Chapter 3: Opening the Mountain and Breaking the Evil

  Xiao Bailian Qianhu said that Qi Sha had a strict order, and he also led 100 green-clad men to urge the horses into the team. He was also in charge of 1,000 households with crimes, which happened to be Liang Xin's team.

  The officers of those ordinary soldiers handed over the roster, road signs and other matters to Qing Yi one by one, and after confirming that there were no mistakes, they dismissed the troops and left.

  After the army left, the hundred officials successively passed down the order: "Set up camp and depart at dawn."

  At this time, the little white face Qian Hu Cuo, who had not spoken again, suddenly let out a cold laugh and said without raising his head: "You filthy thing, you've been waiting for a long time!"

  Liang Xin's eyes widened in shock, his entire body involuntarily storing up energy for a sudden release!

  Normally at this time, Feng Xi should have arrived, but he didn't dare to show up because the government soldiers hadn't dispersed yet. He hid quietly on one side, not expecting that Qian Hu had already discovered him.

  Xiaobai Lian coldly smiled and lazily stretched out his finger, lightly pointing towards the northwest.

  His finger pointed with no strength, only the wind knew that he had clearly pointed to his hiding place. The air trembled, and Feng XiXi appeared with a worried face, bowing his body and saying in a low voice to Qian Hu: "Spare my life, sir... I..."

  Qian Hu's men saw the nine dragons embroidered on Qing Yi's back and indeed, a small ghost appeared. They drew out their swords to move forward, but Xiao Bai Lian raised an eyebrow upon seeing the golden mole on Feng Xi Xi's face, and waved his hand to stop his men. He calmly said to Feng Xi Xi: "This official bears the heavy trust of the imperial court, and does not wish to have any unexpected branches sprouting out. You should leave quickly!"

  Xiao Bai Lian paused for a moment and coldly laughed: "There are many cultivators ahead, if you get any closer, only your soul will scatter!"

  Several Jiu Long Qing Yi behind Xiao Bai Lian exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with confusion, unable to understand why their master had become so generous.

  Feng Xi Xi still wanted to say something, but in the end, she just stomped her foot in frustration, glanced at Liang Xin with a hint of caution from the corner of her eye, and quickly turned around to leave...

  Liang Xin let out a sigh of relief, relaxed his muscles and followed the other convicts to set up camp.

  After walking for a while, Xiaobai's face wrinkled slightly.

  A stout, dark-skinned man with a big head and ears walked up behind him. This man was one of Qu Qing Shi's trusted subordinates. He said in a low voice: "Sir, when the little ghost appeared, that kid was about to attack." As he spoke, he pointed his hand at Liang Xin's back.

  Xiaobai's face smiled and said: "I know. This matter is none of your business!"

  Hei Pangzi quickly bowed and retreated...

  The next morning, the large group set out again on their journey. As they hurried along, some of the prisoners saw that there were few guards and thought they could escape. However, all those who tried to run away were ruthlessly beheaded. After more than a hundred people had died, the prisoners finally realized that these green-clad guards were as sharp-eyed as hawks, had ears as keen as those of a wild cat, and each one had a nose like a dog's!

  Two days later, Liang Xin finally arrived at the location of the strange rock with his team. Although he had mentally prepared himself, he couldn't help but take a deep breath and gasp in unison with his companions, who all made the same motion. For a moment, the sound of collective gasps filled the air... From afar, everyone's face was a circle of shock.

  The mountains and fields are covered with dense, dark green tents. Countless prisoners in tattered clothing transport earth and rocks, resembling busy ants.

  On the ground, a huge and hideous opening had been dug out, in which lay a greyish-white, sickeningly coloured vein of rock. The vein was shaped like a bamboo shoot, growing thicker as it extended westward, stretching all the way to the edge of sight, where it disappeared under Mount Suren. Around the excavated vein, wooden scaffolding had been erected to prevent accidental falls and deaths.

