THUD!
Jin Sou lifted a heavy mining hammer and smashed it against the boulder at his feet. The force made sparks fly off but the large rock remained unscathed, seemingly able to bear such blows forever without change.
Jin Sou’s gaze remained determined as he adjusted his grip and lifted the hammer again. He couldn’t quite explain it, but there was something there.
The cultivation mantra appeared unbidden in his mind as the qi in his meridians roiled.
THUD!
He wasn’t alone.
The mining crew comprised twenty boys. Though none of them looked older than fifteen, the heavy hammers in their hands moved without pause, tirelessly attacking and breaking apart the large boulders excavated from the face of the mine.
In the cramped space of the shaft, the strikes of their hammers rumbled like cracks of thunder. And with twenty of them working at the same time, the noise boomed and echoed, making one think of a raging storm or a drum ritual in a barbarian tribe.
THUD!
Jin groaned as the force of recoil almost yanked the hammer out of his hands. A tremor shot through his body, but even as his muscles spasmed, the qi in his meridians only grew more vigorous and spirited.
It bucked at his attempts to rein it in. Instead, it circulated at ever faster pace, rushing joyfully like an animal let out of the stables and discovering spring meadows after a long winter.
Jin could almost hear it begging him not to stop, to continue mining.
He grinned and took a deep breath. The air in the shaft was hot and harsh with stone dust. The muscles in his arms rippled as the hammer rose again.
THUD!
The miners worked in near total darkness. There were luminous crystals attached to the walls of the mine, but their pale blue glow did little more than illuminate the silhouettes of the workers. The only other source of light came from dozens of small pebbles that glimmered softly on the ground.
Spiritual crystals.
Just the number scattered on the floor of the shaft represented a fortune that would allow one to purchase a small mortal town - with all its citizens included.
Yet even as they labored to wrest these crystals from the rocks that held them, the miners didn’t pay much attention to the wealth surrounding them from all sides.
Collecting the crystals was a task of another crew, after all. They were here to crush rocks.
“Change shift! Gather at the gate for pick up!”
A sharp whistle blasted, cutting through the clamor. In just a few seconds, the booming noise of hammers that shook the whole shaft quieted. Amid a chorus of tired sighs, the miners dropped their tools on the ground and began moving towards the platform that would take them back to their quarters.
THUD!
In the now quiet shaft, the crack of a lone hammer still continuing its work echoed like a bell.
“Change shift!”
The whistle blared again.
THUD!
Some of the boys glanced curiously at Jin, but no one said anything as they hurried to the gathering spot.
Jin didn’t hear the whistle or the call to gather. His whole attention was focused on the obstinate piece of rock.
The muscles in his arms and back began to protest, but once let loose, the qi didn’t allow itself to be tamed again. It forced his body to move, completely uninterested in the fact it was pushing it beyond its limits.
Jin could only continue. Less than a second passed between the hammer striking the rock and it rising into the air again, primed for another blow.
And yet, despite the relentless barrage, the boulder appeared completely impervious to harm. Not a crack appeared on its dark surface. It seemed perfectly willing to bear such blows endlessly, with a calm stolidity of a mountain.
To the miners watching from the side, Jin seemed the same. Even as he sped up, his movements remained fluid and flawless. Exhaustion was clearly visible on his face, but it only highlighted the dogged stubbornness apparent in his eyes. Just like the boulder, he seemed determined to go on forever. To deliver a blow after blow, a hundred more, a thousand more, as many as it took.
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THUD!
The warden spat out the whistle with a grim look on his face. His back was drenched in sweat. It mixed with stone dust and dripped in muddy rivulets.
Everyone had to contribute to the sect and even wardens weren’t spared from labor. But they did enjoy a certain responsibility.
Instilling discipline.
“Lil’ Lu looks pissed.”
“He’s been itching to try out his new toy for days now.”
“Jin is done for.”
The boys whispered among themselves as they hurried towards the platform, mindful to step a few feet around their warden as they did so.
In truth, ‘little’, was among the last adjectives one would think of to describe the warden. For one, he was a good head taller than any other miners. Coupled with his broad shoulders and sturdy physique, he looked more like a bull.
The moniker came from years back when Lil’ Lu and boss Lu first came to the mines. They were just twelve years old, having just barely reached the first layer of the Trigram Awakening stage.
But even then, Lil’ Lu followed behind his big brother and obeyed him in everything with a manner of mindless loyalty and servility that brought credit to the term lackey. Even as other miners began teasingly calling him Lil’ Lu, he didn’t take it as an offense, but a sign of respect.
