Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-353

After conversing, Qiu Shuyu led Tang Jie and Zhang Taixu up the mountain.

The Stone Gate Sect had prepared a sumptuous lunch for the two of them, and diligently attended to their needs.

After three rounds of drinks, Tang Jie slowly came to understand the local situation.

Mount Eternal originally had three sects in the area, but after the discovery of the ore vein, the Stone Gate Sect rose in power and gradually suppressed the two other sects, one of them even choosing to just leave the area. But once the ore vein ran out, the Stone Gate Sect's good days would come to an end.

During the banquet, Qiu Shuyu was very melancholy, saying to Tang Jie, "The Stone Gate Sect truly did benefit a lot from the ore vein, but in protecting the ore vein, it also offended no small number of small-minded people. Back then, the Jade Radiance Sect tried to steal the mine, and my Stone Gate Sect fought three battles with them. Countless disciples were killed, and even I was heavily wounded, but we barely managed to hold the mine. The heavens and earth have borne witness to my Stone Gate Sect's loyalty to the Basking Moon Sect!"

The Jade Radiance Sect was the sect that the Stone Gate Sect forced out of the area. Tang Jie knew that the Stone Gate Sect did have several battles with the Jade Radiance Sect, though he didn't know if they were actually to defend the mine. Judging based on the actual situation, they were probably more for control over the Mount Eternal region as a whole.

From the perspective of the Basking Moon Sect, it was the same regardless of who was protecting the mine, so long as they handed over eighty percent of their profits. Even if the Jade Radiance Sect seized the ore vein, it would only be taking the Stone Gate Sect's cut. No matter how bold it was, it would never dare to try and take the Basking Moon Sect's portion. Thus, the Stone Gate Sect's battle to defend the mine wasn't for the sake of the Basking Moon Sect, but for itself. Qiu Shuyu was just saying all this to express his loyalty and increase his asking price.

Sure enough, Qiu Shuyu said, "But recently, I've heard that the Jade Radiance Sect has yet to give up and is seeking an opportunity to take revenge. Now that the ore vein is about to run dry, the Stone Gate Sect will find it very hard to maintain its current territory and will have to constrict. When the time comes, those bandits will get the chance to strike."

He sorrowfully sighed.

Tang Jie inwardly found this all rather amusing. "A defeated army can't be called courageous, and I presume that they are no match for the Stone Gate Sect. Sect Master Qiu is being too humble."

He didn't use any words that Qiu Shuyu could seize upon.

Qiu Shuyu saw that he was unmoved and awkwardly chuckled, saying no more.

Once they were done eating, Tang Jie wiped his mouth and said, "The meal is done, so let's get down to business. Sect Master, please bring me to the mine."

Qiu Shuyu hastily said, "Young Master, is there a need to be in such a rush? There is plenty of time to play around in our Stone Gate Sect for a few days before going over to look."

Tang Jie shook his head. "Let's not. I still have business to do, so it's best if I can get this done today."

He stood up.

Qiu Shuyu saw how determined he was, so he could only agree. Before they left, Qiu Shuyu gave Tang Jie a Mustard Seed Bag. Tang Jie opened it up to look inside and found that it was stuffed with spirit stones. A rough estimate of their value put it at around one hundred thousand.

Tang Jie laughed and returned the Mustard Seed Bag.

Qiu Shuyu hastily said, "This is merely a small gift from the Stone Gate Sect, nothing like a bribe."

Tang Jie firmly shook his head, so Qiu Shuyu could only take it back and take him to the ore vein.

The spirit stone vein was located at the Hundred Joy Peak of Mount Eternal, only five kilometers from Stone Gate Peak. Qiu Shuyu and Tang Jie's party reached the mine very quickly by air. From a distance, they could see that quite a crowd had gathered.

Qiu Shuyu was going to land there, but Tang Jie smiled and said, "We don't need to alarm them. Let's see what the situation is."

Qiu Shuyu could only nod in agreement, and the party landed in the distance and approached by foot.

The entrance to a mine was always the liveliest of places.