  A team of nine dragon green robes patrolled around, strictly preventing prisoners from escaping or being lazy; in the air, sword lights often flashed by, which was the immortal master of Zhu Li Daochang's swordsmanship patrol, not looking at ordinary people, but exploring the aura of demons and evil spirits!

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  With the earth shaking violently, deafening explosions rang out one after another. The convicts who excavated the ore veins were using fire and explosives to blast open the mountain...

  Liang Xin swallowed hard: "This won't cause a landslide, will it?"

  Xiaobai's face was just at the head of their team, not far from Liang Xin. He heard his murmurs of surprise and turned back to laugh wildly: "It has collapsed so many times! After collapsing, we will dig again, reinforce, blast again, and then collapse again..."

  Liang Xin didn't dare respond, closing his mouth and thinking to himself: Is this considered deceiving the public?

  Before long, the formalities were completed by the subordinates of Qian Hu, and Liang Xin and others, who had not yet come to their senses, were driven to start work.

  Every thousand prisoners were escorted by one hundred Jiulongqing guards, and these eleven hundred people formed a large camp of "Kai Shan Po Sha". At this moment, in the mountains of Kunlun, there were more than twenty such large camps toiling away.

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  Twenty thousand convicts opened up the mountain and broke the evil spirit, but not everyone came to excavate the mountain roots.

  There are almost 10,000 people who usually stay around the Qiuxia stone vein and excavate non-stop. The rest of the more than ten large camps are all on the surrounding mountains, some are responsible for digging ditches and diverting springs, and some are cutting wood and making firewood, all busy on the surrounding mountains...

  Liang Xin's large camp was left beside Shixue, responsible for opening up the mountain.

  The convicts excavated the mountain roots, first burning the rocks with fierce fire, then splashing cold water, and under the rapid alternation of hot and cold, the rocks would crack open. Finally, while consolidating the rocks on one side, they used pickaxes to break up the stones on the other side, making the danger of collapse much smaller. Only when encountering extremely hard and indestructible rocks would they use fire and thunder.

  After the excavation project entered the underground of the mountain root, due to the stone veins hurting people, every time they advanced a little further, they had to use wood to pave and isolate the ferocity of the stone veins, so that the prisoners could come and go to work.

  Even without landslides, many prisoners died every day. They were originally in poor physical condition and after long-distance marching, they carried heavy stones on their backs. Often, someone would suddenly roll over and fall to the ground...

  It's estimated that the official in charge of this place thought that if things continued like this, there would eventually be no one left to use, so the prisoners' food was improved a lot, not only did they get to eat rice, but sometimes they could even pick out a bit of meat from among the vegetable leaves.

  Time flies, and three or four months have passed, during which Liang Xin has been working underground every day.

  After a long time, Liang Xin gradually got used to the current corvée. This strange stone vein, except for not being able to touch it, seemed not so dangerous... The little white face Qian Hu, also didn't seem as sinister and cruel as the rumored Jiulong Qingyi, most of the time just sulking with a scowl on his face, and not randomly beating or scolding the convicts.

  The project progressed at a snail's pace, but every step forward was like a thousand miles. The stone vein that was excavated became longer and thicker as it went deeper. By now, the excavated part is nearly a thousand feet long, and the base of the stone vein at its end is a good two hundred paces wide!

  That day, Liang Xin's large camp was working on the well. In front of them, two large camps were responsible for excavating the mountain rocks. Liang Xin and others continuously transported cold water and firewood to the front. Xiao Bai Lian followed with his men to supervise the work. If a convict accidentally fell down, the green-clad soldiers would reluctantly help him up.

  At a busy time, a green-clothed leader from the front camp came to find Xiao Bailian with a frown and hurried steps.

  Xiaobai Lian is Qian Hu, at this moment in the well, his official position is the highest.

  The leader's face wore a strange expression: "Sir, something suspicious has happened up ahead. The brothers are having some trouble figuring it out and want to hear your thoughts."

  The young man didn't avoid the guilty ones working beside him and directly asked: "What's going on?"

  Liang Xin dragged his feet and took advantage of the opportunity to be lazy, sticking out his ears to listen to stories.

