Zhi Yu was under considerable pressure too, at least more than his outward ease suggested. Cui Wei was both a special and crucial location.
Lately, people kept making covert moves against them. First, an eruption of the fire vein had cost them a batch of workers; then their recruitment of mortals had suffered setbacks. On top of that, outsiders unafraid of death kept coming to harass them.
Had Chu Qingjian not repeatedly abducted batches of lesser demons from outside to replenish their workforce, the Ore Vein's operations might well have stalled.
Yet Zhi Yu had no good solution. As an exalted Purple Mansion True Person, he could tear open the Great Void and kill every last one of those petty villains with his palm, but he could not do so.
This was a tacit understanding established jointly by several factions, and he could not rashly break it. Conflict was kept below the Purple Mansion level, with each side making its own moves and relying on its own abilities. Whoever broke the rules first could hardly blame others for abandoning them in turn.
He had enough people under his command, but most were at the early or middle stages. The few Late Stage cultivators he had were all stationed in crucial positions and could not readily be moved.
Only his junior sister, with her golden thunder, was truly effective: capable, decisive, and highly cultivated. But useful as she was, he could not split her into pieces to put her to work everywhere.
After turning the matter over in his mind, Zhi Yu had written to his master. He had originally hoped to transfer a veteran at the Foundation Establishment Peak from the Sect to lend support, but his master had sent his Fifth Junior Brother instead.
Even now, Zhi Yu remembered