The Blood Transformation Palace Master was waiting for the two people in the main hall.
Once Gongyi Tianheng and Gu Zuo entered and paid their respects, he revealed a smiling expression to the pair: “Sure enough, when this apprentice went out, you didn’t tarnish the reputation of my Ten Ultimates Sect.”
As it turned out, he had long known about Tianheng’s performance during the competition over the profound qi veins.
Tianheng said: “I only did my best. Luckily, I didn’t disappoint master or the sect.”
After he finished saying this, he removed the heavy sleeve pouch, and held it in his hand: “This is what this disciple acquired. Master, please take a look.”
Gu Zuo trailed the pouch with his eyes, too.
Speaking of which, he didn’t specifically ask how many Tianheng obtained, but based on what he vaguely saw, there were at least a couple dozen.
The Blood Transformation Palace Master reached out a hand, and caught that sleeve pouch. With a shake of his arm, the contents inside the sleeve pouch immediately fell out, and floated in the palace hall.
What every streak of black light enshrouded were Black Dragon Jades of various sizes!
Soon after, the Blood Transformation Palace Master flicked his sleeve. Those Black Dragon Jades were naturally separated into several piles. The way they were divided was according to their respective size.
Gu Zuo saw that there were a dozen or so piles at the very least.
The Blood Transformation Palace Master said: “For the profound qi veins at three hundred meters, thirty units. At six hundred meters, twenty-three units. At 1.2 kilometers, twenty-one units. At 1.5 kilometers, eighteen units. At 2.4 kilometers…”
After a cursory count, the total number of profound qi veins reached 162. Among them, 116 were shorter than three kilometers, forty-five were three kilometers or longer, and only one surpassed thirty kilometers.
Based on these calculations, from the hundred-something profound qi veins, the Blood Transformation Palace Hall could obtain forty-nine units and Tianheng could get seventeen units. And among the seventeen units that Tianheng received, in order to compensate that he couldn’t take the thirty-kilometer-long profound qi vein, five profound qi veins that were three kilometers or longer would be allocated to him.
Indeed, this amount wasn’t small.
Once the Blood Transformation Palace Master finished calculating, he pondered slightly: “Apprentice, among those five longer profound qi veins you deserve, this teacher will pick one unit that’s twenty-four kilometers long, and units that are fifteen kilometers, nine kilometers, six kilometers, and three kilometers each.”
As a matter of fact, among all of the profound qi veins, the best one was definitely the thirty-kilometer-long qi vein, and the second best were the few qi veins that were twenty-four kilometers long. Tianheng went through a lot of trouble to seize this many profound qi veins. As Tianheng’s master, he naturally couldn’t let his apprentice suffer such a loss. He had to get one of those longer profound qi veins for his apprentice no matter what.
Moreover, among those qi veins at the twenty-four kilometer mark, one was 25.8 kilometers long and another was 26.4 kilometers long. The longer one was picked for Tianheng. On the contrary, the Blood Transformation Palace Hall selected the shorter one for itself.
Tianheng knew that this was his master’s kind intention. It was only natural that his heart warmed.
Gu Zuo also respected the Blood Transformation Palace Master even more deeply.
After all, although his big brother made great contributions to the sect, it wasn’t good for disciples to select the best things for themselves. Otherwise, they would be denounced and castigated by others. However, the Blood Transformation Palace Master took responsibility for this matter directly. When a master fought for the material benefits of his disciple, this was a form of protection. There was nothing outsiders could say about it, either.
Shortly thereafter, the Blood Transformation Palace Master spoke again: “In addition, twelve profound qi veins under three kilometers in length may be chosen by this apprentice personally.”
At this moment, his expression was upright: “From these qi veins, this apprentice should choose based on his own needs…”
Don’t greedily pursue based on size — Even though he didn’t say this sentence of warning aloud, it was enough to make the two people here understand the unfinished implication.
Tianheng wasn’t flustered, and unhurriedly said: “Master, rest assured.”
Gu Zuo followed along, and nodded his head.
