Chapter 95 - 92: The Situation at the Mine
Chapter 95: Chapter 92: The Situation at the Mine
Behind the wooden shed was a row of low-slung houses built against the mountain wall. They had earthen walls and stone roofs, each one just large enough to fit a wooden plank bed and a small table.
Li Yuan chose the innermost room and briefly organized the items from his storage pouch.
Sun Liang was in the room next door, and the others found their own places to settle in.
The guard on duty for the handover showed Li Yuan around the mine. After briefly explaining a few key points, he left with the two men who had been stationed there previously.
The mine wasn’t large.
Three cave entrances, a surrounding earthen wall, a few wooden sheds, and the row of low houses behind them—that was the entirety of it.
Not many people were left. Besides the six Li Yuan had brought, there were already four others at the mine. Three were miners responsible for excavation, their Cultivation at the second or third level of Qi Refining. The fourth was a processing Cultivator stationed there temporarily, who worked under the shed to do the initial sorting and handling of the mined ore.
A middle-aged man with the surname Liu was in charge of the mine.
He seemed to be at the Qi Refining Fifth Level. He wasn’t tall, but he had broad shoulders.
Steward Liu led Li Yuan to the center of the mine, a flat area covered in gravel, and gestured around them.
"The work at the mine is simple."
He pointed to a few inconspicuous stone posts outside the earthen wall.
"There’s an Investigation Array around the perimeter. Its range isn’t large, covering about a thousand yards outside the mine. If a Cultivator or Demon Beast gets close, the Array will give a signal. The person on watch just needs to keep an eye on it."
Then he pointed to the processing Cultivator sorting ore under the wooden shed.
"That’s Old Zhou, the processor. The ore goes through him first after it’s mined. He sorts and packs it, and someone comes to collect it every month."
Steward Liu stuck his hands on his hips and glanced at Li Yuan.
"You guards are mainly here to watch over the mine, but you’ll have to do some digging as well."
Li Yuan glanced at the three cave entrances.
"All of us have to dig?"
"If we have enough people, you can just take turns. But you’re the leader, so you don’t have to." Steward Liu waved his hand dismissively.
"It’s not like we’re forcing you to chip away at rocks all day, but you can’t just sit around doing nothing."
He paused, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
"But it’s not without its perks. The Wang family takes the lion’s share of the ore, but if you keep the scraps, leftovers, and low-quality pieces for yourself, no one will say anything. Just don’t get too greedy."
Li Yuan nodded.
He wasn’t interested in mining, but the caves themselves were worth a look.
"What kind of ore does the mine produce?"
Steward Liu counted off a few types on his fingers.
"Mostly Cyan Wood Stone, which is Wood Attribute. The Artifact Refining hall needs it the most. There are also small amounts of Profound Iron Shards and Red Earth Sand. Occasionally, you might dig up a Spirit Stone or two, but the chances are low. Finding three or five in a month is considered lucky."
"Mostly Wood Attribute?"
"Yes, the Spirit Veins in this mountain range are predominantly Wood Attribute. The ore deeper inside has a higher content of Wood Spirit Qi."
Li Yuan didn’t ask any more questions, glancing toward the largest cave entrance.
"I’m going to take a look inside."
Steward Liu waved his hand casually. "Look wherever you want, just don’t go too deep. There are a lot of branching paths, and it’s easy to get turned around the first few times."
Li Yuan walked into the mine tunnel.
The entrance was supported by a frame of thick wooden beams. The light grew dim after he walked about thirty yards inside. Glowing fluorite stones were embedded in the tunnel walls at regular intervals, casting a faint yellow light that only illuminated a few steps ahead.
The tunnel wasn’t wide, barely enough for two people to walk side-by-side. The ground was uneven, gouged by mining tools, and covered with a thin layer of gravel mixed with ore dust.
The deeper he went, the more branching paths there were.
The main tunnel extended for about a hundred yards before splitting into two branches, one to the left and one to the right. Farther ahead, it branched out again, creating a crisscrossing network that spread deep into the mountain.
Some of the side tunnels were so narrow that only one person could pass through sideways. Others were more spacious, their walls showing large, freshly chiseled sections. Streaks of dark green ran through the grayish-black rock—the veins of Cyan Wood Stone.
Li Yuan continued down the main tunnel, heading deeper inside.
His footsteps echoed several times in the tunnel, mixing with the distant CLINK-CLANK of excavation.
After walking for about a hundred and eighty yards, a gray shadow suddenly darted past his feet.
Li Yuan stopped and looked down.
A grayish-brown rat squeezed out of a crack at the edge of the tunnel. It was a size larger than an ordinary rat, with a glossy coat. Its two beady eyes stared at Li Yuan for a moment before it zipped into another crevice.
A few steps further, he saw two more. They were squatting at a corner of the tunnel, gnawing on something. They didn’t seem very afraid when they saw him, merely shifting aside unhurriedly.
Li Yuan glanced back and saw that Steward Liu had followed him in at some point and was now leaning against the tunnel wall.
"Mine rats." Steward Liu jutted his chin toward them. "We raise them ourselves."
"What for?"
"They can dig." Steward Liu knocked on the tunnel wall twice. "These things naturally burrow along the ore veins, and they’re more precise than humans. You can often find good-quality ore exposed in the narrow tunnels they dig. Saves a lot of effort."