A middle-aged scholar with three prongs of whiskers was seated behind a desk, and in front of the desk was a long line of people. These were all miners, carrying picks and wearing shabby clothes. There were unexpectedly even a few teenagers among the group.

Each person had a basket on their back, and the miners took out jade stone chunks of various sizes from these baskets: spirit stones. This was the raw ore, and it could only be used after polishing and processing. Even so, through the thin rock layer, one could still sense the energy pulses from within.

The miners handed the rocks to the scholar, and someone on the side came up to weigh them.

"24 catties of low-quality ore, and 1 catty of average-quality ore. That's two silver coins and nine cents," the scholar said, counting out coins and handing them over.

The miner shouted unhappily, "There are clearly two catties of average-quality ore, so how did it become one catty?"

The middle-aged scholar snorted, "Shut your mouth, you useless thing! If you keep causing trouble, I'll have you kicked out!"

Spirit stone ore was divided into different levels of quality. According to the standards set by the six major sects, these qualities were "best", "high", "average", and "low", and the ore was received based on this standard. Low quality was the cheapest, with every ten catties only going for one silver coin. Average-quality ore went for five coins per ten, high-quality was three taels, and best-quality was twenty taels.

In the cultivation world, ten catties of low-quality raw ore could make a single low-quality spirit stone, which was about two hundred spirit coins. Not considering the black market price, the exchange rate was one to two thousand.

This was the difference between cultivators and mortals. In this relationship, the former would always be the exploiter and the latter would always be the labor.

Seeking our spirit ores was an extremely laborious and dangerous task. Mines were never safe and often had many lurking dangers. Even cultivators would often encounter misfortune in these places, which was exactly why mining ore was left to mortals. And for most laborers, while mining was dangerous, the rewards weren't low. If their luck was good, they could get one or two pieces of good ore that could help them escape their fate of hard labor. This made them willing to risk their lives in the mines, but even then, they were still exploited by others.

The middle-aged scholar took his own cut, and the mine foreman also took his own rather significant cut.

Normally, a miner could make five silver coins in a day without a problem, but after giving other people their cuts, there would often be only two or three coins left.

The miner saw that he couldn't do anything and stormed off. The miner after him was a youth with a basket on his back, and when he dumped out the basket, there turned out to be a surprising amount of ore inside.

While the kid was rather scrawny, he had managed to mine quite a lot.

The scholar saw this and let out a loud laugh. "Canhen, you've brought back a pretty good haul today."

The youth coldly looked at the scholar.

The scholar's face suddenly sank, and before the weighing person on the side could say anything, the scholar said, "Ten catties of low quality, so one silver coin."

The crowd exploded.

The young man had dumped at least thirty catties of raw ore onto the desk, and two of them had a special luster that indicated that they were clearly of at least average quality. Yet this scholar had wiped it all away and said that there were only ten catties of low-quality ore. This was brazen corruption.

A miner in the back resentfully said, "This isn't even enough to survive."

"Who said that it isn't enough to survive?" the scholar snorted. "One silver coin is enough for his brothers and sisters to eat for three days without worry. There are already few people who are able to live this long after offending Young Master Jin. Xi Canhen, you should go back and carefully think things over. If you hurry and send over your little sister to Young Master Jin, there's still a chance to turn things around. Otherwise, while you might be able to get one silver coin for your ore today, you might not even get a cent tomorrow!"

The youth coldly glared at the scholar and said, "Blackheart Wu, you're dreaming."

"What did you say?" The scholar grew enraged.

While supervising the mine, he had frequently cheated the miners out of their efforts and had long ago gained the name of Blackheart. But nobody had ever dared to say it to his face. He hadn't expected this youth to say it, and he was furious and wanted to teach him a lesson. But he recalled that the youth had a reputation for being bold and fearless. In the mine, he had already fought with the foremen several times, earning him this reputation. At present, even the professional exploiters that were the foremen weren't willing to provoke him, taking only the absolute minimum from him. This was also why he was able to hand over more ore than the other miners.

He was currently too close to this kid, so he would be disadvantaged in a real fight. He could only restrain himself for the time being.

