Chapter 4: Great Troubles Minimized

"Who's there? What are you dawdling for?"A sudden shout echoed from a branching tunnel ahead. A figure wearing a woven mask emerged from the intersection, pointing into the dim light at the two men, one tall and one short.

The tunnels, which resembled a mine, contained more than one passage. When the excavation first began, the exact location of the target was unknown, so a group of native cultivators had been digging haphazardly underground for about a month. It was only after the target object was unearthed that they focused their efforts in one direction, which explains the numerous junctions within the tunnels.

The supervisor's inquiry was, understandably, because the two men had been whispering to each other, their movements overly sluggish, making their idleness and dawdling quite obvious.

As Wu Jinliang had put it earlier, "Isn't what we're doing a bit too brazen?"

In any case, both men startled at the sound. Upon seeing it was the supervisor, they immediately bent their backs, ready to grovel and rush forward to admit their mistakes. Their synchronized movements were remarkably consistent.

However, the supervisor was truly angered by their obvious laziness and their apparent disregard for him. He flashed forward, lashing out with his whip straight at Shi Chun's face, intending to teach him a lesson.

People's dispositions and tempers can sometimes be so self-centered.

This action greatly annoyed Shi Chun. As far as he knew, both the miners and these supervisors were hired by Shen Youkun to do work. They merely had different roles; none of them had a long-term job. They were all working together, so why be so serious and offend people?

The stunned Wu Jinliang offered no reaction, showing no intention of helping or intervening. He trusted the boss to handle such a minor matter on his own.

Shi Chun's instinctive reaction was to dodge, even wanting to fight back and show the other person. The carrying pole on his shoulder almost swung out. However, considering their current situation, he held back, not wanting to provoke the supervisor and avoid making a big scene.

So, he decided to let the supervisor vent his anger, standing still and not attempting to dodge.

Still, he couldn't just stand there and take a whip to the face without any reaction. What if it disfigured him? He felt there was a chance he might rely on his looks for a living in the future.

He raised a hand to block.

Whap! The whip cracked, making Shi Chun grimace in pain. He quickly pulled back his hand and saw a whip mark on his arm bleeding at a visible rate. He was instantly furious, not expecting such a heavy blow from the supervisor.

Half a layer of skin was gone. Wu Jinliang also bared his teeth and twisted his mouth, finding the sight painful.

Inwardly fuming, Shi Chun still gritted his teeth and endured, bowing and scraping to the supervisor who had flashed before him, hoping to defuse the situation.

"Tell me, what are you dawdling for?" The supervisor poked Shi Chun's chest with his whip, then turned and poked Wu Jinliang, questioning, "Don't you want this job anymore?"

Shi Chun hurriedly said, "No dawdling, no dawdling, brave sir, please calm down." He showed his bleeding arm, hoping to elicit sympathy and that the supervisor would be satisfied.

But the supervisor's anger didn't subside. "Do you think I'm blind?" he retorted.

Wu Jinliang quickly replied, "We really weren't dawdling. I twisted my ankle, which is why I was walking slowly."

The supervisor pointed to his ear. "So, you think I'm not only blind but deaf too, eh? You've been chattering happily all along. Do you think I wouldn't notice? Fine, you're stubborn, right? Fine, I won't make things difficult for you. I'll let you stand here and chat all you want, as long as no one else has a problem with it. Go on, keep chatting."

At these words, both men, one tall and one short, visibly changed their expressions. They were already trying to exploit loopholes and opportunities; how could they stand there for everyone passing by to observe? It would be as if they wanted to draw attention to themselves. It would be even more troublesome if Shen Youkun showed up. Were they really going to tie the supervisor up? Unless absolutely necessary, they didn't want to resort to taking him hostage.

Shi Chun immediately cupped his hands and pleaded, "Brave sir..."

"Don't move!" the supervisor interrupted with a shout, pointing his whip at Shi Chun's foot, which had intended to step forward to salute. "Didn't you hear me say to stand there and chat slowly? Go on, keep chatting."

Shi Chun stopped moving, his eyes, hidden by his hanging hair, fixed on the supervisor. Then he tilted his head and gave Wu Jinliang a glance.

Wu Jinliang's carrying pole clattered to the ground. Under the supervisor's sudden gaze, he dropped to his knees with a thud, instantly bursting into tears. "I was wrong! I have old parents above and young children below. I'm counting on this payment. Please, sir, have mercy and let me off this time..."

Still weeping, he crawled on his knees to the supervisor and tearfully pleaded while clinging to his leg.

"Such soft bones?" The supervisor seemed surprised, shouting "Get off me!" and trying to push the man away, but his hands were grabbed.

The sobbing Wu Jinliang hugged him further up.

The supervisor quickly realized something was wrong. Without him noticing, both his hands were embraced around his waist, and critically, he couldn't break free.

He sensed danger. Just as he thought of using his knee to push away the person clinging to him, a sudden chill ran down his neck. His gaze caught the metallic glint beneath his chin, still glinting coldly in the dim light. He could already feel a tearing pain in his neck.

Under this threat and pressure, he immediately froze.

Shi Chun, having pulled a small knife from somewhere, held it against the supervisor's neck. The carrying pole on his own shoulder also dropped to the ground.

The supervisor immediately asked nervously, "What do you want?"

"Shut up!" Shi Chun warned.

The supervisor then whispered, "Everything can be discussed..."

Moving behind him, Shi Chun raised his injured, bleeding arm and covered the supervisor's mouth under the mask, forcing him to be silent through action. The blade against his neck, moreover, cleanly drew a spray of blood, giving the supervisor no chance to react desperately.

