Li Sanshun had just reached for the door ring when someone behind the stone door hurriedly stopped him.
"Don't open it! There are rocks piled up behind the door!"
Gu Qinghe raised the Mine Tunnel Map. The collapsed section had originally had two ventilation shafts, but both were now blocked by rubble. Only the crack beneath the door still let in air.
There was also a Pulse-Locking Array beside the door.
Array spikes had been driven into the rock wall, and the Mine Sealing Order from six years ago had been placed over them. If they forced the door open, the array would bring down the mine roof behind it.
Bai Cheng had been here before, but he hadn't rescued anyone.
He had wanted the people inside to be buried alive.
Li Sanshun crouched beside the wall and drew a breath through the crack beneath the door.
[Detected spiritual energy from a mineral vein.]
[Detected Pulse-Locking iron sand.]
[Three living auras detected behind the stone door.]
[One of them is growing weak.]
"Who's hurt in there?"
There was a pause before someone answered from behind the door.
"Old Luo was hit in the leg by a rock. He can't hold on much longer!"
Gu Qinghe took out the Miner Roster.
The three people who had gone missing six years ago were Luo Dashan, Yuan Fu, and Chen Jiumu. All three had been veteran miners at the Ding-Character Furnace.
The names and number of people matched.
"Did Bai Cheng go inside?"
"He reached a hand through the food slot and tried to poison the water. Old Chen stabbed him with a piece of iron, and he ran off."
The blood on Bai Cheng's clothes matched, too.
Gu Qinghe examined the food slot beside the stone door. Half a packet of black powder was wedged inside, with blood on the outside.
"He blocked the ventilation shafts and activated the Pulse-Locking Array. The mine roof will collapse in half an hour at most."
Yuan Fu struck the stone door twice from the other side.
"Commissioner Gu, forget this door. Go to the Ding-Character Furnace and find Xu Zhenchuan! He's going to destroy what's beneath the furnace!"
Gu Qinghe pushed the Major Case Order into a crack in the stone.
"Get to the back of the stone chamber first."
"We can't. Old Luo's pinned behind the door. We can't move him."
They heard rubble being shifted behind the door, but the noise soon stopped.
Gu Qinghe circled to the left side of the collapsed section and scraped the iron sand from the rock with her sword.
The Pulse-Locking Array had eight spikes. Pull out the wrong one, and the whole mine roof would come crashing down.
"Can you break it?" Li Sanshun looked at her.
"I'll need one incense stick's time."
"They don't have that long."
Less and less air came through the crack beneath the door. Old Luo had fallen silent, while the other two kept calling his name.
Li Sanshun pressed himself against the wall and took another deep breath.
The mine air was thick with dust, harsh in his lungs. But each breath also drew in the spiritual energy from the mineral vein buried in the rock.
[Absorbed low-grade spiritual energy from a mineral vein.]
[Life energy restored.]
[Immortal Arts strength restored.]
Again!
[Immortal Arts strength restored to full.]
Earth-Element Qi flowed into the rock wall, revealing the positions of the rubble behind the door in Li Sanshun's mind.
He couldn't pull the door open.
He could break through beside it.
"Gu Qinghe, step back."
Li Sanshun went to the right side of the stone door and pressed his hand against the rock wall. Earth-Element Qi spread through the cracks, propping up several load-bearing stones inside.
The rubble overhead came to a halt.
The Pulse-Locking Array started up. All eight spikes drilled deeper into the rock at once. Stone chips rained down, and the ground shook beneath their feet.
"Open up!"
Li Sanshun punched the rock wall.
The rock split half a foot deep.
His second punch sent the crack to the doorframe.
His third punch smashed straight through the wall!
A cloud of foul air, trapped for years, burst out of the opening.
Li Sanshun turned his head and coughed a few times, then reached his hand through the hole. Earth-Element Qi wrapped around the rubble inside and carried it out, one piece after another.
Gu Qinghe was busy, too. She cut away at the rock around the breach, widening it until one person could fit through.
The two of them crawled into the stone chamber.