  The young man's face is ugly but his heart is not evil, pretending not to see.

  The two large camps in front were responsible for excavating the stone wall, first burning the stone wall with wood and then splashing cold water to make the mountain rock explode. Originally, it was no different from before, but as they dug, the stone wall suddenly burst out a series of crackling sounds, and the seemingly hard mountain rocks were instantly covered with dense cracks, like spider webs.

  In the cracks of the tortoiseshell pattern, some luster still faintly shone through.

  The workers were amazed, under Qingyi's command, carefully digging away the rubble, it turned out that after excavating to this point, the stone wall was only left with a thin layer as thick as a palm, and under the attack of water and fire, the entire stone wall began to crack.

  "Does this mean you've dug up everything?"

  Tong Lian smiled wryly and shook his head, thinking that he would have dug up the whole place before finding him. He quickly ran up to report his achievement.

  "After the gravel and dust were all gone... what stood before us was a gigantic white jade bi! The leader, still fearing that others might not believe him, emphasized his words: 'Not a single flaw, nor any cracks, a whole piece of jade bi blocked our way, with the ominous stone vein disappearing beneath it!'"

  Hsss...

  The people around, whether in green clothes or prisoners, all took a deep breath of cool air.

  The mountain cave that has been dug out is high and low, but its width alone is hundreds of feet, comparable to ordinary rivers. Gold has a price, jade is priceless, such a large piece of uncut jade, I'm afraid even if the whole world were to be overturned, it couldn't be exchanged back!

  The leader looked at the small white face's surprised expression, seemingly quite satisfied, and continued: "This jade pendant is too big and too valuable, we don't dare to make a decision on our own, so we've stopped work and sent me to ask for your instructions."

  Xiaobai's face murmured a sentence: "You don't dare to take charge, I'll take charge?" Then he returned to normal, cold and asked: "Is that jade pendant also part of the Stone Vein?"

  The leader shook his head: "We have carefully explored, the jade buckle and stone pulse should not be symbiotic, the stone pulse passes under the jade buckle, with a palm-wide gap in between, and there is no contact between them."

  Xiaobai's face was also lazy and didn't ask: "Take me over to take a look..."

  Just as he hadn't finished speaking, suddenly a loud "boom" sound was heard, and all the lanterns and torches in the mine below extinguished simultaneously without warning!

  Liáng Xīn only felt that his vision suddenly went black, and in the instant he lost sight, he almost stumbled. The fellow prisoners beside him also burst out in shock, on the verge of chaos.

  The little white face's tongue burst forth like spring thunder, and he shouted loudly: "No one is allowed to move or speak rashly! The green-robed one, bring the lantern!"

  The nine dragons' prestige had been built up over a long time, and with a loud shout, the guilty parties immediately quieted down. Following the sound of rustling, the green-clad men in the crowd took out their flints and firesteels, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't even produce a single spark!

  Liáng Xīn's emotions couldn't help but draw him a little closer to Xiao Bai Lian...

  Under the rapid knocking of flint, there seems to be another strange sound, which sounds like something is quietly approaching.

  "Silence! Attention! The Green Robes listen to orders. If there is any unusual sound, approach and kill immediately!"

  The words had barely fallen when a sudden cry of surprise came from the front! Following which the entire mine seemed to have exploded in an instant!

  Roars, screams, wails, and the sound of swords being unsheathed filled the air, a cacophony of mournful sounds that seemed to come from an invisible dragon rampaging through the mine. In addition, there was a chilling crunching sound that came in low but clear, repeating over and over: "Ka-chi, ka-chi, ka-chi..."

  Liang Xin only felt a gust of wind passing by his side, something pounced over from the side, in a state of emergency, he didn't think and threw out a punch, "thud", a muffled sound, Liang Xin continued to exclaim, this punch seemed to hit a stone, shaking his wrist almost broke.

  "Hmm, your fist strength is too weak!" A familiar voice came from amidst a faint, flickering light that slowly brightened beside Liang Xin.