Start with a red name

Chapter 30: The passage is open, and the injustice is heard

Although a lot of things happened during this period, Geng Xuan was only absent for two days in total.

The first day was the reopening of Kangleji. I went to buy more tools and also to see the new changes of Kangleji with my own eyes.

After that, he was delayed for another day due to Xue Tuozi's funeral and taking care of Chen Xiaoyu.

Although many things happened after that, they did not delay his daily going out early and returning late.

With more carts, Geng Xuan was able to transport more soil in one go, greatly increasing his efficiency.

On the first day after the resumption of work, the excavation depth more than doubled, and the daily progress increased from 32 meters to 65 meters.

This is not only because the number of carts has increased, but also because during this period the tidal breathing method has been upgraded from entry level to minor success, and physical fitness, strength, endurance, etc. have all been greatly improved.

When he returned home that night, he found out that his aunt Zeng Rou was in danger. Geng Xuan also made a significant improvement in his own strength.

The Iron Skin Skill that suddenly rose to the master level also greatly improved his physical condition.

Therefore, although the length of the passage was further increased and the time for each round trip to dump soil increased, the results of this day were still better than the previous day, reaching an astonishing seventy meters.

In terms of excavation efficiency alone, a passage two meters high and one and a half meters wide can extend forward twelve meters per hour.

Today is also the first day that Geng Xuan eats clay pot.

When he finished the day's intensive work and returned to the shore along the rock wall, the underground passage extended forward another 64 meters.

However, after three consecutive days of high growth, the total length of the channel exceeded four hundred meters.

Two days later, the underground passage was extended forward another 100 meters, with a total length of more than 500 meters.

The reason why the progress in the past two days dropped so much was because Geng Xuan once again felt the trouble brought by the air.

Standing at the deepest part of the passage, even with the help of the Tidal Breathing Technique at a minor level, he still felt like he was suffocating.

However, this near-extreme pressure also allowed him to master and use breathing techniques to an almost instinctive level.

Otherwise, he couldn't even stand staying there for a moment longer, let alone carrying out the high-intensity excavation work.

It can be said that this unique way of training allowed him to complete the digestion and absorption of the Tidal Breathing Method of the Minor Accomplishment Realm, the Iron Skin Skill of the Grandmaster Realm, the Iron Sand Palm of the Grandmaster Realm, and the Earth Walking Technique of the Great Accomplishment Realm to the greatest extent in the shortest possible time.

The next day, in an environment that would suffocate ordinary people, Geng Xuan changed his habit of digging horizontally forward, and this passage about ten meters underground began to move upwards.

Around five o'clock in the afternoon, at a corner of Geng Xuan's house near the wall.

At first, it was quiet and there was no abnormality, but suddenly there was a rustling sound, and then one of the intact pieces of ground suddenly cracked, and a claw that seemed to be forged from steel suddenly emerged.

Then the claw turned slightly, and a large piece of the ground suddenly sank. A dusty figure crawled out from the ground, turned over, and lay on the ground, motionless like a corpse, with only his chest and abdomen rising and falling violently due to his rapid breathing.

After a long time, Geng Xuan finally recovered and slowly stood up. He looked at the dark hole in the corner of the wall and felt unprecedented satisfaction in his heart.

The underground passage with a total length of more than 530 meters was actually dug by him with his bare hands.

Even if we include the two days of delay, the total time was no more than half a month.

After recovering from the shock, Geng Xuan began his routine summary of experience.

"The exit I planned was in the middle of the room, but it was actually in the corner, a deviation of four or five meters."

"Well... the distance is more than 500 meters, and the deviation is only four or five meters. That's pretty good. At least the range is not too far outside."

Of course, there are ways to make the exit location more precise.

It is only necessary to upgrade the Earth Walking Technique, which is currently at the Great Perfection stage, to the Master Stage. While the mining efficiency is improved, that kind of wonderful perception will be further enhanced on the existing basis.

But the price is that it will consume twenty-four points of luck, which is too much for Geng Xuan, who currently has only thirty-eight points of luck.

At a time when he has no idea where his next good fortune will come from, Geng Xuan still wants to use it as effectively as possible.

Geng Xuan observed the situation in the house for a while and then jumped back into the cave.

The room returned to silence, and there was no difference except for a dark hole in the corner of the house.

But if you get close to the entrance of the cave and listen carefully, you can hear a continuous rustling sound.

About an hour later, the ground underneath the bed in the room collapsed silently.

Geng Xuan's dusty figure once again emerged from the collapsed area and finally crawled out from under the bed.

"Well, this exit is better."