The facts were also like this. His big brother had just started to develop and grow. More profound qi veins were a good thing, but if every qi vein was long, it wouldn’t be easy to handle. And according to the situation, it would be better to be rewarded for meritorious deeds in the future.
As a result, Tianheng made a prudent selection.
Among those twelve profound qi veins, five units were three hundred meters, two units were six hundred meters, two units were nine hundred meters, two units were 1.5 kilometers, and one unit was 2.4 kilometers.
Once they went back, it would be much easier for him to allocate.
Regarding Tianheng’s choices, the Blood Transformation Palace Master praised: “Not bad. Such a selection is just right for this apprentice’s current needs. When the sect pulls out those profound qi veins, this teacher will watch over the process for you. I’ll make sure that nothing goes wrong.”
Following this, Tianheng poured his own qi emissions into the Black Dragon Jades he selected. This was considered the way to confirm the chosen profound qi veins. Afterwards, the sect would send out exceptional powerhouses to pull out the profound qi veins, and settle them within the Profound Veins Secret Land. In the future, so long as Tianheng wanted, he could go receive them with the Black Dragon Jades in hand.
The Blood Transformation Palace Master continued: “The date of the translocation will be one month from now. Apprentice, you should send your people to remove the profound crystals above those qi veins first.”
Indeed. Before they were moved to the Profound Veins Secret Land, the accumulated profound crystals on top definitely had to be taken away. Otherwise, if he needed the profound crystals in the future, wouldn’t he have to go and get them from the secret land every time?
As a result, Tianheng affirmed: “Many thanks for the reminder, master.”
Shortly thereafter, the two left the Blood Transformation Palace Hall.
After going outside, Gu Zuo suddenly thought of something: “Big brother, it seems that I forgot about the heavenly materials and earthly treasures that the palace master mentioned…”
Tianheng faintly smiled, and ruffled his hair: “That’s only because Ah Zuo is worried about me. Though, this isn’t a problem. If any heavenly materials or earthly treasures were produced, they’ll certainly be close to the profound qi veins. If they’re found somewhere else, disputes would inevitably occur. Now that those seventeen qi veins belong to us, we can go looking around when I send people to take away the profound crystals.”
Gu Zuo nodded his head, and revealed a great, big smile: “Okay! I’ll go with big brother!”
The two went back to the manor first.
Since it was already decided that they were going to go mining, then there was no time to lose.
Tianheng pointed out two hundred battle slaves and numerous robust experts from the Gold-Devouring Mouse servile race to proceed with them. Normally, if it was said that having battle slaves when traveling and fighting was the best help, then having members of the Gold-Devouring Mouse race when mining was the most appropriate.
Ever since the Gold-Devouring Mouse race recognized a master, they usually worked in ore veins. However, because their work efficiency was extremely high, those ore veins couldn’t keep them busy for long. On the contrary, there had been many times when too many mice were sent over, which led to an inevitable wastage of manpower.
Having heard that they could mine profound crystals, numerous Gold-Devouring Mice were incomparably happy. They jumped into action right away. In a short while, three hundred Gold-Devouring Mice had gathered. They were all ready and waiting!
Tianheng didn’t say much more than a few lines: “This time, for everyone coming along who gives it their all, I will increase your monthly stipends for three months.”
The numerous battle slaves and servile race members were naturally ecstatic. They respectfully bowed or saluted: “Many thanks, young master!”
Gu Zuo tugged on Tianheng’s sleeve, and purposefully asked: “Big brother, what about me?”
Tianheng’s voice softened: “All that I am and everything I have will be shared with Ah Zuo.”
Gu Zuo’s face suddenly reddened. He stammered, at a loss for words.
Originally, he wanted to tease big brother. In the end, he was teased in return.
Afterwards, with the assistance of the teleportation arrays, everyone followed Tianheng and quickly arrived at the location of the qi vein mine. At this time, that place was no longer as quiet as when everyone left. Before Gu Zuo and the others got there, the other prodigies had already sent over their own servile races, who started digging on top of many qi veins to mine the profound crystals.
