Chapter 3579 — Mining the Spirit Jade

"Very well, then I thank you in advance, Senior Ku. But as for the pill refinement, let us wait until I have first obtained the Heart-Devouring Lingzhi Grass—that is the truly essential ingredient." Wei Zhao nodded in reply.

Since the Heart-Devouring Lingzhi Grass grew only in the back mountain, and the back mountain would not admit newcomers for trials until the twenty-fifth, there was nothing for it but to wait a while. And this interval was just the time to find some way of getting more spirit jade; otherwise, even if he obtained the Lingzhi Grass, he would have no spirit jade at hand to buy the other five herbs, and still could not refine the Heaven-Dao Golden Pill.

At this thought, Wei Zhao asked Senior Kubi again, "Senior Ku, if I wish to obtain more spirit jade, what means are there?"

"That—well, apart from the single piece of spirit jade the Welcome Pavilion issues you each month, there are only two ways to get more," Senior Kubi said, counting on his fingers. "One: if you happen to possess any rare treasures of heaven and earth, you may take them to the market and sell them, exchanging them for spirit jade. That much you surely know already. The other: you may take on the daily tasks the Welcome Pavilion assigns to new disciples, and earn spirit jade as recompense."

"I see. Senior Ku, could you tell me in detail what sort of tasks there are?" Wei Zhao asked thoughtfully.

As for the first method Senior Kubi had named, it was of no use to him at present. For one thing, he had no surplus treasures of heaven and earth about him; for another, even if he had, they were things brought up from the mortal realm and would surely fetch no good price here on Cloudstep Island—better to keep them.

Senior Kubi nodded and said, "The strength of you newcomers is, after all, not great, and the purpose of your coming here is cultivation—to break through into the Foundation Establishment stage as quickly as possible is the proper business. So the Welcome Pavilion will not issue you tasks of any real challenge. Apart from the occasional small errand, the most common daily task is to go down into the spirit jade mine beneath our very feet and dig. As for those lowly chores I mentioned before—sweeping, kitchen work, and the like—those carry no spirit jade as reward; they are all put on account. Sweep for a year, say, and at year's end you might be issued one or two pieces of spirit jade as a bonus—and that depends on the will of the newcomer steward, on whether he chooses to apply for it on your behalf!"

It seemed this last option need not be considered either. Whoever became newcomer steward, none would grant him any reward—least of all Kang Jingming.

Spirit jade was a thing of priceless value. If a bit of sweeping or kitchen work could earn one spirit jade, the Welcome Pavilion would have gone bankrupt long ago.

Still, to hear that the daily task assigned to new disciples was in fact to go down and mine—though it stood to reason, since the spirit jade mine lay right beneath their feet, and living off the mountain was the most natural thing in the world—was somewhat beyond Wei Zhao's expectations. For if it were merely mining, any able-bodied laborer would serve; why trouble so many Heaven-Rank experts?

Senior Kubi saw Wei Zhao's puzzlement and laughed at once. "The spirit jade mine is not like other mines. Ordinary people cannot go down to dig it."

"Why is that? Is there some special reason?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled.

"Junior Brother Lin, you know as well as I that spirit jade contains exceedingly rich heaven-and-earth spiritual qi, and within the spirit jade mine, even without any special channeling or gathering, the spiritual qi that naturally seeps out already far exceeds that of the outside world. Now, heaven-and-earth spiritual qi is something we cultivators of Heaven Rank and above can never have too much of—but for ordinary folk with no strength to speak of, it is no blessing at all. One of slightly weaker constitution might go down and, within half a day, be unable to withstand it and die as his body burst. And not merely ordinary folk—even cultivators below Heaven Rank cannot endure it!" Senior Kubi shook his head. "It is like an ordinary man, who cannot live without oxygen—yet put him in an environment of highly concentrated oxygen, and instead he is poisoned by it and dies!"

Wei Zhao nodded at this, and quickly grasped the principle: it was the classic case of a deficient body that cannot take tonic. Heaven-and-earth spiritual qi was a great tonic, but too much tonic becomes poison.

For cultivators like Heaven-Rank experts, the body had long been tempered a thousand times over, its strength surpassing that of ordinary folk by tenfold, a hundredfold and more. To them, spiritual qi was naturally a tonic; but to the frail and feeble common man, it was a veritable death-dealing poison.

Ordinary people and low-rank cultivators alike could not mine it, and the spirit jade mine was, after all, a vital strategic resource—outsiders could not be brought in to cultivate it. Reckoning it all up, the most suitable hands for the work were precisely the newcomers of the Welcome Pavilion; they were already outer disciples, after all—their own people, safe to use.

Of course, inner disciples of the three pavilions could do this task as well. But once one's strength reached the level of an inner disciple, one could take on challenge tasks with far better pay—why go down into the mine and grub alongside these newcomers? It would be a disgrace to speak of.

For a newcomer like Wei Zhao, there was of course no worry about losing face. And besides, he had already reached a bottleneck in his cultivation; no matter how he sat in meditation, in the short term he could make no progress. If he wished to break through quickly now, he could only pin his hopes on the Heaven-Dao Golden Pill.

Never mind the Heart-Devouring Lingzhi Grass—that would only be within reach when he entered the back mountain for the trial on the twenty-fifth. But if before then he could earn enough spirit jade, he could gather the ingredients all the sooner and begin refining. So in Wei Zhao's eyes, this mining task was in fact a rather good choice.

"Senior Ku, might I ask what the pay is for this mining task?" Wei Zhao inquired.

The pay was the key. Mining was hard labor, to be sure, but these were Heaven-Rank experts after all—the reward could hardly be too shabby, or no one would be willing to take the task at all.

"One in a hundred. That is, for every hundred pieces of spirit jade you mine, you receive one piece as reward; and if you have not yet reached a hundred, it is put on account, and you may collect your reward once you reach a hundred." Senior Kubi answered every question without the least impatience, then added, "On average, a newcomer can mine perhaps three to ten pieces a day; it is normal enough to get none at all. But one with experience and good luck may mine twenty or thirty in a day."

"That sounds rather decent, then?" Wei Zhao calculated. Even if he could mine only ten pieces a day, in ten days that would be a hundred—and one piece of spirit jade would be his reward. Compared with the single piece the Welcome Pavilion issued newcomers each month, this pay was not low at all.