Chapter 91

Yang Junshan, carrying a half basket of refined ore, left the mine early. He said a word to Han Xiusheng and then left Qing Shu Village to a secluded place. After an hour, Chu Yang, drenched in sweat, slowly ran over with a bamboo basket. It was clear that Chu Yang had been rushing all the way.

"Little Master Yang, this is the bamboo basket. We guarantee it hasn't been touched at all!"

When the bamboo basket was placed in front of Yang Junshan, he already knew that it had indeed been delivered intact. He nodded and said seriously, "It is indeed the bamboo basket I entrusted to Brother Chu. Brother Chu did not lie to me!"

Chu Yang hesitated and said, "Then, what my brother said to Little Master..."

Yang Junshan nodded and said, "You go back and tell Brother Chu that I will do my best to persuade my father. I have a seventy percent chance of success, of course, this must be kept secret. If this gets out, my father won't acknowledge it."

Chu Yang nodded excitedly with gratitude and said, "Little Master can rest assured. Only my brother and I, along with six brothers who are life and death companions, know about the secret passage in the mine. Only my brother and I know the exact location of the passage."

Yang Junshan thought for a moment and felt he should warn about the potential trouble that the Wu Earth Stones might cause. He deliberated and said, "You go back and tell your brother that the mine has not been peaceful lately. It seems something big is about to happen. Tell him to be extremely careful. If it gets too dangerous, he should return to the village for a few days."

Watching Chu Yang leave with a suspicious look, Yang Junshan opened the bamboo basket and poured out all the ore on the ground. Over twenty Wu Earth Stones and a large cloth bag rolled out.

Yang Junshan first picked up the cloth bag. Inside were two golden yellow stones shimmering in the setting sun, which were the two Wu Earth Essence Stones that Yang Junshan had spent months finding.

He repacked the cloth bag and buried it in the bamboo basket with the half basket of refined ore. Then he picked up the twenty Wu Earth Stones and mixed them with the refined ore.

In the previous life, it was rumored that the Qing Shu Village mine had produced a total of fifty to sixty Wu Earth Stones and three Wu Earth Essence Stones. Now, including those used for cultivation, Yang Junshan alone had mined thirty-seven Wu Earth Stones and two Wu Earth Essence Stones. The treasures that had caused the deaths of dozens of people in the previous life were now mostly in his hands.

After this, Yang Junshan did not plan to return to Qing Shu Village. Three days later, news spread that someone had mined Wu Earth Stones in the Qing Shu Village mine, attracting many cultivators of the Mortal Realm who practiced earth-type techniques from nearby villages to investigate.

The next day, someone mined Wu Earth Stones again, confirming the news. More and more Mortal Realm cultivators came to the Qing Shu Village mine, and even many of the mine's managers and foremen secretly went down to mine.

By the third day, the news of Wu Earth Stones had spread widely and was confirmed to come from two mine tunnels. However, the tunnels were narrow, and many people wanted to mine the Wu Earth Stones. The competition led to fights.

The situation was deteriorating. The mine did not allow miners to take anything other than the soft earth ore out of the mine. The cultivators who managed to mine Wu Earth Stones could only refine them on the spot in the tunnels. The miners, who initially fought over the tunnels, gradually turned to fighting over the Wu Earth Stones. Eventually, a miner who mined Wu Earth Stones was killed by two cultivators in a surprise attack.

The limits of the conflict were finally broken. The miners who were mining Wu Earth Stones did not become more cautious but rather more疯狂. The conflict escalated into a full-scale melee, and news of deaths kept coming from the mine. The mine owner, Hu Siping, finally realized the severity of the situation and hurriedly gathered people to prepare to enter the mine to suppress the chaos. If it was too late, the entire mine might collapse in the melee among the cultivators.

However, before Hu Siping and his people entered the mine, an even more shocking piece of news spread: someone had mined a Wu Earth Essence Stone in one of the two tunnels that produced Wu Earth Stones!

Hu Siping, without even waiting for his people, rushed into the mine, killing anyone who dared to block him. Soon, several Martial Realm cultivators heard the news and rushed into the mine, turning the melee into a massacre of Mortal Realm cultivators by Martial Realm cultivators.

Half a day later, Wang Yuan, the deputy commander of Qing Shi Town, arrived with his men, sealed off the entire mine, and drove everyone out of the mine. By then, dozens of people had died in the melee, and two to three dozen tunnels had collapsed.

After Wang Yuan controlled the situation, the prestigious Yang family of Qing Shi Town, the Yun family of Luanshi Town, and the powerful Sun and Ma families of Chen Yu County sent Martial Realm cultivators. Even the county magistrate of Chen Yu County sent people to investigate.

The families quickly reached a division agreement with Wang Yuan and the county magistrate's real person, and began to mine the two tunnels. However, in the next few days of targeted mining, they only managed to mine a few Wu Earth Stones, and the rest was just a pile of ore slag far exceeding what Yang Junshan had mined initially.

Han Xiusheng, coincidentally, had taken leave and was not at the mine during these days. When he returned and heard about the Wu Earth Stones, he felt very regretful. He was also at the fifth level of the Mortal Realm and naturally aspired to the Martial Realm.

