Eternal Life as False Emperor

All his attention was focused on observing the villagers of Riverbend Village.

After work in the evening, everyone carried their haul to report to Zhao Qing.

Everyone had a daily quota of three, and Zhao Qing was responsible for tallying, with a dedicated accountant beside him to keep records.

Others could basically hand in enough.

However, when it was Elder Chen’s turn, Zhao Qing glanced at the football-sized piece of Fire Rock Ore and counted the five that Zhou Shitou helped dig out: "Chen Mu, thirteen pieces!"

Elder Chen got anxious as soon as he heard this: "Steward Qing, this isn’t right. This large piece of Fire Rock Ore should at least be counted as ten pieces, how can you only count it as three?"

Zhao Qing’s face darkened: "If I say eight pieces, then eight pieces it is. You old thing have a problem with that?"

"You... aren’t you bullying people?" Elder Chen said indignantly.

Zhao Qing’s gaze was sinister: "I’m bullying you, so what? Count, Chen Mu handed in twelve pieces today!"

Seeing that Elder Chen was about to argue, Zheng Yi secretly gave him a look.

He stepped forward, smiling apologetically, and said to Zhao Qing, "Steward Qing, please forgive him. My uncle’s family has had a lot of issues and he lost his temper. Steward Qing, please overlook it. Whatever you say is fine with us, we have no objections."

Only then did Zhao Qing’s expression soften a little. He glanced at Elder Chen with disdain: "Your nephew is more sensible than you."

It wasn’t until they were almost home that Elder Chen’s anger gradually subsided. He smiled self-deprecatingly at Zheng Yi: "I’m sorry, Xiaozheng, for making you clean up the mess for this old bag of bones."

Zheng Yi waved his hand, his eyes glinting like lightning in the night: "They’re just trying to take advantage of us. It’s just that now isn’t the right time for us to have a conflict with them."

Elder Chen didn’t take Zheng Yi’s words to heart.

With a creak, he pushed open the courtyard gate.

A small figure inside the wooden house ran out quickly and leaped into Elder Chen’s arms: "Grandpa, I missed you."

Elder Chen gently patted Chen Xiaobao’s head: "It’s just that Grandpa came back late. You’re hungry, aren’t you? We’ll have dinner soon."

"I’ll go hunting." Of course, Zheng Yi didn’t want to eat that porridge, which was almost spoiled, so he took the initiative to go hunting in the woods.

Just like yesterday, during the hunt, Zheng Yi encountered countless unexpected situations.

Luckily, his cultivation still held, and those mishaps only cost him effort, without causing him any harm.

After eating, Zheng Yi picked up the mining pickaxe and began to study.

While mining during the day, he realized that the way these people mined was very unscientific.

Even though discussing science in the world of Immortal Cultivation seemed odd.

However, what they were doing was like a strongman using a hammer to drill a hole with a power drill in the wall.

They were simply not harnessing the true power of the drill.

As for Artifact Refining, Zheng Yi wasn’t really knowledgeable about it, nor had he encountered anything related to it.

But that wasn’t the problem; Artifact Refining, in essence, was just using external objects to enhance one’s own Spiritual Qi.

In essence, it’s very similar to the nature of Cultivation Techniques.

Thinking of it, Zheng Yi recalled some Spiritual Artifacts he had used before and started making some modifications to the mining pickaxe.

Zheng Yi was indeed unable to make the mining pickaxe into a true Spiritual Artifact.

But just strengthening the pickaxe, so the user wouldn’t have to pour in a lot of Spiritual Qi to maintain its sharpness to some extent, wasn’t too difficult.

Zheng Yi used a small knife to carve some array talismans onto the wooden handle of the mining pickaxe.

These talismans could absorb the surrounding Spiritual Qi when the user enhanced the pickaxe with it.

They would absorb Spiritual Qi to enhance the Refined Gold Stone while leaving a portion to maintain their own operations.

Because the carvings were only on the wooden handle, without any supplemental materials, the effect didn’t last long.

