Mining Leaderboard

"Little brother, we've been watching for a long time..."

Zhao Xiaowei crossed his arms, wearing an air of utter confidence.

"You've been meditating here for several days, and it looks like you should have dug up enough ore."

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"Oh?" Jiang Ran frowned.

"So what."

The newcomers meant no good, and since this gang had been eyeing him for days, they must have harbored malicious intentions.

"Don't be nervous, little brother, we mean no harm." Zhao Xiaowei forced a smile, but it still looked rather fake.

"We brothers don't mean anything else, we just want to borrow a few pieces of ore from you."

"Borrow ore?" Jiang Ran laughed out of anger.

What kind of place was this? The Hundred Yue Sect's mine.

Every miner within the mine had only one task: to mine, hand over the ore, and the consequence of failing to do so was death.

The so-called "borrowing ore" was clearly taking advantage of someone's precarious situation to plot against their life.

Jiang Ran sneered inwardly while keeping a calm expression on the outside. "You gentlemen must be mistaken. Jiang merely injured his tendons and bones while mining and had to rest for a few days, not because he has saved up enough ore."

Now that his cultivation had greatly improved, he wouldn't be afraid if a fight really broke out.

But after all, this was the Great Ruins, on Black Dragon Mountain, where there were no laws or restrictions. In case the other party had some trump card, trouble would arise.

This move was not backing down, but weighing the pros and cons.

"No ore? Impossible, you brat..." The two men behind him instantly grew impatient.

Zhao Xiaowei reached out to signal his companions to shut up, then stepped forward again.

"Little brother, do you know who we work for?"

"Lord Zhuang Beiluo!"

Hearing the name Zhuang Beiluo, a trace of fanaticism surfaced on the faces of the few men.

"Zhuang Beiluo?"

"It seems you also know of Lord Zhuang's prestige, so I won't need to say more." Zhao Xiaowei wore a proud expression. "Lord Zhuang has a deep background, has long since perfected his Qi Cultivation, and now he has obtained a fortuitous encounter, having already consumed True Qi."

"We are borrowing ore from you, all for Lord Zhuang's sake."

"The Immortal Sect has set up an ore quantity ranking. The top three in submitted ore can all receive guidance from immortals to embark on the Qi-Consuming Initiation, and if you can rank first, you can even enter the sect directly!"

Zhao Xiaowei tried to persuade him with earnest advice.

Relying on this rhetoric, coupled with the deterrent effect of Zhuang Beiluo's name, they had indeed gathered a considerable amount of ore these past few days.

"Hand over your ore, and dig a bit more in the remaining days; it won't affect you fulfilling your quota."

"Lord Zhuang's side is different. Having received the Immortal Sect's reward this time, Lord Zhuang will surely leap to the heavens in a single bound and become a great figure of the Qi-Consuming Initiation!"

"By then, you and I can both receive his grace and also have the chance to successfully consume Qi!"

Jiang Ran listened to the whole process and helplessly rubbed his forehead.

"Zhuang Beiluo consumes Qi successfully first, and then helps you consume Qi?" He didn't quite know what to call these people—were they naive or foolish?

"You mean, consuming Qi first drives the subsequent consumption of Qi?"

"Exactly!" the three said in unison.

It looked like they truly trusted that Lord Zhuang.

"None." Jiang Ran still resolutely shook his head.

"You... don't toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!"

"None means none. Jiang lacks the ability to conjure ore out of thin air for you."

Zhao Xiaowei could no longer maintain his composure, his face rapidly turning gloomy.

"Brat, if you won't, this humble self will search you myself!"

Everyone was a miner, and it was nearly impossible to possess storage treasures; any ore mined could only be hidden by themselves.

"If you know what's good for you, hand the things over. When the time comes, I'll borrow one and return three; Lord Zhuang will not treat you unfairly."

"Be my guests!" Jiang Ran shrugged, entirely unconcerned.

"Search!"

Zhao Xiaowei wasted no more breath, waving his hand as the three quickly searched the surrounding mining tunnels.

They chose not to launch a direct attack on Jiang Ran, certain that the ore must be hidden beneath the mining tunnel.

