Thirty-sixth Soul Stone

  That night, Ye Chen, Yan Han and Wei Xuan Yu rented three rooms in a small inn in the southern district of Xi'an City for a month. "Renting three rooms?" The waiter looked at them with some surprise, but didn't ask any more questions.

  Ye Chen came to his own room, lay on the bed ready to rest, but he couldn't sleep.

  He took down the ancient painting scroll of "Xianfu" tied around his waist and began to appreciate it.

  Inside the ancient painting, a floating island of immortals, on the island there is a main mansion, a medicine garden, a pill-refining pavilion, an artifact-refining pavilion, animal enclosures and so on, as well as large areas of open space, and a small fox with a strange expression.

  Ye Chen is extremely familiar with the things above, and can even think of every detail in the painting with his eyes closed.

  "This ancient painting scroll of the 'Xianfu' can be used to cultivate medicinal herbs, it must be a magical tool used by immortals. I accidentally discovered it in the academy, but as a mundane martial artist, I don't possess any divine abilities or magical powers, so I don't know how to use this ancient painting scroll of the 'Xianfu'."

  "I'm now at the 9th level of Body Refining and have arrived at Tianyun Immortal City, only one step away from becoming an immortal."

  "I must become an immortal as soon as possible!"

  "What should I do next?"

  "I have all the medicinal materials I need for my physical refinement, but I mustn't arouse anyone's suspicion. If I focus solely on cultivation without earning a living, it will likely lead to speculation. So, I'll definitely find work and seize every opportunity to cultivate, striving to break through and become an immortal as soon as possible."

  "This ancient painting must also be careful not to be discovered by others, a warrior's status is too low, I am no match for an immortal now."

  Ye Chen thought randomly and fell asleep dazedly.

  The next day, Ye Chen got up at dawn and went to Tianwu Xianyuan City to find work and earn spirit stones. Yan Han and Wei Xunyu also went to find work separately, looking for different jobs, and did not go together.

  Ye Chen had been doing odd jobs at the Beifeng Academy for ten years and was quite familiar with finding work. He asked a young innkeeper and found out that the large merchant guild, Dasen Pavilion, had very high requirements and only hired cultivators, while smaller shops and workshops would hire ordinary warriors to do tasks.

  From the waiter, he also knew that in the city, martial artists did the most tiring, exhausting and dirty work, but their monthly wages were only one piece of spiritual stone. It was rare for any master to hire a martial artist for more than one piece of spiritual stone.

  This amount of wages is just enough to rent the cheapest single room in an inn within the city. Most warriors actually live together with several people, saving on rent, which can be used for expenses in Xian City.

  "I was saying, why did the young waiter at the inn look at us with a strange gaze when he saw that we had taken three single rooms yesterday."

  Ye Chen suddenly remembered this matter now.

  It's just that regret is too late now.

  Ye Chen went directly to the small shops and workshops in the city, asking each household if they wanted to hire someone to do chores. Some were hard to find, because he didn't understand any of the various occupations in Xian City, and could only do the simplest manual labor.

  "We're hiring here, doing physical labor, you don't seem very old, how much strength do you have?!"

  A small refining workshop, the master of the workshop asked.

  "Nine layers of body refinement, nine hundred kilograms of force!"

  Ye Chen hastily said.

  "Go! Go to the backyard and find Zhang Gongtou, let him arrange some work for you. Try it out for a day or two first. If you do well, I'll hire you and give you spiritual stones every month. Don't worry, the wages in my workshop won't be lower than others."

  The monk nodded in satisfaction.

  The strongest warrior is only at the ninth level of body refinement, with a force of about 900 catties. If the force exceeds 1,000 catties, it's a cultivator, and the price for hiring them is completely different. Small workshops won't hire high-priced cultivators to do rough work, it's not cost-effective.

  Ye Chen arrived at the backyard of Lian Qi Fang.

  The backyard is not very big, about one or two mu.

  More than a dozen young men, big and tall, were working hard with their heads down, wielding iron hammers and pounding against the dark-colored ore, making the whole courtyard clang.

  Ye Chen entered the yard and asked around, finding Zhang Gongtou, a burly man with thick eyebrows who was in charge of the backyard and holding a large iron hammer, to inform him of his purpose.

  "Hey kid, you must be new to Xian City?! Which immortal's gate did you take to enter the city?"

  A robust man with thick eyebrows patted Ye Chen's shoulder heavily and asked with a loud laugh.

  "I'm a trusted follower of the Golden Cauldron Sect, and I followed Master to the Immortal City. I couldn't enter the sect, so I can only stay in the city and look for work."

  Ye Chen felt his shoulders sink slightly and said calmly.

  "Golden Cauldron Gate?!"

  More than a dozen men in the courtyard stopped one after another, wiping their sweat and looking at Ye Chen.

  Warriors in the Tianyun Xianyuan Castle, there is one thing that is very important, that is the person who recommended them to enter the city for cultivation, or which fairy family's token they have. The warrior's own strength and status are almost the same, it all depends on the background and the high or low of their backing. If the background is strong, others will naturally look up to them a few points. One introduced by an unknown cultivator, compared to one recommended by a fairy gate, the status is definitely different.

