Spirit and Might Unite, Great Fortune Fist

"What did you two do in here?"

The mine supervisor's furious voice rang out. Though old, his tall body blocked the tunnel entrance as he glared at the two before him.

To his surprise, despite keeping a close watch on the immortal slaves entering and leaving the mine, two of them had still slipped through the cracks, cultivated Qi, and gained the qualifications to enter the immortal sects.

"There must be some kind of sensing array here. He found out about our breakthrough."

Bi Qiong looked at Xu Yuan, her voice trembling slightly. Compared to the living quarters, she had thought breaking through inside the mine would be more discreet. Who could have expected there to be an array here that could sense spiritual energy?

No wonder that person had not come himself.

"You're called Xu Yuan, and you're called Bi Qiong, right?" The supervisor looked at them mockingly. "Not bad. You had some ideas, at least—you even knew to hide from me. What a pity. This entire mining area is under my control."

The supervisor stepped forward. The black wind before him suddenly transformed into a giant hand and seized directly at the two of them.

"If I can't capture you alive, I'll sell you for the price of corpses!"

A wild gale howled toward them. The spiritual energy surging from the supervisor's body vastly surpassed theirs. Bi Qiong gritted her teeth and could only form a hand seal, producing a streak of pink light in her palm. Just then, Xu Yuan behind her suddenly neither dodged nor evaded, instead stepping forward to meet the attack.

His body was likewise tall, but compared to the supervisor, the spiritual energy fluctuations around him were undoubtedly far weaker. After all, he had only just broken through to the first level of Qi Refinement.

Yet at that moment, as Xu Yuan clenched his fist, an unexpectedly powerful aura rose from his body as well.

"This punch is called Dayun!"

The words slowly left his mouth. Xu Yuan planted his right foot, then threw a savage punch.

Several days ago, he had already begun studying the combat methods within the Little Blue Mountain Essence-to-Qi Art. Among them, the eight words, "When intent breaks all things, the fist breaks all things," had left Xu Yuan pondering for a long time.

At first, he had even wildly imagined the Big Bang, the creation of heaven and earth, or the great sun rising in the east. But in the end, such celestial phenomena were too weighty, far beyond his ability to visualize—or else too lacking in detail, producing no aura at all when visualized.

After days of bitter contemplation, he had only grasped a trace of the mystery this very morning.

On the national highway, the hundred-ton king—gods slayed gods, Buddhas slayed Buddhas!

We're all living with all our might. I'm trying this hard to live, so why are you still alive?!

Wretch, go tell my insurance about it!

His aura rose wave upon wave. Gradually, the blood and Qi within Xu Yuan's body began to roar. Working together with his spiritual energy, they drove this punch directly to its peak.

In a daze, within this cramped mine tunnel, it truly seemed as though the blare of a Dayun horn had sounded.

With a thunderous boom, the fist collided with the black-wind hand. Under the supervisor's utterly shocked gaze, his grasping spell was blasted apart outright. Yet that kid who had only just entered Qi Refinement suffered merely torn skin, not even a serious injury.

"Unity of spirit and martial arts." The supervisor stared at Xu Yuan with a twisted expression. He suddenly recalled that the mortal body the other had awakened must be anything but ordinary. He had actually unified his blood and Qi with spiritual energy the moment he entered the Qi Refinement realm—and even unleashed such a punch.

At the thought, his heart twisted again. Why? You had clearly fallen into this mining area and become an immortal slave. Why couldn't you just obediently offer up everything you had? Why did you still have to climb upward?!

The black wind around him swelled once more. This time, the supervisor no longer held back his mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivation. With the next strike, he would crush the two of them completely.

"Die!"

The black wind transformed into several massive palms that came killing at them from every direction, each far stronger than the previous technique.

At that moment, Bi Qiong suddenly pointed forward. The pink light in her hand shot out, passed directly through all the black wind, and entered the supervisor's eyes.

