Chapter 94 - 91: Heading to the Mining Area
Chapter 94: Chapter 91: Heading to the Mining Area
The talisman-crafting materials had just been brought back, still sealed, when two knocks sounded at the door.
Li Yuan got up to open it.
Standing outside was Wang De.
He wore the same old green robe. His aura was calm and restrained, his face square-jawed. The short beard on his chin had grown a little since he left.
"Captain, you’re back." Li Yuan stepped aside.
Wang De did not enter the house, only stood at the doorway, his gaze pausing on Li Yuan for a moment.
It lingered longer than usual.
"Qi Refining Sixth Level?"
There wasn’t much fluctuation in his tone, but the pause said it all.
When he had left, Li Yuan was still at the Qi Refining Fifth Level.
There were many geniuses in the cultivation world, but Wang De could only think of two or three he had met.
Li Yuan was one of them, and one whose talent had manifested later in life.
"I broke through a while ago," Li Yuan said.
Wang De grunted in acknowledgment, his gaze withdrawing from Li Yuan.
"Let’s talk inside."
The two entered the house. Wang De sat down at the table, his gaze sweeping over the talisman paper and Spiritual Ink laid out on it, then glancing at the several cloth bundles piled in the corner.
Li Yuan sat on the edge of the bed and waited for him to speak.
Wang De didn’t rush to the main topic, first answering the question Li Yuan hadn’t asked aloud.
"I went to investigate the Zhao Wu lead."
Li Yuan paused briefly.
Zhao Wu, the Loose Cultivator who had originally been selling ore scraps in the market. He carried a Jade Pendant with a blue entry and was secretly probing the market’s defenses.
That was a long time ago.
Wang De rested his elbows on the table, his voice low.
"After Zhao Wu fled, that lead never went cold. The things you discovered before—the Jade Pendant, the medicinal liquid, that breath-concealing Jade Pendant from the Crow Claw Gang—we followed every clue, and the family uncovered more than we ever imagined."
Wang De didn’t go into detail, just paused for a moment.
"Before I came back this time, we basically unraveled the network behind Zhao Wu. I can’t give you the specifics, but suffice it to say, the Li family is involved."
Wang De pulled his hands back from the table, leaned against the back of the chair, and switched to the main topic.
"There’s a mission. For you."
Li Yuan looked at him.
"The Wang family has several mines to the southwest. One of them recently needs reinforcements to guard it."
Wang De paused.
"The mine’s location is closer to the border between the two families than the market. Although it’s not on the front line, it’s not exactly the rear either."
He glanced at Li Yuan.
"By the way, how’s your talisman crafting coming along?"
"I’ve got the basics down. My Fireball Talismans are decent."
After hearing this, Wang De’s brow twitched, as if he was a little surprised.
But he immediately shook his head.
"It’s probably not that great."
He muttered to himself, then looked up at Li Yuan.
"I was originally thinking about getting you assigned to the rear. It’s easier to stuff someone back there if they can craft talismans. But now you’re at the Qi Refining Sixth Level. With that level of Cultivation, it’s hard to justify putting you in the back."
Wang De tapped his knuckles on the table twice.
"It won’t be the front lines, but the mine really does need people who can fight. With your Qi Refining Sixth Level, you’re a perfect fit to guard it."
"What kind of mine?"
"A Spirit Ore mine of the Wang family," Wang De answered succinctly. "The output isn’t large, but the quality of the ore is good. It’s one of the supply sources for the Wang family’s Artifact Refining hall. Right now, the two families are skirmishing at the border. That mine isn’t far from there, so it can’t be left unguarded."
"The mine also produces Spirit Stones."
"Who’s leading the team?"
"You are." Wang De took a thin document from his sleeve and pushed it over. "You’ll have a few people under you. When you get there, handle the handover with the original guards at the mine."
Li Yuan took the document and glanced at it.
There were six names on the list. Most were at the Qi Refining Third or Fourth Level of Cultivation, with only one at the Qi Refining Fifth Level.
Li Yuan saw a familiar name: Sun Liang, Qi Refining Third Level.
"Set out tomorrow morning." Wang De stood up, patting the dust from his robes, and then left Li Yuan’s residence.
The next day, before dawn, Li Yuan finished packing.
His storage bag contained talisman-crafting materials, medicinal pills, finished Talismans, the Gathering Evil Bowl, and some miscellaneous items. The Spirit Detecting Disc hung from his waist, the Soul Mirror was equipped, and his patrol uniform was worn neatly.
He left the residential area and walked along West Street toward the market’s West Gate.
The meeting point was at an intersection outside the West Gate.
