"Steward Wang, many thanks."
"Mr. Lin, I've already spread the word for you about taking the whole lot. The rest is up to you."
Wang Tieshan turned and left. After a few steps, he looked back again.
"Right, I sent people over to the Abandoned Mine Pit a few times just now. They didn't see anyone, but three or four people headed that way. They weren't ours. They were wearing plain clothes."
"When?"
"Half an hour ago. My people said those men had spiritual power on them. They couldn't tell where it came from, but they weren't exactly weak."
Lin Taichu stood up.
"Su Yao, let's go."
The two of them headed toward the Abandoned Mine Pit. The farther west they went on Immortal Soldier Island, the narrower the road became. The houses on either side gradually thinned out, and the ground changed from stone slabs to crushed rock. Farther on, the ground turned uneven, pitted everywhere with holes and hollows. Some pits were half a person deep; others could swallow you more than ten feet down.
The Abandoned Mine Pit lay at the end of the road. A massive deep pit stretched across the front, with stones large and small scattered all around it. The iron frames at the edge of the pit had rusted red, jutting there crookedly.
Lin Taichu stood at the edge of the pit and looked down. The bottom was pitch-black, its depth impossible to make out. The pit walls were covered in broken stone and soil, with a few wooden stakes slanting out of them. The wood had already rotted; touch it and it would crumble.
"Is anyone there?" Su Yao asked in a low voice.
"Don't make a sound."
Lin Taichu crouched and looked at the ground by the pit. There were footprints