Chapter 525: Chapter 59: Accident
The mine tunnels branched in all directions, like a labyrinth.
Bathed in the light of their torches, the four of them turned left and right within the tunnels, pressing ever deeper.
“Young Master.”
Nursing Director Zhang swallowed hard.
“Are we going to keep going?”
“Don’t worry,” Zhu Ju said slowly, his head lowered as he fiddled with his storage pouch.
“I remember the way.”
“Er…” Nursing Director Zhang gave a dry laugh.
“Forgive my incompetence.”
“I remember the way too,” Qian Hu said, raising his hand.
“You can remember the path we’ve taken?” Yang Yi asked, a look of shocked disbelief on his face.
“There are so many tunnels. How did you remember?”
“It’s simple,” Qian Hu said with a blink.
“I just remember it after walking it once. Every path is different.”
?
Yang Yi was speechless.
It wasn’t that he thought Qian Hu was lying. It was just that, for as long as he’d known him, the guy’s memory had always been painfully bad.
‘Who would have thought… he had such a Talent for memorizing routes.’
“Who would have thought that the lair of Earth Rat Xu Qing, a man wanted in all Three Mansions, would be here of all places.”
Nursing Director Zhang sighed softly, then added,
“Still, with these tunnels branching out like a labyrinth, he wouldn’t even have to fear a siege by government soldiers.”
“Not necessarily.” Zhu Ju looked up.
“As the saying goes, a sly rabbit has three burrows. He must have more than one nest.”
“Here!”
He took an object from his storage pouch and tossed it to Nursing Director Zhang.
THUMP!
Nursing Director Zhang instinctively reached out and caught it. When he saw clearly what was in his hand, his expression changed dramatically.
Joy, terror, disbelief…
“A Qi Blood Divine Weapon!”
Yang Yi’s eyes narrowed.
‘An Eighth-Grade Qi Blood Divine Weapon. With this, Uncle Zhang probably wouldn’t have to fear any Martial Artist below the Seventh Grade.’
What Zhu Ju had thrown was, in fact, a long saber-shaped Qi Blood Divine Weapon. Its surface glowed with a faint red light, and even with his own weak Cultivation, Yang Yi could still feel the faint fluctuations of Qi emanating from it.
“He was a master thief. How could he not have good things on him?”
Zhu Ju tied his storage pouch shut, a faint smile on his face.
“You can use this for now. If you handle your duties well in the future, it will be yours to keep.”
THUD!
Nursing Director Zhang dropped to his knees and declared in a muffled voice:
“Young Master, from this day forward, my life is yours! I will dare not disobey any command!”
“Get up.”
Zhu Ju waved his hand.
“We’re almost there. Don’t startle the snake in the grass.”
“Yes.”
Nursing Director Zhang got up, his face flush with excitement. He gently caressed the blade of the Qi Blood Divine Weapon with one hand, his heart pounding, unable to calm down.
‘This is a Qi Blood Divine Weapon!’
‘It’s worth…’
‘At least tens of thousands of taels of silver!’
‘In all of Taiyuan Prefecture, besides the core masters of those few prominent families and gangs, who could afford such a thing?’
Yang Yi and Qian Hu were also looking on with burning envy.
Yang Yi’s thoughts ran deeper.
‘Earth Rat Xu Qing’s Medicine Shovel must also be a Qi Blood Divine Weapon, and of an even higher grade.’
‘Maybe Seventh Grade?’
‘Just these two Qi Blood Divine Weapons, plus the rumored storage pouch, already made this trip worthwhile.’
“Arson and murder get you a belt of gold; mending roads and bridges leaves not a corpse behind,” he couldn’t help but sigh under his breath.
“This no-cost business really is the fastest way to make a fortune!”
The Sanhe Gang had operated in Taiyuan Prefecture for decades, and they had only managed to acquire a few Qi Blood Divine Weapons.
“You also die fast,” Qian Hu said.
“Once you’re dead, everything you have belongs to someone else.”
Yang Yi was speechless.
Zhu Ju didn’t say a word, his expression contemplative.
‘The amount of good stuff on Earth Rat is abnormal. Not only are there two Qi Blood Divine Weapons, but there’s also a true ‘Treasure’.’
‘But…’
‘This isn’t the time to investigate closely.’
“We’re here.”
*
*
*
“SQUEAK SQUEAK…”
Fat rats scurried back and forth across the ground.
These rats had thick, oily fur, and their eyes glowed with a scarlet red, radiating a dense, malevolent aura.
