I Become a Martial Arts God in the Chaotic Demon World

Seventy li southwest of Smoke Wave Prefecture, within the Elemental Crystal Mine of Heavenly Fire Mountain.

This place was jointly controlled by the Xuanyuan Cave and Lishan Sect, each dividing half of the large mine.

At that moment, the entire hillside was full of bare-chested miners braving the scorching heat to extract Elemental Crystals deeply embedded in the mountain. Each swing of their iron pickaxes seemed to expend all their strength, immediately causing sweat to pour down like rain.

The extraction of Elemental Crystals was exceptionally difficult.

Firstly, the Elemental Crystals themselves had attributes; some leaned toward fire, others toward water. Thus, the Elemental Crystal mines were usually influenced by the power of the crystals. Despite the abundance of Spiritual Energy, it was quite hostile for people.

The Elemental Crystals from Heavenly Fire Mountain were of the Fire Attribute, so rolling heat waves hit them in the face, almost like being roasted on a fire.

Moreover, the crystals contained an extremely abundant amount of Spiritual Energy, affecting the surrounding rocks and making them incredibly hard; miners had to swing their iron pickaxes with all their might just to chip the stone.

Even the iron pickaxes used by the miners were made from Hundred-refined Steel, which could be used as material for Mystical Weapons elsewhere.

Because the conditions for mining Elemental Crystals were so harsh, ordinary people could not do the mining at all, and only postnatal martial artists who had cultivated Inner Strength could work as miners.

In a place like Heavenly Fire Mountain, ordinary people would dehydrate and die within an hour, and even martial artists had to constantly channel their Inner Strength to withstand the heat wave.

Furthermore, ordinary people were too weak; in half an hour, they probably couldn't even chip a single rock.

In such harsh conditions, there was actually a small shack set up on the peak of Heavenly Fire Mountain, surrounded by a simple Array Plate constructed from Ice Attribute Elemental Crystals. It could deploy an array at any time, emitting bursts of cool breeze.

A fat man around his forties, dressed in luxurious brocade and with a corpulent figure, sat inside the shack enjoying the cool air, sipping wine, and holding a fiery-red whip in his hand, supervising the miners below.

Whenever someone's movements were slow, the fat man immediately lashed out with the whip from the air; instantly, a streak of fiery True Qi would crash down onto those miners.

This whip seemed to amplify the range of the True Qi, which did not dissipate even across hundreds of feet.

He was Hu Dehai, the manager in charge of the Elemental Crystal Veins under the Lishan Sect, a nephew-in-law of the Sect Leader Fei Qingfeng.

Although the mining area was tough, it was lucrative; by skimming just a small portion of Elemental Crystals each day, Hu Dehai had enough to eat lavish meals.

He had requested this position from his sister for a long time.

Now, he treated the Elemental Crystal Veins as his private property; apart from the monthly share given to the Lishan Sect, he kept the rest for himself.

Therefore, he couldn't stand seeing the miners slacking off—any slack meant fewer crystals for him!

"Damn it! Hu the fatty is becoming more ruthless by the day; now we dig for eight "two hours" every day, excluding eating and going to the bathroom, we barely have time to sleep!"

A miner in his thirties complained while swinging his iron pickaxe.

A simple-faced, fifty-year-old miner beside him shook his head and said, "Come on, Xiao Sun, don't complain. Didn't we come here because the mine pays more than the docks?

Our Black Water Gang is growing, but the space at the docks is limited. Although the Gang Leader has tried his best to arrange livelihoods for us, there are too many brothers in the gang, and everyone can't earn much money.

The mine is tough, but it still pays well. After a few more years of working here, I'll buy a small boat and go fishing, then we won't have to work so hard."

Most of the members of the Black Water Gang were called martial artists, but in reality, their cultivation was frighteningly low.

Like the two men in front, at most, they had opened just two or three acupoint levels, only slightly stronger and more vigorous than ordinary people, hardly having any fighting ability. Strictly speaking, they couldn't even be considered martial artists. They belonged to the lowest rung within the Black Water Gang, which is why they came to the mine for a living.

Xiao Sun shook his head and said, "Uncle Li, I'm not blaming the Gang Leader, but this Hu the fatty is too unreasonable.

It was agreed to be six "two hours" per day, but now look, it's eight "two hours", he's literally working us to death.

