Previously, with the silt blocking it, the chill emanating from the Cold Iron Ore Vein hadn't been very concentrated.
Zhang Qianren hadn't paid it much mind.
But the moment he broke through the silt and entered the range of the Cold Iron Ore Vein, an incomparable, bone-deep chill immediately assaulted him.
The oval Energy Shield formed by the Water Repelling Talisman kept the silt around him at bay, but it couldn't block the intrusion of the cold.
In the blink of an eye, a layer of frost had formed on his eyebrows and around his nostrils.
"Hiss~"
Zhang Qianren was instantly frozen enough to gasp in a breath of cold air. He hastily pulled the Alchemy Furnace out of his Storage Ring, enlarging it to about half a man's height and setting it beside him, then used up another talisman that sealed the Azure Flame Fire.
As the furnace radiated waves of heat outward, the temperature around him quickly rose.
After quietly letting out a breath of relief, he extended his Divine Sense downward.
From what he sensed, directly beneath the silt underfoot was exactly where the Cold Iron Ore Vein lay.
The Cold Iron Ore it contained, though scattered, was astonishing in quantity.
When he reached down to dig, he discovered that the silt underfoot had actually been frozen as hard as metal by the biting cold radiating from the Cold Iron Ore Vein.
Helpless, Zhang Qianren could only take out the shovel from his Storage Ring and laboriously start digging through the silt at his feet for ore.
The moment he swung the iron shovel, he suddenly recalled the years when he'd first joined the Misty Sect and was sent to dig in the mine tunnels.
"Who would've thought that decades later, this old man would still see the day he'd return to his old trade!"
Zhang Qianren muttered with a face full of wistfulness, then bent his head and dug on doggedly.
After about half an hour, he finally managed to dig out enough Cold Iron to fill a furnace.
The chill given off by a single piece of Cold Iron Ore wasn't very strong, so he picked one up and carefully examined it with his Divine Sense.
"Just as this old man expected, this Cold Iron Ore isn't pure either."
He muttered quietly, then tossed the piece in his hand, along with over a dozen others scattered by his feet, into the Alchemy Furnace. While the furnace smelted away the accumulated impurities, he continued swinging his shovel at the silt underfoot.
Before long, the silt and seabed sediment within the Cold Iron Ore had been filtered out by the Azure Flame Fire.
Zhang Qianren took the Cold Iron out of the furnace, and while the Ruyi Jingu Bang began Devouring it, he took the opportunity to rest a little.
Although he was at Late Foundation Establishment, his age was catching up with him — just a bit of exertion now already left his legs trembling with fatigue.
He rested for about a quarter hour, and once he sensed that the Ruyi Jingu Bang had Devoured more than half of the Cold Iron Ore, he picked up the shovel and resumed digging.
Compared to Zhang Qianren, Qin Mu was having a much easier time of it.
He was currently sitting propped up against his headboard, leafing through a history book of this world.
After dinner, he'd originally planned to keep transcribing poetry, but those hundred-odd poems had already left him completely drained.
Bored out of his mind, he'd simply pulled a random book off the bookshelf.
And what this book recorded was the very first Dynasty in this world's history.
What Qin Mu found amusing was that this Dynasty was actually named Qin.
Much of what was recorded even resembled that Great Qin Empire from the history of his previous life.
For instance, this Great Qin Dynasty's Emperor had also coined the very term "Emperor" for himself, and so was called Qin Shi Huang.
And… it, too, fell in the second generation.
Except this Qin Shi Huang didn't have sons named Fusu or Huhai.
His successor was his brother.
But this Second Emperor of Qin, being obsessed only with pleasure, reigned for a mere 21 years, causing the Great Qin Dynasty — which had unified the Nine Provinces and Four Seas — to collapse after existing for only 471 years.
After the fall of Great Qin, warlords carved up the realm among themselves.
Around this time, Cultivators also began to appear in the realm — those who gathered the Essence of Sun and Moon by taking Spiritual Herbs and Immortal Flowers.
While Great Qin still stood, these people hadn't dared to enter the world, and mostly hid away in deep mountains and old forests.
It wasn't until chaos engulfed the realm that they finally came down from the mountains to enter the world.
As the warlords made use of their power to fight over the realm, they in turn made use of the warlords' influence to search for more immortal herbs to aid their Cultivation.
