Chapter 158: Iron Buddha Ridge
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
It was a hot summer night.
Dots of firelight covered the Iron Buddha Ridge. Hundreds of blast furnaces stood in the small town outside the mountain range. From time to time, commoners would push ores in and out.
Cheng Shilu, who was as strong as an ox, held his long-handled bronze hammer and walked up the stone path on the mountain at a leisurely pace. He had already changed into another brocade robe, but the weather was too hot, so he had loosened his collar, revealing brown bear-like chest hair.
The villa at the end of the stone path was the Cheng family’s private residence. Just as he reached the entrance of the villa, a young man quickly ran up to him. “Father, welcome back. How is Second Uncle?”
“Don’t you see that I’m covered in dust? What do you think I could do?”
“Uh…” The young man’s expression froze, but he didn’t dare to ask further. He only chased after his father and smiled apologetically. “It’s good that you’re fine. It’s never too late for a gentleman to take revenge. Oh, right, on the afternoon you left, someone came and looked for me in private. He said he wanted to buy dissolving oil and open a large tomb of the previous dynasty…”
Cheng Shilu raised his hand and slapped the back of his son’s head. His tiger eyes widened. “How dare you sell this thing at will?”
The Imperial Court had classified dissolving oil as a forbidden substance. When poured on stone, it could dissolve most of the stone, making it brittle and easy to dig.
Because the Imperial Court was afraid that traitors would destroy city walls, break into prisons, rob tombs, and other unsavory matters, the dissolving oil formula was a top secret of the government. It was strictly forbidden for commoners to refine it and keep it privately.
The young man naturally knew this and didn’t dare to sell this thing casually. He moved closer, raised his hand, and raised three fingers. “That person is offering this number.”
Cheng Shilu stopped in his tracks and asked, “How much does he want to buy?”
“Thirty barrels. It’s not much. When the Imperial Court checks the number, we can fool them.”
Cheng Shilu’s official identity was a contractor who mined iron ore for the Imperial Court. Because he had connections in the Imperial Court, it was fine to resell some contraband in private.
But if 30 barrels of dissolving oil were used properly and soaked key load-bearing points, a city gate tower in the capital could be brought down in a few days. The risk was definitely not small.
Cheng Shilu wiped the sweat off his bald head and asked, “Are you sure it’s a grave digger? Last time, someone bought it to seek revenge and collapsed a Buddhist pagoda, crushing more than thirty worshippers to death. 1 had to give away several boxes of silver to wipe my butt clean…”
The young man promised solemnly, “Definitely. The moment I saw him, I smelled the smell of dead people. His face was pale, and it was obvious that he often went out to work at night…”
“Alright, keep your hands and feet clean.”
“Father, don’t worry. I’ll do it now…”
After Cheng Shilu finished chatting about trivial matters, he dismissed his attendants and went straight to a house close to the cliff at the back of the villa.
Inside the house was a study. There were rows of bookshelves along the walls, containing all kinds of books and scriptures.
Cheng Shilu clearly didn’t have the habit of reading. He placed his weapon on the weapon rack in the center of the room and went to a bookshelf. He pulled out a book a little and pushed it to the side, revealing an arch.
Behind the arch was a stone room carved out of the mountain wall. There was a secret passage leading to the mine below. It was the ‘escape route’ that Jianghu people commonly prepared in their residences. When a powerful enemy attacked, they could quickly escape.
Cheng Shilu entered the stone room and lit a lamp. There was a suit of armor beside the wall.
The armor was silvery-white heavy armor. It had wolf-head shoulder guards and face armor. The quality of the armor revealed that it came from an elite army, but it had become somewhat damaged by time.
Cheng Shilu stood in front of the armor and lit incense. Then he picked up a golden bowl from under the armor.
The golden bowl was full of clear water, and a pigeon egg-sized white bead was soaking in it. After soaking the egg for a few days, the clear water in the bowl had already turned into a misty white color.
Splash!
Cheng Shilu took out a clamp and carefully took out the white bead from the water, as if he was holding a piece of red iron. Then he took the golden bowl, walked to the small bath in the stone room, and poured the water in the bowl into the pool. He took off his robe and soaked his entire body in the pool, even his face…
At the same time, at the foot of the Iron Buddha Ridge…
The big black horse stopped in a forest. The fluffy bird was standing at the top of a big pine tree in the forest and looking at the official road in the distance.
