Becoming an Immortal from the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 91 Wu Qingyun

In the dark and damp underground mine, Wu Qingyun squinted his eyes, feeling more and more suffocated in his chest.

This was the third time he went down the mine. The first two times he simply learned the operation process of the coal digging tool, and under the whip of the Taoist supervisor, he awkwardly got into the coal mine shaft that was only the size of a dog hole.

The air in the coal mine is very thin, and there is a certain breathless smell.

Four of the workers who went down the well with him in the past few times have died. When I heard those Taoists resisting the corpses, they said that these people died from something like 'dioxide...gas'.

Wu Qingyun didn't know what kind of monster it was, only that it killed people invisible.

When those workers were digging with coal drills, their bodies suddenly went limp, and then they collapsed to the ground.

At that time, many miners thought it was a murder by stealth, and rushed to the mouth of the well in a panic.

When the Taoists came down in the bamboo baskets, the miners who had passed out were already dying. They could only breathe in but not out.

Wu Qingyun was terrified. It was the first time he saw the person next to him who was still talking to him one second, and then his life was inexplicably taken away the next second, which made him feel very afraid of the mine.

He was sick the next day, and his sickly face was extremely pale.

This is because he tried every means to torture himself that night, constantly digging his throat to force himself to vomit and regurgitate his stomach, and beat his chest, trying to use the excuse of being sick to escape the mine.

However, those Taoists just looked at him indifferently, and then beat him with a big whip without saying a word!
Wu Qingyun screamed from the beating, and fully understood that in the eyes of these Longevity Sect Taoists, he was not considered human at all, and it was absolutely impossible to try to pretend to be sick to avoid going to the mine.

So he had to tiptoely carried the sacks and basket ends, took the coal brazing, and followed the flow of people down to the mine in bamboo baskets one by one.

Continue the coal digging work for another day.

The coal mine is dark and dark, and the difference between black coal and mud can only be barely distinguished by the glowing stones inlaid on the top of the head.

The number of these stones is limited, and it is said that they are the 'Luminous Beads' made by Taoist Zhangjiao using the fairy method.

Wu Qingyun didn't know why the Longevity Sect had so many night pearls and came here to dig coal.

A night pearl can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars, why bother to dig coal that cannot be sold for such a price?
He also tried to steal a luminous pearl once, planning to sneak out and sell this rare treasure to make a lot of money.

Strange to say, those arrogant and unreasonable Taoists didn't care about the loss of a night pearl, and no one even came to question him.

As a result, that day, due to the lack of the lighting effect of the night pearl, Wu Qingyun spent three full hours in the mine before digging enough coal.

He has almost reached the stage of confusion and confusion, and the excessive accumulation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in his body has caused him to have countless hallucinations.

Wu Qingyun didn't know how he got out of the mine in the end, maybe the kind of good luck that had blessed him countless times came to him again, and the Taoist supervisor who was on duty that day was a kind-hearted young man.

He happened to see Wu Qingyun fainted beside the bamboo basket, so he went down the well and brought him out, so he escaped a catastrophe.

Since then, Wu Qingyun has established a rule that must not be violated:

You can't take the night pearl out of the mine!

This third time he went down the well, he had brought back the Ye Mingzhu hidden in the forest in advance, and carefully installed it back to its original position.

With the lighting conditions, the progress of coal mining was indeed much faster.

The hemp basket is already filled with two-thirds of the quantity, and today's mining should be over in a while.

He resisted the increasingly intense suffocation until he was dizzy and walked back to the basket with trembling legs.

There are vents excavated here, and there are several mine roads extending in all directions along the road.

Quite a few miners who had accumulated enough charcoal shares were already waiting in line to sit in the bamboo baskets. Wu Qingyun didn't dare to delay, and crowded behind the crowd with hemp baskets on his shoulders, waiting to leave this ghostly place.

"Have you heard? The new batch of bastards have black hearts and don't want to take the risk to go deep into the mine. They are afraid of being killed by monsters, so they waited with a few people on the only way, and when they met someone who was alone, they went down Black hands are grabbing charcoal, and several people have already died in their hands!"

Some people in the queue were talking quietly.

Wu Qingyun's back felt numb, and his neck felt cold.

He thought that he had been walking alone all this time, and deliberately did not follow others to dig coal in those open mines. I am afraid that he has wandered on the line of life and death several times!

