Qin Tian was blocked. His beautiful eyes showed not a ripple of emotion as he looked at the man in his path. Without hesitation, he struck.
A fist slammed into the blocker's abdomen. Faint ink-colored divine power surged. A crack echoed through the cavern as the man's spine shattered. His eyes bulged, nearly popping from their sockets, before he crashed to the ground in a cloud of thick dust.
The lead thug watched his underling go flying. His face darkened instantly. "You dare touch my man?"
A youth of sixteen or seventeen flushed with rage. "You actually fought back? You're finished! Brothers, get him! I'll beat him so bad he won't leave his bed for half a year!"
Several more youths, fifteen or sixteen years old, pushed through the crowd. Any cultivator who dared resist had to be punished. Otherwise how would they meet their quotas? Dig the ore themselves?
The surrounding miners showed fear, retreating quickly. They seemed to recognize these boys.
The youths channeled their divine power. Each had opened their Sea of Bitterness—true experts among mortal slaves. To the ordinary miners, they were transcendent beings.
Four or five rushed forward together.
Then... dust erupted. The ground trembled several times in succession. The youths were instantly sent flying by Qin Tian, the faint glow around their bodies scattered.
They screamed, vomiting mouthfuls of blood, bodies convulsing.
Qin Tian's Sea of Bitterness churned. It was pitch-black, deathly still, the size of a palm. Such a vast Sea should have meant breaking through to the Spring of Life long ago, yet Qin Tian's remained lifeless.
He had been suppressing his cultivation, refusing to break through to the Spring of Life. The excess essence was poured into expanding his Sea of Bitterness instead, creating a scale far beyond ordinary cultivators.
This superior Sea erupted with formidable divine power. One kick each sent them sprawling.
"Guess I'll have to handle this myself." The lead thug watched his fallen brothers, his face turning grim. A rainbow light appeared beneath his feet, lifting him from the ground to the cavern ceiling.
Ink-colored divine power boiled. Energy far surpassing the Sea of Bitterness surged forth.
"Oh no, Little Qin, run!" The old man who'd tried to stop him earlier shouted desperately. "Rush outside! Once you're out there, with the Shimmering Light Holy Land watching, he won't dare touch you!"
"That boy's finished. How can a Sea of Bitterness cultivator match a Spring of Life expert?" The onlookers turned their heads, unable to watch what came next.
Light flashed. The thug pounced like a ghost, impossibly fast for his bulky frame. Ink-colored divine power gathered at his fingers, blade-like, slashing toward Qin Tian's neck.
He wasn't using full strength. In his eyes, this palm-blade would drop Qin Tian and take half his life.
Qin Tian's eyes widened. His originally dark pupils began showing silver light. In his left eye, countless streams of light flickered—time accelerated in his vision.
The thug's movements, expressions, divine power flow in the coming seconds all appeared before Qin Tian.
With future knowledge, Qin Tian reacted swiftly. Two steps back, naturally evading the strike.
Then—bang—he caught the thug's hand.
"Let go!"
The thug was somewhat surprised Qin Tian could catch his attack, but didn't consider him a real threat. He tried to fling Qin Tian away.
Yet things went against his expectations again. His hand felt trapped by a Primordial Antiquity divine mountain—utterly immovable.
"I won't. What will you do about it?"
Qin Tian held that hand with effortless ease, as if gripping an inflatable doll. He swung the man around, slamming him repeatedly into the ground.
Rumble!
Dust billowed. Human-shaped craters appeared on both sides of Qin Tian.
With so much Origin Stone at his disposal, Qin Tian might play it safe and avoid deliberately raising his realm, but that didn't mean he couldn't use the stones for other purposes—like employing their vital essence to strengthen his physique.
Far inferior to Saint or Divine Physiques, certainly. But compared to ordinary mortal bodies, the gap was obvious.
"Tch. What a weak Spring of Life." Qin Tian sneered.
"You're dead!" The Spring of Life thug exploded with rage. Two cold beams shot from his eyes as he stared at Qin Tian like a corpse.
