Chapter 84: The Mine

Chapter 84

Jiang Yuqing had promised her master that she would go to the capital city to accompany him for the Lantern Festival. Although her family was reluctant to part with her, they also knew that Doctor Qiu must be very lonely in his marquis manor in the capital.

Moreover, in another half a year, when Jiang Wenyuan's three-year term expires, he would go to the capital to give a report. By then, the whole family could reunite again.

On the thirteenth day of the first lunar month, Jiang Yuqing celebrated the Lantern Festival early with her family. At the first light on the fourteenth, carrying several large baskets of delicious food and Bai Xiaojiu, she rode Bai Xiaoshi into the air towards the capital under her family's reluctant gaze.

Watching his daughter riding a deer and rising into the air, before her figure flashed and quickly disappeared into the void, Jiang Wenyuan was filled with complex emotions...

At noon, Jiang Yuqing stopped to rest by a waterfall at the edge of a mountain range. She also lit a fire to roast some cakes for lunch.

Just when the cakes were almost roasted, she suddenly heard rustling sounds behind her, as if something was running over.

She paused and pricked up her ears to listen carefully. There seemed to be human shouts as well.

It was severely cold at this time of the year. How could there be people deep in these mountains?

Jiang Yuqing immediately slapped a stealth talisman on herself and directed Bai Xiaoshi to fly towards the direction of the sounds. She saw two men in gray chasing after an escaping person. One of them pulled his bow taut and shot an arrow. With a "whoosh", the escaping person fell to the snowy ground with a cry.

Jiang Yuqing was shocked. Who were these two men who dared to openly kill someone?

The two men ran over, viciously kicked the fallen person, and bent over to check him. After making sure the arrow had pierced his heart and he was dead, they grinned with relief.

The burly man cursed, "Damn it! Can't you just obediently work in the mine? Why did you have to run? Now I have to see blood over New Year and suffer bad luck!"

The shorter man cupped his hands over his mouth and breathed onto them impatiently. "For goodness sake, stop blabbering and hurry up to dig a pit."

As the burly man dug a pit, he said, "We eat poorly and sleep badly in this awful place. All we do every day is kill people and bury corpses. If not for the gold, I wouldn't be suffering like this."

The short man snorted and sucked up his frozen mucus. "I know, alright? The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go back. Damn it, I'm freezing to death."

"Mine, gold, the emaciated and tattered escapee, killing people and burying corpses" - from these terms, Jiang Yuqing could tell these two were definitely not good people.

She patted the little bramble on her wrist, "Tie them up for me."

The little bramble immediately flew out from her and rapidly expanded in size, growing countless thick vines. In a flash, two vines whipped out and wrapped the two thugs tightly into zongzi rice dumplings, hanging them in midair.

Thinking they had encountered a monster, the two thugs struggled in fright, screaming for help. But aside from swaying faster on the vines, they were completely helpless.

Jiang Yuqing had already set up an isolation barrier so no matter how loudly they yelled, no one would hear them.

She kept her stealth talisman on and altered her voice into a low, hoarse masculine one to scare them. "Who exactly are you people and why did you commit murder here? If you don't honestly confess, I'll turn you into fertilizer for this mountain forest!"

The two had already been scared out of their wits by the sudden appearance of vines. Now, hearing a voice but seeing no one, their courage completely deserted them. A yellow liquid streamed down from their shoe tips - they had peed themselves from fright!

Disgusted, the little bramble swung them farther away and shook itself. It extended two branches in front of their faces, swaying them threateningly before suddenly shooting out one-foot-long glistening thorns right at their noses.

The short man's entire body shook like a sieve. Stuttering badly, he said, "Great, g-g-great immortal, spare us. W-w-we are the guards of a m-mine. This man was a miner who escaped when we weren't paying attention. We w-were here to catch him."

"What mine and where is it located?"

"J-just in the valley over the next mountain."

"Can you lead the way there?"

"We c-can't, Great Immortal. If the overseer finds out we brought a stranger back, w-we'd be done for."

However, their daily food allowance was only two measly meals, each consisting of a fist-sized portion of mixed grain and vegetable buns plus a bowl of clear water.

