Black Dusk Domain, Skymoon Empire.
The Black Dusk Domain was a vast and expansive land with over hundreds of thousands of population. It was characterized by extreme environment, there was never a snow or rain here, only an extreme heat that made a lot of poeple unconscious. The Domain was ruled by the Domain Lord Liang Shuyue, a tyrannical martial cultivator who chose over a thousand of people every year to become a slave and mine on the Extreme Dusk Cave that is said to have lots of natural resources like iron. It was also said that the Extreme Dusk Cave had rare ores like Spirit Stone ores, which can be used as a currency between martial cultivators or as an item to improve cultivation level.
Among the slaves that was chosen every year, Jiang Ye is one of them. About 6 months ago, Jiang Ye could only blame it to his bad luck, his name was chosen along with other people to become a slave in the box filled with folded paper slips. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the Domain and he actually got chosen in the first batch of the year.
Clang! Clang!
Jiang Ye was currently in the Extreme Dusk Cave where he's using a pickaxe to get Spirit Stone. In front of him, the thing he's hitting with pickaxe, was a wall of stones and soils that has glowing, bluish-light stones within these walls. These are the Spirit Stones. Just as explain earlier, Spirit Stones are used as currency between martial cultivators. It was also filled with spiritual energy between heavens and earth that helped a cultivator improve cultivation.
As Jiang Ye was just a random guy who was actually doing some mundane work before he became enslaved, he did not have any idea how to use the Spirit Stones. He's not a martial cultivator, after all. It was tempting to maybe pocket some Spirit Stones that he mined but he realized it was all a pointless work because he was, after all, just an ordinary peeson. In addition, there was always an inspection that happen every night after work, so where would he hide the glowing and shining Spirit Stones? He's just inviting to get beaten up and potentially, even die because of it. What's more is that he can't even use it as a currency because they have their own tents given to them by the Domain generals for free and their food virtually has no cost other than fulfilling the quota given today every start of the day. They can't even get out of the vicinity of Extreme Dusk Cave because there was a barracks filled with martial cultivators, staring at people with hawk-like eyes.
Clang!
The last Spirit Stone that he needed to mine for today fell down to the ground. Jiang Ye picked it up and threw it to the basket filled with similarly shining Spirit Stones. Jiang Ye noticed in the past 6 months that some of these Spirit Stones are dim, some are shining and glowing. They all have different characteristics.
"Well Spirit Stones probably follow the rules of human," Jiang Ye muttered. After all, among billions of people in the world, how many people can you name has the same exact characteristics as you? There was none. Even if there is, you're probably blood-related. Or, in some case, not but it's far too few.
Jiang Ye held the bamboo rope connected to both sides of the basket and lifted it. His veins showing, his hands shaking. The basket was actually extremely heavy.
Jiang Ye's foot firmly attached itself to the ground as his muscles tensed while walking. Each of these Spirit Stones are quite heavy. A basket filled of them was naturally extremely hard to lift. If we compare it to other objects, the basket is more or less heavier than a horse.
As Jiang Ye walks through the tunner, he could see other miners, a slave like him, also lifting their own Spirit Stone basket. It was actually late, probably close to night. Most of the slaves have finished the quota assigned to them by the officers. Even though he can't see the sky outside because he's inside the Extreme Dusk Cave, his 6 months of experience lets him know that it was probably past 5.
After a few minutes of walking, Jiang Ye and the others could finally see the light illuminated by the moon. Jiang Ye is actually a bit off about his estimates in time. It looked like he spent an hour or so more in the cave than he had expected. As Jiang Ye left the cave along with the others, he saw a tent filled with officers with pen and paper on their hand. In front of the tents are slaves lining up, giving their market and letting the officers count the Spirit Stones using their spiritual sense.
Jiang Ye also lined up in this and waited for few minutes. He could see some slaves having a happy conversation after they fulfilled their requirements for the day. Most of them are formed in groups. Meanwhile, he looked at himself and just laughed bitterly. He was just alone, and since 6 months ago, he hadn't really talked to anyone other than Old Man Zhao who had been a slave for 3 decades already. It could be said that he's an expert in terms of mining. Jiang Ye saw that muscular and extremely ripped old man efficiently mining Spirit Stones.
After another ten minutes, it was finally Jiang Ye's turn.
"Name?" The officer coldly said but didn't glance at Jiang Ye. He's just staring at the yellowish paper, writing something.
"Jiang Ye," replied Jiang Ye as he lifted up the basket and put it on the table between them.
"Hmmm," The officer made a faint noise and took a look at the list beside him, scanning Jiang Ye's name. After he found it, he finally stared at Jiang Ye and said, "500 Spirit Stones?"
"Yes," Jiang Ye nodded politely. As quota he got today was 500 Spirit Stones. The quota for a slave to mine actually increases as they last longer. Jiang Ye couldn't help but think about the old man. If just being here for 6 months gave him 500 Spirit Stones quota to mine, then what about Old Man Zhao, who had been here for 3 decades already? There must be thousands upon thousands of Spirits Stones he mine every day.
Actually, Jiang Ye could change the quota to 100 Spirit Stones if he wanted to, because it's just the minimum Spirit Stones required for all slaves to mine, regardless of age, gender, or how much longer they have been here. He had chosen to do 500 Spirit Stones since last week because he thought it would be efficient to increase the quantity to quickly collect 10 million Spirit Stones.