From his Sea of Bitterness, he produced an ancient small seal, dazzling beyond measure, flowing with emerald light.
In an instant, the seal flew out, rapidly expanding, pressing down on Qin Tian. The Divine Seal was ancient, carrying crushing pressure.
"Good heavens, that's a legendary Vessel!"
A bystander spoke up: "Incredible. Forging Divine Runes into a Vessel—even some Divine Bridge cultivators can't manage that."
Facing the mountain-like ancient seal, Qin Tian assumed a posture of supporting heaven, holding up that ancient great seal. Under immense pressure, he felt as if a mountain were descending. The ground beneath his feet cracked, his legs sinking deep.
"Good heavens, he's actually holding it!"
"A Sea of Bitterness cultivator actually withstanding a Vessel? Simply unbelievable!" A bystander cried out in shock.
Amateur hour...
"It's not over yet!" The thug laughed coldly.
His Spring of Life churned. A pitch-black flying sword emerged—more a sheet of iron than a proper blade, clearly unfinished.
But from the rainbow light coating this "sword," the "Vessel" remained dangerous. The rainbow light was profound, capable of cutting through iron like mud.
The flying sword spun, racing toward Qin Tian at extreme speed.
Qin Tian lowered his head, seemingly crushed breathless by the palace-like ancient seal. In truth, he only wanted to conceal certain phenomena.
In Qin Tian's eyes, his own reflection appeared. A fragment of hazy temporal light wrapped around his temporal shadow, attaching to his body. Divine power surged, transcending the limits of the Sea of Bitterness.
"Rise!" Qin Tian roared.
With strength to move mountains and spirit to conquer worlds, Qin Tian actually flipped that massive ancient seal.
Then he coldly watched the racing flying sword. Divine light coated his leg. A kick from mid-air sent the sword flying.
Qin Tian's feet powered down. With threads of divine powerempowering his limbs, his speed was lightning-fast. He directly kicked the thug to the ground, pressed onto him, fists raining down on the divine-light-covered man, the sound like war drums.
Each punch stronger than the last, carrying the anger in his heart. Finally, the protective divine light shattered. Fists landed on the thug's body, screams harmonizing with the drum-like impacts.
The people who'd originally been unable to watch Qin Tian's death stared blankly at this development.
What was happening? Why was the situation wrong? Why was the thug the one falling?
Qin Tian exhaled a long breath of turbid air, his mind feeling remarkably clear. He viciously told the thug: "Let me catch you stealing Origin Stone one more time, and I'll beat you every time I see you!"
"Until you're crippled!"
"Hiss, how can both be Sea of Bitterness yet the gap be so huge?" The old man was astonished. The normally obedient Little Qin seemed different now.
Three years. He apparently hadn't truly seen Qin Tian's real face.
Qin Tian walked out of the mine with his basket on his back.
"What does that have to do with me?"
The old man shook his head, bent down, laboriously shouldered his basket, and followed with unsteady steps.
The crowd parted, heads lowered, afraid Qin Tian would notice them. In their eyes, this eleven or twelve-year-old youth was far more dangerous than the Spring of Life thug.
Passing by that basket of Origin Stone, Qin Tian paused. Just as everyone thought he would take the basket as spoils of war—
Qin Tian spoke coldly: "Take back your own Origin Stone."
The crowd first froze, then swarmed forward in a rush.
"This is my Origin Stone, this piece is my Origin Stone!"
"What do you mean yours, this is my Origin Stone!"
"Line up, one by one!"
Qin Tian's voice came, frightening everyone into quickly forming a line, each person taking only one piece.
Gradually, some whose Origin Stone hadn't been stolen also joined the line. Soon, even the thug's own mined Origin Stone was taken.
Looking at the empty basket, the thug covered his face, aggrieved as a young bride: "No, that was my Origin Stone!"
"Not anymore."
Forced to, the thug could only turn and lead his underlings back to mining.
The Shimmering Light Holy Land wasn't a charity. Though rules prevented casual killing, failing to meet daily quotas meant being hung up and beaten.
Qin Tian was simply lucky—he could complete his quota within eight hours every day.
