"True Dragon Prince had long since spent all his previous savings on equipping his Dao soldiers."
"His monthly funds now all came from the Essence Stones generated by selling these minerals."
"The buyers were originally the merchants throughout Earth Dragon City, accounting for at least seventy percent of the share."
"The remaining thirty percent was sold to other cities."
"This was also a test."
"A test of his overall capabilities."
Li Qing quickly grasped True Dragon Prince's only current weakness.
With a slight flicker of his figure, he silently made his way toward the mines under True Dragon Prince's control.
The mine lay fifty li outside Earth Dragon City. It was a lone mountain, covering an area of roughly five li in every direction.
When Li Qing arrived, what he saw was a mine in full, blazing swing.
At the foot of the lone mountain sprawled a vast smelting area.
Around a thousand Dao soldiers were stationed here, and they had constructed a small fortified encampment.
The camp occupied a stretch at the mountain's base. A formation covered the surface of its walls, along with numerous restrictions. It could attack when advancing and defend when retreating—a place like an impregnable fortress.
Inside stood countless smelting furnaces. The Dao soldiers took turns activating them to refine the ore that had been mined.
Two kinds of metal ingots were stacked neatly in the mine's warehouse.
These Dao soldiers were both guards and smelting workers.
The miners were different. They were criminals who had committed offenses, defeated soldiers captured from battlefields, or humans seized from the Nine Provinces.
As Li Qing surveyed the bustling mine, he discovered that the highest-ranking person guarding it was a Primordial Spirit cultivator.
This cultivator was called the Hundred-Eyed Demon King, and he belonged to a highly unusual