Ch634 – Arrive at the Mine
This time, no one could speak anymore.
Although spiritual Qi and magic treasures couldn’t be used in the prison, the whip in the prison guard’s hand was made with a special array that could fully meet the needs for disciplining the prisoners. The prison guard insisted on whipping those who had just opened their mouths one by one.
In the midst of the wailing, the prison guard hung his eyes and said, “We’re already giving you face by having you mine from the sparrow mine. Don’t reject our kindness and force us to get rough! The City Lord and the Sect Master of Spirit Sect said that if any of you do well and dig out a high-level sparrow spirit, your treatment in prison can improve. Maybe when the people above are happy, they will forgive you for your crime. So you all cheer up and work hard. If anyone dares to be lazy or run away, Laozi will whip you to death.”
These prison guards were symbols of authority in the prison, and all prisoners no longer tried to resist. The prison guard buckled a simple but extremely effective bracelet on the wrist of every eligible prisoner. Yan Tianhen was also covered with one.
He moved his wrist, felt the spiritual Qi fluctuation in his body, and immediately realized that this thing could suppress the spiritual Qi in the body, which was equivalent to completely becoming a cripple who couldn’t use his strengths. In this way, even if they were released, the prisoners could not run at all.
However, Yan Tianhen showed a mocking smile.
This thing worked for spiritual Qi, but it was not necessarily as effective for evil Qi. The prison doors were opened one after another, and the reluctant prisoners were pushed roughly and forcefully by the prison guards. Yan Tianhen’s prison door was opened.
Just as he was about to be taken out, the bearded man said, “Hey, I said he was still a child, and he has never done anything heinous. What need is there to make life difficult for him?”
“Oh, it’s not that my brothers are determined to make things difficult for him, but that the people above don’t like him and insist on having him go with them.”
The bearded man sneered, “The people up there? According to Lian Hua Venerable’s temper, after throwing the person in, even he himself would forget that there is such a person. Where can he have this free time? I think that you probably made the decision on your own to deliberately harass him.”
“Aiya, look at what you’re saying. We’re nothing more than subordinates following orders. He has not offended me. Why should I make trouble for such a little guy?”
The prison guard showed a face of hardship and difficulty. He leaned over and lowered his voice. “It’s the young master of the Lianying family. When he visited here a few years ago, he happened to see this fellow being whipped by us. This boy didn’t say a word from beginning to end. As a result, Lianying’s young master noticed him, and he was determined to make him scream a few times. This boy is also a tough guy. Instead of being obedient, he spat blood on Young Master Lianying’s face… Sigh, if it wasn’t for Lian Hua Venerable’s original order that we can’t let this boy die, that day, Young Master Lianying would definitely have killed him.”
The bearded man waved his hand. “Get lost.”
The prison guard hurriedly left with Yan Tianhen.
Yan Tianhen listened to these words clearly. Even though this was a capital city that had been sealed for many years and the people of this city were relics of the ancient gods, in the end, it was still a secular human country with laws, rules, and nobility. There were sects, nobles, strong people, and slaves.
Here, the law was strict and the class system was clear, even more than outside. The Daoist sects and noble clans were superior, while the slaves and prisoners had no dignity at all. And the Lianying clan was the most powerful family in this place, because they controlled nearly one-third of the sparrow spirit mines in this place.
The cold wind was mixed with snow and hail. It should have been cold and painful to smash on the faces of these prisoners. However, these prisoners who had never seen the light of day for a long time were cheering, laughing, and dancing in the snow. Not even being whipped could stop the joy in their hearts.
Yan Tianhen raised his head, looking at the gray blue dome. He had not seen such a wide sky for 100 years.
Yan Tianhen and the others were crammed into a carriage, and then they were taken to North Cold Mountain by a white tiger who looked very fierce.
The carriage was like a closed coffin with no windows and no view from the inside. After the initial cheers, the prisoners gradually grew numb. “I don’t want to go to North Cold Mountain.”
A boy with a dirty face sitting beside Yan Tianhen said, “North Cold mountain is not a place where people can set foot. Moreover, it’s a shady place where I will definitely die.”
Yan Tianhen had rarely heard about the North Cold Mountain, so he asked, “What’s in the North Cold Mountain?”
The teenager said, “It’s already winter now. The North Cold Mountain is an ice cave, and freezing snow falls there all year round. The mountains and trees have long been turned into ice sculptures. You will be frozen into ice as long as there is even a small cut on your body.”
Yan Tianhen slightly frowned.
It seemed that these people feared the North Cold Mountain and had good reasons. The winter in Youshan Capital was really very cold and long.
He didn’t know how long it took for the carriage to stop. Someone opened the carriage and the prisoners were released one by one. The cold air that could almost reach the bone rushed to his face.
