Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
The mountain was deep and the forest old. Nature Village was built in an isolated region, a village that practically mushroomed overnight. Naturally, it had many differences with planned villages that were constructed by the government.
The impossible traffic and the lack of people meant a lack of development. The natural environment was mostly preserved around this village. In fact, at some untouched locations, there were not even trails for vehicles to pass, and they could only be traversed with bicycles or on foot.
The group trekked for almost an hour through the mountains. The neighboring trees became older and more numerous. The originally levelled ground became overgrown with brushes, and that greatly impeded their movement. It was still fine for the few young people, but for Master Five, who was quite old already, even with a young man specifically looking after him, he was hungrily gasping for air.
“I’m getting too old for this. My legs are not what they once were.” Finally, Master Five led the group to the mouth of an abandoned cave. He wiped away the sweat from his face and sighed. “I still remember…”
Talking about the man’s past was a waste of time. Ye Shuang could not help but roll her eyes. Along the way, she had been given an earful about Master Five’s history, and she believed that she had reached her maximum capacity. After giving a few casual prompts to satisfy Master Five’s yearning for the past, Ye Shuang left the group to poke her head into the cave. It was completely dark, and the visibility range was less than ten meters.
Ye Shuang turned her head around to ask, “Are the military arms hidden in here?”
One of the young men turned to look at Master Five, and after the latter nodded, he walked over to explain, “Yes, they’re in here. This is an old mine—no one can even remember what kind of minerals were mined here. The mining trails are complicated, and those who are not familiar with the trails will definitely get lost inside. It is very inconvenient to move through the mine, and the mine itself is a natural defense against firepower because the cave would collapse upon itself.”
With the geographical advantage and the limitation on firepower, one could imagine how difficult it would be transporting the military arms in and out of the mines. If not for the aid from the locals, it would be very hard to move things in and out of this place.
The young man came prepared. As he spoke, he took out a flashlight from his travel bag. He switched it on and led the way through the mine. “The outside of this place might look abandoned, but the mines are covered in traps. Even though the traps are roughly made as they’re meant for wildlife, those who aren’t familiar with the terrain might get injured and end up stuck inside the mines without help.”
Ye Shuang followed the young man into the mine. Her eyes scanned the path that the young man took. Just several meters from the ray from the flashlight, she spotted several patches on the cave ground and wall that looked rather unnatural. Even though she had no idea what type of traps they were attached to, she knew that they were nasty traps.
After Master Five reached the plateau, the trekking became much easier for him. Even the heavy breathing evened out quite a bit. He placed his hands behind his back and strolled through the mine like it was his backyard. With the ease that he moved through the tunnels, it appeared that he knew this place very well.
Han Chu was not given a flashlight, but he had his phone. With the flashlight function from the phone, he could still look after himself. “What kind of mine is this?”
“What kind of mine do you think it was?” Master Five joked with him.
“That is very hard to say.” Han Chu frowned and shone the light around him. “From the arrangement of the equipment, this looks like a coal mine.”
Master Five did not say anything, but the young men around him were already having fun at his expense. It was then that Ye Shuang said, “Brother Han, you got it wrong. The air in here is a big clue that it’s not a coal mine.”
One of the young men turned to Ye Shuang with interest. It was not because he thought Ye Shuang’s sense of smell was impossibly strong, but he was impressed by her talent. Then he nodded and said, “This is indeed not a coal mine.”
He could not help the smile from breaking through his voice. “Actually, this is not even a real mine. There was a rich man who hired people to open up a new mine. For some reason, he insisted that there was a lucrative vein here. At the time, he was not given a permit by the government, so he hired people to silently dig up a trail… Naturally, you can guess the result. The mine had a complicated system because the trail went everywhere. In the end, the people didn’t find anything valuable, and the rich man lost his investment.”
Master Five laughed even harder. “That was old news. Last time, there were quite a number of people in our business, and everyone had a specialty of their own. To have been scammed was something that couldn’t have been more natural.”
Back then, the rich man had actually been scammed. The so-called lucrative vein was a lie. In actually, the rich man’s competition had hired people to scam the rich man.
Even though Master Five did not get involved in this scam, he kept up to date on the news out in the world. So, after the fact, he heard a thing or two about this transaction.
“However, while it was a wasted effort, they didn’t fill up this system after the mine was dug. I thought this was a ready-made scam, so I took over it and added some decoration to give it the appearance of a coal mine to trick others.” Master Five laughed.
Hiding the fake with the real and the real with the fake. People like Master Five were best at making illusions, and it was not that surprising that he had come up with a plan like that. Knowing the mine’s system was one thing, and the other advantage about this place was its identity—who would dare fire bullets inside a coal mine?
Therefore, those who dared enter that place would be walking into a trap themselves. At the very least, the main firepower would be sealed. Then, the battle, if there was one, would focus on fists and physical prowess as well as the knowledge of the mining system…
The young man who led the way bit on his lips and laughed. “It has been decades since Master Five mentioned something like this to outsiders. Please help keep this a secret after you leave. Even though this is not really a valuable secret, we have use for it as a multi-layered protection.”
Han Chu was momentarily struck speechless. “This place doesn’t have other tricks like that, does it?”
Master Five laughed. “We’ve told you about the trap and the real identity of the mine, but you still want to know the rest, huh? I am going to use this place for my retirement. Not much has been done to the place, but the very few things that I did were safety measures.”
Han Chu and Ye Shuang shared a look. The two did not continue this line of questioning. After changing the subject, they chatted for a while before arriving at a dead end.
The young man walked to the wall and then turned around to smile at the rest.
Ye Shuang frowned in thought. Then, she felt a slight breeze coming from above her head. She lifted her head and asked, “Is it… above us?”
Just as she finished, a ladder started to drop from a space about three meters above them. Inside a gap that was hard to discern at the top near the wall, a man poked half of his body out. As he pulled on the rope ladder, he looked at Ye Shuang with an impressed expression. “This is the first time someone has detected this, right, Master Five?”
Master Five was shocked as well. He looked Ye Shuang up and down and then said with sincerity, “You’re going to earn much under Master Eight. How about you consider changing your career path to follow me?”