Yang Che first returned to the stone house where tools were stored, tidied up briefly, then left the stone house and walked towards the mining tunnel that was currently being excavated.
Xingshan Mine is one of Wu Gate's assets, providing a large amount of iron raw material for Wu Gate's hidden weapon manufacturing annually.
In these past days, Yang Che had already clearly found out that Foreman Zhao, Zhao Min, was originally a Jianghu bandit, but his nephew, Zhao Qu, had a very high martial arts talent and was favored by a high-ranking Elder of Wu Gate, who took him as a Core Disciple. Zhao Min, using Zhao Qu's name, instantly became one of the influential figures at Xingshan Mine.
Zhao Min now had over a hundred mine slaves under his command, and by exploiting their blood and sweat, Zhao Min earned a fortune.
Yang Che walked past the various mining tunnels that were being excavated, seeing the miners inside, covered in sweat, working hard, their faces pale. Thinking that many of them put in immense effort and sweat but couldn't even get a single penny, he couldn't help but once again feel the cruel and heartless nature of fate in this world.
If it weren't for that thunderstorm, if he hadn't walked into Wanglong Mountain to look for mountain goods and accidentally fallen into that Immortal Cave, he would have been one of these people, or perhaps even more miserable than them.
"Dare to be lazy? I'll beat you to death."
A furious roar suddenly echoed from one of the mining tunnels, followed by the cracking sound of a whip.
"Stop hitting him, please stop hitting him, he'll die if you keep hitting him." Someone seemed to be pleading.
Yang Che walked over upon hearing the sound, and when he clearly saw the person lying on the ground who was being beaten, his eyes narrowed.
It was Meng Ran, one of the five people who were brought to Xingshan Mine on the same day as him.
He clearly remembered the scene that day when Meng Ran tried to escape, and was kicked in the stomach by a burly man, spitting out foul blood, his fate unknown.
After more than a year, the once shy and introverted Meng Ran, with light in his eyes, was now emaciated, with only dead ashes in his eyes, like a beggar.
And the only person beside him who dared to plead for him was Hu Lai, the oldest among their group of five.
He vaguely remembered that on the way to Xingshan Mine, inside the crowded carriage, it was Hu Lai who told jokes and interesting anecdotes he had heard from somewhere, passing the boring time for everyone.
At that time, they naively thought they were coming to mine for money, never realizing they had already been sold into slavery.
The person holding the whip was a bald youth. Yang Che recognized him; this person was Li Quezi, one of Zhao Min's thugs.
Li Quezi saw that Hu Lai dared to plead, gave a sinister laugh, and swung his whip, lashing out fiercely at Hu Lai again.
Hu Lai screamed, his eyes filled with unconcealed hatred and rage, but he was helpless.
At this moment, Yang Che had already walked in and helped Meng Ran up. Unexpectedly, Hu Lai suddenly rushed over, pushed Yang Che away, and pulled Meng Ran to the side.
Yang Che was stunned for a moment, then, seeing the expressions of Hu Lai and Meng Ran, he understood something.
There was even a look of hostility in their eyes towards him. However, this hostility was not deep-seated hatred, but rather a resentment towards the injustice of fate.
Yang Che once had such an expression, so he was not unfamiliar with it.
"Yang Che, what are you doing here?" Li Quezi asked in surprise.
Not just Li Quezi, almost everyone here knew Yang Che. After all, Yang Che helped Elder Wei manage the mining tools.
"Take me to see Zhao Min." Yang Che didn't want to waste words and directly stated his purpose.
"See Foreman Zhao? Humph, how can Foreman Zhao be seen just because you want to see him? Don't forget, you're also Foreman Zhao's mine slave... Ah~"
Before Li Quezi could finish his sentence, he suddenly screamed.
Everyone didn't understand what had happened, as there was no one around Li Quezi.
"Take me to see Zhao Min, or die."
Yang Che was expressionless, holding another Flying Fire Needles in his hand, ready to throw it out at any moment.
He had quietly thrown one out earlier, striking Li Quezi's good leg, the one that wasn't lame.
And a Flying Needles Magical Artifact, infused with Qi, thrown with hidden weapon techniques, was simply not something these Jianghu people could resist.
