Chapter 522: Chapter 56: Ambush
No one found it strange that Zhou Ruxuan handed her business over to Zhu Ju to manage.
In fact, they thought it was only natural.
The two had a foundation of several years of cooperation, and with a private ‘marriage agreement’ between them, they were already considered ‘one family’ in the eyes of others.
Even the decision to choose the mining property north of the city as her personal industry had been Zhu Ju’s suggestion.
“This place has a mountain at its back and water in front. It shelters from the wind and gathers Qi, a truly treasured land that attracts fortune and talent.”
Zhu Ju stood on the hillside, pointing at the terrain before them as he spoke:
“I plan to build an estate here. For one, it will be convenient for managing the mine. For another, it’ll give us a place to stay when we’re out and about.”
“Building an estate, I have no objection,” Zhou Ruxuan said.
“But as for the feng shui you mentioned…”
“Doesn’t that sound more like the proper orientation for a tomb?”
“Haha…” Zhu Ju laughed heartily.
“Just kidding.”
“The feng shui and earth Qi will naturally need to be reassessed. The key is that this place has abundant fire Qi and rising Yang Qi, making it very suitable for cultivating the Primordial Yang Qi Technique.”
‘Compared to the Primordial Yang Qi Technique, cultivating the Fire Separation Mysterious Skill here would be twice as effective with half the effort.’
But to Zhu Ju, it was all the same.
“Mm,” Zhou Ruxuan nodded.
“You can handle it as you see fit, just as long as I get my share of the money.”
“In this world, there’s no such thing as a losing business when you have power and influence,” Zhu Ju sighed softly.
“We pay almost no taxes, we can mine the veins as we please, and even the miners are criminals serving labor instead of prison sentences. If a business like this loses money, there’s no justice in the world.”
“Young Master!”
Just then, an urgent shout came from below:
“There’s trouble at the mine!”
“Hm?” Zhu Ju’s brow furrowed, and he sighed helplessly.
“Well, that came back to bite me quickly.”
…
The sun blazed down relentlessly.
Several miners, covered in wounds, lay under a cloth awning, crying out in pain and groaning ceaselessly.
“After a hundred years of excavation, there aren’t many places left in the North Mountain Mine with any mining value,”
Nursing Director Zhang said.
“Today, North Mountain is riddled with countless mine shafts, and the passages within are as complex as a labyrinth. Even miners who are masters of the routes don’t dare enter unfamiliar areas, or they might never find their way out.”
“These maze-like tunnels have become a hiding place for certain desperate people.”
He sighed and continued,
“Our miners encountered a group of people inside, and a fight broke out over a disagreement.”
“And the result…”
“…is what you see here.”
“How many of them are there, and what’s their strength?” Zhu Ju asked thoughtfully.
“They’re only injured, not dead. It seems the other party exercised a great deal of restraint.”
“There are seven of them. Aside from two who have practiced some basic martial arts, the rest are ordinary people,” Nursing Director Zhang said.
“They probably don’t want to offend us either, which is why they didn’t dare to take things too far.”
“Mm.” Zhu Ju nodded in understanding and waved his hand.
“Send the Nursing Home guards down. With a Grade-Entering expert overseeing things, they should know what to do.”
“Yes.”
Nursing Director Zhang turned.
“Squad One, Squad Two, plus the Liu Brothers! You’re going down. Bring your weapons.”
“Sir!”
More than ten guards from the Nursing Home answered the call.
“Call up Yangg Yi and Qian Hu,” Zhu Ju said, his eyes glinting.
“The two of them may not be old, but their Martial Arts have already reached Grade-Entering. It’s time they get some real combat experience.”
“Yes.”
Nursing Director Zhang acknowledged the order and called over the two youths practicing their punches in the corner.
“I’ll leave this to you.”
Zhou Ruxuan swung herself onto her horse.
“There’s no need to hand the mine’s financial records to Qian Shiyao. Yuanyang will handle it for me.”
‘She was the true mistress of the Zhu Mansion. Even if she hadn’t married into it yet, she needed to establish her authority.’
*
*
*
The mine shafts never saw the light of day and were pitch-black inside.
An oil lamp was placed every so often, but the dim light could only illuminate a limited area.
For those not used to it, the oppressive, narrow space exerted immense psychological pressure.
“Up ahead is where they mine Profound Fire Ore. The veins used to be rich, and there were ores everywhere.”
The lead miner whispered,
“Not anymore…”
“Not only are there fewer and fewer places left to excavate, but there aren’t many ores that meet the requirements either.”
