Having received his equipment, Cha Ming walked out of the guardhouse. He briefly looked over an instruction jade, which contained the rules for mining in the Shattered Lands. The first part listed financial obligations, such as the need to return equipment as well as renumeration rates for ore. They were not permitted to take ore out, and their storage treasures would be weighed and reconciled when they left.
The second part, however, was a warning.
Interesting, Cha Ming thought. He swept his body with his transcendent force and discovered that, as the jade explained, there was a constant drain on his vitality. Apparently, that applied to all the Shattered Lands, and the deeper one went, the greater the drain. Initial-bone-forging cultivators could only maintain one week of activity in the so-called starting zone before replenishing themselves. Qi cultivators wouldn’t last even a few hours, as they didn’t have the vitality stores or regeneration to fight off the invasive drain. The guardhouse conveniently supplied nourishing meals to replenish the miners. At a cost, of course. It was important to harvest enough ore to recover before the next trip.
Well, at least I won’t be bored while I’m out here, Cha Ming thought. While I’m looking for the Gold Source Marrow, I can find expensive ores to earn some coin. He wouldn’t sell it all, of course. He’d sell just enough to ease suspicion as he stowed away the rest in his Clear Sky World. Rare ores didn’t have to be sold like the others but could instead be claimed by the miners after paying a tax, either a portion of the material or an equivalent value in spirit stones.
After familiarizing himself with the rudimentary maps—apparently the landscape changed constantly in the Shattered Lands—he flew down into the canyon. He entered the first zone, causing bone-forging miners to gawk as he flew past.
A few miles later, he entered the second zone, and two miles after that, the third. There was no fixed distance in the zones. As he traveled, the drain on his vitality increased, though he barely noticed it given his current body cultivation. Miners became less and less surprised by his passage, preoccupying themselves either with hammering away at rocky surfaces to expose ores that had worked their way to the surface or fighting demon beasts that occasionally appeared from cracks in the walls or from outcroppings on the cliffs. The highest-level cultivators he saw were peak-bone-forging cultivators. Though strong, their power was barely sufficient to last within the thin miasma that leached away at their vitality.
“No wonder the South is so bitter about their so-called blessed land,” Cha Ming muttered. The ore here was rich and easy to pick up, assuming one had the strength to dig just a short distance. But the vitality leaching, combined with the fierce demons that roamed the territory, made that ore unattainable to most. It was like staring at a mountain of gold you couldn’t touch or admiring a peerless beauty beyond your reach.
Cha Ming pushed forward. He soon passed the fourth zone and entered the fifth, where he only occasionally saw groups of miners. These early to mid-core-formation cultivators looked up at him warily, despite him being a fellow human. They only relaxed once he plunged even deeper, past a boundary marked off in white and red chalk. It was the entrance to the uncharted zone. Just beyond it, five men were resting. Two were playing cards, and two were sleeping. Another sat in meditation.
“Well, look at what we have here,” one of the sleeping men said, opening an eye. “Fresh meat.”
The two men playing cards stopped their game and looked up curiously.
“We don’t often see new folks around here,” one of the men who’d been playing cards said. “Who are you? Where are you from? Which company are you with?”
“Call me Pai Xiao,” Cha Ming said. “With the Blackthorn Conglomerate.”
“Blackthorn, huh?” the man said. “They don’t usually send men out here. They’re buyers, not workers.” He was a short man, slight of build, and unlike most cultivators, he wore ragged clothing and wore his hair short. He looked weak, if only judging by appearances, but given that he was sitting in such a relaxed manner in this draining area, he was anything but.
Cha Ming shrugged. “Now I’m here. I introduced myself. What’s your name?”
The man gave him a considering look, then glanced at the others before answering. “Call me Bear Three.” Cha Ming raised an eyebrow. “This big bloke’s Bear Five,” he continued, gesturing to the large, mountainous man playing cards with him. “We don’t share our names out here. Since you’re new, you let on more than you should have.”
“I’m Bear Four,” the lazy man who’d woken up earlier said. His clothes were worn, and he wore a scraggly beard that looked to be in dire need of trimming. “Our napping buddy here is Bear Two. He might not look it, but he’s quite strong.”
“Especially around the midsection,” Bear Three joked. The sleeping Bear Two was a rather fat man, with forearms larger than Cha Ming’s legs.
The last member, a bare-chested man with a lean build, bald head, and well-maintained beard, opened his eyes. Unlike most on the continent, his eyes were clear blue. Cha Ming could sense that the man was strong on three fronts. Not only was he a late-body-refining cultivator, but he was also a late-core-formation qi cultivator. His soul force had already reached the peak of the resplendent soul realm.
“I am Bear One,” the man said in a strange accent. He clearly wasn’t from around Bastion, or the Ji Kingdom for that matter. “Tell me friend, are you looking for some mining companions?”
“What?” Bear Three said. “You’re inviting him? But he’s from a company, and not too
