The two arrived at the summit of Jianchun Academy.

Song Chen then realized that the distance between the Weapon Refining Peak and the Sword Peak was actually quite far.

Thinking of Zhao Ziyi traveling a long way to the Refining Peak to pick him up, Song Chen smiled slightly. He moved closer to Zhao Ziyi, as if he wanted to say something.

Rumble!

Lightning suddenly flashed in the sky.

Lightning flashed in the clouds, as if it might strike at any moment.

Zhao Ziyi looked up in confusion.

"Is someone about to undergo tribulation? I'm so envious."

"Only those who have reached the Golden Core stage will encounter tribulation lightning. It seems the academy has gained another Golden Core cultivator."

Song Chen frowned, his face almost contorted with anger. He stepped back slightly, away from Zhao Ziyi, and the lightning in the sky disappeared!

This isn't a tribulation of lightning; it's clearly aimed at him!

Even being intimate with my wife is forbidden, this is... %... thunderbolts from the blue!

Song Chen cursed the thunder all the way to Zhao Ziyi's courtyard.

Zhao Ziyi's courtyard looks the same as Song Chen's.

“All the courtyards were built by powerful cultivators using their magic power. Each courtyard had hundreds of houses built at once, and all of them were the same.”

As Zhao Ziyi explained, he used a dust-cleansing technique.

Dust instantly rose in the courtyard and settled outside.

Song Chen took out a complete set of furniture from his storage bag and decorated the courtyard exactly like his own.

After arranging the furniture, he took out a magic pen, spirit liquid, and a pile of jade from his storage bag.

He composed himself and began to draw the spirit-summoning array.

Drawing formations is a physically demanding task that requires speed, accuracy, and stability!

Song Chen first dipped the array brush in the spiritual liquid, and then drew array patterns in the air.

A spiritual seal materialized and took shape in mid-air.

The moment the array pattern was completed, Song Chen quickly imprinted it into the jade.

After several attempts, Song Chen obtained twelve jade stones with array formations.

"The formation should have been set up with array flags, but I haven't started refining them yet, so I'll use jade instead for now."

While explaining the formation to Zhao Ziyi, Song Chen placed the jade stones in the courtyard.

After the jade is buried in the soil, runes are drawn on the ground to connect the jade and activate the array.

Song Chen finished the last stroke, and the next second, a silver streak of light flashed across the courtyard.

Zhao Ziyi sensed that the concentration of spiritual energy in his courtyard was increasing.

“This jade stone is the core of the formation. If the core breaks, just tell me and I will set up a new one for you.”

Song Chen took out a small jade seal and placed it on the table in the room.

"If the grand formation fails, the small seal will shatter. If the small seal is destroyed, it will have no effect on the grand formation."

After Song Chen finished refining a spirit-guiding array, he felt that all the spiritual energy in his body had been exhausted.

He had no choice but to sit cross-legged in meditation.

With the blessing of the spirit-guiding array, his spiritual energy was quickly restored.

When Song Chen opened his eyes, he saw Zhao Ziyi beside him.

Zhao Ziyi's eyes were full of admiration.

"Song Chen, you're amazing! Setting up an array is so easy for you!"

You're a genius! You have no idea how incompetent those people in the Array Academy are; it takes them over ten days to prepare and complete just one array."

Song Chen smiled modestly, "Perhaps it's because the formations are of different difficulty."

But Song Chen knew that he might actually be a genius.

He succeeded on his first attempt at setting up an array, with a failure rate of 0. What else could he be but a genius?

"Alright, the spirit-guiding array is set up. I'm going to do my mission now."

"You can focus on your cultivation and don't worry about contribution points; I'll take care of the cultivation resources."

After giving Zhao Ziyi some instructions, Song Chen said goodbye to him.

He planned to go to the mine to take a look.

Leaving the courtyard, Song Chen climbed onto a banana leaf alone and headed south.

He took on the mining task at the mine not for contribution points, but for the stone bees.

He had previously snatched a stone from the protagonist, Mu Feng.

Inside the stone were two stone bee larvae.

Song Chen had been thinking about how to make use of these stone bees.

Now there's a perfect opportunity.

Because he possesses eight spiritual roots, the spiritual energy he needs for cultivation is eight times that of other cultivators.

He must find something rich in spiritual energy to aid his cultivation.

Once the stone bees mature, they can produce spirit stone honey. This spirit stone honey is full of spiritual energy, and a mouthful is equivalent to a month of cultivation.

Song Chen is meticulous and deep-thinking, and he likes to pave the way for things in advance.

He has just embarked on the path of cultivation, but he already has a general plan for what route he will take in the future.

Of course, his plan now includes another person: Zhao Ziyi.

Providing Zhao Ziyi with better cultivation conditions is also part of Song Chen's plan.

**

Four hours later.

The moon was bright and the stars were few. Grayish-white mountain peaks stood on the earth. Song Chen put away the banana leaf and slowly fell down.

The mine covers a vast area, with several kilometers of pits already excavated.

The enormous pit reflected a cold, silvery light.

Even under the moonlight, you can see the entire mine pit.

At that moment, a clanging sound came from inside the mine, as hundreds of cultivators were digging.

Song Chen looked around and found a stall with a sign.

The sign reads: Mine Pit Self-Service Center.

Song Chen stepped closer. There was only a piece of jade and an instruction manual at the registration desk; there were no cultivators there.

I glanced at the instruction manual.

Song Chen picked up his identity jade token, held it close to the jade to enter his information, and a bright light flashed, indicating that the registration was successful.

The moment the report was successful, the stall even produced a brand-new pickaxe.

Song Chen picked up the pickaxe, tossed it in his hand, and walked toward the mine pit.

This self-service work method struck Song Chen as novel.

**

The cultivators in the mine were all people with low cultivation talent who barely passed the assessment.

They have been working in the mine for many years.

They are very familiar with each other.

But today, they suddenly saw a new face walk into the mine.

The monks, curious, stepped forward to strike up a conversation.

"Hey bro, are you a freshman this year?"

Song Chen nodded:

"Yes, I'm new here."

"Then let's stay in the mine. Although the treatment here isn't great, it'll be a good opportunity to hone our Dao heart."

This mine is full of spiritual energy and far away from people.

Here, no one laughs at you for being useless, because everyone is useless.

Song Chen: "..."

"Trust me, buddy, I won't lie to you."

Look at Dazhuang over there, he's been working at the mine for 48 years.

A colossal Hun Tian Cauldron has been forged from the raw ore collected from the mine.

Hey, Dazhuang, show off your weapon!

Song Chen hadn't reacted yet.

Then they saw the cultivator named Dazhuang in the distance take out a huge axe, more than ten meters long, directly from his storage bag.

The axe struck the ground, sending up pebbles and dust.

That axe was a double-edged axe; the blades from Kaifeng are all two meters long.

Song Chen stared intently at it and realized that this axe was indeed a fine weapon. The person who forged it was at least a second-grade weapon refiner.

"How about that? Scared, huh? We brothers all have one of these weapons."

"If you were to buy it outside, you simply couldn't get it without several million contribution points."

Song Chen was a little confused. "I saw in the mission that we're not allowed to steal ore from the mine?"

The surrounding cultivators laughed upon hearing this.

"That's where the academy's brilliance lies. Our mine wasn't taken privately; it was provided by the academy."

"For every 100 jin of ore we mine, we get 1 jin of it."

We mine 3,000 jin a day, and we get 30 jin of ore, worth 300 contribution points.

"So, the reward for this task is actually 400 contribution points per day. Do you think that's a good deal?"