“Who’s there, why are you dawdling?”
Suddenly, a shout came from a fork in the road ahead. A figure wearing a woven mask also turned out from the fork, pointing remotely at the two, one tall and one short, in the dim light.
There was more than one passage in this tunnel that resembled a mine. Because the exact location of the target was unknown at the beginning of the excavation, a group of native cultivators dug aimlessly underground for about a month.
Only after reaching the target did they focus on one direction of excavation, which is why there were many forks in the cave.
The reason they drew the supervisor’s questioning was naturally because the two, secretly whispering, were so engrossed in conversation that their steps were too slow and their slacking off was too obvious.
As Wu Jinliang had said earlier, aren’t we being too open with this? In any case, both were startled by the sound. Seeing it was a supervisor, they immediately bent their backs, ready to grovel and run forward to admit their mistake, their synchronized actions remarkably consistent.
However, the supervisor was truly angered by their obvious laziness; they simply didn't take the supervisors seriously enough. He flashed over, raising his hand and lashing out with a whip towards Shi Chun’s face, intending to teach him a lesson.
Human nature and temperament can sometimes be this self-absorbed.
This action greatly displeased Shi Chun.
To his knowledge, whether miners or these supervisors, all were recruited by Shen Youkun to work. They merely had different divisions of labor, and none of them had a long-term meal ticket.
Since they were working together, why be so serious and offend people? The stunned Wu Jinliang also didn’t react at all, showing no intention of helping or stopping him. He believed this small matter was well within his chief’s ability to handle.
Shi Chun’s subconscious reaction was to dodge, and he even wanted to fight back and give the other party a piece of his mind. The carrying pole on his shoulder almost swung out, but considering their current situation, he held back, not wanting to provoke the other party and cause a bigger commotion.
So he decided to let the other party vent their anger and stood still, not moving to dodge.
However, he couldn’t completely not react and let the other party whip him across the face.
What if it disfigured him? He felt he still had a chance to rely on his looks in the future.
He raised a hand to block in front.
Woosh-smack! The whip cracked, making Shi Chun grimace in pain. He quickly retracted his hand to look, and a whip mark on his arm was bleeding at a visible rate.
He immediately flared up in rage, not expecting the other party to strike so heavily.
Half a layer of skin was gone.
Wu Jinliang also grimaced and bared his teeth, looking at it pained him.
Shi Chun, secretly seething, still bit the bullet and endured it.
He bowed subserviently to the supervisor who had flashed in front of him, hoping to turn a big problem into a small one, and a small one into nothing.
“Speak, what were you dawdling for?” The supervisor’s whip poked Shi Chun’s chest, then turned to poke Wu Jinliang, questioning, “Don’t want to eat this meal anymore, is that it?”
Shi Chun hastily said, “No dawdling, no dawdling, brave warrior, please calm your anger.” He showed his bloody arm to the other party to elicit pity, hoping that would be enough.
The supervisor, however, did not calm down: “Do you think I’m blind?”
Wu Jinliang quickly said, “Truly no dawdling, I twisted my ankle, which is why I walked slowly.”
The supervisor pointed to his own ear, “It seems you not only think I’m blind, but also deaf, right? You two have been chatting happily all the way, do you think I wouldn’t notice? Fine, you’re stubborn, right? Fine, I won’t make things difficult for you. I’ll let you stand here and chat to your heart’s content, as long as others don’t have an opinion.
Chat, you two keep chatting.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the two, one tall and one short, slightly changed.
They were already trying to sneak around and exploit loopholes everywhere here. How could they stand here and let passersby admire them? Were they afraid others wouldn’t notice them? It would be even more troublesome if Shen Youkun came back.
Would they really have to tie someone up? Unless absolutely necessary, it wasn't worth tying someone up as a hostage.
Shi Chun immediately cupped his hands and pleaded, “This brave warrior…”
“Don’t move!” The supervisor shouted, cutting him off, his whip pointing at Shi Chun’s foot, which was attempting to move forward to bow.
“Didn’t you hear me tell you to stand there and chat slowly? Chat, keep chatting.”
Shi Chun stopped moving, his gaze, hidden by his hanging hair, fixed on the other party.
Then he turned his head and gave Wu Jinliang a look.
Wu Jinliang’s carrying pole clattered to the ground.
Under the supervisor’s suddenly fixed gaze, he plopped to his knees, instantly bursting into tears, “I was wrong! I have elders above and children below, and I’m counting on this reward! Please, sir, have mercy and let me off this one time…”
Crying and kneeling, he crawled up to the supervisor, hugging the supervisor’s leg and pleading tearfully.
So soft-boned? The supervisor also looked surprised, shouting “Let go” and trying to push the other party away, but was gripped tightly.
The weeping Wu Jinliang hugged him all the way up.
The supervisor quickly realized something was wrong, finding that both of his hands had been unintentionally embraced around his waist, and more importantly, he couldn't break free with force.
He sensed danger. Just as he was about to use his knee to push away the person clinging to him, a sudden chill ran down his neck.
His gaze caught the metallic gleam under his chin, still glinting coldly in the dim light. He could already feel a tearing pain on his neck.
Under this threat and pressure, he immediately dared not move.
Shi Chun pulled out a small knife from who-knows-where, holding it against his neck.
The carrying pole on his shoulder also dropped to the ground.
The supervisor immediately tensed, saying, “What do you two want to do?”
“Shut up!” Shi Chun warned.
