Chapter 165: Coal’s Purpose Is To Be Burned
The lives of nobles and commoners do not intersect, so news inevitably fails to circulate.
Many times, nobles find it hard to understand the stupidity of commoners, just like when there’s no grain and stomachs are empty, why don’t these idiots eat minced meat?
Can’t minced meat fill stomachs?
Similarly, when commoners look at nobles, they sometimes inevitably find it hard to understand too, for example, the maids around them are plump and slender with fair skin and pretty little faces, so why is it a thick-browed, big-eyed bookboy who serves in bed at night?
When they don’t intersect, they don’t intersect. Only if a noble falls into ruin to become a commoner, or a commoner strives to become a noble, will they realize that the prejudices in people’s hearts are a great mountain.
To truly speak of it, there is such a statement, and it goes like this.
The best chefs are men, the best tailors are men, the best masseurs are men, the best makeup artists are men, so doesn’t that mean only men are the ones who understand men the most?
When drunk and ears hot, whispering intimately, baring their hearts, one deliberately caters, the other fawns obsequiously, at that time, whether man or woman no longer matters; everyone just wants to sublimate their emotions a bit more.
Doggy and Yu Zhu were just like that; they entangled for a whole night, and when dawn came, Yun Ce only saw a head placed on the table.
Even with only a head left, Yu Zhu was still breathtakingly beautiful, with downcast brows and eyes, carrying a touch of fragility…
1 Doggy placed an exquisite dou-shaped bottle in front of Yun Ce and said: “This is just a waste.”
1 Yun Ce said puzzledly: “That’s not what you said yesterday.”
1 “Yesterday I only measured it, didn’t do the next step of verification. After verification, I found his energy is very mixed. I suspect these energies weren’t produced by his body.”
1 Yun Ce said in surprise: “Is there such a thing? Did he consume heavenly treasures, or…”
1 Doggy sighed and said: “Don’t know. Sample too small, no way to do lateral comparison. Next time, catch me a real thousand-man general, maybe we can figure out the truth.”
1 Yun Ce frowned and said: “You mean the Gui Fang people have a way to turn a waste into a thousand-man general in a short time?”
1 Doggy said: “Very possible. I studied it carefully last night and found this guy’s muscle strength, lung capacity, cardiopulmonary endurance, heart pumping blood, and blood oxygen levels are all comparable to ordinary warrior people, except one thing: his cells seem to have some unknown type of enzyme, one that promotes rapid cell division in a short time.”
1 “Is that why his martial art strength fluctuates high and low?”
1 “Yeah, forced-ripened fruit doesn’t taste good.”
1 Through Doggy, Yun Ce gained a deeper understanding of the devils; those guys aren’t worthless barbarians, but have started formally facing themselves and studying themselves.
2 “Looks like they have more say on evolution.”
2 Doggy said: “Good thing, still in the ignorant stage. You have plenty of time.”
2 While eating breakfast, Yun Ce gave Yu Zhu’s head to Qin Shu. Qin Shu immediately put it in a box, wrote a battle report to Cao Kun, detailing how they ambushed a large Gui Fang scout group, beheaded a thousand-man general on the battlefield, and this person was likely a Gui Fang prince.
2 While Qin Shu wrote the battle report, He Qingfang looked at the head. After a long time, she said to Qin Shu: “Loving someone until only a head remains, is that also a kind of ability?”
2 Qin Shu paused his pen, carefully blew dry the ink on the paper—he treated the paper Yun Ce gave him like a treasure. Once the ink dried, he put it in a bamboo tube, then remembered to answer He Qingfang.
2 “Nobles, well—”
2 The dead one was a devil, just a bit good-looking; He Qingfang wasn’t about to mourn him. Seeing Qin Shu send out a messenger, she sighed: “We won’t get the merit.”
2 Qin Shu sneered: “The general foresaw it long ago. This dead devil has a big background; his close aunt is even our Great Han’s Imperial Noble Consort. The people in Iron Enclosure Pass have been usurping our battle merits, right? This time, give them a poisoned merit to swallow and teach them a lesson.”
2 He Qingfang laughed: “Isn’t it obvious? Once Young Master Cao submits the battle report, they’ll discard ours, rewrite one, swap the names of those to be rewarded, send it to Chang’an, to the Grand Marshal. As for us, they won’t mention.”
2 Qin Shu laughed: “I’m already content following the general to kill devils. Merit is nothing.”
3 He Qingfang said again: “Ghost King Mountain is a death trap. Is the general holding the death trap to perish together with the devils?”
3 Qin Shu laughed: “Isn’t that the result we’ve always yearned for?”
3 He Qingfang sighed, rested her head on Qin Shu’s shoulder, and said: “Actually, I still want to bear a child for you.”
3 Qin Shu hugged He Qingfang’s waist and said: “Born to wander with us, or endure wind and snow? Don’t burden the child.”
