Luo Chong pointed at a very inconspicuous, dim corner. A millstone-sized rock lay on the ground there, its material and color almost completely blending into the surrounding rock wall.
"Yes, Chieftain. The entrance is right beneath that rock."
"So this is it? Damn, it was hidden well. No wonder we didn't find it last time. What are you standing around for? Move the rock!" Luo Chong glared at the three men, blaming them for not telling him about the salt mine the first time he came.
The three men dared not waste their breath. They strained to move the massive rock, and amid a series of clacking, grinding sounds, a slanting entrance leading downward appeared in the ground. The opening was tiny, a naturally formed, irregularly flattened oval. Just as they had said, it could only fit children under five through it.
Tsk, what do we do now? If we want to mine large quantities of salt, we can't have little brats doing the work, can we?
Luo Chong lit a torch, lay on the ground, and examined the entrance while tapping at it, carefully inspecting the rock to see whether it was possible to carve the opening with copper tools.
"Quartz and granite growing together. This stuff is too hard. It won't be easy."
While Luo Chong was muttering softly to himself, a flash suddenly glimmered across the cave ceiling in the torchlight, instantly drawing his attention.
Luo Chong raised the torch and looked over. He saw many inverted-cone-shaped mineral formations hanging from the ceiling. Are those stalactites?
But they didn't look like stalactites. The color was wrong. These yellowish-white, semitransparent formations reflected light. Could they be salt?
Could salt naturally crystallize upside down from a cave ceiling? Obviously not. Then what were these yellowish-white, semitransparent things?
Luo Chong