Chapter 9: The Ye Family

"The medicinal potency of the Holy Essence Grass is considerable; Tian Lin took nearly half an hour just to assimilate a single leaf.

After coming ashore, Chief Zhang kept his gaze fixed on Tian Lin. He couldn't tell if Tian Lin had succeeded in his cultivation, nor did he believe that Tian Lin could cultivate his Dantian energy so quickly.

While waiting for Tian Lin, some old mine slaves gathered nearby and conversed.

A man smoking a dry tobacco pipe squinted at Tian Lin for a long while, then scoffed, "Thinking to cultivate Inner Strength like this? He must have listened to too many worldly tales."

Immediately, someone echoed the man's words, "Old Ye doesn't know, but I tried to advise this kid yesterday. It's just that this kid looks down on physical martial arts and insists on learning the mental methods for Inner Strength."

"Who taught him? Isn't that like a blind person playing the lute, talking nonsense?"

Everyone turned toward Chief Zhang, but no one uttered a word.

The smarter ones caught on; this Old Ye was targeting Zhang.

Chief Zhang chuckled, he was just about to speak when Tian Lin, who was meditating on the ground, opened his eyes.

At that moment, the watch bell sounded again, and a supervisor carrying a torch approached them.

The mine slaves hurriedly grabbed their clothes and jogged toward the cabins, fearing the whip.

"Who is this Old Ye? He seems quite familiar with the supervisor."

Tian Lin did not pay attention to the outside affairs while meditating, but upon opening his eyes, he sensed something was amiss.

Listening to Chief Zhang, he said, "Where there are people, there's worldly society, and in such a society, there are always people who band together for profit. This Old Ye is one of those who schemes for personal gains in the underworld."

Tian Lin asked him, "Did we offend him?"

"It's not you who offended him, but me. Have you forgotten the rules of the mine? The person who works the most each month gets a reward from Master Shang, and might even get to see Master Shang himself."

Realization dawned on Tian Lin; before Chief Zhang entered the mine, the 'advanced individual' of the mine was most likely Old Ye or his cronies.

Clearly, Chief Zhang isn't one of Old Ye's men; in fact, he might have even taken Old Ye's place as the 'advanced individual'.

"This Old Ye, he's probably not a match for you, Brother Zhang. If he was sure he could take on Brother Zhang, he would have done it directly."

"Bright spears are easy to dodge, but hidden arrows are hard to guard against. He can't touch me, but what about you?"

The two returned to the cabin, and the next day, Chief Zhang's words proved prophetic.

At lunchtime, two youths dragged Tian Lin to the back mountain.

Some mine slaves who saw the two youths quickly dodged away.

Tian Lin noticed this and touched the broken rocks tucked in his belt.

"You brat, are you familiar with that big guy?"

At this moment, Old Ye sat on a big rock, puffing away at his dry tobacco pipe.

"Not that familiar, I met him when we were both working as Huahua Langs."

Tian Lin told the truth, but his eyes kept watching the smoking pipe in Old Ye's hand.

Old Ye passed the smoking pipe to Tian Lin and asked, "Want to take a puff?"

Tian Lin glanced at the yellowish white tartar on the mouthpiece and shook his head, "I don't smoke."

Tian Lin was disdainful, but the two young men accompanying him sycophantically said to Old Ye, "Big brother, I smoke, let me have a few puffs."

Old Ye kicked the young man, laughing and scolding, "Want to suck on everything, would you suck on a chicken cutlet if I gave it to you?"

Although he scolded, Old Ye eventually passed the smoking pipe to the young man.

He then turned back to Tian Lin, saying, "Don't like smoking, how about drinking or eating pastries?"

Tian Lin directly asked, "Old Ye Brother, just tell me, what do you want me to do?"

Old Ye looked appreciatively at Tian Lin but didn't state his purpose directly, instead he said,

"That Zhang taught you mental methods, clearly misleading you. How can mental methods be solely mastered through hard practice on your own?"

He stood up, suddenly stomped on the stone beneath his feet, and continued, "Mental methods are slow work, but physical martial arts are the fast skills you need right now."

With a 'crack', the stone under his feet split apart.

Tian Lin's mouth hung open in surprise, and Old Ye was pleased with his reaction.

He said, "Want to learn? I'll teach you, as long as you do one thing for me."

"Old Ye, can you say what it is?"

Tian Lin already had a guess in mind, but his face showed no signs as he saw Old Ye pull a small paper packet from his sleeve, "Here's some Knockout Drug. Find a way to put it in Zhang's bowl. I'll teach you the technique afterward and let you enjoy meat every month."

"Okay!"

Tian Lin agreed quickly, took the small paper packet from Old Ye, and left.

He descended from the back mountain and opened the small paper packet to take a look.

Inside the packet was a pile of powder, but what caught Tian Lin's eye was an additional prompt [Holy Essence Grass powder: pseudo-Spirit Grass level treasured medicine powder, consuming it can increase half a year of Inner Strength, a precious item among worldly society, edible]

Tian Lin glanced at it, secured the small paper packet, and then went back to work.

Last night's cultivation was very useful; Tian Lin still found carrying stones somewhat strenuous.

He wasn't very adept at using the Dantian energy, but even so, without Chief Zhang's help, Tian Lin could now carry the stones on his own.

"Not bad, kid, it hasn't been long, and you're already adapting to the weight of the stones!"

Chief Zhang didn't suspect that Tian Lin had cultivated the Dantian energy, as it was too nonsensical.

During lunch, Tian Lin told Chief Zhang, "Old Ye gave me a paper packet, asking me to put it into your bowl."

