One month later.
In Pingyin Prefecture, in the Golden Dawn Mountain Range.
Deep beneath the mountains lay an enormous third-tier high-grade Golden Sun ore vein.
At that moment, somewhere in the main mining tunnel.
The darkness was thick enough to feel solid. Only scattered glowstones embedded in the rock walls gave off faint light, barely illuminating the uneven ground.
The air was filled with the sharp scent peculiar to spirit stone dust, mingled with the miners' sour sweat and a deeper, more unsettling sense of oppression from the surrounding rock.
Clang! Clang!
The monotonous sound of digging echoed alongside heavy panting.
This was one of the Qian Household's principal lifelines, a third-tier high-grade Golden Sun spirit stone mine. Its monthly revenue was enough to sustain a medium-sized Golden Core sect.
At that moment, the miners numbly swung pickaxes of high-grade spirit artifact quality or better, mining the golden spiritual radiance that glimmered faintly within the rock walls.
This was a rich deposit, supported by a powerful earth vein and nurtured and refined through various mystic arts. By estimates, it could be mined without worry for three thousand years.
Several overseers who were trusted retainers of the Qian Household carried whips. Among them was a Golden Core cultivator, who swept his sharp gaze over the mining slaves and barked reprimands from time to time.
"Hurry up! Haven't you eaten? You'd better break through this branch tunnel for me today!"
One overseer cursed and lashed an old miner who was moving a little too slowly across the back, leaving a bloody welt.
The old miner gave a muffled grunt. Not daring to resist, he could only desperately quicken his movements.
They were all penal slaves, people without entries in the Immortal Register, people who had sold themselves, or people risking their lives