Since the vast majority of Cultivators guarded their own methods jealously, unwilling to pass on the Cultivation techniques they'd worked out to others,
no Cultivator of any particularly high Realm had ever emerged.
During this period, the warlords, hoping to win the allegiance of more Cultivators, sent people to famous mountains and great rivers, and deep mountains and old forests, searching for Cultivators who still remained in seclusion from the world.
Left with no choice but to resist the warlords, these Cultivators banded together.
Before long, they created the very first Cultivation manual.
After that, in order to set themselves apart from other Cultivators, they began calling themselves "Cultivators of Immortality."
Just as Qin Mu reached this part, a Prompt Sound suddenly rang out in his ear, announcing that the Ruyi Jingu Bang had leveled up.
"Your Ruyi Jingu Bang has increased to level 67. You will receive feedback of Gold Element Spiritual Root +1. You may choose the feedback recipient."
After accepting this feedback, he was about to keep reading.
But not long after, another Prompt Sound rang out.
"Your Ruyi Jingu Bang has increased to level 68. You will receive feedback of Gold Element Spiritual Root +1. You may choose the feedback recipient."
Hearing this Prompt Sound, Qin Mu couldn't help but find it strange.
By now, the experience needed for the Ruyi Jingu Bang to gain a level was already 6800 — by rights, the rate of leveling up should have been slowing down.
So how had it gone up two whole levels in less than half an hour?
Curious, he opened the Experience Record to take a look.
At once, he saw a dense, closely packed list of experience-gain entries.
"Your Ruyi Jingu Bang Devoured Cold Iron Ore. Experience +5!"
"Your Ruyi Jingu Bang Devoured Cold Iron Ore. Experience +5!"
"Your Ruyi Jingu Bang Devoured Cold Iron Essence Ore. Experience +50!"
"Your Ruyi Jingu Bang Devoured Cold Iron Ore. Experience +5!"
Amid the long line of Experience +5 entries, Qin Mu's eyes were immediately drawn to the words Experience +50.
"Cold Iron Essence Ore?"
"This kind of Iron Ore can actually bring the Ruyi Jingu Bang 50 experience?"
Surprised, he naturally also took note of this brand-new type of ore called "Cold Iron Ore."
Realizing that this level-up had happened so quickly because the staff had Devoured this Cold Iron Ore, Qin Mu subconsciously began rubbing his smooth, clean-shaven chin.
"For this person to have gotten hold of Iron Ore and Geng Metal Ore before, they must have had help from a Sect."
"But the Great Yu Dynasty Court has already restricted the private transaction of Metal — even Sects aren't allowed to mine it on their own anymore."
"And the Misty Sect has already been taken away by the people of the Demon Suppression Division."
"So how is he still managing to find such precious ore?"
"Could it really be like what I made up in the story — that whoever obtained the Ruyi Jingu Bang is someone whose Fortune truly reaches the heavens?"
Just as this thought crossed his mind, the Prompt Sound rang out once again.
"Your Ruyi Jingu Bang has increased to level 69. You will receive feedback of Gold Element Spiritual Root +1. You may choose the feedback recipient."
After accepting this feedback, Qin Mu suddenly found himself very curious just where exactly the person who'd obtained the Ruyi Jingu Bang had found so much Cold Iron Ore.
The thought had barely flickered through his mind when an image suddenly appeared before his eyes.
The Screen showed nothing but darkness, yet the sound of rushing Undercurrents could be heard.
This was the first time Qin Mu had realized that the Ruyi Jingu Bang could actually record its surroundings and "livestream" them to him.
He immediately widened his eyes in surprise.
Then, he began quietly speculating.
"Is this in the sea?"
"Or by the seaside?"
Just as he furrowed his Brow, a sound of "heave-ho, heave-ho" suddenly rang out in the Screen, along with the clang of metal striking metal.
As those "heave-ho" sounds gradually grew more frequent, Qin Mu subconsciously furrowed his Brow.
For some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd heard this sound somewhere before.
But for the life of him, he couldn't recall where exactly he'd heard it.
Before long, another Prompt Sound rang out in his mind.
"Your Ruyi Jingu Bang has increased to level 70. You will receive feedback of Gold Element Spiritual Root +1. You may choose the feedback recipient."
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