Although Yang Che was only thirteen years old, he had already experienced the cold and ruthless nature of this world, so he also had to learn to be ruthless, to be merciless.
The arrogant expression on Li Quezi's face gradually disappeared, replaced by a look of fear.
Only he himself knew how much his good leg hurt at that moment; something had directly pierced into the bone, causing him an unbearable, inhumane pain.
What frightened Li Quezi even more was that he hadn't even seen how Yang Che made his move.
"Please get this thing out, I'll take you there right away."
Li Quezi was sweating profusely from the pain, about to fall to his knees, and no longer cared about his face, urgently pleading with Yang Che.
Yang Che took out the Meteor Box and retrieved the Flying Fire Needles from Li Quezi's leg.
Li Quezi felt the pain subside, finally let out a sigh of relief, no longer daring to underestimate Yang Che, and limped away to find Zhao Min, leading Yang Che.
Zhao Min was currently enjoying a feast, attended by two maidservants.
When Li Quezi led Yang Che into a refined small courtyard, Yang Che saw Zhao Min in the courtyard, eating with oil dripping from his mouth, his bushy beard covered in grease, which was disgusting and nauseating to look at.
Even more disgusting was that Zhao Min also had one of the maidservants feed him, then bit her finger, with a lewd smile on his face.
Thinking of the miners toiling day and night, bleeding and sweating, while Zhao Min was enjoying himself so much, Yang Che's anger surged, wishing he could directly throw Flying Fire Needles and kill this person with one blow.
"Damn it, Li Quezi, what the hell are you doing? Can't you see I'm eating?"
Zhao Min's first glance landed on Li Quezi, and he immediately cursed.
Li Quezi had to step aside, and only then did Zhao Min see Yang Che.
"It's you?"
Zhao Min was stunned, truly not expecting it to be Yang Che.
He directly wiped his greasy hand on the maidservant beside him and asked disdainfully, "What are you here for?"
"The contract Yang Hu signed with you, give it back to me," Yang Che said coldly, expressionlessly.
"Give it back to you? Why? I bought you with real silver. Even Wei Yongzheng couldn't take you from me. What makes you, a boy who hasn't even grown all his hair, think you can?"
Zhao Min laughed very smugly.
"Then I don't need it."
Yang Che remained expressionless, suddenly flicked his hand, and a stream of light appeared. Li Quezi behind him didn't even have time to scream before several Flying Needles simultaneously pierced his brow, and he fell to the ground, twitching a few times before dying.
Zhao Min's expression changed drastically. He abruptly lifted the dining table and smashed it fiercely towards Yang Che.
Yang Che didn't even move, letting the table hit him. Then, with a crash, the table shattered, and wood splinters flew. Yang Che, however, was completely unharmed.
Lightly flicking the wood splinters from his body, Yang Che raised his hand and flicked again, and several Flying Fire Needles shot through the air, directly towards Zhao Min's brow.
Zhao Min's pupils contracted. Just as he was about to dodge, his brow was pierced.
He stared with wide eyes, his shock and terror frozen on his face simultaneously, then with a 'boom', he fell to the ground, dead.
The two maidservants screamed in fright and fled towards the courtyard gate.
Yang Che meticulously searched through each room, and after quite some effort, he found a thick stack of 'contracts' in a locked iron box.
Finding the one signed by Yang Hu, Yang Che saw that the price written on it was fifty taels of silver, and the term was surprisingly for life.
Yang Che sneered, picked up the iron box, returned to the mining tunnel, and then directly smashed the iron box into the crowd of miners.
"Who can read?" Yang Che asked in a deep voice.
"I... I can read."
After a while, someone said softly.
"These are the contracts for those sold as mine slaves to Zhao Min. Help find the corresponding people for each, and they can handle them themselves." Yang Che said, then turned to leave.
At this moment, someone suddenly shouted, "You stole these contracts, do you want to kill us all?"
Yang Che stopped in his tracks, staring coldly at the person, making that person shiver all over, almost collapsing to the ground.
"Zhao Min is dead."
As Yang Che's words fell, the entire crowd of miners first fell into a deathly silence, then suddenly erupted into long-suppressed cheers.
Just then, an old man, leading several middle-aged men, suddenly rushed towards the area with Killing Intent.