And to make matters worse, our pay hasn't increased a bit despite the longer hours; that's just going too far."

Uncle Li was about to caution him against speaking recklessly in case Hu the fatty overheard.

But suddenly, a voice sounded from behind them.

"Working you to death? So are you dead now? You still have the energy to chat here after working eight "two hours" a day; I think you are not tired at all!"

The two men whirled around in shock, only to see Hu the fatty standing behind them with a few overseers, wearing a cold sneer on his face.

Shivering, Uncle Li quickly said, "Manager Hu, calm your anger, Xiao Sun didn't mean that!"

"He didn't mean that? Then what did he mean?"

The look on Manager Hu's face twisted into a sinister sneer, "You wretched slaves lack discipline, you won't move unless beaten. I see you're still too idle!"

As he spoke, Manager Hu's whip lashed onto Xiao Sun, instantly splitting his skin and spilling his flesh, eliciting a scream of agony.

"I'm not a slave!"

Xiao Sun stood up, bellowing loudly.

"Still talking back? Beat him to death!"

Manager Hu's expression darkened immediately, and he ordered the overseer to beat Xiao Sun mercilessly.

Uncle Li begged for mercy, "Manager Hu, please spare him. We're all from the Black Water Gang, please consider giving face to our gang."

"Using the Black Water Gang to press me? Even if Chen Jiuzhen himself stood before me, I wouldn't give this face! You old fool, I see you're also seeking death!"

Hu Dehua had absolutely no regard for Chen Jiuzhen and the Black Water Gang, he even held a trace of disdain.

What was the Black Water Gang anyway?

A gang formed by a bunch of country bumpkins, reeking of fish all over.

Hadn't he killed members of the Black Water Gang before? And he was still here managing just fine, wasn't he?

"Beat this old fool to death too. Let the Black Water Gang come and collect the bodies!"

Without a second glance, Hu Dehai turned and walked away.

The cries of the two men grew fainter until, in the Elemental Crystal Mine of Heavenly Fire Mountain, apart from the sounds of mining, no other sound could be heard.

All the miners, struck with horror, were frantically hitting the stones.

Manager Hu, satisfied, nodded.

He was naturally brutal, killing any miner who annoyed him on a whim.

Later, he realized that occasionally killing a miner made the others work faster; sometimes even if he didn't want to kill, he found some random excuse to kill one or two.

Today, just happened to be the day some members of the Black Water Gang fell into his hands, it would be odd if they survived.

By nightfall, the bodies of Uncle Li and Xiao Sun had been delivered to the Black Water Gang.

Chen Jiuzhen watched the bodies in silence, and a trusted subordinate whispered, "The people from the Lishan Sect delivered the bodies, and they also brought two hundred taels of silver. I've also taken two hundred taels from our funds to send to their families."

"Is that all my Black Water Gang brothers are worth?"

Chen Jiuzhen suddenly spoke, his voice chillingly cold.

This wasn't the first time such an event had occurred, the subordinate whispered in an attempt to calm him, "Gang Leader, please control your anger, don't harm your health. The manager of the Heavenly Fire Mountain mine site is Fei Qingfeng's brother-in-law, and Fei Qingfeng is aware of his deeds, but these one hundred taels might be the limit. After all, the lives of our Black Water Gang brothers... aren't that valuable."

Chen Jiuzhen suddenly laughed coldly, causing the subordinate to shiver in fright.

"The lives of my Black Water Gang brothers aren't valuable, so it seems I, as their Gang Leader, am not valuable to them either."

Before the subordinate could react, Chen Jiuzhen said solemnly, "I'm going to Xuanyuan Cave. Bury our two brothers."

Originally, Chen Jiuzhen had planned to demand justice for the deaths of the Black Water Gang members at Xuanyuan Cave someday.

He hadn't expected that today, two brothers would be beaten to death together.

Before today, Chen Jiuzhen might have endured these occurrences.

But since Han Zheng had laid bare his thoughts today, encountering this situation again made Chen Jiuzhen feel an unbearable humiliation, his rage too great to contain.

Now, he merely hoped that someone from forces like Xuanyuan Cave would come forward and speak a word of justice.

Otherwise, he would have no choice but to follow the same dark path as Han Zheng.