It was only a dozen or so paces wide. In one corner was an underground spring, and empty grain sacks and porcelain bottles that had once held Inedia Pills were piled along the wall.
Luo Dashan lay behind the stone door, a piece of ore pinning his left leg. Yuan Fu and Chen Jiumu stood beside him. Their clothes were in tatters, and their hair hung to their shoulders.
After six years in captivity, all three had wasted away.
Li Sanshun lifted the ore, and Gu Qinghe dragged Luo Dashan out.
His leg was badly injured, but he was still alive.
She fed him a Pulse-Protecting Pill and splinted his broken leg with a board.
"This place won't hold much longer. Let's get out first."
Yuan Fu shook his head and pointed to the rock wall beside the underground spring.
"We can't get out. Xu Zhenchuan locked our Miner Fire Contracts inside. If we go more than three li from the Ding-Character Furnace, the contracts will burn us to death."
Gu Qinghe cut open Yuan Fu's sleeve.
A character, "Ding," had been branded on the inside of his arm, surrounded by fine red lines. Chen Jiumu and Luo Dashan had the same marks.
Li Sanshun sniffed the red lines.
[Detected Ding-Character Furnace Fire Contract.]
[The Fire Contract is linked to the blood essence of all three.]
[Control array located beneath the Ding-Character Furnace.]
Xu Zhenchuan had kept them here with no intention of ever letting them go.
They were three living keys to opening the lower level beneath the Ding-Character Furnace.
Li Sanshun hoisted Luo Dashan onto his back.
"Then we'll go to the Ding-Character Furnace and break the Fire Contracts first."
Chen Jiumu grabbed his clothes.
"We can't go back the way we came. Before Bai Cheng ran off, he said Xu Zhenchuan had already gone into West Mountain. If he's guarding the furnace entrance, we're all dead."
"Have you seen Xu Zhenchuan yourself?"
"I have."
Chen Jiumu fished a small piece of bronze out from under his ragged clothes. It was only half a plaque, with half the character "Zhen" on it.
It was the missing handler's mark from the ledger found by the cliff.
"Six years ago, Xu Zhenchuan was still in charge of old records in the Law Enforcement Hall Archives Room. He used Gu Changyue's private seal to take us into the Ding-Character Furnace."
Yuan Fu picked up the story.
"He had us melt fifty-eight jin of Blood-Vein Black Iron and cast it into blanks for command tokens. When the work was done, he locked us in here and sent someone to bring Inedia Pills every few months."
Gu Qinghe took out the Law Enforcement Peak Roster and turned to the page listing the deputy hall master.
"Is it him?"
Chen Jiumu snatched the roster and glanced at it, then jabbed a finger at Xu Zhenchuan's name.
"That bastard!"
They had found the man who forged Gu Changyue's private seal six years ago.
There were living witnesses to the forged cliff-fall case file, the miners' imprisonment, and the theft of the Blood-Vein Black Iron. They had it all.
Suddenly, several pieces of rubble fell outside the mine tunnel.
The Pulse-Locking Array pressed down again.
Li Sanshun carried Luo Dashan on his back and led them through the breach. Gu Qinghe supported Yuan Fu, while Chen Jiumu led them through the narrow passage behind the stone chamber.
The passage led straight to the lower level of the Ding-Character Furnace.
At the end of the narrow passage, Chen Jiumu stopped before an iron floor plate.
Fifteen rectangular slots had been cut into it. Fourteen were empty.
The last one was still sealed beneath the furnace.
Li Sanshun took out half of the Blood Token and held it over an empty slot to compare.
It was exactly the right size.
"How many did Xu Zhenchuan cast back then?"
"Fifteen."
"He took fourteen. Why is the last one still here?"
Chen Jiumu pointed to the sealed section beneath the furnace.
"Because he carved the wrong number on the last one."
Gu Qinghe took out the Miner Fire Contract, preparing to open the sealed section.
Chen Jiumu stopped her.
"Commissioner Gu, you'd better look at the number first."
"What does it say?"
"The Old Infant Case involving the imperial family, number fifteen!"
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