Among the swarm of rats, scattered patches of white bone could be seen.
“Those are human bones,” Nursing Director Zhang said, his face grim.
“They eat people!”
And not just a few. Judging by the bones on the ground, they had eaten a great many people.
Qian Hu and Yang Yi’s faces turned deathly pale.
They were, after all, just teenagers. Before them was a dense mass of rats—if not ten thousand, then at least several thousand. The swarm stretched as far as the eye could see, and the rustling, scurrying sound was enough to make one’s skin crawl.
Even Zhu Ju couldn’t help but frown at the sight. He hadn’t expected Earth Rat to be raising so many rats in his lair.
‘It’s not that I’m afraid.’
‘But,’
‘this is a hassle!’
“SQUEAK…”
WHOOSH!
A black shadow leaped out from the side.
“Watch out!”
Nursing Director Zhang barked a low warning as his long saber flashed out, slicing the pouncing shadow in two.
SPLAT!
The shadow hit the ground, revealing itself to be a monstrous rat the size of a human head.
“How did it get so big?”
Yang Yi sucked in a sharp breath.
“Is it becoming a monster?”
Before the words were even out of his mouth, shouts, cries, and the flicker of firelight suddenly erupted from up ahead.
“SQUEAK SQUEAK…”
WHOOSH!
The swarm of rats grew agitated, charging madly toward the firelight.
“What’s going on?”
“They’ve lost control,” Qian Hu said, blinking.
“With Earth Rat Xu Qing dead, these rats have no one to restrain them. Now they’re attacking the bandits in the lair.”
“That’s my guess.”
He didn’t know why he thought that; it was just a gut feeling.
“Well, that certainly makes things more convenient for us.”
Zhu Ju nodded, reached out to grab a torch from the wall beside him, and threw it forward with a surge of force.
BANG!
The torch exploded in mid-air, showering down a sky full of sparks. The moment they touched the rats, they ignited into a raging inferno.
The rats shrieked incessantly as the persistent flames burned them one after another into charred bones.
In an instant,
the tunnel ahead was illuminated by the towering flames, revealing everything clearly.
‘Fire Separation Mysterious Skill?’
A muscle in Yang Yi’s eyelid twitched.
Earlier, when Zhu Ju fought Earth Rat Xu Qing, the scorching Fist Force that cracked the stone had felt incredibly familiar. Now, this technique was virtually identical to the Force Manipulation Method described in the Fire Separation Mysterious Skill.
‘Could it be…’
‘Does this Young Master Zhu have some connection to my family?’
‘No!’
‘Although his Cultivation Technique is similar to the Fire Separation Mysterious Skill, it’s firm, powerful, and condensed, lacking the violent and ostentatious nature of my family’s technique. Besides, using Qi Blood to fuel the flames is a Seventh-Grade ability.’
‘Perhaps,’
‘it’s just a similar Cultivation Technique.’
“Let’s go.”
Zhu Ju strode forward. With a flick of his sleeve and a turn of his palm, he struck down one of the crazed rats.
“According to Earth Rat, he keeps his stolen goods in a stone cave marked with the two words ‘Earth Drill’.”
“Let’s find it.”
He added,
“If you encounter any bandits, kill them on sight. No need to leave any alive.”
“Yes!”
The three of them replied in unison.
Nursing Director Zhang had just acquired a Qi Blood Divine Weapon, his power now approaching the Seventh Grade. He was itching to find a few people to test it on.
As for Qian Hu and Yang Yi, although their Cultivation was merely at the Ninth Grade, their strength was considerable.
Ordinary bandits were no match for them.
The four of them charged through the flames, killing rats as they came across them and killing men as they came across them, their momentum unstoppable.
“Young Master.”
Qian Hu, who had astonishing eyesight, shouted loudly:
“I found it.”
Zhu Ju turned his head, a single eyebrow raised.
There, amid a swarm of rabid rats, was an inconspicuous stone cave that not a single rat would approach.
The mouth of the cave was open. Stepping closer, they saw three figures inside: one large and two small.
A woman was holding two children, both around three or four years old, huddled and trembling in a corner.
“Young Master.”
Nursing Director Zhang’s voice trembled.
“It’s… it’s a Token from the Huang Family of Zhenghai City!”
‘The Huang Family of Zhenghai City?’
Zhu Ju’s expression tightened.
‘The Huang Family that has a Third-Grade master presiding over it?’
“You people…”
Just then, from within the stone cave, the woman spoke, her voice hoarse.
“Are you here to save us?”