Falling Blossoms Have Feelings (2)

Shen Yuxi stood atop a sheer cliff, the iron pick in his hand glinting coldly beneath the sun. Mountain winds howled, snapping his robes loudly. Shen Yuxi narrowed his eyes and sensed the faint spiritual energy fluctuations within the rock face.

Suddenly, he flicked his wrist, driving the iron pick precisely into a crack in the stone.

"Second Senior Brother, the spiritual energy is denser three zhang to the southeast." Song Zhiyi's voice came from above. The youth was crouching beside a patch of rare Blue-Pattern Grass, his fingertips lightly touching the ground as he closed his eyes to sense something. "It's Star-Pattern Iron. The quality should be quite good."

Shen Yuxi moved in the direction Song Zhiyi indicated. Sure enough, after only a few strikes, the surface of an ore vein glittering like starlight emerged. Even he, the senior brother, felt inferior to Song Zhiyi's keen perception of spirit mines.

Over the past days they had spent together, Song Zhiyi's talent in these seemingly unorthodox fields, along with his vast store of knowledge, had left Shen Yuxi astonished time and again.

The youth seemed born with a unique understanding of mountains and rivers. From clues as subtle as vegetation patterns and traces of spirit beast activity, he could accurately determine the location of mineral veins.

The most outrageous instance had been when they discovered a hidden Azure Nether Jade vein merely because they found several rock rats feeding on a particular kind of moss.

...If I got a chance to travel back, and could only bring one person with me, I'd definitely bring Eleventh Junior Brother. Wouldn't taking him gambling on raw stones make us filthy rich? Come to think of it... where did Junior Brother learn all this? Could books truly contain gold?

Song Zhiyi had originally been