Chapter 3593 — Hard to Make a Move!
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"So that's Miserable. Seeing him today, he's miserable indeed!"
"True enough. Still, I'd say the one beside him is the real little wretch—following the wrong man. If he'd followed Meng Jueming, how could he have ended up here?"
"Alas, nothing to be done about it. Actually, aren't the two of us the same? If we hadn't offended Dai Wuchang, that real power in the Spirit Jade Hall, how could we have been banished to this post?"
Wei Zhao had heard the earlier conversation as well. So Senior Brother Miserable was actually named Ku Zhongle—but clearly, even he himself had accepted the name Miserable, so much so that when he formally registered, no one recognized him anymore.
The two walked into the mine zone, set down the baskets they had collected at the entrance, each specially inscribed with a name, and took out the shovels inside. Senior Brother Miserable demonstrated in person, instructing Wei Zhao in some of the tricks of mining.
It was worth noting that, to prevent the heaven-and-earth spirit qi within the spirit jade from being damaged during mining, the shovels used for digging were made entirely of jade; in use, however, they were much like any iron shovel—hard, sharp, and highly practical. Not only could they easily break through soil, they could pierce even hard rock with ease. Wei Zhao even felt that if such a thing were taken out and used as a weapon, it would already be more than sufficient.
Having grasped the tricks Senior Brother Miserable had pointed out, Wei Zhao quickly got the hang of it. After all, the task itself was not complicated; it mainly came down to strength. And with Wei Zhao's strength at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, such physical labor was naturally nothing to speak of—even working without rest for a whole day would leave him not the slightest bit tired.
Although this was the dead Mine Zone Ten, where the yield of jade was extremely low, the spot Wei Zhao had chosen was, after all, backed by Senior Brother Miserable's experience and insight, and his luck was good today as well. After only a short while, he dug up his first piece of spirit jade.
Wiping the dirt from its surface with a cloth, the pure white jade soon bloomed with radiance. In outward appearance it looked exactly like the few pieces of spirit jade in his hand; yet after carefully sensing the spirit qi within, he found it extremely thin, less than one percent in concentration—a typical piece of worthless jade.
"It's not bad. Once you've accumulated enough of this worthless jade, it can be exchanged for good jade," Senior Brother Miserable consoled him from the side.
Wei Zhao nodded. Just then, he saw one of the two guards in the distance walk over, carrying a scale. He took the worthless jade Wei Zhao had dug up, weighed it, noted down the figure, then tossed the worthless jade back into the basket and turned to leave.
"What is he doing?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled.
"This is the standard supervisory procedure in all mine zones. To prevent anyone from secretly hoarding spirit jade, whenever someone digs up spirit jade, the guards weigh it and record the figure. When the shift ends and you hand in your work, all the spirit jade you've mined will be weighed again together. If the figure differs too greatly from the one the guards recorded—especially if it's much less—you'll be isolated for investigation," Senior Brother Miserable explained.
Hearing this, Wei Zhao could not help secretly clicking his tongue in dismay. Entering and leaving the mine shaft already required a thorough body search; who would have thought there was such a supervisory procedure inside as well? Setting all else aside, when it came to preventing people from secretly hoarding spirit jade, the Spirit Jade Hall truly did leave not a single drop unaccounted for.