As if foreseeing it, Wu Jinliang rolled away, dodging the spraying blood.

The supervisor, struggling with all his might, was pinned to the ground. Shi Chun pressed his knee firmly into the supervisor's lower back, and his hand, still covering the supervisor's mouth, twisted and snapped his neck with a crack.

The supervisor's prone body was still twitching. Shi Chun, having wiped the blood from his knife, stood up and looked into the depths of the tunnel. Faint footsteps could be heard. He whispered, "Someone's coming, get him out of here quickly."

This was also why he had decisively killed the supervisor. With people constantly coming and going, if he got tied up, he would have no room to maneuver.

Without hesitation, Wu Jinliang quickly picked up the supervisor's still slightly twitching body and ran, disappearing into the branching tunnel from which the supervisor had emerged.

Shi Chun quickly hid the small knife under his loincloth. He then swiftly pulled a woven mask from beneath his carrying basket and put it on, tying a black cloth strip around his arm. He picked up the supervisor's whip. The two carrying poles were quickly stacked together and placed against the side. He then spun his leg, sweeping the ground, and the stirred dust covered the blood on the floor.

As soon as he waved his hand, casting a spell to clear the stirred dust, he saw two individuals dressed as supervisors approaching rapidly.

As they passed, the two men had no intention of speaking to Shi Chun, even ignoring the two stacked carrying poles beside him. However, an unusual scent made them both stop, one after the other, their nostrils flaring.

One of them said in a low voice, "The smell of blood!"

The other nodded, looking around, and both quickly turned their gaze to Shi Chun by the side of the path.

Shi Chun, unhurried, raised his still-bleeding arm and, lowering his voice slightly, said, "Just playing around with the whip, got myself by accident."

He wasn't feigning composure; he truly wasn't flustered.

Seeing he was injured, the two supervisors felt relieved, yet also slightly surprised.

Before they could ask further questions, Shi Chun preemptively diverted the topic by asking, "What are you two doing?"

One supervisor explained, "We're checking the excavation progress. The remaining earth volume shouldn't be large. We want to discuss with Mr. Shen whether it's necessary to carry it out a long distance anymore. We could just dump it into other side tunnels, saving time and effort, and speeding up the excavation."

"That makes sense," Shi Chun nodded in agreement, raising a hand as if to dismiss them.

The two supervisors immediately departed quickly.

Watching them go, Shi Chun turned back to look into the depths of the mine, thinking, *No wonder no heavy-laden miners have come out for a while.*

Wu Jinliang's figure then flashed out from the branching tunnel, quickly appearing before Shi Chun. He whispered, "He's buried. Are you alright?"

Shi Chun replied, "It's all your endless chattering. Otherwise, we wouldn't have this trouble." He pointed to the stacked carrying poles, motioning for Wu Jinliang to pick them up and leave.

Wu Jinliang was a bit unwilling. "Why am I always the one doing the heavy labor? Shouldn't it be my turn to switch?"

Walking along, Shi Chun said, "Are there any supervisors as tall as you? Are you afraid people won't recognize you?"

This single sentence left Wu Jinliang speechless. It was true; someone so tall among the supervisors would be too conspicuous and wouldn't blend in.

In fact, Wu Jinliang's height had previously aroused suspicion among other miners. They weren't blind, so it was impossible for them not to be suspicious. However, when Shi Chun, the fake supervisor, appeared along the way, it served to 'prove' that Wu Jinliang was a later arrival, and the miners naturally had no further questions.

They used the same method to deal with suspicious supervisors. If they encountered someone too suspicious to be fobbed off, their solution was simple: eliminate them.

In any case, after figuring out the personnel situation here, the two simply blended in. They weren't rigid; they hid when they should, avoided when they should, sometimes stayed together, sometimes separated. Shi Chun even switched between being a miner and a supervisor, calmly changing identities as needed to exploit any opening.

In Shi Chun's words, "This East Nine Plain is my territory!"

In summary, the two men did hardly any work at all. Instead, they ran around exploring the underground tunnels, treating the opposing personnel as if they were invisible. Their audacity was indeed so great that it was almost blatant.

Of course, they weren't unprepared. They had a psychological strategy: handle it if they could, run if they couldn't!

However, Wu Jinliang, trailing behind, still sighed, "Another one gone. If we keep doing this, there'll be fewer and fewer people, and it'll be hard not to be discovered."

"Can you shut your mouth?" Shi Chun, walking ahead, turned back to demand, also as a reminder. "Is this a place for chatting? We almost had trouble just now."

No sooner had he spoken than he quickly turned back to look ahead, seeing a figure rapidly flashing towards them, moving so fast it almost collided with the two men.

The newcomer was also a masked supervisor. He paused briefly to avoid them, then hurried on his way.

So fast? Shi Chun sensed something was off about the supervisor's reaction. He wouldn't miss any chance to gather information, so he immediately reached out to block the way and asked, "Why the rush?"

"We dug something up; Mr. Shen needs to be informed," the newcomer replied casually, swatting away the arm blocking his path, and quickly departed.

"Dug something up?" Shi Chun muttered, then looked back at Wu Jinliang, and they exchanged surprised glances.

Hadn't something already been dug up? Wasn't it that unknown skeleton? Was it really worth making such a fuss over?

The two instantly realized there might be something else of significance. Having come all this way, they naturally didn't want to miss it. They immediately moved, flashing towards the end of the tunnel.