On a sweltering summer night.
There were scattered dots of firelight under Iron Buddha Ridge. Hundreds of blast furnaces stood in the small town outside the ridge, and from time to time, laborers pushed ores in and out.
Cheng Shilu, as strong and sturdy as an ox, leaned on his long-handled copper hammer and unhurriedly walked up the stone path on the mountain. He had already changed into a complete brocade robe, but because it was too hot, he had unbuttoned the collar, revealing his chest hair that was like that of a brown bear.
At the end of the stone path was the Cheng family's private manor. As soon as he reached the entrance of the manor, a young man quickly ran up to him:
"Dad, you're back. How about the matter of Second Uncle?"
"Can't you see that I'm in a sorry state? What do you think happened?"
"Uh..."
The young man's expression froze, and he didn't dare to ask more. He just chased after him with a forced smile:
"It's good that you're okay, Dad. A gentleman can take revenge even after ten years. By the way, that afternoon when you left, a Jianghu person came and privately found me, saying that he wanted to buy dissolved petroleum to open an ancient tomb from the previous dynasty..."
Cheng Shilu raised his hand and slapped the back of his son's head. His tiger-like eyes widened:
"How dare this thing be sold casually?"
Dissolved petroleum was a prohibited item approved by the court. When poured on stones, it could dissolve most of the stone materials, making them brittle and easy to excavate.
Because the court was afraid that thieves would use it for illegal activities such as destroying city walls, breaking out of prison, and tomb raiding, the formula of dissolved petroleum was a top-secret of the court, and it was strictly prohibited for the common people to refine and privately hide it.
The young man naturally knew that this thing couldn't be sold casually. He moved closer, raised his hand, and extended three fingers:
"That person made a generous offer, this amount."
Cheng Shilu paused and asked:
"How much does he want to buy?"
"Thirty barrels. It's not much. When checking the quantity with the court, we can just prevaricate and muddle through it."
Cheng Shilu's official identity was a contractor who opened an iron mine for the court. Because he had connections in the court, there was no problem with him privately selling some prohibited items.
But thirty barrels of dissolved petroleum, if used well and all soaked in the load-bearing points, could bring down a city gate tower in the capital in a few days. The risk was definitely not small.
Cheng Shilu wiped the sweat off his bald head and asked:
"Are you sure he's a tomb robber? Last time, someone bought it for revenge and collapsed a pagoda, killing more than thirty pilgrims. I had to send several large boxes of silver to clean up the mess..."
The young man assured him solemnly: "Definitely. As soon as I met him, I smelled the smell of a dead person. His face was pale, and he obviously often worked underground during the night..."
"Alright, be careful and keep your hands clean."
"Don't worry, Dad. I'll take care of it right away..."
...
After finishing chatting about the trivial matters, Cheng Shilu dismissed his attendants and went straight to a house next to the cliff at the back of the manor.
The interior of the house was arranged like a study. There were several rows of bookshelves along the wall, lined with various classic books.
Cheng Shilu obviously didn't have the habit of reading books. He placed his personal weapon on the weapon rack in the center of the room. Then he came to the bookshelf, pulled a book, and pushed it aside, revealing an arched door.
Behind the arched door was a stone chamber excavated from the mountain wall. There was a secret passage leading to the mine below, which could be considered a common "escape route" in the residence of a Jianghu person. In case of a powerful enemy's attack, one could quickly flee.
Cheng Shilu entered the stone chamber and lit the lamp. He could see a suit of armor placed by the wall.
The armor was heavy armor, overall silver-white, with wolf-head shoulder guards and a face mask. Judging from its texture, it came from an elite military unit. However, due to the passage of time, there were already some damaged parts.
Cheng Shilu stood in front of the armor, first offered a stick of incense. Then he picked up a golden bowl from below the armor.
The golden bowl was filled with clear water, and there was a white round bead soaked in it, about the size of a pigeon egg. After being soaked for a few days, the clear water in the bowl had turned into a misty white color.
Whoosh~
Cheng Shilu took a pair of tongs, carefully took out the white bead from the water as if holding a red-hot iron. Then he carried the golden bowl, walked to the small bathtub in the stone chamber, poured the water in the bowl into the bathtub, took off his robe, and soaked his whole body in the bathtub, even burying his face in it...
——
At the same time, below Iron Buddha Ridge.
