Chapter 885
Chen 94: A bunch of idiots
"It's been handed over, it's been handed over."
"Hurry up."
With a sharp crack, the whip lashed him hard. A bloody welt immediately appeared on the laborer's body. With their magical power sealed, their physical bodies were not strong enough to withstand the whip.
Chen Jie mingled in the crowd and pushed his way out. Once outside, he saw the bald, blind man holding an account book, saying, "Come here, everyone, quickly hand over today's spirit stones. If anyone dares to hide any, see if I don't beat them up."
As he spoke, he reached out and shook the whip in his hand. The whip cracked loudly in the air, giving a great sense of intimidation to everyone present.
Liu Xiaoshan then came up behind Chen Jie and asked in a low voice, "How was the harvest today?"
At this moment, Chen Jie took out five spirit stones that he had prepared from his pocket.
"It was alright, I managed to complete the mission by sheer luck."
Upon hearing this, Liu Xiaoshan said, "I dug up 6 pieces."
Chen Jie looked at Liu Xiaoshan and said, "Oh, you've dug quite a lot."
Liu Xiaoshan then spoke in a low voice: "I've been thinking about this for a day and I've realized that something's not right. Qingmu doesn't intend for us to leave here easily. I asked a few people, and this bald guy is quite ruthless. If you dig out more than five spirit stones, they will forcibly confiscate them and won't give you any extra points."
"Well, when we came in, didn't Deacon Sun say that any extra spirit stones we dug up would count as points? If we had enough points, we could become disciples of Green Wood Valley."
"You actually believe what that guy surnamed Sun says? I asked around today, and they all said that nobody can get the points."
"And that bald guy, do you think he's from Greenwood Valley? No, he's someone Deacon Sun promoted himself. It's said that all the extra spirit stones we dug were given to Deacon Sun by that bald guy."
"And we won't get a single point. In the end, we'll all grow old and die in this mine."
Liu Xiaoshan's face turned grim as he said this to Chen Jie: "We've teamed up with a few people to hide a batch of crystals. We'll see if we can break the seal on ourselves. Once we break the seal, we'll have the ability to fight back and won't become their prey, at their mercy."
Liu Xiaoshan looked at Chen Jie and asked, "So, brother, are you in?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie shook his head and said, "I won't participate."
Upon hearing this, Liu Xiaoshan frowned and said, "Brother Chen, are you willing to be exploited by these bastards? Are you willing to be a miner here for the rest of your life?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie smiled and said, "Since we're here, let's make the best of it."
Liu Xiaoshan stomped his foot angrily and said, "I'm not going to care about you anymore."
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie said, "It doesn't matter if it's me or not, but Brother Xiaoshan, we've known each other for a while, so I'll give you a piece of advice."
"What?"
Liu Xiaoshan looked at Chen Jie, his voice displeased, clearly suppressing his anger. In Liu Xiaoshan's view, he considered Chen Jiu Si as one of his own, which was why he asked Chen Jiu Si to do this together.
Unexpectedly, Chen Jiu Si was so cowardly that he refused. Liu Xiao Shan was very displeased, feeling that his good intentions had been taken for granted. Since he was willing to be a miner for life, then so be it.
Liu Xiaoshan looked at Chen Jie, and Chen Jie looked at him back. Chen Jie didn't dislike Liu Xiaoshan; on the contrary, he liked him a little. Liu Xiaoshan was a straightforward person and someone who dared to resist injustice.
His personality reminded Chen Jie of Chen Xiaohu in the past. Xiaohu was the same when he was young, always rushing forward.
So, Chen Jie does miss his family in the mortal realm a little. He wonders how they are doing. Once he finishes his cultivation, he must go down to the mortal realm to see them.
In fact, as Xu Yuandao once said, as long as one's cultivation level reaches around the Derivation of Laws realm, one can establish a connection with the Lesser Thousand Worlds and borrow their power to use in the Greater Thousand Worlds.
In other words, once he reaches the Dharma Transformation Realm, he will be able to connect with the Lesser Thousand Worlds.
Chen Jie was lost in thought when Liu Xiaoshan impatiently urged, "Brother Chen, didn't you have something to say to me? Why are you hesitating and not saying anything?"
Chen Jie looked at Liu Xiaoshan and said, "Brother Liu, although we ascended from different worlds, and I don't know if this saying exists in your world, I still want to tell you: things are accomplished in secrecy, and ruined by leaks."
