From the fake emperor to the concubine

Hearing the voice, Mr. Chen quickly signaled Zheng Yi not to make any sound, then he opened the door and walked out.

With a smile on his face, he said, "Manager Qing, it's not that I don't want to pay the full amount."

"But you know the situation of my family. My two sons died one after another, and I am the only one left. Even if I work myself to death, I can't pay so much."

"Otherwise, you can tell the chief steward above to downgrade the rank of Xiao Lao Er's family and count it as one head. I will definitely pay the full amount."

"Bah!" The man called Qing Guanshi said disdainfully: "Who do you think you are? You want to teach me how to do things?"

"Let me tell you, the amount for this year has already been decided. Don't say that only two people died in your family. Even if your whole family is a ghost, you still have to pay the full amount."

"Otherwise, don't blame me for being rude."

Zheng Yi looked at the extremely arrogant guy through the gap in the wooden board.

Even though Old Chen called the other party Manager Qing, one could tell from his not-so-decent clothes that he was just a small-time figure who was relying on the power of others to bully others.

It’s just that the county magistrate is not as good as the township magistrate. Ordinary people like Mr. Chen should be more polite in their words so that they won’t suffer too much.

"Yes, yes, Manager Qing, you are right. It was I who said the wrong thing."

"I will go to the mine with you right now and do whatever it takes to get this year's share. I will definitely not delay your business."

Manager Qing snorted coldly: "You'd better keep your word. If you leave, I won't be the one who suffers."

"I'll give you one stick of incense to gather at the village. I still need to call people from other families."

"How come there is no one among you lazy bastards who can give me peace of mind?"

After Manager Qing left, the old man returned to the house and took out a tattered backpack and an iron pickaxe from the cabinet next to him.

The wooden handle of the pickaxe was polished to a shine, obviously something that was used frequently.

"Mr. Chen, are you really going to go mining?" Although Zheng Yi didn't know what igneous rock ore was.

But he was clear about one thing: no matter which world it was in, mining was definitely one of the hardest jobs in the world.

Even those strong young men may not be able to withstand the high-intensity work, let alone the elderly Mr. Chen.

And through his conversation with the youth steward, Zheng Yi was able to guess a lot of things.

Obviously, although Mr. Chen’s two sons died, the share of his tax did not disappear just because of their death.

On the contrary, the workload that would have required two strong laborers to complete was instead placed on the shoulders of an elderly man.

Zheng Yi was sure that if the old man really went down to work in the mine, he would not live long.

After all, the other party saved him, so Zheng Yi would not just leave him alone.

"Master, leave this job to me. Don't worry, I will definitely help you complete your assignment."

Old Chen shook his head like a rattle: "No, this is absolutely not possible."

"Xiao Zheng, I know you mean well, but you must not do this."

"Listen to my advice, old man. Once you get involved in this, it won't be easy to leave."

"I understand." Zheng Yi said seriously, "But I can't just watch you die, right?"

Zheng Yi understood what Mr. Chen meant. If a person of unknown origin suddenly appeared here without a suitable identity, he would definitely attract the attention of the Zhao family.

Therefore, Zheng Yi could only appear as Mr. Chen's relative.

It's not easy for a living person like him to show up, but if he wants to leave later...

I'm afraid it will be even more difficult.

Although Zheng Yi didn't want to attract attention, Old Chen had saved him after all. He couldn't just watch the old man die, right?

Moreover, this is also an opportunity to understand the world more deeply.

Zheng Yi made this choice because of another more important purpose.

Cangyue Yanhuang wanted to take himself to his original world and kill him.

But...

Princess Iron Fan swallowed Sun Wukong, and the battle of who will be the winner has just begun.

"I'm leaving my youngest son's tools to you, Xiao Zheng." Old Chen took out another set of mining tools and handed them to Zheng Yi.

It was not until he actually picked it up that Zheng Yi was surprised to find that this seemingly ordinary pickaxe was actually much heavier than he had imagined.

After using his spiritual sense to investigate, he found out that the material used to make the iron pickaxe was actually fine gold and iron that could be used to practice Qi.

