao said, "Aren't you short of Spirit Stones?"
Mo Hua asked, "Can going into the earth... earn Spirit Stones?"
"Of course. Since ancient times, few trades have been more profitable." Shopkeeper Zhao nodded. "A living man might not have two coins to rub together, but who goes to his tomb without ten thousand taels of gold buried alongside him?"
Mo Hua nodded.
The gulf between rich and poor cultivators was vast. When a poor cultivator died, they might be buried in a Mass Grave, if they were buried at all. Some were simply tossed into a valley to be eaten by demon beasts or have their corpses stolen by Demonic