Chapter 827: Chapter 360: The Demon Beneath the Coal Mine (Part 3)
Raventon took out a folding magnifying glass and observed the traces for one or two minutes, then folded the magnifying glass and said, dazed:
"Forbidden passage ceremony."
Wu Chang praised him: "It seems your mysticism skills aren’t too bad. If you could go a step further and restore the traces of the mystical ceremony, that would be even better."
Raventon asked in puzzlement: "How did you discover it?"
Let’s not talk about the forbidden passage ceremony on the wall, which had already been cleaned up by someone. The cleaning method was extremely clever, leaving almost no trace.
Even if traces were left, he could be sure that Wu Chang had never seen that trace before.
Wu Chang was standing about ten meters away, appearing thoughtful while staring into the air, and almost in the blink of an eye, he seemed to receive divine enlightenment, discovering hidden clues.
Faced with Raventon’s inquiry, Wu Chang naturally said: "I mentioned, it’s by inspiration."
Raventon immediately shook his head in denial, "The so-called inspiration also requires gathering enough clues, combining the actual situation on-site, and using logical reasoning to eliminate most impossible options, before that flash of spiritual light appears in the mind."
"What you just presented was clearly beyond inspiration, other more cheating methods."
Wu Chang shook his head and said: "That’s my talent. I am not very clear about its working principle, sorry, my knowledge is not profound enough to explain to you who lack this talent what happened."
Raventon laughed, angrily laughing.
"I just don’t believe your so-called inspiration can be this precise every time."
Wu Chang raised his eyebrow and asked:
"Are you suggesting a competition on who can first uncover the truth about the Pine Tree Coal Mine explosion?"
Raventon stood up straight and solemnly said:
"Absolutely."
Wu Chang asked: "What are the stakes?"
Raventon opened his wallet and said: "Forty, wait, need to deduct next month’s rent, the stakes are thirty-three gold pounds."
Wu Chang originally thought Raventon would bet big, but didn’t expect it to be just gold pounds.
He laughed and said: "Okay, I accept your challenge."
Wu Chang and the others continued to investigate after clearing out the mine shaft.
The grievances within the mine shaft were numerous, but the information contained inside didn’t differ much from Yate’s grievances.
The deeper layers of the mine shaft were still in a collapsed state, making it impossible to go further down. To investigate the deep secrets of the mine shaft, they could only let Thomas find an uncollapsed shaft and try to enter deeper.
Before entering a new mine shaft, Raventon took out a canary and walked at the front of the group.
The uncollapsed mine shaft was different from already collapsed ones, as no one had cleared it out, possibly containing other harmful gases.
Miners often carried canaries as a common means to detect the air in the mine shaft; the canary is sensitive to changes in air, and if it exhibits signs like lethargy, it indicates the air in the mine shaft is dangerous and requires evacuation.
They proceeded forward until reaching the junction between deep and shallow levels of the mine shaft, and the canary showed no reaction at all.
The deeper layers of several mine shafts were connected, but the present situation seemed that the leaked gas was concentrating in just a few mine passages.
This behavior further confirmed that the Pine Tree Coal Mine explosion was deliberately manipulated.
They continued walking deeper into the mine, the deeper they went, the narrower the shaft became.
They soon arrived at a heavy partition wooden door. According to Thomas, this door was located two hundred meters underground, separating the shallow and deep mine areas.
Thomas knew how to open the door, and it was opened smoothly, but judging from Thomas’s actions, he was extremely tense, looking very uneasy, subconsciously moving closer to Erin.
Wu Chang asked: "What is it in the deep mining area that is making you so afraid?"
Thomas replied with a slight tremor in his voice:
"Sir, I heard from the workers that demons reside in the deep mines, appearing at night to seize miners."
Wu Chang got intrigued and asked: "Demons in the deep mines? Tell me more."
As they proceeded forward, they listened to Thomas speak.
In Stilan, being a miner was a hazardous profession, especially coal miners, with a higher death rate than railroad workers, known for their dangers.
In small coal mines of around a hundred people, there were yearly three to four deaths from accidents. Not to mention the Pine Tree Coal Mine, a super-large mine with over three thousand people.
But from the statistics, if excluding the recent coal mine explosion, the death rate of workers at Pine Tree Coal Mine was actually much lower than in regular mines.
This was due to the mine’s efficient ventilation and drainage systems, and strict management policies.
These standardized controls significantly reduced the risk of miners dying from accidents, yet Pine Tree Coal Mine still maintained a yearly death and injury count of about twenty people.
The reason came from the deep mining area.
There were frequent disappearances of workers in deep mine shafts, live men unseen, dead bodies unfound.
The deepest section of Pine Tree Coal Mine, located 600 meters underground, often saw miners unable to bring material back to the surface in time, leading to spending the night in temporary resting spots underground.
Quite a few workers claimed that while asleep at night, they saw coworkers wander like sleepwalkers into the mine depths, never returning the next day.
At this point, Thomas’s voice grew dry.
"Compared to regular miners, members of the Miner Thieves gang, especially those who’ve handled coal essence, are more prone to demon attacks."
"Before the explosion started, five people from the Miner Thieves gang already disappeared consecutively."
Listening to this, Raventon showed a thoughtful expression and asked:
"How much coal essence do you steal each time?"
Thomas said: "To avoid detection by mine management, we select small pieces of coal essence each time, about half the size of the mine owner’s coal essence on the office desk."
"Taking eighty to a hundred pieces each time, no more than fifteen pieces per car. We absolutely don’t take more, always replacing each stolen piece with similarly sized regular coal."
Raventon remained silent for a moment, then said:
"According to you, every piece of coal essence you take weighs about an ounce. Taking a middle value of ninety pieces amounts to five pounds."
"This weight spread over eight cars might not seem much, but have you thought about if the mine owner knows the total weight of each batch of coal essence, the five pounds you take will be particularly noticeable?"
Thomas immediately said: "Impossible, Kali mentioned that coal essence extraction is extremely difficult, it’s normal to mix it with regular coal."
"Moreover, the eight cars of coal essence are produced from different mines; they won’t know the total number."
Raventon seemed to already have some speculation about what happened underground; he spoke in a bland tone:
"And has the Kali you spoke of ever told you that regular coal mines wouldn’t produce large quantities of coal essence in such a periodic and regular fashion?"
Thomas stopped speaking, his eyes filled with horror.
If from the start, the mine owner already discovered their activities, why did the owner and management consistently ignore their behavior, even pretending not to know?
Wu Chang lightly patted Thomas’s head and said:
"Don’t overthink it; some things are better not known too much for your own good."
