Danwu Refining Spirit

Chapter Eighty-Eight: Entering the Mountains

As the saying goes, "a sedan chair is carried by people." Hengshan saw that Xiao Chong had first given him a gift and was now flattering him, giving him both face and substance. Of course, he was willing to reciprocate and do things in a more elegant manner.

Tiger wanted to argue further, but after glancing at Hengshan's expression and seeing his face shift repeatedly, he ultimately didn't dare utter a word. Unable to afford to offend Hengshan, Tiger vented his anger on Xiao Chong.

"You little brat, you just wait. Once we're deep in the Southern Wilderness, I'll settle all our old and new scores with you!" After cursing in his heart, Tiger abandoned the restaurant's equipment, ordered his men to carry the corpse on the ground, and hurriedly left.

After Tiger Lord and his group left, Hengshan cupped his hands to Xiao Chong and said with great enthusiasm, "Brother Xiao, I have other matters to attend to, so I'll take my leave first. If you have some free time, you're welcome to come to my residence for tea."

"Of course, of course, I'll definitely come and bother you when I have some free time." Xiao Chong politely saw Hengshan to the gate.

Watching the performance of this group of people, the fat man felt as if he were living in a dream.

Such a large restaurant, probably worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and you just got it like that? Such a huge fortune, forcibly transferred to your hands in the blink of an eye?

Even after Xiao Chong saw Hengshan off and returned, the fat man still couldn't believe his eyes.

"What are you staring at? Haven't you ever seen what it means to forcibly seize something... or what it means to transfer it legally? Hurry up, go back and find some men, take over this place first, and we'll use it as our canteen from now on." Xiao Chong slapped the fat man awake from his sleepwalking state, and dragged him straight towards the Xiao family's residence.

The climax always comes too quickly and fades too quickly. A few days later, the fat man's blissful days of wandering around the cafeteria came to an end, because the Xiao family's pioneering team once again embarked on the arduous journey of searching for spiritual veins.

After several days of adjustment, Xiao Chong has adapted to the changes in power. His strength is extraordinary, yet he can control it with ease.

The most obvious change was in the body. After continuously consuming the beast core, although the strength no longer increased, the blood and qi became more vigorous. Several acupoints in the body were also opened up in one go, reaching eighteen.

However, the development of spiritual veins in the Southern Wilderness has now spread like wildfire. Within a few hundred miles of Tiannan Town, everything has either been completely developed or occupied. To find new spiritual veins, one must continue to venture deeper into the Southern Wilderness.

Persistence pays off. About a month later, as early winter approached, the Xiao family's pioneering team finally found a small spiritual vein.

Except for a few people left behind in Tiannan Town to look after the camp and the Happy Forest Restaurant, the rest of the troops have all gone to the mine.

The hundred miners brought this time were not members of the Xiao family, but poor laborers hired by Feiyue City.

These people are all hardworking and adventurous. In order to encourage them to mine spiritual veins more, faster and better, Xiao Chong specially introduced a new measure: a base salary plus performance-based pay.

The base salary is the wage promised by the Xiao family when they hire these people. For every thousand yuan stones mined at the base salary location, they will receive a wage bonus equivalent to one yuan stone.

As expected, money can move people's hearts. Without this system, these miners were suddenly energized, and their work efficiency increased exponentially.

In just a few days, the mined Yuan Stones piled up like a small mountain, and the silver in Xiao Chong's water was also being scattered out like flowing water every day.

Of course, all this money would be accounted for in the family's accounts. Xiao Chong admitted that he hadn't yet reached that level of awareness regarding using his private savings for public good.

Yin Changkong and the others were heartbroken at this. It was such a waste! Even if they had money, they shouldn't spend it like this! But when they saw the mountain of spirit stones, they all shut their mouths.

"Chong Shao is really different from before. Now he does everything with his own methods and is no longer as timid and cowardly as before."

Every day, watching Xiao Chong act like a general commanding a million soldiers, gesturing and ordering people around the mine, the fat man would think back to the old days.

Back then, Chong Shao was taciturn and lived a very poor life, often relying on his own charity to get by. But now, Chong Shao has become very confident, and his methods of making money are unconventional, far beyond what anyone could ever hope to match.

Not only that, but his martial arts skills also improved by leaps and bounds. He no longer needed my help, and instead often protected me.

All of this made the fat man somewhat disappointed, but upon reflection, he felt relieved.

Yeah, so what? As long as the bond between brothers remains unchanged, wouldn't it be better if my brothers became stronger? That way, I can hide behind them and enjoy being a foodie in peace.

After much deliberation, the fat man felt that he had finally found the ultimate pursuit in life, and from then on, he sang all the way on the road to his ideals, forging ahead bravely.

But today, the fat man didn't think so. Ever since that morning, when Yin Changkong led half his men to escort a batch of spirit stones back to Tiannan Town, he had been restless, feeling as if something bad was about to happen.

Influenced by this mood, even my appetite decreased. A pot of braised pork hock on the table had been sitting there for a long time, but I hadn't touched it, which was unimaginable before.

