Chapter 7 Head-On Confrontation

He found that in addition to some stones and crystals as associated minerals in the hematite vein, there is a kind of black worm in places with a lot of hematite. This worm is as hard as iron and only the size of a fingernail. It likes to attach to the hematite and corrode the hematite with the corrosive liquid in its mouth, thereby absorbing the hematite.

When Xiao Lin first discovered this worm, he was really shocked. The body of this little thing was harder than iron. He poked it with a dagger for a long time but couldn't hurt it at all. After countless experiments, he found that the only nemesis of this worm is fire.

There are not many worms. Xiao Lin only caught four or five in a year, but each one is a treasure to Xiao Lin now.

Before mining, he would put a worm into the mine, and then the worm would start to crawl and soon drill into the soil. At this time, Xiao Lin would start mining at the place where the worm drilled. This method worked every time and greatly increased Xiao Lin's harvest. He used to work hard to dig out at most 50 to 60 kilograms of hematite in a month, but now he can easily dig more than 100 kilograms of hematite every month.

He buried 300 to 400 kilograms of hematite, which he hid in seven or eight places. Even if he didn't dig up a piece of hematite in a month, he would not fail to complete the task.

After he no longer had to worry about the monthly ore task, Xiao Lin began to spend half of his time studying the ore veins and the other half of his time setting some traps in the mine, except for mining with worms for about ten days a month.

He couldn't guarantee that there would be no other miners who came to him by accident. If their secrets were discovered or they had the intention of killing people to seize the ore, he would have a plan to deal with it.

A few months ago, he went to a grocery store and was surprised to find that the store actually sold a lot of strange things, including ordinary iron weapons, arrows, spikes, and even some poisons. The owner of the grocery store obviously had a backstage in Bailian Hall. He not only sold some iron weapons, but also several weapons made of red iron. However, this kind of weapon was expensive, and each one cost more than 100 taels of silver.

Although Xiao Lin now felt that he was worth a lot of money, he would not blatantly buy red iron weapons. Even if the owner of the grocery store seemed to be abiding by the rules and should not disclose his information to others, he could not guarantee that it would not be discovered by someone with ulterior motives.

So Xiao Lin only bought some ordinary iron crossbows, arrows, spikes, etc., and also bought a bottle of poison and smeared it on the surface of these irons. In this mine, he established his own small territory. Xiao Lin believed that now within the scope of his own mine, even if the disciples of Bailian Hall came, they would be in danger of death. Even he had to be extremely careful every time he entered and exited, for fear of accidentally stepping on the mechanism.

What surprised Xiao Lin the most was that the grocery store actually sold secret books. Although the secret books in it were all basic martial arts that the disciples of Bailian Hall looked down upon, in Xiao Lin's eyes, they were definitely treasures. If he could really learn martial arts, then at least he would have the ability to protect himself in the Qingshui Lake Mine, and he would not have to live as cautiously as he did now, fearing that others would miss him.

However, what made Xiao Lin speechless was that the prices of those basic martial arts secret books were shocking. Each book required at least two hundred taels of silver, which was absolutely a sky-high price for miners. Although Xiao Lin wanted it very much, after seeing the price, he could only give up helplessly. In his opinion, the grocery store owner might not have thought that there were miners who could afford these secret books.

On this day, it was time to hand in the task again. Xiao Lin thought about it and took out 100 kilograms of ore from his ore. After more than a year, the ore he saved was enough for him to double the task for three consecutive months. As long as he could hand in more than 100 kilograms of ore for three consecutive months, he could become an outer disciple of Bailian Hall and get rid of the fatigue of mining. Even in the eyes of many miners, becoming an outer disciple and going out to look for mineral veins was not necessarily better than mining. Moreover, it was very dangerous to look for mineral veins in the Tianlu Mountains. If you encounter wild beasts, you will lose your life.

Xiao Lin was not interested in this mining business, but what attracted him most was that once he became an outer disciple of Bailian Hall, in addition to the monthly salary, he could also get a basic secret book of Bailian Hall, so that he could practice martial arts legitimately. This attraction was undoubtedly great. After all, in Xiao Lin's opinion, he could not mine for a lifetime. In addition, he was very worried about his father and sister, and didn't know how they were now?

There are many mines leading to the outer cave. Every time Xiao Lin goes out, he will be very alert. It can be said that this has become his habit. Every time he passes a branch cave, he will listen carefully to see if there is any movement outside.

After carefully passing through seven or eight branch caves and about to enter the main cave, Xiao Lin suddenly showed a bitter smile on his face.

It turned out that three or four figures had surrounded him behind him, and a sturdy body blocked his way in front.

"Master Xiang San?" Xiao Lin forced a smile on his face, but his hand in his arms tightly grasped a dagger.

Xiang Kun still had a beard on his face. When he saw Xiao Lin, his triangular eyes narrowed.

