"The reason why you failed is because you are only relying on pure brute strength," Zhao Yunxiao explained. "Unless you have been diligently training your body over a long period of time, it is impossible to do this through physical strength alone. Rather than that, you should be tapping on world origin energy to do so."
"How do I even do that?" Lu Zhiying grumbled.
"You will soon be forming your spiritual meridian root. After which, you will naturally be able to do so," Zhao Yunxiao said. "For now, I will lend you a hand."
"Lend me a hand? How?" Lu Zhiying asked.
"By letting you try mining some ore yourself," Zhao Yunxiao gestured towards the pickaxe in her hands.
"Okaaaay..." Lu Zhiying answered doubtfully.
She slowly raised the pickaxe over her shoulders, but stopped halfway when Zhao Yunxiao suddenly placed his hand on her pickaxe.
"Hmm?" Lu Zhiying looked over at Zhao Yunxiao who had suddenly closed his eyes.
Unbeknownst to Lu Zhiying, Zhao Yunxiao was carefully channelling essence energy from his dantian to his hand. Specifically, it was to his two fingers that he had placed upon the pickaxe in Lu Zhiying's hands.
"Hmm? Hmm?" Lu Zhiying exclaimed in confusion as she felt an unexplainable change to the pickaxe in her hands. "What did you do?"
"Just try it again," Zhao Yunxiao took a step back.
Lu Zhiying eyed Zhao Yunxiao suspiciously before fully raising the pickaxe. "Ah whatever, here goes nothing!"
Bang-!
Lu Zhiying's eyes widened in surprise.
"It went in! It actually went in!" Lu Zhiying turned towards Zhao Yunxiao in excitement.
Even though it was only by a few centimetres, her pickaxe had managed to pierce through the surface of the wall and bury its tip within. This was a far cry from what happened previously where she had barely managed to scratch the surface of the wall.
"This is the difference when you channel essence energy through your equipment," Zhao Yunxiao said with a smile. "When you reach the Foundation Building realm, you will also be able to tap on world origin energy to do the same. For now, why don't you try excavating some ore with this pickaxe in hand?"
"You mean now?" Lu Zhiying glanced at the pickaxe before letting out a smile of her own. "Got it! I will try!"
After turning away from Zhao Yunxiao, Lu Zhiying closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When her eyes reopened, they were focused and clear, directly portraying the fire that had been lit in her heart.
Focusing on nothing but the spot on the tunnel wall that she was aiming for, Lu Zhiying slowly and calmly raised the pickaxe in her hands.
Bang-!
Lu Zhiying grinned in satisfaction when she saw that the pickaxe had pierced the surface of the wall once again. It did not dig deep, but it definitely made its mark.
In that case...
Again!
Bang-!
And again!
Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!
Once, twice, three times...
Lu Zhiying wordlessly continued to raise her pickaxe and strike down on the tunnel wall, repeating the same motion time and again.
It might be slow, but she could see the dent in the wall clearly growing larger and larger, a direct testament to her efforts.
This only caused the fire in her heart to burn stronger.
Still, merely wanting to get something done did not mean that it would be easy to do it.
Sweat quickly started dotting Lu Zhiying's forehead, flowing down her cheeks and dripping from her chin.
Her breaths became shorter and quicker, eventually turning into heavy pants that showed just how exhausted she truly was.
Even so, Lu Zhiying did not stop.
Despite seeing how much Lu Zhiying was struggling, Zhao Yunxiao did not lend her a hand. At least, not apart from imbuing the pickaxe in Lu Zhiying's hands with essence energy from time to time.
The reason why he brought Lu Zhiying with him was to let her understand how working at the ore mines felt like, so he naturally had to let Lu Zhiying experience it in its entirety.
One digging and one watching, the two of them remained silent as nothing but the sound of digging filled the tunnel for the next few hours.
Thud-!
The pickaxe fell to the ground, with Lu Zhiying herself following right after.
Pant-! Pant-! Pant-!
Lu Zhiying lay flat on her back, her arms and legs sprawled out in an ungraceful manner as she desperately tried to catch her breath.
Yet despite her complete lack of elegance at this moment, there was a genuine smile on her face as she lifted her trembling arm.
"So this is it?" Lu Zhiying exclaimed as she examined the small piece of rock in her raised hand.
"That's right," Zhao Yunxiao nodded while suppressing his chuckle. "You might find this a little difficult, but I like to think of it as a form of training. Not only that, but the work here also helps me familiarise with the characteristics of metal, which in turn aids in both smithing and weapon mastery. And as I have said earlier, it will become easier once you reach the Foundation Building realm and familiarise yourself with the use of world origin energy, not to mention when you reach the Essence Gathering realm and gain the ability to use essence energy."
"Training?" Lu Zhiying snickered as she continued to observe the piece of rock in her hand. "Senior Martial Sister Gu sure isn't joking about you working harder than others."
Zhao Yunxiao felt the corner of his lips twitch as he recalled how Gu Qiansi introduced him the day before.
"Let's go. You might as well return to your residence if you are going to lie around like that," Zhao Yunxiao remarked.