However, upon hearing that two managers and four foremen who had gone down to seize the Wu Earth Stones were killed, and even the mine owner Hu Siping, a Martial Realm cultivator, had lost control due to the appearance of the Wu Earth Essence Stone and rushed down to the mine to massacre, only to die in the mine, Han Xiusheng was secretly shocked. If he had been there, he might have rushed down to seize the Wu Earth Stones as well.

Immediately after, all the remaining managers and foremen who had participated in the Wu Earth Stone conflict were dismissed. Han Xiusheng, who had taken leave, was one of the few managers who kept his job. At this point, Han Xiusheng was not just shocked but greatly relieved.

In the following days, Han Xiusheng received a message from his brother-in-law, Yang Tiangang, and went to Tuqiu Village. This was the first time he visited since his sister, Han Xiumei, went to Meng Yu County with her husband. The stark contrast between the desolate scenes of Chen Yu County and Meng Yu County and the prosperity of Tuqiu Village gave him a strong impact. Despite the risks involved, he readily agreed to the task Yang Tiangang entrusted to him.

While the events in Qing Shu Village were in full swing, Yang Junshan was in the Yang family's library selecting a suitable innate spell.

The choice of an innate spell not only considers the future cultivation of spirit techniques but also is not necessarily better with more. Mortal Realm cultivators have very limited combat methods, and sometimes focusing on one innate spell can be more powerful than mastering three or four.

Moreover, most cultivators, even at the fifth level of the Mortal Realm, can perform spells with their bare hands, but the amount of spiritual energy stored in their bodies can only support a limited number of innate spell casts.

However, these factors had less impact on Yang Junshan. Although he only had three immortal spirit acupoints, one of which was a hidden acupoint that appeared later, his cultivation was average. However, the foundation he laid during the启蒙 and 奠基 stages was excellent. The spiritual energy generated by the immortal roots in his gallbladder and vertebrae was half more than that of ordinary cultivators, and the spiritual energy in the hidden immortal root in his bone marrow was twice as much. This allowed Yang Junshan to save more spiritual energy to cast multiple spells.

Moreover, with his past experience, Yang Junshan could save a lot of time in the process of spell cultivation, directly achieving the ability to cast spells effortlessly.

Yang Junshan's first choice of a spell was naturally one of the three spells derived from the Yang family's inherited spirit technique: Stone Breaking Spell, Earth Shaking Spell, and Sand Flying Spell.

According to Yang Tiangang's original intention, he wanted Yang Junshan to cultivate at least two of these three spells, which would make it easier to cultivate the family's inherited spirit technique in the future. However, Yang Junshan did not need to consider this. In his past life, he had already cultivated the family's inherited spirit technique to perfection and only needed to cultivate one derived spell to fully unleash the power of the "Earth Splitting Spirit Technique."

Among the three derived spells, Yang Junshan ultimately chose the Stone Breaking Spell. Compared to the other two, this spell tests the cultivator's control more. Although its range of effect is not as wide as the other two, it is more targeted and has stronger offensive power.

For the second innate spell, Yang Junshan naturally followed his teacher Chen Ji's advice and chose the Earth Absorption Spell, a spell that ordinary cultivators dislike. Apart from being a derived spell of the famous "Earth Penetration Spirit Technique" among the three thousand spirit techniques, this reason alone was enough.

The Earth Penetration Spirit Technique is notoriously difficult to cultivate among earth-type technique cultivators. Even in his past life, Yang Junshan obtained the inheritance of the "Earth Penetration Spirit Technique" by chance and practiced it for a year but never mastered it, eventually having to give up in regret. At that time, Yang Junshan's cultivation had already reached the high stage of the Martial Realm.

Other spirit techniques, even if cultivated to a half-finished state, can still maintain some power when used in combat. However, the "Earth Penetration Spirit Technique," if cultivated to a half-finished state and still used, would be suicidal. Just imagine being stuck in the ground and unable to get out, and you can understand how terrible this spirit technique is.

Of course, if this spirit technique could be truly mastered, the benefits would be obvious. When cultivators use other escape techniques to flee, they can still be pursued. However, once the Earth Penetration Spirit Technique is successfully cast, the opponent cannot trace their whereabouts.

Moreover, the Earth Penetration Spirit Technique can escape from multiple formations, though not all, which is unique among all escape techniques.

After choosing the inheritance of these two spells, according to Yang Junshan's plan, he originally intended to cultivate one more innate spell. However, the Yang family's library did not have the spell he wanted. This spell, which he had not cultivated in his past life, was closely related to his future plans.

As he walked out of the library, Yang Junshan saw a young man standing not far away, who looked a bit older than him but was about the same height.

Yang Junshan couldn't help but smile, took a few steps forward, and tilted his head to look at him, saying, "Second Brother!"

The young man coldly snorted and said, "Yang Junshan, five years ago when you left Qing Shi Town, I said that if you dared to come back, I would beat you up. Three years ago, when you returned to the old house to test your cultivation potential, your father was there, so I couldn't do anything. Where do you think you can run today?"