Chapter 19 - Laborious Task in the Mine
The two elders holding Wu Baoru were aware of the fact that he was really fainted, the two nodded toward Sect Leader. A group of elders were all elite, they could understand the meaning of each other, and Sect Leader naturally understood the meaning of the two. They have suspected Yue Qianchou's testimony, with the cultivation base of Wu Baoru, if he really wanted to kill Yue Qianchou, the latter wouldn't even be able to escape here. The Junior Brother with Nascent Soul cultivation now actually coughed a mouthful of blood and fainted, his innocence was obvious.
"Where are the law enforcement disciples!" Shouted Liu Changqing. "Coming in!" Came several people from inside and they stood on both sides of the hall. The square suddenly went silent, all the present eyes simultaniously focused on the hall before them, they knew Sect Leader was going to make a decision.
Liu Changqing stared at the two people and began his judgement, "Elder Wu chased the disciple in public, there were many witnesses. However, the punishment will have to wait for Elder Wu's injury to be treated. On the other hand, Yue Qianchou publicly abused the elder, everyone heard it, he will be punished to do the laborious task in the spirit stone mine. Do the elders have any other opinions?"
Naturally, all the present disciples did not dare to comment on Sect Leader's decision. But they all understood that this treatment was clearly a loss to Yue Qianchou. It has to be known that the spirit stone mine that was mentioned, was clearly a place where the Green Light Sect exiled their disciples. The disciples who went to labour there were either having extremely poor root bones or have commited a crime. Everyday, there must be a quarry of spirit stones to be mined, and there would be severe punishment if the task were not finished. So far, there haven't been many that came back alive from the mine after their punishment was over.
In everyone's eyes, Yue Qianchou was obviously aggrieved, he got such a heavy punishment, it was unavoidable that people linked it with the last time he offended Sect Leader, this was a clear retaliation. No one dared to say anything, only sighed in the heart. Liu Zhengguang who was in the crowd saw that Yue Qianchou got a punishment to be sent into the mine, he was having schadenfreude, but also thought that Grandfather did it for him.
"Martial Nephew Yue, do you have any problem with this?" Asked Liu Changqing coldly.
"Disciple is willing to be punished and dare not to complain," Answered Yue Qianchou with a bleak expression, seeing this all the disciples around were feeling sad. However, as opposed to the surrounding people's feelings, Yue Qianchou's heart was brimming in joy.
With a wave hand from Sect Leader, Elder Wu was taken away, and Yue Qianchou was also taken to the mine by the law enforcement disciples. Qu Ping'er's two eyes gazed at the staggered walk of the seemingly lonely back, she bit tight her lips, she really couldn't imagine the fate of such a genius in the spirit stone mine.
....
The sun was shining strongly, at the outskirt of the spirit stone mine, there were many caves on each left and right sides of the mine, those were all the living place of the disciples who brought here. In front a large open space, at this time there were nearly 100 dirty and ragged disciples who were gathered as a group. On a pillar before them, a disciple was stripped of his robe, and was tied with several chains on both of his hands and feet.
"Whoop! Whoop!" A barbed whip fluttered with a loud sound. A scream resounded everytime the whip was swung. All of the disciples on the open space were shocked.
A bare-chested, hard-featured cultivator was walking back and forth with hands behind his back. This person was an early Core Formation cultivator, he was Gao Shiping, one of the overseer in the spirit stone mine. He was looking at the group of the frightened disciples, then shouted out loud, "Listen! This is the fate of the one who stole spirit stones in the mine. I warn you, implant it in your brain, no one here will be able to fish in troubled waters[1] under your Martial Uncles' supervision!"
As he was saying, he suddenly saw a stream of light in the distance. Two law enforcement disciples were escorting a seemingly dejected disciple. Gao Shiping's hard face suddenly produced a wide smile, he hurriedly ran toward the newly arrivied group, flatteringly laughed, "The two law enforcement Senior Brothers, long time no see, are you giving me a new person?" He glanced at the dejected disciple. The young man was none other than Yue Qianchou, who was punished to work in the spirit stone mine.
The two law enforcement disciples nodded simultaniously, they heard a whipping sound and cry, the two people turned their heads toward the place where the execution was on, one of them asked frownly, "Junior Brother Gao, did that person commit another mistake?"
"As Senior Brother said, that person dared to secretly absorb the excavated spirit stone inside the mine, it was found out during the examination using the artifact, according to the sect rules, to be whipped 500 times," said Gao Shiping.
The other law enforcement disciple shook his head and sighed, "I haven't heard anyone could survive the 'Wolf's Fang Whip' of Junior Brother Gao."
Yue Qianchou glanced at the scene, and saw the barbed 'Wolf's Fang Whip' with a string of flesh and dripping blood, he secretly thought, "What artifact? Father also wants to steal some spirit stones, as if the threat of some artifact would stop me."
"If i don't impose a severe punishment for someone like him, the others wouldn't be afraid to steal the spirit stone in the future, i wouldn't be able to show my face in the sect if that would happen," said Gao Shiping with a smile, then his eyes moved toward Yue Qianchou and asked the two people, "This disciple, how did he end up here?"