  A sturdy man with thick eyebrows tested Ye Chen's physical strength and said, "You're taking the route of Jin Ding Xian Men? Alright, our job is to smash these ores! Take this heavy hammer and smash these ores until they become fine sand."

  The sturdy man with thick eyebrows handed over the iron hammer in his hand.

  "What a heavy hammer, over 100 catties!"

  Ye Chen took over the heavy hammer and suddenly felt a weight in his hand, and couldn't help but secretly take a shock.

  It's not that a martial artist with 900 jin of strength can use a 900-jin weapon. On the battlefield, using an overly heavy weapon will exhaust one's energy after just over ten swings, making it impossible to lift again; even the most powerful and domineering weapons become useless.

  Ye Chen used to use steel knives and treasured knives, which weighed only about 10 or 20 kilograms. Every day, he would practice martial arts for three or four hours, exhausting all his energy, making his entire skeletal system feel like it was going to collapse.

  This hundred-jin heavy hammer, he can probably use it for only one time.

  "How come this heavy hammer can't be used?"

  A sturdy man with thick eyebrows said.

  "It works!"

  Ye Chen tightly grasped the hammer handle and swung it around once.

  It's not the time to be picky, it's good enough to find a job.

  Ye Chen raised his heavy hammer and violently smashed it down onto a fist-sized black mineral rock on the ground.

  Bang!

  A dull thud, a small amount of debris was knocked off from the black ore, but the whole block remained intact.

  The heavy hammer bounced back up.

  "How hard is this?! What kind of mineral is this?!"

  Ye Chen was shocked and felt a numbness in his arms. With his current strength of 900 jin, he shouldn't have been unable to crush even iron blocks, let alone stones.

  The courtyard was suddenly filled with the loud laughter of many warriors, and newcomers who had just arrived were almost all startled.

  A burly man with thick eyebrows smiled and explained, "This is a very hard xuan tie ore, the raw material used by refiners to temper spiritual artifacts and magical tools. What we do is prepare the raw materials for refining. First, we smash the ore into small pieces, grind it into fine sand, and then the refiner can temper the fine sand more easily. If the refiner were to directly refine large chunks of ore, it would consume too much spiritual energy."

  "This Xuan Tie ore can withstand a force of 2,000 jin. Your strength is 900 jin, and it would take dozens of fierce blows to slowly shatter a small ore the size of a fist. If you want to grind it into fine sand, it will take hundreds or even thousands of efforts. In one day, if you can shatter an ore the size of a fist and grind it into fine sand, that's considered a day's work. The pay is one Ling Stone per month, not including food and lodging."

  The great Han said in detail.

  "A piece of Spirit Stone... so rare!"

  Ye Chen pouted and muttered under his breath.

  "Hey, don't be dissatisfied. You're a 9th layer Body Refining stage cultivator and you only get one piece of spirit stone. There are several other martial artists in our courtyard who are at the 7th or 8th layer of Body Refining stage, and they can't even earn one piece of spirit stone per month. It takes them three months to earn two pieces."

  Ye Chen had nothing to say, he grasped the iron hammer and adjusted his posture, making it feel more comfortable in his hand. He silently thought about the key points of the Tiger Leaping Knife Technique. The stance for using a hammer was the same as that for using a knife, only the weight was different.

  "Tiger Leaps Three Consecutive Cuts!"

  Ye Chen raised the iron hammer, pouring his own aura into it, and suddenly slammed it down onto the Xuan Tie ore. Just as he was about to hit the ore, his hand trembled slightly, and the heavy hammer created three overlapping shadows. The 2,700 jin of violent force instantly smashed onto the Xuan Tie ore.

  Bang! Crack!

  A whole piece of Xuan Tie ore the size of a fist completely shattered and broke into more than ten small pieces.

  "Triple Power!"

  Da Han was taken aback for a moment.

  The entire courtyard fell silent, and the crowd of martial artists looked over in shock. "This kid actually smashed the Xuan Tie ore with just one hammer strike!" "How much strength does he have? It's probably at least 2,000 jin or more! What kind of martial skill is he cultivating?"

  Ye Chen stopped his heavy hammering, took a deep breath, rubbed his slightly numb arms, and continued to wield the Tiger Leap Triple Slash, pounding away at the Xuan Tie ore.

  Ye Chen thought to himself, "The Tiger Leaps Three Linked Slash is indeed effective, able to quickly smash the ore into fine sand. However, this requires a considerable amount of energy, and using over ten slashes would exhaust his energy. He needs to stop and slowly recover his energy. Nevertheless, even so, the speed is at least three times faster than simply hammering away."

  "Great job! I'll talk to Dongjia later and get you a raise, two or three pieces of spiritual stone per month!"

  The boss was overjoyed to see Ye Chen working at a speed that was at least three times faster than anyone else.

  "Get to work! The master pays you one piece of spiritual stone per month, not for you to slack off here! If any of you have the ability to refine money like him, then go ahead!"

  The martial artists in the Great Han Dynasty's imperial court were shocked and loudly exclaimed.