The next morning, Mu Ye emerged from the Stone House with dark circles under his eyes, yet full of energy.
As he stepped outside, a thin, white-haired man who looked like a bamboo stalk came out of the Stone House opposite. Their eyes met, and the old man grinned. "Mu Ye, did you sneak off to Tianxiang Pavilion last night?"
"Which room were you in? How come I didn't run into you?"
"Get lost." Mu Ye waved him off, hefted his pickaxe, and headed along the stone path toward the mine. "Bamboo Pole, you're already so weak you can barely stand. You still dare go to Tianxiang Pavilion? Aren't you afraid those Fox Spirits will suck every last bit of cultivation out of you?"
The man was Zhu Fengliu, an old menial worker of the Jinshi Sect.
With his weathered face and head of white hair, anyone who didn't know better would have thought he was in his seventies or eighties.
In truth, he was only a little over thirty.
He had come to Qinghe Mine a few years ago, and most of the Spirit Stones he earned had gone straight to Tianxiang Pavilion in Qinghe Market.
He was the sort of Cultivator who had given up entirely, devoted to indulging himself and living one day at a time.
"Hahaha, don't walk so fast. Let's go together!" Bamboo Pole slung his pickaxe over his shoulder and shuffled along behind Mu Ye. "I'm telling you, you've got a real one-track mind. Give up that silly dream of immortality and the immortal path. What are you saving your Spirit Stones for?"
"You're not thinking of taking a Dao Companion, are you?"
Zhu Fengliu caught up with Mu Ye and patted him on the shoulder. "In this day and age, you can't afford to take a Dao Companion. You know Chen the Lame from next door, right?"
"I do. What about him?" Mu Ye shrugged the man's hand off.
"What about him?" Zhu Fengliu scoffed. "That idiot spent a fortune half a month ago to get someone to introduce him to a Female Cultivator at Qi Refining First Layer, remember? Then he left the mine and moved to the market to get married."
"Guess what happened next?"
"What?" Mu Ye asked.
"Not even half a month later, that Female Cultivator demanded a divorce. Chen the Lame refused, so she broke his other leg, too. I heard he crawled out of the market, and now his corpse is lying in the wilderness." Zhu Fengliu sighed. "So, if you've got Spirit Stones, you might as well spend them enjoying yourself."
"Look at our aptitude. We'll never amount to anything through cultivation. Even if we went to the Mortal world, those Cultivator Lineages would have everything under their thumb."
Mu Ye was taken aback. He hadn't expected Chen the Lame to meet such a miserable end.
Still, in the Cultivation World, that sort of thing was fairly common.
The Jinshi Sect's territory could only protect people from Demonic Beasts.
Mu Ye sighed a few times, then put the matter out of his mind. When he arrived at the mine, Steward Xu had already been waiting for quite a while.
Unlike usual, a handsome young man was standing beside Steward Xu. The steward was murmuring something to him in a deferential whisper. Clearly, the young man held a higher position than Steward Xu.
After a while, the young man flicked his sleeve, turned around, and slapped Steward Xu.
Steward Xu's face flushed red, but he could only stammer in response.
Mu Ye took one look and thought, Good grief. If someone can leave Steward Xu—who's at Qi Refining Sixth Layer—speechless with a slap, he must be a Formal Disciple of the Jinshi Sect.
He quickly lowered his head. Best not to stick his nose where it didn't belong.
As the menial workers slowly gathered outside the mine entrance,
Steward Xu called out,
"Today, there's a reward for mining. Anyone who finds a Red Flame Crystal will receive ten Spirit Stones."
At his words, the menial workers stirred excitedly.
Mu Ye couldn't help thinking, Holy crap, ten Spirit Stones?
After several years of mining, his predecessor had only managed to save a meager twenty Spirit Stones.
Mu Ye remembered that he'd been transmigrated here for several months, mining every day, yet his monthly earnings hadn't even amounted to one Spirit Stone.
Qinghe Mine operated on a fifty-fifty split. The menial workers had to hand half the Spirit Ore they dug up over to the Jinshi Sect, while the rest could be exchanged for Spirit Stones or Spirit Crystals.
And it often took several, or even more than a dozen, Red Flame Stones to trade for a single Spirit Stone.
"Red Flame Crystal? Who could find one of those?" Zhu Fengliu muttered beside him. "I've been at Qinghe Mine for years, and I've only heard of two ever being found. This thing's the Companion Spirit Crystal of a Red Flame Insect. Looks like this big shot wants it to forge a Flying Sword Magic Tool."
