In the end, none of them bought anything, though Wang Wei did look tempted.
Since they were getting a little peckish, Xiuying found a secluded spot and began to cook with the various supplies she bought with her.
Mmm. Having a chef in the group really was great. Somehow it was oddly satisfying to eat piping hot noodles while imagining other people having to make do with rations and dumb mushroom biscuits. Shan Qiang was very impressed as well, even joking that they should hire her as a chef for the caterpillar inn, to which Xiuying laughed awkwardly.
For the next few hours, they were guided by Shan Qiang, mining various ores. Thankfully, these times, no other mole had been snacking, so they got a rather bountiful harvest.
...
As Mei struck at the vein of Stargold, she felt a little resentful.
Hmph! Wasn't Shan Qiang really strong from how he shattered the rock into dust with a single blow? She had to slowly chip away at the rock slowly and painfully earlier, so she knew firsthand how tough it was.
He was showing them around as thanks for taking care of Liu Qiang? Wasn't he just exploiting them for labour? Mei continued to grumble to herself.
Urgh. If only she had another excuse to get Su Qing to take over. But earlier, Su Qing said he would only agree to mine as well if she was mining too.
As she complained internally, she heard a voice from behind.
"So annoying..." it echoed.
Once again, Shi Xin appeared.
"Those stinking spirits of his are blind, missing so many valuable ores! I'm going to die from my bleeding heart at this rate!" he said. "Kid, what do you say about finding some reason to get the hell out of here?"
"Eh?" Mei said.
"Once we get out, we teleport right back in with old Myriad Realm's help, then we get to keep 100% of the spoils! What do you say?"
...why did it feel like nobody in her sect was really that virtuous? Already the second time they were trying to commit robbery on a single trip...
"Aren't you Xiuying's guardian spirit? How are you going to convince her?"
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If there was one person in her group she was confident was actually virtuous, however, it would be Xiuying.
"We'll get to that later. I'll probably say something... erm... AHA! The underground is a part of the planet's natural resources, who the hell is this upstart sect to say they own it all, when it belongs to no one?" Shi Xin laughed. "Good reason, no? I'm beginning to convince even myself!"
Mei was speechless.
"Whatever you say..."
They went back to mining.
"...Su Qing? You don't have anything to say about this? You don't think it sounds wrong?"
She got the impression the little spirit was fairly moral as well.
"I don't want them to take my shiny stones!"
Ah, it's all over. Even Su Qing was corrupted. Virtue is dead.
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Shan Qiang watched as the disciples came out one by one.
"Urghhhh! I feel sick! I need to see a doctor on the surface!" Yingyi said.
"I suddenly had a bout of inspiration, and need to use solar qi to concoct a Solar Surge Pill!" Wang Wei said.
"I need to use the toilet." Liu Qiang said.
Xiuying simply stood awkwardly by Mei, looking aside, not sure what to say.
"What is going on with you disciples?" Shan Qiang said. "And since when did cultivators need to use the bathroom? We can literally expel impurities out of our pores!"
WAIT WHAT?!
That was why they no longer needed to use the bathroom? Did that mean every single day, she was walking around in hidden poop mist? Mei was going to be sick...
Shan Qiang shook his head and sighed.
"If you guys are sick of the underground, you can just say it directly, you know? No need to come up with weird excuses. Especially you, Liu Qiang, I'm disappointed."
"I thought it would be funny." Liu Qiang said.
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The trip up was slow and boring, though an upward elevator.
Before they left, Shan Qiang brought the disciples to the exchange centre where they traded in the ores for about 1000 tokens total. Wang Wei, as expected, went for strange underground medicinal fungi, Xiuying buying various seeds, Liu Qiang...
Actually, she didn't really care what they got, so she stopped paying attention at that point.
In her case, she ended up spending it all on wood from the giant vines from the canyon. The salesperson said it was waterproof, flexible and durable, and it was amazingly cheap compared to the other overpriced junk sold. Probably because of how the gardeners had to keep trimming it.
Even with just 200 tokens, she was able to buy 5 cubic metres of it, which Su Qing stuffed into his storage.
"Finally! Fresh air!" Xiuying said.
She did a stretch before walking out the tunnel and onto the metal platform above the raging river.
Su Qing curiously reached to touch the river water, then suddenly had an idea.
"Boat! I want to make a boat!"
The little spirit had been racking his mind about what to do with the mass of vines the entire time.
Reaching into his jade, he took out chunks of vine and made it into a huge green boat.
"Hehe, let's ride it together!" he said.
"Erm, I'm not sure that looks safe?" Xiuying said.
"It's safe! See?" Su Qing pushed the boat into the river.
It rushed across the waters, crashing into the platform on the other side, immediately flipping over. After several moments, it was carried out of sight by the waters.
"Oh..."
Mei wanted to scold Su Qing for wasting her money but after seeing how sad he looked, she refrained.
As they headed towards the elevator, She caught a glimpse of Yingyi picking up water spiders and stuffing them into his storage bag.
Well if he wanted to be turned into a fried chicken by Wang Wei later, that wasn't going to be her problem anymore.