"This is really too strange. I should go and remind Young Master Chong." After staring at the pork hock for a long time without any appetite, the fat man decided to have a good talk with Xiao Chong.

Winter days always end early, and it was dusk. The miners, having eaten their fill after a long day's work, were already fast asleep. In the vast temporary camp, only Xiao Chong and a few other disciples from the Zongxue Academy who had come with him to the Southern Wilderness had their lights still on in their rooms.

The fat man tiptoed into Xiao Chong's room and saw Xiao Chong playing with a pile of spirit stones under the lamp. He then sat down without any hesitation.

"Young Master Chong, even the bench you're resting on is made of Yuan Stone that you knocked off from One-Eyed Dragon. How can you still have the leisure to admire Yuan Stone? Don't you get tired of it?" The fat man was very contemptuous of Xiao Chong's behavior, which clearly lacked artistic cultivation.

Xiao Chong ignored the fat man and continued to carefully compare the pile of spirit stones under the lamp, thinking to himself that the other man was ignorant.

You wouldn't understand my world.

Although we now have the Purple Cloud Cauldron as a perfect place to hide stolen goods, the space inside is too limited. Wouldn't it be a huge loss to not properly sort through these stolen spirit stones and instead fill them with ordinary items?

After finally finishing his selection, while the fat man was idly looking around the room, Xiao Chong had a sudden thought and discreetly put the few high-quality spirit stones he had chosen into the cauldron.

"I'm still too poor! Although I'm rich, it's all silver, which is of no use to cultivation."

Besides, I'm not cultivating alone; the spirit of the cauldron is always trying to get a piece of the pie. If I don't take advantage of this opportunity to gain more benefits, when will I ever make any progress?

Xiao Chong sighed inwardly before saying to the fat man, "Why are you here so late instead of going to sleep? Are you short of cultivation resources?"

If that's the case, here are some elemental stones. They're not the best quality, but they'll do. Take them all.

The fat man stared at the table full of spirit stones without saying a word. After a long while, he said, "I have a feeling that something is wrong today. It seems like there are hidden dangers everywhere. Do you think someone might attack the camp tonight?"

"You're such a jinx!" Xiao Chong said irritably. "Have you been reading too many storybooks? Where do you get so many stories about raiding camps in the middle of the night? Besides, with me here to keep watch, what bandit would dare to come to the camp looking for death?"

Seeing that Xiao Chong didn't take his words to heart, the fat man tried to persuade him further: "But anything can happen, as the saying goes, 'The weather is unpredictable, and life is unpredictable'..."

"Alright, stop worrying unnecessarily," Xiao Chong interrupted the fat man. "Go back to sleep. If you can't sleep, practicing a little more is better than this."

"Alright then, but if anything really happens, don't say I didn't warn you." The fat man was infected by Xiao Chong's aura and also felt that he might have been a bit paranoid, so he got up to leave.

Just as he was about to leave, Xiao Chong stopped him and asked, "Do you want these spirit stones or not?"

After hesitating for a long time, the fat man looked around and, seeing that no one else had noticed, quickly collected all the spirit stones on the table and fled like a thief.

Not long after the fat man left the yard, a pile of miscellaneous items under a large tree in the yard suddenly moved.

A moment later, in the soft moonlight, a very faint figure emerged from the pile of debris and slowly moved along the corner of the barracks towards Xiao Chong's residence.

However, the figure had used some unknown method to conceal its presence extremely cleverly; without close inspection, it was impossible to distinguish between the moonlight and the figure.

Xiao Chong was naturally unaware of all this. After sending the fat man away, he sat on the unique stool made of Yuan Stone and began to cultivate the technique of guiding star power into his body from the "Nine Transformations of the Stars".

He couldn't help but take it seriously. According to Old Lu's "deathbed" instructions, this cultivation method was very likely the lineage passed down by Emperor Ziwei on the Tianyun Continent.

Who is the Ziwei Emperor? He's another big shot in the Immortal Realm! And in terms of prestige, he's even more prestigious than Lu Da Ka!

Therefore, ever since Lu Daka's clone disappeared that day, Xiao Chong has made cultivating this technique his top priority, practicing diligently every day without daring to slack off in the slightest.

Of course, the scriptures left by Lü Daka should not be overlooked, especially the method of divine sense, which is the shortcut to cultivating the path of the Mind Master. Moreover, the ultimate achievement of divine sense cultivation is closely related to opening up the world within the Purple Cloud Cauldron.

Tonight, the moonlight is dim, but the starlight is brilliant. At this time when the starlight is at its strongest, it is the perfect opportunity to cultivate the "Nine Transformations of the Stars".

Sitting on the stone bench, Xiao Chong followed the methods described in the general outline of "Nine Transformations of the Stars" and tried his best to communicate with Sirius. He soon entered a wonderful state of forgetting himself and others.

In the night sky, faint silver starlight fell from Sirius, seeping into Xiao Chong's body bit by bit.

At the same time, the figure that had appeared in the courtyard finally moved to Xiao Chong's room and used a short sword as thin as paper to pry open the door bolt.