Chapter 144: Boiling in Pain

A gaunt, emaciated figure emerged from the other side of the mine tunnel. He silently glided over to Gu Qingyun's side, lowered his voice, and spoke once more:

"Hand over your storage pouch."

Gu Qingyun looked at Gu Qinghu in confusion. "Eighth Brother, what do you need my storage pouch for?"

"Little Twelve, I'll share some of mine with you. Go submit today's quota and head back to check on your Seventh Brother."

Gu Qinghu's voice was low, heavy with a profound sense of worry.

"Eighth Brother, then what about you..." Gu Qingyun hesitated. Everyone was required to mine a specific quota each day.

Exceeding the quota brought modest rewards, such as medicinal pills or food, but failing to meet the deadline carried punishments that ordinary people could scarcely endure.

However, surpassing the quota was purely a matter of blind luck unless one happened to unearth high-grade ore, otherwise...

Even a momentary lapse in concentration or feeling slightly unwell could easily result in missing the daily quota.

"My luck is good today. I dug up a piece of high-grade ore, and just a little more will fulfill my quota."

Eighth Brother Gu Qinghu cracked a faint smile, leaning close to Gu Qingyun's ear to whisper.

Hearing this, Gu Qingyun's mind settled. He took out his storage pouch and let Gu Qinghu transfer a portion of the ore into it.

"Eighth Brother, then I'll be leaving first." Deep down, Gu Qingyun remained deeply worried about Seventh Brother Gu Qingxing.

Gu Qingyun hunched his body, moving through the deep mine tunnel like a nimble cat, navigating several twists and turns until he emerged.

Applying the Gale Footwork beneath his feet, he hurried toward the location where quotas were submitted.

"Gu Twelve, you finished digging fast today!"

The man in charge of registering and collecting the ore flashed a forced, mirthless smile when he saw Gu Qingyun.

"Is Gu Little Seven still not better?

If he doesn't come out to labor in the mines by the day after tomorrow, we won't be able to accommodate him any longer here.

This isn't a charity house; we can't afford to feed idlers!"

"Manager Wu, my Seventh Brother is recovering soon. Please show some flexibility and give us a little more time!"

Gu Qingyun forced an awkward smile, his face etched with pleading.

"Hmph, I, Wu Yan, have already shown enough respect to you Gu brothers by letting Gu Seven lie in bed for several days."

Manager Wu said with an indifferent expression, "You had all better look after yourselves."

With that, he tossed the emptied storage pouch in front of Gu Qingyun and cast his gaze elsewhere.

***

Gu Qingyun picked up the storage pouch and walked silently toward the living quarters.

A quarter of an hour later, he reached a row of dilapidated stone houses.

Inside each stone house, a row of wooden beds stood pressed against the wall, with nothing else besides them.

On one of the wooden beds in the corner, a frail figure was curled into the shape of a bow, lying motionlessly on his back.

Had it not been for the slight rise and fall of the tattered quilt with its cotton stuffing spilling out, one wouldn't even have known there was a person on the bed.

"Seventh Brother, are you feeling any better today?" Gu Qingyun approached the head of the bed and asked with concern.

On the bed, Gu Qingxing stared blankly at the ceiling without the slightest reaction, as if he hadn't heard Gu Qingyun at all.

"Seventh Brother—" Seeing him in such a self-abandoning state, Gu Qingyun couldn't help the redness spreading in his eyes. "Seventh Brother, have you forgotten what you told me back then?

Didn't you tell me that we must live well, that only by staying alive can we have hope? But now, how did you end up like this?"

Gu Qingxing slowly rolled his eyeballs, his voice as hoarse as torn gauze. "With me looking like this now, what's the point of living? Living is nothing more than dragging all of you down!"

"Seventh Brother—" Gu Qingyun reached out and gripped Gu Qingxing's arm tightly. "No, Seventh Brother, how can you think like that?

For so long, you've always been the backbone of us brothers. You cannot just cast us aside and give up!"

A faint sorrow appeared on Gu Qingxing's face. Among the brothers sold into the mining mountain, he was the eldest in age, yet now he was the most useless.

