Chapter 242: Secret Valley
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Ghost, ghost…” One of them shouted in fear and turned to run out of the village.
The other person was so frightened that he got on his knees and kowtowed, crying, “It’s not my fault, it’s not my fault…”
The white shadow flew towards the fleeing person. This time, it flew past right in front of him.
Over-stimulated, his eyes rolled back and he fainted.
Chu Qingzhi walked back towards the person kneeling and kowtowing. “Stop kowtowing. I have something to ask you.”
“I don’t know anything, I don’t know anything…” That person was so frightened that his teeth were chattering. A chill ran down his spine. When he heard Chu Qingzhi’s voice, his body tensed up and he was extremely afraid.
Tang Jinghong jumped down from the tree. “Tell us the truth. I’ll give you a quick death when the time comes!”
Seeing that there was another accomplice, the person lost all hope and fainted.
Tang Jinghong looked around and pulled a few vines from a tree. He tied the two of them up back to back and went to fetch a bucket of water to splash one of them awake.
Seeing that he had opened his eyes, Tang Jinghong asked directly, “Who are you?”
The person answered subconsciously, “Wu Er.”
Tang Jinghong sized up Wu Er. He was an ordinary young man in his twenties. He was wearing a gray shirt and was very thin. “What are you doing in this village?”
Wu Er looked at Tang Jinghong with fear in his eyes. “I was originally a villager in this village. 1 was ordered to come back and patrol.”
“Ordered?” Tang Jinghong continued to ask. “By who?”
Wu Er replied nervously, “Zhang Dinghong, who is in charge of this place.”
Tang Jinghong searched for Zhang Dinghong in his mind but couldn’t find anything about this person. “Where is he now?”
Wu Er looked at the exit on the other side of the village. “Walk down that road and you’ll see a haystack. Behind the haystack, there will be the entrance to a passageway. He’s inside.”
Tang Jinghong’s eyebrows twitched. Who would have thought that there was a secret passageway behind a haystack?
“How long has this place been like this?”
“A year.”
“Where are the other blacksmiths?”
“Half a mile away from the village, there are many tents there. The people who forge here are resting there.”
Tang Jinghong asked many questions in a row. In the end, he asked, “Did you kill the villagers here?”
Wu Er’s eyes were filled with fear again. “1 didn’t do it on purpose. If we didn’t kill them, we would die. I was forced. It’s not my fault.”
Tang Jinghong drew his sword. The cold light flashed twice before he sheathed it. “Qingzhi, let’s go.”
Chu Qingzhi nodded.
Red blood flowed down from the necks of the two people who were tied up. They struggled for a moment and stopped breathing…
The two of them walked down the road on the exit and indeed, they did not walk far before they saw a huge haystack. The outside was already dark. It could be seen that it had been here for a long time.
Tang Jinghong walked to the edge of the haystack and squatted down. He reached out and gently touched the ground. He searched for a while. “The wheel marks.”
Chu Qingzhi said, “The wheel marks are deep. It means that the goods they transported are heavy.”
Tang Jinghong said, “Yes, when we entered the village, we didn’t find any wheel marks. This means that the things were transported from here.”
Chu Qingzhi said, “Not only are there sabers, but there are also raw materials among the goods.”
These words reminded Tang Jinghong. He raised his head and looked around under the bright moonlight. There were mountains on all sides.
He took out the map that Ge Lihua had given him and found their location. Then, he pointed at a location on the map.
It was Ge Lihua’s mountain, three mountains away from their current location.
Tang Jinghong said, “It seems that other than the Ge family’s mountain and the Heavenly Snow Mountain, there are other mountains that have been secretly mined for at least a year.”
Chu Qingzhi observed the terrain of the mountain range. “It’s not strange that there are other iron mines in the vicinity. What’s strange is that the Imperial Court has been kept in the dark. Jinghong, did the Imperial Court not have their people stationed in the northern border?”
Tang Jinghong said, “To be honest, there are spies from the Lord of the Northern Border in the Imperial Court. No matter who we send, they will die mysteriously on the way.”
Chu Qingzhi patted Tang Jinghong’s shoulder and said, “It’s fine. After we get rid of the villains like the Lord of the Northern Border, everything will be fine.”
Tang Jinghong put away the map and hugged Qingzhi. “It’s all thanks to you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come so far.”
Chu Qingzhi joked, “If you want to thank me, after this is done, just give me more gold.”
Tang Jinghong said seriously, “Don’t worry, 1 will get you your fair share.” Although the money was all milked from the people, without Qingzhi, they wouldn’t be able to retrieve a scent of it.
Then, the two of them pushed aside the haystack and entered the tunnel.
The tunnel was about five feet wide and was smooth enough to allow a cart to pass.
Shortly after they walked into the tunnel, they were stopped by a stone room.
There were two doors in the stone room. One was on the left, and the other was on the right. There were wheel marks on both sides.
The road on the left was littered with black stones. The right side was clean.
Chu Qingzhi picked up a stone and looked at it. “This is calcined iron.”
Tang Jinghong looked at the iron in Chu Qingzhi’s hand and thought for a moment. “Qingzhi, let’s take the left side.”
“Ok.”
The further they walked on the left road, the more iron scattered on the ground. After walking for about a thousand meters, a staircase appeared.
Chu Qingzhi pulled Tang Jinghong and listened carefully. Then, she took out the jade flute and played a lullaby to make the people outside the exit fall asleep.
“Jinghong, wen can go now.”
They walked up the staircase and arrived at the exit.
Tang Jinghong pushed aside a wooden board and saw a sky full of stars. He walked out of the exit and saw tents. There were at least dozens of them. It was a spectacular sight.
He reached out and pulled Chu Qingzhi out. “Be careful of the ground.”
“Yes.” When Chu Qingzhi saw this scene, she was also surprised. This place was too hard to find.
This was a small valley surrounded by deep mountains and forests on all sides. There were many poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts in the deep mountains and forests. Those who did not want to die would not enter.
Tang Jinghong opened a tent and took a look. There were five to six men sleeping inside, snoring like thunder.
He checked other tents and saw that they were all the same.
Chu Qingzhi walked past the tents and arrived at the side of the valley..
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