The Wealthy

"Gold-Splitting Town, Li Yi, one thousand one hundred and thirty-two catties of ore delivered... promoted to second place!"

"Gold-Splitting Town, Zhuang Beiluo, one thousand four hundred and eighty-eight catties of ore delivered... promoted to the top of the list!"

Jiang Ran watched everything unfold before his eyes.

Zhuang Beiluo...

The so-called "Lord Zhuang" in Zhao Xiaowei's mouth had truly climbed to the top of the list.

A full one thousand four hundred and eighty-eight catties of "Vermilion Dense Iron" ore was a completion of the task by nearly several dozen times, comparable to the total ore delivery of dozens of ordinary miners!

One had to know that even Jiang Ran, while holding a high-tech spiritual-power drill, had only extracted slightly over two thousand catties of ore.

"I wonder how many people this bastard harmed." Jiang Ran shook his head.

"Silence!"

The Taoist priest of the Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect spoke up.

The clear and resonant shout spread across the entire venue, and the voice seemed to carry a peculiar Daoist rhyme.

It caused everyone present to quiet down at the identical moment, dropping into absolute silence.

"This is..." Jiang Ran's eyes revealed a strange look.

"Is this the power after entering the Dao?"

Just a moment ago, he felt an unprecedented kind of power.

It was not a forced "shut up," but rather an inexplicable loss of the desire to continue speaking.

That feeling was too magical, and even surpassed the power of the teachers at Pingjiang No. 1 High School.

The Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect Taoist priest made a beckoning gesture with his hand, and the water ripples on the open ground rapidly vanished, pulling back at extreme speed.

Then they actually converged into a beam of blue spiritual light, transforming into an exquisite bracelet that fell into the Taoist priest's palm.

"Very good..." The Taoist priest wore a satisfied expression, putting the bracelet away into his Taoist robe.

"Ten thousand people mining, those who fail to finish the work are less than one in ten."

"Very good!"

"Qin Shuang, Li Yi, Zhuang Beiluo, the three of you stay behind to listen to the scripture."

"Yes!" The three people below the stage hurriedly stepped forward with joy.

According to the rules, it was supposed to be the time for the final tally several months later.

Yet today this Taoist priest was obviously in a good mood, so there ought to be some extra benefits.

"Ying Xuan, come over here."

"This subordinate is here."

The Taoist priest handed over the roster, casually instructing: "For those who haven't finished the work, erase their names."

"This subordinate obeys the command!"

Li Yi, Zhuang Beiluo, and the three of them followed the Taoist priest, riding the wind and flying away, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

As for that cyan-clothed immortal called "Ying Xuan"...

He furrowed his brows and quickly flipped open the roster.

[Little River Village, Mo Fan, sixteen catties of ore delivered, work failed to reach the quota.]

Amidst the shocked gazes of the crowd, the cyan-clothed immortal drew a single stroke across the roster.

Mo Fan's name vanished.

At almost the identical instant.

Among the crowd below the stage, the figure of a tall and thin young man suddenly stiffened.

--Bang!

With a muffled sound, his body burst apart, transforming into a dense fog of blood.

The blood fog seemed to be guided by some kind of traction, rapidly surging, and then actually vanished silently into the roster in the cyan-clothed immortal's hand.

The entire venue was dead silent, and no one dared to make the slightest sound.

"This..." Jiang Ran's mind and soul shook violently.

Having come to the Grand Ruins Realm for so long, this was the first time he truly experienced what it meant to be "a matter of life and death."

A mere stroke of the brush had erased a name, and had also erased a life.

Right now what he cared about was no longer how powerful Qi Assimilation immortals were.

Instead...

"Did I get something wrong?" Jiang Ran felt a bit dizzy.

"Could this damn Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect simply not be any kind of righteous immortal sect at all?"

There were plenty of rumors on the streets, and he had also considered what kind of fate awaited those who failed to complete the task.

Corporal punishment, torture, or direct execution.

Yet he never dreamed that death was just death, and how could it be such a miserable way to die.

