Chen Lin walked up to the deep-blue mine wall.
He activated his true dragon strength, lifted his pick with one hand, and brought it down with effortless ease.
Clink.
There were no sparks, no deafening crash.
Only an exceptionally crisp sound as something broke free.
A fist-sized blue crystal, radiating a piercing glow, slid smoothly off the mine wall and dropped into the metal basket below.
The One-Horned Strongman's eyes bulged.
Then came Qin Chuxia.
She rolled up her sleeves, her rose-red ponytail swaying behind her head. Gripping her mining pick in both hands, she brought it down with a sharp cry.
Crack.
A mid-grade spirit crystal fell free. Qin Chuxia shook out her wrist. "Quite a bit harder. My wrist's a little numb, but it's still manageable."
Song Qiuya, Yun Sheng, Li Xiaoyue, and the others swung their picks in turn, their movements crisp and decisive.
Those two old veterans, Changqingzi and Heavenly Hatred True Lord, were even more outrageous. Muttering "Eighty, eighty," they swung their mining picks so fast they left afterimages.
Clang!
Clang!
The spirit crystals fell into the baskets in a rapid succession of crisp clinks.
The Void Refinement veterans around them, who had been ready to enjoy the spectacle of their failure, all froze in place.
The mid-stage Void Refinement sword cultivator who had mocked them rubbed his eyes. He looked at the chipped mining pick in his hands, then at the five or six deep-blue crystals already piled in Chen Lin's basket. Veins throbbed on his forehead.
"Impossible!" the One-Horned Strongman cried out. "A mid-grade spirit wall, under the suppression of a Spirit-Severing Formation-even someone at late-stage Void Refinement couldn't do this so easily! They must have used some underhanded trick!"
He abruptly stepped forward and stormed toward Qin Chuxia. "Little girl, let me