Although this kind of refined gold and iron is only the most common material for refining weapons, at most it will be used when creating spiritual weapons in the Foundation Establishment Period.

But this is still a material for refining weapons, not ordinary iron.

If this kind of material were placed in the Dayu Immortal Dynasty, a fist-sized piece of it would be worth 100,000 taels of gold.

But here, it was actually made into an iron pickaxe for mining.

Although surprised, there was no change on Zheng Yi's face.

Every world has its own special circumstances, since pickaxes must be forged with materials used to make spiritual weapons.

The igneous rock they wanted to dig was obviously not an ordinary mineral.

"Xiao Zheng, if the Youth Steward asks about it later, I will tell him that you are my distant nephew. As long as you can do the work, they will not delve into your identity."

After thinking for a while, Elder Chen reminded him again: "Xiao Zheng, you are a cultivator, different from ordinary people like us."

"Zhao Qing is just a dog of the Zhao family. If he says something he shouldn't, for the sake of me, an old man, don't argue with him."

Zheng Yi laughed: "Don't worry, Mr. Chen, I know what I'm doing."

The old man was worried that the boy was young and hot-tempered, and might get angry after being scolded by that guy named Zhao Qing and start fighting with him.

No matter who wins or loses then, he will be the one who suffers.

When the two men arrived at the entrance of the village with tools, there were already about twenty people waiting there.

The oldest of these people are over 40 years old, and the youngest are probably around 17 or 18 years old.

But no matter whether they are old or young, they all have dark skin and thin bodies.

Moreover, Zheng Yi discovered that everyone here was a cultivator, without exception.

Those who are stronger include Old Chen, who is probably at the middle stage of Qi training.

The weakest one is also a cultivator in the true Qi training stage.

In other words, any one of them here would be a very capable fighter in his Dayu Immortal Dynasty.

But in this Cang Yan Realm, they are just a group of miners who can’t even get enough food.

When these people saw Mr. Chen, they all looked sympathetic.

Although their lives were not very good, at least the strong laborers in the family were still there, and they could barely get by no matter how difficult the days were.

But in Old Chen's family, only the grandfather and grandson were left. Even so, the tasks assigned by the Zhao family were not reduced in the slightest because of their difficulties. It was simply driving them to death. A man in his forties came forward and said, "Uncle Chen... who is this little brother?"

Zheng Yi looked like a man who had never done any hard labor. He suddenly appeared among them, standing out like a crane among chickens.

Old Chen told the people in his fellow village the identities that the two had agreed upon earlier.

Although the others were a little surprised, they didn't say much.

In a small village like this, everyone knows each other well. How could a distant relative that no one has ever seen suddenly appear?
However, they did not ask too many questions. Instead, they took the initiative to greet Zheng Yi, looking very familiar with him.

The man who just came over was called Zhou Shitou. Although he looked inconspicuous, he was the village chief of Hewan Village.

"Xiao Zhou, I don't need to tell you much about the situation at your uncle's home. Whether you can survive this winter depends entirely on you."

"Don't worry, we won't stand idly by. Whenever we have time, we will definitely go and help."

An annoying voice rang out: "Don't you see that everyone is waiting for you? Why are you dawdling? Don't you want to work?"

As the voice fell, Zhao Qing kicked a young man to the ground.

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

The villagers of Hewan Village were already thin enough, but compared with the young man in front of them, they were simply as weak as heaven and earth.

As the young man struggled to get up, his arms were still shaking.

The patched clothes on him looked just like they were hung on a clothesline.

His eye sockets were sunken and his face was so skinny that there was almost only skin left.

"Yes... I'm sorry, Manager Qing. I will do my best." The young man finally got up and didn't care that he had just been kicked. He hurriedly apologized to Zhao Qing.

Zhao Qing sneered disdainfully: "If it weren't for the fact that your father is a scholar and has worked for the Zhao family for a few years, a waste like you would have been thrown to feed the dogs long ago."

"If you dare to waste my time again, I will break your legs."

As Zhao Qing spoke, he saw Zheng Yi at a glance.

There was no way not to see it, among a group of haggard, timid villagers.

Standing there, as straight as a sharp sword, the outstanding Zheng Yi was so conspicuous.

