Chapter 25

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

There were a lot of iron ores and dark iron ores in the Ye family’s quarry, so taking two pieces would only go under the radar.

Earlier on, Ye Lingyue observed the entire process on the side. She saw how much of a work cutting and extracting iron ores was. With the speed of a martial arts practitioner at the fifth level of body tempering, he could at most extract three refined dark iron ores.

The dark iron ore was just 30% to 40% pure, but extracting it was still such a heavy task.

Ye Lingyue thought that since the Qian cauldron could purify herbs and swallow impurities, perhaps it could also extract dark iron ores.

Ye Lingyue found a remote area and extracted the dark iron ore.

With a ‘poof,’ the cauldron sucked in a dark iron ore the size of a palm.

After seven and a half minutes, there was a dark iron block the size of cobblestone in Ye Lingyue’s hand.

She hurriedly tested it with the cauldron breath.

“50%!” Ye Lingyue’s hand could not help but shake. This was amazing! The thing in her hand was a refined dark iron ore with 50% purity.

Ye Sheng mentioned that their quarry could only refine dark iron ores roughly around 30-40%, and only a handful of rich and powerful chambers of commerce in the country could refine dark iron ores to 50%.

If the martial arts practitioners back in the processing plant saw what she had done, they would be envious and hateful.

Ye Lingyue tried again and extracted the iron ore. The iron ore she refined had a purity of as high as 60%.

And Ye Lingyue also found that after extracting the two iron ores, the cauldron breath was much thicker than when she was purifying the Gathering Elemental potion.

Extracting iron ores was helpful for the coagulation of the cauldron breath. Then again, it also consumed a lot of elementary force.

With Ye Lingyue’s cultivation at the fifth level of body tempering, she could only extract the refined dark iron ore for about five times a day.

Ye Lingyue put away the refined dark iron ore and then wandered around the Ye family’s quarry.

She saw that people had gathered in front. Big Cousin Ye Sheng and several people in charge of the quarry were discussing something.

“Young Master Ye Sheng, the purity of this batch of dark iron ores is as high as 40% and it’s a rare excellent product in ten years. If I didn’t need money, I wouldn’t sell it to the Ye family’s quarry.” A man who looked like a merchant from out of town was bargaining with Ye Sheng.

Ye Sheng was patrolling around the quarry when he came across this merchant named Chen.

He claimed to be a quarry merchant from a neighboring town. A few days ago, he had gathered a batch of high-quality dark iron ores from the mountains. He was planning to sell it to the county city, but his mother suddenly fell ill. Since he direly needed money, he came to the Ye family’s quarry to sell it.

Dark iron ores of 40% purity were no ordinary product. The whole of the Ye family’s mine could not even dig up over 50 kilograms of it in a year.

This merchant had over 500 kilograms on hand. If they were to refine it a little more, it would be a business with great profits when they sold it to the county city.

Ye Sheng was slightly moved when he saw this. He summoned several quarry masters to check the ores. After a thorough look at it, everyone thought that there was no problem with the color or weight of the batch of iron ores. It should be genuine.

But the price the merchant asked for was a little high. 500 kilograms of raw ores for 20,000 taels of gold.

The amount was almost the same as how much the Ye family’s quarry earned in a year. Ye Sheng could not afford it if something went wrong.

Ye Sheng wanted to ask Ye Fengyun to come over to decide, but this merchant said that he was in a hurry to get the money. If they wanted him to wait, he would go and sell the ores over to the Song’s quarry instead. He could not wait any minute longer.

Speaking of the Song family, every townspeople of Autumn Maple town knew that the Song family and the Ye family were rivals.

In terms of family history, the Ye family had a much longer history in Autumn Maple town than the Song family. The Song family had only risen in the recent century, but the head of the Song family was a Postnatal peak master and was similar to Ye Gu in terms of strength.

Both families have always been fighting over the mines and the supply of dark iron ores.

If they sold the high-quality dark iron ores to the Song family, then Ye Sheng would become the eternal sinner of the Ye family.

“We’ll take this batch of iron ores. But the quarry can’t get 20,000 taels of gold at once. I can only gather 5,000 taels of gold as a deposit. We will pay the rest of the money to you in three days.” Ye Sheng gritted his teeth. He ordered someone to bring out 5,000 taels of gold over and was ready to hand the money over and get the goods.

As long as the Ye family gained this batch of high-quality dark iron ore, they could earn 50,000 taels of gold once they sold it.

When that merchant heard this, a strange smile appeared on his lips and Ye Lingyue caught it.

“Hold on, Big Cousin. Can I have a look at the ores?” A crisp female voice cut in suddenly.

The eyes of the people in the quarry lit up. A beautiful young girl dressed in blue came out.

“Lingyue, what are you doing? This is your first day here at the quarry. What do you know?” Ye Sheng was eager to buy this batch of dark iron ores, but upon seeing Ye Lingyue being nosy, he did not sound pleased.

Stepping forward, he grabbed Ye Lingyue for her to move back.

However, Ye Lingyue held out two fingers and tapped his wrist lightly. Ye Sheng suddenly felt numbness on his wrist, and with that, Ye Lingyue easily slipped away from his grasp.

It embarrassed Ye Sheng to have his attack countered by his cousin.

Picking up a piece of ‘high-quality’ dark iron ore, she played with it in her hands.

The cauldron breath in Ye Lingyue’s hand had already entered the ‘high-quality’ dark iron ore.

This was no insignificant matter! This so-called ‘dark iron ore’ was a rip-off and only contained a relatively small percentage of iron, let alone dark iron. The merchant covered the ores with iron on the surface only.

What clever skills of deception! No wonder Ye Sheng and those quarry masters were deceived.

Snorting, Ye Lingyue used her strength and there was a crack. She tightened her index and middle finger and that piece of supposedly dark iron ore broke into four pieces.

“Is this dark iron ore? Why did it break apart so easily with a pinch, like it was tofu?” Ye Lingyue’s words made Ye Sheng, who was about to scold her, turn pale.

High-quality dark iron ore was extremely hard. So, how could Ye Lingyue crush it with just a pinch?

Ye Sheng and the quarry masters hurriedly stepped forward and their expression changed when they looked at it. These dark iron ores were fake.

“B*stard. These are fakes. Take that liar down.” After the merchant had almost ripped him off, Ye Sheng felt fear in his heart. He ordered someone to take the merchant away.

However, when the merchant knew that his lie had been caught, his face turned pale and black blood flowed out of his mouth. His legs kicked, and as he fell on the ground, he died.