Great Fortune
In the blink of an eye, another three months passed.
That day, Fang Yu heard some good news in the market:
After months of pursuit, Elder Tianxing had led the Law Enforcement Team in finally slaying the second-tier Demon Beast, Night Sha, restoring peace to the mining area.
For a time, the entire market erupted with excitement. Cultivators who had waited bitterly for months headed to the mining area in groups, ready to dig to their hearts' content.
Hmm! Great fortune!
Fang Yu also made a calculation and got a result of great fortune.
"Since it's great fortune, I can go in and mine. But there are too many people going in right now, so I'll wait a while longer and go in after this first rush has passed."
In the blink of an eye, another month passed.
That day, Fang Yu made a calculation about entering the mining area to mine.
"Fortune!"
"Hmm, although it's no longer great fortune, a result of fortune is still pretty good. Maybe the supreme-grade vein I was supposed to find is gone, but it doesn't matter. If I spend more time digging, I can make up for everything."
Fang Yu put his mind at ease and made his way to the great cavern at the main entrance to the mining area.
As soon as he entered, he saw that the cavern had clearly been expanded. Runes flickered on the walls, making it obvious that the formation here had been upgraded. It should be safer now.
"Zhao Da!"
Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out. Fang Yu looked toward it, and a familiar face came into view.
"Old Liu!"
Fang Yu came closer and looked around. "Are you alone?"
Hearing this, Old Liu immediately sighed. "You don't know yet, do you? Great Cultivator Yang is dead!"
"Dead?" Fang Yu frowned. "Was it because of that second-tier Night Sha?"
Old Liu nodded. "Probably. I'm not too sure myself, but he was among the corpses the market hauled out of the mine earlier. I reckon he wanted to retrieve the spirit ore he'd hidden in the mine, and that was how he ran into Night Sha."
Uh!
Fang Yu was somewhat at a loss for an answer. When miners came out of the mine, they had to hand over half of what they had obtained. Legally speaking, the mine belonged to the Cloud Spirit Sect, and the sect was already being very generous by giving the miners half.
But people were never satisfied, were they? At first, the miners must all have been deeply grateful.
But as time went on, especially for cultivators like Great Cultivator Yang, who could dig up tens of thousands of Spirit Stones in a single trip, they would surely be unwilling to hand over so many Spirit Stones.
It was perfectly normal to hide most of it after each mining trip. As long as they didn't bring it out, they didn't have to hand it over. It was also perfectly normal to cultivate in the mine later, or privately trade with others there for Law Artifacts and the like.
The two then talked about Strongman Zhang. Old Liu said he hadn't seen him since they last parted and that he might have left Autumn Moon Mountain Market. He then asked Fang Yu whether he wanted to go down into the mine together.
"A second-tier Demon Beast just appeared in the depths of this mine, so I won't go there. I'll have a look around the outskirts first and dig up a little spending money to help pay for my cultivation!"
Fang Yu promptly found an excuse to refuse Old Liu. He had come down to the mine this time aiming for a hundred thousand Spirit Stones, so how could he possibly bring anyone else along?
"That's true. Who can say whether there's still danger in the depths?" Old Liu sighed and didn't press the invitation.
"I'll head in first!"
Fang Yu then took his leave and entered the mine alone.
He followed his previous route, making his way deeper. On the way, he encountered several collapsed tunnels and took a few detours before arriving beside the tunnel he had excavated before.
By now, several more tunnels had been dug beside it. Fang Yu sensed the Spiritual Qi concentration in each with his Divine Thought, then entered the one where it was densest.
When he reached the end, he chose a new direction, took out his modified version 2.0 pickaxe, and started digging.
"Bang, bang, bang..."
As broken stones fell one after another, Fang Yu moved them directly behind himself, blocking the tunnel. That way, he wouldn't have to worry about anyone disturbing him.
As for getting out, he had no plans to do so for the time being.
"Crack!"
A glimmer of spiritual light appeared on the tunnel wall, revealing a piece of spirit ore the size of a human head. Fang Yu's eyes immediately lit up. "I dug up such a big piece of spirit ore right at the start. Looks like my luck is pretty good."
With a few swings, Fang Yu dug out the piece of spirit ore, put it into his Storage Bag, and continued digging forward.
As time passed, the tunnel grew deeper and deeper, and he dug up more and more spirit ore. From time to time, Fang Yu used his Divine Thought to perceive the concentration of Spiritual Qi nearby and adjusted his digging direction.
As a result, his chances of finding large pieces of spirit ore rose sharply. He frequently dug up large pieces, and even great swathes of it.
Three months later.
"Hahaha! A hundred thousand Spirit Stones are mine!"
Laughing, Fang Yu put a piece of spirit ore into his Storage Bag. With a thought, he vanished from the mine, then reappeared a moment later.
He had hidden the hundred thousand Spirit Stones from his Storage Bag in a cave deep in the mountains over in Anping Prefecture.
Yes, Fang Yu had never intended to keep handing over spirit ore. Although fifty percent was already a very good share, he was human too. Humans were greedy, and humans didn't want to hand things over.
All the more so when it was such a large sum of Spirit Stones.
Hmm, if I dig up another three hundred thousand Spirit Stones, I'll have the Spirit Stones to buy a Foundation Establishment Pill.
Fang Yu rubbed his hands together, and the pickaxe appeared in his grasp. He then swung it into the tunnel wall.
He was already at Qi Refining Eighth Layer. With those hundred thousand Spirit Stones, he should be able to buy some pills and spiritual items to aid his cultivation and reach the great perfection of the ninth layer.
After that, he would need to reach Foundation Establishment. A single Foundation Establishment Pill started at a hundred thousand Spirit Stones and had once fetched a million at auction. Even the three hundred thousand Spirit Stones he was preparing could be considered too little.
Besides, it would be best not to buy one within the Cloud Spirit Sect's sphere of influence. With the spirit mine on Autumn Moon Mountain now being worked, Spirit Stones here were bound to have depreciated. Even if a Foundation Establishment Pill really did come up for auction, its price would surely be astronomical.
Thinking about the Foundation Establishment Pill, Fang Yu raised his pickaxe and smashed it hard into the tunnel wall.
"Rumble!"
A stone shattered, exposing a large hole. Fang Yu paused in surprise, then abruptly extended his Divine Thought and sensed a large number of Night Sha rushing toward him.
In an instant, a flame dragon appeared and plunged through the hole.
"Squeak, squeak... screech, screech... crackle..."
The Demon Beasts' dying screams and the crackle of burning rang out. Under the flame dragon's scorching heat, the mouth of the hole collapsed with a crash, revealing a mine tunnel on the other side.
Once all the Night Sha in the tunnel had been burned to death, Fang Yu walked out carrying his pickaxe.
"I dug into someone else's tunnel!"
Fang Yu spread out his Divine Thought and surveyed the tunnel, then confirmed that there were no other cultivators in it.
Although it was common to dig through into other tunnels in the mine, Fang Yu still felt somewhat uneasy. He immediately raised a hand, placed his thumb on the third segment of his ring finger, and made a calculation.
If he kept digging, the result would be: Great fortune.
A smile appeared on Fang Yu's face. He nodded and looked around, then, using the mine map he knew, chose a direction that led deeper and shouldn't cross another tunnel, and dug on.