Deep underground, the spirit stone mine was devoid of sunlight, and even divine consciousness couldn’t penetrate it, making it almost completely isolated from the world.
Bao Gu, holding the spirit stones she had just mined, drank Monkey Wine and ate Qi Refining Pills as she practiced day and night, striving to break through her cultivation level.
Zi Yunshu and Yu Mi worked tirelessly, mining spirit stones without rest.
Bao Gu’s absorption of the spirit stones couldn’t keep up with their mining speed, resulting in a large amount of spirit stones continuously entering their storage bags.
Although the mined spirit stones were of medium to low quality, their quantity was in the hundreds of thousands.
Unknowingly, with the help of a large number of spirit stones, Qi Refining Pills, and Monkey Wine, Bao Gu successfully advanced to the eighth and ninth levels of Qi Refining.
The ninth level of Qi Refining, also known as the Great Perfection of Qi Refining or the Qi Nourishing Phase, is a process of consolidating the Qi Refining stage and seeking breakthroughs to the Foundation Building stage.
Bao Gu reached the ninth level of Qi Refining by relying on a large number of spirit stones, Qi Refining Pills, and Monkey Wine, which could almost be considered as a rapid improvement entirely dependent on external forces.
There’s a saying, “Haste makes waste .”
She wondered if advancing her cultivation realm so quickly might leave any hidden dangers due to oversight, so she decided to consolidate her cultivation for a while longer before attempting to break through to the Foundation Building stage.
After finishing her cultivation, Bao Gu opened her eyes and saw her senior sister and Little Martial Aunt sitting cross-legged beside her, meditating.
Zi Yunshu was the first to open her eyes and said, “Finished cultivating? Then let’s prepare to leave. ”
Bao Gu looked around and said, “I’ve reached the ninth level of Qi Refining. I can help you mine spirit stones. How about we mine for a few more days before leaving?”
Zi Yunshu replied, “Mine more? We’ ve already mined this spirit stone vein to its end. What’s left is only enough for the Taiyin Sect to mine for a few more days. Soon, the experts from the Taiyin Sect overseeing this place will come down to investigate. We need to leave before they arrive.”
She handed over all her belongings to Bao Gu to store in her oversized storage bag.
After Yu Mi finished her cultivation, she also entrusted all her belongings to Bao Gu for safekeeping.
Zi Yunshu said, “Wait here for me.”
In the blink of an eye, she disappeared into the mine tunnels outside the concealment formation like a ghost .
About half an incense stick’s time later, Zi Yunshu returned with three Taiyin Sect disciples who were unconscious and had their meridians and acupoints sealed.
Bao Gu, who was worried about not remembering the exact appearance of the Taiyin Sect disciple she had disguised herself as and feared making a mistake based on memory, breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the three Taiyin Sect disciples brought back by Zi Yunshu.
She expertly stripped one of them, took his identity token, disguised herself as that Taiyin Sect disciple, then picked up his mining basket and threw him into her oversized storage bag.
Seeing this, Zi Yunshu and Yu Mi exchanged a knowing look and smiled.
After disguising themselves as Taiyin Sect disciples, they let Bao Gu put the other two into her oversized storage bag, and then they boldly walked towards the exit of the mining area.
Having reached the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, Bao Gu was so happy that she couldn’t stop smiling along the way.
When “they” were leaving one of the mine tunnels, someone saw Bao Gu smiling with her eyes squinted and called out, “Hou San, how many spirit ores did you dig up to be so happy?”
Bao Gu thought to herself, “I’ve encountered someone familiar.”
She ignored the person and quickened her pace to leave.
As they walked forward and were about to turn onto the main tunnel of the mine, suddenly, more than a dozen Qi Refining stage miners rushed out from the side without warning and tried to snatch the mining baskets on “their” backs.
Bao Gu hadn’t reacted yet when someone grabbed the strap of her mining basket and pulled it down.
She instinctively pulled back on the strap and looked at the person trying to snatch her basket.
