Jiang Hao noticed some bubbles appearing, even though they were just white ones, but it was still a good sign. This indicated that mining could directly produce bubbles. Suddenly, Jiang Hao grew even more diligent.
He carefully controlled his strength so he could endure longer. Of course, he didn't reveal his hidden cultivation level, and to prevent others from knowing how much power he had, he deliberately controlled his output to the lowest of the Foundation Establishment stage. This way, even if someone tried to gauge his overall strength based on his energy use, they'd only get a false estimate.
As ore fragments fell bit by bit, white bubbles continuously emerged, and occasionally green bubbles would appear.
[Strength +1]
[Spirit +1]
[Spear Technique +1]
Without any pause, Jiang Hao was more hardworking and faster than anyone else. Until he mined a piece of better quality ore, and blue bubbles followed.
[Cultivation +1]
Seeing the blue bubbles, he breathed a sigh of relief. After several days, he finally saw the hope of advancing. If he just relied on cultivating, given his talent, it would take him over ten years to reach the middle stage of the Golden Core. And that's with the help of pills. But with the blue bubbles, perhaps just a year might be enough, depending on how quickly he could gather them.
Ting! Ting! The rhythmic sound of the hoe striking the ore echoed, and one lump of ore after another was unearthed. Many high-quality ores were discarded to the side. Jiang Hao merely instructed someone to take the ores away, not paying attention to anything else because his focus was always on the bubbles.
The speed at which the bubbles appeared was astonishing to Jiang Hao. In no time, bubbles would pop up, even the white ones, which he hadn’t seen this many of back in the Spirit Herb Garden. Perhaps he had discovered the true way to collect bubbles. Mining seemed like the quickest shortcut to strengthen himself.
With each mining echo, Jiang Hao’s cultivation and vital energy steadily increased. He had already mined ten blue bubbles — this was just in the morning.
Clang! Suddenly, Jiang Hao halted his actions. The hoe had been worn down to its limit due to his speed. Looking at the broken hoe, he furrowed his brows. This tool was too much of a hindrance to his pace. For a moment, he wanted to take out the Primordial Heaven Blade to mine with it — it’d probably be much faster, right? But it was too obvious, and it could easily reveal his trump card. Even using the Crescent Moon Blade for mining would be too excessive and draw unwanted attention.
"Senior Brother Jiang, would you like to take a break?" A supervising disciple approached Jiang Hao and cautiously asked.
Wu Jing, a ninth-level Qi Refining outer disciple, just needed one more advancement to leave the mine and join the inner sect. He could even request to leave entirely. As long as the mine wasn't in dire need of hands, offers would be made to keep people, even if it was short-staffed. Unlike now, where leaving was not an option.
However, he didn’t like the inner sect seniors. He always got scolded. The new inner sect senior scared him even more since he couldn't tell what this person wanted to do.
Jiang Hao glanced at the others and saw that they were also taking turns to rest. Thus, he nodded and stepped aside as well. However, he asked this junior to fetch him a better hoe.
"Senior Brother, are you going to keep mining?" Wu Jing was a bit confused.
"Don't worry, I'll ensure your safety at the same time," Jiang Hao reassured him. He came here to see that the progress continued steadily since fewer miners would slow it down. Hence, safety was also a priority.
"Which branch of the Heavenly Sound Sect do you belong to?" As soon as Jiang Hao sat down to rest, Situ Jian came over for some small talk.
Glancing at him, Jiang Hao replied expressionlessly, "Once you're rested, go back to mining." He wasn't interested in conversing more with him. If he had to talk, it’d only be after tomorrow's appraisal was done. These four individuals were surely going to cause him trouble.
Right now, he needed time. He needed to quickly advance to the middle stage of the Golden Core. At the very least, he needed to handle Yan Hua. If he could buy enough time to reach later stages, he’d be even safer.
The amount of time these four would give him was uncertain. His thoughts scattered, but Jiang Hao still wanted to mine. However, the new tools hadn’t arrived, and he couldn’t appear too eager. When he was in the demon cave, he’d been too eager, which led to Lou Feng noticing something was off. If he acted the same now, who knew if Yan Hua would notice something was wrong?
So he remained quietly waiting. After a while, Wu Jing finally brought a hoe. This time, it wasn’t an ordinary mining hoe but one at the level of a magical artifact.
"Senior Brother Jiang, I got this from the management office. Please try not to break it," Wu Jing said with a somewhat troubled look.
"How much spirit stones?" Jiang Hao asked.
"Oh, it doesn't cost stones, but there are extra tasks and harvests to meet. You need to produce ten percent more," Wu Jing explained.
Jiang Hao nodded and didn't say anything more. After watching over the others, he dove back into mining.
He was eager. With every strike of his hoe, bubbles emerged continuously. As for the ores, he didn’t even spare them a glance. He just observed the changes in his body and the numbers reflecting his vital energy and cultivation.
[Strength +1]
[Strength +1]
[Spirit Sword +1]
[Cultivation +1]
[Cultivation +1]
Mining valuable things would yield blue bubbles. The more he mined, the more pleased he felt inside. Yet, his expression remained calm, wary of being discovered. His mining speed left people amazed. Many believed this new inner sect disciple was just showing enthusiasm on the first day. Later, when magical artifacts were used, they'd surely have to take over the quota on themselves. A wave of anger surged in their hearts. The new supervision left the folks at the bottom feeling unlucky.