Eastern Wasteland, Northern Region.
Desolate earth, crimson soil, reddish-brown rocks... Here, bleakness and stillness are eternal themes.
The golden crow's great sun is hoisted high, releasing vast Solar Essence as it counter-fights the residual Lunar Essence from the night; yin and yang merge, producing wreathed purple qi.
Many cultivators whose practices relate to the purple qi coming from the east rise early, preparing to capture the first wisp of it to refine into their bodies and advance their cultivation.
Yet some cultivators are different.
They possess no human rights, deeply plowing within the ore veins day in and day out, toiling away bitterly-they... are the mine slaves of the Northern Region.
Across the empty, desolate earth stand many stone houses, and among them shadow figures flicker, all of them mortals who have traveled thousands of miles to mine here.
A dark-skinned youth wearing coarse clothes and carrying a hoe has delicate facial features that fail to stand out beneath his tanned skin, save for a pair of extremely special eyes. Their divine brilliance is restrained; at a glance they seem ordinary, yet if one stares closely, they reveal themselves to be exceptionally gentle, looking quite comfortable.
Before the youth lies a boundless expanse of earth, bare and empty, where emptiness and desolation are the theme.
One might say that this place is a barren wasteland, a depopulated zone devoid of even a shred of vitality.
Yet some people rumor that this place once hosted brocaded blooms, flourishing vegetation, and essence flowing through heaven and earth like substance; anyone who has ever visited this place scoffs at the notion.
Yet... Qin Tian knows that these things are all true.
At least... they once were true.
It is merely that the era has changed.
A supreme holy emperor passed away here, and the violent dao fluctuations altered the dao rules, causing the environment of this domain to shift, transforming from Primal Antiquity toward Desolate Antiquity; the dao laws have remained unchanged for a million years, perpetually suppressing the vitality of this place.
The essence originally pervading heaven and earth was buried deep within the earth, and through the accumulation of days and months, it ultimately formed the source mines.
Consequently, the Source Stones produced in this place have become a battleground for major holy lands, sparking countless blood and turmoil.
As for why Qin Tian knows this so clearly.
It is because he is a transmigrator from another world; certain stories of this realm were written into novels in his original world.
As for how Qin Tian transmigrated, that is yet another cliché story.
A cliché orphanage, a cliché heavy truck, and with a bang, Qin Tian crossed over.
In this lifetime, having weathered life and death to break through the puzzle within the womb, he realized just what kind of world he had come to.
Ascending the heavenly road, walking while chanting, snapping fingers to shroud the heavens.
This is a splendid world, and equally a cruel one.
For the strong, the self is eternal and undying through the ages, with ten thousand daos following their every thought; upward they can strike the nine heavens, downward they can shake the ten earths, sweeping through past and present with no rival.
Yet... for the weak, it is cruel; struggling to survive in the world is merely a embellishment for the prosperous era created by the strong.
Take him in this lifetime, for instance.
Qin Tian's status in this lifetime is neither particularly good nor too bad.
Possessing cultivation aptitude, he surpassed ninety-nine percent of the mortal world right from the start.
He was picked up the mountain in his childhood by his master in this lifetime.
Living his second life, although he lost his memories due to reincarnation and possessed no special constitution, he retained a spiritual nature on the path of cultivation.
Ultimately, he was chosen as a fairy seedling for a small Grotto-Heaven.
He should have cultivated step by step in this manner, perhaps one day becoming a supreme Four Extremes Great Emperor.
Yet everything was shattered at the age of eight when horse bandits breached the mountain gate, slaughtered the sect master, burned, killed, and looted without committing a single wicked deed.
The master who viewed him like his own flesh and blood also died in the calamity of that battle.
Amidst great grief.
The memories of his past life were able to awaken, and Qin Tian himself lost consciousness under the impact of those memories.
When he finally woke up, Qin Tian had already been sold by the horse bandits to the Northern Region to mine Source Stones on the ground.
And this mining has lasted for three years.
Qin Tian carried his hoe and arrived before the entrance of the source mine cave.
Unlike the barrenness of other areas, this place converges with vitality, appearing exceptionally lush; ancient trees pierce the sky, standing over a hundred meters tall like small mountains, their branches stretching toward the heavens, and ancient vines intertwine like coiling dragons crawling up the cliff walls.
This region is covered with profound array patterns, condensing the momentum of mountains and rivers of the earth to guard the source district of the Yaoguang Holy Land.
Before the entrance of the mining area, a mine slave was hung up, and drops of blood trickled from his wound onto the ground, pooling into a puddle of bloody water.
A middle-aged man dressed as a steward swung a whip imbued with divine power, every lash tearing flesh and opening skin. Only after beating the man until tired did he stop and say, "I'm telling you, all the resources in this mining area belong to the Yaoguang Holy Land."