The person shouted, “Hand it over!”
and swung a mining pick towards Bao Gu’s head.
Bao Gu was about to dodge when she felt mining picks swinging down from behind and to her sides.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Yu Mi and Zi Yunshu already clashing with others.
Realizing the importance of self-preservation at this critical moment, Bao Gu immediately performed a maneuver to slip out of her mining basket and quickly crouched under it.
The mining pick stopped above the basket, and the person who had grabbed her strap snatched it away.
The person shouted, “Smart kid!”
Bao Gu thought, “Are we going to be robbed just as we’re about to leave the mine ?”
She then realized that those leaving the mine were likely to have mined ores, making them targets for robbery.
Just as this thought crossed her mind, she heard the sound of air breaking above her head and sensed a mining pick falling from above with her divine consciousness.
This was an attempt to kill her even after stealing her mining basket!
Bao Gu quickly raised her hand, channeled energy into her palm, and firmly caught the handle of the falling mining pick, saying, “Stealing the mining basket and then trying to kill someone is going too far, isn’t it?”
A scream of agony sounded from the side.
A miner was knocked down by Yu Mi and then stepped on by Yu Mi’s foot on his chest, causing his chest to cave in and blood to gush from his mouth and nose.
The man struggled to lift his arms to pry Yu Mi’s ankle away, hoping Yu Mi would move her foot, but Yu Mi remained unmoved, applying even more pressure.
The man’s blood flow increased, his strength gradually faded, and his limbs twitched.
Seeing this, the other miners were initially shocked, then swarmed towards Yu Mi.
The miner whose mining pick handle Bao Gu had grabbed kicked fiercely at Bao Gu.
Bao Gu flipped up from the ground, kicked him in the chest in mid-air, and sent him stumbling back several steps.
The man dusted off his chest and snorted coldly, “Just a mere fifth level of Qi Refining, seeking death!”
Bao Gu, using her finger as a sword, channeled energy into her fingertip, and a sword qi shot out from her finger, skimming past the man’s scalp and shaving off his hat and hair together!
Yu Mi fought with punches and kicks, her figure as fast as a phantom, dodging the miners’ mining picks.
In a moment, a group of miners were sent flying one after another, falling heavily to the ground, spitting blood and unable to get up.
Seeing this, the miner who had tried to kill Bao Gu turned pale, turned around, and ran towards the mine tunnel behind him.
Zi Yunshu flicked a pebble from the ground with her toe, hitting the man in the back of the head, and he fell without a groan.
Bao Gu looked back and saw that the miners lying on the ground were either dead or severely injured.
Zi Yunshu glanced at Bao Gu and asked, “Why did you spare him when he tried to kill you?”
Bao Gu was stunned for a moment and said, “I… he couldn’t kill me… I… after all, he’s still a human life.”
Zi Yunshu snorted lightly and said, “Did he ever consider your life when he tried to kill you?”
Yu Mi said, “Let’s not talk about this anymore. Let’s go.”
She looked around at the other miners hiding in the shadows and watching them.
She estimated that there were more than just those lying on the ground who wanted to snatch their ores , but now, no one dared to make a move.
However, the strength and cultivation realm they had shown were vastly different, which might arouse suspicion.
Zi Yunshu said, “Let’s go!”
and sped up towards the exit of the mine tunnel using lightness skills.
Bao Gu quickly followed them out.
When they were about to reach the mine tunnel exit, they were surrounded by a patrol team of Foundation Building stage cultivators.
A Foundation Building stage cultivator stepped forward, glanced at the three of them standing still, reached into Bao Gu’s mining basket, took away more than a quarter of the spirit stones, then went behind Yu Mi and Zi Yunshu, took away a quarter of the spirit ores from their baskets, waved his hand, and let them go!
They went to the mine supervisor to report and hand over the ores.
After inspecting their mining baskets, the mine supervisor took away a quarter on the spot, then registered the remaining spirit stones and gave them their due wages.
