"What is your force value?" Village chief Guan Hao asked as he led the two boys towards the gathered villagers.
Initially, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue had no interest in taking part in the stone breaking ceremony, but after listening to Chef Guan's explanation, they couldn't help but be interested.
The stone breaking ceremony was a ritual that the village conducted whenever they were about to open a new stone mining quarry and every member of the village from the youngest to the oldest was required to participate.
Each member would hit a designated rock wall where the new mine entrance would be dug and if they were strong enough to break apart a chunk of rock, they could keep the rock for themselves.
At times, the rock may just be a rock that could then be sold back to the village as a building material, but sometimes, the rock may contain mineral deposits which could also be sold back at a high price.
"We haven't had a chance to measure it." Jiang Yue answered as he followed the man.
Force value was the amount of physical force that a body could exert and it was the basic measure of strength in the meridian awakening realm.
"I see." Chief Guan said and frowned a little before his expression returned to normal.
An average thirteen-year-old child had a force value of only fifty kilograms before awakening their first meridian and although force value increased dramatically with each awakened meridian, he didn't believe that either of the boys was a heaven-defying genius who could exert a force of more than two thousand kilograms at the fifth level of the meridian awakening realm.
Chief Guan believed that if such a genius was born to a clan, the clan would immediately notify the big sects and the big sects would definitely never allow such prodigies to roam in the outside world as travelling merchants. He suspected that the two boys had at best awakened low-grade heaven meridians which would put their force value at about fifteen hundred kilograms.
If that was the case, he didn't need to worry since the strongest person in the village had already awakened their ninth meridian and their force value had reached an astounding two thousand kilograms.
Satisfied with his own reasoning, chief Guan wasn't worried that allowing the two boys to participate in the stone breaking ceremony would disadvantage his Stone village and he happily introduced them to the village as soon as they arrived at the place where the villagers were gathered.
The two boys could see that the villagers were not happy to allow outsiders to participate in the stone breaking ceremony, but in the end, they had no choice but to accept since the village chief had already made the decision.
Soon after, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue followed the villagers to leave Stone village and about the time it takes to make a cup of tea, the group arrived at the mouth of a craggy stone valley.
Chief Guan led the group through the valley towards a vertical wall of stone that was covered with ivy and various vegetation.
Without a need for instructions, a group of teenagers quickly removed the vegetation from the wall and when every inch of the stone wall could be clearly seen, chief Guan took back his place at the front.
"Our Stone village has guests this year and it is customary for guests to take the first hit." The chief said and no one objected.
Normally, all the stones and minerals mined from the quarry were considered village property and were divided according to each person's contribution to the mining process and other contributions in the village
However, during the stone breaking ceremony, everyone was allowed to keep the chunk of stone that they managed to break apart during their hit.
It was because of this that the villagers had no objections to letting Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue take the first hit at the new mine since they all knew that the outermost part of each mine was the least rich. In this way, the guests wouldn't acquire too much of the village's wealth.
Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue didn't fail to notice these small calculations, but they didn't mind it since whatever they acquired during this ceremony could be considered easy gold.
After easily awakening five divine meridians, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue were hopeful that their remaining four meridians would also be divine meridians which meant that they would not require meridian clearing pills but no matter the case, they still needed meridian strengthening pills.
Meridian strengthening pills were silver grade pills that fortified a cultivator's meridians and given that the two had awakened divine meridians, silver rank low-grade meridian strengthening pills would have no effect on their meridians. If they wanted to see some effect, they would need to buy silver grade peak tier pills and from the information that the two boys had gathered along the way, such pills would not cost less than ten thousand gold per pill.
Other than meridian strengthening pills, they also needed to buy rejuvenation pills, since one couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't get hurt while cultivating or travelling.
There was also the gold required for buying cultivation techniques, martial arts, weapons, and equipment which would amount to tens of thousands of gold coins.
In the face of the resources that they needed to progress their cultivation, the one hundred gold that Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue had earned during their travels seemed like a drop in the ocean.
Jiang Yue was slightly depressed when he thought of their lack of gold and he sighed before he spoke, "we will follow the chief's arrangements."
"Good." Village chief Guan said as he handed a pickaxe to Jiang Yue.
The pickaxe was about one metre long which was the normal size in the modern world, but when Jiang Yue held it, he almost gasped in shock.
Although it was normal-sized, it weighed about fifteen hundred kilograms, which were only one hundred kilograms less than the force value of an eighth level meridian awakening realm cultivator who had awakened eight earth meridians.
The pickaxe was clearly meant to be handled by a person of the eighth or ninth level of the meridian awakening realm, but after the initial surprise, Jiang Yue couldn't be bothered to complain.
Earth meridian cultivators had a two hundred kilograms increase in force value with each awakened meridian and although Jiang Yue did not know the exact numbers relating to heaven meridians and divine meridians cultivators, he knew that his force value was several times larger than that of earth meridian cultivators of the same level.
If the ease with which he held the pickaxe was anything to go by, he suspected that at the fifth level of the meridian awakening realm, he already had a force value that was higher than a ninth level meridian awakening realm cultivator who had awakened nine earth meridians.
After taking a moment to settle his thoughts, Jiang Yue positioned himself in front of the rock wall and swung the pickaxe with all his strength.
A loud sound echoed around the stone valley as soon as the pickaxe hit the stone wall and soon after, a cracking sound was heard before a humongous chunk of rock broke apart from the rock wall and tumbled towards the gathered villagers who had no choice but to run back in alarm.
The chunk of stone which was about six metres long and had a width and height of about four metres by two metres; fell to the ground with a low thud that made the ground shake slightly.
According to the instructions that the village chief had previously given him, Jiang Yue rolled the stone to the side before turning his attention to the silent villagers, only to find that all of them had an ugly expression on their faces.
"Young master Jiang…" Chief Guan called through gritted teeth, but in the end, he couldn't say a thing and his face blackened even more when he thought that there was another Yu Nianzhen who had yet to participate.
The strongest person in the Stone village was at the peak of the meridian awakening realm and could wield a force of two thousand kilograms, but even he could not break off such a big boulder.
The worst thing was that chief Guan could see that the inner edge of the boulder was grey, which meant that Jiang Yue's boulder had a deposit of iron ore and if Yu Nianzhen went next, he would also take out an iron ore stone.
Chief Guan was very reluctant to let Yu Nianzhen take the next hit, but what could he do?
The two boys were only in the fifth level of the meridian awakening realm, but if their force value was larger than the strongest cultivator in their village, it meant that they couldn't defeat the two.
There was also their master who was cultivating in the cart and if their village angered an origin forging realm cultivator, they would be done for.
Chief Guan looked at the old chief Guan, who was the strongest in the village and the old man also seemed to be at a loss and could do nothing but nod his head.
"Young Yu…' Chief Gu called next as he subtly changed the pickaxe that he handed to Yu Nianzhen.
The pickaxe was the same size as Jiang Yue's but its weight was close to two thousand kilograms, which was equal to the force value of a ninth level meridian awakening realm cultivator who had awakened nine earth meridians.