He dusted the ore powder off his hands.
"But they only clear out the cracks. Getting the real ore out still depends on us."
Li Yuan ignored the mine rats and continued deeper into the tunnel.
The concentration of Spiritual Qi was slowly increasing. It was noticeably thicker than outside, and with each breath, he could feel Spiritual Power seeping into his meridians a little faster.
But besides the Spiritual Qi, Li Yuan sensed something else.
An extremely faint chill was seeping up from deep within the rock beneath his feet. It wasn’t a physical coldness, but a dull, corrosive aura.
Evil Qi.
It was very faint, just a trace more than in the air outside, completely unnoticeable if one wasn’t paying attention. But to Li Yuan, the presence of this Evil Qi was crystal clear.
His Divine Soul, enhanced by the Soul Mirror, was far more sensitive to this type of negative energy than an ordinary person’s.
Li Yuan stopped, squatted down, and pressed his palm against the ground.
The Evil Qi seeped up in wisps from the cracks in the rock. The amount was small, but it was continuous.
Li Yuan took the Gathering Evil Bowl out of his storage pouch.
The small, dark gray bowl rested in his palm. The Spirit Patterns on its side faintly shimmered with a cold light under the dim glow of the fluorite.
Li Yuan injected a trace of Spiritual Power into the bowl.
The Spirit Patterns on the bowl flared for a moment, and then a thin layer of gray mist appeared at the rim—a sign that the Gathering Evil Bowl had begun to absorb the surrounding Evil Qi.
The gray mist swirled slowly, spreading out about six inches from the rim before being sucked back in.
Li Yuan placed the bowl in an out-of-the-way corner deeper in the tunnel, setting it securely against the wall. The rim faced upward, its Spirit Patterns glowing faintly, like a half-open gray eye.
Steward Liu, who was behind him, glanced at it but didn’t ask what it was.
At the mine, everyone had their own secrets. As long as it didn’t interfere with operations, nobody meddled in anyone else’s business.
Li Yuan stood up and walked back the way he came, toward the mine entrance.
Outside the entrance, the sun was already setting in the west, casting long shadows across the gravel-covered flat.
Li Yuan stopped beside the wooden shed and watched Steward Liu follow him out of the tunnel.
"What’s the situation outside?"
Steward Liu sat down on a wooden stump under the shed and dusted the ore grit from his pant legs.
"The two families have been fighting on and off over at the border. You probably heard about it before you left."
"What are the specifics?"
Steward Liu thought for a moment.
"People from the Li family infiltrate this area sometimes, in small groups of three to five. Last month, a squad made it to a spot less than three miles from the mine. A patrol ran into them, a fight broke out, and two of them got away."
He jerked his chin in the direction of the area beyond the earthen wall.
"But this isn’t the front line. The Li family won’t go out of their way to send a large force to attack a small mine. They’re more concerned with the few strongholds and Spirit Veins in the border region."
He glanced at Li Yuan.
"If they really do come, the Investigation Array will give us an early warning. With a range of a thousand yards, there’s enough time to run. As for fighting... that depends on how many of them show up."
Li Yuan grunted in acknowledgment and didn’t press further.
The mine wasn’t some crucial strategic location, but its proximity to the border between the two families meant they couldn’t completely rule out the risk.
As darkness fell, Li Yuan returned to his small, low-slung house.
The room was a good deal smaller than his lodgings in the market district. The wooden plank bed was set against the base of the wall, and the table was barely the size of a palm, just large enough for an oil lamp and a water bowl.
However, an inconspicuous object in the corner caught Li Yuan’s attention.
A few shallow Spirit Patterns were carved into the stone slab on the floor, forming a circle the size of a fist. The carvings were worn and blurry, but the flow of Spiritual Power was still present.
A miniature Spirit Gathering Array.
Its range was extremely small, only covering this one room. The effect was mediocre, too. The concentration of Spiritual Qi was a bit higher than outside, but about the same as in the deeper parts of the mine—nothing to write home about.
Li Yuan took out a hind leg from an Iron-horned Antelope he had in his storage pouch and roasted it with the Fire Control Skill.
He kept the flame low, letting it slowly roast the surface of the meat. Grease sizzled and oozed out, and the scent of charred meat filled the small room.
After eating, Li Yuan sat cross-legged on the plank bed and began to circulate the Spirit-Introducing Skill.
He cultivated until the latter half of the night, when a low roar echoed from the distance.
It wasn’t a human voice.
The roar came from deep within a mountain hollow to the northeast of the mine. It was a dull, drawn-out sound, like the cry of some large Demon Beast, and it reverberated several times between the mountain walls before gradually fading.
A few breaths later, another roar sounded, this one farther away and more to the east.
Li Yuan opened his eyes and glanced out the window.
It was pitch-black outside the mine, though the outline of the earthen wall was faintly visible in the moonlight. The Investigation Array hadn’t sounded an alarm, which meant the Demon Beast was still beyond the thousand-yard range.
From the next room came the sound of someone turning over. Sun Liang had been woken up. He mumbled something, then fell silent again.
The distant roars continued intermittently for a while before finally dying down.
Li Yuan pulled his gaze back from the window, closed his eyes, and resumed circulating his energy.