Many people could not endure and were worked or beaten to death. After they died, their bodies would be directly dragged away and thrown into a deep pit.

These people had simply obliterated human nature.

After Jiang Yuqing figured out the entire situation of the mine cave, she drew a detailed map.

She then sneaked into the residence of the overseer in gray clothes, used her spiritual power to seal his five senses and make him fall into deep sleep, took the key from his body, and started rummaging through the room.

She searched through the pillows, beddings, under the bed and inside the wardrobe, and found a lot of gold, silver and treasures. Jiang Yuqing did not hesitate at all and put everything into her spiritual space.

She also found a small box hidden in a very secretive niche in the wall. The box was full of letters.

Jiang Yuqing quickly glanced through them and found that there were letters from two people, one named Bi Jieli and the other signed with a twisted abstract pattern that looked like a Crystal Orchid.

This is an epiphytic herb that has medicinal uses. It tastes sweet and has a neutral property, can nourish and stop coughing, mainly used to treat lung deficiency and coughing.

But it also has many other names, like "Flower of the Underworld", "Flower of Death", "Flower of Ghosts", none of which are auspicious. Anyone who uses it as a totem must not be a good person.

That’s probably why the miners in this cave suffered so badly.

The letters were probably inquiring about the gold smelting progress and urging for gold. Judging by the dates, Jiang Yuqing guessed that they probably transported gold out every two months.

The last gold transport was before the New Year.

Jiang Yuqing collected all the letters, put a stack of blank papers inside the box, cast an illusion on it, then put it back to its original place.

After making sure there was nothing left in the room, Jiang Yuqing took the key and used the same method to make the guards outside the treasure vault fall asleep. She then opened the door with the key and looted all the gold inside, replacing them with rocks of equal weight.

After quickly moving everything from the two treasure vaults, Jiang Yuqing woke the guards up. The guards thought they had just fallen asleep from exhaustion, and did not dare to mention it to their superiors in fear of punishment, so they acted as if nothing had happened.

After making a huge fortune, Jiang Yuqing returned to the overseer’s residence and hung the key back to its original place, also removing the seal on his five senses. But this guy was still fast asleep, even snoring. He had really fallen into deep sleep.

There was no distinction between day and night inside the cave. After Jiang Yuqing exited the mine, she realized the moon was already high up in the sky.

As for the two men in gray clothes she had put to sleep and stuffed into crevices, since they were extremely vicious and unpardonable, there was no need to keep them alive.

She brought them to a nearby mountain forest, tore off a piece of clothing, and had the little bramble drag them underground to feed the plants. She then carefully cleaned up the scene.

When the two guards went missing, the overseers in the cave would definitely send people out to investigate after finding out.

To avoid stirring up a hornet’s nest, she specifically went into her spirit space to pull out Bai Xiaojiu who was sleeping soundly. She made it walk around the nearby mountain forest several times, successfully shredding the discarded gray clothes, and sprinkling some rabbit blood on them, making it seem as if they were eaten by tigers.

After taking care of everything, Jiang Yuqing returned to her spirit space to rest. At first light the next day, she flew high up again to draw a detailed map of the surrounding mountains and terrain.

She discovered that this place was not far from Daizhou City, only about 50 kilometers northwest of Daizhou City in the Shangling Mountains.

For them to secretly mine gold so close to Daizhou City, if the mine owner did not have the local officials as backers for protection, Jiang Yuqing refused to believe it. She decided to go to Daizhou to investigate the situation.

She used an illusion art to disguise herself as a middle-aged merchant and entered Daizhou City. She picked a tea house with very elegant decor. Under the pretense of casually chatting with the waiter while drinking tea, she tried to ask if he knew someone called “Bi Jieli”.

As soon as the waiter heard the name, he immediately stopped her and said, "That's the name of our magistrate. My dear guest, you must never directly address him by name. If others were to overhear it, you'd be punished with caning if reported to the yamen."

Jiang Yuqing quickly pushed a silver ingot to him, saying that she did not mean it and asked him to let it slide.