The spirit stone mine of the Qingfeng Sect is located in a remote mountain. The scenery alone is rather pleasant, surrounded by green mountains and clear waters, and there are quite a number of monsters with just a bit of spiritual intelligence in the forest. It's not clear whether it's to prevent miners from escaping or to guard against monster attacks. There is a simple soul-confusing array set up around the mine. It would be extremely difficult for cultivators below the Foundation Establishment Stage to leave the mine surrounded by the array on their own.
According to what Li Xingtian said, most of the people mining here are cultivators with extremely poor aptitudes. The Qingfeng Sect finds people from various remote villages and impoverished areas. Firstly, people like this are unlikely to have powerful backgrounds and won't provoke those who can't be provoked. Secondly, in those impoverished areas, even if people don't go back, there won't be much suspicion. As long as they have spiritual roots, no matter how mixed they are, they will be taken away. Then, they will be forced into the second or third level of Qi Refining through medicinal baths that burn their potential and then be directly thrown into the mine to dig until they die.
So, the Qingfeng Sect is probably wearing the guise of a righteous sect while actually doing the deeds of evil cultivators. After all, how could such things be hidden from the sect leader and a series of high-level figures of the Qingfeng Sect?
Chu Xingchen carefully bypassed the places where the disciples of the main entrance were patrolling. Climbing up from the cliff on one side and trying his best to conceal his own aura, Chu Xingchen slowly observed the situation of the mine below. Several simple large wooden houses were arranged in a disorderly manner without any regular plan, but there was an exquisite building at the highest point, and disciples in the Qingfeng Sect's clothing could be seen. There weren't many of them, just two men and one woman. If their cultivation realms couldn't be detected without using divine consciousness to scan them, then the cultivation levels of these Qingfeng Sect disciples should be at the Foundation Establishment Stage. After reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage, cultivators can easily control spiritual energy and hide it within their bodies without it leaking out. Even at the Golden Core Stage, it can't be seen just by the naked eye without using divine consciousness to scan.
At this moment, it was daytime, which was the time for mining. Loud noises often rang out from the mine tunnels. From time to time, Qi Refining cultivators in ragged clothes were using simple carts to transport the roughly mined spirit stones. The cultivation levels of these mining cultivators were indeed not high. The detection results showed that they were only at the second or third level of Qi Refining. Watching them transport cartloads of roughly mined spirit stones to a processing shed, several Qi Refining cultivators swinging big hammers were working hard to knock the stones to separate the slag from the spirit stones. The disciples of the Qingfeng Sect were leaning against the fence in front of them, looking at the group of miners with a teasing look on their faces.
Chu Xingchen's eyes swept over and quickly locked onto a warehouse-like building. It covered a large area, but strangely, there were no guards around it. According to what Li Xingtian said, the Golden Core cultivator was probably sitting inside. A frontal attack was definitely not a wise move. There must be a high possibility that there were means to contact the sect here. Either win quickly or set a trap. However, this time he had only come to explore the specific situation and didn't plan to take action.
Chu Xingchen took out paper and a pen from his spatial ring, quickly drew a sketch according to the route and the general layout of the buildings. After putting the sketch back into the spatial ring, just as he was about to leave first, someone stepped into the range of his vigilant divine consciousness. A long sword suddenly appeared in Chu Xingchen's hand, and his divine consciousness quickly scanned over. However, he found that the one who stepped into his divine consciousness was just a mortal without any cultivation level at all. What was going on?
Chu Xingchen concealed his own aura and carefully probed in the direction of the person coming. Soon, Chu Xingchen saw the person who had entered his divine consciousness. It was a little girl with a short and extremely thin figure, wearing tattered hemp clothes, covered in mud, and her dry long hair was tangled into a mess. Her face was dirty, but her eyes were very bright. So Chu Xingchen could clearly observe that she looked very bewildered and a bit panicked as she looked around. Chu Xingchen watched her keep walking with difficulty in one direction and then unconsciously walked in a circle and returned to the starting point.