After saying this, Chen Jie turned and distanced himself from Liu Xiaoshan and the others. Liu Xiaoshan frowned, scratched his chin, and didn't quite understand.
However, if he didn't understand, then so be it. With that thought, he began to contact other people and prepare to study their methods of storing spirit stones.
Chen Jie immediately distanced himself from these people. He wasn't stupid; with so many people, there must be spies among the bald, blind man. If he were blind, he would have planted spies among them too.
He was the founding emperor of the Great Han Empire, and in terms of political skills, no one could rival him. Therefore, he did not believe that these miners were all working-class people or victims.
There must be someone bald's informant here. Now that Liu Xiaoshan and his group are hiding spirit stones here, it's the same as bald's open deception.
I can't easily get involved in their disputes; these people are just hiding one or two spirit stones.
But he was actually hiding a large number of spirit stones, especially since he was now gradually breaking through the blockage in his dantian.
As for his own Hunyuan Technique, it was a cross-level attack against the power of Qingmu Valley, and it could easily break through the power that Deacon Sun had sealed off his dantian.
In other words, he will soon be able to break through the restrictions. I said, "The amount of ore I have in this mine can be as much as I want to hide."
These ores were indeed difficult to move for those whose cultivation had been sealed, but they fell into the hands of someone like Chen Jiu Si who had regained his magical power.
That would be like a tiger entering a flock of sheep. They would all be his. If he were with Liu Xiaoshan and the others, wouldn't he be waiting to be discovered?
Therefore, Chen Jiu Si must stay away from them, and Liu Xiao Shan needs to connect with many people, just like what Chen Jiu Si just said.
Things are accomplished in secrecy, and ruined by being revealed.
When planning something, never impulsively tell others, not even your closest relatives.
Because you never know who could easily ruin your plans with a single sentence, you must be extremely cautious.
Chen Jiu Si moved away from Liu Xiao Shan, while on the other side, Liu Xiao Shan was seen whispering among several people.
Chen Jie witnessed this scene and glanced at the bald, blind man not far away. He noticed that although the blind man was holding an account book, his eyes were constantly fixed on Liu Xiaoshan's direction, and a faint smile played on his lips. That smile was quite eerie.
It's like a hunter watching his prey slowly grow bigger and fatter.
Chen Jie took a deep breath, thankful that he hadn't gone with Liu Xiaoshan and his group. There must have been a bald blind man's spy infiltrated into that idiot Liu Xiaoshan's team.
Their every move was being watched by the bald, blind man.
Chen Jie remained silent, head down, walking slowly and steadily forward in the line to exchange spirit stones. The people around him also had their heads down, looking as if life had worn them down, or perhaps they had been exploited by these bald men.
"A few spirit stones?"
When Chen Jie arrived at the line of people exchanging spirit stones, the foreman who was keeping accounts glanced at him and asked a question.
Five yuan.
Chen Jie then took out five spirit stones from his pocket. Three of them were of relatively good quality, while the other two were of very average quality. These were carefully selected by Chen Jie, because if he had chosen only high-quality spirit stones, he would definitely have attracted the other party's attention.
If the other party takes this as normal and directly asks you for five high-quality spirit stones, that would be bad.
Chen Jie's current ideal is to barely get by.
Don't worry too much about me, I'll just let it go.
This way, you can continue to act arrogantly, while I secretly accumulate power, and no one bothers anyone else. Isn't this the perfect state?
So Chen Jie placed five spirit stones on the table, and the foreman in charge of bookkeeping glanced at the spirit stones and said, "From now on, spirit stones of such poor quality will only be counted as one and a half stones for two."
He then tossed a wooden sign to Chen Jie, saying, "Go over there and get your food."
Chen Jie slowly walked over there with the wooden sign in his hand. When he got there, he received two steamed buns made from mixed grains. They looked dark and grimy, but they were better than what he had eaten at noon.
Chen Jie looked around and saw that those who hadn't finished their work or handed in their five spirit stones were eating the wild vegetable porridge that no one else was eating at noon.
They looked rather pitiful, but Chen Jie didn't care. He found a corner to sit down and ate his steamed buns bite by bite.
Actually, he still had some dried meat in his storage ring, but he couldn't take it out now. He would secretly take it out and eat some after everyone fell asleep at night.
At this moment, Chen Jie was munching on a steamed bun, but his eyes never left the bald blind man. He really wanted to find the bald blind man, who was also secretly hiding spirit stones. If he knew who the spy was, he could better avoid the risks.
