After a day of Ore refining, the sky had already darkened, and Yang Che returned from the mine to his thatched hut on Pinglu Peak.
Although his cultivation had fallen, his Divine Sense still maintained the strength of the eleventh level of Qi Refining Stage.
Therefore, he didn't need to sleep to recover like other Utility Disciples.
He sat in meditation and breathed for a short while, and was already full of energy.
Afterward, he took out the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art as usual and carefully studied the second page.
Suddenly, Yang Che had a different realization.
He felt that his cultivation seemed to deviate somewhat from the 'true meaning' conveyed by the Chaos Art.
After thinking for a moment, he quietly left the thatched hut, preparing to go to the mine to retrieve a piece of 'silver iron Ore' for testing.
The mine operated continuously for twelve hours every day.
To prevent others from discovering his unauthorized use of Ore, Yang Che always kept his Divine Sense spread out cautiously.
Suddenly, his Divine Sense actually caught the Disciple Xu Yong, who seemed to be secretly talking with another Disciple.
Xu Yong's cultivation was at the ninth level of Qi Refining Stage, and the other Disciple was at the eighth level of Qi Refining Stage.
Thus, under Yang Che's carefulness, the two of them did not immediately detect Yang Che's Divine Sense.
"Junior Brother Zhao, what did the Senior Brother in charge of the Sword Washing Pond say?" It was Xu Yong's voice.
"You know Senior Brother Wei, he's very rigid and pedantic. He said everything must be handled according to Sect rules." The voice of a middle-aged Disciple clearly carried a sense of helplessness.
Yang Che recognized that this middle-aged Disciple should be Zhao Ji, who was often with Xu Yong.
Xu Yong immediately said angrily, "Hmph. Sect rules? It only takes ten Spirit Stones to transfer to the Sword Washing Pond. How many years has this unspoken rule been around? Is there something wrong with Wei Yuhang's brain? He doesn't even want Spirit Stones given to him for free?"
Zhao Ji quickly added, "Senior Brother Xu, I told you long ago, there's no need to find Senior Brother Wei at all. We can just take Yang Che's Spirit Stones, and then give ten to the Sword Washing Pond, wouldn't that be it?"
"What do you know! We're preparing to collect at least fifty Spirit Stones from Yang Che. It's fine if Yang Che doesn't make a fuss, but what if he finds out and tells Wei Yuhang? Then we'll be in trouble. So, it's best if we can get Wei Yuhang involved. This could be a great source of wealth in the future."
"Yes, yes, Senior Brother Xu is absolutely right, I was thinking too simply."
Zhao Ji immediately echoed, then asked with some worry, "But Senior Brother Wei isn't willing to get involved, so this matter...?"
Xu Yong fell silent, seemingly lost in thought.
A moment later, his voice sounded again, "Since Wei Yuhang wants to act all high and mighty, then we don't need to bother with him. When we collect Yang Che's Spirit Stones, we might as well..."
Xu Yong's voice suddenly became extremely faint, as if he had used some kind of sound-insulating Spell.
As a result, Yang Che could not hear any sound and had to withdraw his Divine Sense.
At this moment, his face was terrifyingly gloomy.
However, he quickly returned to his normal expression.
And while no one was paying attention, he quietly put a piece of silver iron Ore into his Storage Pouch, then quickly returned to his thatched hut on Pinglu Peak.
The world is treacherous, and Yang Che had long since realized this.
In fact, when Xu Yong collected extra Spirit Stones from him, he had already become wary.
He just didn't expect that by sheer coincidence, his Divine Sense would overhear the greed of Xu Yong and Zhao Ji.
"So it only takes ten Spirit Stones to transfer to Sword Washing. And this Xu Yong actually wants to take this opportunity to collect at least fifty more Spirit Stones from me. He had already taken ten Spirit Stones as a favor before. It truly is a case of insatiable human greed."
After a low murmur, Yang Che let out a cold laugh.
After a moment of contemplation, he already had a plan in mind.
Then he quickly took out the silver iron Ore.
After a round of refining and purification, he obtained a piece of 'silver iron essence stone' that shimmered with a silvery-black color and was of extremely high purity.
