The War of the Gods in the Great Void God King

Jiang Fan took out one and handed it to the young man, who immediately grabbed it and wolfed it down. Then he sighed, "Damn it, I haven't eaten all day, and I still have to do such tiring work."

Then he asked, "Oh, by the way, what's your name?"

Jiang Fan gave his name, and the boy was immediately stunned, exclaiming, "You're Jiang Fan...!"

"My name is Li Yang. Please take care of me in the future."

"However, I advise you not to have too high hopes. We, the nominal disciples, are just here to do the hard labor."

Jiang Fan chewed on his dry, hard steamed bun and asked calmly, "Does this mean I'll be stuck mining my whole life with no chance of cultivation?"

Li Yang lay slumped on the wooden bed, his bones feeling like they were broken. He raised his hand to rub his calloused, calloused palm, covered in tiny cuts, and gave a bitter laugh.

"Opportunity? What opportunity is there?"

"Outer and inner disciples have cultivation techniques and receive daily lectures from their masters. They draw spiritual energy into their bodies morning and evening. We, the nominal disciples, have to go into the mines to mine ore before dawn and don't come out until sunset. We are exhausted and covered in dust, and we fall asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. We don't even have time to calm down and catch our breath."

He turned his head to look out the window at the dark, dense forest behind the mountain, his voice low and deep:

"Moreover, the spiritual energy is thin and the yin energy is heavy in the depths of the mine. Mining for many years damages the physical body. Many people can only endure it for three to five years before their bodies collapse. If they cannot meet the mining quota, they will run out of food and eventually be expelled back to the mortal world."

"Even if you manage to hold on, if your spiritual root is too poor, spiritual energy will surround you but not enter you, and no matter how hard you cultivate, it will be a waste of effort."

Jiang Fan remained silent for a moment, without saying a word. After a while, his eyes showed no sign of wavering, and he calmly said, "Whether my aptitude is mediocre or I have no spiritual roots, since I have embarked on this path and been fortunate enough to enter a Daoist sect, I will not accept my fate."

Li Yang scoffed at this, assuming he was just a naive newborn calf who didn't understand the harsh realities of life. Too lazy to offer any further advice, he fell into a deep sleep. The day's arduous labor had exhausted him, leaving him with no energy to even utter a few more words.

Before dawn the next day, Jiang Fan got out of bed. Li Yang was still snoring. Jiang Fan changed into gray clothes and hurried to the storage area.

Upon arriving at the location, the young man in yellow pushed open the door, glanced at Jiang Fan sideways, and said coldly, "You're punctual enough. Go inside and get the hammer, then head into the mine. You need to dig a thousand catties every day."

After saying that, he ignored Jiang Fan, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began to absorb spiritual energy and cultivate.

Seeing this, Jiang Fan looked helpless, picked up a handy iron hammer, and went into the mine to dig.

According to Li Yang, a disciple must work in mining for ten years, ensuring that he can handle a thousand catties of ore every day without missing a single catty. Only by meeting both of these requirements can one enter the outer sect for cultivation.

Deep inside the mine, it was cold and damp, with a pitifully thin spiritual energy.

The other disciples in the same batch, most of whom were mediocre first-grade spiritual roots, were sighing and carrying heavy ore, their eyes dim.

Jiang Fan's assigned task was to excavate the deep "Crimson Fire Crystal".

This ore is extremely hard; even cultivators in the early stages of Qi Refining need to expend considerable effort to mine it.

For mortals without spiritual power, this is undoubtedly torture.

Although Zhao Mang passed the test, he was only assigned to the outer sect.

He made a special trip to the mine and saw Jiang Fan's back as he wielded the heavy hammer from afar, and couldn't help but sneer.

"Hmph, a piece of trash is a piece of trash. Even if you join a Taoist sect, you can only do this kind of lowly work. Let's see how long you can last!"

But Jiang Fan turned a deaf ear.