When Tianheng gave the order, the battle slaves and Gold-Devouring Mouse race members didn’t waste any time. Whichever qi veins Tianheng pointed out, they rushed to that place, and harvested the profound crystals above those qi veins with various methods.
As for the mining methods, Gu Zuo watched with astonishment.
There was nothing spectacular about the battle slaves. Their methods were still very ordinary. However, the Gold-Devouring Mouse Race was different. The moment they climbed onto the qi veins, their entire bodies transformed into gigantic mouse-like creatures. Their front paws moved nonstop, and they instantly burrowed into the ground. Amid the continuous movements of their front paws, their bodies sank downward. Over the course of their sinking, numerous black-colored crystals were constantly tossed out to form small mountains on the side.
Gu Zuo blinked his eyes: “…So fast!”
Tianheng broke into laughter: “This is the strong point of the Gold-Devouring Mouse Race. If it wasn’t for this skill, I wouldn’t have deliberately chosen this race to become my subordinates.”
Gu Zuo nodded his head: “What big brother says is right.”
Indeed, the Gold-Devouring Mice were very capable. From what Gu Zuo could tell, after this group of mice pounced onto a three-hundred-meter-long profound qi vein where seventy to eighty percent of it was covered in profound crystals, half of the qi vein had been “nibbled away” in less than an hour. One couldn’t focus on the high martial strength of the battle slaves. At this time, they were basically reduced to glorified porters. Each person was following at least one Gold-Devouring Mouse. Whenever a mouse dug out a large pile of profound crystals, the battle slaves used an inter-spatial tool to stow them away. When the inter-spatial tools were filled up, they were delivered to Tianheng’s location.
Fortunately, Tianheng’s bangle came from the hands of a Human King, and it was the best inter-spatial tool for the job. As a result, even though countless profound crystals were being excavated right now, all of them could be stored.
Only, this situation wouldn’t necessarily stay the same if things continued like this — For instance, take that aforementioned profound qi vein. It could produce several tens of millions of profound qi crystals. These numbers were just the profound crystals covering a qi vein that spanned three hundred meters. Was there any need to talk about the profound crystals produced by those longer qi veins?
Gu Zuo did some rough calculations. The total length of the seventeen qi veins that belonged to big brother was approximately seventy-two kilometers. If every three hundred meters could produce fifty million profound crystals, then that would be…twelve billion profound crystals!
After calculating this, Gu Zuo couldn’t help swallowing a mouthful of saliva.
When big brother just became a prodigy, his monthly allocation also included profound crystals. That amount had been… Ah, he remembered. There were three crystals every month.
— This was still the salary of an all-star prodigy!
Of course, now that big brother advanced to an Atomic Realm martial artist, the monthly spirit crystals had been raised ten times to become ten thousand. Meanwhile, the profound crystals had been raised a hundred times to become three hundred. However, compared to the profound crystals covering these qi veins, that small amount was basically meaningless!
If this was converted into the monthly stipends that big brother issued to the battle slaves… Let’s take the Immortal Realm battle slaves as an example. The salary of the battle slaves naturally couldn’t compare to that of a prodigy. Even if it was the inner sect disciples of Ten Ultimates Sect, it would be impossible for them to get profound crystals every month once they reached the Immortal Realm. Under poorer circumstances, it might be only one crystal per year. And if things were a little better, they might get one crystal every couple of months.
If the battle slaves and these inner sect disciples were given the same treatment, there would have to be a trade-off. For instance, one crystal every six months. With twelve billion profound crystals, even if this arrangement lasted for a thousand years, one could support six million Immortal Realm battle slaves!
Gu Zuo felt a little dizzy.
This was just one competition for the capture of qi veins. How many times had his and big brother’s assets increased?
On the contrary, after Tianheng transferred the profound crystals in several inter-spatial tools to his bangle, he turned around and saw Gu Zuo’s dizzied expression.
He laughed, and pinched Gu Zuo’s cheek: “Thirty percent will become our personal funds. I’ll hand them over to Ah Zuo for safe keeping.”
T/N: Thanks for the correction, Charysa.
Please don’t forget to support the original author.