Chief Zhang smiled unchanged, patting Tian Lin's shoulder with his large hand, "I saw it all at noon, but I don't know what medicine he gave you."

"Give him the Soul Burying Flower!"

"Ha ha, they sure know how to use their local resources."

Zhang Laoda didn't care too much, but Tian Lin reminded him, "Poisoning is something I can do easily. But without me, they'd have plenty of chances to poison you too."

Zhang Laoda nodded, "I'll be careful with that myself, and I appreciate your loyalty. I don't think you should continue practicing the Internal Cultivation Methods. How about trying some combat skills?"

Having various skills doesn't hurt, and Tian Lin would rather offend those with the surname Ye to maintain a good relationship with Zhang Laoda. After all, those surnamed Ye are mostly just deceiving people with empty promises.

Even if those surnamed Ye fulfilled their promises, it was more important for Tian Lin to keep Zhang Laoda alive.

Because compared to learning a bit of combat skills, Tian Lin was more interested in cultivating.

He wanted to see how Zhang Laoda would strategize the Immortal Techniques, as his own fate in cultivation might depend on Zhang Laoda.

At night, Zhang Laoda began teaching Tian Lin combat skills.

This scene could not be avoided from anyone, and by Tian Lin's thoughts, those surnamed Ye probably already hated him.

He also didn't regret offending those surnamed Ye because of Zhang Laoda, but instead became even more diligent.

While Zhang Laoda bathed, Tian Lin practiced his combat skills.

After returning to the wooden hut, Tian Lin started meditating.

Seeing Tian Lin meditating earnestly, everyone in the room laughed, and someone said, "Looks like we're going to have a Grandmaster coming out of our hut."

Tian Lin ignored these people's teasing and continued meditating until midnight before stopping.

Today, he had consumed half of the 'Holy Essence Grass', and according to the descriptions, wasn't that equivalent to half a year of cultivation effort?

Tian Lin was not clear how strong half a year of cultivation effort was, but he clearly felt more energy in his Dantian.

The effects of the Holy Essence Grass were strong, and Tian Lin had nothing to complain about.

But the stronger the medicinal properties of the Holy Essence Grass, the longer he needed to digest it.

Subtracting the time spent mining during the day, and his already limited sleep time, now he only had about two hours to sleep each day to digest the Holy Essence Grass.

"If only I could quit working and focus on cultivating."

Under the current circumstances, that was, of course, just a beautiful dream.

——

Compared to their first day in the mine, the new Mine Slaves now knew to get up early to grab porridge.

Most people managed to have porridge for lunch and dinner each day based on calculations, but a few could only manage to have it for lunch.

Thus, almost all the newcomers relied on the porridge at breakfast, which didn't require calculations, as a lifeline.

After drinking the porridge, Tian Lin set his bowl properly and grabbed his backpack to head to the mines.

When he saw a young man replacing the one who usually lifted rocks, Tian Lin's expression changed.

The young man, grinning with yellow teeth, spoke to Tian Lin, "Yesterday Elder Ye invited you for a smoke, but you refused. Today Elder Ye invites you to carry rocks; let's see if you will carry them."

After speaking, he picked up a rock and placed it in Tian Lin's backpack.

Two big rocks along with some rubble, Tian Lin's backpack was instantly brimming.

You should know, these were not ordinary rocks, but rocks meant for the Yao Yue Sect to forge implements with.

At that moment, Tian Lin could already hear the straps on his shoulders squeaking, as if they couldn't bear the weight of the rocks and would break at any time.

"Elder Ye asks me to carry rocks, of course, I will carry them. Just curious, did you have the chicken steak Elder Ye invited you for yesterday?"

Tian Lin turned to face the young man. The young man's smile froze, and he then blushed with anger, shouting, "Fuck, are you cursing at me?"

As he spoke, he kicked at Tian Lin, not expecting Tian Lin to kick back.

Without the half 'Holy Essence Grass' from yesterday, Tian Lin definitely couldn't have countered while carrying the rocks.

His kick, filled with Inner Strength, directly broke the young man's leg.

A sharp scream came from the young man as he fell back onto the jagged rocks behind.

These rocks were mostly sharp and spike-like, and the young man screamed again as he lay on the ground.

This scene drew the attention of many onlookers, with quite a few people turning their gazes towards Tian Lin.

"What's going on here?"

A person dressed in black approached with a dark face and lashed a whip at Tian Lin's shoulder.

Tian Lin's body slightly tilted, and the backpack on his back spilled towards the young man on the ground.

Finally, the backpack straps couldn't bear the weight of the huge rocks inside, and with a 'bang,' two large rocks smashed onto the young man's head.

The young man didn't scream anymore, only lifting his fingers slightly before they completely stilled.

"Fuck, why can't you carry the rocks more securely?"

The person in black looked annoyed and lashed the whip at Tian Lin's hand, then said, "Now quickly carry this dead body to the back mountain."

He raised his whip again, but fortunately, Zhang Laoda had already hurried over.

Tian Lin noted that Zhang Laoda's backpack was also brimming, yet he casually strode through the rocky terrain.

He grabbed the black-clothed person's hand while smiling, "Supervisor, save some strength, we'll carry the dead away."

The person in black glanced at Zhang Laoda's backpack, then looked towards Elder Ye not too far away.

He glared at Elder Ye and said, "I don't care what dirty business you all have going on, but don't cause trouble while I'm on duty."

Elder Ye dared not speak until the black-clothed person walked away, then he sternly approached.