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."
Jiang Yuqing coldly snorted. "If you don't lead the way, I'll turn you into fertilizer right now."
"W-We'll lead the way! Please don't kill us, Great Immortal!" Apparently the burly man feared death more than the short one.
Jiang Yuqing had the little bramble release them. After tying up their bows, arrows, and weapons and binding their hands, she herded them to lead the way forward.
After climbing up and down the mountain for about half a double hour, they finally saw a cave half-hidden among wild bushes at the foot of a cliff in the distance.
Jiang Yuqing gave the two men a look and casually flung a sleep-inducing drug at them, instantly knocking them out cold. They wouldn't wake for two days even if they tried.
She then found an extremely concealed rock crevice to stuff them into. After covering them with a pile of dry grass, she was done with them. She wouldn't sully her spirit world by throwing in these lowlives. Then, swaying exaggeratedly, she walked towards the cave entrance.
There weren't many obvious guards at the mouth of the cave, only five. But concealed in the shadows were dozens more. If not for her spiritual sense detecting them, she might not have noticed at all.
This meant that the killed miner from before definitely did not escape from here. It was very likely he had dug an emergency escape route and fled through there instead.
And since the guards were able to discover his absence and catch up to him so quickly, the escape route must be somewhere close by.
Realizing this, Jiang Yuqing searched the surroundings. However, even with her divine sense, she found nothing. So in the end, she decided to simply enter through the cave mouth.
She didn't know the situation inside the mine. Just as she was considering capturing another guard to interrogate, a blue-robed overseer-looking man suddenly walked out from within.
The guards at the mouth bowed to him. Jiang Yuqing heard the blue-robed man say, "You must guard this place tightly and not let anyone else escape, or we'll all be dead."
The gray-clothed guard acknowledged with a "yes". The overseer went back inside.
Jiang Yuqing quickly ran over and surreptitiously followed along after him.
Inside the mine was dark, damp, and full of winding tunnels. There were wall niches carved out every short distance, each holding a lit pine torch.
And every short distance, there would be a blade-wielding gray-clothed thug standing guard.
Jiang Yuqing followed the blue-clothed overseer through seven or eight turns, walking for about two quarter hours, before arriving at an enormous natural cavern being mined.
No - it should be called a melt cave instead. This was clearly naturally formed.
Inside the cave, many emaciated and raggedly-dressed miners were clustered around vats, smelting ore. The toxic fumes released from the burning coal filled the entire space, making people cough incessantly.
Even Jiang Yuqing couldn't help but sustain a filtering mask with spiritual energy.
The raging firelight cast onto the miners' hollow, numb, skull-like faces gave Jiang Yuqing the feeling that she had entered hell.
Some gray-clothed men were stacking the molded gold ingots into red lacquered boxes. The blue-clothed overseer covered his nose as he walked over. He picked up an ingot and weighed it in his hand, nodding satisfactorily.
After a box was filled, the gray-clothed men would seal it and carry it away. Jiang Yuqing hurried after them. After changing carriers twice and walking for another short quarter hour, they finally arrived at a small cave chamber.
The entrance of the chamber had an extremely heavy thousand-gold stone door. The blue-clothed overseer took an iron key from his waist, inserted it into a small hole, and turned it. With a click, a concealed compartment opened up in the nearby wall. Inside was an enshrined deity statue. The overseer reached in and made a turn.
The heavy stone door rumbled open and the group walked inside.
Jiang Yuqing took a look - lo and behold, it was filled to the ceiling with these red lacquered boxes adorned with seals, likely all containing gold ingots.
After leaving the treasure cave, Jiang Yuqing continued to follow the blue-clothed overseer to many other places: the tunnels where the miners were excavating ore, the caverns where they lived, and even the mass graves where the bodies of miners who had been tortured to death were discarded.
She followed along like this for an entire day.
It turned out all the miners working here had been brought by various cruel means like deceit, abduction, and capture. Every day, they were required to work over seven double hours. If they slowed down even a little, they would incur a severe beating from the guards.
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.
