Change

"Quick, quick, there's not much time left..."

"Ah, what are we supposed to do? The ore is getting harder and harder to mine."

"If this keeps up and we can't turn in enough ore this time, we're dead for sure!"

Within the Hundred Yue Sect's mine, figures hurried back and forth amid a chorus of bitter complaints.

At the beginning, quite a few miners had clung to wishful thinking, believing the mining assignment might end soon.

But reality was cruel. More than a month had passed, yet there was not the slightest sign of it ending. On the contrary, the sect's mining assignment had grown even heavier.

The war between the Hundred Yue Sect and the Mingji Sect had dragged on endlessly, with no victor likely to emerge anytime soon.

Perhaps because the fighting had become urgent, the assignments at every major mine had been increased. The Vermilion Dense Iron mine was no exception. Each miner now had to submit eighty jin of ore every cycle, a burden increased by more than thirty percent.

After several rounds of selection, the opportunists who had merely padded out the ranks had long since died off. The miners who had safely survived until now all possessed some measure of ability.

But the problem did not lie with the miners. It lay with the mine itself.

—Mining was becoming harder and harder!

At first, mining had been easy for everyone, because a large portion of the ore lay exposed. It could be extracted with very little effort; even a farmer who had only just begun Qi Nourishment could manage it with ease.

But as time passed, all the easily mined ore had been dug out, and exposed ore became increasingly scarce.

Mining had now become far more difficult. One often had to chisel underground for half a day or even longer before finding a single piece of raw ore.

To complete the assignment, one had to go all out.

And if one wanted to compete for the leaderboard, it was even harder.

Either one had the strength to dig deeper into the vein, or... one had to cross the mountain to the other side of the mine.

The other side of the Vermilion Dense Iron mine lay within a gorge, where mineral deposits were far more abundant.

Unfortunately, the terrain was perilous, and all kinds of venomous insects and ferocious beasts lurked there. It was exceedingly dangerous.

Before reaching Qi Nourishment Perfection, these miners possessed very limited combat ability. Very few could cross to the other side of the mountain.

Of course, Jiang Ran had none of these worries.

Not to mention the ore he could store in his Chaos Space.

A single impact drill was enough to let him sleep with his head on a high pillow.

Whether the ore lay exposed or was buried deeper underground made little difference to him.

At most, he would consume more Spirit Stones, and in return, the ore he mined would weigh more.

Over the past month or so, Jiang Ran had spent most of his time in Pingjiang. His focus had not been on the Grand Ruins Realm, and he only came over to turn in ore around the middle and end of each month.

The ore piled up in his Chaos Space was not particularly much—around five or six hundred pieces, weighing no more than six thousand jin.

If placed in Pingjiang, this ore would be another immense fortune, but Jiang Ran did not intend to take it out and sell it for the time being.

Selling a batch of ore was like secretly taking something from home and exchanging it for Tianlu Coin vouchers; it was unlikely to draw attention.

But if he kept producing the same kind of ore in an endless stream, that would be different. Anyone with sharp eyes would see that something was wrong.

Thus, this ore was temporarily nothing more than frozen, invisible assets.

It could only be called wealth on paper.

Jiang Ran's mindset had changed. These days, he had been mining ore with all his strength.

He might not necessarily join the Hundred Yue Sect, but he had to mine ore.

If he left Black Dragon Mountain in the future, this ore would be the capital with which he built his fortune.

Soon, it was time to turn in ore again.

"Three Bright Village, Li Zhaoyun, eighty jin of ore submitted."

"Little River Village, Zhao Qin, eighty jin of ore submitted."

"..."

Ever since the sect had raised the mining assignment to eighty jin, most miners had no choice but to calculate every last detail. Turning in even one or two extra liang of ore counted as waste.

"Westwind Town, Qin Shuang, nine hundred and thirty-two jin of ore submitted... ranked third!"

"Gold-Splitting Town, Li Yi, nine hundred and thirty-two jin of ore submitted... ranked second!"

"Gold-Splitting Town, Zhuang Beiluo, one thousand and fifty-two jin of ore submitted... ranked first!"

The top three positions on the Mining Leaderboard had not changed for a long time.

Zhuang Beiluo, Li Yi, and Qin Shuang held the leading positions tightly. At this rate, they should be the ultimate winners who could undergo Qi Assimilation and enter the Dao, perhaps even become formal disciples.

"Zhuang Beiluo..."

Naturally, Jiang Ran was no stranger to Zhuang Beiluo's name.

Not long ago, one of Zhuang Beiluo's underlings had come to his door, intending to coerce and entice him into handing over his ore.

None of the three people at the top of the leaderboard used honorable methods.

After all, under normal circumstances, no matter how capable one person was, it was impossible to mine over a thousand jin of ore in half a month.

Everyone understood such a simple truth, and the Hundred Yue Sect naturally could not possibly be unaware of it.

But to the sect, such matters were unimportant. What they wanted was the quantity of ore.

The Vermilion Dense Iron mine alone produced over a million jin of ore every month.

From the Hundred Yue Sect's perspective, they even hoped for figures like Zhuang Beiluo to emerge. The Mining Leaderboard had been established precisely to encourage competition among miners.

One's fate was merely a small link in the road of cultivation.

Being able to break free from the bottom through every sort of means—how was that not a kind of talent?

Jiang Ran watched from afar, his heart stirring slightly.

The auras of these three were vastly different from what they had been over a month ago.

Their auras were purer and more condensed.

There were quite a few people present at Qi Nourishment Perfection, but almost none could reach this level. Even among those at Qi Nourishment Perfection, there were differences.

Zhuang Beiluo in particular gave Jiang Ran a faint sense of pressure.

"His blood and spiritual energy are interwoven throughout his body, fused into one whole... this is what perfection means." Jiang Ran fell into thought.

As a Qi Refining cultivator, he could see things that ordinary people could not.

Zhuang Beiluo had reached an extreme, surpassing the so-called Qi Nourishment Perfection of the others.

Though he had yet to undergo Qi Assimilation and had not crossed into the next realm, he had already walked this path to its end.

It seemed... only this kind of perfection could truly be called perfection, and only this gave one greater qualifications to undergo Qi Assimilation and enter the Dao!

"Looks like the Hundred Yue Sect has indeed given them quite a few benefits." Jiang Ran had formed his judgment.

Without question, the reason these three could continually improve and surpass the others at Qi Nourishment Perfection was entirely due to the rewards for ranking near the top of the Mining Leaderboard.

Combined with the news he had gathered over the past few days,

the blue-robed Qi Assimilation immortal responsible for the mine had not continued killing people.

Jiang Ran could roughly conclude that the Hundred Yue Sect was most likely not a true "demonic sect" in the strict sense. At most, the conduct and style of its cultivators and disciples had some problems.

Whether or not to join the Hundred Yue Sect still required consideration.

But he could no longer afford to miss the Mining Leaderboard's rewards.

Jiang Ran pondered for a moment before making his decision.

"Xiang Family Village, Jiang Ran, three hundred and fifty jin of ore submitted." The Hundred Yue Sect cultivator looked somewhat surprised and raised his eyes to glance at Jiang Ran.

"Jiang Ran's cumulative ore submission: five hundred and thirty-six jin."

"Not bad... you've improved."

Jiang Ran did not dare reply rashly. He merely bowed in salute and withdrew.

Three hundred and fifty jin of ore was only the beginning.

Once he reached Qi Nourishment Perfection, he would be able to pluck the fruit.