The Empress’s Gigolo

Among the valleys where Mount Liucui’s iron mine was located, it was hard for even weeds to grow in the trodden and barren landscape.

After travelling for a short distance inside, there were a few wooden houses without any wooden fences around them.

Most of the prisoners here were aboriginals who would be released earlier after working in the mine for a few years. No one usually to escape, and the guards were not strict either.

Ren Baqian had already been here for two days. He had been using a cloth tied as a mask on his face and wandered everywhere.

There was too much dust in the valley; it was blown in from the mine. After waking up from a night’s sleep, one would always discover that the surrounding was grey.

The iron ore here was of average quality, but easy to mine and was the highest producing mine in Dayao, although it was not much when compared with the mines on Earth.

Ren Baqian was pondering how to make transportation in and out of this place easier.

As long as the transporting of supplies coming in and the transporting of iron ore could be matched up, the production capacity of the mine could easily increase by a few times.

On three sides of the valley were cliffs, the narrow road along one of the sides was where the incoming supplies and outgoing iron ore had to go through.

To another side was a very deep valley following a stream that flowed underground after a short distance.

As for the other two sides, they led to the Sixty Thousand Mountains. Besides, the path wasn’t easy to navigate and opening a road here was not realistic.

Ren Baqian, in the beginning, considered using cables to transport the goods, but if Dayao had enough steel to make cables, they would have long ago made weapons instead.

Moreover, the materials needed to build a cable system would take Dayao several years to produce. In addition, the support system needed would be difficult to construct in this world.

There was no point in thinking about using ropes as they wore out too quickly and using them to transport iron ores was simply unrealistic.

In addition to this, Ren Baqian considered using hot-air balloons. However, after figuring that the manufacturing process and obtaining fuel for the hot-air balloons was far too difficult, using two or three hot-air balloons might not be any faster than using humans to carry the iron ores at present.

Not to mention the air flow around the valley, hot-air balloons were originally not designed as a means of transportation.

In actual fact, after considering all the options, building a tunnel was the more viable method.

“Did you all consider digging a hole directly from this mountain side to link to the one opposite?” Ren Baqian pointed at the opposite mountain and said to Tao Jiyuan.

“Hush, Sir Ren, you can just think of these words, but must not say them out,” Tao Jiyuan said nervously.

“Why not?” Ren Baqian was astonished.

“It is said there is some kind of a presence inside the mountain. Previously, the Hao Nation thought of tunneling through it as well. But, every time they managed to dig about three meters in, the hole would collapse. They tried a total of three times and the third time, they angered the presence inside the mountain. Not only all the miners died, even the two thousand soldiers outside were decimated and none survived. Since that time, the Hao Nation never ever thought of opening a hole in the mountain again.”

Ren Baqian looked at Tao Jiyuan doubtfully. Was it so terrible?

“How many years has it been? Is that the truth?” Ren Baqian found it incredulous.

“It has been about one hundred years, and still, nobody dares to touch this mountain.” Tao Jiyuan smiled bitterly.

Ren Baqian thought of the kirin he saw before. This world was indeed quite different from Earth in many ways and had many unknowns, and as such, what Tao Jiyuan said might be true.

“Can we widen the mountain road?” Ren Baqian asked again after dropping his initial question. Since they couldn’t tunnel through, if they widened the road to three meters, at the very least, it would be good if the fork-horned cow and other animals could pass through.

Although this was a big project, the iron mine was a foundation on which a country would not be able to do without even if it cost more, it wasn’t unacceptable.

Besides, he could use explosives to directly blast the rocks off the mountain wall.

Tao Jiyuan looked rather odd, “This road can only be so wide. No matter how much you dig on top, the road will collapse as much. It has been this wide all the time.”

Ren Baqian raised his head to look at the mountain in front of him. There was nothing he could do about such reasoning.

It can’t be dug or touched.

Are you trying to play tricks on me?

What is really inside this mountain?

If I have the chance, I would really want to dig through and find out.

But, he could only think about it casually. Ren Baqian wasn’t someone that would risk his life.

“In this case, it is useless for us to stay here, let’s go back tomorrow.” Ren Baqian sighed.

“I am only here to accompany Sir Ren to take a look.” Tao Jiyuan began to laugh. If not for Ren Baqian wanting to take a look, he wouldn’t be here.

“But, it’s okay to mine over here?” Ren Baqian asked again.

“When we dig here, the presence in the mine doesn’t care.” Tao Jiyuan responded. “But, I still do not like this place.”

Ren Baqian nodded his head. Hearing this made his hair stand up.

Anyway, there was already a plan in place in Mount Damo, and the place was easily accessible. They just needed to melt the iron mountain with the solar furnace and should be able to obtain enough iron ore in a short time. Then, he would have achieved his goals for this trip.

As for this Mount Liu Cui, he would explore it later on if there’s a chance.

The two of them stood there to look for a moment until Ren Baqian decided to go back to rest for a night before setting off.

On the way back, he saw a guard bringing two crooked cows in the direction of the Sixty Thousand Mountains, and they kept going upwards.

Ren Baqian had seen them slaughtering the crooked cows a few times during these two days, but, they were never brought up so far, and he was, hence, curious. “What are they doing?”

Tao Jiyuan thought about it and called a guard over to inquire.

“Bichi is going down the mountain, these two crooked cows have been prepared for it. After eating these two crooked cows, it will not come down to eat anything else,” the guard explained to the two of them.

“What’s a bichi?” Ren Baqian asked curiously. His impression of the aboriginals was that they just took out their knives to cut anything they encountered. Since when did they indulge in such superstitious activity.

Tao Jiyuan acknowledged, “Oh, it turns out that it’s the bichi.”

He turned to Ren Baqian and said, “Among the Sixty Thousand Mountains, there is a fierce beast which looks like a mountain rat, has wings, and can run and fly. It is as fast as lightning and even the experienced old hunters there find it difficult to kill it. On the contrary, it will find opportunities to counter attack them.”

“What sir said is correct. The bichi would come down twice a year, in spring and autumn, and if it couldn’t find food, it would attack the other cows and bite all of them to death. If you hit it, it would find a chance to take revenge. As such, we might as well bring two cows up the mountain each time to feed it so that it won’t come down,” the guard replied.

At the beginning, Ren Baqian thought it was a bat, but later realized it was not. It seemed to be a beast unique to this world.

The characteristic of taking revenge was similar to a weasel’s. Was it a weasel with long wings?

“Can we find a place to hide and observe it?” Ren Baqian asked with curiosity. He was quite interested in this type of weird animal in this world.

“Sir, it is better not to see it, it is said that seeing the bichi will bring disaster to the observer, and this prediction is quite efficacious.”

“If that’s the case, forget it then.” Ren Baqian immediately heeded the advice.