“We greet the Immortal!”

Everyone dropped to their knees and exclaimed in unison.

Even the wondrous sight of the unearthed treasure didn’t slow down the reaction of the miners. Their instincts were meticulously ingrained since the day they were taken by the sect. As soon as they recognised the appearance of a revered one, their conditioning triggered without fail.

Mortals couldn’t work in the mines. The work required was simply too demanding for their constitutions. The other issue stemmed from the spiritual crystals. Their sheer concentration affected the environment of the mine, filling it with chaotic energies that endlessly corrupted all living beings.

Back in the times when mortals were still used, just the volume of bodies that had to be regularly brought out topside matched that of waste rock generated from clearing shafts.

Using cultivators came with its own set of difficulties.

The temptation that the spiritual crystals presented was simply too great.

The only way to make sure they wouldn’t secretly drain the spiritual energy from the crystals they were mining was to cripple their cultivation. But even if they retained their ability to bear the ambient energies, the process left them weaker than mortals.

To solve these issues, the sect began nurturing mine slaves.

A cultivator needs to reach the fourth layer of Trigram Awakening Stage and awaken his sigil before gaining enough control over his qi to absorb the energy from the crystals. It’s only then that one can be truly considered an Immortal.

And the cultivation mantra that the sect taught to the miners was a severed dao.

One could cultivate it to the fourth layer, but no matter how hard they tried, no sigil would ever awaken. The path was broken.

They were strong enough to work and weak enough to never pose a threat. Just as they took their first steps on the path of Immortality, the road ahead was already closed.

Within the lands under the sect’s control, the search for mortals with the ability to cultivate never stopped. They took everyone. The children were then sorted according to their talents; those who showed promise were promptly sworn into the sect, while the rest were quickly taught the severed mantra and sent off to the mines where they would toil for the rest of their lives.

Short lives, usually, since even if they acquired some basic resistance against the corrupting energies, it wasn’t enough to protect them fully. Few managed to live longer than twenty odd years.

Not everyone was able to accept that fate. Many of them were proud sons of mortal clans, with memories of great banquets celebrating their admission into the ranks of Immortals still fresh in their minds. The blow that the commoners received wasn’t any smaller. The reversal of fortunes they had to suffer left them in despair.

But disobedience was quickly rooted out.

Although the miners were too precious to kill, Immortals had means of their own.

After experiencing a few demonstrations, there wasn’t anyone more determined to keep everyone in check than the miners themselves.

“We greet the Immortal!”

The words hung in the air as the woman slowly walked towards the unearthed treasure.

She didn’t address the slaves nor did they expect it.

They kowtowed before her in absolute silence. Only the soft tapper of her feet was heard.

As she came closer, the warm glow coming from the treasure seemed to welcome her. It painted her whole figure in golden light. If anyone were to see her now, there wouldn’t be a doubt in their minds she was a fairy who stepped down from the heavens.

Time seemed to stop.

Seconds passed endlessly, turning into minutes. Jin Sou tried to occupy his mind by counting his breaths, but he couldn’t concentrate. The Immortal stopped right next to his face and he could just about see the soles of her sandals.

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It was the first time in his life he was so close to a revered one.

Finally, urged by a sudden sense of curiosity, Jin lifted his eyes just a little bit and couldn’t help sucking in a breath.

The hems of her white robe were slowly gathering dust.

He tried to avert his gaze, but his eyes wouldn’t follow his pleadings. They rose even higher and discovered something that made his blood run cold.

The magical aura that surrounded the Immortal was gone. It no longer protected her person, allowing the dust to dirty her face, leaving only the white of her eyes. Her thin lips were moist and slightly opened.

In Jin Sou’s eyes, there was nothing supernatural about her.

In fact… she looked mortal.

What was even worse, he recognised the emotion reflected in her widened eyes.

It was greed.

His heart began to pound and he quickly retracted his gaze before the Immortal noticed, but there was no stopping the thoughts that sprang out in his mind.

The first one was that the revered one would kill him for witnessing her in such a state. The sect might discourage executing miners, but this was a special case. Anything that impugned the dignity of an Immortal was strictly taboo.

The second thought was even more terrifying.

“ Two treasures!”

A shocking realization shot through his mind.

The sect took great effort to make the miners revere the Immortals as living gods. Even talking about them was prohibited and no one dared to mention the topic. But human nature could never be rooted out completely.

