"HUH!?" Yang Ze rubbed his eyes and even poked the pickaxe a few times, wondering if what he was seeing was true.
"Can this be done too?" It took him a moment to come back to his senses, and when he did, he immediately chose 'Yes'. What a joke... Since he could bind things for rewards, who shouldn't he?
[Please keep your hands on target.]
[01:00]
[00:59]
[00:58]
With these words, a small countdown of one minute appeared in front of Yang Ze.
Within a few seconds, Yang Ze felt a rush of current throughout his body. He tried to move, but to his dismay, his entire body was stiff. The only thing he could feel was that there was a warm current generating inside him that was slowly nourishing his body.
Every second felt like an hour as Yang Ze patiently waited for the countdown to be over, and when it did, Yang Ze found out that he could move his body once again.
"There..." Yang Ze looked at his hands and then patted his body. "There doesn't seem to be any changes...."
But before he could finish the sentence, he felt that there was something extra within him. A new skill. It was hard to describe it in words, but it felt like his hands... an extension of his body; one that he could control at will, just like how he could control his hands.
Without speaking another word, he stepped forward, raised his right hand and immediately smashed it on the spiritual ores in front of him.
And the moment he struck, a magical scene appeared. Yang Ze's right hand was covered in a thin membrane of light, and the moment he struck the ores, an ear-splitting sound of 'Peng' echoed throughout the empty cave.
This was the sound that only appeared when he used to mine with his pickaxe.
"....."
"..."
"HOLY SHIT." Looking at the crack on the wall in front of him, Yang Ze was in disbelief. Usually, he had to strike with all his strength in order to mine. But now...
It wasn't the strength of this strike that stunned him. It was the fact that he used his bare hands to make such a strike. One had to understand that these were the special pickaxes the Lin family gave them in order to mine the spiritual ores. An ordinary pickaxe would be destroyed in no time, so the materials used to craft this pickaxe were rather precious. It wouldn't be a lie to say that the current Yang Ze wouldn't be able to afford one even if he were to sell himself.
His mere fists could now rival the sharpness of such a precious pickaxe.
He didn't dare to imagine what would happen if he hit a person with this strike.
Controlling his excitement, he looked at his panel and sure enough, there were a few changes.
[Name: Yang Ze]
[Age: 14/80]
[Realm: None]
[Talent: Bind]
[Skill: Sharpness I]
"What else can I bind?" How could Yang Ze stay calm after receiving such a reward? He immediately began to think of things he could use to bind. He first picked up the book and looked at it. Unfortunately for him, no matter how much he strained his eyes, there wasn't any orb or any prompt to bind it.
"What else?" Since he couldn't bind the book, he looked around and then picked an ordinary stone.
"..."
"..."
"This won't work either?" With a frown, he threw it away and then looked at his clothes. But again... there was no response.
Helpless, Yang Ze could only give up for now and focus on the technique. After achieving such a miraculous skill, his confidence was through the roof. He even began to think about ways to get out of this mine.
It took him a while to calm himself, and finally, he focused on the book in front of him. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and began to follow the meditation technique inscribed there.
Seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours. At first, he would constantly get distracted, making it hard to practice. It wasn't until the second hour had passed did he managed to concentrate and practice.
It wasn't until he heard the chiming of the bell did he ended his meditation and looked around in confusion.
"Did I do something wrong?" He had been trying for the past six hours, but not to mention absorbing spiritual energy, he couldn't even sense it. For a while, he even began to doubt whether it was due to his poor talent or comprehension.
Shaking his head, he stood up, picked up his pickaxe and got back to work. He had to admit that he was a bit too greedy. He just got the technique and was already disappointed about not being able to practice it. If he could truly absorb the spiritual energy this early, perhaps he wouldn't have been assigned to a mining position.
Taking a deep breath, he raised his pickaxe and began to mine as usual. It wasn't until he struck the fifth time did he slapped his forehead.
"Damn it, didn't I get the new skill? Why not test its limit?"
With this thought, he raised his right hand and began to use his bare hand to strike the walls using his Sharpness I skill.
Unlike using a pickaxe, where he needed to strike at least thirty to forty times to get a piece of ore, this time he was able to get a piece of ore in just ten strikes. But it wasn't the strength of the strikes that surprised him this time, rather the fact that even after using this skill ten times in a row, he wasn't exhausted. He felt like he could use this skill countless times.
"Life is definitely going to be easier." With a wide grin on his face, he was about to start mining again when he was stunned by the floating white orb above the ore that he had just mined.
"This... this..." He didn't know what the requirements for binding things were. Just binding a pickaxe was enough to give him such a drastic improvement. He didn't dare to imagine what binding this ore would give him.