The supervisor then whispered, “Everything can be discussed…”
Shi Chun, who had moved behind him, raised the arm that had been whipped and bled, and covered the supervisor’s mouth under his mask, making him shut up with action. The sharp blade against his neck even cleanly pulled out a spray of blood, not giving the other party any chance to make a desperate struggle.
Wu Jinliang, as if foreknowing, had already rolled away from the spurting blood.
The supervisor, struggling with all his cultivation, was pinned to the ground.
Shi Chun's knee pressed firmly against his lower back, and the hand covering his mouth simultaneously made a 'crack' sound, twisting his neck.
The supervisor’s prone body was still twitching.
Shi Chun, having wiped the blood from his knife, stood up and looked into the depths of the mine. Faint footsteps could be heard.
He whispered, “Someone’s coming, quickly move him.”
This was also why he had decisively killed the supervisor.
With people coming and going here, once he got entangled, he would lose his room to maneuver.
Without hesitation, Wu Jinliang quickly picked up the supervisor, whose body was still slightly twitching, and ran, flashing towards the fork in the road from which the supervisor had just emerged.
Shi Chun quickly hid the small knife under his leg-covering cloth, then swiftly pulled out a woven mask from under the carrying basket and put it on his face. He quickly tied a black cloth strip around his arm, picked up the supervisor’s whip, emergency-stacked the two carrying poles by the side, and then turned to sweep the ground with his leg, the stirred dust covering the blood on the ground.
Just as he finished waving his hand to use a spell to clear the stirred dust, he saw two people dressed as supervisors approaching quickly.
As they passed, the two had no intention of interacting with Shi Chun.
Even with two stacked carrying poles by the side, they didn't pay it any mind. But an unusual scent made both of them stop one after another, their nostrils flaring.
One person said in a deep voice, “Smell of blood!”
The other nodded, looking around, and both quickly looked at Shi Chun by the side of the road.
Shi Chun remained unhurried, raising his still-bloody arm and lowering his voice slightly, “Just playing with the whip, accidentally did it.”
He wasn’t feigning composure; he truly wasn’t flustered.
Seeing him injured, the two supervisors were both relieved and slightly surprised.
Shi Chun didn't wait for them to ask more questions and preemptively changed the subject, “What are you two doing?”
One supervisor explained, “Checking the excavation progress. The remaining earth volume shouldn't be much.
We want to discuss with Mr. Shen if there’s no need to transport it out from far away; we can just dump it into other branched tunnels.
It saves time and effort, and can speed up the excavation.”
“That makes sense.” Shi Chun nodded in agreement, raising his hand as if to dismiss them.
The two supervisors immediately left quickly.
Shi Chun watched them go, then turned his head back to look into the depths of the mine, thinking, No wonder no miners carrying heavy loads have come out for a while.
Wu Jinliang’s figure then flashed out from the fork in the road, quickly reaching him, and whispered, “Buried him.
Are you okay?”
Shi Chun: “It’s all because you were nagging and wouldn’t stop murmuring. Otherwise, where would this trouble come from?” He pointed at the stacked carrying poles beside them, signaling him to pick them up and leave.
Wu Jinliang was a bit reluctant, “Why am I always the one doing the hard labor? Shouldn’t it be someone else’s turn to switch?”
Shi Chun said as he walked, “Is there any supervisor as tall as you? Afraid others won’t recognize you?”
That one sentence left Wu Jinliang speechless. It was indeed true; a supervisor of such height would be too conspicuous and wouldn't be able to blend in.
In fact, a miner of such height had previously aroused the suspicion of other miners; they weren’t blind, so it was impossible not to be suspicious. However, Shi Chun, the fake supervisor, would appear along the way, proving that Wu Jinliang was a newcomer, so the miners naturally had no questions.
They dealt with the supervisors’ suspicions using the same method. If they encountered a suspicious person they couldn’t handle, their solution was simple: eliminate them directly.
Anyway, after the two had figured out the personnel situation here, they simply blended in. They weren’t inflexible; they hid when they should, avoided when they should, sometimes together, sometimes separated.
Shi Chun even switched identities between miner and supervisor at opportune moments, handling things calmly.
In Shi Chun’s words, this East Nine Plains is my territory! In short, the two of them didn't do any work at all, running around and investigating everywhere in this underground mine, treating the opposing personnel as if they were nothing.
They were indeed so audacious as to be almost blatant.
Of course, they weren’t unprepared; they had long been mentally ready: if they could handle it, they would; if they couldn’t, they would run!
However, Wu Jinliang, who was trailing behind him, still sighed, “Another one taken care of.
If we keep this up, there will be fewer and fewer people, and it’ll be hard not to be discovered.”
“Can you shut your mouth?” Shi Chun, walking ahead, turned back to question, also reminding him, Is this a place for chatting? We almost had an incident just now.
As soon as the words fell, he quickly turned back to look ahead, only to see a figure flash towards them, moving so fast it almost collided with the two.
The newcomer was also a masked supervisor, who paused briefly to avoid the two and then hurried on his way.
So urgent? Shi Chun noticed that this supervisor’s reaction was off. He wouldn't miss any opportunity to inquire, so he immediately reached out to block the way and asked, “What’s the rush?”
“Something was dug up, need to inform Mr.
Shen.” The newcomer casually replied, pushed aside the blocking arm, and quickly left.
“Dug up something?” Shi Chun muttered, then turned to exchange glances with Wu Jinliang, both surprised.
Hadn’t something been dug up already? Wasn’t it that skeletal frame of unknown origin? Was it worth making such a fuss about?
The two instantly realized there might be something else going on.
Since they were already here, they naturally didn’t want to miss out. Immediately, both flashed into motion, heading straight for the end of the mine.