And now, years later, as his big brother became the boss, the term lost all superficial meaning except for its most basic terms.
There was Boss Lu and under him was one man.
Lil’ Lu.
They had an arrangement that served them well.
When Boss Lu spoke softly, Lil’ Lu roared. And when Boss Lu raised his hand, Lil’ Lu was already there, bringing down the fist.
Lil’ Lu put away the whistle and reached for the wand.
Boss Lu gifted it to him, after tasking some blacksmiths from the mortal district to prepare it. It had the length of one meter and was a bizarre spindle of metal cords tightened at the handle and coming undone at the top.
Leather whips were sadly too inefficient given the constitution of the miners. But this would do.
Lil’ Lu’s face was still creased in indignation, but there was no stopping the small grin that began to bloom on his lips.
“Let grandpa Lu bring you home.”
THUD!
The hammer came down with a crash. The impact unleashed a flurry of colorful sparks as if what it just struck was red hot metal and not a piece of rock.
Before a second passed, it was in the air again.
Jin gasped for air. His lungs felt on fire and every single muscle in his body screamed in agony, but even as he was teetering on the brink of exhaustion, he couldn’t stop.
The words of the cultivation mantra boomed in his mind, blocking all other sounds.
His eyes were glazed over. The miners thought they recognised tenacity in them, but in reality Jin was barely aware of his surroundings at this point.
The miners were never taught the meaning of the mantra they cultivated. All they could do was mindlessly repeat the sounds, while trying to guide the qi along the pathways described in the manual.
But at this moment, miraculously, though he couldn’t explain it, Jin felt as if the words he had mindlessly repeated for so many years seemed almost… intelligible.
And they were saying one thing.
Strike.
THUD!
The hammer fell and the rock broke.
For a moment it seemed that nothing would happen. And then, golden light began to pour out of the crack. It flooded the entire shaft, blinding everyone present.
Jin Sou fell to the ground as if he’d been struck.
Lil’ Lu who was right beside him, and was about to administer some discipline, fared better. He managed to stay on his feet, but the metallic whip he held in his hand dropped helplessly to the ground. His mouth was gaping open.
The light enveloped them and continued along the shaft in a torrent. It quickly reached the miners gathered at the platform and surged upwards. Before a breath of time had passed, all of the tunnels of the mine, even those long abandoned shafts shrouded in darkness, lit up in a golden splendor that erased shadows wherever it met them.
Jin struggled to lift himself off the ground.
The trance had left him completely exhausted. There was a ringing noise in his ears and his overworked muscles refused to move. Even worse, the qi in his meridians didn’t completely calm down. It continued to bubble dangerously, as if threatening to explode with similar intensity at any moment.
However, a compulsion greater than anything else had taken him. He needed to see.
With a groan, he finally rose to his feet. The heavy mining hammer had to serve him as a cane, just to keep him from falling over.
The initial pulse of light had receded, but there was still a warm glow surrounding the broken rock. It painted the walls of the shaft in a pleasant, calming light.
When he hobbled a bit closer, he saw two crystals, each one barely larger than a single grain rice. They were nested inside the core like a pair of tiny eggs. The warm light didn’t seem as much to emanate from them as to embrace them like a warm blanket.
Jin squinted as his eyes began to water. Perhaps it was the consequence of the trance he had fallen into, but the light surrounding the crystals behaved in an odd manner. It seemed to slightly turn and twist, like hot air over a furnace.
When he leaned a bit closer, he noticed that the crystals weren’t completely white as he previously believed. Each one bore an inscription of some kind. It was too minuscule to decipher, but it seemed to be written with the same kind of runic signs that formed the sect’s sigil.
The sight was nothing short of miraculous, Jin could’ve spent the rest of his life just admiring it in mute wonder.
THUD!
An unexpected noise broke him free from his stupor.
He turned to look, but all he could see were billowing clouds of dust. They formed just beneath one of the vertical ventilation shafts that supplied the miners with fresh air. It seemed that something had dropped from it.
The light still filling the shaft lit up the dust giving it an appearance of a golden shroud. It obstructed vision, but Jin could just barely distinguish a dark shadow hidden within it.
A sudden sense of unease began to sprout in his mind.
As the dust cleared, it started to reveal a human figure. It was a woman of around thirty years old, with flowing black hair and a stern face. She was draped in a white robe inlaid with golden thread that made out the insignia of the sect.
Miraculously, both her face and clothes were completely devoid of dust, as if it didn’t dare to offend her person.
Jin gulped.
An Immortal has appeared.