Under the pine tree, Ye Jingtang had taken off his outer robe and was changing into a completely black robe.
Luo Ning was standing at the side with a veiled hat and a bamboo hat and scarf in her hand. She looked up at the villa on the Iron Buddha Ridge. “I thought the Iron Buddha Ridge was just a small place. I didn’t expect the mine to be so big.”
“The Iron Buddha Ridge is a mine of the Imperial Court. All the output is handed over to be used to forge official weapons and armaments. Cheng Shilu is just a contractor who helps with the work.”
While Ye Jingtang was putting on his clothes, he was also sizing up the official road outside the forest.
Last night, when he realized that Third Lady had followed him, he had been paying attention. He had even been very careful when eating the watermelons.
In the end, Third Lady listened for half the night and didn’t come over to kill him. She didn’t even say anything.
After Ye Jingtang fell asleep, he woke up early in the morning to change shifts with the bird. He wanted to secretly chat with Third Lady.
But just as he reached the door of her room, she blocked the door. It was unknown if she was afraid that he hadn’t eaten enough and wanted to rush to the second round, or if she was aggrieved by the commotion and didn’t open the door.
Seeing that Third Lady knew that she had been exposed, Ye Jingtang didn’t force his way in. When the sky was bright, Third Lady covered herself tightly and led her horse away first.
Ye Jingtang rode his horse to the Iron Buddha Ridge. On the way, he asked the bird to investigate. He could confirm that Third Lady had been following the hoof prints as a bodyguard.
Ye Jingtang looked back a few times. After putting on his clothes, he took the bamboo hat from Heroine Luo. “I’ll go in. Wait outside. If anything happens, the bird will send a signal.”
Luo Ning knew that Cheng Shilu was no match for Ye Jingtang, but she still reminded seriously, “The anxious rabbit will even kick the eagle. Most people don’t die from martial arts but from underestimating the enemy. Even if you’re dealing with a street ruffian, you have to be 120% alert.”
Ye Jingtang was about to pull up the scarf to cover his face when he blinked again.
?
Luo Ning understood the meaning of this look. She was afraid that the little thief would let his imagination run wild when he was doing something, so she didn’t show a cold expression. Instead, like a virtuous wife sending her husband to the battlefield, she stood on her tiptoes, cupped Ye Jingtang’s cheeks, and pecked his lips. “Alright, get down to business. Don’t have any distracting thoughts.”
Ye Jingtang smiled, pulled up the scarf, took a deep breath, carried the Black Qilin Spear wrapped in black cloth, and walked unhurriedly toward the stone steps leading up the mountain.
Luo Ning followed silently in the mountain forest while investigating the situation on the Iron Buddha Ridge to avoid any ambushes.
As a Jianghu sect, it was impossible for the Iron Buddha Ridge not to have any disciples. According to the preliminary investigation, there were about 200 disciples in the entire Iron Buddha Ridge, but they all lived near the mine under the mountain ridge and served as supervisors and stewards of the mine.
The villa on the mountain ridge was the Cheng family’s private residence. There were a few disciples patrolling the mountain path to prevent unrelated people from running up and disturbing the sect master’s cultivation. Apart from this, there was no other protection.
Ye Jingtang arrived openly and didn’t walk fast. He only held his spear and walked slowly under the moonlight, waiting for the disciples of the Iron Buddha Ridge to come.
But the disciples of the Iron Buddha Ridge seemed to have been at ease for a long time. Their vigilance was too low. They gathered on the mountain path to comment on the prostitutes in the city. Ye Jingtang walked halfway up the mountain without anyone even noticing.
Luo Ning was speechless. Just as she was looking around in boredom, she suddenly discovered a few figures outside an independent small house on the mountainside of the Iron Buddha Ridge.
The house was alone at the corner of the mountain ridge, far away from the villa. There were guards nearby, but they didn’t light any torches in the middle of the night and were only moving things under the moonlight.
Luo Ning was slightly puzzled and silently approached. She saw a noble young master holding a whip in his hand and instructing laborers to carry a pile of wooden barrels onto a cart.
The distance was too far, and the sky was dark, so Luo Ning couldn’t see very clearly. After paying attention for a moment, she saw that Ye Jingtang had already come into contact with the people of the Iron Buddha Ridge.. She stopped paying attention to this unrelated matter and hurried up the mountain…
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