After comparison, Geng Xuan was finally convinced that the more precise exit location of the second target was more suitable.

He once again entered the hole in the corner of the house. This time, he was no longer digging, but filling it up.

After a while, he filled up the hole again.

The room became quiet again.

It was not until about half an hour later that the sound of Geng Xuan talking to a woman was heard outside the door.

"Brother Xuan, are you back?"

"Ah."

"Have you had dinner?...eat a little more, it's okay!"

"No need... Hey, Aunt Zhang, you really don't have to be so polite."

"I'm not being polite, it's just that Madam Zeng is afraid that I'll starve you."

"..."

Then the sound of quick eating and chewing could be heard from the yard, and from time to time there was the sound of Geng Xuan talking to a woman.

When the sound of eating stopped and the sound of footsteps faded away, the door creaked open and Geng Xuan pushed it open and walked in.

Soon, he was out of the house again, holding clean clothes in his hands.

After a while, the sound of water flushing came from the well in the backyard.

After a while, when Geng Xuan returned again, he felt refreshed.

He hung the washed clothes in his hand on the window, then sat down on a chair, staring blankly at the entrance of the hole under the bed, which required careful observation to be found.

However, thoughts flashed through Geng Xuan's mind one after another quickly.

“This is just the first step, but it is also the most difficult step.”

"The next step is to expand the underground space and make a basement large enough for normal living."

"Since we are building a safe house, safety is naturally the top priority, and we can make it more sophisticated."

"...Maybe I can go one step further and turn it into my own home ground!"

"Even if this basement is discovered, it won't be a problem for me. Instead, it will be a trap for the enemy..."

As he thought more deeply, Geng Xuan became clearer about what kind of underground space he wanted to create.

The amount of work is also getting bigger and bigger.

The question is back to the beginning - how to deal with the abandoned soil?
After much thought, there is only one solution, which is to take away the waste soil through an underground passage of more than 500 meters and use the surging and boiling dirty river.

A lot of time will be wasted going back and forth in this passage that is over 500 meters long.

“Can we improve the efficiency of earth moving again?”

Just as he was thinking about it, Geng Xuan's heart suddenly moved.

He thought of something.

track.

If tracks were laid in the 500-meter-long passage, even if it still needed to be pushed and pulled, the efficiency of soil transportation would have a big leap compared to the current level.

But in the end, Geng Xuan took the initiative to give up this idea.

Railroad tracks are impossible.

The backward iron smelting technology of this era made iron, a seemingly ordinary metal, far more precious than he thought, and more difficult to obtain on a large scale. It was okay to get some normally, but once it reached a certain scale, it would become an extremely sensitive strategic material.

If you don't want to attract extra attention, it's best not to cross this red line.

What about the wooden tracks?

It seems to be much more reasonable at first glance, but if you think about it carefully, it is still difficult to implement.

It's impossible for him to take the time to do it himself. If he did, wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse?

Ask someone else to do it?

That's more than 500 meters of track, not three or five pieces of furniture. He can't just find an excuse to get away with it.

If he can't come up with a reasonable explanation, then he can't blame others for making wild guesses.

After thinking it over and over, Geng Xuan couldn't find a suitable solution. He thought to himself, "I'd better just pull the cart honestly."

In just over a month, the river will shrink significantly in size, and the turbid water filled with mud and sand will gradually become clear.

By then, even if he had come up with a more efficient way to transport soil, it would have been too late.

……

The next day, Geng Xuan got up early and went out, planning to continue his usual schedule.

He made others think that he went into the mountains to practice, but in fact he sneaked back through the underground passage.

The woman he called "Aunt Zhang" did not give him the prepared ingredients for today after a few small talk as usual, but said:
"Brother Xuan, before Chen Rongshan left, he told you to go to Lao Chai's house when you are free."

Geng Xuan was stunned at first, then he felt happy.

These days I was so focused on digging holes underground that I almost forgot about it.

At this moment, someone reminded him that there were still good things waiting for him at the old killer's place.

Thinking of this, Geng Xuan did not go directly to Mr. Chai's house, but returned to the house first to take out the package he had delivered that day from a hidden place in the house.

After thinking about it, he took out three silver bars and put them at home. After repacking the remaining thirteen silver bars and the seven blood-replenishing pills in the bottle, he quickly walked out with the package.

There were originally eight blood-replenishing pills in the porcelain bottle, and Geng Xuan used one himself.

The effect was indeed good, but Geng Xuan was a little disappointed.

One blood-replenishing pill is worth ten taels of silver.

One tael of tiger bone, deer ginseng wine is worth one tael of silver, and ten taels can just buy one kilogram.

