Chapter 1 The Black Mark That Swallowed the Spirit Stone

"Su Zhan, right? Look at these 105 miscellaneous spirit stones. Many of them are of very poor quality!"

A big man in a tight robe with a hideous scar on his head had a pile of miscellaneous spirit stones emitting a dim light on the table in front of him.

He just picked them up casually, and then stared at a young man in front of him who was dressed simply, about fifteen or sixteen years old, with a dirty face and a tired look, and said indifferently: "There are only more than ninety miscellaneous spirit stones that can be used. The number is less than one hundred, and the settlement does not meet the standard. You will not get any reward today. The miscellaneous spirit stones are confiscated. Take care of yourself."

"This..."

The young man frowned, his face changed, and his eyes were full of unwillingness.

These more than one hundred miscellaneous spirit stones were the result of his digging for a whole day. He hardly stopped to rest all day.

The purpose was to get the guaranteed reward of one low-grade pure spirit stone.

But with one word from the other party, not only the reward was gone, but all these miscellaneous spirit stones were also deducted.

This means that he will not only be beaten up later, but will have to continue mining tomorrow while hungry... He has already tasted that feeling, it is really uncomfortable.

"Brother Zhang..."

"Next!"

Su Zhan just opened his mouth and wanted to fight for himself, but when he looked up, he saw the bald man's unfriendly eyes and the intimidating shout.

In this regard, he could only shut up, sighed in his heart, turned around unwillingly, and left the house with all helplessness.

"Wait."

At this time, behind the bald man, the man who had closed his eyes and drank wine, with a thin appearance but exuding a dangerous aura at all times, opened his eyes.

His eyes were very sharp, and Su Zhan just looked back and felt as if he was seen through by the other party.

The reason is also very simple: his own realm is only "the first level of the ordinary realm", while the other party is "the fourth level of the ordinary realm"!

"Bald, give him the spirit stone."

The thin man said calmly.

"Master Zhou, this..."

"Stop talking nonsense."

The bald man wanted to say a few more words, but after being glanced at by the thin man, he shuddered and quickly took out a low-grade spirit stone and threw it into Su Zhan's hand.

"Thank you very much, Master Zhou!"

Su Zhan was surprised, and after reacting, he quickly bowed and thanked him.

The thin man didn't say anything, drank a sip of wine, and closed his eyes.

Leaving the house, what came into view outside was a group of people like Su Zhan, dressed in simple or even tattered clothes, with tired faces.

There were teenagers, middle-aged people, and elderly people... There was a long queue of more than a kilometer, with more than thousands of people.

Everyone, like him, was a cultivator who started at the first level of the mortal realm...After all, they were going to dig a spirit stone vein. Without a certain strength foundation, they couldn't even break the rock layer, let alone collect 100 miscellaneous spirit stones every day.

Some of them had cloudy eyes, numbness, and no hope.

Some people were excited and looking forward to it, and began to think about the scene of feasting after receiving the spiritual stones.

More people whispered to each other, trying to have fun in the midst of suffering, and vividly described the various interesting things that happened in the mine today.

In contrast, Su Zhan was completely different from what they thought.

"I hope this time, I can really have a chance to leave this ghost place!"

Su Zhan raised his right palm, his eyes flashing.

There was a mysterious black brand pattern in the palm of his right hand, which looked like the obscure ancient characters in his previous life.

This black brand did not exist originally. He accidentally cut his palm when digging for spiritual stones the day before yesterday, and blood oozed out in an instant. He wanted to wipe it off, but suddenly found that the blood was absorbed by the palm!

Then, this mysterious brand pattern quietly emerged.

The first time he saw this thing, Su Zhan immediately thought of something mentioned in countless fantasy novels he had read: system! Gold finger!

However, when he tried to communicate and contact with him in ecstasy, he got no response at all.

No matter how hard he racked his brains and tried every possible means, it didn't work.

Helplessly, Su Zhan could only let it go temporarily.

Until he handed in the spirit stone, received the reward, and wanted to eat a bowl of noodles to reward himself, he accidentally found that his low-grade spirit stone was absorbed by the black mark!

During the absorption, the black mark emitted a bright light, illuminating Su Zhan's stunned and excited face.

But after the absorption, the black mark became silent again, and there was no movement at all.

Su Zhan tried various things again, and the result was obvious, nothing happened.

However, this also pointed out a clear way for Su Zhan: as long as he gave it spirit stones, there might be unexpected effects!

But there is a prerequisite, it must be pure spirit stones. The mixed spirit stones that Su Zhan spent a day digging out did not move at all.