"Didn't you see how hard I worked just now? Let me rest just a little more!" Lu Zhiying whined. "I do have a question though, Senior Martial Brother Zhao. How many sect points will I get with this much ore?"
"A pitiful amount."
"So discouraging!" Lu Zhiying grumbled.
"Are you done?" Zhao Yunxiao stared at Lu Zhiying, who was still lying on the ground despite having already caught her breath.
"Not at all!" Lu Zhiying finally put down her raised arm, but kept the small piece of rock clenched tightly in her fist.
"Just five more minutes," Zhao Yunxiao let out a helpless sigh, but could not help but reassess Lu Zhiying a little.
They had only exchanged a few words, and yet she had already mostly regained her natural breathing rhythm.
From that alone, Zhao Yunxiao could tell that Lu Zhiying's natural physique was much better than the normal person.
"Ten more minutes! I'm super tired!" Lu Zhiying bargained, oblivious to Zhao Yunxiao's thoughts.
Zhao Yunxiao was about to tell her off when loud noises started coming from outside the tunnel.
"Hmm? What's the commotion?" Zhao Yunxiao turned towards the tunnel entrance to see several people running past the tunnel.
"Yeah, I wonder what happened?" Lu Zhiying skipped past Zhao Yunxiao excitedly. "Come, let's go check it out as well!"
Zhao Yunxiao felt the corner of his lips twitch once again.
Didn't you just say that you are tired? Weren't you asking for ten more minutes of rest?
How are you so energetic all of a sudden?
"Why are you still standing there in a daze? Let's go, Senior Martial Brother Zhao!"
"Yes, yes, I'm coming."
Zhao Yunxiao shook his head in disbelief before following after the excited young lady.
The moment they exited the tunnel, Zhao Yunxiao could see that the atmosphere in the mines was truly different from usual. Instead of spreading out to work in the various tunnels, disciples were all moving in one direction, gathering towards a particular spot below.
Upon realising that Zhao Yunxiao was following right behind her, Lu Zhiying did not hesitate to join the rest of the disciples and hurried down into the mines.
"Be careful, don't rush!" Zhao Yunxiao called out in surprise before chasing after her.
The walkways in Yellowshell Mine were formed by cutting into the walls of the mines, with no railings as protection.
While it would normally be difficult to fall since the walkways were rather wide, now that everyone was rushing in the same direction, there was definitely a chance of falling into the depths if one was not careful.
Thankfully, Zhao Yunxiao's worry did not materialise.
Lu Zhiying might be excited, but she was not carelessly so. She stayed close to the inner walls while moving, easily avoiding being pushed over the edge this way.
Just like that, the duo followed the rest of the disciples to a particular tunnel that was already packed with people by the time they arrived. Furthermore, it was obvious that everyone present had their attention focused solely on a particular disciple.
"Congratulations, Junior Martial Brother Nie!"
"What great fortune! Congratulations!"
"You've really struck it rich this time!"
"Lucky you! How I wish the same thing can happen to me!"
Standing in the middle of the crowd and receiving all these words of congratulations was a young man who had a huge smile on his face.
"This...!" Zhao Yunxiao realised what had happened with a single glance, and his expression instantly turned into one of astonishment.
"What is it? What is it?" Lu Zhiying urgently tugged on his sleeves, obviously having realised that Zhao Yunxiao had figured out the situation. "What happened here? Why are they congratulating that guy?"
"Don't call him 'that guy'. This person is your Senior Martial Brother Nie Hanchang," Zhao Yunxiao corrected her.
"Okay, okay, I will call him Senior Martial Brother Nie from now on. So tell me what happened already!"
Zhao Yunxiao could not help but let out a snicker at the curiosity that was apparent on Lu Zhiying's face. "Do you see that piece of ore by his side?"
"Wow, he's amazing for being able to mine this amount of ore. No wonder everyone is congratulating him!" Lu Zhiying exclaimed after noticing what Zhao Yunxiao pointed out.
"Amount? You are probably the only one here who considers that amount of ore impressive."
"What? Then what is this all about?!" Lu Zhiying glared at Zhao Yunxiao.
"Just like how different equipment can vary in quality, here in the ore mines, the quality of the ore can vary greatly as well," Zhao Yunxiao explained. "What we usually get are of the inferior and common quality. But from time to time, there will be some fortunate ones who manage to find uncommon quality ore that's tens of times more valuable than inferior ore."
"Oh, so that's uncommon ore?" Lu Zhiying visually compared the small rock in her hands to the huge rock beside Nie Hanchang. "I guess you can tell the difference from the colour."
"That's not it," Zhao Yunxiao said with a sigh.
"That's not it?" Lu Zhiying looked towards Zhao Yunxiao once again.
"What Senior Martial Brother Nie have with him there... it's rare grimiron ore," Zhao Yunxiao could not help but feel envy in his heart as he said that. "That is a tier above uncommon grimiron ore, hundreds of times more precious than inferior and common ore! With this one piece of rock, he has really struck the jackpot and will no longer have to work for an entire year!"