The next day, just after dawn, Ye Lingyue completed her daily cultivation. She followed Ye Fengyun’s arrangement and went to the Ye family’s quarry.

 The Ye family built themselves up from the mining business. The quarry was used to cut, sort, and screen through the ore mined from the Seven Star mountain. After the preliminary extraction, they sell them off in the county city.

The quarry could also carry out small-scale ore trading to supply the daily use of the iron shops and townspeople in Autumn Maple town. The Ye family’s quarry was also a small market.

 70 to 80% of the Ye family’s income depended on the quarry, so the importance of the quarry was second to the Ye family’s mine.

 “Lingyue, this is your first time to the quarry, so I’ll take you around.” Ye Lingyue’s eldest cousin, Ye Sheng, whom she had seen once during the competition, was tasked to show Ye Lingyue around.

Ye Sheng was a handsome sixteen years old boy. But as the eldest grandson of the Ye family, he was a little arrogant.

 At first glance, Ye Sheng did not have much of an impression of Ye Lingyue. He only knew that she was a fool from the moment she was born.

 This time, Ye Lingyue had amazed everyone with her prowess during the competition and his father, Ye Fengyun, was full of praises for Ye Lingyue. He kept saying that she was a genius.

 Seeing her that day, Ye Sheng thought that she was not that special. She was just lucky to have defeated Ye Ning and thus was called a genius. His father was a little over the top.

 In Ye Sheng’s view, Third Aunt was indeed a genius when she was younger, but that did not mean that her daughter was a genius as well. The only genius who Ye Sheng acknowledged was Ye Liuyun.

 Ye Sheng did not agree to it, so when he showed Ye Lingyue around, he was slightly impolite. Ye Lingyue noticed this but did not speak out loud and just followed behind Ye Sheng, casually asking him about the quarry.

 “Lingyue, you are a member of the Ye family. Do you know what our family’s major business is?” Ye Sheng asked Ye Lingyue as they walked.

 “The mine and iron ore. I heard that the Ye family’s ancestor founded the Ye family after he discovered a big mine in the mountains.” Ye Lingyue knew a little about the history of the Ye family.

 “Wrong. How can an ordinary iron ore support the whole Ye family? What the Ye family is good at is refining iron and dark iron.” Ye Sheng pouted his lips and looked down on Ye Lingyue’s ignorance.

 Even a three-year-old child in the Ye family knew such a simple thing, but Ye Lingyue didn’t.

 “Please do guide me along, Big Cousin.” Ye Lingyue did not care and instead asked him for guidance.

 “Iron and dark iron is different. For example, the two piles in front of us. The gray pile is iron and the one that is silver is dark iron. The two only differ slightly in color, but there is an enormous difference in price. Ordinary workers can cut and extract iron, but for dark iron, only martial arts practitioners at the third level of body tempering can cut it. While only those at the fifth level of body tempering can extract it.” Ye Sheng picked up a piece of iron and dark iron as he continued explaining it to Ye Lingyue.

 Ye Lingyue also learned a lot about iron and dark iron from Ye Sheng.

 In Great Xia, iron could forge utensils. But dark iron could forge weapons and equip the army.

The production of dark iron was minimal and it was very difficult to extract. Even the Ye family could only extract it at a preliminary stage.

 Among the iron ores produced by the Ye family’s mine every year, the proportion of dark iron and iron was a hundred times different. But since the Ye family had a small portion of dark iron, they could keep standing for many years in Autumn Maple town.

 They went around the quarry. When the workers of the quarry, the merchants, and townspeople who came to do business saw Ye Sheng, they could not help but call out ‘Young Master Ye Sheng’ respectfully. Ye Sheng had a high-ranking position in the quarry.

 Those very people saw a beautiful girl following Ye Sheng around, and they all could not help but look at her. Ye Sheng did not introduce her to them, and it was obvious that he intended to let Ye Lingyue feel left out of place.

“I still have something on. In front of you are the iron ores and dark iron ores. You can learn how to distinguish them first. The processing plant is right in front. If you are interested, you can have a look.” After explaining, Ye Sheng left and let Ye Lingyue think over it herself.

 Ye Lingyue stood in front of the ores for a moment.

 Ye Sheng let Ye Lingyue distinguish the iron ore from the dark iron ore. After mining these ores, they looked strikingly similar. Other than experienced masters, it was difficult for ordinary people to distinguish them. There were many mine workers before who had used the inferior iron ores to pass off as dark iron ores in search of extra profits.

Learning how to distinguish an iron ore from dark iron ore was the first thing a member of the Ye family needed to learn.

For others, it was difficult to distinguish the two kinds of iron ores with the naked eye, but it was very clear in Ye Lingyue’s eyes with the help of the magical cauldron breath of the Qian cauldron.

 With a slight movement of her fingertip, the cauldron breath inside the Qian cauldron burrowed into a piece of dark iron ore.

 It was like what Ye Sheng said. The gray one was iron and the silver one was dark iron. Most of the dark iron ores that the Ye family mined was a mixture of iron and dark iron.

 Under close observation, she found that there were a lot of impurities in the pile of dark iron ores, and the percentage of dark iron in each piece was minimal.

 The dark irons were about 10 to 20% pure.

 Such dark iron ores were impossible to sell in the County City. It first needed extraction by a martial arts practitioner before they could be sold.

 The grade of the dark iron ore was much lower than that of the Dark Yin Jade. When the cauldron breath saw the impurities in the dark iron ore, it circled lazily and then shrank back.

 Bang, bang, bang. She could hear a loud clunking from in front of her.

 Ye Lingyue went forward and saw that it was busy in the processing plant. About 20 to 30 martial arts practitioners were cutting and forging dark iron ores.

 There was a loud shout. To Ye Lingyue’s side, a third level body tempering martial arts practitioner gathered some elementary force into the iron ax. With a swing of the ax, he cut the dark iron ore into several parts.

 They then handed the cut dark iron ore over to a fifth level body tempering martial arts practitioner.

 The other party was holding a hammer, and he struck down on it.

 With a clang, the hammer hit the dark iron ore.

 An elementary force coated the hammer, and when the hammer fell on the iron ore, the force was strong that concentrated that shrills rang.

 With the fall of the hammer, Ye Lingyue could see many stone chips falling out. They also hammered impurities from the iron ores.

 Different from any other ordinary iron shop, the workers that handled the dark iron ores in the quarry were not regular people. If one looked closely, they were using elementary force when cutting and forging.

 After cutting and forging, a piece of dark iron needed about two hours for it to shrink by half, but the composition of dark iron inside should increase by 30 to 40%. Only these dark iron ores are eligible for selling in the County City.

 Ye Lingyue went out of the processing plant amid the shrill noise.

 “It’s too much work. I wonder if the Qian cauldron can purify the dark iron.” When Ye Lingyue walked out of the processing plant, she was holding a dark iron ore and iron ore piece.