"Good boy, Third Master, I have been looking for you for several months, but I have never been able to stop you. Eh? So many ores?" Seeing the ores in the bamboo basket opened by his subordinates, Xiang Kun showed a surprised expression in his eyes. Although he had already heard that Xiao Lin could complete the task every month, he was cunning and knew that in this case, there must be a lot of private goods hidden, otherwise it would not be so coincidental every month.

"Third Master Xiang, I know the rules. Can't I pay half of the toll?" Xiao Lin looked at the miners behind him and said to Xiang Kun with a smile on his face.

"Hehe, it won't work this time. Tell Third Master, did you kill Wang Ji?" Xiang Kun smiled with his mouth wide open, but there was no smile in his eyes, but a hint of coldness.

Xiao Lin was shocked. His mind turned quickly, and he couldn't figure out why Xiang Kun insisted that he killed Wang Ji.

"Master Xiang, you are joking. How can I kill the prince? This is not a joke." Xiao Lin said as he slowly moved towards the wall.

"Oh?" Xiang Kun's eyes were full of mockery: "You kid still want to deny it. Master Xiang will let you die clearly. When you killed Wang Ji, you didn't confirm whether he was really dead, right?"

Xiang Kun's words startled Xiao Lin, and his heart sank to the bottom. At that time, he stabbed Wang Ji's heart with a knife, and he did not check it carefully. In his opinion, he was definitely dead after being stabbed in the heart by himself. Could it be that Wang Ji was not dead at that time, and Xiang Kun came back and told him that he was the murderer?

"You kid are cruel enough. You stabbed Wang Ji's heart accurately with a knife. Unfortunately, you don't know that Wang Ji was born different from ordinary people. His heart grows on the right side, which allowed him to hold on until we go back." Xiang Kun's face was ferocious, and his eyes were full of murderous intent.

Xiao Lin was silent for a while, then he raised his head and smiled, "Master Xiang, it's a misunderstanding, please listen to my explanation."

"Explain..."

Before Xiang Kun could say a word, Xiao Lin suddenly stood up, and waved his hand inserted into his chest violently, and a cloud of green smoke and dust immediately appeared. Seeing the smoke and dust, Xiang Kun's face changed and he exclaimed, "No, it's poison gas."

The miners behind Xiao Lin hurriedly retreated after hearing this, but one of them groaned and fell down directly, but it was Xiao Lin who stabbed him in the chest with a dagger.

At the moment when this person fell, Xiao Lin rushed into the branch cave from his side. He threw away the wet rag covering his mouth and nose and ran quickly into the mine.

"Chase him, I will skin him alive if I catch him." Xiao Lin heard Xiang Kun's roar behind him, followed by the sound of chasing footsteps.

While running, Xiao Lin thought quickly. With his current understanding of the mine, it would not be difficult to get rid of these people behind him, but even if he got rid of them, what would happen? If Xiang Kun sent people to guard the entrance of the cave, he would be caught sooner or later.

Thinking of this, Xiao Lin's eyes flashed with a coldness. He gritted his teeth, then slowed down his pace, and deliberately suppressed the footsteps to the maximum.

Sure enough, there were footsteps coming from behind, and Xiang Kun's cursing voice came from time to time.

Xiao Lin sneered, and he led the people chasing him in the mine. After half an hour, he rushed into a side cave.

The moment he entered the side cave, he gently moved a stone on the wall, then bent down and crawled into an inconspicuous small hole in the corner of the wall.

Soon, several miners followed to this side cave. Suddenly, several screams were heard. Several miners running in the front screamed and fell to the ground. It didn't matter that they fell. More miserable screams were heard, which was even more thrilling in this dark mine.

"There are ground spikes here. Ah, my feet are numb. These ground spikes are poisonous."

The screams did not last long, and they all stopped. Xiang Kun, who was behind, changed his face and hurriedly stopped several people around him. The people beside him also brought a kerosene lamp. Through the light of the kerosene lamp, they saw densely packed ground spikes on the ground. These ground spikes were light green, and they knew that they were smeared with poison.

Several people took a breath of cold air.

"This guy doesn't look simple. He actually set a trap here." Xiang Kun looked at the cave entrance and felt timid. He was unwilling to catch the guy, but if he rushed in rashly, even if he could avoid the spikes in front of him, who could guarantee that the guy didn't have any other traps?

"Third Master, let's not go in. As long as we guard the cave entrance, the guy will come to our door in a few days. Then we can skin him and pull out his tendons to vent our hatred."

"Humph, this kid is lucky. Well, let him live a few more days." Xiang Kun looked at the spikes on the ground and chose not to take risks after being frightened.

"Ah~" Just as he was about to retreat, a scream suddenly came again. A miner next to Xiang Kun was hit in the chest by a crossbow arrow. The huge force of the crossbow arrow made him retreat several steps and hit the wall of the mine directly before he fell over.

"Puff" Xiang Kun was about to curse when another sound of breaking air was heard, and another miner next to him fell down. This scared him so much that he directly pulled the last miner to block in front of himself, his face full of shock and anger.