When the Spring of Life thug returned to the mine, he was greeted with cheerful voices: "Little Worm, what happened, got beaten up like this?"
The Spring of Life thug said: "Heh, I accidentally bumped into something myself."
"Ha, bumped? I say the gunshot hits the bird that sticks its head out—you got beaten, didn't you!"
Someone mocked: "You, a Spring of Life, playing the big shot? Got beaten this time, didn't you."
Then an authoritative voice came from the mine: "What's going on, just arrived at Jia Sector Mine and someone's already bullying our people?"
"Boss!"
"Boss!"
The newcomer was extremely tall, even bulkier than the original Spring of Life thug. As he walked, divine light spread—clearly a Divine Bridge expert.
The Divine Bridge thug's eyes flashed with cold light: "Seems we need to teach these old, weak, sick, and disabled some rules."
The atmosphere grew heavy.
At this moment, a supervisor-like figure happened to patrol by, immediately shouting: "Hey, what are you lot gathered here for? Hurry up and work!"
The men who'd been so imposing moments before instantly scattered like birds and beasts, picking up their hoes and mining seriously.
However fierce they were, they dared not resist the Shimmering Light Holy Land.
And Qin Tian was already planning how to resist the Shimmering Light Holy Land. What he wanted wasn't simply escaping the mine.
They'd imprisoned him for so long. Some price had to be paid, didn't they?
---
Elsewhere, Master Qin... Qin Tian strode out of the Origin Stone mine.
The Shimmering Light Mirror suspended high in the sky bloomed with hazy sacred light, penetrating void and illuminating the human body's Secret Realms.
Qin Tian's eyes trembled slightly. Time itself paused at this moment.
The Shimmering Light Mirror's sacred light could illuminate space, but couldn't penetrate time. Qin Tian placed his Space-Time Boundary in the space of the previous second. This second's Qin Tian carried nothing on him—naturally, nothing could be detected.
Only after walking far did Qin Tian relax.
Then—
"Payday!" A supervisor-like knight shouted, his divine-power-enhanced voice vibrating through the air, spreading across the entire mining area.
In the next moment, figures moved. Miners emerged from stone houses, quickly surrounding the supervisor.
Yes, slaves received wages too, paid monthly.
The so-called wages were small jade bottles containing Origin Liquid—similar to the Hundred Herb Liquid Ye Fan drank in the original story. This Origin Liquid was converted from Origin Stone, containing the vital essence of the stones. Though one catty of Origin Stone could convert to thousands of bottles of Origin Liquid, for those who'd just opened their Sea of Bitterness, it was considerable nourishment—more effective than Hundred Herb Liquid.
Complete one month's quota, receive thirty bottles at once. If the Origin Stone obtained that month was sufficiently high quality, treatment would be appropriately improved.
This greatly encouraged the slaves' enthusiasm and provided the Shimmering Light Holy Land with sufficient cannon fodder.
Qin Tian couldn't help but marvel: "Truly a great power that's stood upon this earth for nearly two hundred thousand years."
"Though it hasn't experienced the baptism of capital, it's discovered similar methods of squeezing the working beasts."
Approaching two hundred thousand years, watching the winds change and seas dry, how many powers and heroes have taken the stage—yet the Shimmering Light Holy Land still stands there.
Having seen enough, one naturally understands enough. Methods of managing subordinates were hardly lacking.
Though Qin Tian had collected exotic Origin Stone and Divine Origin into his Space-Time Boundary, his luck was good enough that every ordinary Origin Stone he mined was of excellent quality, without flaw. So he received one hundred thirty bottles of Origin Liquid at once.
Holding this pile of Origin Liquid, Qin Tian showed a brilliant smile.
"Wages are paid. Now I can openly buy materials for the ritual."
---
Where there are people, there is society. And society isn't just fighting and killing—there's also human relations.
Some external cultivators with connections to mine supervisors cooperated with the mining area, able to purchase materials from outside and establish a temporary commissary.
They would enter the mining area on schedule to do small business.
Whenever the mine distributed Origin Liquid, more or less some people would come here to spend, to relieve a month's fatigue. As for cultivation? Another day!
