Chapter 86

The situation in Green Tree Village seemed to be escalating, and when Yang Junshan entered the mine the next day, only a few miners were willing to pay the mining fee. Although Yang Junshan was no longer alone, the mine tunnels were numerous, and the few people scattered among them. The tunnel Yang Junshan found was already abandoned, and few people were willing to go there, so there was little risk of being discovered.

Originally, Yang Junshan would enter the mine every two days, but he told Han Xiusheng that since there were few people in the mine now, it was a good opportunity to gather more refined ore. Han Xiusheng agreed.

It took him most of the day to completely refine the yuan qi contained in the earth stone. The egg-sized stone ball turned into a pile of sand that slipped through his fingers the moment it lost its yuan qi. Yang Junshan could already sense that the spiritual energy condensed in his bone marrow spirit acupoint had increased. At this rate, he estimated that it would take only ten to fifteen days to reach the peak of the third level, and he could begin to solidify his spirit acupoints and lay the foundation for his immortal root.

In the remaining time, Yang Junshan dug deeper into the mine tunnel and found another small stone cave. This time, the earth stone ball inside was smaller than the previous one.

The strike in Green Tree Village would not last long, and once the miners returned to work, Yang Junshan's days of freely mining and cultivating in the mine tunnels would be over.

On the way back to town with Han Xiusheng after work today, he accidentally overheard Han Xiusheng talking about the current situation in Green Tree Village.

"Today, Hu Siping went to Chu Chuang's house, but he almost fell into a trap. If he hadn't backed down quickly, the village chief of Green Tree Village might have been replaced."

Yang Junshan was startled and asked, "What, can Chu Chuang, a Mortal Realm cultivator, actually do anything to Hu Siping, a Martial Human Realm cultivator?"

Han Xiusheng's face showed a hint of worry as he said, "It wasn't Chu Chuang, but the other two Martial Human Realm cultivators in Green Tree Village. They calculated that Hu Siping would use his cultivation to cause trouble for Chu Chuang, so they were waiting at Chu Chuang's house. Hu Siping was rash and walked right into the trap. Although he quickly agreed to reduce the mining fee by three stone coins and left unharmed, his reputation in Green Tree Village is now completely ruined."

Yang Junshan was surprised and asked, "What merit does Chu Chuang have that the Martial Human Realm cultivators in the village would support a Mortal Realm cultivator like him?"

Han Xiusheng sighed and explained the reason to Yang Junshan. The mine owner of Green Tree Village, although held by Hu Siping, the village chief, and the miners were all villagers, the overseers and foremen were from other villages. This was a rule set by the Heaven-Shaking Sect to monitor and restrain each other, to prevent embezzlement.

However, things went wrong because Hu Siping was too greedy. To enrich himself, he colluded with the foremen and overseers of the mine. Although he did not dare to tamper with the items to be handed over, the amount of ore the villagers mined and had to hand over was decided by them. According to Han Xiusheng, only eighty percent of the refined ore mined was to be handed over to the Heaven-Shaking Sect and other authorities, but Hu Siping and the overseers and foremen privately increased it to ninety percent, and the extra was divided among them. Similarly, the mining fee of seven stone coins set by the Heaven-Shaking Sect was arbitrarily increased to ten, and the extra was their personal benefit.

Hu Siping used this method to pull all the foremen and overseers from other villages around him to deceive the higher-ups. However, this left the miners and other Martial Human Realm cultivators in the village dissatisfied. In the eyes of the villagers, Hu Siping was clearly favoring outsiders, giving benefits to people from other villages instead of taking care of the villagers.

Especially the other two Martial Human Realm cultivators in Green Tree Village were very resentful. According to the rules of the Heaven-Shaking Sect, the mine owner could only be the village chief. Hu Siping was very cautious about these two Martial Human Realm cultivators who might threaten his position. These two Martial Human Realm cultivators could not work as miners like ordinary villagers, so they could not get their hands on the mine.

Therefore, in this strike by the miners of Green Tree Village, the two Martial Human Realm cultivators gave Chu Chuang the strongest support.

"Does this mean the miners in Green Tree Village will return to work tomorrow?"

Han Xiusheng looked worried and said, "I hope so. If they don't return to work soon, the matter will eventually reach the town and county. Then not only Hu Siping, but even we might be in trouble."

Yang Junshan's eyes flickered, and it was unclear what he was thinking.

However, on the third day, the miners in Green Tree Village still did not return to work. Yang Junshan naturally would not miss this opportunity. This time, he found two adjacent small stone caves at the bottom of the tunnel and obtained two earth stone balls. Unfortunately, Yang Junshan still had no way to take the extra stone balls out and could only hide them in the mine.

