Mining
The mine passage was rugged, and the deeper they went, the darker it became and the more Demon Beasts they encountered.
Besides the Night Sha, there were Demon Beasts and spirits such as earth dragons, ghosts, and pangolins. Fortunately, they were all at first tier or below, and posed little obstacle to Fang Yu and the other three great cultivators at the Qi Refining Late Stage.
After dealing with another pack of Night Sha, the four entered a somewhat narrow passage. Fang Yu checked the mine map Great Cultivator Yang had given him and found that they had reached its deepest point. Beyond it, there was neither a map nor a passage.
After walking a little farther, they came upon a cavern. To the northeast was a mine entrance, but its mouth glimmered faintly with spiritual light. A formation had clearly been laid there.
Great Cultivator Yang glanced that way, then turned his hand and produced a compass. Watching its constantly spinning needle, he said, "We'll dig southeast. The Spiritual Qi is relatively denser over there, so there should be a good reserve of Spirit Stones."
"I'll open the way!"
Strongman Zhang reached into the air and seized a pickaxe. He walked up to the cavern wall on the southeastern side and swung it.
Clang, clang...
The sound of metal striking stone rang through the cavern. Fang Yu looked at the fragments falling from the wall, and a thought stirred in his mind.
He could tell at a glance that Strongman Zhang's pickaxe was one he had forged. Despite the toughness of a high-grade Law Artifact and the several formations he had laid inside it, digging into the wall was still like digging through metal and stone. Clearly, this mine really wasn't so easy to dig.
Strongman Zhang did not dig very quickly. After more than two hours, he had opened a tunnel over one zhang wide and three or four zhang deep. By then, he was visibly struggling to swing the pickaxe, and his breathing had grown somewhat labored.
Clatter...
Another piece of rock broke away and fell, revealing a glimmer of spiritual light in the wall. Strongman Zhang roared, "Found some!"
The three outside hurried into the tunnel and saw a crystalline Spirit Stone ahead. As Strongman Zhang continued digging, he soon extracted a piece of spirit ore about the size of a dog's head.
Strongman Zhang picked it up, delight spreading across his face. "Hahaha, a piece this big can be cut into at least a hundred Spirit Stones."
He put it away as he spoke. Great Cultivator Yang and the others showed no dissatisfaction at this; delight appeared on their faces as well.
"Old Liu, set up the formation!"
At Great Cultivator Yang's words, Old Liu went to the entrance, took an assortment of formation materials from his Storage Bag, and got to work. Strongman Yang continued digging deeper, while Great Cultivator Yang used his compass to check the surrounding Spiritual Qi concentration and adjust the direction of Strongman Zhang's digging.
By the time Old Liu had finished setting up the formation at the entrance, Strongman Zhang had dug up several more pieces of spirit ore of varying sizes. He looked rather exhausted by then. After catching his breath, he said, "I, I can't go on. Someone else take over!"
At his words, the others looked toward Fang Yu. "Zhao Da, how about you go second?"
"Sure!" Fang Yu took out a pickaxe and walked over.
Great Cultivator Yang said, "Whatever you dig up is yours, but don't use Law Power. That would draw the Demon Beasts over."
"Understood!"
Fang Yu came to the tunnel wall and swung his pickaxe into it. A fierce vibration came back through the tool, but to him, that little bit of recoil was practically negligible.
After all, he came from a "flint laborer" background, and smithing demanded even more physical strength than mining.
Fragments as hard as metal and stone fell one after another, and Great Cultivator Yang, standing nearby, collected them in his Storage Bag to keep them from piling up inside the tunnel. Fang Yu had already noticed that the Storage Bag at his waist was unusual. It seemed to have a very large space inside, and he reckoned it was meant specifically for holding broken rock.
He immediately asked, "Great Cultivator Yang, is there something special about that Storage Bag of yours? How much space does it have inside?"
Great Cultivator Yang smiled. "I spent nearly ten thousand Spirit Stones buying this Storage Bag from the Hundred Refinements Workshop. It has just one feature: plenty of space. The space inside is also very unstable, and things are always getting lost in it, so it's perfect for storing mine spoil. Even if we dug for half a year or a year, we wouldn't have to worry about filling it."
"It sounds like it was made especially for miners like us!" Fang Yu remarked.
"Hahaha!" Old Liu laughed from beside him. "Of course. Take the pickaxes we use, for example. They were made specifically for mining too. What a pity Master He suddenly disappeared a few years ago. There haven't been any pickaxes of that quality in the market since. All that's left now is shoddy stuff that wears out in no time. That pickaxe of yours looks like the genuine article, though?"
Fang Yu swung the pickaxe again and smiled. "I don't know either. A good friend of mine heard I was coming to mine and gave it to me!"
As he spoke, the feel of the pickaxe in his hands changed, and he saw a piece of spirit ore exposed in the tunnel wall. He stopped chatting and immediately set to digging. A short while later, he extracted a piece of spirit ore about the size of a fist. If cut up, it would probably yield a dozen or so Spirit Stones.
Ah! My luck isn't so good!
With a sigh, he put it away and continued digging forward.
As time passed, he dug up a piece of spirit ore every so often. They varied in size, some as large as a fist and others only as big as an egg.
Before he knew it, he had dug about five zhang deep, and the spirit ore he had found would probably yield only forty or fifty Spirit Stones.
"I can't go on, I can't go on!"
He wiped the sweat he had forced onto his forehead, stepped aside, and sat down farther back.
As soon as he stepped down, Old Liu took his place and continued digging forward.
Having already established his Dao Foundation and cultivated both life and nature, Fang Yu would not have run out of physical strength even if he dug a hundred zhang.
But this was the Dao of Qi Refining, after all, and none of these cultivators practiced body refinement. Digging five zhang in one stretch was basically their limit, so he could hardly show himself to be too exceptional.
Old Liu seemed to be an experienced miner. He dug much faster than Fang Yu and had greater endurance as well. Only after digging more than seven zhang did he step down, looking pleased with himself, and let Great Cultivator Yang take over.
Great Cultivator Yang dug even more vigorously. He seemed to have cultivated a body-refining Cultivation Method, and his cultivation was also more profound. He dug a full twenty zhang before stopping and letting the now-rested Strongman Zhang continue.
The four took turns digging forward like this. How many Spirit Stones each could dig up depended entirely on his luck. While resting, they kept watch to prevent other cultivators or Demon Beasts from entering the mine.
Fang Yu's luck was quite good, though, or perhaps the "minor fortune" he had divined before coming in was very accurate. They dug for more than a month without encountering any Demon Beasts, and no other cultivators came into the passage they had opened.