A certain area of the vast human continent
The towering mountains are shrouded in green mist, standing directly under the majestic cliffs. A young man of only seven or eight years old, with a childish face and immature body, was walking unsteadily on the plank road between the cliffs. A tattered coarse linen shirt conceals the sporadic blood stains on the skin. The shoulder-length exposed cuffs reveal blood-stained arms. A deeply piercing word is branded on the immature right arm: Slave!
The young man carried a bamboo basket that was very different from his body shape on his back, and the bamboo basket arms were firmly inserted into the young man's thin shoulder muscles. That little face with no polish and moist breathing still showed unyielding stubbornness.
The young man struggled to breathe, clenched his teeth, and occasionally swallowed feebly with his pale mouth. During the pause, the young man raised his sweat-gathered forehead, with delicate eyebrows and a pair of gray but unwilling eyes, looking at the stars and the mountains under the vast sky that were blocked by the cold mist.
Above the blue clouds, the goshawk flew across the peaks, overlooking the small, slowly moving figures on the cliff trestle, and flew into the clouds with a sad cry. "唳~" The sigh-like cry echoed in the mountains shrouded in clouds and mist, and the sound lingered for a long time...
Hearing the sound, the young man stopped and forgot about his steps, looking in a trance. "Pa" A vicious whip shadow flashed past the corner of his eye with a roar like breaking wind, and fell hard on the young man's blood-stained arm with lightning speed. Among the dark red bloodstains, there was a new bloody whip wound, and a strong, burning pain pulled the young man's mind from the ethereal Penglai back to the bleak real world... ..
"Let's go! Don't worry about it. If you don't finish your work, don't even think about eating today!" Behind the young man, a strong man with a sinewy face, wearing armor, holding a mighty whip, glared at the young man and shouted loudly. scolded.
The slave porters passing by gave the young man sympathetic and helpless looks, and then they could only choose to forbear and move forward in silence, without saying a word, leaving only a series of long and deep sighs...
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... Mr. Bing, Qiye is just a child. You, sir, don't care about the faults of others. Please let this child go." An old man with a sallow complexion, a stooped body and a shriveled body, pushed aside the trembling crowd. He walked quickly to the young man's side, bent down and stood between the young man and the man, and hurriedly stepped forward to intercede.
"Hmph! You old man, I think you are tired of living. What qualifications do you have to intercede on his behalf?" The soldier seemed unwilling to give up. After speaking, he was about to raise his thick arm again to swing out the whip.
Seeing that the soldier refused to let it go, the old porter hurriedly took out a rusty copper coin with a round square hole from his cloth pocket and put it into the soldier's hand without hesitation, pleading with his face: "Just a little care, I also hope that Master Bing Haihan will not forget the faults of villains and spare this ignorant child."
The soldier weighed the copper coin in his hand with disdain in his eyes, and slowly lowered his hand that was about to swing the whip, snorting coldly: "Huh, you know what I'm doing, I'll let him go this time, and take him with me." Tell him to get out of here! Otherwise, I will get dirty."
"Yes, yes, thank you, Master Bing... let's go now." The old porter bent down and nodded his thanks as if he was receiving an amnesty. Then he turned around and pulled the silent young man beside him, and hurried away from the soldier.
After the two of them walked quickly forward for a certain distance, the young man named Qiye said to the old porter gratefully and seriously:
"Thank you, Grandpa Luo Mu, I have spent money on you this time for Qiye. But don't worry, I will definitely return your copper coins to you in the future."
His voice is childish but sincere, innocent yet firm. The copper coins in his mouth were the few rare herbs that slave porters like them occasionally found in mountain streams, cliffs or caves, and brought them to the military service station in the mining shed camp at the foot of the mountain in exchange for a few copper coins. And if a soldier discovers that someone has hidden medicinal herbs and fails to hand them over, not only will the medicinal herbs be confiscated, but they will also be severely beaten.
"Are you okay? Does the wound hurt?" The old porter looked at Qiye's bleeding arm and asked with concern.
"It's okay, my skin is thick, this injury is nothing." Qiye smiled innocently and didn't care, and then wiped the blood on his arm, but still frowned slightly in pain.
"Ahem, cough, cough..., good boy, don't worry about the copper coins. You can pay them back when you have the opportunity in the future. Let's hurry up and get on our way." The old porter saw Qiye's bravery and couldn't bear to expose it, and said with a kind smile, The old voice was accompanied by an unstoppable cough.
"Yes!" Qiye stood side by side with the old porter, supporting the old man sensibly and walking towards the depths of the mountains covered by clouds and mist.