He was shirtless, his muscles outlined in perfect contours in the dim light, and sweat dripped down his scabbed wounds.

He did not use the power of the Golden Dragon King, but relied purely on the strength of his physical body to swing the iron hammer that weighed several tens of kilograms.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Each hammer blow landed precisely on the cracks and crevices of the ore's texture.

This is not just a release of power, but also a tempering of the body.

The unsealing of the Golden Dragon King of the Void requires a powerful physical body as a vessel.

The gravity of the mine and the impact of the hammer became the best whetstone.

In the dead of night, all was quiet.

The other disciples had already returned to their quarters, exhausted, and collapsed onto their beds, fast asleep.

Jiang Fan, however, did not return to the house but instead sat cross-legged at the deepest part of the mine.

He pulled out the waist tag of a registered disciple from his pocket, his eyes cold and aloof.

"Scarce spiritual energy? Then plunder it."

He activated the bloodline of the Golden Dragon King of the Void within his body, and his pores opened, forcibly absorbing the imperceptible spiritual energy impurities in the ore vein.

These impurities are highly toxic to ordinary people and cannot be absorbed, but under the high-temperature tempering of the Golden Dragon King's essence, they are transformed into the most primal spiritual energy, which is integrated into his flesh and bone marrow.

A dark red sheen faintly appeared on the surface of his body, a sign of physical evolution.

His spiritual power, after absorbing the meager spiritual power for half a month, has broken through to the early stage of Qi Refining.

For the next two weeks, Jiang Fan became a strange tale in the mine.

While others could only mine half a truckload of ore in a day, he could do the work of several people and still complete the daily task of mining 1,000 kilograms.

He never rested or communicated with anyone. Every night, when all was quiet, he would cultivate alone in the deepest part of the mine.

Until this day, a furious roar came from deep within the mine.

A crimson-scaled python, which had long inhabited the depths of the mine, was awakened by the shock. This beast possessed the strength of the early stage of Qi Refining. With a breath of poisonous mist, it instantly corroded two disciples who had not had time to escape into blood.

"Run! It's a demonic python!"

"Help!"

The entire mine was in chaos, with the disciples crying and screaming as they scattered and fled.

Zhao Mang happened to be inspecting the area nearby. He was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he scrambled backward, cursing his bad luck in his heart.

With a sweep of its massive tail, the serpent sent shards of rock flying, and it was about to catch up with the group of panicked disciples.

At this critical moment.

A dark figure, like a ghost, rushed out against the flow of people.

It was Jiang Fan. He had no weapon in his hand, only his fists, which had been honed over half a month.

Facing the gigantic maw that was emitting a foul stench, Jiang Fan's eyes were cold, and instead of retreating, he advanced.

"roar!"

The monstrous python roared and bit down at Jiang Fan.

Jiang Fan instantly activated the bloodline of the Golden Dragon King of the Void. A golden light flashed across his right fist, and the air exploded with a loud bang.

A punch was thrown!

There was no dazzling spiritual light, only pure physical strength combined with the bloodline of the Golden Dragon King.

"Snap!"

The fist collided heavily with the skull of the serpent.

Instead of the expected carnage, a sickening sound of bones shattering was heard.

The giant python, which was at the early stage of Qi Refining, had its enormous head dented by Jiang Fan's punch, its head shattered, and its brains splattered out.

Its massive body flew backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily against the rock wall. It twitched twice and then lay lifeless.

Those disciples who had been fleeing in panic, including Zhao Mang who was watching from a distance, all stared wide-eyed, as if they had seen a ghost.

One punch.

Just one punch.

A mortal with no cultivation level killed a demon beast in the early stage of Qi Refining with a single punch.

Jiang Fan slowly withdrew his fist, the blood on it dripping down between his fingers.

He glanced at the corpse on the ground, his eyes showing no emotion whatsoever, as if he had merely crushed an ant.

He turned around, picked up the hammer from the ground, and uttered two words calmly to the dumbfounded disciples:

"Get to work."