Watching the miners rub their hands, hand over Origin Liquid, then eagerly enter stone houses from which tempting sounds soon emerged—
Qin Tian remained unmoved. There were only so many ways to make men spend money.
The boss counting Origin Liquid looked up and teased: "Little Qin, you've grown up too. Want to go in and enjoy yourself?"
Qin Tian shook his head expressionlessly: "No need. Where's my stuff?"
The boss looked puzzled: "Really don't understand. The Origin Liquid you get, you don't use for cultivation, don't use for pleasure, but trade for this thing?"
"Hard to understand!"
Qin Tian said nothing. This was the crucial material for his ritual.
When first sold to the Shimmering Light Mine, Qin Tian had wanted to escape.
Unfortunately, having just opened his Sea of Bitterness, how could he escape the heavily guarded mine? Discovered before he even ran, directly locked in a dark room for three days and three nights.
After emerging from the dark room, Qin Tian swore an oath: he would become stronger. Stronger than anyone.
Qin Tian thought day and night, reviewing the plot he knew, finally thinking of something that might improve his aptitude—faith power.
Faith power was complementary. It not only brought benefits to the worshipped, but could feed power back to believers.
What you constantly think of will have an echo; when thought power gathers, one could even cultivate the fake into the real.
Based on this, he developed a ritual to communicate with the source of faith, obtaindivine reciprocation, thereby indirectly raising his own fortune.
And what Qin Tian purchased was the core item for his ritual.
This was also why, over the years, every time Qin Tian went down the mine, he could obtain exotic Origin Stone and Divine Origin.
What were a mere hundred bottles of Origin Liquid compared to this?
"Kid, heard you beat up some newcomers. Nice work." The boss spoke carelessly. He looked over forty, quite prosperous, always smiling.
"Doing our Jia Sector Mine proud!"
"Twenty percent off this time."
He handed a large bottle to Qin Tian.
Qin Tian reminded: "The amount of energy doesn't matter, just that the taste is good."
"Don't worry, remembered!"
"My products, the taste is absolutely top-tier. Even Desolate Antiquity Aristocratic Families praise them."
Qin Tian said nothing, opened the bottle, brought it to his nose. A milky fragrance hit him, intoxicating.
Smelling this scent, Qin Tian finally showed a slight smile.
"Excellent, premium quality!"
This was the conclusion he'd reached from years of tasting beast milk.
The boss watched Qin Tian's blissful smile and curled his lip: "Don't know why someone your age still wants to drink this stuff."
The worker behind him responsible for moving goods laughed: "Boss, Little Qin is only twelve, maybe he really hasn't weaned yet!"
"Even created a non-existent god to have a legitimate reason for drinking milk."
This remark drew a wave of laughter.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Qin Tian flushed with anger, defending himself: "This really is an offering to the god. You don't understand at all—only those who drink beast milk are true experts."
Besides, he was just not wanting to waste the offering materials. What was wrong with being frugal?
For a moment, the air was filled with cheerful laughter.
"Come on, drinking beast milk makes you strong?"
The boss carelessly mocked: "You've been drinking beast milk all these years, and you're still a mine slave!"
Qin Tian said nothing. Payment on delivery, he turned and left directly.
The boss counted the Origin Liquid Qin Tian handed over, chuckling: "Little Qin's money is so much easier to earn than those crude old men. More fools like this would be better."
Someone mocked: "Not cultivating properly, using resources to trade for beast milk to drink?"
"And saying worship some god? Can this god let you be reincarnated into a Desolate Antiquity Aristocratic Family in your next life? Or what!"
Not far away, Qin Tian heard this and said: "You should worship too, maybe your fortune will improve."
The crowd mocked: "I won't worship. What's there to worship about a god who only drinks beast milk?"
Qin Tian shook his head. Giving you opportunity and you don't use it!
How could they know how great, how powerful the god they called a beast-milk-drinker truly was.
A Dao Ancestor. A Path-Ending Immortal Emperor!
***
Read to Chapter 20 now on pat reon slash wujiang.