Furthermore, the enhancement effect on the Gold Essence Stone wasn’t as good as imagined.

It was Zheng Yi’s first time seriously researching arrays and the like.

He continuously experimented and made tiny adjustments. It wasn’t until the rooster crowed that Zheng Yi was surprised to find it was already daybreak.

Taking a cart to the mining site, Zheng Yi couldn’t wait to begin experimenting with the modified mining pickaxe.

After injecting a little bit of Spiritual Qi, the Spiritual Qi on the handle flowed slowly, emitting a faint glow.

Zheng Yi was prepared for this, employing some methods to conceal the glow on the mining pickaxe.

Without using more Spiritual Qi, Zheng Yi swung the mining pickaxe at the stone in the mine pit.

With a crunching sound, the hard stone was split into two halves.

Zheng Yi continued without pause, splitting open dozens of stones, until the Spiritual Qi on the handle of the pickaxe was exhausted and dissipated completely.

Even so, the pickaxe Zheng Yi had modified was far more efficient than before.

This was because he only infused a minimal amount of Spiritual Qi, with the rest being absorbed and utilized during the operation of the arrays.

Fortunately, the Spiritual Qi here was abundant; otherwise, with the poor absorption efficiency of Zheng Yi’s clumsy arrays, they wouldn’t even function properly.

But for Zheng Yi, this was already sufficient.

As long as it could be used normally in the Fire Rock Ore pit, reducing the significant burden, his goal would be achieved.

"Elder Chen, I want to modify your mining pickaxe so it will be easier for you to mine." Zheng Yi sincerely told Elder Chen.

"However, please keep this matter confidential for now and don’t mention it to anyone else."

"This..." Elder Chen hesitated for a moment, but then gritted his teeth and said, "Don’t worry, Xiaozheng. I would rather die than tell anyone. Otherwise, may I be turned to ashes by the Flame Emperor and be scorned for all eternity."

Hearing this, Zheng Yi smiled: "It’s not that serious. Just don’t mention it to others for the time being."

His plan implicated a lot and required a period of observation and planning. During this time, he couldn’t reveal too much.

The reason for making an exception to modify Elder Chen’s pickaxe was not only to ease the old man’s burden but also to test how effective it is for others to use it.

This time, Zheng Yi put a lot of effort into hiding the arrays, even at the cost of sacrificing some performance.

Initially, Elder Chen didn’t take Zheng Yi’s modified mining pickaxe seriously.

But at the first try, he immediately noticed the difference.

Originally, he needed to use a lot of Spiritual Qi to increase the pickaxe’s strength to the point where it could penetrate stone.

But now, the consumption was at most a tenth of what it used to be.

Previously, he could only mine a few times with a single enhancement, but now he could mine a dozen times.

The difference was clear with just a little thought.

In less than an hour, Elder Chen had already mined three pieces of Fire Rock Ore, completing today’s task.

This was even with relatively bad luck; with better luck, mining over ten pieces a day wouldn’t be impossible.

This speed filled Elder Chen with energy, making him eager to continue mining hard.

After all, with the new mining pickaxe, in just three to five days, he could complete the quota his two sons owed.

Seeing this, Zheng Yi hurriedly stopped Elder Chen: "Old man, we can’t be too conspicuous."

An old man who struggled to complete his quota suddenly mined a large amount of Fire Rock Ore.

Even a waste like Zhao Qing, who just acts like a bully under protection, could detect something amiss.

"You’re right; I got too excited." The old man looked disappointed.

"You don’t need to worry. It won’t be long before everyone can use it."

Three days later, like usual, Zhou Shitou came to help Elder Chen mine but was surprised to find that Elder Chen had already completed today’s task.

"Uncle Chen, you’re still as strong as ever," Zhou Shitou chuckled, giving a thumbs-up to Chen Mu.

"You cheeky boy, daring to tease your uncle," Elder Chen said, giving him a playful kick.

Zheng Yi smiled: "The old man is mining quickly not just because of good luck."

Zheng Yi handed the modified mining pickaxe to Zhou Shitou: "Here... give it a try."

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