The mountains near Tianhai Lake are lush with trees, but some are bare and expose a large number of red rocks, which seem to have a faint warmth when they are close. There are basically fire crystal mines under these locations.
You Ziji and the other three escaped all the way and arrived at the mining area jointly guarded by the Chongjun government and Tianyu Guan.
After last night's battle and the Shanhe Gang's advance deployment at various intersections, the government officials already knew that something big had happened. They hid in their residences together with a large number of miners and did not dare to come out to dig for ore.
The quiet mine saved You Ziji a lot of trouble. He found a room, put Ling Qing on a chair, turned around and left.
"I'll go explore the area. You guys wait for me here."
"brush!"
Lingyue's long sword was unsheathed and already resting on You Ziji's shoulder.
"What does Taoist priest mean?"
You Ziji did not act rashly, but after thinking carefully about what he did, it seemed that he should not be hated by Ling Yue.
"You just defeated Commander Ren head-on. This is not something a foundation-building monk can do? Where are you from?"
You Ziji explained: "I have my own secret method to improve my strength. Repeling him is nothing. Taoist Master Lingyue's Yuehua Fan can also injure Xuanjing monks."
"Originally I didn't suspect you, but you didn't catch up with him for so long after fighting him. It really can't make people suspicious. What's your secret plan with him?"
Ling Qing smiled bitterly at the side and said, "Junior sister, you are worrying too much. Brother You is Master's friend, not a villain."
"Senior brother, you are seriously injured, and a stranger suddenly appears to help you. How can you trust him so easily?"
"Brother You holds the red feather fan in his hand. It was a gift from the master. Why don't you believe him?"
Lingyue hesitated, but still didn't believe it.
You Ziji pulled out the red feather fan, carefully opened the sword edge and said, "Taoist Master Lingyue really misunderstood me. I did have a relationship with Taoist Master Xuanji, and he even let me enter the Mountain God's Cave."
Lingyue looked at the red feather fan handed to her hand. It was indeed Tianyu Guan's refining technique. The origin of this fan and the mountain god's affairs were Tianyu Guan's secrets. She already believed it, "It turns out that I really misunderstood. I gave Brother You, please apologize."
Ling Yue sheathed her sword and bowed, and You Ziji was about to help him and stop him, but heard Ling Qing say: "This is my junior sister's fault. Brother You should accept her bow, otherwise she won't give up due to her character." of."
Such an episode made the atmosphere in the room much more awkward. Seeing that the two of them were silent, Ling Qing had no choice but to start the conversation on her own.
"Although Lingyue's approach is a bit reckless, she thought well. With Commander Ren's speed, it would have taken so long to catch up. Even if getting rid of me is not the most important task, we know that he has killed many Fellow disciple, isn't he afraid that we will leak this matter?"
"Maybe he got into some trouble?"
"Except for me, none of the Tianyu Temple disciples in the encirclement have reached the Xuan Realm. What kind of trouble can he encounter? I think he must have premeditated this. We don't know what he wants to do, so we can only keep it unchanged. In response to the ever-changing situation, we should focus on enhancing our own strength.”
Lingyue said excitedly: "There is strength in numbers. I will go and gather all my fellow disciples here. They will be very happy to know that Senior Brother is fine."
"No!" Ling Qing directly objected, "Compared to the Shanhe Gang, our strength in Tianhai Lake is still too weak. It's better to spread out, but don't gather together and be taken over. I have informed the sect of the things here. As long as Drag us to the door, senior, and rescue us, and we will definitely be able to escape."
"That's great."
Lingqing's expression straightened, "Among our existing magic weapons, the only one that can quickly strengthen in a short period of time is the red feather fan in Brother You's hand. Although there are no suitable feathers now, we can use the fire spirit stone mine to provide it with With enough energy, when the Xuanjing monks arrive, we will be able to fight."
You Ziji slapped his thigh, "Okay, I'll go out and look for a better quality fire spirit stone mine."
Lingqing added: "Brother You is here for the first time. Some things are not necessarily clear. The fire spirit stone mined in this mine has too many impurities. The miners always take the newly mined ore to the warehouse, and then From there, it will be transported out and placed in various workshops that breed fire insects for refining. The whole process is like raising silkworms. If we can find that warehouse, the quantity of fire spirit stones should be enough."
You Ziji nodded, "I took note of it."
…
Liu Sanshi was not from the Shanhe Gang, so he and other sect members wandered around as if they had nothing to do.
But he didn't come to Longzhou just to hang out. The ancestors of the Liu family were lay disciples of Tianmen Temple, and since then they have become vassals of Tianmen Temple. For hundreds of years, the family's prosperity has relied entirely on the care of Tianmen Temple.
He came here this time to accept a mission to help Tianmen Temple explore the situation of the Seven Gates in Longzhou. The most important thing is of course Xuan Mingdao, but that is not within the scope of his abilities. This Tian Yu Guan is just right.
