Senior Brother, are you really going to dig like this all day

Zhang Kui showed not a shred of extra emotion towards the breakdown of that Golden Core genius.

He simply shook his head, turned around, and walked toward another part of the mine.

He had his own quota to meet and no time to watch a piece of trash go crazy here.

With Zhang Kui gone, only Su Ji and two other newcomers remained in this area.

The broken genius was still madly swinging his iron pickaxe, making loud clanging noises. His companion stood nearby at a loss, wanting to persuade him to stop but not daring to.

Su Ji paid no attention to their situation.

He continued to inspect his ore.

He reached out and patted it.

It felt cold and hard to the touch. From the sound it made, it was indeed a tough bone to chew.

Su Ji weighed the iron pickaxe in his hand, took a deep breath, raised it high, and smashed it down with all his might!

"Clang!"

A loud crash echoed, making his eardrums throb with pain.

Sparks flew in all directions.

A massive rebound force traveled up the handle, numbing the web of his hand and forcing him to take an uncontrollable step back.

He bared his teeth, shaking his numb arm, his face displaying a perfectly measured look of shock.

Looking at the ore again, there was only a shallow white mark on its surface.

"Senior Brother, what are you doing?"

"Didn't you say you weren't going to act?"

In his mind, Su Jiu's somewhat puzzled voice rang out.

Based on her understanding of Su Ji, this strike, even if it couldn't pierce straight through the ore, should have at least shattered a large chunk off.

How could he be so... weak?

"I never said I wouldn't act."

"It's just that some things should be acted out, and some shouldn't."

Su Ji replied silently in his heart, his face still maintaining that expression of fruitless exertion.

"We are new here and unfamiliar with the place. The biggest taboo is to stick out."

While explaining to Su Jiu in his mind, Su Ji swung the pickaxe again, causing another loud clang.

This time, Su Ji took two steps back and feigned a stumble, almost falling to the ground.

The two newcomers over there finally noticed the commotion on Su Ji's side.

Seeing that Su Ji's efforts were equally futile, the sorrow on the companion's face seemed to deepen, as if he saw his own reflection in Su Ji.

Another poor soul with a shattered Dao Heart.

Su Ji ignored his gaze. He leaned on his pickaxe, panting heavily, and even managed to squeeze out fine beads of sweat on his forehead.

Thus, the brother next door was going ding ding ding!

And Su Ji was going clang clang clang!

Everyone was showing off their own special abilities.

In his mind, the mini Su Jiu was silent for a moment.

"Senior Brother, your acting skills are really..."

She seemed unable to find the right word to describe it.

If she didn't know him inside out, she would have believed that Su Ji was genuinely struggling to mine.

In reality, mining would be a breeze for Su Ji.

"I'm flattered."

Su Ji chuckled inwardly. Then, as if resigning to his fate, he stopped trying to succeed in a single strike.

He began to repeatedly strike the same spot on the ore in a seemingly clumsy manner.

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

Every strike only brought up a small shower of sparks.

He kept striking like this for several hours.

The genius over there was already exhausted, slumping on the ground with hollow eyes, like a puppet stripped of its soul.

And Su Ji, finally rewarded for his hard work, chipped off a finger-sized piece of black-veined iron from the hard ore.

He weighed it in his hand.

It felt like it was about two and a half catties.

As if he had found a precious treasure, Su Ji picked up the small iron piece and carefully placed it into a worn-out cloth bag at his waist.

Then, he plopped down onto the ground, imitating the old mine slaves nearby. Leaning against the ore, he panted heavily, his face showing a mix of exhaustion and a hint of joy.

"Senior Brother, are you really going to mine like this all day?"

"Of course not."

Su Ji rolled his eyes in his mind. "If you're going to put on a show, you have to go all the way. I need to let others get used to my 'hardworking' image first."

He rested for a moment, stood up again, and continued his dull and futile striking.

Time slipped away little by little amidst the clanging noise.

The sun shifted west, and the bleak light in the sky grew even more dim and yellow.

Su Ji figured it was about time.

He stopped what he was doing, glanced at the single iron piece in his cloth bag, and shook his head.

Then, he cast his gaze toward the ore he had been striking for half the day, which still hadn't changed much.

He closed his eyes.

His divine sense spread out silently like spilling mercury, instantly enveloping the entire ore.

The next moment, the complex yet clear veins inside the ore, resembling human meridians, were perfectly mapped out in his mind.

Follow the natural grain.

He opened his eyes, and the iron pickaxe in his hand was no longer swung down haphazardly.

He aimed the tip of the pickaxe at an extremely inconspicuous crack on the ore's surface, one even finer than a strand of hair.

Then, with a gentle flick of his wrist.

"Crack."

A crisp sound, so faint it was almost inaudible.

The rusty iron pickaxe sank into the ore as if cutting through a block of tofu.

Immediately after, Su Ji exerted force with his wrist again, gently prying along that invisible grain.

Crack—

A massive chunk of black-veined iron ore, the size of a millstone, peeled away from the rock wall with incredible smoothness.

It crashed to the ground with a loud thud.

In his mind, Su Jiu let out a gasp of amazement.

"Senior Brother, are you done acting?"

Su Ji didn't think much of it. "Acting can be not acting, and not acting can also be acting."

After saying that, his entire body suddenly froze.

He first looked at his ordinary hands in disbelief, and then at the rusty iron pickaxe.

Finally, his gaze slowly and somewhat blankly fell upon the massive piece of black-veined iron, which was larger than a person.

"Holy... crap?"

A genuine expletive slipped out of his mouth uncontrollably.

The bewildered expression of what did I just do on his face was absolutely flawless, without the slightest hint of a loophole.

The two newcomers over there were also startled by the huge commotion.

When they saw the millstone-sized black-veined iron, their expressions were even more spectacular than Su Ji's.

Especially the Golden Core genius who had broken down earlier; he looked at his own ore, which had been bashed full of dents but had only shed a few crumbs.

Then he looked at the massive chunk by Su Ji's feet, and his Dao Heart, which had just completely died, died all over again.

Is the gap between people really this huge?

Or does the ore in this godforsaken place also fucking play favorites?

Su Ji ignored their life-doubting gazes. He leaned in toward the giant piece of black-veined iron, reached out, and touched it tentatively.

Then, as if he had been burned, he quickly withdrew his hand.

That cautious look of being both surprised and delighted, yet afraid of getting into trouble, perfectly portrayed the image of a bottom-tier mine slave who had just stepped in dumb luck.

"Senior Brother, you really are wasting your talents by not becoming an actor."

"Thinking too small, aren't we?" Su Ji chuckled inwardly.

He dropped the act, his face twisting into a bitter grimace as he stared at the massive chunk of ore.

He wedged both hands under the Black-vein Iron.

However, the weight of the ore far exceeded his expectations.

He worked himself into a "sweat," his face flushing red from the "exertion," yet the ore barely budged a fraction of an inch.

Soon after, Su Ji found himself in a frustrating predicament, scratching his head in dismay.

With a piece this huge, how was he supposed to haul it back?

Right at that moment, the long, resonant toll of a bell echoed from the distance.

The shift was over.

Throughout the pit, the numbly toiling figures halted their work. Dragging their thoroughly exhausted bodies, they surged toward the mine's exit like a receding tide.

...