Even if the miners didn’t see, they heard. What they didn’t hear, they saw. And what they couldn’t know, they knew .

There was a hierarchy among the Immortals. The ones the miners sometimes came into contact with actually belonged to the lowest rung. And the slaves knew one more thing.

Even the venerable Immortals couldn’t help themselves from keeping some of the crystals from the sect.

“ Except for me and Lil’ Lu, no one else knows that all that light came not from a single treasure, but two!”

Jin tried to banish the thought, but once it was formed, he was unable to fight against it. It clawed at his mind like a rabid animal.

In desperation, he looked to Lil’ Lu, but found no help there. The big man was kowtowing with all his might, hoping to meld his forehead with the ground.

Time that seemed frozen now sped up. Jin hazarded another quick glance at the Immortal. Her expression remained unchanged, but there was a contemplative glint in her eyes. He didn’t dare to gamble on her final decision.

“If she kills us now, no one will know the truth! But if I cross her, there won’t be a future for me either…”

His mind whirred and words flew out of his mouth before his brain had time to catch up.

“A crystal of incredible power!” he bellowed at the top of his voice, “This lowly one begs mistress to accept it!”

The voice echoed along the shaft, easily reaching the miners waiting at the gate for the upper levels.

The woman flinched, and turned to look at Jin Sou. There was a genuine surprise painted on her face, as if hearing a miner speak was so outlandish, the notion simply escaped her imagination. A vicious glint came into her eyes, before quickly disappearing, like a trick of light.

Soon, her face assumed an indifferent expression of a human sculpture.

She regarded him for a moment, before saying a single word.

“Insolent.”

Before Jin was able to answer, his body was violently shoved to the ground. The Immortal didn’t even need to touch him. A mere wave of her upturned hand unleashed a terrifying pressure that was impossible to resist.

Lil’ Lu, who never stopped kowtowing, wasn’t spared either. His face smacked into the ground with an audible crack.

“This crystal, your life and everything in this mine belongs to the Nine Peaks Harmony Sect. How dare you offer it like it’s yours?”

“I have sinned! Please punish me!”

“Very well.”

Before Jin Sou could prepare himself, he was engulfed in a torrent of qi.

The ability to externalize one’s qi and use it in mystical arts was only possible once one awakened their first sigil. This, however, wasn’t some secret art. It was a simple release of pure power.

As cultivators awakened their sigils, the qi they possessed changed its qualities, conforming to the dao of their owners.

The woman’s aspect was water.

Jin Sou felt like he was being drowned. A raging storm erupted all around him, with waves as great as mountains crashing against his body.

He had never seen an ocean, but it was as if the Immortal’s qi had reached deep into his mind and unlocked some primal fear he didn’t even know existed. A collective trauma born by generations that suffered at the mindless cruelty of this endless entity.

And now, he had to bear its wrath alone.

Countless waves smashed into him, tossing his helpless body between each other. He could barely gasp for breath before another blow would force all the air out of his lungs.

His own qi stirred and began circulating to protect its owner, but it was like trying to stop an avalanche by blowing on it.

There was no escape.

Whirlpools and currents pulled and tore at his limbs, twisting them like seaweeds. They dragged him ever deeper, till a cold darkness surrounded him from all sides. A great pressure started to form around him, threatening to squeeze what was left of him to a pulp.

And then, it ended.

Jin opened his eyes with a gasp. He fell on his knees and heaved, hopelessly trying to expel water that wasn’t there.

Only blood from his nose dripped on the ground in scarlet droplets.

He wrapped his shaking arms around his chest and rubbed vigorously to excise the coldness that invaded him. His whole body was covered in goose skin. A pervading sensation of wetness wouldn’t leave him, but it was no illusion, he was completely drenched in sweat.

The shaft was once again shrouded in near total darkness, with only the pale blue glow of the luminous crystals offering some comfort. The Immortal was nowhere to be seen and neither were the two treasures.

“I’m alive…,” Jin whispered, not quite daring to believe it.

He staggered to his feet and looked around, before noticing a body lying next to him on the ground.

The face was frozen in a horrified mask that made it barely recognisable. Rivulets of blood seeped from eyes and ears, but the chest itself wasn’t moving.

Lil’ Lu didn’t survive the storm.

He was dead.