What was even more fatal was that the cluster of blood fog was completely absorbed by the roster.

Clearly, the blood fog was useful.

All of this failed to match the style and conduct of a righteous immortal sect in Jiang Ran's mind.

It looked much more like... a demonic sect!

"I've been screwed. Did I walk right into a den of villains?" Jiang Ran felt a chill run down his spine.

He did not believe righteous immortal sects were all that noble.

Yet righteousness at least wore the banner of justice, and on the surface strictly followed the rules while possessing certain principles.

Demonic sects were different.

Notoriously infamous, everyone knew demonic sects used any means necessary.

Inside a demonic sect, everyone could potentially be an enemy!

The young man who had just burst apart and died was only the first.

Then there was a second person, a third person, a fourth person...

The cyan-clothed immortal made sweeping strokes across the roster, and numerous names vanished.

People kept bursting to their bodies and dying below the stage.

Countless clusters of blood fog swarmed toward the book.

The roster continuously absorbed the essence of the blood fog, vaguely seeming to emit a lustrous red blood light, as if it had obtained nourishment.

"Calm down, go back first."

Jiang Ran steadied his mind, retreated with the main force, and re-entered the mining area.

Everyone dispersed, each searching for a suitable mining cave.

The mining task could be as short as two to three months, or as long as two years or even longer.

The heavy responsibility of sixty catties every half month still needed to continue for a long time.

This was the choice of most people: to bear the heavy burden and fight for the possibility of Qi-Consuming Initiation.

In an unnoticed corner.

Jiang Ran's figure vanished into the shadows.

The Chaos Space, stepping across the Cross-Boundary Gate in a single stride.

Raising his hand again, he had already returned to Pingjiang.

"I'm back... it's still best to be back!" Jiang Ran let out a long sigh of relief.

He poured a cup of water and gulped it down in one breath, finally soothing the shock in his heart.

It was too exaggerated, too terrifying.

The might of Qi Assimilation cultivators far exceeded his imagination.

That method of erasing lives with a single stroke of the pen, the ruthlessness of slaughtering hundreds or thousands of people with a casual wave...

It was a darkness Pingjiang had never seen before!

Was the atmosphere of the Great Ruins Immortal Sect originally like this, or was the Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect essentially a thorough demonic sect?

Jiang Ran did not know.

Yet he could be certain of one thing: he was somewhat scared.

Rather than calling it fear, it was more like worry.

All along he had considered himself an ordinary commoner of Pingjiang, and going to the Grand Ruins Realm was merely to gather resources and seek cultivation methods to secure benefits for himself.

Yet now, things seemed to have become somewhat different.

If the Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect truly was a demonic sect, then with him residing within a demonic sect, he could encounter danger at any moment.

Even if he did nothing, he could still be casually crushed to death by a going-mad big shot.

After all... to those high-and-mighty big shots, the lower cultivators could be disciples, but they could also be resources.

Today's collection of blood fog by the cyan-clothed immortal was the best proof.

"The reputation of the Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect is still considered decent; they haven't committed any ruthless acts of slaughtering cities or wiping out clans."

Jiang Ran pondered carefully, "For the time being, as long as I don't break the rules, it's unlikely I'll suffer a devastating disaster."

"The ore still has to be mined, but I must keep a low profile and avoid drawing attention."

"Let's slow down for a few days..."

He quickly made a decision to go to school first and relax.

Of course, returning to Pingjiang also required handling one important matter.

Half a day later.

Downtown Pingjiang City.

Jiang Ran appeared once again in front of the doors of the Xianye Department Store Building.

He straightened his collar and stepped through the doors with full confidence.

It was still "Lin's Ore Language," still testing ore.

"Spirit-source grade eighteen, sir, you have a few more pieces of ore, and our store can buy them all at market price." The clerk was extremely polite.

Although eighteenth-grade ore wasn't an exceptionally high-grade cargo, it still counted as a piece of performance.

Jiang Ran remained silent, merely holding up two fingers.

"Two pieces? No problem!" The clerk answered very readily.