Chapter 58: The Truth of the Mineral Vein

Time drifted by, and a week passed.

During this period, nothing major happened in Hanyue City. Apart from the Zhenling Bureau sending out more investigators, there were no other abnormalities, which let the three major groups—who had been worried sick all day—heave a sigh of relief.

Sixue Group headquarters, in an office on the top floor.

Li Ruyue frowned, staring at her secretary: "You mean to say that this whole week, Jiang Qin has done nothing but cultivate and teach those students basic skills at the school?"

"Yes." The secretary, equally astonished, replied truthfully:

"And he teaches quite well too. These past two days, students and teachers from other schools have been coming to learn as well. It's already spread throughout all of Hanyue City."

School teachers are at best at the Mortal Embryo Realm.

Yet now a powerful Martial Artist at the Spirit Sea Realm was giving public lessons. Naturally, those parents who wanted their children to become dragons flocked to it, eager to seize this chance and get some guidance for their kids.

Li Ruyue's brow furrowed deeply.

The old self-confidence of orchestrating everything and keeping all affairs under control was gone from her.

"What exactly is this Special Envoy Jiang… plotting?"

She couldn't see through it. She truly couldn't see through it.

Meanwhile.

On the field of a high school in Hanyue City, it was extremely crowded at this moment.

Over a thousand students were doing horse stances, a water-filled bucket hanging from each of their arms, struggling to hold a half-squat.

Not far off, at the edge of the field.

The principal was leading the teachers in taking notes.

"Quick, write down all the postures taught by this Special Envoy Jiang… teacher. From now on, we'll train our students according to these requirements."

"Teacher Jiang really teaches well. I asked several students yesterday, and they said that after practicing and resting, they all felt their core strength had improved a lot."

"Isn't that obvious? Teacher Jiang is a Spirit Sea Realm Martial Artist—whatever he teaches must be good stuff!"

"…"

On the highest platform at the front, Jiang Qin yawned out of boredom.

He looked casual, but the moment any student's form was off or they slacked off, a pebble in his hand would shoot out with pinpoint accuracy and hit that person right on the head.

"Xiaohu, still no discoveries?"

Chen Xiaohu's low voice came through the earpiece:

"No, boss. The three major groups have sent plenty of people to keep watch, but none of them are the one you mentioned."

"Alright then."

A flicker of disappointment crossed Jiang Qin's eyes.

Had he really used the wrong method?

The three major groups had developed in Hanyue City for so many years—could they really not have a single slip-up?

But just at that moment.

An arrow shot from an unknown direction, its tip aimed straight at Jiang Qin.

It carried no Spirit Power, and the arrow itself was made of very ordinary materials. The moment it drew near, Jiang Qin sensed it and reached out to grab the shaft.

A slip of paper was tied to the arrowhead.

The corners of Jiang Qin's mouth lifted slightly. He opened the note and glanced at it—inside were a time and a place.

It seemed his week hadn't been wasted after all.

…

Time quickly reached deep into the night, the sky dark and heavy.

Hanyue City was already located in the northwest, so once night fell the temperature dropped twenty degrees straight, the cold biting. Thus Hanyue City at night was very quiet—unlike Modu, there was no so-called nightlife here.

Even Martial Artists didn't like going out at night.

Jiang Qin quietly left the Zhenling Bureau without alerting anyone.

His figure melted into the dark night, like a ghost impossible to grasp. Even the patrolling investigators noticed nothing at all.

Finally, Jiang Qin arrived before an abandoned station outside the city.

There was no one inside the station, but that couldn't fool his perception. He immediately looked toward a corner.

"Since you asked me to come, why bother hiding."

Only then did two figures step out from the corner.

A man covered in filth, leading a girl of about ten years old by the hand.

The girl was likewise covered in mud stains, her clothes unwashed for who knew how long, faintly giving off a stench, yet her eyes were full of bright spirit.

And once this girl appeared, Jiang Qin's gaze never left her body.

Of course, it wasn't because he had any peculiar tastes.

Before awakening one's martial arts talent, a human cannot step into the Mortal Embryo Realm—this is absolute.

Yet the little girl before him contained Spirit Power within her body—she was already a Spirit Drawing Realm Martial Artist—but her flesh was incomparably frail, not even as strong as the Mortal Embryo Realm, only a bit stronger than an ordinary adult.

Sensing Jiang Qin's gaze, the girl hid behind the man in fear.

The man's voice was full of tension and wariness: "I know you're the Zhenling Bureau's newly appointed Special Envoy."

"I know you want evidence of the three major groups' crimes. I can give it to you, but you have to agree to one condition of mine."

"Speak." Jiang Qin gave a slight nod.

The man gathered his courage, looked back at the girl behind him, and his tone gained a touch of tenderness:

"This child was sold here by someone. Can you take her away?"

Jiang Qin neither agreed nor refused, because this request was really nothing worth mentioning.

"Tell me what you know first. If your intelligence is useful to me, I can consider it."

Afterwards, the man began to speak, because he no longer had any choice.

"My name is Zhang Tie. I'm a foreman in one of the Hanyue mining crews."

"Before that, I'd like to ask you, sir, how much do you know about the Hanyue Mine?"

Having been in Hanyue City for so many days, Jiang Qin certainly couldn't have been idle the whole time.

He answered without hesitation: "From what I know, the Hanyue Mine in Hanyue City is the largest in the entire country. It was originally discovered by the Li Family, who then allied with the Zhao Family and the Lei Family to obtain the mining rights from the state. The condition was that they had to turn over half of the Hanyue Ore they extracted each year."

Ore that could be used to forge spirit artifacts was naturally not something ordinary people could handle.

It required spending a great deal of money to hire large numbers of Martial Artists to go deep underground to mine, and all the various affairs involved were extremely troublesome. So the authorities simply handed the mining rights for the entire vein to the three most powerful local families—the Li, Zhao, and Lei.

They didn't have to do a thing, yet got half of all the ore mined—a remarkably profitable arrangement.

In truth, Jiang Qin had many doubts of his own.

After handing over half the ore, by all reason there should still be profit, but it shouldn't have let the three great groups grow this wealthy.

Zhang Tie quickly resolved the doubts in his heart.

His eyes filled with hatred: "Those three great groups aren't even human! They… they never hired Martial Artists to do the mining at all. Instead, they bought children like Xiao Qing from all over, along with beggars and refugees they'd captured, and injected them with a kind of serum that let them withstand the erosion of the Hanyue Ore on their bodies. Then they forced them to mine day and night!"

"They use them like tools—giving them only two hours of rest every day!"

"And anyone who's been injected with that serum, whether adult or child, can live at most five years! After five years, death is certain!"

"Those beasts don't treat people as people at all! Just from the corpses sent out of the mine over the years, there are no fewer than ten thousand a year!"

"I beg the Special Envoy to seek justice for them, for those innocent people who died!"

This information struck like a bolt from a clear sky, and Jiang Qin's brows knit tightly.