When Li Yuan arrived, four people were already there.
They were all names from the list, and their Cultivation levels weren’t high. The strongest, a man at the Qi Refining Fifth Level, was a silent, thirty-something-year-old man with the surname Lu. He stood at the very front and hadn’t said a word.
Li Yuan counted them. They were still missing two people.
After waiting a bit longer, a person emerged from the market’s gate tunnel.
His pace wasn’t slow, but his gait was somewhat unsteady, as if he was struggling to hold himself up.
Li Yuan got a clear look at the newcomer’s face.
Sun Liang.
Sun Liang wore a half-new patrol uniform, his waist token hung neatly. From a distance, he looked about the same as before.
But up close, it was a different story.
His face was unnaturally pale. It wasn’t the paleness of someone who stays out of the sun, but a ghastly white with a grayish-blue undertone, as if a layer of blood had been drained from within. His cheekbones were more prominent than before, and his lips were a bit dry.
His eye sockets were deeper, and his once-bright eyes now seemed somewhat dim.
But his aura was stronger than before, though it was unstable.
Qi Refining Fourth Level.
Sun Liang walked up, saw Li Yuan, and froze for a second before cracking a grin.
"Deputy Li."
"You broke through," Li Yuan observed, looking at him.
"Yeah." Sun Liang hitched the bundle in his hand higher on his shoulder and smiled, but it wasn’t a natural smile.
"A while ago, I took a thing called a Breaking Evil Pill. It actually pushed me up."
Sun Liang raised a hand to touch his own face.
"But now I look like this."
Li Yuan didn’t reply, just looked at his complexion.
Sun Liang awkwardly withdrew his hand and spat to the side.
"The Evil Qi damaged my internal organs. I don’t dare use my full strength when cultivating, afraid I’ll damage my organs further."
He sighed.
"I shouldn’t have bought that thing. I’m at the fourth level, sure, but my body feels like it’s made of paper."
He then shook his head and muttered something.
’At least it’s better than dying out there.’
The last person arrived, and all six were gathered.
Li Yuan didn’t delay. He swept his gaze over the group.
"Let’s go. We’ll talk on the way."
The group of seven left the market, heading southwest along the wide, rammed-earth road.
It was the same road he had taken to the Treasure Pavilion last time, but at a fork, they turned in another direction—slightly westward, toward the outskirts of the Yuanheng Mountain Range.
There weren’t many Cultivators on the road.
Occasionally, they would run into a group or two from the Wang family, mostly returning from the mining area or a forward outpost. They walked quickly, and the expressions on their faces were tense.
Sun Liang followed beside Li Yuan, his pace half a step slower than the others, his pallor even more pronounced in the daylight.
After they had walked for a while, Sun Liang took the initiative to speak.
The group traveled for the better part of the day.
They rested by the roadside at noon for a while, then continued on their way.
In the afternoon, the terrain began to change. The flat dirt road slowly turned into a gravel slope, and the shrubs on either side became shorter, replaced by large patches of exposed, grayish-black rock. The air was also much drier than near the market, and occasionally, they could catch a very faint scent of minerals.
As the sun dipped west, the outline of the mine appeared in the mountain pass ahead.
It wasn’t a single cave entrance, but a whole work site carved into the side of the mountain.
Three cave entrances of varying sizes were embedded side-by-side at the base of the mountain wall, supported by crude wooden frames. The largest could fit three or four people walking abreast. In front of the entrances was a patch of flat ground, packed solid with crushed stone. Several wooden sheds were built at the edge of this clearing, with mining tools and crates of ore stacked beneath them.
Further out was a half-height earthen wall. A few gaps in the wall were temporarily patched with wooden fences.
The CLANGING of hammering echoed intermittently from the mines. A few Cultivators dressed like miners were coming in and out of the entrances, carrying freshly mined grayish-black ore.
A Cultivator who looked like a guard, with the aura of the Qi Refining Fifth Level, emerged from behind a wooden shed. Seeing Li Yuan’s group, he came forward to greet them.
"Here for the handover?"
"Yes." Li Yuan handed over the document.
The guard took the document, glanced at it, and nodded.
"I’ll take you inside to see how things are, and I’ll brief you on the men."
He jerked his chin toward the wooden sheds behind him.
"Put your things down first. The living quarters are behind the sheds. The conditions are a bit poor, but you’ll have to make do."
Li Yuan nodded and led the group toward the wooden sheds.
Sun Liang, trailing at the very back, glanced inside as he walked past a mine entrance.
From the depths of the pitch-black mine shaft came a few muffled strikes, the echoes dragging on for a long time.