Lu Ming really didn't care which power owned the black spirit stone mine here.
So what if it belonged to the Tiansheng Sect?
He had been inside a black spirit stone mine before and knew the cruelty within.
Only a small fraction of the miners inside were disciples who had made mistakes; the vast majority were abducted cultivators like them.
Once inside, their spiritual energy would be suppressed, forcing them to mine under duress.
They had to hand over a set number of spirit stones every day, and they were often bullied by the mine's local thugs.
It didn't take long for many of them to be worked to death...
Thus, robbing these spirit stone mines weighed not at all on his conscience.
Big Yellow and Huang Tianbao had always supported Lu Ming's decisions.
Let alone a black spirit stone mine of the Tiansheng Sect, even if Lu Ming wanted to destroy the entire Tiansheng Sect, they would back him up.
“Let's do it...”
As Lu Ming spoke, he pulled out a black hood and slipped it over his head.
Seeing Lu Ming's actions, Big Yellow and Huang Tianbao followed suit, pulling out their own hoods and putting them on.
Seeing Lu Ming and the others' bandit gear, Zhao Sandao and his men were stunned.
Holy crap. It turned out the people they had been abducting and selling were a bunch of bandits—and extremely powerful ones at that.
Zhao Sandao couldn't help but wipe the cold sweat from his forehead and swallow hard. Thank goodness he had been quick to admit his mistakes earlier!
Right then, Lu Ming took out an array disk and sealed off the spirit stone mine.
The moment the grand array formed, a furious voice boomed:
“Who dares to cause trouble on the territory of my Tiansheng Sect?”
Because so many black spirit stone mines had been robbed recently, the Tiansheng Sect had specifically dispatched experts to guard them.
Soon after, Lu Ming and the others saw a Soul Transformation stage old man soar into the sky.
The overwhelming aura of a Soul Transformation cultivator pressed down, leaving Zhao Sandao and his men completely unable to move.
It's over, it's all over...
A Soul Transformation big shot from the Tiansheng Sect had arrived. They were definitely dead meat this time.
He had warned Lu Ming and the others not to mess with the Tiansheng Sect.
But they wouldn't listen! Now look at this—everyone was going to die.
They couldn't fathom any possible way they would survive this.
But right at that moment, something that left Zhao Sandao and his men even more dumbfounded occurred.
They saw Lu Ming, who had been standing right beside them, suddenly leap into the air.
Smack!
They only saw a flash of light in midair.
And then, the Soul Transformation old man fell flat right in front of them.
Zhao Sandao and his men gaped in stunned silence, completely at a loss for words.
My god, that was a Soul Transformation big shot from the Tiansheng Sect!
And he... he just died like that? Wasn't his death a bit too anticlimactic?
And what kind of cultivation base did this big shot have to kill a Soul Transformation cultivator so effortlessly?
They didn't dare to think about it, but they couldn't help themselves.
At the very least, he had to be at the peak of the Soul Transformation stage—or perhaps even a Unity-stage big shot.
At this thought, Zhao Sandao and his men began to tremble even more violently.
With such incredible power, there were a million ways this big shot could get spirit stones. Why on earth did he have to choose this line of work?!
Before they could recover from their shock, they saw Huang Tianbao wave his hand, summoning a black banner that billowed thick clouds of black smoke.
Then, amidst the dark smoke, they watched as the Soul Transformation old man's soul was sucked into the banner.
Immediately after, Big Yellow lunged forward to the old man's corpse and swept it directly into its storage bag.
“This should fetch a decent amount of spirit stones, right?”
It was only after arriving in the Central Province that they learned corpses could be sold to the Yin Corpse Sect for a handsome sum. They had never seen such a market in the Eastern or Northern Provinces.
It wasn't that the Eastern and Northern Provinces didn't have such practices, but rather that the sects specializing in corpse refinement there had never truly flourished.
Watching the trio's seamless coordination, Zhao Sandao and his men trembled even harder.
“What are you standing around for? Get to work!”
Hearing Lu Ming's shout, Zhao Sandao and his men finally snapped out of it. “Right, right away...”
By now, the other supervisors of the Tiansheng Sect had also realized that their Soul Transformation powerhouse was dead, throwing the entire place into chaos.
Some tried to send sound transmission talismans back to the sect, only to be blocked by the grand array.
Others tried to escape through the teleportation array, but that was blocked by the array as well...
Shortly after, Lu Ming and his companions swiftly dealt with these supervisors.
Then, they took complete control of the spirit stone mine.
By this time, the mine slaves in the tunnels had also noticed the commotion. Many Tiansheng Sect disciples who had tried to hide inside the tunnels were directly hunted down and killed by the furious, allied mine slaves.
While they hated the human traffickers, they harbored an even deeper hatred for these exploitative supervisors.
As the saying goes, where there is demand, there is exploitation.
Lu Ming's voice, amplified by spiritual energy, echoed throughout the entire mine:
“Once I undo your spiritual energy restraints, lose no time in recovering your energy, then mine all the spirit stones in this place for me. Consider this your way of repaying me for saving your lives. If anyone dares to slack off or play tricks, they will be executed on the spot...”
Lu Ming had handled all the previous black mines in this exact manner.
As many of the mine slaves felt their bodies beginning to absorb spiritual energy once more, they couldn't help but shed tears of joy.
Most of them were rogue cultivators who had struggled immensely to embark on the path of cultivation.
They had never expected that instead of becoming widely envied experts who could soar through the heavens and earth, they would be captured and forced to dig for spirit stones in these dark, endless tunnels.
The crowd of cultivators knelt in excitement and kowtowed.
“Thank you, Senior, for saving our lives...”
Even those with hidden agendas didn't dare to make a single move at this moment.
With their cultivation restored, the cultivators began to mine the spirit stones with frantic energy.
With their strength back, their mining speed skyrocketed.
Before long, the spirit stones within the tunnels were completely hollowed out.
“Senior, these are the spirit stones I mined...”
A Golden Core stage cultivator carefully poured out all the spirit stones from his storage bag in front of Lu Ming.
Lu Ming waved his hand, sweeping away ninety percent of them. Pointing at the remaining ten percent, he said:
“The rest is your reward...”
Hearing Lu Ming's words, the Golden Core cultivator's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
“What are you staring at? Scram...”
Lu Ming scolded him impatiently.
Hearing Lu Ming's scolding, the Golden Core cultivator happily complied, nodding repeatedly.
“Yes, yes... I'll scram right away...”
He swiftly gathered his spirit stones and stood to the side.
At the same time, he couldn't help but murmur in his heart:
The big shot's scolding voice is truly music to my ears!
Standing behind Lu Ming, Zhao Sandao watched this scene with immense envy. If only some big shot had rescued him like this back then, he wouldn't have strayed so far down the wrong path!
Thinking back, he had also been a child from a decent family who had joined a cultivation sect.
Who could have known his master would try to possess him? After barely escaping with his life, he met a woman who claimed to have fallen in love with him at first sight. Just as feelings of love began to blossom in his heart, that girl sold him into a black spirit stone mine!
His love was strangled in its cradle, and he nearly died in the mine.
In the end, it was only because two rival forces suddenly fought over the mine that he found a chance to escape in the chaos with a few of his brothers...
It was from that moment on that Zhao Sandao decided to embrace his dark side and stop trying to be a good person!
His brothers standing beside him watched the scene with equal envy.
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