After taking a glance around, he picked up the fist-sized ore that looked like it contained innumerable flickering stars, and sure enough, a small window popped up in front of him.
[Bindable Target found. Can be bound to get the characteristic of Sturdy I ]
Without any hesitation, Yang Ze chose to bind, and sure enough, a familiar message popped up.
[Please keep your hands on target.]
[01:00]
[00:59]
[00:58]
This time, Yang Ze didn't panic due to not being able to move his body. He waited patiently and, in the meantime, observed the changes in his body. Just like the last time, his body was enveloped in a warm current. Compared to the previous time when he couldn't feel any changes, this time he could clearly feel his body getting stronger.
It wasn't raw strength, but more like toughness. He could feel his muscles, bones and skin tightening and getting stronger. He didn't know how high his defence was. But if he had to make a rough guess... now he would be able to take the whipping without any actual harm.
Yang Ze then focused back on the mining. There would be plenty of time later to test out his defensive capabilities.
With the use of his newly gained skill, 'Sharpness I', Yang Ze was able to mine thirty kilograms of ore in no time. Earlier, it used to take him an entire day, and even then, such an output wasn't guaranteed. But now... Less than two hours have passed, and he has already fulfilled today's quota.
After mining the daily quota, Yang Ze didn't mine any further. First, because there were no rewards even if he were to deposit more ores and secondly, because he didn't want others to find out about his capabilities.
If his skills were discovered, he could only imagine his fate.
Now that his daily quota was complete and there was no need for cooperation with others, Yang Ze just sat down, ready to meditate again.
Hours passed, and soon he could hear the chiming of the bell.
"So fast?" Yang Ze felt like he had only mediated for ten or so minutes.
"Tch!" Clicking his tongue in wonder, he stood up, patted the dust off his robe and pushed his cart towards the deposit grounds.
As usual, the place was already crowded with other children who had arrived before him.
After standing in a queue, it was soon his turn. Yang Ze pushed the cart while he was lost in his train of thought. He was still thinking about why there wasn't any progress even after meditating for such a long time.
While handing over the ores, he didn't even notice the small white orb above the Steward's head.
It wasn't until both their hands touched and a message popped up that he woke up from his stupor.
[Bindable Target found. Can be bound permanently to gain five times the cultivation progress.]
The moment this message popped, Yang Ze's mind went blank. His breathing almost stopped, and for a moment, he was even tempted to grab the steward to bind him.
But thankfully, rationality overtook his instincts.
He just deeply gazed at the steward and finally saw the small floating white orb above his head.
Till now, Yang Ze thought that he could only bind objects and not people. He was even thinking about finding some new things to bind. But who would have thought that he could bind other people, too? And the reward wasn't any skill; rather, cultivation.
He didn't make any hasty move, but rather handed over his ores and then stood there in silence. He didn't immediately leave but began to observe other children around him. Unfortunately, other than the steward, none of them could be bound.
After looking around in vain, he just walked towards a small group of five children and stood behind them, silently listening to their conversation.
"Did any of you make any progress?"
"No. I tried it yesterday but couldn't even get started with meditation."
"Forget about meditation, I couldn't even memorise the book."
"How about we share our insights? In this way, we can progress rather easily."
The moment someone put forward this proposition, the rest of the group immediately agreed.
"How about you, little brother, wanna join us?" A young boy aged seventeen suddenly asked Yang Ze, startling him.
"Me?" Yang Ze didn't know how to answer. His priority right now was to find a way to bind that horse-faced steward so he could make progress in his cultivation. He didn't know how much cultivation he would gain or how much progress he would make. But he was sure about one thing... The progress he would make after binding the steward would be much more than what he could gain after practising for years.
"I don't have any ideas." He just shook his head and left them. All of them were basically slaves, and right now, he didn't want to have any contact with other children around him. The mere fact that he could use those miraculous skills was something he wasn't willing to share with them.
Looking at his departing figure, the boy who asked him to join didn't stop him. He just turned around and got busy with others.
"Should I perhaps try to knock him unconscious?" Even while walking, Yang Ze was thinking about ways to bind the steward. There were only two ways that he could think of.
The first one was to knock him unconscious and then bind him. The second one was to bind him while he was in a deep sleep.
But for the current him, both of these options were out of reach. Even though he didn't know the strength of the steward, the mere fact that he was appointed to such a position and even had a storage ring only proved that he had extraordinary strength. Even though Yang Ze didn't know how stronger those who have stepped into the path of cultivation were... He knew they weren't someone the current him could go up against.
"Then search for other things to bind." Since he couldn't bind the steward for the time being, he was going to focus on other objects. Who knows, perhaps he might find something that could help him regarding the steward.
With this in mind, the speed of his footsteps hastened as he began to make towards the inner structure of the mine... A place that even the veteran miners are afraid to go.