"They say Longzhou is the birthplace of the Taoist sect, but I think it's nothing more than that. It's just a piece of loose sand. It doesn't have the glory of the Hunyuan sect. The great monks in Tianmen Temple are really worried too much."
Liu Sanshi shook his head and stopped thinking. He knew that what he saw might be just appearances. Only by intensifying the contradiction would he know some of the strength hidden under the appearance. After Tianyu Guan is weakened this time, there will definitely be a chain reaction.
But there was nothing going on around him and he was really bored. At this moment, he finally remembered Commander Ren, his drinking buddy he met in the Shanhe Gang. He might as well go and have fun with him.
…
Although the mine is large, with You Ziji's foot strength, coupled with the combination of wind blowing skills and five senses, he can quickly explore the place clearly.
You Ziji integrated the information brought back by Breeze and basically determined that there may be a large number of Huoling mines in three places.
The first place is a house dug and built on the mountain. There are many ruts on the ground. It is most likely the warehouse where Ling Qing said the ore was accumulated.
There was simply a copper lock on the huge wooden door.
There is no problem in doing this. The newly excavated fire crystal mine contains a huge amount of impurities that are difficult to remove. Practitioners who want to steal or rob will only go to the workshop at the foot of the mountain. You only need to guard against ordinary people here.
This saved You Ziji a lot of effort. He stretched out his hand to hold the copper lock and only pulled it gently to destroy the lock.
But when I opened the door, the expected mountains of ore did not appear in front of me. There were some gravel residues on the ground. There were only two piles of ore in the innermost part of the warehouse. In total, there were only two fine fire crystals that could be extracted. Palm size is obviously not enough.
"What bad luck. The ore here should have just been transported away, and there is not much newly mined ore left."
The warehouse was obviously not working anymore, so You Ziji went to the second location.
He came to the entrance of a mine, thinking that this must be a mining place, so he got in.
Although the mine was dark and dark, torches were pinned to the walls at regular intervals. However, there were no miners working today and the torches were not lit.
You Ziji opened his eyesight and could see things nearby clearly, so he ignored the torch and just kept walking forward until he reached the end.
This is indeed a place where fire crystal ore is mined, but the fire attribute is not as strong as expected, because the fire crystal ore in this mine has been almost mined.
Only then did You Ziji realize that he had thought wrong before. The inventory in the warehouse had not been taken away, but the output of the ore had dropped.
If you want to increase production, you need to dig another mine, but that has nothing to do with You Ziji. If there are not enough fire crystal mines in the third place, then you can only change to another place.
You Ziji did not have high hopes for the final location. You Ziji did not clearly feel the breath of the fire crystal mine there, but he speculated that there might be something there.
The entrance here is also a cave, but it is blocked by a pile of rubble. You Ziji didn't know what was inside, so he didn't dare to hit it hard with his palms, so he had to use some effort to move the stone away.
After cleaning it, I saw that the surrounding area of the hole was smooth and round. It seemed that there were no traces of artificial excavation. It may have been formed naturally.
The temperature inside was very high. Just standing at the entrance of the cave, You Ziji felt a heat wave hit his face, mixed with the smell of rotten eggs.
You Ziji increased his vigilance and went to explore. After only walking a few dozen feet, the scenery inside came into view.
"magma!"
But it's not ordinary magma. You Ziji can smell the same strong smell as fire crystal ore. This magma is formed by fire crystal ore.
"The amount here is enough, but I don't know if it can be used. I'd better go back and ask Brother Lingqing."
…
"he left?"
Liu Sanshi, who had already rushed to the garrison camp in the north, never expected that he would miss the opportunity. Why was the discipline of the Shanhe Gang so lax? Then he had to re-examine the growth of the Shanhe Gang after this conflict.
Commander Chiang doesn't like the monks from Qizhou very much. There are all monks there, and Taoism is prevalent in Longzhou. It's normal for him to have this idea.
"I said no, no, you people in Qizhou are so noisy like bald donkeys!"
There was a fierce light in Liu Sanshi's eyes, but he was surrounded by people from the Shanhe Gang, so he did not dare to get angry. He just said sarcastically: "We in Qizhou believe in Buddhism, but we never kill monks. Commander Jiang believes in Taoism, so why do we still kill Taoist priests?" ah?"
"you!"
Commander Jiang was choked and speechless. Although he was angry, he did not dare to take action. Now is the critical moment for the Shanhe Gang and other factions to work together to destroy Taoist Tianyuguan. If the gang leader knows that he has fought with his allies in front of everyone, the punishment afterwards is unimaginable.
The Shanhe Gang were angered by Liu Sanshi's words and wanted to surround him.
Liu Sanshi lost his temper and stopped staying here, "Since Brother Ren is not here, then I will go to the mountains to look for him. If I catch the person you are looking for, even if I take the credit, Gang Leader You will also give me the credit." Give me a leader for fun, hahaha."
Then he turned over and sat on a yellow lion that appeared at an unknown time, broke away from the encirclement, and walked away.