"Who are you? Why have I never seen you before?" Zhao Qing asked coldly with a gloomy look.

Old Master Chen quickly apologized with a smile and explained, "Manager Qing, this is my nephew Yuan Fang. He is here to visit relatives today."

"I heard that we might not be able to complete the task assigned by the higher-ups because of the last mining accident, so I came to help."

"Oh?" Zhao Qing's eyes turned: "Boy, is what Old Chen said true?"

Zheng Yi restrained his edge and said to Zhao Qing respectfully: "I'm sorry to trouble Manager Qing."

Although he was puzzled about Zheng Yi's background, for Zhao Qing, it was always good to have one more person to do the work.

As for whether this guy has other purposes, there is no need to worry at all.

Looking at the entire Cang Yan Realm, no one dares to go against the Zhao family.

"I don't care what you're doing here, kid. But you'd better work hard for me. If I find out that you're being cunning, I won't let you off easily."

Zheng Yi waited here with the villagers for a while, and a row of horse-drawn carriages stopped at the entrance of the village.

The horse pulling the cart is not an ordinary horse, it is obviously a spiritual beast.

The two horses were pulling a row of more than a dozen carts, which looked like a train from a distance.

"Don't waste time, hurry up and get in the car." Without waiting for the carriage to stop, Zhao Qing eagerly urged everyone to get in.

The carriage stopped twice along the way and picked up two more groups of people.

Basically, a big cart carries all the villagers in a village.

After picking up all the villagers, the carriage gradually increased in speed.

Although the road here was all dirt and the road conditions were not particularly good, the carriage did not shake at all when it was running. I don't know what kind of magic was used.

After running for about a cup of tea, the carriage entered a huge mine.

This mine is hundreds of meters high and looks like an ancient monster with a bloody mouth.

The light of the sun was replaced by an unknown stone.

These stones emit an orange-yellow light. Although it cannot compare to the sunlight, it can illuminate the dark mine.

Zhao Qing, who had been bossing the villagers around just now, seemed like a completely different person at this moment.

He trotted over to a middle-aged man who looked a little fat and said, "Manager, I have brought all these peasants here."

The middle-aged man just nodded slightly, put down the teacup in his hand and said: "Today, the Bingwu Mine is short of people, you send them all over there."

Just as Zhao Qing was about to leave, the middle-aged man said calmly, "By the way, if I remember correctly, your assignment this year didn't seem to be completed very well."

"You better keep an eye on those peasants and don't let them slack off. If they fail to complete their assignments, I won't be able to explain to the masters."

"Go down."

Zhao Qing immediately broke out in a cold sweat after hearing these words. He gritted his teeth and said, "Don't worry, Manager. If they fail to complete their assignment, I will never forgive them."

After being scolded, Zhao Qing became even more displeased with everyone.

On the way to the mine, several people were scolded for no apparent reason.

"Xiao Zheng, just follow me for a while." Old Chen whispered to Zheng Yi.

After entering the mine, the two men quickly selected a place to start digging.

"Xiao Zheng, this igneous rock mine is not difficult to find." Old Chen pointed to the glowing stones around.

"These bright ones are igneous rocks, but because the quality is too low, they can only be used for lighting."

"Don't work too hard, just dig around for now."

After entering the mine and coming into close contact with the volcanic ores, Zheng Yi could clearly feel the surging fire spiritual power contained in the volcanic ores.

Even those that Elder Chen said were useless and could only be used as lighting tools, had extremely strong fire spiritual energy inside.

For Cangyue Yanhuang to be able to cultivate to the stage of enlightenment, he must have used these igneous rock mines.

Even through the rocks, Zheng Yi could clearly feel the fire energies, large and small, inside.

Just find a place and dig it out with a pickaxe.

With a crisp ding sound, the powerful recoil force made Zheng Yi's hands numb.

Old Chen said quickly: "Look at me, I am so confused that I forgot to tell you such an important thing."

"Although this igneous rock ore can be found everywhere, the rocks surrounding the ore are extremely hard. It is almost impossible to dig it out with brute force."

"So, you have to do this..." (End of this chapter)