Yan Tianhen couldn’t help shivering and looked up. The wind and snow ahead made him almost unable to open his eyes. His hair and eyelashes were covered with snow and frost in a few seconds.
This was an extremely harsh place.
Yan Tianhen secretly drived the evil Qi to warm his body. After a while, he had recovered a lot. However, there were three prisoners who very quickly screamed as their bodies kept their last movements when they solidified on the mountain.
Yan Tianhen’s heart suddenly jumped. Although he had heard of the cruel environment here before, he felt it was cruel to see it with his own eyes.
A young man, wearing a robe full of arrays that could resist the cold, sat in a carriage next to them with a whip in his hand. This man was the chief manager in charge of the sparrow mines. The prison guard called him “Manager Mo,” and Yan Tianhen didn’t know what his exact name was.
He comfortably picked up the smoking hot tea and took a sip. He swept his eyes at these mostly yellow-faced and emaciated prisoners and said with disgust, “Just these people? If they go down to the mine, they will probably die before they even mine anything. The sparrow spirits they mine might not even be enough to pay for cleaning up their corpses.”
The prison guard was very helpless and said, “There’s no other way. Most of these prisoners were brought in when the Youshan Capital was sealed. It’s already a miracle that they’re still breathing after being locked up for so many years.”
Manager Mo frowned. “Where are the others? I remember that there were quite a few people in the prison.”
The prison guard said, “There are quite a few, but Lian Hua Venerable said that if those people’s crimes aren’t punishable by death, they can remain in the prison for a few more years.”
Manager Mo narrowed his eyes slightly and turned his hand. “Since it is Lian Hua Venerable who opened his mouth, then let’s leave it at that. You go and take them down to the A-grade mine. Everyone will be given a set of tools and a pill to avoid the cold.”
“A pill to avoid the cold!?” A prisoner next to the prison guard suddenly brightened his eyes and looked at Manager Mo in consternation.
The prison guard slapped the prisoner on the head and said, “Only according to the command of Manager Mo. I will take them down to the mine right now.”
After the head of the prison guards left with the prisoners, another prison guard rubbed his head and showed his greed. He asked, “Boss, how can the pill be given to these cheap prisoners when it is so precious? This is simply a waste.”
The prison guard sneered and said, “What do you know, boy? If there is no support from pills, you will just become a popsicle. How can they mine any sparrow spirits? That thing, people who need it are all dying people. Didn’t you see Manager Mo assign these people to the A-grade mine?”
The prison guard was even more puzzled and said, “A-grade mine is the easiest to produce a good sparrow spirit. I heard that someone had mined a dark purple sparrow spirit before — to think it was actually dark purple, tsk, tsk.”
“Envious?” The prison guard sneered, “If you want to dig, go down by yourself. The higher the level of the sparrow mine, the harder it is to mine. The sparrow spirit is buried three feet deep. If you want to chisel it out, you’ll need ten days to half a month. Although there are quite a few good sparrow spirits in A-grade mines, they can eat people. You will understand when you see it.”
Yan Tianhen had a set of mining tools in his hand.
Mining sparrow spirits was very different from harvesting spirit herbs, because spiritual herbs needed to be carefully picked with spiritual Qi, while sparrow mines couldn’t be mined with spiritual Qi at all.
A sparrow spirit was “alive” when it had not left the mine, but whenever there was spiritual Qi close to it, they would relentlessly absorb all these spiritual Qi. The reason why sparrow mines contained incomparably rich spiritual Qi was due to this characteristic. A sparrow spirit could only be mined manually and done with axes and chisels.
The prison guard said, “You people are going to die anyways, but Manager Mo has given you face, which gives you a chance to earn merits and reduce your crime. The sparrow mine assigned to you guys are also the best. If anyone could mine a dark purple sparrow spirit, they won’t have to go back to prison!”
Yan Tianhen hooked his lips, and the visible half of his right face showed a sneer. His eyes fell on the storage bag hanging from the waist of a prison guard. On the first day when he was sent to the prison, all his storage objects were taken away by the prison guard. At that time, he was seriously injured, and he had driven Ah Bai and Hu Po away, with orders for them to hide.
He was no match for these people at all. He could only watch his storage bag be taken away.
Yan Tianhen narrowed his eyes and he walked along with the team toward the front.
Just at this time, a sharp and clear cry suddenly sounded in the sky. People looked up into the sky and saw that in the heavy snow, a large and colorful wide winged bird spread its wings and flew. On it, a young man was laughing as he maliciously ordered the wide winged bird to use its wings to fan the wind and snow towards the prisoners. As a result, the prisoners were blown upside down.
“Hahahaha!” The valley resounded with loud laughter.
Yan Tianhen’s eyes grew cold, and he gently moved his wrist, killing intent flashing through his eyes.