In this mountain range, there are several mines that mine spiritual stones, and tens of thousands of mine slave porters go back and forth, transporting them through the long and dangerous mountains and canyons. The porters were slaves who were escorted by the city lord in charge of this area to mine the ore stones for them. When they worked hard to carry the ore stones in the mountains, they were often in danger of being swallowed by wild beasts and losing their footing. They had to endure the ravages of disease, hunger, severe cold and heat, as well as beatings and exploitation by soldiers.
These slaves working here seem to be abandoned by fate. Their fate is endless and their experiences are terrible. And they will not be able to leave this hellish valley for the rest of their lives, until the last drop of blood in their lives is squeezed out. Only death is the last and only relief for these slave porters.
A mountain of spiritual minerals is buried with countless slave porters, and those mineral mineral stones that were carried out of the mountains by the porters were refined into "spiritual stones" with higher quality and more pure essence, which were used for upgrading. The strength of the city lord. Then they continued to conquer, stormed cities, and plundered wantonly, and the wealth they plundered continued to consolidate their status. Those who lost the city unfortunately became slaves and were driven by the victors to mine spiritual minerals for them to plunder, and the cycle began again.
In this continent, spiritual mines refer to ancient mountains that contain all kinds of rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Since the birth of this continent, countless mountains of origin have continuously absorbed the energy of stars contained in the universe. Over the years and hundreds of millions of years, the rocks inside the mountains have gradually formed spiritual energy crystals, which have become spiritual beings that are fought for by countless people. mine.
The spiritual energy content of spiritual minerals is generally between 10% and 60%, while anything over 60% is called "spiritual veins". Those with a spiritual energy content of 10%-30% are called "low-level spiritual minerals"; those with 30%-50% are called "medium spiritual minerals"; 50%-60% are called "high-grade spiritual minerals".
In addition to quality levels, spiritual minerals also have different reserve sizes: those with reserves of less than five million spiritual stones are called "small spiritual minerals"; those with reserves of five million to ten million are called "medium-sized spiritual minerals"; those with reserves of less than five million spiritual stones are called "medium-sized spiritual minerals"; Those with more than 10,000 are called "large spiritual mines".
The mined ore spirit stones must undergo deeper processing before they can become spirit stones. The so-called processing is to extract all the spiritual energy in the ore spirit stone through a specific container or formation, and then condense the spiritual energy into spiritual stone crystals. The refined spiritual stones are divided into four levels according to the degree of spiritual power: ordinary spiritual stones, thousand-grade spiritual stones, peerless spiritual stones and eternal spiritual stones.
Whether it is for cultivating the soul, forging the body, or tempering weapons, spiritual stones have unlimited application, which is why they attract countless people. Even emperors and emperors mined it crazily to enrich their spiritual power and maintain their majestic rule. An ordinary mountain range needs to be nourished by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for tens of millions of years before it can form a low-level spiritual mine. And if we can reach mountains that are hundreds of millions, billions, or even tens of billions of years old, we can form spiritual mines with more pure spiritual power, called "spiritual veins."
The spiritual mine where Qiye is located is a small low-level spiritual mine, which is the raw material for refining a kind of spiritual stone with cold attributes - Hanling Stone. This kind of spiritual stone is contained in a cold place, as clear and cold as white jade, surrounded by white mist. It's just that the spiritual power of this mine is not that pure. The spiritual power of the cold spirit stone wrapped in the rock is only about 10%. Even if it is mined, it will take many times of refining to get a tiny piece of spiritual stone from a ton of ore. Cold Spirit Stone is an important training resource for ice and water attribute spiritual masters to improve their spiritual power, and this spiritual mine is located in the far north corner of this vast and endless human continent, within the jurisdiction of a city called "Cold Spirit City" , Han Qi, the city lord who rules Hanling City, is a fighting spirit-level ice spiritualist.
At this time, Qiye knew nothing about the world outside the mountains. From the beginning of his memory, Qiye could only see the endless mountains, the endless plank road, and the clouds and mist that covered the mountain plank road. There are the infinitely fascinating bright stars above our heads.
Qiye didn't know if he had been here since when, or if he had been a slave here since he was born. With no parents or relatives, what I faced every day was the coldness of the people around me and the beatings from the soldiers. Only from Grandpa Luo Mu can I feel a little tender care. Even just a feeble greeting is enough to make Qiye strong. Qiye, who struggled to grow up in such an extreme environment, became reticent, lonely but very resilient.
Although he had never seen the world outside the mountains, from the mouths of the slaves who came in from outside those mountains, Qiye knew that the outside world was a flat and vast world with rich products, diverse scenery, and magnificent beauty. This gave little Qiye a strong and indelible longing for the first time: I must go out and have a look in the future!
But Qiye didn't know how naive this kind of longing was. Because in this mining camp, people who come in from outside the mountain have only one way out: to die here. And so far, no slave has ever been able to get out alive.