Touching it with one hand, Yang Che directly circulated the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art and began to absorb the silver iron essence from this silver iron essence stone.
The silver iron essence stone seemed to have remained unchanged.
But gradually, Yang Che still felt it.
The 'silver iron essence' in the silver iron essence stone was being absorbed by him at an extremely slow rate, then slowly integrated into his muscles and bones, continuously strengthening his Physical Body.
Although the speed was very slow, Yang Che still felt the terror of the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art.
It also made Yang Che fully realize that this Art could not only absorb the essence of gaseous and liquid substances like Spiritual Qi and medicinal liquids, thereby refining the skin, muscles, and tendons, but it could also absorb solid essences.
It was just that the speed of absorbing these solid essences was simply too slow.
Just as Yang Che was about to remove his hand and continue studying the second page of the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art, the 'Nine Heart Thunder Flame' that had been dormant in his Dantian for a long time suddenly shot up to his arm, then surged out along his palm, enveloping this 'silver iron essence stone'.
Soon, a look of surprise appeared on Yang Che's face, which then turned into joy.
With the addition of the 'Nine Heart Thunder Flame', the silver iron essence in this silver iron essence stone was being absorbed by him at an extremely fast rate.
A quarter of an hour later, this silver iron essence stone directly turned into a pile of waste slag.
The Nine Heart Thunder Flame, seemingly with a hint of pride, slowly returned to the Dantian, then quieted down.
Yang Che continued to Cultivate the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art, thoroughly integrating the absorbed silver iron essence into his muscles and bones, further enhancing his Physical Body strength.
...
"This is too incredible."
Yang Che finished Cultivating, still feeling somewhat unbelievable.
He had already learned in the library in Wulong Valley that refining gold essence, silver essence, copper essence, and iron essence was extremely difficult.
And to obtain enough block-shaped essence for refining Magical Artifacts or even Magic Treasures, one would at least need the strength of the Golden Core Stage to possibly spend an extremely long time condensing these metal essences into blocks.
Back then, in 'Cloud Bamboo Workshop', one of the two major markets in Wulong Valley, he had only seen a thumb-sized piece of 'iron essence', which caused a large number of Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators within the Sect to compete for it at great cost.
And now, he could actually refine it using the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art, combined with the Nine Heart Thunder Flame.
Just thinking about it made it hard to contain his excitement.
There was still time, so he continued to Cultivate.
Yang Che felt that he was getting closer and closer to recovering to the third level of Qi Refinement Stage.
After three hours passed, Yang Che immediately stopped Cultivating, walked out of the thatched hut, and headed straight for the mine on the mountain.
However, to Yang Che's surprise, the Disciple Xu Yong did not come to find him immediately.
Yang Che proceeded with his routine Ore refining.
Towards the end, the rather fierce-looking Xu Yong finally found him with the middle-aged man Zhao Ji, and brought him to the spacious stone house where Xu Yong specifically managed this mine.
As soon as Yang Che stepped into the stone house, he smelled an extremely faint, subtle scent of incense.
He subtly glanced around and found several incense burners in the corner of the wall, with a few very ordinary incense sticks inserted into them.
Some had already burned out, while others were still slowly burning.
Yang Che sneered inwardly, then deliberately covered his nose and coughed, taking the opportunity to swallow a Qingxin Pill.
"Yang Che, for your transfer to 'Sword Washing', I spent a great deal of effort, bribing many people on the Sword Washing Pond side, and only barely managed to secure a glimmer of hope for you."
Xu Yong's face showed a 'bitter expression', and his words implied that Yang Che's matter was extremely difficult to handle, but through his arduous efforts, there was now a glimmer of hope.
Yang Che sneered inwardly again, but his expression remained calm as he said, "You've really gone to too much trouble, Senior Brother Xu. I didn't expect to cause Senior Brother so much trouble. If this matter is truly too difficult, I think we should just forget about it."
After Yang Che finished speaking, a hint of coldness flashed in his eyes.
Xu Yong and Zhao Ji were stunned by his words.
They never expected that after all their private scheming, Yang Che's light remark, 'I think we should just forget about it,' would leave them feeling dumbfounded.