A law enforcement disciple shook his head and said with a smile. "Haven't you heard the matter of the late Martial Uncle Hao's disciple?"
"Ah, so that's Yue Qianchou who offended Sect Leader?" Gao Shiping was surprised and saw the law enforcement Senior Brother nodded while smiling. "Hey! So you are Junior Brother Yue. You got some guts to dare offended Sect Leader. I'm sure i'll treat you well here." Finished, he turned and shouted, "Come with me!"
Yue Qianchou knew he was famous in the Green Light Sect, but did not expect it would reach far away to the people at the spirit stone mine. Then another overseer came, with Gao Shiping arrangement, Yue Qianchou was taken away, he vaguely heard the law enforcement disciple words, "Junior Brother Gao, you should not kill this person, a few elders have specifically pointed out that he is still useful...."
That overseer took him into the group of disciples on the open space, to let him witness closely of the heavy whipping punishment. After witnessing it, Yue Qianchou showed no reaction, he thought that there was nothing worthy of compassion for the execution of the disciple. In his words... If you dare to steal something, you must be prepared to get caught, even if it were to result in your death.
Yue Qianchou looked around the mining disciples, all of them were skinny, in addition to the dirty faces, most of them expressed panic toward the execution, while the rest showed an insensitive expression. He heaved a sigh in his heart, it seemed that these people were living in oppression for too long.
The overseer was so ruthless, even though the punished disciple had died on the stone pillar, he kept whipping on the corpse until it was broken by the barbed whip. Yue Qianchou's two eyes slightly narrowed, flashed a cold gleam, they seem to have enmity, actually whipped that corpse with such a hate.
The miners were then hurried back to their respective caves, Yue Qianchou was supervised to a certain cave, the space was not large, and there was nothing but flat floor, three people were seen laying on the ground. It seemed that the room would be squeezed by four people. The overseer coldly said, "You live here... Shi Xiaotian, explain to him what to do next," The last remark was sent toward a young man lying on the ground. The young man, who was called Shi Xiaotian, hurriedly stood up and ran toward the two people when he heard the overseer. The overseer did not say anything further and turned away.
Shi Xiaotian's face was very dirty, but faintly could be seen the face of a handsome young man, of course, Yue Qianchou had adjusted his living in the cultivation world for quite some time, he couldn't really judge a person age just by appearance. The former's pair of big eyes stared blankly at the new guy.
Yue Qianchou made a friendly smile toward Shi Xiaotian, but it seemed that the guy didn't even appreciate it, he didn't say anything either. The guy took the tools for mining, it was a simple pickaxe and a basket that could be carried on the back. After doing that, Shi Xiaotian told him some of the rules at the mine, and they went into the cave. In fact, Yue Qianchou wanted to ask him what the so called artifact, but the other party didn't answer the question.
The mining rules didn't sound too hard to accomplish. Each person must turn in a piece of top grade spirit stone each day, that is to say, equivalent to 100 pieces of mid grade spirit stones, or 10.000 pieces of low grade spirit stones. If someone haven't finished the task, they wouldn't be given rest nor food. For a cultivator, this wouldn't be a big problem, even for someone who hasn't reached Core Formation, surviving for one or two days without rest wouldn't really matter. The difference of not finishing in a day was, it would add to the next day's quota, if they couldn't complete the task for three consecutive days, they would get a severe punishment according to the unfinished quota.
As for the excess quota, the excess would be accumulated for the next time someone couldn't finish the task, that way they could avoid the punishment. Or they could enjoy 1% of the total excess of spirit stones, the miners could choose between the two. However, if someone were to choose the latter, they should be confident to complete the task every time, otherwise they would be punished because the previous excess have been used.
The most strict one was, if someone were dare to steal spirit stone, or secretly absorbed the spiritual Qi inside, as long as it was discovered, they would be as good as dead.
As for these rules, Yue Qianchou was not worried to get the task completed, but how he could steal the spirit stone without being found out, in a way that ensured the completion of the task. So he could stay in the mine and steal all the time.
Yue Qianchou's current situation would require a large quantity of spirit stones to rise his Qi Condensation to the limit. Now, the opportunity was in front of him, it was impossible to waste it away. His way of thinking was no different from his past life, Horses without the night feeding wouldn't get fat, People without a windfall wouldn't get rich, deeply branded in his consciousness. The matter that worried him the most was what Gao Shiping said about the artifact, he didn't know if the spirit stones could hidden inside the golden bead without being detected.
The inside of the cave was quite lively by the snore sound, Yue Qianchou was a bit surprised, a person who have cultivated and a mortal, aside from the longevity and divine technique, what is the difference? He couldn't figure it out. Yue Qianchou wanted to hide inside the golden bead space, but afraid he would be found out by suddenly disappearing. He had to endure the snoring sound of the three guys inside the cave.
The next day, Yue Qianchou found out that the people in the cave were self-centered, no one would take care of you. Good thing they were three people here that he could imitate, carrying a basket on the back, and a pickaxe on the hand, the four people went toward the mouth of the mining cave. Yue Qianchou stood in the crowd while looking around, he particularly compared the clothing of the miners to the other people stationed there, it was very dazzling.