The big black horse was parked in the forest. The fluffy Niaoniao stood at the top of a tall pine tree that stood out in the forest, gazing into the distance at the official road.
Below the pine tree, Ye Jingtang took off his outer robe and was wearing a black robe of a different style.
Luo Ning, wearing a veiled hat, stood beside him, holding a bamboo hat and a face巾 (face towel) in her hand. She looked up at the manor above Iron Buddha Ridge:
"I thought Iron Buddha Ridge was just a small sect. I didn't expect the mine to be so big."
"Iron Buddha Ridge is a mine of the court. All the output is handed over to the court and used to make official swords and military supplies. Cheng Shilu is just a contractor who helps with the work."
While putting on his clothes, Ye Jingtang was also looking at the official road outside the forest.
After discovering that Third Lady had followed them last night, he had been paying attention all the time, even being careful when eating watermelons.
As a result, Third Lady listened for half the night but didn't come charging in and didn't even say a word.
After Ye Jingtang went to sleep, he got up in the early morning to change shifts with Niaoniao. He originally wanted to secretly go and talk to Third Lady.
But as soon as he walked to the door of the room, Third Lady blocked the door. He didn't know whether she was afraid that he hadn't had enough and wanted to have a second round or was feeling wronged by the commotion and didn't open the door.
Seeing that Third Lady knew she had been exposed, Ye Jingtang didn't force his way in. When it was dawn, Third Lady covered herself tightly and led the horse and set off first.
Ye Jingtang rode his horse towards Iron Buddha Ridge and also had Niaoniao scout on the way. He could confirm that Third Lady had been following behind as a bodyguard along the horse hoof prints.
Ye Jingtang looked back a few times. After putting on his clothes, he took the bamboo hat from Miss Luo:
"I'll go in. You wait outside. Niaoniao will send a signal if there's anything wrong."
Luo Ning knew that Cheng Shilu was no match for Ye Jingtang, but she still reminded him seriously:
"Even a cornered rabbit will kick an eagle. Most people don't die because of their martial arts skills but because of underestimating their opponents. Even when dealing with street ruffians, you have to be fully alert."
Ye Jingtang was about to pull up the face巾 (face towel) when he blinked his eyes.
?
Luo Ning understood the meaning of this look. Afraid that the little thief would be distracted when going to do things, she didn't put on a cold expression. Instead, like a virtuous wife sending her husband to the battlefield, she stood on tiptoe, held Ye Jingtang's cheeks in her hands, and kissed him on the lips:
"Alright, focus on the business and don't have any distractions."
Ye Jingtang smiled, pulled up the face巾 (face towel), took a deep breath, carried the Black Spear Black Scaled Spear wrapped in black cloth, and unhurriedly walked towards the stone steps up the mountain.
Luo Ning silently followed in the forest and at the same time scouted the situation of Iron Buddha Ridge to avoid being ambushed by some people.
As a Jianghu sect, Iron Buddha Ridge couldn't have no disciples. Through preliminary investigation, there were probably more than two hundred disciples in the entire Iron Buddha Ridge, but they all lived near the mine below the ridge and served as supervisors and managers of the mine.
The manor on the ridge was the Cheng family's private residence. There were a few disciples patrolling on the mountain path to prevent idle people from going up and disturbing the leader's meditation. Other than that, there wasn't much protection.
Ye Jingtang was visiting openly. He didn't walk fast. He just carried a long spear and walked slowly in the moonlight, waiting for the disciples of Iron Buddha Ridge to come.
However, the disciples of Iron Buddha Ridge seemed to have been living an easy life for too long and had very low alertness. They gathered together on the mountain path to comment on the brothel girls in the city. They didn't even notice Ye Jingtang when he had already reached the halfway up the mountain.
Luo Ning was a bit speechless about this. When she was looking around boredly, she suddenly found several figures outside an independent small house on the halfway up Iron Buddha Ridge.
The house was isolated at the edge of the ridge, far from the other houses. There were guards nearby. They didn't light any torches even in the middle of the night and were just moving things by the moonlight.
Luo Ning was a bit puzzled. She silently approached. She saw a noble young master holding a whip in his hand and directing the laborers to carry a pile of wooden barrels onto a cart.
It was too far away and too dark to see clearly. After paying attention for a while, seeing that Ye Jingtang had already made contact with the people of Iron Buddha Ridge, she didn't pay attention to this irrelevant small matter anymore and quickly went up the ridge...