His mind had already been in turmoil; now, struck by this spiritual attack, his vision abruptly became chaotic. In an instant, more than half the black-wind palms scattered away.

"It's up to you now."

Bi Qiong gave a weak shout. Xu Yuan nodded, drew a breath, and threw another fierce punch.

Continuously visualizing the hundred-ton king racing down the highway, Xu Yuan kept punching. His spiritual energy and blood Qi were being rapidly consumed, and his hands became a mangled mess of flesh and blood, with white bone faintly visible beneath.

But Xu Yuan seemed not to notice at all. He kept punching until, with a boom, the last black-wind palm was smashed apart as well.

Only then did the supervisor come back to his senses. Staring at the two who had survived yet again, he was about to attack once more when a clear bell suddenly rang outside.

Once every half month, a Hidden Moon Sect deacon came to collect the ore.

"Why is it so much later?" Bi Qiong took a breath, then looked again at the supervisor, whose expression had turned ugly.

"The immortal sect's elder has arrived. Are you going to fight us to the death, miss the appointed time and end up skinned and dismembered, or are you going to hurry over now and leave yourself a way to live?"

Bi Qiong's words were unnecessary. The moment the bell rang, the supervisor had already left the mine with a gloomy face. From the look of him, he probably hated his parents for not giving him two more legs.

"Every ore collection takes place at the third quarter of the Rat Hour. That's what that person told me. But why is it half a quarter-hour late today?" Seeing Xu Yuan's confusion, Bi Qiong explained, then took out a medicinal pill from her robes and tossed it to him. "Eat this. It's for healing."

Xu Yuan nodded his thanks, but merely tucked the pill into his robes. Bi Qiong pursed her lips but said nothing more, only saying, "Let's hurry after him. While the Hidden Moon Sect deacon is here, we should tell her that we've already broken through to Qi Refinement."

"Alright."

Xu Yuan answered. Feeling that some of the blood Qi and spiritual energy within him had recovered, he hurried after Bi Qiong.

Just as they were about to reach the outside, footsteps suddenly sounded at the tunnel entrance. The two raised their heads and once again saw the supervisor's old face poking in.

Their expressions immediately tightened, only relaxing when they saw the figure of a woman behind him, dressed in a black deacon's robe with a white veil covering her face.

"Xu Yuan, Bi Qiong, why haven't you hurried to pay respects to Immortal Elder Rong Ling?"

"Xu Yuan."

"Bi Qiong."

"Greetings, Immortal Elder Rong Ling."

The two bowed in unison, while also shooting the overseer strange looks. How could this man change his face faster than flipping a book?

"Immortal Elder, I sensed something amiss in the cave just now and discovered that an immortal slave had broken through to the Qi Refinement realm. I entered the cave to inspect it, which delayed me for some time."

The overseer smiled ingratiatingly at the deacon. Only then did the two understand—since he had failed to kill them, he was simply using them as shields.

"Mm." The deacon swept her gaze over Xu Yuan and Bi Qiong, as though she had not noticed their half-dead state at all. She merely gave a cold instruction. "Handle it according to procedure."

"As you command, Immortal Elder."

The overseer nodded repeatedly, then stepped forward and patted their shoulders. "Junior Brothers, having broken free of the cocoon and become butterflies, you are about to enter the Hidden Moon Immortal Sect and ascend to the heavens. I truly can't bear to part with you."

Xu Yuan and Bi Qiong looked at his face and nodded again and again. "Yes, we truly can't bear to part either."

The three exchanged smiles, and for a moment the atmosphere could not have been more harmonious. There was not the slightest trace of their earlier tit-for-tat hostility.

Yet beneath the surface, one feared being exposed and could only yield to the immortal slaves, while the other feared further trouble and simply went along with it.

From beginning to end, the deacon merely watched coldly. She only urged the overseer to deliver the ore quickly, then nodded at Xu Yuan and Bi Qiong.

"Come with me."