Chapter 8: The expedition started off badly.
Chapter 8
The sky is clear and the sun is shining.
Take a deep breath and you can smell the fragrance of unknown flowers wafting in from afar. The narrow path is lined with green grass, and you can occasionally hear the chirping of lively and lovely birds in the trees. All of this creates a beautiful picture of peaceful and tranquil time.
Bu Xingjin had no time to appreciate these.
He had a silver bracelet on his right wrist and was walking forward with the crowd.
“Bang!”
The supervisor who was walking beside them to keep watch flicked the whip in his hand. It looked like he was not using any strength, but a loud noise was made.
"Hurry up! You all need to be inside the mine within half an hour. If anyone lags behind, don't blame me for being merciless with the whip."
There were four or five people in the group.
There are men and women, old and young, some are human and some are not human.
Moreover, they are all people who have practiced superficially and are completely different from ordinary mortals.
It was Bu Xingjin's bad luck.
That day, he couldn't wait to transform into a human form, and persuaded Qing Yan by all means to join him.
But the little tree cannot transform yet, so how to act together is a problem.
After thinking for a long time, Bu Xingjin came up with a solution that was not really a solution.
First, confirm with the tree how long it can survive away from the soil.
The answer was that whether it was planted in the ground or not had no effect on it.
If that's the case, then that's perfect; that's exactly what his method requires.
Bu Xingjin gestured the height of the small tree. It was not very tall. The topmost branch did not even reach the waist of his human figure. It should be less than one meter.
Since its life is not affected whether it is planted in the soil or not, Bu Xingjin plans to dig it out directly and carry it with him first. When he encounters people in the future, he will find a pot to put it in and make it into a potted plant to carry with him.
Just as he told the little tree about this method and was about to dig it out, the little tree stopped him.
A flash of light passed by, and the tree slowly shrank. Gradually, it shrank to the size of Bu Xingjin's palm, and he could pick it up with one hand.
If he had known that the little tree could shrink by itself, he would not have come up with such an outrageous idea. Now it's quite embarrassing.
Who would have thought that a tree could have the ability to automatically grow or shrink?
Bu Xingjin set out on the road in the rain with the little tree.
His first stop was to go to Amaterasu Sect, as he must not forget what he had promised.
This is the plan, but we have to take it step by step to realize it.
First of all, he has to find out where the Amaterasu sect is and how far away it is. He only has ten days to stay in human form. If the distance is too far, this time will not be enough for him to travel.
In a world without navigation, if you want to go to a place you have never been to, you can only ask for directions.
Bu Xingjin planned to find someone to ask.
As he walked, Bu Xingjin soon met the first person.
Judging from his attire, he looked like a hunter from nearby, wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat, checking the traps he had set in the rain.
Bu Xingjin approached, but before he could ask anything, he turned around inadvertently and saw that his hunter's face suddenly changed, and he swung the machete in his hand towards him fiercely.
My life is over!
The hunter closed his eyes in despair. He had only heard of legends about man-eating monsters in the mountains, but he never expected that he would actually encounter one.
A handsome man who looked unreal sneaked up behind him...
Now that he has been discovered, he will definitely not surrender.
???
Bu Xingjin had a question mark on his head and dodged the hunter's attack nimbly. He had not practiced any special moves and was able to dodge it entirely by relying on his body's instinctive reaction.
"I just wanted to ask for directions? Why did you cut me?"
The hunter didn't answer, saying that what the monster said was all lies.
The hunter missed the target and all his courage was gone. He shouted "Don't eat me" and turned to run away.
Why should I eat you? Does this make him a monster?
“Don’t run!”
Bu Xingjin followed without thinking. He is not a monster, listen to his explanation!
The hunter walked very fast, and Bu Xingjin was stumbling after him. In the end, he lost him because he was not wearing shoes and could not run fast enough and was not familiar with the area.
The first attempt to ask for directions ended in failure.
Then I failed a second time, and a third time.
He kept on doing this until dark, and no one he met would listen to him. They would just start beating people with the tools they had and run away if they couldn't win.
He was so scared that he didn't dare ask for directions anymore, and he didn't even dare approach the village, fearing that the villagers would think he was a monster and rely on their numbers to beat him up.
He didn't blame the people in this small village for being so inexperienced. He thought this wouldn't happen again in a larger town.
Bu Xingjin hadn't yet realized how dangerous it was for him to walk around in this state. If he encountered an evil cultivator who wanted to attack him, he would be completely powerless to resist.
Mortals with little experience are afraid of him, but cultivators are not. Any cultivator with some cultivation can see that his true form is just a small grass and there is nothing to be afraid of.
Because Bu Xingjin had no idea how to conceal his true identity, he just showed himself nakedly to everyone. When he first entered the outside world, he didn't think about those things at all.
So, after Bu Xingjin finally found a wide road and was about to follow it to the town, he was caught by someone who happened to be passing by.
The man who had captured him was named Shi Linchao, a minor supervisor at the Yinshi Mine. He possessed limited talent, having cultivated for years but only reached the fifth level of Qi training. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, his cultivation journey would end there.
The Yin Iron produced by the Yin Stone Mine is an excellent material for refining weapons. This mine belongs to the Huolian Peak of the Amaterasu Sect. All the Yin Iron mined every year must be transported to the Huolian Peak.