"These killers! We were caught here, we are hard-working people, and we are going to be exploited by these dogs?!"

Some people in the crowd cursed furiously, and others laughed and said, "You are not a hard-working person in Guanxi. Others don't know you, but I do!"

"You did all sorts of crimes in Qinghe County. Together with other people, you robbed and murdered people. You escaped the government's repeated suppression of bandits. Eighty if not a hundred merchants died at your hands. They are the ones who are really miserable!"

"Who?! Who dares to chew on Grandpa's tongue? Stand up!"

Zhen Guanxi raised his brows with anger, but unfortunately his face was covered with soot, his mouth, nasal cavity and the corners of his ears and eyes were covered with thick soot, so people couldn't see his expression clearly at all, it could only be winking to the blind read.

"It's me! What, what do you want?!"

In front of the queue, a Taoist in a plain robe stepped out and looked coldly at Zhenguanxi.

"Oh, isn't this Grandpa Jiang? Don't make fun of the villain. The villain just slaps his mouth, slaps his mouth!!"

Zhen Guanxi looked at the real master, his arrogance seemed to be quenched by water, and he slapped himself with a big hand in a hurry.

"Well, just draw like this, and you can leave after drawing a hundred." Jiang Zun glanced at him in disgust, and said, "Continue to hand in the numbers."

The noise of the crowd fell silent, only the occasional crackling of Zhen Guanxi's slaps.

After a while, Wu Qingyun was finally in line.

With a flattering smile on his face, he put the hemp basket on the iron scale on the ground.

Jiang Zun took a look: "It's more than ten catties, that's all right, let's go with the wooden sign."

With complicated thoughts, Wu Qingyun took the heavy wooden signboard for passage, and felt extremely hot when he took it.

'Just another day...'

He didn't dare to stay at the bottom of the coal mine any longer, the thin air almost melted his brains.

Turning around, Wu Qingyun walked towards the entrance where the bamboo basket was hanging.

The winch creaked, and Wu Qingyun finally returned to the ground.

A feeling as if from another world emerged from the bottom of his heart, and two lines of hot tears involuntarily fell from the corners of his eyes.

Several Taoist supervisors saw him, nodded, and then continued to talk: "I heard that there was another landslide. The Forest Supervisor was completely angry and ordered the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry to come up with a digging method that can last longer."

"Well, I know." The other person glanced at Wu Qingyun and scolded, "Still hanging around? Do you want to go in again?"

"Let's go! Let's go!" Wu Qingyun laughed, walked around for a short distance, and listened to the Taoists' conversation with both ears.

"...More than [-] more died. Even if the newcomers are still being transported in a steady stream, the gap in the number of miners has not narrowed. The gap between the number of [-] miners previously envisaged by the Forestry Supervision Institute is too big."

"Well, another batch was sent today, and they should be able to make up 500 people, right?"

"more or less……"

The voices of the Taoists' conversation gradually faded away, and Wu Qingyun's heart was pounding.

Unknowingly, so many people died...

Looking back, since I was caught here, the familiar faces around me have changed day by day, and it seems that many people have gradually disappeared.

However, the busy physical labor and the harsh working environment have oppressed every nerve of Wu Qingyun's brain, and he never thought about this issue in the past few days.

Hearing the miners talking about extortion gangs today, and hearing the Taoists talking, immediately aroused a serious sense of anxiety in his heart.

'If this continues, I'm afraid I will die in the mine soon, right? '

Wu Qingyun shuddered, and turned his gaze to the empty gate of the village.

Those Taoist supervisors never set up any obstacles at the entrance and exit of the coal mine, because for those who were captured, once they stepped into the mine, they could no longer escape.

The idea of ​​running away quickly faded from his mind.

Wang Hao's tragedy is still in sight.

The brazen and arrogant guy couldn't survive the night after receiving a solid hundred whips, and died after wailing for a full two hours.

It can be seen that it is not worthwhile to be whipped in order to escape knowingly that it will fail.

Wu Qingyun was worried and went to the cafeteria.

It was mid-afternoon at this time, and many miners who had met the delivery volume of the coal mine for a day were sitting in twos and threes in front of the tables and chairs in the cafeteria that was ventilated on all sides, waiting for food.

The heavy and difficult physical labor made it extremely difficult for these dregs of society. If it weren't for the fact that they couldn't beat these supervisors who were as light as a swallow and had infinite strength, revolts would break out in the mine every three days or so.