Was this... caught in a maze array? Did she enter it by mistake, or was there some other reason? Chu Xingchen chose to use the system to look at her attribute panel.
[Ning Qianqian]
[Cultivation Level: None]
[Blue Trait: Unwavering Perseverance]
[Blue Trait: Deep Affection and Strong Sense of Justice]
[White Trait: Cleverness]
[Does Not Meet the Requirements for Accepting as an Apprentice]
There were Qingfeng Sect disciples patrolling the mountains nearby. It seemed that the thin girl in front of him definitely wasn't with them. There was a high probability that she was someone who had escaped from the mine. Probably just like Li Xingtian, she was tricked by the Qingfeng Sect into coming to mine. After thinking for a while, Chu Xingchen decided to take her and leave first. Maybe he could get some useful information from her. He took out a mask to cover his face, reached out his hand, directly grabbed the little girl in front of him, and quickly left by earth escape.
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"Great Immortal! Celestial Immortal!" Ning Qianqian, who was tied to a tree, cried bitterly, "I'm really just lost." As she spoke, Ning Qianqian also secretly looked up at the person who had tied her up. At this moment, he was wearing a devil mask and looking at her with a pair of extremely cold eyes.
Sure enough, there was something wrong with the Qingfeng Sect! Father must have been deceived by those immortals of the Qingfeng Sect.
Chu Xingchen was quite speechless looking at Ning Qianqian. If he could, he wouldn't want to tie her to the tree either. It was really because this girl was too uncooperative. Spitting, rolling around, and pretending to be crazy. If he hadn't exposed her, she would probably still be pretending to be stupid at this moment. Chu Xingchen said impatiently, "Stop crying. I'm not from the Qingfeng Sect."
Ning Qianqian was still wailing:
"Great Immortal, I don't know what the Qingfeng Sect is! I'm really just a lost person."
Chu Xingchen didn't continue speaking. Instead, he took out a big flatbread from his spatial ring and then stuffed it into her mouth under Ning Qianqian's horrified gaze.
"Look at you, as thin as a stick. How long has it been since you last ate?"
Afraid that there might be some immortal means in this flatbread, Ning Qianqian quickly shook her head to refuse. But when the soft crumbs of the flatbread entered her mouth, Ning Qianqian, who had been hungry for several days, immediately gave up struggling and started eating the flatbread without hesitation. Anyway, it was probably hard to escape from the immortal in front of her this time. At least she should be a well-fed ghost before dying! Father! I'm useless! I couldn't save you and I'm going to die first.
Looking at Ning Qianqian who was eating the flatbread crazily, Chu Xingchen silently took back the rope and at the same time took out a water bottle and handed it to Ning Qianqian. At this moment, Ning Qianqian was a bit resigned to her fate and didn't care much about anything else, so she took it and drank it all. One big flatbread was quickly eaten with the water.
After that, Ning Qianqian looked over expectantly again.
Chu Xingchen sighed, "You haven't eaten for too long. You can't eat too much at once."
However, Ning Qianqian obviously didn't believe this. She had a look on her face that seemed to say that even an immortal was stingy with just one flatbread. But Chu Xingchen didn't explain much. Instead, he continued to ask, "What on earth are you doing here? Are you someone who escaped from the mine?"
Ning Qianqian timidly looked at the masked man in front of her and answered timidly:
"...I, I'm really lost."
Chu Xingchen stared carefully at Ning Qianqian in front of him for a while and then didn't continue to ask. Instead, he took out some broken silver and flatbreads from his spatial ring. He handed all these things to Ning Qianqian and then pointed in a direction for her:
"If you don't want to say it, I won't ask much. Walk straight in this direction. There's a nearby town over there. It's dangerous here. Don't come close to this place again in the future."
Ning Qianqian looked at the things that were forcibly stuffed into her arms in surprise and then looked up. She saw that Chu Xingchen turned around and left without saying much. She couldn't help but open her mouth and shout:
"Great Immortal, wait!"