The scholar glared at the youth, who grabbed his coin and left.

Once the youth was farther off, the scholar finally shouted, "Are you useless things blind? Didn't you see that kid insulting me? Seize him at once!"

Several burly men immediately lunged at the youth.

That Xi Canhen saw what was happening and immediately ran off, and those strongmen pursued. Just when they were about to catch up, the youth suddenly grabbed an iron bar next to him, spun around it, and kicked one of the burly men in the face.

The force of the spinning kick was so great that the man was instantly knocked to the ground.

The youth landed lightly on his feet and ran off. Suddenly, he grabbed a small stone slab next to him and threw it backward, smashing another burly man in the foot. The four pursuers had been cut down to two, but these two managed to block the youth off, putting him in danger.

One of them grabbed at the youth while savagely smiling. "Kid, let's see where you run off to now!"

But before he could even finish speaking, the youth turned around and thrust his fingers at the man's eyes. It was a swift and vicious move, almost like the youth wanted to dig out the man's eyes. The man screamed as he covered his eyes and fell back.

At the same time, the other man punched at the young man's back.

The youth staggered, blood trickling out from the side of his mouth. The dark-skinned strongman gave the youth a bear hug, his steely arms preventing the youth from moving and squeezing hard.

The other two injured men arrived, furiously glaring at the youth as if they wanted to tear him apart. At this moment, the youth's body flashed. As this light burst out, the arms of the man holding him were knocked away, and the youth flew out and kicked out at the bodies of the two approaching men. Two more flying kicks brought them to the ground. He threw his head back, striking the nose of the man who had hugged him and causing the man to yowl.

All four people had been struck in the face and were now covering their faces and screaming in pain, leaving everyone dumbfounded.

The young man walked back to the scholar and icily said, "Blackheart Wu, before Young Master Jin kills me, I could actually kill you. So…"

He waved his hand at the scholar, and the scholar trembled and presented the silver that was owed.

The youth looked at the silver and nodded in satisfaction. "Seeing as you still need to accept the ore, I won't knock you out."

"What?" The scholar was shocked, but the youth had already punched him in the stomach, causing his face to twist in pain.

Scholar Wu stammered, "You… you little…"

He shrilly cried out, "Guards! Guards!"

Several miners began to push at the youth. "Canhen, hurry and go. You're already a criminal for hitting Blackheart Wu. The guards will be here soon!"

The youth nodded and ran off.

Two black-armored puppets had already appeared at the entrance. These were none other than the Basking Moon Sect's Blackplate Soldiers.

Appearing with them was a Stone Gate Sect disciple. He looked at the youth and snorted, "Xi Canhen, it's you again! You really know how to cause trouble."

He waved his hand, and the two Blackplate Soldiers pursued the youth.

The youth immediately turned to run, and he was so fast that the two Blackplate Soldiers actually couldn't keep up.

The Stone Gate Sect disciple gradually lost patience. Taking out a blunt greatsword, he formed a hand sign and pointed at the youth. "Go!"

The sword whistled off in pursuit.

While the sword was blunt, it had great weight and momentum. Upon impact, it could shatter stone, so this youth would definitely not survive.

The youth was alarmed, but there was simply no way he could dodge. Just as the sword was about to strike him, his vision blurred, and someone appeared in front of him.

A strong and steady hand grabbed the sword, which clanged and clattered in unwillingness, but it could not escape the hand.

The youth, having escaped death, lay on the ground and panted for breath.

It was only now that he noticed that the one standing in front of him was a young man who was smiling at him.

"Who goes there!? Such audacity!" The Stone Gate Sect disciple saw that someone had blocked his spell and angrily shouted.

Just as he was about to go up and teach this person a lesson, several more people appeared, and their leader instantly caused the disciple to freeze.

He first rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn't seeing things, and then he dropped to his knees and shouted, "Disciple Zhu Junyu pays respects to Sect Master, Second Martial Uncle, Third Martial Uncle, and Fourth Martial Aunt!"

His cry scared everyone out of their wits.