At this moment, Chen Jie's eyes swept over the blind man, while simultaneously keeping an eye on the people on the other side who were talking to Liu Xiaoshan and the others.
It's impossible to leave no trace at all, so if you look carefully, you'll definitely be able to spot some clues.
As Chen Jie pondered this, he kept his eyes fixed on the bald blind man and Liu Xiaoshan.
Just then, one of the bald blind man's confidants leaned close to him and whispered, "Xiao Si has already infiltrated their little gang. They're planning to steal the Earthly Treasury Stones without us noticing. Should we take them down now?"
The bald, blind man chuckled and said, "Do you know what a field mouse is?"
The confidant was taken aback by these words. What did this have to do with field mice?
At this moment, the blind man grinned and said, "I ascended from the lower realm. I used to farm and be a farmer. When there was a famine in my hometown, we would usually do one thing."
"what's up?"
Upon hearing this, the confidant looked at the bald man and asked, to which the bald man replied, "Digging up field mouse burrows."
"Digging up a mole's burrow?"
The confidant was quite surprised to hear this.
The bald man nodded slightly and said, "That's right, it's about digging up field mouse burrows."
"Those little field mice like to steal grain, and once they've stolen it, they hide it."
"When there is no shortage of food, we endure it. But when there is a shortage of food, we simply dig up the field mouse burrows and then we can collect a lot of food to get through the disaster year."
"You can even dig up field mice, process them, and roast them; they're quite delicious."
The confidant was taken aback by these words and looked at the bald man, saying, "So, boss, what you're thinking?"
“These guys are like field mice in our eyes. Let them steal and let them hide. Only in this way will they work harder. After all, they might slack off when working for us, but they won’t slack off when working for themselves.”
“These days, that guy surnamed Sun’s appetite is getting bigger and bigger, and he’s asking for more and more spirit stones. We’re still counting on him to take care of us, so we can’t offend him. We can only increase the supply of spirit stones. Where do we need the spirit stones? Now we have a solution.”
Upon hearing this, his trusted subordinate asked, "Boss, are you referring to these? Field mice?"
The bald, blind man chuckled and said, "That's right. Ah, isn't Liu Xiaoshan, the leader, known for causing trouble? Let him cause trouble, he can cause trouble however he wants."
"As for the spirit stones, let him hide them however he wants. Don't worry about it. We can catch them all in one fell swoop after a while."
Upon hearing this, the confidant immediately gave a thumbs up and said, "Brilliant, absolutely brilliant."
Hearing this, the bald blind man said with satisfaction, "Go and tell Xiao Si to hide well and not to disturb them. Also, find out where they hid the spirit stones. Then you can come with me to dig up the field mouse burrows and make a fortune."
"Alright, boss, I know what to do."
The confidant left the bald man after speaking. The bald man then glanced around. For some reason, he had a feeling that someone was watching him, but when he looked around, he found that there was no one there.
Chen Jie, meanwhile, kept his head down, munching on a steamed bun, thus avoiding the bald man's scrutinizing gaze.
After the bald man looked around and saw that there was no one there, he turned and left. As the person in charge, he had wine and meat to eat and was not willing to stay there any longer.
Chen Jie watched the bald man leave, then looked around and quickly and accurately located the bald man's confidant.
Meanwhile, the confidant quietly approached Liu Xiaoshan's team.
Liu Xiaoshan's team was unaware of the impending crisis. Just as the confidant approached Liu Xiaoshan's team, one of Liu Xiaoshan's team members quietly turned his head to look in the direction of the confidant.
In just one glance, the two exchanged information, and Chen Jie witnessed it all, confirming the spy's identity.
At this moment, he chewed on the steamed bun in his hand and thought to himself, "This kid is hiding his true intentions very well. If I hadn't discovered it, I might have really fallen for his trick."
Can you guess who this confidant is?
That's right, some people may have already guessed it, it's the old man who was talking to Liu Xiaoshan, the old guy who has been working in the mine for twenty years.
Because he had been in constant contact with Liu Xiaoshan, Liu Xiaoshan trusted him almost completely. Such a perfect spy would probably not have been discovered by Chen Jiu Si if he hadn't noticed it earlier.
This mine is truly fraught with danger at every turn. After Chen Jie finished eating his fill of steamed buns, he turned and left to go to his sleeping quarters. (End of Chapter)