If they actually managed to find the ore, they probably wouldn't leave a single piece behind.

"Wishful thinking." Jiang Ran quietly walked away.

There was no need to look at the result.

These three were bound to come up empty-handed.

Jiang Ran's ore was entirely within the Chaos Space, and not even a pebble was left behind in the mining tunnel, so how could they possibly find anything.

The Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect had indeed set up a so-called "Mining Leaderboard" to motivate miners to work hard at mining.

Each person's submitted ore quantity would be recorded in a registry, and three months later, rewards would be distributed based on rankings.

The top one hundred all received rewards, amounting to nothing more than some spiritual resources.

The top three could receive guidance from the sect's immortals, achieving a nearly one hundred percent success rate in Qi Assimilation.

The most enticing was the first place, as the top spot would be accepted into the sect by the Hundred Yue Sect and become an official disciple of the Immortal Sect.

The cultivation arts given by the Hundred Yue Sect to the miners had already reached the seventh tier; one could imagine that the treatment for official Immortal Sect disciples would certainly be even better, with an extremely high probability of using middle-three-tier True Qi to enter the Dao.

Everyone knew there was a natural difference between middle-three-tier and lower-three-tier True Qi.

Naturally, this competition belonging among the miners grew all the more fierce.

Jiang Ran clearly remembered that there were quite a few "experts" among the miners who had already perfected their Qi Cultivation—those were true experts, capable of successfully assimilating Qi given a single opportunity.

Yet no matter how formidable an expert was, they were still only at the Qi Cultivation stage and had yet to enter the Dao.

A single person's strength was ultimately limited, making Zhuang Beiluo's approach extremely effective: plundering others' ore and using the crowd as firewood to pile up his own Dao Initiation path.

Perhaps in the end, it might actually make him successfully climb to the top of the leaderboard.

"I'll hand in sixty catties first this time..." Jiang Ran planned.

"Let's first see how much they hand in, and when the time comes, I might just be able to contend for it."

With a glaringly bright straight path leading into the Immortal Sect set before him, he had no reason not to strive for it.

Even though Zhuang Beiluo's crowd used despicable methods and would surely gather a lot of ore,

Jiang Ran held high technology in his hands, so he was not without the ability to compete.

"I'll go back and sell a batch of ore, using all of it to exchange for Spirit Stones."

"If I max out the power... I alone can match all of them."

As long as there were enough Spirit Stones, Jiang Ran's mining efficiency at full throttle could at least rival dozens or even a hundred ordinary people!

Days later, the half-month deadline arrived.

On this day, all the miners appeared one after another, rushing toward the entrance of the mining field.

The great figures of the Hundred Yue Sect were already stationed here, with magical artifacts laid out in front.

Incoming individuals only needed to state their names and then throw their ore into the open space ahead.

The open space was covered with a layer of water-ripple-like gloss, and once the ore appeared, the sect's storage magical artifact would automatically collect it.

"Li Zhaoyun of Three Bright Village, submitted sixty-two catties of ore."

"Zhao Qin of Little River Village, submitted sixty-three catties of ore."

"..."

Most people submitted around sixty catties of ore, not exceeding it by much.

After all, for many people, mining was not easy, and saving up sixty catties of ore had already exhausted their utmost efforts, leaving little spare energy.

Of course... this was also inseparable from the plunder by certain so-called "big figures."

Jiang Ran mingled among them, handing in his full sixty catties of ore.

Soon, he heard a familiar name.

"Golden Sun Village, Zhao Xiaowei, submitted one hundred and thirty-three catties of ore... rising to one hundred and eighty-fifth place."

Zhao Xiaowei? One hundred and thirty-three catties?

"You brat aren't honest either." He narrowed his eyes.

While Zhao Xiaowei was ostensibly gathering ore for Zhuang Beiluo, he had actually handed in over a hundred catties of ore himself, far surpassing ordinary people and ranking directly around the one hundred and eightieth spot.

If one said this person hadn't lined his own pockets, Jiang Ran would never believe it.

Immediately following, the appearance of the final few names caused a wave of gasps within the mining field.