Lone Mountain was littered with abandoned mine shafts, desolate as far as the eye could see.
The city's scrawny orphans carried bamboo baskets on their backs, bent at the waist, and used their filthy little hands to pry rough ore from the pitch-black ground, piece by piece.
Only this way could they survive.
Mo Hua passed silently among them under Stealth Technique, his expression somewhat grim.
Fortunately, Master Gu had remembered his instructions and drawn a First-Grade Wind Pattern on every orphan's bamboo basket, lightening their burdens somewhat so the heavy ore would not leave their bodies covered in bruises.
For now, this was all he could do.
Mo Hua sighed, passed through the ore-picking orphans, and headed straight for the Shen Family's mountain.
He had already explored nearly every other part of Lone Mountain. Only the Shen Family's stretch of mountain remained untouched.
There had to be something strange about that mountain.
Mo Hua wanted to take a look while hidden.
After walking a while longer, his view suddenly opened up, and the Shen Family's sprawling mine mountains came into sight.
These mine mountains were immense and magnificent, occupying nearly half of Lone Mountain. They were relatively neatly laid out, and their mine shafts were broad and spacious.
These were traces left behind by large-scale Spirit Machinery excavation.
A full ring of warning arrays had been laid around the outskirts of the Shen Family mine mountains. Within the mines, several Shen Family cultivators remained stationed there, occasionally patrolling the surrounding area.
The arrays were Second-Grade, and the Shen Family cultivators were only at Foundation Establishment.
These were abandoned mines. No ore could be extracted from them anymore, and they could no longer turn a profit. Naturally, no Golden Core Elder would be sent to guard them.
Even having Foundation