Chongming Xianzong

Chapter 147 Seventh Level of Qi Training
It’s not that all the martial artists in the world are heartless and would be willing to be slaughtered when they see the so-called immortals.

There were definitely some warriors who dared to resist, although not many, and almost all of them died.
Perhaps every time at such a time, there would always be one or two people who successfully escaped, but it was probably not due to any magical skills or secret techniques, but just luck.

Practitioners do not always let the animals escape because they cannot catch up with them. Perhaps they are just too lazy to chase them, just like a hunter who, when returning with a full load of hunting, will not care about a rabbit that slips out of his packed carriage.

This stems from the arrogance that runs deep in the monks' bones.

However, other people don't need to feel too sorry for these warriors. Most of them have acquired such excellent martial arts skills by absorbing the blood and fats of the kind people living in the fields since their ancestors.

The monks allowed the warriors to abuse the common people, and then every once in a while they would harvest the warriors to do hard labor, so that the common people could take this opportunity to recuperate.
The monks' way of governing by doing nothing seems to have naturally formed a nearly perfect ecological cycle over thousands of years.

Kang Dabao did not stay in the parade ground and Tiexi Mountain for too long. With a wave of his hand, the clerks waiting for orders in the parade ground drove the laborers into the animal carts that had been prepared.

After the clerk locked the door, the driver gently cracked the whip, and the beasts of burden exhaled a puff of white steam, snorted, and started walking.

The vans that transported the forced laborers were extremely stuffy. There were twenty animal carts, each of which held about a hundred people, forcing these hot-blooded men to passively engage in "skin-to-skin contact" here.

"Master, where are these immortals taking us?" A young, sturdy young man in the crowd, who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old, asked softly to the white-browed old man beside him.

"Huh, I don't know either. I think it's either mining or construction." The old man shook his head, recalling the experience of being conscripted when he was young.

Living longer has its disadvantages, and you will encounter bad luck like conscription more than once. I still remember that I was a skin refiner at that time. After surviving by chance, I worked hard to form a martial arts sect and became quite famous in the nearby martial arts world.

And then today I realized there is no difference, it's still the same, being stripped naked and locked in a cage.

Among the warriors nearby there were some who were familiar with the old man and knew his martial arts and reputation. Seeing that he had ended up like himself, they felt even more pessimistic, and even their martial arts spirit, which they had always insisted on, began to become confused.

Although the pack animals were pulling heavy carts, they were still much faster than mortal warriors.

After traveling along the road for less than ten days, the laborers who set out from Pingrong County finally arrived at Gaoli Mountain in Tanggu County, where the poor spiritual stone mine was located.

Along with them came the hard laborers assigned by the Governor's Office from Jin County. Among the monks in Jin County, none of them were outstanding and were the most obedient.

Unlike Master Kang, who was kind-hearted, he chose a time every day to arrange for the warriors to take turns to exercise.

The chief clerk who led the team from Jin County was quite inhumane. During the five or six days' journey, the van containing the forced laborers was never driven.

A boxcar with more than a hundred people on it, eating, drinking, defecating and urinating were all crowded together for a few days, and one can imagine the situation. Even though the warriors were in good health, four or five of them were tortured to death along the way.

When the Chief Clerk of Jin County saw Kang Dabao, he came over to greet him with a smile, but the latter had a cold face and was too lazy to respond.

You should never associate with people who like to harm others without benefiting themselves. This is pure evil, and is even more disgusting than those bandits and evil cultivators who are used to killing people and stealing treasures.

Tang Guling, who came to welcome the two, had been waiting for a long time. Like Luo Heng, he was a fair-skinned scholar. He was born into the Huo family as a son-in-law, just like Luo Heng.

Because of the personal experiences of Luo Heng and Qian Liu, the reputation of Master Kangda among the Huo family's sons-in-law has spread.

Therefore, even though Tang Guling's cultivation and official rank were higher than Kang Dabao, he still spoke respectfully when facing the latter and did not dare to put on airs.

However, Sect Leader Kang, whose mood was ruined by the words of County Master Jin, had no intention of chatting at this time. After a brief greeting, he called Tang Guling to explain the situation in the mine.

Tang Guling organized his thoughts and got straight to the point: "The ore vein is now divided into east and west sides. The western part has been cleared. You two just need to guard the teachers you brought with you and mine on this side. It is relatively safe.

In the east, there were still monsters that needed to be eliminated. Thanks to the concerted efforts of all colleagues, the situation was almost resolved. However, the situation was ruined by the herd of monsters brought in by the Sanxiang Sect.

Although the beasts had been defeated by the governor himself, the mine was winding and the beasts were hiding in various branches. It would take a lot of effort to search them out and kill them. As a result, the colleagues sent by the governor's office are still working hard in the mine.

Nowadays, most of the monsters remaining in the mines are gold-eating rats, and occasionally fire pigs and purple fire jackals appear, but in small numbers.

It has been half a month since the beasts started the riot. The remaining monsters are not of high rank. A top-rank monster has only appeared once recently. Yesterday, it was a fire pig, but that evil beast escaped. "

Kang Dabao listened carefully to what Tang Guling said, and thought to himself that this guy could become the son-in-law of the Huo family. He was just like Luo Heng, a jerk with no brains and who was good at flattering and harming others.

The four words "avoid the important and focus on the trivial" were perfectly embodied by this guy.

