Chapter 1567: Unspoken Rules
Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon
The fellow who suddenly appeared looked like a member of the younger generation. His clothes were stained with soot, and he held a shovel over his shoulder.
Just from that getup, if Yi Yun did not know he was in the Chaos Heavens or didn't sense a substantial Yuan Qi fluctuation from the person, he might have very well thought he was seeing a coal heaver from his previous incarnation.
"Heh! You new here?" greeted the person as he looked rather amiable. "My name is Tie Mu. Nice to meet you."
As Tie Mu spoke, he extended a soot-covered palm.
The striking of palms was a basic form of courtesy in the Chaos Heavens, akin to the shaking of hands in Yi Yun's previous life. Yi Yun did not mind Tie Mu's dirty palm as he struck it with his own.
"I'm Yi Yun. Brother Tie Mu, why are you covered in soot? Isn't the spirit cruiser enroute without any mining being done at the moment?" asked Yi Yun.
"There aren't ores to mine, but there is extraction to be done. That is a tiresome chore too, but the benefit is you won't die from it. Haha!"
Tie Mu chuckled and did not seem to take the immense danger of mining to heart. Perhaps, he was just used to it.
Without a doubt, the Chaos Heavens was a cruel place, far crueler than the Sinkhole. And it was precisely for this reason that it gave birth to so many experts. Without the strength or background to endure here, it was easy to die a tragic death.
"Unfortunately, the extraction of ores doesn't pay much. We are just given half a kilogram of ores a month. After deducting the Yuan Qi expenditure, we will lose out a little."
"Lose out?" Yi Yun was taken aback as he was baffled. "If you are making losses, why do it?"
"Haha! There's no other choice. If you don't do it, there's more to lose! It's common to encounter danger in the void. We would be roped in to power the array formations, and that only expends our Yuan Qi even faster. Although we are given some compensation for that, it's completely insufficient. If we busy ourselves extracting ores, at the very least, we will not be assigned to power the array formations."
"To those of us in mining, Yuan Qi is life. Once you expend too much of it and do not get enough compensation, you might die the next time you go down the mines. If you survive and deliver the sufficient ores, that would net quite a handsome reward. It's enough for daily expenditures and even possibly leaves some for cultivation."
"Using Chaos Ores for cultivation is a very extravagant deed. Haha, I have been in mining for so long, but I have only had the opportunity to do so a few times. That feeling is seriously… awesome!"
Tie Mu seemed intoxicated by his recollections, but that expression only lasted a second before he froze.
He saw a black-robed man walk over. The man was extremely thin and short, reaching only Tie Mu's chest. His face was pale and seemed devoid of blood. He looked like a corpse, and because he was thin, his facial skin looked scrunched up with immense fine wrinkles.
Yi Yun could sense an aura unlike a human's from the person's body.
"He's from the Soul race…" Bai Yueyin said via voice transmission.
"Oh?" Yi Yun pricked up his brows. This was the first time he was seeing another race in the Chaos Heavens. There were records of the Soul race in the notes left behind by the Dao Originator Celestial Thearch.
Years ago, the Dao Originator Celestial Thearch had experienced a life-and-death battle and his opponent was the strongest figure of the Soul race. The Dao Originator Celestial Thearch called him Soul Emperor.
This race bore a deep resemblance to humans, but their psyche powers were extraordinarily potent. The cultivation techniques they cultivated in were different from humans and typically followed the path of the soul.
"Leader Cang Gu." Tie Mu squeezed out an ugly smile.
The man looked at Tie Mu with a deadpan expression.
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Tie Mu gritted his teeth and took out a wooden box from his interspatial ring, and handed it over to the man. It was obvious that he could not bear to part with it.
The man swept it with his psyche before putting away the wooden box.
Yi Yun was taken aback from seeing this. He knew very well that the wooden box that Tie Mu had handed over contained Chaos Ores. It contained at least half a kilogram of material.
Why would Tie Mu hand over the Chaos Ores that he cherished as his wealth and life to the man?
"You are…"
The man turned his head to look at Yi Yun. His deep, purple pupils seemed to see through Yi Yun's soul sea.
"His name is Cang Gu, our team leader." Tie Mu hurriedly sent a voice transmission to Yi Yun, afraid that he would cross the man.
"Oh? Do team members need to hand over Chaos Ores to the team leaders? I didn't see that mentioned in the Taixia Manual."
"There's no official rule that states it, but it's an unspoken rule. You might be unaware as you are new. When we mine Chaos Ores, we do it in teams. The team leader is our eyes. As he's from the Soul race, his psyche powers are extremely potent. He also has a detector-type disk array which only he can use. With that disk array, he can detect danger ahead of time and know where there's abundant Chaos Ores. If you do not give him a little of your take, he might specially lead you into a death trap. If you go down such a deadly path, not only would you find little ore, but you'd encounter stuff that can take your life. When the time comes, you might not even leave behind an intact corpse."
So that's it!
Yi Yun understood that the lower-ranked warriors in the Chaos Heavens truly led difficult lives. They sought survival through all sorts of cracks in the system.
"I'm asking you a question!" Cang Gu's cold voice sounded.
"Leader Cang Gu, he's new. He doesn't know a thing," said Tie Mu anxiously.
"Oh? He's new? Then, he should have been given his monthly allowance," said Cang Gu leisurely.
When Yi Yun heard that, he felt like attacking him, were it not for his dire situation.
All he received was a pittance, not enough to even fill the gaps in his teeth; yet, someone was already eyeing it?
"Brother Yi, won't you give 1.5 kilograms worth of Chaos Ores? Handing over 750 grams is considered our team's rule. In the future, the amount to be handed over is 500 grams a month."
He had to hand over half at once? That was truly gorging him.
The Chaos Ores in his wooden box weighed about three kilograms. It was likely because of Steward Zhou that he received an additional 1.5 kilograms to treat his dire condition. It was meant to help him recuperate.
"I do have some Chaos Ores on me, but I'm injured. I have already absorbed the Chaos Ores," Yi Yun said.
"Absorbed?" Cang Gu sneered. "You obviously have zero Yuan Qi in you. Would you be in such a state if you had really absorbed the Chaos Ores?"
As he spoke, Cang Gu emitted a cold aura. After all, the handing over of Chaos Ores was an unspoken rule. He could not snatch it from Yi Yun openly, but he had already placed Yi Yun on a death list.
"Brother Yi, you must not offend Leader Cang Gu. If you do, you won't even survive your first mining," said Tie Mu anxiously when he saw Yi Yun refuse to obey.
Upon seeing Cang Gu about to leave, Tie Mu said, "Leader Cang Gu, Brother Yi is indeed heavily injured. Taking his ores is equivalent to taking his life. Why don't you be generous and let him pay you after the upcoming mining?"
Cang Gu had already flicked his sleeves and left when Tie Mu was still mid-sentence. He could only shake his head helplessly.