Chapter 68 Mines

The carriage quickly exited the inner city, and several good official colts were held by white servants waiting at the city gates.

Xu Qi’an and his group switched to fast horses and passed through one of the streets and downtowns of the outer city, leaving the outer city in only half an hour, and the six riders immediately sped up and rushed to Da Huang Mountain at a fiery pace.

“The official horse runs just as fast, this is approaching fifty yards, can the horse in my last life run this fast ….” Xu Qi’an muttered in his heart.

Differences brought about by varying levels of aura often found in fiction?

This guess makes sense because practicing qi is instinctively a form of exhalation.

The group arrived at the edge of the Da Huang Mountain at noon, stopped at the edge of the official road, tied their horses’ ropes to the trunks of the trees by the roadside, ate their dry food, and then took a shortcut into the mountain through a goat’s path.

The six rushed furiously to catch up, and after a quarter of an hour, they came to the river that flowed through the foot of the Rhubarb Mountain.

Searching along the river for a few moments, they found a few faint footprints, about three feet long and a foot and a half wide, with four toes.

Lu Qing and his two fellow officers took off the packages on their backs and took out the explosive packets, distributing them to Xu Qi’an’s three men:

“Using the paw prints as a center, we’ll go downstream and drop the explosive packets, you guys go upstream and see if we can force the demons out of the river.”

It was a ploy set in motion long ago.

The administration of gunpowder by the Dafeng Dynasty was very strict, the formula was kept secret, and all the materials needed to make gunpowder were monopolized by the court.

Even the night watchmen, as well as the fast hands of the government offices, such as Lv Qing, knew only a little about the composition of gunpowder.

Still sniffing it out.

Both sides set the explosive packets on fire and threw them into the river.

“Boom!”

A dull explosion rang out and the river splashed several feet high.

Soon, the explosive packets ran out, and the group stood on the bank, looking at the rolling turbid waves, and waited for a long time, but did not see the demonic creature surfacing on the surface of the river.

“It would have been nice to have the help of the warlocks from the Sithian Supervisor.” Xu Qi’an lamented.

Qiwatching can be used to pinpoint the location of a demonic creature by observing its aura.

Song Tingfeng let out a “heh” and said in a low voice, “The magicians of the Siantian Supervisor are more noble than us beaters, and only take orders from His Majesty, so don’t expect to work them on this kind of small case.”

The warlocks of the Divine Constabulary are noble? Why don’t I think so? You haven’t seen the look on their faces when they look at me with reverence.

Xu Qi’an nodded with a ‘hmm’.

The two sides rendezvoused and Song Tingfeng shrugged, “It looks like it won’t come out, so my suggestion is to go into the mountain and take a look. If there really is something in the Great Yellow Mountain.”

Xu Qi’an added, “Check the areas where the gray households collect limestone first.”

Lü Qing nodded somberly.

The two groups entered the mountain in separate groups, one in front of the other, tens of meters apart.

Song Tingfeng turned towards Lu Qing’s back and nudged his mouth, “This female sheriff of the government office has an amazing body, look at that ass, tight and firm, with powerful legs. Although the girl from the Department of Education is watery, she’s still too soft.”

Agreed, and this kind of martial arts training woman has a waistline, smooth curves and taut thighs, and maybe shallow abs ….. This reminds me of my wife Tifa ….. Xu Qi’an deliberated, “But she seems to be used to wrapping her breasts, that’s not good, it will cause deformation of her breasts.”

Song Tingfeng froze and laughed, “You really noticed it too, I lack a companion as interesting as you, Zhu Guangxiao is a stuffy gourd who can’t hit a fart with three sticks.”

For men, chatting about dirty jokes is always an entertainment that is both fun and passes the time.

Zhu Guangxiao glanced at him and stifled his voice.

Gray households are mainly collected on the main peak of the Da Huangshan Mountain, and the group saw the mountain with exposed rocks from a distance, like a white spot on a human face.

Years and years of mining have damaged the towering main peak in a thousand ways.

Both sides searched aimlessly in the mountains for a long time and did not find anything of value.

When they gathered to drink water, Lu Qing said, “Da Huang Mountain not only has high-quality limestone, but also has abundant vegetation, which can be cut down locally to be used as dyes, and it is extremely convenient for the ash households to open kilns, which are dug and burned as they go, and burned and crushed as they go.

“There is a river at the foot of the mountain, and the canal is convenient. The firewood is saved and the ash is beautiful, the labor is half as much as the profit.”