"And you are merely a group of coolies responsible only for mining; no one is allowed to touch the master's belongings."
"All thieves meet this very end." The steward gestured to the hung mine slave and cursed, "Damn it, to actually dare hide a piece of Heterogeneous Source weighing one jin-you simply don't want to live."
Heterogeneous Source: back when reading novels in his past life, Ye Fan could casually slice open a stone and cut out hundreds of jin of Heterogeneous Source, yet a hundred jin of Heterogeneous Source was merely the size of a fist.
One jin of Heterogeneous Source is only the size of a fingernail, and yet a piece of Heterogeneous Source as small as a fingernail is enough to cost someone their life.
"Listen to me, if I catch anyone stealing public source again, this is the end!" The middle-aged cultivator held his whip, pointing at the mine slave hanging in midair, and spoke.
"Now, head down to the mine!"
Qin Tian and the others entered the mineral vein, swapping places with the previous batch of people.
The divine mirror hanging high at the entrance glowed with divine light at all hours, countless dao texts sinking and floating across its surface as though reflecting boundless void, capable of projecting visions of the human body and leaving source stones with nowhere to hide.
The source stone mine was not a single large underground tunnel, but rather possessed countless branch veins resembling human capillaries.
Source stones were scattered, buried among the mountain rocks like pearls; originally mere ordinary mountain rocks, under the daily washing of spiritual essence their properties gradually changed as they became enveloped by the spiritual essence, ultimately forming source stones.
Therefore, wishing to mine source stones required digging along the direction in which the ley line spiritual essence circulated, yet the distribution of ley line spiritual essence was intricate and complex, such that even Great Experts could not claim to grasp it fully. Because of this, there were mine slaves, casting a wide net to gather fish in abundance.
Qin Tian avoided the main force, stopping and going as he followed his own intuition to press deeper into the depths, finally stopping in a single branch vein with the stray lock of hair on top of his head standing straight up: "This is the place!"
Taking advantage of the lack of people around and that the inspectors from the Yaoguang Holy Land could not see this spot.
With a single swing of Qin Tian's hoe, a beam of divine radiance surged straight upward, the divine source dazzling and blindingly crystal-clear to the eye.
The pitch-black, sunless dark place was entirely dyed with golden luster, even the silt growing sacred as if one were situated in a Buddhist holy land, flowing with brilliant colors and twinkling with translucence.
The light was resplendent, the sacred aura soaring into the sky and causing everyone's pores to relax and their entire bodies to feel supreme comfort, as though embraced by celestial spiritual Qi.
"Indeed, following my intuition and choosing this path was not wrong, my luck really is good." Qin Tian carefully extracted the divine source, supporting it in the palm of his hand, and at this very moment all the pores across his body opened up as the most primordial spiritual essence of heaven and earth entered his body, leaving his entire being in blissful ease.
This was a divine source, and even without being refined, it already allowed one to experience its extraordinary nature.
Merely capturing the slight primordial essence autonomously leaked by the divine source gave Qin Tian the urge to break through to the Life Spring.
His Bitter Sea churned, and within the lifeless sea of death qi, the Wheel of Life was excavated, about to give birth to a trace of vitality and advance to the second minor realm of the Wheel of Sea realm.
Yet it was forcibly suppressed by Qin Tian.
"No, the time is not yet right." Qin Tian muttered in a low voice.
To prevent anyone from absorbing source stones within the source mine, not only were there internal personnel monitoring, but they also recorded the realms of cultivators before and after entering and leaving.
Once someone broke through their current realm, without asking for the rights or wrongs, they would be beaten to death.
Divine sources were different from other source stones; divine sources contained Vital Life Qi and Divine Substance, and could even enhance the origin of living beings, allowing cultivators' aptitudes to undergo sublimation.
A saying circulated within the mining area.
As long as you dug up a piece of divine source, your life would change.
You would immediately become an outer sect disciple of the Yaoguang Holy Land, and then... continue coming to dig for sources.
After all, mine slaves capable of digging out divine sources were not often seen, so naturally they had to be used in the place most suited for them, such as digging for sources.
"As expected, my method is correct. As the ritual proceeds, my Qi of Fortune is also rising; picking up a divine source when stepping outside is an ordinary matter for me as well." Qin Tian was extremely happy, narrowing his eyes.
"At this rate, before long, perhaps my Qi of Fortune will be able to rival my son, Wang Teng, this former protagonist." Qin Tian smiled very happily.
The knowledge from his past life was his most precious wealth.
From it, he could find some unknown secrets and thereby obtain fortune.
For example, the ritual to enhance one's own Qi of Fortune was something he had tested out bit by bit.
Before you continue