177: Fifth level of the Divine Realm

"You lot, listen up! This mine is where you'll be working for the next fifty years. Each of you must hand in at least one Spirit Crystal every day, or face the consequences. Do you understand?"

The Scar-faced Man, with his ferocious face and fleshy features, roared at the top of his lungs.

"Understood." The several sturdy laborers replied in a panic, their expressions fearful.

"And one more thing, listen clearly: if one person tries to escape or hoards a Spirit Crystal for themselves, everyone will suffer together."

The Scar-faced Man's cold, snake-like eyes swept over their terrified faces, filled with heavy threats.

Afterwards, Yang Lingchen and the others were each given a rusty shovel and were then roughly led into the deep, dark mine.

The owner of this mine was not actually afraid of the mine slaves hoarding Spirit Crystals, because their storage rings had already been ruthlessly confiscated, and their cultivation levels were not high, generally only at the Early Stage of the God Entry Realm.

For a Cultivator in the God Entry Realm, it takes at least seven days to refine one Spirit Crystal. Inside the mine, ten wolf-like, tiger-like miners watched each other, and everyone carried heavy tasks, so it was impossible to have time to refine Spirit Crystals.

This was an extremely deep and vast mine, with several winding, intricate, and crisscrossing smaller tunnels inside.

The rock surrounding this mine was incredibly hard. Digging for Spirit Crystals in such harsh conditions was extremely laborious. If you were lucky, you might dig up one or two in a day; if you were unlucky, you might not even find one in several days.

Yang Lingchen entered a narrow, small mine tunnel all by himself, gripped the heavy shovel, and began to dig in a proper manner.

The stones here were exceptionally hard. Yang Lingchen dug with great effort for several hours, becoming panting and exhausted, yet he had only dug a few meters and hadn't even caught a glimpse of a Spirit Crystal.

Just then, Yang Lingchen vigilantly looked around. After confirming that no one was paying attention to him, he quietly activated the Spirit Search Technique.

The Spirit Search Technique was an extremely advanced treasure-seeking secret technique, very rare even in the mysterious and vast Divine Realm. Fortunately, Ling Juechen's memories happened to contain this miraculous technique.

As the Spirit Search Technique was activated, Yang Lingchen instantly and pleasantly discovered two Spirit Crystals located in the rock directly in front of him.

After this astonishing discovery, Yang Lingchen was suddenly full of energy. These were two Spirit Crystals! As long as he had enough Spirit Crystals, Yang Lingchen was confident that he could Breakthrough to the second layer of the God Entry Realm in a short time.

An hour later, Yang Lingchen finally dug out the two Spirit Crystals. He immediately and carefully tossed one of them into the mysterious haotian jade space.

Not long after, the ferocious-looking Scar-faced Man walked in aggressively and shouted loudly: "Good lad, you have a future! You found a Spirit Crystal on your very first day. Bring it here!"

"My lord, here you go." Yang Lingchen respectfully handed over the Spirit Crystal in his hand.

"Good, keep up the good work." The Scar-faced Man showed a satisfied smile, laughed heartily, and then swaggered out.

Yang Lingchen was also speechless. He had been too careless just now and hadn't covered up the Aura of the Spirit Crystal immediately, which was why the Scar-faced Man had discovered it.

Spirit Crystals were precious Ores containing very dense Spiritual Qi. As soon as they were unearthed, they would emit a rich, fragrant Spiritual Qi, so it was very difficult for miners to hoard them privately.

With the experience from the first time, Yang Lingchen's speed at digging Spirit Crystals became significantly faster.

From then on, every time he was about to dig up a Spirit Crystal, Yang Lingchen would directly use the magical haotian jade space to instantly collect it, cleverly avoiding the leakage of Spiritual Qi.

Time flew by like a white horse passing a crack; in the blink of an eye, a day had passed. After a day of strenuous digging, Yang Lingchen had dug up a total of twenty Spirit Crystals.

On the second day, Yang Lingchen directly used the Vast Heaven Jade to convert the Spirit Crystal's Spiritual Qi and then fed it back into his body.

In this cycle, as the Vast Heaven Jade continuously transported the pure Spiritual Qi from the Spirit Crystals into Yang Lingchen's body, his cultivation level was also growing rapidly.

Time passed in a flash for half a month.

