"Su Zhan, right? Look at these 105 mixed spirit stones. Most of them are trash!"
The man behind the table had a big scar across his bald head. He slammed the dull, dim spirit stones on the table.
He looked at the tired, dirty boy in front of him — Su Zhan — who looked about sixteen, thin and hungry.
"There are only about ninety usable stones. That's not enough. You get nothing today. We're taking the stones too. Get lost."
"This…"
Su Zhan's hands clenched tightly. These stones were all he had gotten after digging nonstop the entire day.
He worked for hours, only hoping to earn one low-grade pure spirit stone.
But now, with just one word, everything was taken from him. No reward. No food.
He would be beaten again tonight. And tomorrow, he would dig with an empty stomach.
"Brother Zhang…"
"Next!"
Su Zhan tried to speak, but the man shouted coldly. Su Zhan looked up and saw the man's unfriendly, dangerous glare. His heart sank.
He stayed silent, sighed inside, and walked away.
"Wait."
A calm voice spoke from behind the bald man.
A thin man was sitting there drinking wine. His eyes were closed — but now he opened them. His body looked weak, but the air around him felt sharp and deadly.
Su Zhan's heart skipped. That man… was at the Fourth Stage of the Mortal Realm.
Su Zhan was only at the First Stage.
The man spoke again, slowly:
"Give him the spirit stone."
"Master Zhou, but—"
"Do it."
The bald man shivered under the man's stare. He quickly took out a low-grade spirit stone and tossed it at Su Zhan.
"Th-thank you, Master Zhou!"
Su Zhan caught it and bowed deeply.
The man said nothing more. He drank his wine and closed his eyes again.
Outside the room, thousands of workers waited in line — young and old, all with tired eyes and worn clothes.
Everyone here was a low-level cultivator. Without basic strength, they couldn't even break the stone layers in the mine.
Some people looked like walking corpses, eyes empty.
Some smiled and joked to stay sane.
But Su Zhan wasn't like them.
He looked at the spirit stone in his hand, then at the strange black mark on his right palm.
It had appeared two days ago after he cut his hand while digging. Blood had been sucked into his skin, and then the mark showed up.
It looked like an ancient symbol, like something from the fantasy novels he used to read in his past life.
He had thought, "Is this… a system?"
But no matter how much he tried to talk to it or trigger it, nothing happened.
He gave up… until yesterday.
When he finally earned a pure spirit stone and held it in that hand — the black mark absorbed it and glowed brightly!
Su Zhan was shocked and excited!
But after that… nothing.
Still, that one glow gave him hope.
The system might be real — and it wanted pure spirit stones.