3 He Qingfang fell silent, just tears flowing uncontrollably.
3 Yun Ce directed people to dig many prospecting pits on Ghost King Mountain; these pits were only one meter deep, fifty meters long, and in inconsistent directions, with most facing southeast and southwest.
3 It must be said that the coal resources on Ghost King Mountain are extremely abundant. Dig through the surface weathered layer, and below is an open-pit anthracite coal mine that made Yun Ce drool.
3 Through those prospecting pits, Yun Ce preliminarily grasped the approximate extent of this coal mine.
3 Under the action of water and pressure, the mountain peak of Ghost King Mountain has already burned and collapsed; this is no longer a fire that human power can extinguish.
3 After scouting the approximate extent of the coal mine, Yun Ce asked Doggy to help probe the coal burning layer.
4 Looking at the wind cave like a devil’s big mouth, Yun Ce looked up at the still-burning Ghost King Mountain, then heard Doggy say in his head: “You plan to ignite the entire Ghost King Mountain?”
4 Yun Ce said: “No choice. Ghost King Mountain is a death trap. These days, devil scouts have already come to probe and discovered our presence.”
4 At most three days, endless devils will come to trouble us.
4 We’re few in number; we can persevere in short-term offense and defense, but over time, we’re dead.
4 Though Qin Shu and the others seem quite willing to die in battle here, I’m not. They’re very useful. If not to win their hearts, I’d be too lazy to lead them killing devils on the wasteland.
4 Doggy said: “You plan to use Shehuo to ignite this pile of coal?”
4 “Yeah, Shehuo has been waning lately; he probably wants to play with fire. Plus, the Coal Mountain here is burning too slowly now. Since the burning layer has wind caves, it’s a qualified stove. I don’t mind making this stove burn hotter.”
4 “Last time at the volcano, Shehuo nearly burned it down. This time you’re letting it go, or do you no longer care if others know Chuyun Prefecture Shehuo is in your hands?”
4 “What more to hide? That old High Priest guy knew long ago Chuyun Prefecture Shehuo is with me. Once he even pressed his hand on my chest and told me—fire in the chest, stay steady, know how to use fire well, protect the fire.”
4 “Tell me, do I still need to hide it?”
5 “Oh, if that’s the case, then burn it.”
5 Ghost King Mountain to Iron Enclosure Pass is just over two hundred li; fast horses arrive in half a day. Cao Kun looked at the devil head carried back by over a dozen great horned horses, very satisfied.
5 He felt his battle merits at Iron Enclosure Pass needed to rise further, his rank elevated by three to five levels, making his position as eldest son of Qiuhe Prefecture Cao Clan even more secure.
5 The old butler and warrior leader Cao Ling were also looking at these heads, examining them very seriously, comparing each one carefully.
5 After checking, Cao Ling irritably scratched his hair: “Devils so easy to kill? Killed over two hundred devils dying only a dozen people?”
5 Uncle, how about we go out too?
5 The old butler wrapped his body in the fur cloak, glanced back at Cao Kun who had just read Yun Ce’s letter, and shook his head: “No.”
5 Cao Ling said: “Why? Such a good opportunity.”
5 The old butler chuckled: “Just look at the eldest son’s face and you’ll know.”
5 Cao Ling immediately looked over and saw the young master who had been beaming with joy now had a face like he ate shit, not only ugly-colored but quickly stuffed the letter into his bosom.
6 “Something fishy?”
6 The old butler sneered: “Something very fishy.”
6 Luckily, Cao Kun didn’t keep them waiting long and showed the letter’s contents to the old butler and warrior leader.
6 “Gui Fang prince Yu Zhu’s head?”
6 The warrior leader had just exclaimed when the old butler’s saw-like vicious glare scared him into immediate silence.
6 When that small box was opened at the Iron Enclosure Pass station, looking at the lifelike Yu Zhu, the old butler sighed: “Sometimes, merit too great is also trouble.”
6 Cao Kun said: “Yun Ce said in the letter, two hundred twenty-one devil heads plus one devil prince head, then he owes us nothing.”
6 Uncle, shall we do this business deal?
6 The old butler pondered a moment: “Imperial Noble Consort Yu Heng is a demon concubine everyone in Great Han ought to execute, but over these years, though everyone ought to execute her, she’s lived prosperously for many years, and now having put such a big green hat on the emperor, she still got his pardon.”
6 There must be things we don’t know here.
7 “Can’t it be the emperor indulging in beauty?” Cao Ling looked at Yu Zhu’s head, couldn’t help imagining the beautiful appearance of demon concubine Yu Heng.
7 “That underestimates our emperor too much.”
7 “Yun Ce doesn’t want us to take this head, but suggests we trade with Iron Enclosure Pass military, turn a corner for benefits without harming us.”
7 The old butler kept shaking his head: “Can’t cover it up; sooner or later it’ll trace back to us.”
7 Cao Kun frowned: “Then what to do?”
7 The old butler sighed: “Hold it and cover for a while; wait till I contact the patriarch before deciding.”