During this half-month of life as a miner, Yang Lingchen lived very fulfilling days, to the point where he almost didn't want to leave.

The main reason for all of this was that in this half-month, his cultivation level had broken through directly to the third layer of the God Entry Realm.

One must know that in the God Entry Realm, every Breakthrough of a small Realm requires a vast amount of resources and a long time to consolidate.

Yet Yang Lingchen had broken through two small Realms in half a month, which to many people was simply like a fantasy, an impossible thing to achieve.

At this moment, Yang Lingchen had already dug his mine tunnel to a depth of three hundred meters underground. However, he came out once a day to hand in Spirit Crystals, so the Scar-faced Man did not suspect him.

"Yue Bufan, do you not want to live anymore? Half a month has passed, and you've only dug up this little bit of Spirit Crystals." Murong Qing, whose face was stunningly beautiful but cold as frost, looked at Yue Bufan coldly with eyes like blades.

"Young Miss, please spare me! This old servant will definitely increase the digging effort upon returning and strive to make up for what was missed before." Yue Bufan was so scared that his face turned ashen; he knelt directly on the ground, his body trembling.

"One month later, This Young Lady will be heading to the Great Yan Academy to report. Before then, if you still cannot complete the task, then bring your head to see me." Murong Qing's voice was icy and bone-chilling as she said coldly.

"Yes, Young Miss. This old servant will definitely do everything in his power to complete the task." Yue Bufan said, bowing in fear and trepidation.

"Starting from today, the production quota for everyone to hand in is doubled. Those who cannot complete it will face the consequences." The Scar-faced Man said coldly, expressionless.

"Yes." Everyone replied in unison, their voices filled with helplessness.

At this moment, the Scar-faced Man looked at Yang Lingchen and said coldly: "Starting from today, you must hand in three every day."

"My lord, hand in three! Even if you kill me, I can't dig that many out!" Yang Lingchen said with a look of grievance, acting pitiful.

"Every day after you hand in the Spirit Crystals, you slack off there. Do you think I don't know?" The Scar-faced Man widened his eyes and said coldly.

"I was just resting for a while so I would have the strength to keep digging! If I don't rest, how could I have the energy to dig!" Yang Lingchen hurriedly explained in a rush.

In reality, he was not resting but silently Cultivating; it was just that the Scar-faced Man did not know.

"Less nonsense! If you can't hand them in, face the consequences. Why aren't you going to work yet?" The Scar-faced Man finished speaking and walked out of the mine in a rage.

"Brother Ouyang, how do you dig Spirit Stones so fast?" Tian Boguang asked, looking curious and puzzled.

"I like digging holes when I have nothing to do, that's why I dig faster. Let's go! Time to work."

After Yang Lingchen finished speaking, he took his shovel and walked quickly toward his own dim and deep mine tunnel.

Isn't it just two more Spirit Crystals? Do I look like someone who is short on Spirit Crystals?

This time, Yang Lingchen went full throttle, like a crazy beast, digging tirelessly inside the mine.

Very quickly, one Spirit Crystal after another was quietly collected by him into the haotian jade space.

Time passed in a flash for another half month.

During this half-month, besides handing in three Spirit Crystals every day, Yang Lingchen refined all the remaining Spirit Crystals, and his cultivation level broke through like a hot knife through butter to the fifth layer of the God Entry Realm.

This day, deep within the mine, Yang Lingchen suddenly discovered a massive amount of Spirit Crystals. With one strike of his shovel, a massive amount of extremely dense Spiritual Qi flooded out like a tide.

"Holy cow!" Without time to think, Yang Lingchen grabbed his shovel and began prying frantically like a madman.

At the same time, Murong Qing, who was patrolling the mining field, moved like lightning, rushing toward Yang Lingchen's mine tunnel with great speed.

Seeing this, Yue Bufan hurriedly followed, his expression nervous.

"Oh my goodness, this time I've really struck it rich!"

Yang Lingchen's eyes shone with excitement; he estimated that this area contained at least ten thousand Spirit Crystals.

Because each Spirit Crystal was tightly embedded in the hard rock, even if his speed was fast, it was impossible to pry them all out at once.

Even so, Yang Lingchen still pried out nearly seven thousand Spirit Crystals and, with lightning speed, put them into the haotian jade space.

Just at this moment, a stunningly beautiful figure rushed in, looking coldly at Yang Lingchen.