(Note: For convenience, the unit is in decimal system, 10 liang is one jin, 10 qian is one liang)
In other words, according to Geng Xuan's criteria, the efficacy of a blood-replenishing pill cannot be worse than a pound of tiger bone, deer ginseng wine to be considered qualified.

But in fact, the effect of a blood-replenishing pill is only equivalent to half a pound of tiger bone, deer ginseng wine, which is directly half the effect.

Although compared to tiger bone, deer ginseng wine, blood-replenishing pills have the advantages of small size and portability.

But to Geng Xuan now, these advantages are meaningless.

His current rapid improvement in strength is certainly due to the rapid improvement of his various skills due to his good fortune.

But the rapid consumption of tiger bone, deer ginseng wine is also inevitable.

If not for this, his body wouldn't have survived until now.

……

In the courtyard of Lao Chai’s house.

"Boom."

The old killer looked at the package on the table in front of him, raised his head and looked at Geng Xuan, wondering, "Boy, why did you return this package?"

Geng Xuan quickly shook his head and said, "No, I want to use this silver and blood-replenishing pills to exchange for some tiger bone and deer ginseng wine from you."

The old killer nodded suddenly, but soon asked doubtfully: "Why don't you just ask Chen Rongshan for this matter?"

Geng Xuan shook his head: "If I tell him, he will just give it away for free. He won't accept these things at all. So forget it."

Upon hearing this, the old killer nodded in understanding and said:

"I don't have any tiger bone, deer ginseng wine here."

Geng Xuan said somewhat disappointedly, "Is Uncle Chen the only one who has this wine?"

The old killer continued:
“This wine is for young people to build their foundation. It has a mild medicinal property. For me, it’s too soft and not strong enough.

I have a jar of Bear Heart and Leopard Gallbladder Wine here. It's as effective as Tiger Bone and Deer Ginseng Wine, and even stronger and more violent. Do you want to try it?"

"Does this...have any side effects?" Geng Xuan hesitated.

"You wait."

As he said this, the old killer got up and went to the inner room. After a while, he came out with a jar of wine and poured about one or two ounces of wine into Geng Xuan's cup. "Try it."

Geng Xuan drank it all in one gulp.

In an instant, I felt as if I had swallowed a ball of fire.

As the alcohol spread, the fire "exploded" into sparks and spread to every part of his body.

Geng Xuan experienced it carefully and finally understood what Master Chai meant by "even more intense and violent".

But this was well within his tolerance.

The old killer was still beside him and said:

“Compared to the tiger bone and deer ginseng wine, this bear heart and leopard gall wine does not require softening of the medicinal power, and consumes much less medicinal materials.

Compared to the tiger bone and deer ginseng wine, the price is more cost-effective. If you want... well, you have 130 taels of silver, and I will still give you 10 taels for each blood-replenishing pill, a total of 200 taels, and I can give you 30 kilograms."

Soon the two men reached an agreement. Master Chai took away all the silver and blood-replenishing pills, and in front of Geng Xuan there was a jar of bear heart and leopard gall wine, weighing a full thirty kilograms.

At the same time, next to the wine jar, there were four books, and judging from the ink and paper, they were all very new.

This was naturally the transcript of the four exercises that had been promised to him that day.

This should have been the real purpose of Geng Xuan's trip, but he just flipped through it casually and didn't read any more.

Instead, he looked at the old killer and said, "Master Chai, this is actually not fair to me."

"Huh?" The old killer looked at Geng Xuan in astonishment.

"More than a hundred taels of silver converted from various sundries and a few blood-replenishing pills are actually not important compared to other gains, right?" Geng Xuan asked.

This was the attitude that the old killer held that day. Now facing the boomerang thrown by Geng Xuan, he could only nod.

“These four cultivation techniques were originally kept in the workshop, and I only took a copy.

And the most important thing you gained was that you kept it away, and I couldn’t even read a single word of it.

You said I was the 'first contributor', but where is the value of this contribution?"

"According to the past practice of the market, shouldn't the person who made the first contribution have the qualification to challenge for the spoils first? But why is it not reflected in my case?"

Geng Xuan's series of questions really stumped the old killer.

After a moment of silence, he said, "You want the 'Part 1'? Impossible!"

Geng Xuan said: "I don't need the things, but there should be some other compensation, right?"

"What compensation do you want?" asked the old killer.

"I still remember the way you threw stones at people that night... Can you teach me?"

As soon as he said this, the old killer's eyes suddenly widened like copper bells.

"You are waiting for me here!"

(End of this chapter)