Chapter 159 Bold Yet Meticulous

Wu Haoming looked toward the mouth of the valley ahead, where more than ten young cultivators in long black robes were stationed. He let out a soft breath, suppressed the tension in his heart, and began steering his flying artifact closer.

"Halt!" The leader, a thick-eyebrowed cultivator wielding a long saber, blocked Wu Haoming's path. "Who goes there?"

Wu Haoming cupped his fists respectfully and said, "Big Brother, I'm new here for the work."

"Hmph! No wonder I've never seen your mug before..." The thick-eyebrowed cultivator looked Wu Haoming up and down, then extended his right hand. "Come on, hand over your talisman token and let me inspect it!"

"Understood!" Wu Haoming produced a wooden circular token and obediently offered it.

The thick-eyebrowed cultivator took it, channeling a trace of his spiritual energy into the token.

Instantly, the talisman token turned red, and the blurry visage of a man flickered into appearance upon its surface. The thick-eyebrowed cultivator lifted it up and began carefully comparing it to the Wu Haoming standing before him.

"This doesn't quite look like you..." The thick-eyebrowed cultivator frowned slightly.

Hearing this, a jolt went through Wu Haoming's heart, but his expression remained entirely unchanged. He spread his hands in a helpless gesture and said, "Big Brother, I was a lot heavier back then..."

"Hmph!" The thick-eyebrowed cultivator tossed the talisman token back to Wu Haoming. "Get in!"

Wu Haoming caught it eagerly. "Many thanks, Big Brother!"

With that, he immediately stowed the talisman token away, maneuvered his flying artifact past the defense line of more than a dozen men, and soared into the valley.

Inside the valley, bare and craggy rocks stood in clusters, and figures could be seen from time to time hammering away in front of stone piles.

Wu Haoming was completely unsurprised by this. He interacted with no one, proceeding deeper with utmost caution and care.

As he ventured further in, catching sight of tin-bearing stones appearing with increasing frequency, his expression grew more and more excited. He never imagined it would be so easy to get in...

He was a disciple of the Supporting Moon Pavilion of the Myriad Pole Alliance, yet he had appeared in this heavily guarded forbidden zone of the Four Directions Alliance entirely because of these tin-bearing stones before him.

Tin-bearing stones were considered extremely precious materials for both pill-refinement and artifact-crafting. They were especially indispensable when concocting certain high-grade Yellow-tier and second-grade pills, making this material highly treasured by numerous cultivators.

However, due to climate and geographical reasons, the territory of the Myriad Pole Alliance produced absolutely no tin-bearing stones at all. Consequently, all tin-bearing stones needed by the Myriad Pole Alliance had to be purchased from the Four Directions Alliance.

Every year, massive transactions involving tin-bearing stones took place between the two sides.

Wu Haoming was originally just a shopkeeper guarding a store in Wazifang. On one occasion, he accidentally overheard the extraction location of the Four Directions Alliance, and on a sudden impulse, he had deliberately run over here, hoping to scavenge a windfall.

This talisman token was something he had ambushed and snatched after knocking out a passing cultivator a few days ago. To his surprise, that cultivator looked somewhat similar to him, and combined with the blurred image on the token, he had genuinely managed to sneak into this forbidden zone.

"I'm really going to make a fortune this time!" Gazing at the unmined piles of tin-bearing stones ahead, Wu Haoming's eyes gleamed with intense light.

He steered his flying artifact downward toward the pile of stones.

In Wazifang, the price of tin-bearing stones was generally one low-grade spirit stone per catty.

Looking at the pile of stones weighing several hundred catties before him, Wu Haoming rubbed his hands together and immediately retrieved a pickaxe radiating a yellowish glow from his storage bag, beginning to chip away at them with utmost care.

Wu Haoming chiseled with extreme caution, storing every single piece of tin-bearing stone he managed to knock off directly into his storage bag. The more he chipped away, the more excited he became. After all, every single piece of tin-bearing stone was equivalent to a spirit stone—this alone matched his business revenue for an entire day!

After carefully chipping away for an hour, looking at the stone pile that was now mostly reduced, he stood up and began searching for a new mound of stones.

