How can I bow my head and serve the powerful officials?

"I see." The eldest boss continued to scratch his head, thinking that his nephew's last wish was quite fancy. "But, a three-meter-high ice sculpture... where can I find it?"

"Ahem, of course we have to chisel out the ice from the river... and then pile it together." Xie Chengze covered his lips and rolled his eyes slightly. "But ordinary people are weak after all, so I'm afraid the speed of chiseling through the glacier is quite slow. I don't know if my nephew can wait until the ice sculpture is completed..."

"It's okay! The brothers in the village are all very strong! It's just a three-meter ice sculpture!" The big boss patted the tiger-head axe on his waist confidently, "Uncle Master will dig it out for you overnight! There are craftsmen in the village, let them make an ice sculpture for you!"

"But..." Xie Chengze tilted his head slightly, biting his lower lip between his teeth, as if he was about to say something but stopped, "My nephew wants one hundred three-meter-high ice sculptures..."

……

……

……

The boss's heart exploded sharply: How much???

“Is this last wish too harsh?”

Seeing the eldest master choking, Xie Chengze was about to cry, and said with a sad look, "My nephew has lived in the capital for a long time. Although I have not seen much of the world, I only want peace in the world and the people to live and work in peace. So before I die, I want to make a final contribution to my mother's hometown, the people of Liaozhou."

He found the right angle to look up, his watery eyes overflowing with sad and stubborn tears, which made people feel pity for him.

He was heard sobbing softly, "There are many bandits in Liaozhou, and merchants from other places are unwilling to come here to do business, which has led to a shortage of supplies in Liaozhou and the people's poverty. If we can build a hundred ice sculptures of various styles, it will surely attract merchants from all over the world to come here and revive the business of shops in Liaozhou..."

"Uncle Master..." He said in a hoarse voice, pitifully, "If even you can't help me, I'm afraid I can only die with regrets!"

"This... It's not that I don't want to, nephew, it's really one hundred ice sculptures--" The big boss counted on his fingers, "Qianjin Village doesn't have enough manpower!"

Xie Chengze glanced at Shen Yuan, his eyes signaling: What are you waiting for? Come on!

Shen Yuan understood what Xie Chengze wanted to do. He stepped forward and said, "Although the brothers in Qianjin Village are not enough, there are so many mountains and bandits in Liaozhou... maybe we can give it a try?"

The big boss slapped his hands suddenly, and suddenly realized: "That's right!"

Bandits are good! Most of the bandits in Liaozhou are strong and healthy. There is absolutely no problem for them to cut ice in rivers. The only problem is that bandits are not easy to talk to. They are all kings of the mountains. Why should they listen to you?

However, we can take advantage of the opportunity to recruit these bandits. However, if we want to subdue them, martial arts alone are not enough, and we need special skills.

"I need to think about this matter, think about it carefully..."

The boss tapped his chin and walked away thoughtfully. Shen Yuan glanced at Xie Chengze before following the boss, obviously intending to continue lobbying him to subdue the nearby bandits.

The second in command also wanted to follow, but was grabbed by Xie Chengze's sleeve. He blinked, his eyes full of fascinating expectation, "Second in command, are you free today?"

-

When the second in command came to his senses, he was holding Sheng Yiren in his left hand and carrying Xie Chengze on his right shoulder, walking on the rugged road down the mountain.

The snow on the mountain has not melted yet, and there are footprints everywhere. Occasionally, you can see the claw marks of wild beasts in the mountains. Whenever this happens, the second in command will confirm whether to change direction based on the animal prints on the ground to avoid a collision with the wild beasts in the mountains.

"Second Prince, what exactly are you looking for?"

Sheng Yiren patted the snow off her boots, looked up and asked Xie Chengze.

Xie Chengze pinched a black stain in his palm and said nonchalantly, "I'm looking for a kind of black gold."

After entering the lobby yesterday, Xie Chengze scanned the entire interior. The bandits did not clean it very carefully, especially the ground, which always left many traces of people coming and going. The dark sides of wooden tables and benches were often not taken care of, so many dark traces could be seen.

These marks are much clearer than the "dirty marks", as if a hand was covered with coal dust, and before it was washed, it was rubbed everywhere and could not be wiped off. The bandits also had such stains on their shoes, which meant that they must have stepped on coal dust somewhere...

