Wild Dogs

"Furthermore, if you dig too little, you'll be whipped. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

Upon hearing this, the many mortals present could only bitterly agree, not daring to confront this person at all.

Seeing that so many people were behaving themselves, the lean, monkey-like youth smiled smugly, then waved his hand and said arrogantly.

"Don't just sit there, go over there and get your tools, then go down into the mine."

After he finished speaking, the lean man winked at the people next to him, and immediately several burly men stepped forward and led everyone to collect the mining supplies.

As he moved forward, Yang Fan looked around.

He had been to mines before, but those mines were completely different from this one.

Because the ordinary people in his previous mines were all recruited, and their food and lodging were significantly better than here.

Thinking of this, Yang Fan couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion. It seemed he should wait and see how things unfolded.

Fortunately, he maintained contact with Zhou Peng throughout the journey, and Zhou Peng would arrive near the mine soon.

With Zhou Peng as an outside helper, and Yang Fan joining forces, their chances of success are even greater.

Yang Fan had already made up his mind: once he found enough spirit stones here, he would have Zhou Peng leak the information about this place.

As long as those powerful sects arrive, these people will be wiped out, and these mortals will be rescued.

Taking a deep breath, Yang Fan followed the crowd forward.

As he moved forward, he observed his surroundings, trying to find out how many guarding monks were around.

Looking around, as his divine sense swept across the area, Yang Fan could sense that there were at least a dozen Foundation Establishment stage cultivators guarding the surrounding mountains.

A dozen or so Foundation Establishment stage cultivators is indeed quite a lot.

If so many Foundation Establishment cultivators join forces, Yang Fan definitely can't defeat them alone. He will definitely need to rely on external forces.

Taking a deep breath, Yang Fan then walked forward.

After a while, the group arrived outside a wooden shed.

The wooden shed was filled with all sorts of mining tools.

Then each person was given a basket and mining tools and headed towards the mine.

These people were extremely uneasy. Most of them were farmers who had never seen mining before, so they moved forward with trepidation.

Yang Fan was also aware that mining accidents often occurred in many mines, and once something happened, these ordinary people probably wouldn't be able to hold on and would all die down there.

Just as Yang Fan was pondering, the team had already entered the mine in a grand procession.

Upon entering the mine, the surroundings suddenly darkened.

Fortunately, there were torches placed every few steps along the mine shaft ahead, and there were also some ventilation holes on one side of the mine shaft.

Looking around the cave walls, Yang Fan could see that there were indeed traces of excavation on the surrounding walls.

These carving marks must be quite old.

Clearly, this mineral vein was discovered quite some time ago, but why it has been occupied by these small sects is unclear.

Just as Yang Fan was pondering, someone behind him urged him on.

"Hurry up and get down there to mine properly. We can only eat after we've finished mining."

These menacing people urged him on, and Yang Fan could only follow the main group deeper into the mine.

After walking through the passage for a while, a sloping stone staircase appeared in front of them. The staircase was very rough and showed signs of severe wear.

Not far from the stone steps, you can see a cableway, with ordinary people pulling it from below.

Seeing this, Yang Fan seemed to be deep in thought.

Clearly, once these mortals entered the mine below, they were not allowed to come out. They were only allowed to dig for ore, and once they had dug enough, they would send the ore out via cable car.

After a moment's thought, the group had already reached the bottom of the mine by following the stone steps.

Looking around, Yang Fan could see that there were five mine tunnels in the mine, each extending in a different direction.

At the end of each mine tunnel, you can see some stones that glow faintly.

After taking a look, Yang Fan smiled slightly. It was clear that these stones were indeed minerals.

Then, the cultivators in front immediately urged them on.

"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and each choose a mine tunnel to start mining."

Then, they were urged to crawl into a mine tunnel.

Yang Fan obediently carried his basket and walked inside.

Inside his mine tunnel, hundreds of people are constantly digging.

When new people walked in, these people remained silent.

Seeing this, Yang Fan walked to the end of the mine tunnel, ignoring the others.

He reached out and gently pressed his hand against a piece of ore in front of him, wanting to see if it was truly a spirit stone mine.

As he gently pressed down, even through the stone's outer layer, he could feel the surging spiritual energy emanating from the ore; it was indeed a spirit stone ore.

Yang Fan was overjoyed.

He carefully took out his chisel and mining tools and began to carefully chisel the spirit stone ore.

He is currently disguised as a mortal and cannot use his spiritual energy, so the speed of his excavation appears to be very slow.

However, when others weren't looking, Yang Fan would carefully put some spirit stones and ores into his hidden storage bag.

After leaving this place, we'll cut open the stone to reveal the true nature of the spirit stone inside. For now, we'll store it as ore and make further plans after we leave.

In this way, Yang Fan continued to secretly mine for ore while constantly changing locations so as not to attract the attention of others.

After several hours of digging, Yang Fan had collected over a hundred pieces of ore in his storage bag, but only twenty or thirty pieces in his basket.

In this way, you won't appear to be moving too fast, nor will you attract the attention of others.

After collecting most of the ore, Yang Fan finally let out a breath of relief.

Very good, things are going very well now. With just these ores, today's harvest is already quite substantial.

Once the ore had been mined out to a near-complete extent, someone immediately started banging a gong from a short distance above.

"Bang bang bang".

Hearing the gong, Yang Fan and the others immediately looked over.

"What are you all standing there for? Hurry up and deliver the ore."

Seeing this, Yang Fan had no choice but to pick up his basket and walk back to the end of the passage.

At the end of the passage, the cable car had already slid down, and a huge wooden basket was placed on it.

"Throw all the ore in."

Upon hearing this, Yang Fan and the others obediently poured all the ore from their baskets into the container, while someone else kept count as they poured.

After Yang Fan finished pouring, someone handed him a wooden stick with the number thirty engraved on it.

After receiving the wooden stick, Yang Fan had a sudden thought. It seemed that they were using this method to calculate the amount of ore each person had mined.

Then, Yang Fan continued deeper into the mine and continued digging.