"There really are a lot of people..." Wu Haoming muttered to himself, watching the figures passing by from time to time.

He knew that apart from people like himself who had voluntarily sneaked in, the majority here were individuals who had committed serious crimes and were driven to this place by the Four Directions Alliance as punishment to extract stone materials.

Therefore, many of the people he encountered wore exhausted expressions, utterly devoid of any excitement.

Wu Haoming was extremely cautious, masking his expression well and refusing to communicate with anyone else as he scurried back and forth through the valley in search of unmined stone piles.

Time slipped away rapidly.

In the end, he spent a full six hours finally filling his three-space storage bag to the brim.

"Done!" Wu Haoming carefully tucked away his storage bag, turned his gaze toward the exit of the valley, and murmured to himself, "Next up is figuring out how to escape..."

The entire valley was already encircled by a grand array formation, the barrier of which could withstand attacks from Foundation Establishment cultivators, making it utterly impossible for Qi Condensation practitioners to break through from the inside.

As for Wu Haoming, he was currently at the eighth level of Qi Condensation. If he wanted to walk out of the grand array, he could only exit through the valley entrance.

"Most of those gate-guarding cultivators are at the mid-Qi Condensation realm, with only the leader at the seventh level. If I can successfully knock him out, I should be able to return safely to Wazifang..." A plan formed in Wu Haoming's mind.

He had come to work under the guise of a part-time cultivator, and upon leaving, everyone was subject to inspection. All the extracted tin-bearing stones had to be handed over completely, after which their wages would be calculated based on weight.

Judging by the weight of his harvest today, he should have earned two or three spirit stones.

However, after enduring such grueling hardship, Wu Haoming certainly wasn't doing it for those two or three spirit stones, but rather for the tin-bearing stones inside his storage bag, which were worth thousands of spirit stones!

He first spent two hours in place quietly recovering the spiritual energy within his body back to its peak state, then let out a heavy breath. "Here goes!"

He summoned his flying artifact and began slowly flying toward the valley mouth.

...

"Yo!" As soon as he drew near, the thick-eyebrowed guard laughed out loud. "You kid are quite industrious after all! To be able to work this long..."

Wu Haoming echoed with a smile, cupping his fists. "Heh, all for a mouthful of food!"

"Heh heh, after all this time, you must have racked up over a thousand catties. You should be able to earn about three spirit stones." The thick-eyebrowed cultivator laughed heartily.

"Yes, yes..." Wu Haoming controlled his flying artifact to approach step by step.

"Alright, hand over your storage bag and let us search your body..." The thick-eyebrowed cultivator slowly stepped closer to Wu Haoming.

Seizing the opportune moment, Wu Haoming materialized a talisman in his hand and activated it abruptly!

"Bang!"

A deafening explosion blasted right beside their ears.

A thick plume of red smoke rose immediately, instantly enveloping everyone within its embrace.

"A Smoke Talisman!?" The terrified voice of the thick-eyebrowed cultivator rang out from within the smoke. "Come quickly! This kid is acting suspicious!"

"Senior Brother!"

"Stop him!"

"Ah! He's right here!"

The scene instantly descended into chaos, with voices shouting continuously amidst the screams of personnel.

The thick-eyebrowed cultivator was pale with shock when an inspiration suddenly flashed through his mind. He immediately pulled a talisman from his embrace and violently activated it with his spiritual energy.

"Wind-Walking Talisman!"

A mysterious power rapidly emanated from the talisman as a fierce gale swept in, instantly blowing away and dispersing the surrounding smoke completely!

"Where is he!?" The thick-eyebrowed cultivator roared, his face contorted with fury.

"Senior Brother!" A disciple by his side suddenly pointed toward a distant figure. "That person is right there!"

The thick-eyebrowed man turned his head to look, and sure enough, he spotted a figure fleeing at an extremely rapid pace.

"Junior Brother Li! Go immediately and notify the elders of the sect! Follow our route to catch up! Leave two men to stand guard, and the rest follow me in pursuit!" The thick-eyebrowed cultivator issued his orders instantly. "Anyone dare enough to plunder goods from our Four Directions Alliance will pay the price!"

"Understood!"