Chapter 3593 — Hard to Make a Move!

Meng Jueming led Meng Tong and Li Zhengming into Mine Shaft No. 7, the other new disciples entered Mine Shaft No. 8, and as for Wei Zhao, he entered Mine Shaft No. 10 in the company of Senior Brother Miserable.

"Senior Brother Miserable, do you people really not need a special entry token to get in?" Wei Zhao turned his head and asked Senior Brother Miserable in surprise. When they had come in just now, he had clearly seen Senior Brother Miserable merely show the guards his jade badge as a managing senior brother of the Newcomers' Pavilion; Meng Jueming on the other side had done the same.

"That's right. The identity badge of a managing senior brother of the Newcomers' Pavilion is equally valid here. However, since I belong to the Qingyun Pavilion, I can only enter and leave Mine Zones Seven through Nine. Mine Zone Ten, of course, is a public zone, so one may come and go freely," Senior Brother Miserable nodded and said.

Pausing a moment, he then grumbled, "Junior Brother Lin, you really shouldn't have signed that contract just now. I once came to try my luck in Mine Zone Ten before—you simply can't dig up any good jade here. But what's done is done, there's no helping it. Let me take you to a few spots where I once dug up spirit jade. True, you'll only get worthless jade out of them, but that's still better than you flailing about like a headless fly and doing useless work on your own."

"Then I'll have to thank you, Senior Brother Miserable," Wei Zhao answered with a smile.

Although he was already at the early stage of Foundation Establishment and did not face the time pressure that other newcomers did, three months was neither short nor long; if he truly dug up nothing at all and simply wasted the time, that would be rather awkward. Still, being able to dig up worthless jade was already enough.

The mine shaft was winding and long. According to Senior Brother Miserable, Mine Zone Ten was already in an extremely marginal location, and the two of them walked for a full half-hour or more before reaching their destination.

Along the way, though they occasionally saw a few people, they were few and far between. Even after reaching the actual mining site, such a vast stretch of mine zone held only two or three people, two of whom were guards in uniform. The name "Mine Zone Ten, the dead mine" was indeed well deserved.

Seeing Wei Zhao and his companion, the two bored guards exchanged a glance and said jokingly, "Hey, two more unlucky wretches."

In a dead mine zone like this, even the useless sorts of the Qingyun Pavilion were unwilling to come; anyone assigned here must surely be an unlucky wretch who had offended someone up above. As the guards stationed here, they had long grown used to such things.

Miserable's face instantly darkened—he had actually been taken for an unlucky wretch by the guards! Just look at how Meng Jueming had been received so warmly earlier, with acquaintances wherever he went. By contrast, he, Miserable, was... truly miserable in name and in fact!

"I am Ku Zhongle, managing senior brother of the Qingyun Pavilion stationed at the Newcomers' Pavilion, here to deliver a disciple into the mine zone for mining!" Senior Brother Miserable spoke up.

"Ku Zhongle?" The two guards were visibly taken aback. "Never heard of him. You're a managing senior brother? Aren't the managing senior brothers Meng Jueming and Miserable? Where does this Ku Zhongle come from?"

"Uh... I am Miserable. Miserable is my nickname; Ku Zhongle is my original name..." Senior Brother Miserable explained with a bitter smile.

"Good grief, you should have just said you were Miserable and saved us the trouble." The guard nodded, then waved his hand, signaling that Miserable could go in.

Senior Brother Miserable nodded to the two guards in greeting as well, then led Wei Zhao to the mining spots he knew well.

Yet they had barely taken two steps when they heard the two guards chattering behind them.

"So that's Miserable. Seeing him today, he's miserable indeed!"

"True enough. Still, I'd say the one beside him is the real little wretch—following the wrong man. If he'd followed Meng Jueming, how could he have ended up here?"

"Alas, nothing to be done about it. Actually, aren't the two of us the same? If we hadn't offended Dai Wuchang, that real power in the Spirit Jade Hall, how could we have been banished to this post?"

Wei Zhao had heard the earlier conversation as well. So Senior Brother Miserable was actually named Ku Zhongle—but clearly, even he himself had accepted the name Miserable, so much so that when he formally registered, no one recognized him anymore.

The two walked into the mine zone, set down the baskets they had collected at the entrance, each specially inscribed with a name, and took out the shovels inside. Senior Brother Miserable demonstrated in person, instructing Wei Zhao in some of the tricks of mining.

It was worth noting that, to prevent the heaven-and-earth spirit qi within the spirit jade from being damaged during mining, the shovels used for digging were made entirely of jade; in use, however, they were much like any iron shovel—hard, sharp, and highly practical. Not only could they easily break through soil, they could pierce even hard rock with ease. Wei Zhao even felt that if such a thing were taken out and used as a weapon, it would already be more than sufficient.

Having grasped the tricks Senior Brother Miserable had pointed out, Wei Zhao quickly got the hang of it. After all, the task itself was not complicated; it mainly came down to strength. And with Wei Zhao's strength at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, such physical labor was naturally nothing to speak of—even working without rest for a whole day would leave him not the slightest bit tired.

Although this was the dead Mine Zone Ten, where the yield of jade was extremely low, the spot Wei Zhao had chosen was, after all, backed by Senior Brother Miserable's experience and insight, and his luck was good today as well. After only a short while, he dug up his first piece of spirit jade.

Wiping the dirt from its surface with a cloth, the pure white jade soon bloomed with radiance. In outward appearance it looked exactly like the few pieces of spirit jade in his hand; yet after carefully sensing the spirit qi within, he found it extremely thin, less than one percent in concentration—a typical piece of worthless jade.

"It's not bad. Once you've accumulated enough of this worthless jade, it can be exchanged for good jade," Senior Brother Miserable consoled him from the side.

Wei Zhao nodded. Just then, he saw one of the two guards in the distance walk over, carrying a scale. He took the worthless jade Wei Zhao had dug up, weighed it, noted down the figure, then tossed the worthless jade back into the basket and turned to leave.

"What is he doing?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled.

"This is the standard supervisory procedure in all mine zones. To prevent anyone from secretly hoarding spirit jade, whenever someone digs up spirit jade, the guards weigh it and record the figure. When the shift ends and you hand in your work, all the spirit jade you've mined will be weighed again together. If the figure differs too greatly from the one the guards recorded—especially if it's much less—you'll be isolated for investigation," Senior Brother Miserable explained.

Hearing this, Wei Zhao could not help secretly clicking his tongue in dismay. Entering and leaving the mine shaft already required a thorough body search; who would have thought there was such a supervisory procedure inside as well? Setting all else aside, when it came to preventing people from secretly hoarding spirit jade, the Spirit Jade Hall truly did leave not a single drop unaccounted for.

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