Ye Fa and Gu Mei became close. Although Ye Fa had returned young with the same cultivation as Gu Mei, Gu Mei was still polite by calling Ye Fa as her senior. They worked together to train prospective students by dividing the two groups of children.
Li Shen completely left the Pillar Azure sect to Ye Fa, especially about the Forest Leaf sect disciples' portion of work. Ye Fa said yes, the woman knew that Li Shen was about to do something.
It was related to the elders of the Azure Pillar sect. They were indeed defeated and became slaves, but since they had cultivated once, then there was a chance for them to restore their cultivation again.
Ye Fa didn't know their whereabouts, as if they were lost somewhere taken by their master. However, Ye Fa told Li Shen the places that they might be at this time.
Mines, farm fields, laborers in the market, and cultivator families. Li Shen would try to go to the mine area to find them, although his success was below 1%.
Li Shen flew away from the sect while still wearing his dragon-pattern blue uniform, there was no need to disguise himself as he knew no one could defeat him in this world.
The closest mining location to the sect was around Ming City. The city was indeed famous for the production of jewelry from various mining products, such as gold and silver. Perhaps, Pillar Azure's former elders were there.
With his cultivation level, it wasn't difficult for Li Shen to quickly arrive there. It could be seen that the city was filled with crowds of people on the move, practitioners and ordinary people were mixed in that place, but Li Shen could recognize their differences.
The man landed smoothly in the city, not provoking any public attention. He walked slowly on the main street of the city while looking right and left, trying to find a jewelry store with a large number of customers.
At the right end of the city street, Li Shen focused his eyes to see a jewelry store full of people. Many of them were ordinary people, only a few practitioners came to buy. The meaning of luxury for a practitioner was his cultivation level, gold and silver were optional.
Even so, Li Shen didn't deny that there were practitioners who were interested in gold and silver. Usually, they used such objects as decoration at home, not to be worn by them.
"Welcome, Dao. How may I help you?" asked a female staff member, wearing a white and black uniform to greet Li Shen.
"I wanted to ask where you got this gold and silver?" asked Li Shen.
Li Shen's question was unusual, the woman answered him immediately without suspicion. The woman said that all the gold and silver in this place came from the mines belonging to the An family, the master of commerce in Ming City.
"An family?" asked Li Shen, the woman cleared her throat.
"Looks like you're new to this place, Dao. The An family is the economic ruler of the city. They hold almost the majority of the businesses on this street, from large inns to small taverns," he explained.
She also added that they not only controlled businesses within the city, but also outside. One of the places they do business is the Ming town mine.
Originally, the mine was controlled by the Ming family. However, because the Ming family lost the battle for ownership of the mine to the An family, the mine was officially transferred to the An family.
"Did they used to recruit slaves?" asked Li Shen.
"That's right. The slaves were hired to dig the mine. Why do you ask that, dao?" asked the woman, getting suspicious.
"Nothing."
Li Shen patted his magic pouch, took out a High level spirit stone and gave it to the woman as a reward for her honesty.
The woman was shocked, the jewelry store patrons' attention was drawn to her, precisely when they saw the floating object in the woman's hand. The practitioners looked at it, then began to focus their attention on Li Shen.
Li Shen left that place to arrive at the An family's mine. It wasn't that far away, being outside the Ming city area.
Soon, the man spotted the mine in question, nestled in a gap between two rocky hills. There, Li Shen saw several burly men busy scolding and organizing the slaves' work.
Li Shen landed roughly on the spot, creating a strong gust of wind mixed with dust. Li Shen's arrival surprised everyone, the mine guards who were Foundation Establishment practitioners came in front of Li Shen.
"Who are you? This place shouldn't be visited by just anyone!" said the practitioner, haughtily.
"I came to buy your slaves," Li Shen explained, not wanting to cause trouble.
"HAHA! You can't buy them, not even Heaven-level spirit stones!" said the practitioner.
"About that," explained Li Shen, lightly patting his magic pouch and bringing out a heaven-level spirit stone in his hand, "Then I can buy it!"
The two practitioners were shocked, not expecting that Li Shen had a Heaven-level spirit stone, something that even practitioners could hardly obtain.
Seeing such a rare object stirred their hearts. They really wanted to get their hands on that spirit stone to replace it with some useless slaves —the price of slaves was cheap.
"Where did you get this?" asked one of the practitioners.
"I got it from someone. Can you let me in?" asked Li Shen.
The two practitioners looked at each other, then nodded. Accompanied by them, Li Shen entered the mine area and saw hundreds of people there, all of them men and middle-aged to elderly.
"Did any of them ever become a practitioner?" asked Li Shen.
"I don't know. We bought them when they became mortal," replied the practitioner accompanying Li Shen.
"Which sect are you from?" the practitioner asked.
"Pillar Azure," Li Shen explained, eliciting laughter among them, the Pillar Azure Sect was famous throughout the kingdom as a useless sect.
Li Shen was annoyed. He summoned a blast of his qi energy to push the practitioner far back, hitting the mine wall. Surprised by Li Shen's strength, the practitioner began to confess.
"I-I once obtained the slave of a former practitioner. But that slave was bought by the Li family," explained the practitioner, surprising Li Shen.
"The Li family?" asked Li Shen.
"That's right! They live in Gong City."
Li Shen smiled. He walked away from the mine to the next place, Gong City.