"Let's go, we need to get to work. If we're late, the supervisor will punish us."
Not long after finishing his meal, the voice of the chubby boy rang in Lin Hao's ears.
"Alright."
Lin Hao nodded and followed the chubby boy out of the hut.
Together, they joined the other miscellaneous disciples, all dressed in the same attire, and headed toward the Spirit Ore Mountain.
About half a cup of tea later, they reached their destination.
After receiving mining tools, Lin Hao and the chubby boy, under the supervision of an inner sect disciple in charge of the mining area, entered the mine.
The mine was not dark. Every so often, special lighting lamps were placed along the tunnel.
As Lin Hao walked through the mine, he looked around.
He noticed the walls were made of reddish-brown stone.
There was no worry about the mine collapsing because, as he had heard from the chubby boy Wang Fu last night, the mine had formation arrays set up to ensure the safety of the miscellaneous disciples working inside.
Furthermore, from time to time, powerful disciples from the sect would enter to maintain the formations.
Holding his mining pick, Lin Hao and Wang Fu arrived at a huge underground cavern.
The ground was littered with broken stones and uneven pits left by the other miscellaneous disciples who had been mining.
"Bang! Bang! Clang! Clang!"
A group of miscellaneous disciples began working.
Although Lin Hao had only just arrived in this world, he had worked in the fields before, so he wasn't afraid of hard work. He picked up his mining pick and began to dig earnestly.
The stones in this mine were much harder than ordinary rocks. It was a tough job, and he had to use all his strength to dig!
After less than an hour of mining, Lin Hao’s hands were sore.
So far, he had barely mined half a jin of spirit iron, still far from the five jin required to exchange for a meal of spirit porridge.
Enduring the exhaustion, he kept mining, and time slowly passed.
By the time the sun had set, and it was nearly dark, Lin Hao had only mined four jin of spirit iron. He was still one jin short of the amount needed for a meal. If it hadn't been for Wang Fu helping him, he probably wouldn't have even had enough for one meal.
"Let's go! Time to eat."
Wang Fu and Lin Hao took the spirit iron they had mined to the inner sect disciple in charge of the mining area and received meal vouchers.
At the dining hall, they got their bowls and used the meal vouchers to fill them with a generous serving of spirit porridge.
Hungry and exhausted, the two of them sat down at a table with their porridge.
"Give me half of that porridge."
As soon as Lin Hao placed his bowl of spirit porridge on the table, a muscular young man with a fierce expression walked over, holding an empty bowl.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Before Lin Hao could agree, the young man reached for his bowl and began to pour the porridge into his own.
Lin Hao recognized who this person was. He was likely the son of General Yan from the Zhao Kingdom, Yan Heng, who had joined the sect three months earlier and had already reached the first level of Qi Refining. He was someone they currently could not afford to provoke.
Exhausted and weak, Lin Hao watched as his hard-earned porridge was about to be poured into Yan Heng's bowl.
Although Wang Fu had warned him earlier, Lin Hao couldn't accept it.
"Hold on!" Lin Hao suddenly shouted.
Startled, Yan Heng froze for a moment.
"Do you want to get beaten?" Yan Heng growled in response.
Yan Heng was the bully of the new miscellaneous disciples in the D-grade mining area. He oppressed the newcomers, and no one dared to oppose him.
Upon hearing Lin Hao shout at him, a look of shame and anger appeared on Yan Heng’s face.
"Brother Yan, Lin Hao is new and doesn’t know the rules. Please don’t take it to heart."
Although Wang Fu was clearly afraid of Yan Heng, he still stood up, bowing his head and pleading for Lin Hao.
"Hmph, if you don’t know the rules, I’ll teach you what the rules are."
Yan Heng’s eyes narrowed, and he put the porridge down on the table before clenching his fists.
With a cruel smile on his face, he prepared to teach Lin Hao a lesson and establish his dominance.
"Do you know who brought me into the sect? If you dare hit me, you're done for."
Lin Hao remained calm, despite his growing nervousness. He spoke in a composed tone.
"Heh, don't try to scare me, brat. Who do you think you are, coming to the miscellaneous mining area? Do you think anyone has a background bigger than mine?" Yan Heng sneered.
"Here in the sect, strength is everything. The sons and daughters of nobles from the secular world are no different from ordinary miscellaneous disciples. If your cultivation doesn’t measure up to mine, you’ll just have to obediently take a beating from me."
He was arrogant, raising his fist and still intending to strike Lin Hao.
"I was personally brought into the sect by Senior Sister Liu, and didn’t spend a single silver coin. If you hit me, you're disrespecting Senior Sister Liu."
Lin Hao looked straight at Yan Heng, his mind racing, but his face showed no sign of fear.
He planned to use Liu Senior Sister’s name to scare Yan Heng off and protect himself from the beating while also keeping his spirit porridge.
"You joined the sect without paying a single silver?" Yan Heng was slightly taken aback. He had tested his own spiritual root aptitude and found it to be the fourth-grade Water-Wood Dual Spirit Root, which was considered average to above-average. He had spent eight hundred silver to enter the sect.
But this newcomer, who claimed to have joined without spending a single coin, was obviously someone with extraordinary talent.
His face lost some of its fierceness, and a trace of caution appeared in his eyes.
"Who is your Senior Sister Liu?" he asked, his voice tense.
"The Senior Sister who brought me into the sect is Liu Qinghan, the only personal disciple of the sect master and a Qi Refining ninth-level practitioner," Lin Hao replied confidently.
"Senior Sister Liu?" Wang Fu, understanding Lin Hao’s plan, quickly added, "I can vouch for it."
"Senior Sister Liu, that kind of person would personally bring disciples to the miscellaneous area?" Yan Heng frowned, clearly skeptical. He had never heard of Senior Sister Liu personally bringing disciples into the sect.
"Don’t you believe me?" Lin Hao said with an air of certainty. "If I’m lying about being personally recruited by Senior Sister Liu, then I would be dead if the word got out."
Yan Heng’s eyebrows furrowed as he thought it over. No one would dare to use Senior Sister Liu’s name falsely. His skepticism began to waver.
Despite his reluctance, Yan Heng knew better than to risk angering Senior Sister Liu. With a forced smile, he said, "Alright, Brother Lin Hao, since you’re personally recruited by Senior Sister Liu, I won’t take your porridge."
He returned Lin Hao’s bowl of porridge, then took Wang Fu’s porridge and poured it into his own bowl.
"Wait a moment," Lin Hao’s voice rang out again.
"What? Brother Lin Hao still has something to say?" Yan Heng’s anger flared, but he suppressed it, trying to keep his composure.
"Wang Fu is my brother. From now on, you’re not allowed to take his porridge," Lin Hao said expressionlessly.
"You..." Yan Heng clenched his fist, his anger rising.
In the D-grade mining area, which was filled with newcomers, Yan Heng had the power to take porridge from any of the eight new disciples, since it was a rule that newcomers could only stay in the area for six months. During this time, they worked less than the older disciples, to allow them time to adjust to the sect.
After six months, the newcomers would be transferred to the "old disciples" area, where they would have to work harder.
Before he left the new disciple area, Yan Heng hoped to reach the second level of Qi Refining by consuming the spirit porridge. By then, he would be strong enough to not be bullied, and he wouldn't have to be worried about getting beaten by others.
This made every bowl of porridge that he could take from newcomers particularly valuable.