Another constable from the government office added, “That’s why the taxes are also heavy, so you can’t pick ash and then cut off your livelihood.”

So sue to the government office …. Xu Qi’an was silent for a moment and sighed, “Excessive taxes spawn stragglers, and the people’s fat is the most delicious food.”

The crowd was instantly silent, and no one dared to pick up on it.

Song Tingfeng coughed and changed the topic, “Demons don’t come out of the water, and there’s not enough manpower if we search the mountain. Sheriff Lu, what do you suggest.”

Although he was still craving for someone else’s body just now, Song Tingfeng wouldn’t belittle this woman just because she had big boobs and a nice ass.

Lu Qing deliberated, “Let’s divide our troops into three groups, two for one, and go to the chiefs of the nearby villages; go back to the capital to gather the manpower to search the mountain; I’ll go to Lord Prefect to beg for a magician from the Sithian Supervisor to come and help.”

“That would be too much of a waste of time,” Xu Qi’an waved his hand and said, “Choose one person to go and find the chief of the nearby village, and leave the rest to stay here.”

Lu Qing frowned.

Xu Qi’an glanced at her, “If there’s no harvest, I’ll be responsible for finding a warlock in the Sitian Supervisor.”

He said it as if he was sure of it …. The warlocks of the Divine Constabulary can listen to him?

Lu Qing scrutinized Xu Qi’an for a moment, nodded slightly, and dispatched one of his companions to invite someone.

In less than half an hour, that peak Essence Refining Realm constable returned with an old man.

“My surname is Zhang, I’m the village chief of Hegou Village outside Da Huang Mountain.” The old man gave a not-so-standard salute, his tone agitated:

“I have finally waited for a few adults, if you don’t come, the people of the village won’t be able to open their pots.”

It’s been dragging on for a little over half a year.

Lu Qing stared at him, his gaze sharp and his demeanor majestic: “This official asks you, where did those ten or so people who finally entered the mountain die?”

“To the south ….” The rikishi pointed south of the mountains, “It’s in from the opposite direction of the river.”

Song Tingfeng’s heart stirred, “There’s an ash burning kiln over there too?”

After the exploration just now, they found that the spot where the ash was burned most intensively was not far from the river. The ash households took a detour into the mountains, and they definitely didn’t dare to choose this side to burn ash.

Because when the demon comes ashore, no one can escape.

The mayor nodded, “A few sporadic spots, not as many as here.”

“Take us there.” Lu Qing said in a deep voice.

“Yes!” The Rie Chang seemed to be afraid of this female constable.

The group headed south, the trail was rugged and extremely difficult to climb. They had to take into account the old man who was the head of the village, so they didn’t go very fast.

“This is it.” The rikishi stopped on the goat path and pointed ahead to a clearing that had been dug out.

Rocks are piled up, vegetation has been cut down, and there are several grotto-like kilns that were used to burn ash.

A few people searched the site and found no valuable clues, the place had been cleaned up long ago.

Song Tingfeng and Lu Qing looked at each other and both shook their heads.

Xu Qi’an said, “Go into the kiln and take a look.”

Several of the men took to the ground, lit torches, drew their sabers, and cautiously entered the earthen kiln.

He originally thought that it was just a kiln used to burn ash and wouldn’t be too deep, but as they walked, Xu Qi’an and the others realized that something was wrong.

This is not a kiln, it is clearly a tunnel carved out by the population, and it took a tea time to go to the end.

Song Tingfeng narrowed his eyes and said, “The kiln doesn’t need to be dug so deep, this is obviously something being excavated, and there are no traces of smoke and fire on the stone walls.”

Lu Qing beckoned the Rie Chang and asked drily, “What’s going on?”

The head of the neighborhood was confused and nagged, “I, I don’t know…”

Xu Qi’an held up the torch, observing the rock wall and carefully surveying the ground for a moment. Casually, he picked up a palm-sized piece of white ore.

Is that what’s being mined?

It doesn’t seem to be limestone.

Xu Qi’an’s palm exerted force, his qi surged, and the white ore was crushed into powder by him in a “clicking” sound.

He held up a torch and sprinkled the powder trying to flame.

Whew!

The torches instantly burst into flame, bright yellow with a dull purple tinge.

Nitro?

Xu Qi’an’s pupils shrank.

The sudden rise of the flames startled the crowd inside the grotto, and the sounds of peyote gathering chi came one after another.

Seeing that it was Xu Qi’an who had done the trick, Lu Qing was slightly enraged, “What are you up to?”