The miners had gradually emerged from the mine tunnel. It was nearly time for their lunch break.
The man in charge of Black Falling Mountain Mining Camp—a man in black formalwear who looked to be around fifty—casually picked at the dishes before him as he asked Ling Wuyuan with some confusion:
"You're going out later?"
The middle-aged man was named Qi Xingjian. He was actually in his sixties, and he had reached the Bone Forging Realm more than twenty years ago.
Although various factors—talent, resources, cultivation techniques, and so on—had kept him from ever reaching the Blood Strengthening Realm, he was quite formidable among Bone Forging Realm cultivators. It would not be wrong to say that his strength came very close to the Blood Strengthening Realm.
Sitting across from him, Ling Wuyuan continued eating as he answered his question:
"Yes. I plan to go to Wucha Town and buy a few things."
Strictly speaking, the other man was his immediate superior, the highest-ranking on-site manager of the entire Black Falling Mountain Mining Camp. But once the roughly three hundred miners responsible for hard labor—who basically had no say in anything—were excluded, there were only around a dozen official White Crow Gang members in the whole camp.
As such, his actual status was more or less that of a squad leader. He could not really be considered some great leader.
This meant that everyone usually got along with very little sense of hierarchy. They were all quite free and easy, eating and chatting together every day.
After receiving Ling Wuyuan's definite answer,
Qi Xingjian did not hesitate. He quickly nodded in agreement.
"Fine."
"Then pick up a copy of this issue's News Report for me while you're at it."
He did not particularly care about Ling Wuyuan taking leave.
He was