The mine supervisor also praised “them,” saying, “Not bad, you’ve mined so much in less than three months!”
He smiled knowingly, seemingly thinking that “their” spirit stones were stolen from other miners.
“Risking their lives” working in the mine, when “they” three left the mine, Bao Gu received more than eighty low-grade spirit stones as wages, Yu Mi received about seventy, and Zi Yunshu received the most, more than a hundred low-grade spirit stones.
Bao Gu silently accepted her meager wages and followed Yu Mi and Zi Yunshu, climbing up the rope ladder out of the mine.
She had also been an outer disciple at Xuantian Sect, where she hadn’t worked to earn spirit stones, and even several months after joining, she hadn’t seen a spirit stone.
But she lived in the small courtyard arranged by her senior sister, had Zhu Ming fruits and a large amount of first and second-grade spiritual herbs to eat, and could cultivate according to her own ideas every day without worrying about being robbed or killed.
She even had her senior sister and Little Martial Aunt secretly protecting her.
Unlike at Taiyin Sect, where those with slightly weaker strength and good luck were captured to work as laborers without pay, and those with bad luck simply died.
Did these outer disciples of Taiyin Sect have so many spiritual herbs?
Perhaps they had seen a lot of spirit stones, but the spirit stones that ended up in their hands were pitifully few, and all were exchanged with their lives.
These outer disciples of Taiyin Sect, at the bottom of the cultivation world, suffered oppression from above yet still bullied each other, fought to the death, robbed their fellow workers, and even took lives.
Bao Gu felt fortunate to have met Yu Mi and been taken into Xuantian Sect.
If she had joined Taiyin Sect, she probably wouldn’t know how many times she would have died.
Zi Yunshu was the first to climb out of the mine tunnel and turned back to say to Yu Mi and Bao Gu, who were climbing up one after the other, “Although we gained a lot from this mining trip, it’s still best to be frugal . I plan to go to Yun City to exchange for some Qi Refining Pills. What about you?”
Yu Mi smiled and said, “I naturally also plan to buy Qi Refining Pills, but they are available in the town market. Why do you want to go to Yun City?”
Zi Yunshu smiled and said, “Because it’s cheaper!”
She then asked Bao Gu, “What about you?”
Bao Gu understood that Zi Yunshu’s words were a performance for the experts sitting in the row of small wooden houses not far away, to make the act complete and avoid exposing themselves.
She immediately replied, “I owe my life to my two senior brothers’ care. Naturally, I will go wherever the two senior brothers go.”
Then “they” three gathered enough spirit stones to activate the teleportation formation and were teleported to Yun City.
When “they” emerged from the teleportation formation, they appeared at a Taiyin Sect outpost in Yun City.
The Taiyin Sect disciples were coming and going, and the place was crowded and chaotic, with no one paying them any extra attention.
Zi Yunshu led Bao Gu and Yu Mi straight out of the Taiyin Sect’s outpost in Yun City.
After turning a few streets and seeing no one following them, he said, “Although the quality of this mine is not high, the output is extremely large, and they attach great importance to it, even stationing three Nascent Soul stage cultivators. When we left just now, there were even Nascent Soul stage cultivators using divine consciousness to probe us.”
Yu Mi laughed and said, “With three Nascent Soul stage cultivators stationed, yet the spirit ores were mysteriously emptied, haha! This time, Taiyin Sect must be hopping mad! Little Martial Aunt, I can even imagine that the first thing Taiyin Sect’s people think of when they discover the spirit ores are empty is that someone inside the mine embezzled the spirit ores, and then they will conduct a thorough investigation…”
Zi Yunshu said, “Let’s find a place to change clothes and wash off this dirt.”
The three of them were wearing Taiyin Sect outer disciple uniforms, covered in dirt from mining, looking as dirty as coal.
Yu Mi agreed, “Okay!”
Bao Gu naturally had no objections.