And where there is coal ash, there is a high probability that there is coal underground.

So he asked the second in command to take him to Qianjinzhai where the brothers always stepped on dirty places.

"We're almost there." The second in command picked up Sheng Yiren and sped up. Soon, they stopped in front of a cave.

"This was dug out when the village was first built. In order to prevent people from going up the mountain and discovering Qianjin Village, a brother suggested digging a few patrol holes and sending people to patrol at fixed points in the mountain every day."

The second in command explained the purpose of the cave and let the two men down, "But in the winter, the brothers would rather patrol than stay in the patrol cave."

"Oh?" Xie Chengze was surprised, "Why?"

“Uh…” The Second in Command scratched his head. “I don’t know why, but when winter comes, some of the brothers who are resting at the patrol point always die. They all say that it’s the people who died there before who are here to claim their lives.”

"People who died in there before?" Xie Chengze was puzzled.

“Well, there are always brave people who dare to come to Qiantai Mountain. In order to avoid being discovered the existence of the village, they can only…” The second in command touched his nose and then made a gesture of wiping his neck.

Xie Chengze: “…”

This is indeed something that bandits would do.

Rubbing his brows and shaking his head, he walked into the cave and found that it was quite elaborate. There was a ditch specially made for draining rainwater, and a wooden table and two benches were placed inside. Two patrolling bandits must have slipped and were covered in snow. They were making a fire inside to dry their clothes.

Xie Chengze looked down and saw that the ground was indeed black, with a lot of black powder mixed in the yellow soil.

"Second in command?" The two bandits asked in surprise when they saw the three of them. "Why are you here?"

"Accompany the Second Prince down for a walk." Everyone knew Xie Chengze's identity last night, so they were not surprised by the word "His Royal Highness". Instead, they all secretly glanced at Xie Chengze, secretly thinking that he was really handsome.

Who could have thought that the second prince would appear on this broken hilltop, and he was the nephew of the eldest master?

Xie Chengze stood at the entrance of the cave for a while, then walked along the drainage ditch towards the depths of the cave, until he finally stopped in front of a deep pit at the end.

The deep pit was pitch black, with two bulging mounds of earth and the tomb of someone carved on them.

Xie Chengze rubbed his brows and roughly guessed the origin of the two bodies. "Then you killed someone and buried him here."

The second in command nodded, looking quite proud. "That's not a big deal! I even asked for their names and built tombstones for them! At least they won't be like those merchants who died without even a grave!"

Sheng Yiren chuckled twice, "Then you are really kind."

The second in command waved his hands: "No, no, thank you for your praise~"

Sheng Yiren: ...was I praising you?!

Xie Chengze squatted down and held out a handkerchief. It was the one Shen Yuan handed to him yesterday to wipe the snow water. He wiped the edge of the deep pit a few times, leaving a lot of thick black powder on it.

Xie Chengze sniffed, then turned to look at the two bandits who were watching the fun, and gestured, "Second Master, ask them to go down and chisel some black stones up."

"OK, no problem!"

The second in command howled, and the two bandits hurried over. After hearing the order, they glanced at the deep pit, their faces showing some embarrassment and obvious reluctance.

"Are you afraid of ghosts coming to take your lives?" Xie Chengze coughed a few times, with a look of surprise and sighing, "I thought the bandits were very powerful, but it turns out you are so timid..."

Who the hell can stand this?

The two bandits immediately patted their chests, indicating that there was no problem at all, then slid into the deep pit and began to chop the black stones inside with knives.

After a while, he climbed up holding a few scattered black stones and said, "Done! How is it? This is what you want!"

Xie Chengze nodded and began to give orders, "Throw it into the fire you just started, and take away all the firewood."

"Will the fire be put out then?" The two bandits looked at each other, not knowing what Xie Chengze was trying to do.

Seeing that the two men didn't move, the second in command couldn't help but raise his legs and kick them each, urging them, "Hurry up, what are you hesitating for? I'm not going to kill you!"

The two bandits hurriedly walked towards the fire, put the black stone in it, and then used a knife to pick out the burning firewood inside.

Then, they were shocked to find that the black stone was burning!