“Back in the day, I could earn over a hundred copper coins a day. In my best month, I made five taels of silver—not even the shopkeepers in the city made much more than that. Now, I can barely make ends meet.”
He kept muttering, his voice rising and falling, as if he were both telling a story and talking to himself.
Yangg Yi, who was following behind, already disliked the mine’s environment, and listening to the man for so long only made him more irritated.
“I say, could you not—”
“Huh?”
Before he could finish, he saw the figure in front of him suddenly speed up.
He followed subconsciously, but a sudden gust of wind shot out from his side, and the skin on his waist and ribs instantly tensed.
‘Danger!’
Yangg Yi had lived under a different name for many years. To avoid being discovered, he had learned to be constantly vigilant.
This very vigilance just saved his life.
In that hair’s breadth of a moment, he spun around. A sharp pain shot through his side—he was clearly injured.
Fortunately, the injury wasn’t severe.
‘A Grade-Entering Martial Artist!’
‘Even with a sneak attack under the cover of darkness, such power and speed were impossible for an ordinary person.’
“WHOOSH!”
His figure flashed forward, his fist whistling through the air as he threw a punch. The two figures collided violently in the darkness.
“BANG!”
“Ah!”
“Careful!”
“It’s an ambush!”
“…”
A series of screams and wails came from behind.
Within the pitch-black tunnel, figures could be seen darting about, with the occasional glint of cold steel flashing in the dark.
In the blink of an eye, several of the Zhu Family’s guards had fallen to the ground, lifeless.
‘What’s happening?’
Sweat beaded on Yangg Yi’s forehead, his face pale with fright.
‘How could there be so many experts in a place like a mine? Almost every single one of them is Grade-Entering.’
One should not underestimate a Grade-Entering Martial Artist.
An ordinary family in Taiyuan Prefecture might have an annual income of twenty to thirty taels, but even that wouldn’t be enough to train a single Grade-Entering Martial Artist.
Any Grade-Entering Martial Artist who could find work could easily support a large family.
“You dare get distracted?”
A mocking voice came from the side as two figures lunged at him, one from the front and one from the back.
“Boy, die!”
Yangg Yi snapped back to his senses. His eyes glinted, and using the dim light, he dodged and darted into a side tunnel.
“Trying to run?”
The man behind him sneered.
“Where can you possibly run to in these underground mines?”
“After him!”
Three figures chased after Yangg Yi. The four of them dashed left and right, finally ending up in a dead-end tunnel.
“You’re quite the runner!”
One of the men, breathing heavily, raised his long blade and pointed it at the cornered Yangg Yi.
“Boy!”
“Why aren’t you running anymore?”
“I’m not running anymore.” Yangg Yi turned around, his expression indifferent.
“This place is perfect.”
Huh?
The three pursuers froze for a moment. Then, they saw Yangg Yi slowly raise his hand and gently grasp at the empty air.
“SHING!”
A longsword that seemed to be forged from coiling Fierce Flames appeared in his hand.
“A Qi Blood Divine Weapon!”
The sight made the three men’s faces change drastically.
“How is that possible!”
‘The cheapest Qi Blood Divine Weapon costs over ten thousand taels of silver. How could something like that be in the hands of a mere Nursing Home guard?’
“FWOOSH!”
The Fierce Flames surged, as blinding as the scorching sun.
Wielding the Sixth-Grade Flame Sword, Yangg Yi revealed a level of strength no less than that of an Eighth-Grade Expert.
The Sword Light flickered.
In the blink of an eye.
All that remained were three charred corpses.
“Gasp… Wheeze…”
It was his first time killing, after all. Yangg Yi’s eyes flickered, and he gasped for breath for a moment before composing himself.
“Qian Hu!”
‘They had been roommates for a long time. As much as he disliked Qian Hu’s nagging, snoring, and immaturity, they were still comrades.’
Putting away the Qi Blood Divine Weapon, Yangg Yi hurried back the way he came. He stopped in his tracks when he found Qian Hu.
A sinister wind howled through the chamber, where a small figure stood in the center.
Several desiccated, mummy-like corpses lay on the ground, their faces frozen in the terrified expressions they wore before death.
“Er…”
Qian Hu scratched his head.
“You’re okay?”
“I’m okay.” Yangg Yi blinked, schooling the terror on his face, and nodded stiffly. “You’re okay too.”
“Good that you’re okay. But this ambush was strange. I’m afraid it was aimed at… the Zhu Mansion.”