The Stone Gate Sect Master himself had come?

For mortals, a sect master like Qiu Shuyu was a god-like existence.

There was a whoosh as everyone dropped to their knees.

Bang! Bang!

The puppets were still pursuing the youth, so Tang Jie had punched them away, at the same time shutting down their control formations so that they couldn't move. It was only then that he said, "Next time, remember to shut off what needs to be shut off before kneeling."

Zhu Junyu went red in the face, angrily saying, "Who are you, to dare…"

"Shut your mouth!" Qiu Shuyu rebuked. "This is an honored emissary from the Basking Moon Sect, Young Master Tang Jie! Hurry and pay your respects."

"A Basking Moon Sect emissary!" Zhu Junyu was startled and hastily said to Tang Jie, "Paying respects to Young Master Tang."

Tang Jie casually walked over and said, "No need to be too polite. It seems like you're quite busy."

Zhu Junyu quickly said, "I would not dare. It's just that these commoners like to cause trouble. If you don't act with enough force, they might easily repeat their actions."

Tang Jie nodded. "I acknowledge the principle of acting with force to prevent repeated crime, and it is also true that the more people there are, the easier it is for trouble to occur."

Zhu Junyu was delighted to hear his praise.

"But…"

Zhu Junyu's heart instantly dropped.

Tang Jie casually said, "To not ask about right or wrong and investigate the root of the matter—is that really the correct way to solve problems?"

Zhu Junyu and the middle-aged scholar were so scared that they started shaking. It was clear that Tang Jie was saying that the scholar was the true source of the problem.

Sure enough, some of the smarter miners started shouting, "Right! It's this Blackheart Wu! He's heartless, taking money from us every day!"

Blackheart Wu was aghast, thinking to himself, I'm doomed!

Just when he was about to ask for mercy, Tang Jie raised a hand and said, "I am not the divine heavens, nor did I come here to investigate the livelihood of the miners. If you are facing some injustice, there is no need to shout it at me."

Everyone's hearts went cold while Blackheart Wu mentally sighed in relief. Even Qiu Shuyu couldn't help but praise Tang Jie for his way of handling things, not usurping authority.

In truth, the miners having their earnings embezzled was a common occurrence.

Insects were bound to be found in granaries, and full granaries were bound to be home to large rats.

For Immortal sects, there was no honesty among those below, and corruption was inevitable. Even so, rather than finding the uncorrupt, it was better to find the useful people. Moreover, this sort of corruption could be useful at key moments.

This Scholar Wu was a quick thinker, making him rather useful, and he never forgot to offer gifts to his superiors. Thus, he had remained in his post until now.

While Tang Jie didn't take responsibility for this matter, as he was an emissary, Qiu Shuyu wouldn't offend Tang Jie for the sake of a mortal and would definitely fire Scholar Wu. However, he would definitely look down on Tang Jie for being overly righteous.

That Tang Jie hadn't done such a thing greatly improved Qiu Shuyu's impression of him.

"Buuuut…" Tang Jie said.

Blackheart Wu was alarmed, and even Qiu Shuyu couldn't help but bitterly smile. Can't you speak properly? Do you really have to keep everyone in suspense like this?

Tang Jie went on, "Putting aside other considerations, these miners are still subjects of Sageheart, under the protection of my Basking Moon Sect. If the people are living tough lives, would my Basking Moon Sect be considered incapable?"

These words made everyone pale.

Tang Jie added, "Moreover, this lowly person must have embezzled a significant amount. I am sure that if someone were sent to investigate, they would find him to possess immense wealth…"

He didn't need to go on, for Qiu Shuyu already understood what he was getting at. He laughed and said, "Young Master Tang is right. In truth, at times, an explanation must be offered to the common people. When I go back, I will assign someone else the task of receiving the ore. As for this person, we will investigate to see how much he has actually taken and give him the appropriate punishment."

He then said in a whisper, "Young Master has done a great deed for my sect in discovering such a wicked embezzler, and we must thank you for this."

He showed three fingers, indicating that after they had seized Scholar Wu's assets, thirty percent would go to Tang Jie.