Red Flame Crystal was a bona fide first-tier Spirit Ore, and the main material used to forge a first-tier Flying Sword Magic Tool.
Ordinary Red Flame Stone was just common Spirit Ore, and could only be used as a secondary material in ordinary magic tools.
Everyone in the Cultivation World knew that, among materials of the same tier, those used to make Flying Sword Magic Tools were usually the most expensive.
Blades, spears, axes, halberds, ribbons, Bell Cauldrons, Seal Banners, and other such magic tools all ranked a tier below Flying Swords.
It wasn't because swords were particularly powerful. It was because of the people who used them...
The Jinshi Sect had many mineral veins, and Qinghe Mine had been worked for years. All the good materials that could be dug up had long since been cleared out.
The mine tunnel was deep and shadowy. Simple lamps made from Red Flame Stone lined both sides, keeping the path ahead fairly bright.
The farther in they went, the more the view opened up, while the aura radiating from the Spirit Ore grew increasingly chaotic.
Flame Energy was dense here. They had to circulate their Spiritual Power to resist it, or their bodies wouldn't be able to withstand it.
"Mining really is a lousy job..."
"Those farmers have it better. How many people can stay healthy after enduring this Flame Energy year in and year out?" Mu Ye couldn't help grumbling.
But farming also required capital.
Even renting the least fertile Spirit Field cost at least thirty or forty Spirit Stones upfront, followed by several more Spirit Stones in rent each year. A single locust plague could easily spell disaster.
The only upside was that it was more relaxed, and you didn't have to work every day.
Mu Ye planned to save some Spirit Stones, rent a Spirit Field, and take up farming. That way, he'd have more time to grind away at his game.
For now, though, he didn't have enough capital. It was only a daydream.
Mu Ye shook his head, circulated the Peiyuan Manual, and let a cool current of Spiritual Power slowly flow through his body as he prepared to get to work.
"Ten Spirit Stones for finding a Red Flame Crystal... That's a lot... If I earned that... I wouldn't be far from renting a Spirit Field."
Mu Ye gripped his pickaxe and was about to cast the Golden Blade Art to start mining when he suddenly stopped. "Wait..."
He looked around. There were no other menial workers nearby. The mine was vast and winding, and there weren't many workers. Those scattered throughout the tunnels were each mining on their own.
Mu Ye closed his eyes. The next moment, a strange power slowly emerged from within him.
Centered on Mu Ye, the space around him seemed to turn black and white in his perception.
Only a faint red aura remained, flowing nearby like a thread.
Mu Ye felt a pang of bewilderment.
[Mind Eye Lv. 1: Can sense through the disguises of demons and monsters, and detect unusual auras in the surroundings.]
He had gained this ability from a chest he opened before falling asleep last night.
Mu Ye hadn't felt anything at the time, and hadn't tried using it.
Mostly, he'd thought the ability was similar to a Cultivator's Divine Sense. The difference was that those in the Qi Refining Realm didn't have Divine Sense.
Besides, demons and monsters rarely appeared within the Jinshi Sect's territory, so the ability didn't seem very useful.
"So this is the world as perceived by a Demon Sealer... How strange. I wonder how this kind of perception compares to Divine Sense. Supposedly, only those at Foundation Establishment Realm can cultivate Divine Sense. Those in the Qi Refining Realm can't perceive things that way."
Mu Ye looked around.
In the black-and-white world, only one red aura flowed through the darkness.
"Could that aura be...?"
Mu Ye's heart stirred, and he followed the red aura.
The farther in he went, the denser the Flame Energy became. He occasionally came across other menial workers, also wandering around. They were probably looking for the Red Flame Crystal, so no one thought it odd that Mu Ye was roaming around.
With the Mind Eye spread out around him, Mu Ye soon reached the depths of the mine.
"The aura's getting stronger..."
Mu Ye's heart pounded until he reached a spot and stopped.
Through the Mind Eye, he saw a red orb of light buried deep beneath a thick layer of rock. Without hesitation, he took out his pickaxe and began digging carefully.
He stopped only when a corner of brilliant red light came into view.
"It really is a Red Flame Crystal."
"I can't dig any farther. There should be a Red Flame Insect beneath it. I can't deal with a Lesser Demonic Beast living in the mine..."
Mu Ye was a little excited. This Mind Eye ability was pretty interesting.
He hadn't expected the abilities of the game's characters to carry over into the real world. And it was... quite useful?
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