“Mm.”
“Okay.”
Yun Lingyu nodded, then quietly began moving the Ore.
“Uncle Yu, do you want to come along?”
Yun Lingyu’s hands paused before he slowly placed the Ore onto the handcart.
“I’m not leaving.”
“Actually, I can…”
Lin Ping wanted to say more, but before he could finish, Yun Lingyu raised a hand to cut him off.
“Kid, I know what you want to say. Your Heart-Nature is enough for this Uncle Yu.”
“I’m already used to this place. Besides, with me being crippled, even if I escape, I’ll eventually be caught and brought back.”
Yun Lingyu wasn’t joking when he said this.
There was no place for him in Silver Moon City, and the surrounding towns were the same. It was better to just spend the rest of his life here.
Most importantly, he didn’t want to drag Lin Ping down because of himself.
With his current Major Achievement in Soaring Cloud Step, escaping wouldn’t be a big problem, but if he had to bring along a cripple like himself, it would be a different story.
This kid’s Heart-Nature was good and suited him well. He figured that the task he entrusted to him wouldn’t be ignored.
Since that was the case, he had no more regrets!
Seeing Yun Lingyu’s resolute stance, Lin Ping said no more.
In fact, he had brought it up several times before, and each time he was rejected. He understood Yun Lingyu’s reason for not leaving: he was afraid of dragging him down.
Lin Ping silently picked up his pickaxe and swung it hard into the Ore, as if venting the many frustrations in his heart.
After digging the last batch of Ore, Lin Ping, having nothing else to do, wandered around the various branch mine Dao.
It had been several months since he arrived in this dark mine, and he wanted to take a good look at the place he had lived before leaving.
As luck would have it, he spotted Zhou Laogou.
Even more coincidentally, Zhou Laogou was just by himself in a branch mine Dao, digging away diligently.
Lin Ping felt that he would be leaving that night, and since it was said that it’s better to resolve enmity than to deepen it, he wanted to go over and have a private chat with Zhou Laogou.
The Flying Locust Stone ability he had painstakingly leveled up shouldn’t be wasted like this.
If they chatted well, maybe they could even share a bun or something.
However, as Lin Ping looked at Zhou Laogou’s back, he thought that when old acquaintances met, he should give the other party a surprise.
So, he accidentally picked up many small broken stones from the ground and quietly walked forward…
“Sigh—”
Lin Ping let out a long sigh and pushed Zhou Laogou into the deep pit.
“We agreed to chat, so why did you make those cackling strange noises as soon as we met?”
“Damn it, can anyone who makes that kind of laugh be a good person?”
This Zhou Laogou incident made Lin Ping discover another function of the gray stone slab: he could see the health bar of anyone he injured.
After burying Zhou Laogou, the sky had already darkened.
Lin Ping leisurely walked towards another branch mine Dao again.
After taking out the bun he had secretly stored, he wrapped it up and tied it to his back, then pulled out a coarse black cloth from his Pregnant and put it directly over his head.
This bandit headscarf was a skill he had learned from Yun Lingyu and made himself.
One had to admit, Yun Lingyu, as a thief, knew how to do everything from mending bags to making face-covering headscarves and burlap sacks. He truly couldn’t be underestimated.
After doing all this, Lin Ping leaned against the cave wall and quietly rested.
He didn’t choose to escape during the Rest because he felt that under those circumstances, the mine’s surveillance would be even stricter, and the slightest movement would attract a large group of guards to hunt him down.
With his current movement technique, the best way was to seize the opportunity when the overseers were careless, drowsy, and sluggish, and escape directly from inside the mine. This offered the greatest chance of success.
At Yin hour .
Lin Ping, who had his eyes tightly closed, suddenly opened them, as if an alarm had been set.
Then his entire figure moved like a ghost, stealthily heading towards the main mine Dao.
…
Above the main mine Dao.
An overseer with an open collar revealing his hairy chest and a thick, short neck was gnawing on a braised pig’s trotters with relish. On a plate beside him, there was another pig’s trotters and a pot of wine.
Woo…
A low whistle suddenly sounded.
“Pfft.”
Blood splattered.
The overseer’s face turned pale. His throat joint was hit by something, and blood flowed freely. He wanted to shout but couldn’t make a sound.
He was about to reach out to cover the bleeding wound.
Woo…
The whistle sounded again.
The overseer’s forehead was directly hit by a heavy blow.
“Crack!”
Bits of white bone, stained with blood, splattered out.
Immediately after, his burly figure slowly fell to the ground…
And at this moment, a ghostly figure quickly and silently arrived from the shadows of the mine wall, reaching out to support the overseer who was about to fall to the ground, allowing him to lie face down on the table.
After doing all this, the person wearing the bandit headscarf also snatched the pig’s trotters from the plate before continuing to move like a ghost towards the mine entrance.
The entire mine had a total of four checkpoints.
The first checkpoint was an overseer on duty above the main mine Dao.
The second checkpoint consisted of two overseers on duty outside the mine entrance.
The third checkpoint was an open area outside the mine, which served as both the overseers’ living quarters and a key defensive area for a large number of overseers to prevent miners from escaping.
The fourth checkpoint was the outer perimeter of the mine, where numerous Yan Family guards were stationed, primarily to prevent miner riots and to deter those who coveted the Yan Family’s Ore.
What Lin Ping had to do was to take down the overseers at the first and second checkpoints, then quietly approach the third checkpoint, and then force his way through.
As long as he could quickly pass the third checkpoint, he could rely on his Soaring Cloud Step movement technique to climb up the steep mountain wall on the left side of the mining area, avoiding a direct confrontation with the Yan Family guards.
This was also the main reason why Yun Lingyu was unwilling to escape with him.
Escaping by climbing up the steep mountain wall was feasible for one person, but if he had to carry him as a burden, the difficulty would increase several times over.
And if he didn’t choose to climb up the steep mountain wall, he would have to force a path through the Yan Family’s outer perimeter defense zone, which would be no different from seeking death.
Regarding the mountain wall on the left side of the mining area, Lin Ping had already generally observed a feasible route during the last rest day.
…
At the mine entrance.
Two overseers stood there, yawning.
Woo…
Just then, a low whistle suddenly sounded.
“Pfft.”
Blood splattered.
The overseer on the left covered his head with his hand, his face pale as he collapsed to the ground.
The other overseer on the right, seeing that something was wrong, immediately picked up his whistle, preparing to notify the mining area that someone was trying to escape.
Woo…
As a result, another low whistle suddenly sounded.
He tightly clutched the stream of blood gushing from his forehead. In the final moment before collapsing, his eyes, as large as copper bells, looked with a hint of disbelief at a person wearing a bandit headscarf slowly emerging from the mine.
After dealing with the first two checkpoints, Lin Ping finally breathed a huge sigh of relief.
He quickly helped the two overseers up and propped them against the cave entrance, as if they were standing guard.
Then, without any hesitation, he swiftly and quietly moved forward along the dark areas illuminated by the firelight.