Chapter 3590 — Mine Zone Allocation
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Following Meng Jueming's gaze to Wei Zhao, Dai Wuchang understood at last—so the fellow meant to make sport of someone. He let out a laugh and shook his head, then said with the indifference of one whose business it was not: "Of course there's no problem. Mine Zone Ten is a公认 dead zone—we've been worrying no one would ever work it. I'll prepare it for you directly."
"A public zone? A dead zone? What's all this, Senior Brother Ku?" Sensing some trickery at work, Wei Zhao turned to ask the Brother Ku beside him.
Though Senior Brother Ku had no say in such matters, he had deliberately come along today lest Wei Zhao be cheated without even knowing it. Even if he could not help Wei Zhao, at least he could help him see the situation clearly and spare him a blind loss.
Senior Brother Ku shook his head helplessly and sighed, then explained: "By the spirit jade's reserves and distribution density, the Spirit Jade Hall has divided the entire vein into ten mine zones, ranked from best to worst as Zones One through Ten. The smaller the number, the higher the quality."
"By long-standing custom, Zones One through Three lie at the very heart of the mountain range and belong to the disciples of the Chongtian Pavilion. Zones Four through Six lie outside the center and belong to the Xuanji Pavilion's disciples. Zones Seven through Nine lie around the periphery and belong to the Qingyun Pavilion's disciples. As for Zone Ten, that is the public zone on the outer edge, open to disciples of all three pavilions. But though Zone Ten does hold spirit jade, it is exceedingly sparse—a whole year's digging yields barely a few pieces, and even those are worthless scraps with the thinnest trace of spiritual energy. Ordinary people simply won't waste their time going in; you can go a whole year without seeing a soul there, which is why it's called the dead zone. A zone's quality corresponds to the mountain's spiritual energy—which is also why the Chongtian Pavilion's cave dwellings are the finest: beneath their caves lies the finest mine zone!" Here even Senior Brother Ku, honest man that he was, could not suppress his anger. "I thought that however much Senior Brother Meng might target you, at worst he'd assign you to Zone Nine—even if the yield there is low, you'd still come away with something. I never imagined he'd demand the dead zone, Zone Ten. This is going too far! Junior Brother Lin, let's just go. There's truly no need to waste our time in a place like this!"
Ha—who would have thought that Senior Brother Ku, that long-suffering saint of a man who had endured everything for years on end, had a temper in him after all? A rare sight indeed!
Amused as he was, Wei Zhao felt a stir of gratitude. He patted Senior Brother Ku on the shoulder and consoled him: "It's fine. We're here now, so let's make the best of it. Even a dead zone isn't necessarily incapable of yielding spirit jade. Besides, if I turned tail and played the turtle now, wouldn't I just be giving them a free laugh at my expense? I should at least see what this spirit jade mine looks like!"
"Oh, Junior Brother Lin, don't be so stubborn—just come with me!" Seeing Wei Zhao looking so composed, still unaware of how serious the matter was, Senior Brother Ku grew anxious. "You don't understand—you can't just walk into this spirit jade mine for nothing. Once you sign the mining contract, you'll have to work here a full three months at least. Apart from important occasions like the new recruits' trial and the ranking matches, you'll have to come here and mine at all other times—otherwise you'll have broken the contract and face severe punishment!"RP