Chapter 37: Home Again

The flying boat traveled quickly, and before long, the group arrived at the outskirts of the mining site.

On the boat, Ling Xiao had already informed the steward responsible for this mining area.

Soon, Elder Lu received the message and rushed out.

Upon seeing Ling Xiao, Elder Lu nodded lightly, and Ling Xiao performed a respectful gesture as a junior disciple.

“Elder Lu, this is the disciple who has been punished, for a period of four months!”

“Understood.”

Elder Lu responded lightly, but when he saw Ji Yang on the flying boat, a hint of surprise crossed his face.

Ji Yang smiled subtly:

“Elder Lu, I apologize for the disturbance!”

After the surprise wore off, Elder Lu’s eyes shone with a hint of delight. Ji Yang had unearthed a piece of Zixin ore last time, which had brought him some benefits. Now, seeing Ji Yang again, Elder Lu was very warm.

“Come on down, come on down! Now that you’re here, consider it coming home!”

Elder Lu’s enthusiastic reception left the three people on the flying boat astonished.

Home? What did that mean?

But seeing Elder Lu’s warm demeanor towards his junior disciple, they did not dare to ask further and could only leave in confusion!

“Just four months! Give it your all; you’ll be out in no time. If you run out of iron picks, just let me know!”

This statement left Ji Yang momentarily stunned, but he still nodded and said,

“Thank you, Elder Lu.”

Although Ji Yang could understand Elder Lu’s intentions, the sudden change in attitude was indeed a bit too quick for him to accept.

However, he could guess the reason; it seemed working here would not be too bad.

Since it wasn’t his first time, Elder Lu didn’t show him around and simply took Ji Yang’s storage bag before letting him go in alone.

It wasn’t time to tally the mined materials yet; the others were still facing punishment in the mine, so the hall was empty, with only the incessant sounds of swinging iron picks and complaints echoing from the depths of the mine.

“Damn, this ore is too hard to extract!”

“When will this end?!”

“Look, a newcomer has arrived, hahaha!”

Some disciples near the entrance of the mine quickly noticed Ji Yang entering with his iron pick and immediately shouted in surprise.

Other disciples turned to look at Ji Yang as well.

However, many of them lost their smiles as soon as they saw Ji Yang’s face, then turned around and weakly resumed mining:

“Damn it, this freak is back!”

“Seriously, why is he here again?”

“He’s at the third level of Qi Refinement; it’s truly terrifying!”

Some of the new disciples who had just entered felt confused after hearing the conversation.

They had faced a lot of ridicule upon entering, so why was this person treated so differently? Besides, wasn’t he just at the third level of Qi Refinement?

This made them eager to ask questions, but in the end, they only received one answer:

“You’ll find out later!”

This left many newcomers even more puzzled.

Deep in the mine, He Feng and the others stopped mining and came out from the depths of the mine, sitting outside the mine tunnel to recover their internal energy.

“Brother He, how many days has it been since you last had steamed buns?”

“Five days!”

“Brother Ruan, what about you?”

Ruan Yong’an glanced at the person who asked:

“Isn’t that obvious? Since Junior Brother Ji left, when have we had steamed buns?”

The others sighed in unison upon hearing this.

“How I miss Junior Brother Ji!”

“Yeah, it would be great if Junior Brother Ji were here!”

“What are you saying? Junior Brother Ji is so innocent; how could we let him come in for punishment?”

“I guess Junior Brother Ji should be focusing on his cultivation in the outer sect now. When we get out, we’ll give him a surprise!”

“Brothers, what surprise?”

Hearing their conversation, Ji Yang felt a bit embarrassed; he was anything but innocent, he was quite shrewd!

However, after hearing about the surprise, Ji Yang’s curiosity piqued, and he decided to ask.

“?”

The others turned around at Ji Yang’s voice, and upon confirming it was really him, they first expressed joy, then confusion:

“Junior Brother Ji? Is that really you!”

“How did you end up back here?”

Ji Yang scratched his head and said a bit shyly,

“I had a little conflict with some other brothers.”

The group paused for a moment after hearing this. Before they could speak, Ji Yang already picked up his iron pick and headed toward the mine tunnel he had previously worked on.

“Brothers, I’ll go mining now; we can talk later if there’s anything!”

Watching Ji Yang walk toward the depths of the mine with his iron pick, his lonely figure looked particularly desolate and pitiful.

He Feng and the others’ expressions darkened:

“Damn it, someone must have been intolerant of Junior Brother Ji’s innocence and set him up to come here!”

“Hmph, when we get out, we’ll definitely bring justice for Junior Brother Ji!”

“Exactly, how could they target such a pure-hearted person as Junior Brother Ji? It’s just too much!”

The group quickly came to a conclusion with just a few words, and they believed it wholeheartedly!

At this moment, they imagined how miserable Ji Yang must be outside, even willing to take action to enter the mine and avoid being framed by enemies.

Such actions by their opponents were truly despicable!

In the end, they decided to act as if they knew nothing when they got outside, not revealing Ji Yang’s wounds, and everything would be discussed after they left.

They were determined to make the opponent pay!

“I feel like I can break through to the Foundation Establishment stage as soon as I get out!”

“Same here!”

“Helping Junior Brother Ji take revenge will definitely be no problem!”

“By the way, why did Junior Brother Ji come in carrying an iron pick?”

“Huh? I didn’t notice!”

Back in the familiar mine, Ji Yang continued to dig from his previous spot!

Because the mine passage he dug was complicated, no one had come in before.

He tightened his grip on the new iron pick and revealed an eager expression.

To do a good job, one must first sharpen their tools.

Mining should be much easier now!

Ji Yang raised both hands and started digging into the ground.

“Bang!”

A large piece of Ziying stone easily fell, and the iron pick in his hands gleamed like new, shining lightly in the darkness, looking quite extraordinary!

This was still without using any magic power, but the speed was certainly much faster than before, and he no longer had to worry about the iron pick breaking.

At the moment the Ziying stone was uncovered, a Blue Light Point appeared in front of him.

Ji Yang bent down and reached out to absorb it.

Cultivation level +1

Comforting!

That familiar feeling returned!

“Bang bang bang!”

The rhythmic and quick sound began to echo once more.

Strength +1

Agility +1

Constitution +1

Spirit +1

Superior flying sword +1

…

During this time, Ji Yang also tried using magic power to mine, and the iron pick in his hands became heavier and sharper. The Ziying stone was easily dug up like tofu by Ji Yang.

However, the iron pick was a top-quality magical weapon, consuming a considerable amount of magic power with each use, so it couldn’t be used continuously.

But when his magic power was abundant, Ji Yang’s mining speed was much faster than before.

The time spent mining was joyful yet brief. As the bell rang outside the mine, Ji Yang stepped out.

He didn’t have any tasks for today, so he couldn’t appear too eager; he still had four months left, not to mention he wouldn’t be mining for Zixin ore this time.

In just two hours of effort, Ji Yang had reaped considerable rewards.

Superior flying sword +2

Cultivation points increased from the long-lost zero to 3 points! The efficiency was indeed much faster than before!