If only he had a storage bag!

Yang Junshan's treasures were increasing, and the waist pouch and backpack he carried were gradually becoming insufficient. Carrying so many things also affected his movements.

In the past two days, Han Xiusheng's face had become increasingly gloomy. After the miners of Green Tree Village successfully forced Hu Siping to reduce the mining fee by three stone coins, Chu Chuang and others made another demand on the third day, asking to reduce the share of refined ore to be handed over from ninety percent to eighty-five percent, or they would not return to work.

The miners of Green Tree Village seemed to be targeting Hu Siping, but in fact, the benefits extracted from the miners were not just in Hu Siping's hands but also in the hands of over a dozen overseers and foremen at the mine. Han Xiusheng had begged Yang Tian Gang to get him this job precisely because there was profit to be made. Now, the miners' actions were clearly robbing them of their profits, and Han Xiusheng was naturally upset.

On the fourth day, when Yang Junshan and Han Xiusheng arrived at the mine in Green Tree Village, the villagers still did not return to work. Just as Yang Junshan was about to enter the mine, a foreman rushed to the mine and shouted, "It's bad, it's bad, there's going to be a fight outside the village!"

Han Xiusheng's face changed, and he said, "Who is going to fight? Speak clearly!"

The foreman said, "Who else? The people of Green Tree Village are blocking the people we brought outside the village. They are confronting each other, and a fight is about to break out!"

Han Xiusheng looked panicked and said, "Where are the Martial Human Realm cultivators, including Hu Siping? They must have gone to deal with it. This is going to get out of hand. Let's go, everyone, go to the village to stop them. We must not let them fight, or if the town and county find out, we won't just lose our profits; we might lose our jobs!"

Hearing Han Xiusheng's words, the overseers and foremen at the mine also panicked and rushed to the village with Han Xiusheng. Only one overseer and one foreman were left to watch the mine.

Seeing this great opportunity, Yang Junshan hurriedly ran towards the earth stone tunnel with all his might. This time, he did not care about conserving his strength. He calculated the time it would take for Han Xiusheng and the others to reach the village, stop the conflict, and return to the mine. Once he reached the bottom of the mine, he used all his strength to dig into the rock and ore veins.

When his spiritual energy ran out, he directly put a Fa Yun Pill in his mouth, not even caring about the residual pill toxins. When the mining pick broke, he immediately replaced it. When he was exhausted, he only had time to take a sip of water before continuing.

Another small stone cave was dug open, and the second earth stone ball rolled out. The third, fourth, and fifth earth stone balls were also dug out. After the fifth earth stone ball was dug out, Yang Junshan finally exhausted his last bit of strength, spiritual energy, and the last mining pick.

In just one hour, Yang Junshan's frenzied digging had advanced the mine tunnel by nearly half a丈 (zhang, a traditional Chinese unit of length, approximately 3.3 meters). Five earth stone caves were dug, and with the two from the previous day, Yang Junshan now had seven earth stone balls.

He sat on the ground, drank all the water from his water flask, and then, without a moment's delay, stood up and quickly walked out of the mine, trying to make himself look as usual by calming his breathing.

Just as he came out of the mine, he saw the foreman who was left to watch the mine standing idly on the platform at the mine entrance. Seeing Yang Junshan come out of the mine empty-handed, he smiled and said, "Hey, isn't this Han Overseer's nephew? How did you come out so quickly? Didn't you mine today?"

In the past two days, due to Han Overseer's influence, Yang Junshan had become familiar with the overseers and foremen at the mine and knew that this person's surname was Cui.

Yang Junshan forced a smile and said, "Uncle Cui, has my uncle come back yet?"

Foreman Cui was clearly worried about the situation outside the village, as it concerned his livelihood. If not for the need to stay and watch the mine, he would have gone to the village as well. "Not yet. I don't know what's happening outside the village. I hope they don't really fight."

Yang Junshan said, "Uncle Cui, I'm worried about my uncle. I couldn't concentrate on mining, so I came out. As you can see, my basket is empty. I'll go to the village to check on my uncle!"

The array path was a simple monitoring array set up by the mine to prevent miners from smuggling. Miners had to pass through the array path after coming out of the mine and hand over the ore for settlement.

Foreman Cui laughed and scolded, "You've only been down for an hour. What can you mine? You young people from big families are so delicate. You want to toughen up? Why not just buy a pile of refined ore with jade coins and refine it yourself? Alright, come out quickly. Activating the array path costs money. Do you want to activate it just for you?"

"Thank you, Uncle Cui!"

Yang Junshan came out through the entrance where the miners entered, greeted another overseer who was left to watch, and then ran towards the outskirts of Green Tree Village.