A few days ago, while mining, Gu Qingxing had been mentally exhausted, and in a daze, his right hand had suffered a severe injury.

Lacking proper medical care and medicine, his right hand had been left with a lingering disability, making it doubtful whether he could even mine properly in the future.

Knowing that his hand would likely never recover, Gu Qingxing had fallen into extreme despair, terrified of dragging his younger brothers down with him.

"But my hand..." Gu Qingxing's gaze fell upon his right hand, words failing him as they hung on his lips.

"Seventh Brother, back when I first arrived, it was always you who secretly passed your ore to us younger ones, choosing to suffer the punishment yourself.

Now, Eighth Brother, Thirteenth Brother, and I can do the exact same thing for you!"

Gu Qingyun's voice was resolute and forceful, ringing with conviction.

Gu Qingxing's gaze landed on him. Though his eyes remained somewhat unfocused, the dead, lifeless aura had vanished.

Seeing this, a look of joy surfaced on Gu Qingyun's face. "Seventh Brother, are you hungry? I still have a bit of cold steamed bun left from this morning..."

Gu Qingxing nodded silently. Over the past two days, with grief and frustration knotted in his chest, he hadn't eaten anything at all.

Gu Qingyun turned and left the stone house. Watching his departing figure, Gu Qingxing sighed inwardly:

Little Twelve has truly grown up; he is now a man capable of supporting the household!

***

A short while later, Gu Qingyun walked back into the room carrying a bowl of water and a steamed bun of an indeterminate color.

This time, Gu Qingxing did not refuse. He began eating the cold bun, washing it down with cold water.

***

"Big Brother Chu, these are the talisman papers refined by my Exalted Great-grandfather."

Gu Weiyu had run over to the Tranquil Pavilion early in the morning. These days, her drive and enthusiasm were boundless.

Big Brother Chu had told her that, thanks to her father's arrangements, the medicinal pills she refined were in scorching demand, especially her supreme-grade pills, which were practically worth their weight in gold and impossible to procure!

Those three supreme-grade Dragon Scale Pills had fetched an unprecedented, astronomical price at the Myriad Treasures Pavilion's auction, snapped up in a single breath by a Core Formation cultivator who intended them for his blood relatives.

Seeing her daily alchemy generate a rolling tide of spirit stones, Gu Weiyu practiced her craft with tireless dedication.

Nowadays, she delivered a fresh batch of pills every day, which, combined with her Exalted Great-grandfather's talisman papers, had accumulated a substantial hoard of spirit stones in just this autumn season.

Chu Liuxing handed the storage pouch from Gu Weiyu's hand to Liu Huo. "Liu Huo, make a trip and deliver this."

Liu Huo: "..." Did he even have the right to refuse?

"Junior Brother Yu, it's not that I'm nagging, but how many spirit stones are you still short? Wouldn't it be easier to just say a word to your big brother?"

Seeing Gu Weiyu practicing alchemy day and night, Chu Liuxing couldn't help but speak up once more.

It wasn't that Gu Weiyu had never considered this option, but both Third Granduncle and Exalted Great-grandfather disapproved.

Once they opened their mouths to borrow, the sum would not be a small one.

Furthermore, if they were to borrow spirit stones, they would inevitably have to ask Chu Liuxing's father, Chu Nanhe.

By then, their Gu clan would undoubtedly owe the Myriad Treasures Pavilion a monumental favor!

Allowing the Myriad Treasures Pavilion to act as an intermediary for trading pills and talisman papers was a win-win situation, but borrowing spirit stones was an entirely different concept!

"No need, Big Brother Chu, we've already gathered nearly enough spirit stones." Gu Qingyun—no, Gu Weiyu shook her head in polite refusal.

During this period, Third Granduncle and Sixteenth Uncle had sorted through and inventoried their Gu clan's family treasury.

They had disposed of various non-essential items, finally giving them a solid foundation of confidence regarding the task of redeeming their imprisoned kin.

Hearing this, Chu Liuxing couldn't help but feel genuinely happy for Gu Weiyu. "Does that mean we can go redeem them very soon?"