She followed Zi Yunshu and Yu Mi out of Yun City, using lightness skills to travel nearly thirty miles to a secluded mountain stream.
It was the season when ice and snow melted, and the snow on the mountain turned into water, flowing down the mountain stream.
Zi Yunshu set up a formation to seal the surroundings, quickly stripped off his clothes, and jumped into the swift stream.
Yu Mi restored her original appearance, took off her dirty outer robe, and jumped into the water.
Bao Gu looked at Zi Yunshu, who had emerged from the water in his original appearance, and then at Yu Mi, who was soaking in a slightly calmer part of the stream, hesitated for a moment, turned around, stripped off her Taiyin Sect outer disciple uniform, and stepped into the stream.
She said, “The ice and snow just melted, aren’t you afraid of the cold water? ” Her feet touched the water and immediately felt bone-chilling cold, so she quickly circulated her energy to dispel the cold.
After adapting for a while, she found it not as cold as she had imagined.
She couldn’t swim and didn’ t dare to go too deep, so she squatted in the shallow water and bent down to wash her face.
Bao Gu was washing her face when she heard a splash.
She wiped the water off her face and looked up to see Zi Yunshu happily tumbling in the water, occasionally leaping out of the stream like a carp jumping through the dragon gate.
Her smooth jade body and soft, voluptuous figure made Bao Gu stare in amazement, thinking, “Little Martial Aunt’s figure is really beautiful.”
She then looked at Yu Mi and saw her senior sister soaking in the water, with her fragrant shoulders half-exposed, washing her body.
Seeing that Yu Mi was not far away and the water was only up to her chest, Bao Gu waded towards her senior sister.
The swift current swept her downstream.
Fortunately, she now had the cultivation of Great Perfection of Qi Refining, and with the body techniques Little Martial Aunt had taught her, she steadied herself and slowly approached Yu Mi.
Yu Mi saw Bao Gu’s cautious appearance in the water and couldn’t help but laugh, saying, “I’m a fire-element cultivator and I’m not afraid of water, are you still afraid of water?”
Bao Gu replied, “I can’t swim!”
Before she finished speaking, her foot slipped on a stone, and with a splash, she plunged into the water.
The swift current immediately submerged her, and the cold water gurgled into her mouth and nose.
She panicked and struggled towards the surface, wanting to shout “Senior sister, save me…”
but was submerged again.
The stream water poured into her mouth and nose when she had just opened her mouth to breathe, choking her terribly and causing even more panic.
She was carried downstream by the stream, about to be washed away.
Bao Gu flailed in the water, trying to attract her senior sister’s attention, desperately calling out in her mind, “Senior sister, save me…”
and frantically waving her hands, trying to grab onto something.
Yu Mi cursed softly, “Idiot!”
and dived into the water, quickly approaching Bao Gu.
Just as her arms caught the struggling Bao Gu in the water, she suddenly felt a pain in her chest.
She looked down and was immediately furious!
She clenched her teeth, grabbed Bao Gu, who was tightly clutching a certain part of her chest, out of the water, and leaped to the shore.
Naturally, Bao Gu’s drowning commotion did not escape Zi Yunshu’s notice.
Just as Zi Yunshu was about to act, he saw Yu Mi had already rescued Bao Gu, then saw the panicked Bao Gu grab Yu Mi’s chest, holding onto those two points, and stretching Yu Mi’s chest long—Zi Yunshu inwardly winced, thinking, “That must hurt!”
and then burst into laughter.
She was instantly glad she hadn’t rushed to save Bao Gu; otherwise, it wouldn’t be her laughing at Yu Mi, but Yu Mi laughed her to death.
Yu Mi landed on the shore, her chest hurting unbearably, feeling as if it had been torn.
She shouted loudly, “Bao Gu, let go!”
Bao Gu continued to clutch that area tightly, as if afraid of drowning again.
Her throat and nasal passages were painfully sore, and she bent over, coughing desperately, tears streaming down her face, completely unaware that she had grabbed the wrong place.