In fact, even under such a high-pressure management system, there are still many desperadoes who were captured and chose to go all out.

They grabbed a batch of iron coal and tried to kill a few Taoists and find a way to get away from them.

Then, the always smiling Lin Jianyuan appeared out of nowhere, holding a talisman and shaking it, a huge fire dragon appeared out of thin air, directly burning the gang of desperadoes to death!
Many miners have witnessed that group of people struggling in the flames, screaming and screaming, and finally their bones and flesh were melted one by one, and they ended up dead without a whole body.

There have been few reports of armed resistance since then, but friction between the various miner groups has gradually increased.

Several incidents of old miners bullying new miners broke out.

Wu Qingyun was lucky and escaped the first few waves, but after today he also decided to find a stable force to join.

Otherwise, if this continues, sooner or later he will die in the hands of other sinister people.

The wooden sign was handed over to the Taoist at the dining place. Apart from being a pass to leave the mine, this wooden sign also served as a daily meal ticket.

If you don't complete the daily quota, you won't be able to get this wooden sign, which also means you will be hungry all day.

The Taoist glanced at him lazily, scooped up a bowl of gruel with a few pickles scattered beside it, and handed it to him through the window.

There was a dull sound in Wu Qingyun's stomach, and he couldn't help moving his index finger when he smelled the aroma of porridge and rice.

He carefully picked up a pickle and put it in his mouth, and began to suck it.

The rich salty taste explodes in the mouth, making people intoxicated.

Then he took another sip of the porridge, feeling the hunger in his belly was fully filled, and his whole body glowed with vitality.

After eating less than half of the meal, Wu Qingyun reluctantly picked up the bowl and walked towards a corner of the cafeteria.

Sitting in this position were a few topless men, all of them with wounds and tattoos all over their body, they looked not easy to mess with.

Wu Qingyun squeezed out a smiling face, and respectfully handed the job bowl in his hand to the literati who was in charge of bookkeeping, and said: "The villain wants to ask for shelter, but I don't know if you have a good dog under his command. If you can kill, can you have the audacity to join everyone?"

The big man at the top raised his eyelids lightly, signaling to the literati under him to hand Wu Qingyun's job to him.

The latter looked like a schoolteacher, in his thirties, with dark eyes.

He is the white paper fan in the gang, responsible for making suggestions.

It was he who suggested that kidnapping and extorting money was too slow, it is better to sell young children directly to Yangzhou and sell them to dignitaries as concubines.

This group excitedly tied up a few girls, and was about to go to Yangzhou City, but they met Taoists from the Longevity Sect on the way, and they lost a match, and were caught here by the gang.

"Well, that's right. You only ate the porridge on the top, and you still have the dry food on the bottom. If that's the case, you can stay in the gang and make a start."

The big boss nodded, and Wu Qingyun finally found someone to call on.

He smiled and squatted at the feet of the crowd, like a well-fed domestic dog, with countless thoughts in his mind: "It's easy to get mixed up with these bandits, wait for me to lurk for a few more days, and find out who is taking advantage of the fire, then Report this clue to the Taoists of the Longevity Sect, and you will make a great contribution! '

He has already figured it out, the Longevity Sect must be short of manpower to catch these villains and come here to mine.

Then, they certainly don't want to see miners killing each other and causing attrition.

As long as he finds out the murderous team by himself, he doesn't have to worry about not being able to connect with the senior management of the Longevity Sect.

This is called a nomination certificate, which shows that I have devoted myself to the longevity religion and help them wholeheartedly.

At that time, he will confess a few villains he knows.

For example, the behind-the-scenes owner of Yuandefang, a gambling shop specializing in defrauding people and usury loans, cheating and abducting brothel mothers who are looking for famous prostitutes...

It might be possible to convince the Taoists of the Longevity Sect that he has truly repented, and thus let him live.

Wu Qingyun has wasted nearly 50 years of his life, and his mind has never been so clear.

Countless plans emerged in his mind one by one, knowing that his actions were tantamount to walking a tightrope.

Going deep into the tiger's den to explore the inside story of the miners' internal fighting, there is a risk of death at every turn.

It can be said that if he had had such courage in the first half of his life, he would never have become a gambler.

However, at this moment, he was desperate, all he wanted was to escape here and return to Bianliang to be a law-abiding commoner.

(End of this chapter)