Since the Yin Iron needs to be handed over, miners are needed. Yin Iron is not an ordinary thing, and ordinary people cannot dig it without cultivation.
We can only invite people with cultivation to come and mine.
Huolian Peak does a good job in this regard. Every year, it sends a large amount of spirit stones to the Yinshi Mine so that the mine owner can hire monks to mine.
The idea is good, but the actual implementation is completely different.
The mine owner would retain half of the spirit stones distributed, and the rest would be deducted through layers of deductions. Only one low-grade spirit stone would reach the hands of the cultivators who were willing to come.
Who else is willing to do this?
Except for some ordinary people who cannot reach the threshold of cultivating immortals, but have managed to draw Qi into their bodies by various coincidences and cannot even be considered to have reached the first level of Qi training, for them, a piece of low-grade spirit stone is a treasure that they cannot exchange for even a hundred taels of gold.
Apart from here, they have almost no other channels to obtain even a little bit of cultivation resources.
The mining efficiency of such ordinary people is bound to be low, and they cannot invite real monks to mine, but they have to hand over the full amount of Yin Iron. What should they do?
Just catch!
Capture those little goblins that have just transformed, as well as the weak and independent cultivators, put on restrictive bracelets on them, and throw them all into the mine to mine.
Bu Xingjin was so unlucky to be caught.
At this time, it was the third day since he transformed.
The person who caught him was the supervisor under the owner of Cave No. 2 of Yinshi Mine. Naturally, he was taken to Cave No. 2.
Bu Xingjin was pushed into the mine.
The mine, a little over a meter tall, was sparsely populated. Most wore restraining bracelets on their wrists. Dozens of people were evenly distributed inside, digging and transporting, each extremely busy. Numbly, they went about their business, indifferent to everything else.
Every few meters, a fist-sized piece of bright fluorite is embedded in the top of the mine, bringing light to the dark mine.
The supervisor led the group to the innermost part of the mine, where a newly opened tunnel lay. After dividing the positions among the group, the supervisor pulled out the mining tools from his storage bag and dropped them on the ground.
"Just dig honestly. Two pieces of Yin Iron can be exchanged for a day's food, and five pieces of Yin Iron can be exchanged for a low-grade spirit stone."
"Don't even think about running away. The whip in my hand is not a vegetarian."
The supervisor looked at them one by one with a whip in his hand. No one dared to look up and look at him. He nodded with satisfaction.
"Let's get started! Dinner is at the beginning of the afternoon. If you miss this time, you will have to work on an empty stomach."
The supervisor left after saying this. He was not worried that these people could escape. They were all caught by him personally, and he knew exactly how much they weighed. Not to mention that they all wore restrictive bracelets. The main bracelet was kept well with him, so they could not get too far away from him.
After the supervisor left, the deepest part of the mine fell silent, with only the clanking sounds of mining outside.
They looked at each other, without saying anything or moving.
"Woof cough cough..."
Bu Xingjin seemed to hear a dog barking, and he looked over suspiciously.
An old man with gray hair, wrinkles all over his face, and looking very old stood up first.
"I don't have many days left to live. It doesn't matter where I die, but I can't starve. I'm going to start now."
After saying that, the old man picked up a pickaxe, turned around and started digging at the stone wall.
Led by the old man, another person picked up a pickaxe and started digging with resigned mind.
"Don't you want to escape?"
The one who spoke was the only young man among the group. He encouraged everyone to find a way to escape.
"Do you think I didn't try on the way? My cultivation is too low. What can I do? I can't even open this restrictive bracelet on my hand. How can I escape?"
Bai Ye put down the pickaxe and retorted. She was a spirit transformed from a wild rabbit and was caught not long after she transformed into a human form. The supervisor's cultivation was several levels higher than hers, so it was easy for him to catch her. He couldn't beat her at all. What could she do?
There are five people here in total, and to be more precise, they all look like human beings.
Except for Bu Xingjin who is in the form of grass, two of the other four are humans and two are in the form of animals.
Bai Ye, the only girl among the four, is a rabbit demon, and her cultivation level is the second level of Qi training; the only old man's original form was a big yellow dog. When he was young, he ate half of a discarded transformation fruit and accidentally transformed into a human form and embarked on the path of cultivation. After years of struggle, he can only reach the third level of Qi training.
The remaining two people are both independent cultivators. They are brothers and have cultivated to the level of Qi training with the help of their family's skills. The elder brother is at the second level of Qi training, while the younger brother, the young man who spoke, has a slightly higher talent and has already reached the fourth level of Qi training.
The two had originally planned to go to Amaterasu Sect to become disciples, even if it would be as outer disciples. However, they were arrested before they even entered Amaterasu Sect.
After being retorted by Bai Ye, the boy's face turned red and he couldn't say a word.
His brother pulled the boy to the corner and was whispering something.
The space was not big, and the two of them just happened to walk not far from Bu Xingjin, so he heard it clearly.
"Xiao Shang, except for the two of us, everyone else here is a demon. Humans and demons have different paths. If we want to escape, we can only rely on ourselves to find a way..."
The two people here were planning how to escape, and the two monsters over there were mining resignedly. Bu Xingjin looked around and decided not to join either side, so he just sat down where he was.
He held the little tree securely in his arms without anyone noticing.
"Qing Yan, don't worry, I will definitely help you escape."
Bu Xingjin assured Xiaoshu, then opened the system panel. Now he could only put his hope on it.
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