Obviously this thing is a bit "picky".

Yesterday, after a day of hard work, Su Zhan successfully fed it a piece of low-grade pure spirit stone... But after the light faded, the black mark remained silent and had no effect.

Today, Su Zhan almost lost a day's work, but fortunately, Mr. Zhou helped to speak up and saved this low-grade spirit stone.

"After today, the gold I saved before will be used up. Otherwise... don't feed it for the time being and keep it?"

Su Zhan was a little hesitant.

The mine is a place where people are slaughtered.

100 pieces of mixed spirit stones are enough to exchange for 10 pieces of low-grade pure spirit stones in the outside world, and the ratio is ten to one... At this point, the ratio is directly a hundred to one!

Not only that.

In the outside world, a low-grade spirit stone can be easily exchanged for 100 gold, or even more, which is enough for an ordinary family of five in the outside world to have no worries about food and drink for a lifetime!

But here, it can only be exchanged for 10 gold.

He also broke his bones.

That's fine, but the food sold in the mine is extremely expensive. A bowl of noodles costs 5 gold. If you order dishes, it costs dozens or hundreds of gold per dish... As a newcomer who was forcibly brought here for less than a month, how could Su Zhan afford it?

In the past two days, he relied on the savings accumulated from eating only one meal a day before to barely get by.

But tonight, the gold he has on hand will be used up... If he doesn't exchange this low-grade spirit stone for gold, he will start to starve at noon tomorrow.

"No matter! Hungry!"

Without thinking too much, Su Zhan gritted his teeth and chose to rush.

However, he didn't rush to put the spirit stone in his right hand, but walked straight to his "dormitory", which was a small broken wooden house with leaks on all sides.

After closing the door and confirming that there was no one around, Su Zhan transferred the spirit stone to his right hand.

In an instant, the spirit stone melted quickly, and the light of the black mark reappeared.

Su Zhan stared at the black mark, not wanting to miss any abnormality, even a tiny change... But until the entire spirit stone merged into the black mark and the light completely dimmed, he did not notice any changes.

"Three pure spirit stones, still no movement... Wouldn't it take 10 or even 100 pure spirit stones to activate it?"

Su Zhan was speechless, "If that's the case, then wouldn't I have to stay in this hellhole for a year or two?"

If it were somewhere else, Su Zhan could wait for a year or two, but this is a mine, a place where people are not treated as human beings!

Every day, people either starve to death, die of exhaustion, die of illness, or are beaten to death by some strong men... Almost every day, many people die.

Here, human life is like grass, like ants, and the dead bodies are thrown into mass graves. Even if the strong kill people in public, no one cares... This is why Su Zhan had to swallow his anger when he was deliberately deducted.

If he really stayed here for a year or two, I'm afraid he would die before this thing is activated!

"We are all time travelers, and my life is too miserable..."

Su Zhan sighed and shook his head helplessly, "There is no way, I will fill my stomach first, and see if I can borrow some food from someone tomorrow."

Just like when he was forcibly brought here, even if he was reluctant, he could only accept the reality if he wanted to survive.

But just when Su Zhan turned around, he suddenly saw a black figure standing quietly in front of him——

"It's bad!"

At that moment, Su Zhan's scalp exploded, as if struck by lightning, his face was pale... His heart sank to the bottom of the valley, and the whole person fell into an unprecedented panic and panic!

He was discovered!

When did the man behind him come?

How come he didn't notice it at all? !

Once the black mark in his hand is exposed, how cruel will his fate be? !

In an instant, countless bad thoughts popped up in Su Zhan's mind, and various tragic consequences were quickly played in his mind like a movie.

But the next second.

"Huh?"

Su Zhan noticed something was wrong.

This black figure... why is he not wearing pants? No... it's a little... unreal?

Su Zhan raised his head suddenly.

He saw the full picture of the black figure in front of him at once.

This is a black phantom that is almost the same height and appearance as him, as if it was carved out of the same mold.

It has no flesh, no hair, and no facial features... just a black illusory human outline.

"What... what is this?"

Su Zhan's forehead was sweating coldly, and he couldn't help but take two steps back, and his back felt a little cold.

He looked at the face of the black phantom. The other party obviously had no facial features, but Su Zhan felt a sense of staring at each other.

Suddenly.

A strange, mechanical, special melody sounded in Su Zhan's mind for no reason.

Su Zhan was stunned.

His expression changed from astonishment to horror and then to shock.

Logically, Su Zhan could not understand it at all, but he was natural and understood the meaning of this melody. It was exactly these two words: Master!