Tang Jie chuckled and said nothing.

But he happily accepted this money.

Scholar Wu paled. "Sect Master Qiu, you can't do this!"

In receiving the ore for the Stone Gate Sect over the years, while he had taken a lot for himself, he had passed on a significant portion to the Stone Gate Sect and Zhang Taixu. Qiu Shuyu, by taking everything, was essentially putting all the blame on him.

What he didn't know was that the Stone Gate Sect regarded him as nothing more than a pig. Now that he had been fattened up, he could be slaughtered. As for the output from the mine, eighty percent had to be given to the Basking Moon Sect, but the Stone Gate Sect could take everything that Scholar Wu had obtained.

In this aspect, Scholar Wu was just a useful tool. Through his corruption, he had sucked the essence from the common folk and allowed the Stone Gate Sect to benefit. However, the most that the Stone Gate Sect would be charged with was poor supervision, rather than embezzling what should have belonged to the Basking Moon Sect.

Tang Jie's arrival had only hastened Scholar Wu's downfall. Even without him, this pig would be slaughtered eventually.

After taking care of Scholar Wu, Tang Jie went up to the miners and loudly said, "This one is Tang Jie. I have come on orders of the Basking Moon Sect to inspect the mine, and I require a guide. Anyone who understands the situation in the mine, please step forward. If you do well, I can offer a reward of one hundred taels of silver."

Quite a few people immediately stepped forward to offer their service, that youth among them. He was right next to Tang Jie, making it convenient for him to speak with him. He directly said, "No one is more familiar with the mines with me, but if you want me to be your guide, I have a condition."

Tang Jie looked at the youth. "I just saved you, and you want to negotiate conditions with me?"

The youth went red in the face. "I don't need your silver. I just want you to agree to do something for me. This mine has many branching paths and many dangers. No one knows them more than me. If you don't believe me, you can ask them who has mined the most ore in these last few years!"

If he told Tang Jie to ask whether or not he was the one most familiar with the mines, those miners would probably say, "I'm just as good as him!" But by asking who mined the most, he silenced all the miners. It was clear that nobody could compare to the youth on this.

Tang Jie nodded. "It seems that you really do have some ability. What is your demand?"

The youth worked up his courage and said, "The young master of the Jin Clan has taken a liking to my little sister, wanting to take her as a concubine. You must be some incredible person, so I want you to help me deal with the Jin Clan."

Tang Jie turned his head and loudly asked, "What sort of people are the Jin Clan?"

Zhang Taixu replied, "A mortal clan in the area. The nearby town has many stores that they operate, and they retain several fighters, including a Spirit Master. They have some power and could be considered a local tyrant."

While he had somewhat exaggerated this last part, it was aimed at what Tang Jie needed.

Tang Jie nodded. He then turned to the youth and said, "I can guarantee that they won't touch your little sister, but you must also agree to a condition from me."

It seemed like they had taken a liking to offering conditions to each other.

The youth asked, "What's the condition?"

Tang Jie took the youth to the side and whispered to him, "That treasure or secret manual that let you open your Jade Gate."

The youth paled, and he immediately realized that he had shown something suspicious when breaking the encirclement of the four strongmen. If someone found out that he could cultivate, he might be callously stolen from or even killed. This thought made him look at Tang Jie in fear.

But Tang Jie continued to smile at him, as if telling him that he wasn't trying to steal the treasure, only make a trade.

The youth calmed himself down and said, "Then I have to add a condition."

The number of conditions was starting to get excessive.

Tang Jie asked, "What?"

"Teach me to cultivate."

"This isn't hard, but that will depend on the value of the item. The greater the value, the more I can do for you."

The young man stuffed something into Tang Jie's hand.

Tang Jie trembled upon receiving the item. He asked, "Where did you get this?"

"In the mine," the youth replied. "But only I know where that place is."

Tang Jie nodded. Calmly putting the item away, he said, "You can leave the matter of cultivation to me."

"Then the Jin Clan?"

"There won't be any Jin Clan after this."