Chapter 732 - 661: Ascend to the Peak 60, 4000 Words
The person’s words were cut off as Tan Shuangshuang blocked their mouth again. The words were irrelevant and noisy, and she didn’t want to listen.
Tan Shuangshuang knew the person wasn’t lying. During the fight earlier, these people had been ruthless but only aimed to injure her, not hit vital parts. This was why Tan Shuangshuang hadn’t gone for the kill herself.
After blocking this person’s mouth, Tan Shuangshuang removed the obstruction from another person’s mouth. This one was smarter. As soon as their mouth was free, they didn’t wait for Tan Shuangshuang to ask and spilled everything she wanted to know.
It turns out these spirit stones were indeed robbed. They had robbed a group of cultivators whose cultivation level wasn’t high. Before the robbery, they didn’t expect such a substantial gain. Afterward, they felt something was off, thinking the cultivators couldn’t possibly have so many spirit stones.
So, the robbers threatened to kill the others to force a confession. Cultivators, as long as they continue cultivating, have long lifespans; even with poor cultivation talent, increasing one’s lifespan by three to five hundred years is straightforward. If lucky enough to break through to become a General Level martial artist, a millennium lifespan would be within reach.
The longer one lives, the more they cherish life. Those people, scared by the robbers, confessed everything. It turned out they were a small family living in a mountain where the spiritual energy was neither good nor bad. By accident, they discovered a spirit stone vein in the mountain.
Spirit stone veins cannot be privately owned. While handing over management to the state allows the discovering family to receive considerable benefits, it’s not as tempting as keeping it all to themselves.
If reported to the state, the state would send people to supervise the family’s mining of the spirit stone vein. This prevents the family from taking extra spirit stones but also protects them from state agents embezzling the stones.
By letting the family mine the stones, they know exactly how much is extracted, ensuring they receive their rightful share. Meanwhile, state agents can monitor the family to ensure no embezzlement occurs, benefiting both parties.
The advantage of reporting to the state is safety; no one would dare covet the family’s spirit stones, preventing covert actions like murder to take over the mine. However, the downside is that the state takes the majority share.
The benefit of not reporting is that all mined spirit stones belong to the family. However, there are significant risks: their sudden wealth would be obvious to others since everyone knows the family’s background. Even fools would sense something amiss.
If they can’t spend the spirit stones openly, hoarding them is useless. They can only secretly use them for cultivation, which already offers great benefits, similar to reporting to the state. The motive for keeping the mine private is to live well, and mere cultivation benefits are not enough.
If their spending doesn’t match their earnings, it’s easy to arouse suspicion, attracting coveters, which is very dangerous. While large families capable of self-protection can cope, small families not reporting a mine are safe only if they spend nothing and mine inconspicuously. Otherwise, they risk annihilation and losing the mine.
Despite the risks, many small families discovering spirit stone mines choose to hide them, unable to resist spending. It might be manageable for a while, but over time the temptation to spend becomes hard to resist.
Little do they realize there are no secrets that can’t be discovered. Initially, they might keep it hidden, but over time evidence is bound to leak, drawing in coveters.
This small family that mined the spirit stone vein attracted coveters. Fortunately, they foresaw potential danger and sent their elite family members to carry the stones away to avoid accidents and preserve the family line.
But as fate would have it, coveters indeed appeared. The family members living outside noticed things were going south and tried to flee, only to be robbed during their escape by these same robbers.
The robbers who mugged them were equally unlucky. Just after robbing, the pursuers arrived, attacking the robbers without a word.
The pursuers had greater numbers and higher combat power. Seeing things go wrong, these Extreme Practitioners abandoned their chase and fled, but not without losing several comrades, including a Great Martial Artist, before some martial masters escaped.
After listening to this person’s tale, Tan Shuangshuang blocked their mouth again, then sat on her Cloud Magic Artifact, troubled. She had to handle this, just like when she encountered Evil Cultivators in Qingyun City. As a Tan Family member, she had the duty to help maintain the safety around Qingyun City.