What do you mean by "the mine tunnel in the west is relatively safe"? If it is really safe, then how did the last batch of 2,000 masters in Pingrong County disappear? How did Sun Bingdou die?!
He is an elder of the Grass Witch Cult who has cultivated to the ninth level of Qi training and can try to build a foundation as long as he has the courage!
If the scale of the gold-eating rats described by Tie Liuyun was taken into consideration, with Tang Guling's mediocre appearance, he would definitely be unable to deal with them after they devoured Sun Bingdou.

This spiritual stone mine is probably now filled with hordes of gold-eating rats roaming everywhere. Their individual strength is very weak, and ordinary rat kings can hardly defeat ordinary cultivators in the early stage of Qi training. But once they grow in size, they will be much more terrifying than fire pigs or purple fire jackals.

Regardless of whether they were mortals mining in the west or monks exterminating beasts in the east, they were not actually very safe and were in danger all the time. Kang Dabao looked at the pale-faced scholar and immediately became cautious. He had been fooled by a son-in-law of the Huo family, and the consequences were not small. He almost served the David Immortal Dynasty with all his heart!
Every failure makes you wiser. This time, you must be careful that the son-in-law of the Huo family may set a trap for you.

After settling the teacher and deciding on the rules and regulations, Kang Dabao thanked Tang Guling for the welcoming banquet, then found a place with a slightly stronger spiritual vein nearby, dug a cave, and set up a formation to practice in peace.

He was just a guard monk and didn't have to spend most of the day in the mines like the hard laborers.

Most of the monks sent by the counties to supervise the hard labor were rootless. After becoming officials, they did not make much progress in their cultivation, but their ability to exploit the common people increased day by day.

Master Kang had no intention of socializing with his colleagues in the county. How could he practice well if he hung out with a bunch of insects all day?

Kang Dabao was in seclusion and didn't mind his own business, so the hard laborers followed his arrangement and were divided into ten teams, each of which was led by a Wuzong who was good at commanding people.

Don't underestimate these martial masters who are just worthless mortals in the eyes of cultivators. They are also local tycoons who govern tens of thousands of people at home. Managing two hundred people is just a piece of cake for them.

These Wuzong managers did not need to supervise the work with whips every day. They only needed to remember the number of spirit stones each person collected every day and collect and keep them.

The collected spiritual stones are moved out of the mine at regular intervals and handed over to Kang Dabao and the mine manager sent by the Governor's Office for counting.

The reward and punishment rules are also very simple, apart from the usual things like no looting, no fighting, and no killing.

If you mine more, you will be rewarded. Not only can you return home earlier, but you will also be rewarded with secret manuals of martial arts. If you mine less, you will be punished. The punishment will not be beating or scolding, and certainly not chopping off your hands or feet. You will just have your term of service extended.

If someone thinks that the mine is a good place with beautiful mountains, clear waters, lush forests and bamboos, then they can just not mine the Broken Spirit and let Master Kang stay in the mine to retire.

In the following days, Kang Dabao focused on his practice. Only when he received calls from the laborers would he go to the place where the monster appeared.

There were a few times when he was lucky enough. The invading monsters were not of high rank, so Kang Dabao killed them directly and collected their corpses, making some profit.

However, the terrain in the mine was complicated, and most of the monsters were no match for the enemy and could escape. After the first few lucky events, Master Kang was not able to pick up many monster corpses.

The ten Wuzong stewards were standing by the millstone, watching the old donkey with carrots, working very hard to get home as soon as possible. They even offered rewards among themselves to motivate the slaves to work harder.

Anyone who mines the most spiritual stones on that day can receive personal instruction from Wu Zong. Anyone who mines the most spiritual stones in that month can get Wu Zong's promise and receive money and beautiful women.

The enthusiasm of the laborers in mining spirit stones suddenly rose to a higher level. Although these martial masters were as poor as everyone else and only had half of their calf pants left, they were all wealthy people with fertile fields at home. Some of them had a lot of wealth, so naturally everyone had a goal to pursue.

Three months passed in a blink of an eye. The mine manager sent by the Governor's Office was so shocked that he almost jumped up when he checked the amount of mining in Pingrong County this season.

This was because they mined more than twice as much as other counties with similar hard labor, and except for the unlucky ones who were bitten and eaten by monsters, almost no one died in the cave.

When Master Kang heard about this, he was not surprised at all. These measures were actually nothing new and could be thought of without much thought.

Even if you are not that smart, as long as you are kinder, treat these hard laborers as human beings, and don't criticize or beat them too harshly, it will work.

However, the monks who were supervising the hard labor had already known that they could greatly increase the output of spirit stones by copying the method of Master Kang, but they were still unwilling to learn it. It was nothing more than "arrogance".

"What's the point of mining so many more spirit stones? They won't even go into my pocket."

"What if the conscripts are injured? Then go and catch more. There are plenty of them."

The mediocre people talked a lot, then turned back to visit prostitutes and feast.

Kang Dabao didn't care about these dust and chaff. At this moment, he was sitting in the simple cave he had dug out, feeling the pure spiritual power pouring into his dantian, and then gradually filling up his veins as it circulated throughout his body.

This is the critical moment, every vein is like a fully drawn bowstring, ready to go.

The spiritual power in Dantian gushed out like a surging river, unstoppable. The tightly closed acupoints could not withstand this fierce attack and were broken open one by one.

Finally, all the obstacles in Kang Dabao's way were swept away, spiritual power surged out, and there was a smooth road ahead.

Master Kang exhaled a breath of foul air, along with a refreshing groan.

Kang Dabao opened his eyes, feeling the unprecedented abundance of spiritual energy in his body, and couldn't help but laugh: "The late stage of Qi training, the seventh level of Qi training, and there is hope for foundation building!"

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(End of this chapter)