So why specifically, he wanted to get 10 million Spirit Stones? The answer is simple. There was a rule that the Domain Lord created that if any of the slaves contributed and mined upto 10 million Spirit Stones, they will be given complete freedom. Furthermore, the Domain Lord also stated that any person who managed to get freedom this way shall be given a privileged life like a noble title and a manor full of treasures. In other words, 1 million Spirit Stones is the price if a slave wanted to get free.
At the current rate he's going, it will take 20 000 days of daily 500 Spirit Stones quota to complete it. Which means, 54 years! Even if he got free and became rich after that, he will be extremely old. He doesn't want that, so as he gradually become stronger, he decided to slowly increase the quota he do everyday so that it will take less time to achieve freedom.
Anyway, back to the scene. After confirming Jiang Ye's name and quota, the officer just stared at the basket and didn't say something. Jiang Ye knew that the officer was now using his spiritual sense to scan and count the total number of Spirit Stones within the basket without even the need to hold it. It was such a fascinating ability that only martial cultivators can get.
After a few moments of silence the officer spoke again, "That's actually 502 Spirit Stones, you have extra 2 Spirit Stones. This shall be registered in your quota tomorrow."
"Oh?" Jiang Ye's eyes lit up in surprise. It seems he miscalculated and didn't get the exact Spirit Stones. But whatever, at least tomorrow he only needed to mine 498 Spirit Stones.
"You can go now." The officer coldly said. "Next!"
Jiang Ye immediately bowed slightly before leaving the line. As he walked past the other slaves having a conversation, Jiang Ye suddenly thinks of the old man and wondered how much Spirit Stones he had accumulated for 30 years. Old Man Zhao was probably close to 10 million already, right?
Speak of the devil, Jiang Ye saw the old man half naked, drinking water on a cup. The old man was a balding person who has long white beard about 6 to 7 inches long. Jiang Ye saw that the old man was currently half naked, revealing his extremely ripped and well-toned body. His muscles and veins are bulging.
"Hey Old Man Zhao, what are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be already sleeping because from what I see half of your body was already buried in the grave." Jiang Ye said sarcastically.
Old Man Zhao laughed and replied, "Cheeky brat, I can easily destroy you in hand-to-hand combat, let alone brute force."
Jiang Ye's mouth twitched when he heard this. Indeed, while he had developed some muscles in his body for the past 6 months he had been lifting baskets and mining Spirit Stones, his body was still not enough to match the old man's overwhelming and domineering body that will make even the most physically fit mortals step back in fear.
"You know what," Jiang Ye said. "If you ever decided to become a martial cultivator and advance to uh, what they call Flesh Refinement stage or somethin, I think you can literally obliterate thousands of us easily."
What Jiang Ye said was not an exaggeration. If having such a body was the result of hard work and not having cultivation, what about when he practiced martial arts? He's probably going to be a monstrous old man that can destroy boulders in one punch.
"I don't want to," Old Man Zhao smirked. "The Domain Lord will kill me if I do that."
"Facts," Jiang Ye laughed. Then he sat on a flat stome beside the old man. "So, how much Spirit Stones do you still need to get freedom?"
Jiang Ye did not know if he's imagining it but it looked as though the old man suddenly curved the corner of his lips upward. He did not know what it means until the old man said this.
"I actually already accumulated 10 million Spirit Stones today."
"What?" Jiang Ye widened his eyes in surprise. "Wait, does that mean—?"
"That's right," Old Man Zhao interrupted. "I'll be leaving this damned place tomorrow."
"Damn congratulations," Jiang Ye happily said as he held the old man's hand and shook it.
"Of course," The old man grinned widely as he suddenly stood up, made a pose and flexed his muscles. "I knew this day will come HAHAHAHA!"
"HAHAHA!" Jiang Ye laughed as well and decided to imitate the old man, making a pose and flexing his muscles, though his own was a lot smaller when compared to the older guy.
"Zhao Zhengjin!"
Suddenly, a voice entered both of their ears and they stared at the source of the voice. What they saw are 6 people, led by a person. This group of people wore a metal armors and the leader has some extravagant martial arts clothes. These were also officers of the Black Dusk Domain.
"You are being arrested for stealing a precious item from the Domain Lord," the leader of the group said as he held on his hand a scroll which rolled open and revealed a handwritten text that what seems to be a decree from the Domain Lord.
"Wait what?" Jiang Ye's face turned pale when he heard this and stared at the old man.
Old Man Zhao's grin was now replaced with sulking expression as he stared at the group. "I didn't steal anything. What are you talking about?"
"You didn't? But I clearly saw it,"
A gloating voice was suddenly heard behind the group as a middle-aged man popped his head behind the group. Jiang Ye's eyes suddenly widened in anger as he recognized this man. It was Long Ziwu, another slave who has always been the old man's rival.
"Oi, Long Ziwu," Jiang Yu said as his eyes turn dark. "What the hell are you talking about? The old man will never stoop so low as to steal something. Let alone the Lord's object."
"What do you mean?" Long Ziwu sneered. "I am not lying and I clearly saw the old man stealing something from the Lord a week ago. There's even an evidence!"
An evidence!? Now Jiang Ye suddenly thought the situation become even more troublesome. What could it possibly be?