Chapter 0005: Searching for Father in the Mine (Three)

  At this time, his ears suddenly moved slightly, and he faintly heard that behind the mountain wall next to the quarry, there was also a sound of stone picking coming over.

  "Could it be..."

  Li Ran's eyes lit up, and hope reignited in his heart. Taking advantage of the cover of the scattered rocks, he circled around a large area from the mountain valley, bypassing that side of the mountain far away. A small quarry came into view.

  This time, they were quite close, and Li Ran's knife saw his father's figure among dozens of miners at a glance. His back was slightly hunched, his face was covered with stone dust, the skin on his upper body was sunburned to a deep red, and a long rope tied up a large stone, the rope almost cutting into his flesh. His father struggled to pull it forward.

  Li Ran's knife was stuck behind a rock, his fingers digging deep into his palms, his eyes misty with tears, and his heart throbbing with pain.

  His father was in such a state of exhaustion, and for five years he had been struggling to survive. After decades of separation, on this day he finally saw his father again, Li Ruo Knife suppressed the turmoil in his heart, using force to prop himself up against the rock, his entire body stiffened.

  Li Ruo knew about his father's feud with the Gong Sun family.

  The Li family had passed down a set of sword techniques, known as the Flowing Clouds Sword Classic. The classic was sealed within a stone essence and it was said that from the fourth form onwards, one needed to use intent to inherit and cultivate through intuition. In recent generations, almost no one in the Li family had fully grasped the fourth form, and by the time of Li Furan's grandfather's generation, they had only managed to practice up to the third form.

  Gongsun family head heard about the power of this set of sword classics, and by various means cleverly took away the stone essence that sealed the sword classics "borrowed" for decades without mentioning it again.

  The Gong Sun family's power was vast, and Grandfather died in despair. Without the Stone Essence, he couldn't comprehend the later stages of Sword Dao. From then on, the Li family's sword manual only had the remnants of the first three forms passed down. However, over the next few decades, no one from the Gong Sun family was heard to have mastered even a single move or half a style from the sword manual.

  The Li family gradually declined, and Li Ruo's father was determined to revive the family. He took a great risk and sneaked into the Gong Sun family at night to steal the sword manual, but was caught by Gong Sun Hong, one of the seven elders of the Gong Sun family. The elder accused Li Ruo's father of stealing the Gong Sun family's skills and beat him severely before reporting it to the Xiu Xian Family Alliance, which demoted Li Ruo's father to a mining slave and imprisoned him in the Xuán Shí Gǔ (Mysterious Stone Valley).

  Now, it has been half a year since Father was arrested.

  These causes and effects slowly flowed through Li Rengdao's mind, Li Rengdao took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the hatred for the Gong Sun family in his heart, his eyes stared blankly at his father who was laboriously walking towards him from afar, as he watched his father walk step by step closer to himself, Li Rengdao's eyes moistened again.

  As long as Father is still alive, then I have a chance, no matter what means are used, must rescue Father.

  Li Ruo gripped his teeth tightly, staring unblinkingly at his father, trying to etch his figure more clearly in his mind. Just then, a dark shadow flashed before his eyes, and a whip landed heavily on his father's back with a loud "crack". The skin split open instantly, revealing flesh and blood.

  "What's going on?"

  Li Ran's anger surged up to his head, and he suddenly looked up to see a young man in brocade clothes holding a whip, with a cold expression on his face, shouting loudly:

  "Hurry up and give it all to me, if you're lazy like this, this is what will happen."

  With a crack, the whip struck again, knocking another miner to the ground. Two miners rushed over to help the two who had been beaten, and everyone glared angrily at the young man.

  The young man's face was full of ridicule, he raised his whip and shouted loudly:

  "What are you staring at? Are you all looking for a fight? Get back to work quickly!"

  The miners quietly dispersed, and Li Ruo's father once again slung the long rope over his shoulder, gritting his teeth against the pain on his back, his facial muscles twitching as he moved forward step by step with great difficulty.

  A miner-like man next to him smiled wryly and said in a low voice:

  "Master Li, these miners are weak, if you hit them again, they might die."

  Young Master Li turned his head and gave Miner a cold glance, saying calmly:

  "Lao Wu, with a heart as soft as yours, how can you manage the mine? The Xuanji Sect will be recruiting new disciples in half a year's time. At that time, we need to send them a generous gift and recommend some of our clan members to see if they can enter the sect. Now is the time when our clan is short of money. Our daily output here has been decreasing day by day. I'm very disappointed in you."

  The miner nodded his head in fear, repeatedly saying yes.

  The young man in the brocade clothes continued to say coldly, "Old Five, remember this: these mine slaves cannot be treated as human beings. We must squeeze out their greatest potential for the Gongsun family and make them risk their lives for us. In peacetime, beat them when you should, these slaves will not fear you if you don't beat them."

  Yes, yes...

  The miner quietly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, at this time Li Ranno's father suddenly slipped under his feet, stumbled and almost fell, the brocade-clad youth turned around abruptly, the long whip circled round and "slapped" again on Li Ranno's father's back.

  "What's with the pretending? Are you intentionally slacking off? I'm telling you, no one is allowed to eat dinner if today's tasks aren't completed. What are you staring at? Hurry up..."

  Hiding behind the mountain rocks, Li Ran's lips were bitten until they bled, he really wished to rush out now and stab that young master to death with one sword.

  He knew this young master, Gong Sun Hong's son, who should be at the third level of Jingyuan's power. Li Ranno didn't know until today how his father had "overworked" himself to death, and the two bloodstains on his father's back made Li Ranno's murderous intent surge with anger.

  The only thread of rationality in his mind forcibly bound Li Ran to the mountain rock, both hands on the knife were trembling, and his eyes were about to spew fire.

  The young man in brocade clothes shouted a few times, then put away his whip with a sideways glance and left proudly.

  Li Ruo continued to lie behind the mountain stone for a long time, silently watching his father suffer. Suddenly, he turned around and wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye with force, then quietly got up and slipped away towards the outside of the mountain.

  The howling wind in my ears couldn't dispel the turmoil in Lifu's heart, and the mountain rocks flashed by one after another. Before his eyes once again appeared that hundred-zhang-wide strip of land, which was the only way in and out.

  Li Ranno's fingers were about to scrape off the mountain rocks, his body was motionless behind the rocks, deeply suppressing the anger in his heart. As he listened to another patrol team passing by, Li Ranno suddenly sprang up from his knees and sprinted towards the opposite side with incredible speed, covering several meters with each step. With a swift movement, he flew out of the last step and flashed behind the mountain rocks.

  This time there was no emergency, the sprint was exceptionally smooth, Li Ran's heart secretly rejoiced, took a deep breath, quietly wiped away the sweat on his forehead, and stepped forward to turn behind the rock.

  At this moment, a flash of light flashed in front of him, and the captain with a faint scar on his left cheek sneered and turned out from behind the rocks, holding a long knife horizontally towards Li Ran.

  "Haha, I knew someone would barge in. I've been waiting for you here for half a day, get down on the ground."

  A gust of evil wind struck, and Li Ran's knife was suddenly shrouded in a halo of light.

  Half a time ago, the captain felt something was wrong. He knew he had seen something and something must have happened, but others didn't believe him. The captain thought for half a day and finally decided to stake out here, and sure enough, he caught someone red-handed.

  The silver armor captain was delighted with his own foresight, thinking about how to take down this "spy" with one knife and capture him alive to show off in front of the team members who were secretly mocking him.