Cultivating immortality begins with discerning the secrets of heaven.

In a courtyard at the foot of Huangzhushan Mountain.

clang!clang!clang!

With a series of metallic clanging sounds, a fine iron pickaxe gradually took shape in Lin Yun's hands.

"Without the earth vein fire of Fire Cloud Valley, smelting iron essence is really quite difficult."

Lin Yun couldn't help but sigh. The Lin family didn't have a magic array to draw in the earth's fire, which made it extremely difficult for them to smelt iron essence.

Fortunately, he had mastered the Blood Refining Technique to a high level, making him extremely powerful. He was able to successfully refine iron essence using brute force.

The Lin family had been preparing for the mining of the Ziwen Copper Mine for a long time, and naturally had a reserve of mining picks.

The reason for having them refine another batch of pickaxes is twofold: firstly, to prepare some as spares, and secondly, to expand the mining scale and add more mining personnel.

To this end, the Lin family even went so far as to recruit many independent cultivators as miners.

"Once this batch of pickaxes is finished, I will be the family's rightful weapon refiner, and I can then live on Huangzhu Mountain for a long time."

Thinking of this, Lin Yun felt full of motivation.

He is no longer a member of the main lineage. If he wants to live on the main mountain for a long time and enjoy the rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth, he must complete this task.

Of course, the family will also give extra rewards afterward, such as elixirs, spiritual rice, and other cultivation resources.

Lin Yun had been vaguely sensing that he was about to reach the bottleneck of the third level of Qi Refining. If he wanted to break through as soon as possible, it would be best to do so on the main mountain, using the rich wood spiritual energy to smoothly advance to the middle stage of Qi Refining.

Therefore, he intensified the smelting of the pickaxe.

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The only good news is that although these pickaxes are made of iron ore, they are only tools for mining, so the engraved runes do not need to be so complicated.

Lin Yun was naturally very familiar with refining it into the quality of a low-grade magic weapon.

In the blink of an eye, eight days had passed, and Lin Yun had forged fifteen fine iron ore pickaxes without sleep or rest.

After completing it, he handed it over to his family immediately.

...

In the General Affairs Pavilion, Lin Hairong looked at the mining picks that Lin Yun had brought, his face showing admiration.

"Not bad, it seems you haven't wasted these two years in Fire Cloud Valley."

"It seems that the decision to send you to Fire Cloud Valley to learn martial arts was really the right one."

Hearing this, Lin Yun breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Uncle Hai Rong, what is the purple-veined copper ore that the family mines usually used for?"

If possible, he also wanted some purple-patterned copper, which was a good material for refining low-grade magic weapons, and its quality was much better than refined iron.

Purple-patterned copper is not only full of spiritual energy, but it also does not require repeated hammering like iron essence, and can be used directly for refining weapons.

Lin Hairong said with a smile, "Don't worry, the family can't possibly sell all the purple-patterned copper they've collected."

"If we wait a while longer, the family will definitely have stored up quite a lot, and then we might need to refine a batch of standardized magical artifacts made primarily of purple-patterned copper."

Upon hearing that the family planned to mass-produce standardized magical artifacts, Lin Yun was slightly taken aback and somewhat puzzled.

"Has the family been making any big moves lately?"

Lin Hairong didn't tell him directly, but smiled mysteriously and kept him in suspense: "You'll know later."

"Take it. You can live on the main mountain from now on. Use the provisions here sparingly."

Lin Yun took the storage bag, glanced at it briefly, and a smile immediately appeared on his face.

There was actually a fifty-year-old spiritual ginseng inside. He originally thought that the family would at most reward him with some spiritual rice or pills for the early stage of Qi Refining.

"Thank you, Uncle Hai Rong!"

"Yes, you've worked hard these past few days. You haven't stopped since you returned to the family. Go back and get some rest, and try to break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining as soon as possible," Lin Hairong nodded.

And so, Lin Yun returned to the main mountain.

However, he did not immediately begin his cultivation, but instead took a good night's sleep.

"Finally, we've returned to the family's main mountain."

He slept for a full day and night, and when he woke up, he felt refreshed.

"It's time to try advancing to the mid-stage of Qi Refining..."

With that, Lin Yun swallowed a Spirit Nourishing Pill and began a deep period of seclusion.

...

During this period, the Lin family can be said to have entered a period of rapid development. On the one hand, they were taking advantage of the spiritual herbs that the He family was buying at low prices, and on the other hand, they were mining purple-veined copper mines in full swing.

With progress on both fronts, the family is now thriving.

In order to truly transform these into their own strength, the Lin family patriarch made a decision to prepare to form a clan army.

This clan soldier force must be the elite of the family, responsible for protecting the Lin family's interests during the mining of the Ziwen copper vein.

The initial size of the clan's army was set at thirty people, drawn from cultivators in the main lineage and branch lineages.

From then on, these thirty people will form the basic framework, and cultivators from other clans will be recruited to join, thus expanding the size of the clan's army.

At first, not many people were interested, but after seeing the treatment of the clan soldiers, many branch members eagerly signed up.

For no other reason than that by becoming a member of the clan's soldiers, one can obtain the right to use a low-grade magic weapon!

Furthermore, you will receive an extra 20 catties of spirit rice and three spirit stones every month thereafter!

In addition, clan soldiers can exchange for Spirit Nourishing Pills with priority in the future.

As soon as this matter was announced, many members of the Lin family sought out their elders, hoping to pull strings and get a special treatment in order to become members of the clan's soldiers.

However, Lin Jinnan simply waved his hand and completely eradicated this trend.

"The purpose of the clan in maintaining this clan army is to cultivate core elites, not to produce a bunch of good-for-nothings."

The moment this news got out, all the Lin family members who had tried to use connections to get in were silenced.

Main hill, council chamber.

"Brother Jinnan, is this clan army really necessary? I feel like it's just adding to the clan's burden."

An elder asked, puzzled.

Sitting in the head seat, Lin Jinnan, leaning on a cane, slowly said:

"The Ziwen copper vein is so far from Huangzhu Mountain, and it's only just starting out, so naturally no villains are coming to provoke it."

"However, if this continues, it's hard to guarantee that some ignorant fools won't come and disturb the Lin family's mining operations."

"Moreover, the other families mining the purple copper mine together are no pushovers either."

Upon hearing this, the other elders felt a slight chill run down their spines.

"In that case, sending these young men from the clan to form a clan army might not be very useful, would it?"

Lin Jinnan raised his eyelids, glanced around, and said, "What, were you all born with such cultivation levels?"

"Young people need more experience so they can grow into pillars of the family and protect it from hardship."

Lin Jinnan made the decision, and the other elders, seeing his determination, said no more.

...