System [I am in a horror dungeon]

From then on, the two began to live in the same room.

Back to the present, Chu Lingxian and Lu Nanyin were lying on the bed, covered with quilts and chatting. As they were talking, Lu Nanyin felt a little sleepy.

At this time, there was a fire outside. Chu Lingxian hurriedly got out of bed, opened the window a crack, and looked at the situation outside.

Most of those people were elderly people, holding various farm tools in their hands and shouting something like "outsiders, get out".

Then one of them turned around and looked at the inn where they were staying. He trembled and knocked on the door, shouting in a voice that he thought was louder than others, "Come out! Come out quickly! Otherwise, we will not be polite."

"What's going on with these people?" Lu Nanyin also walked to the window and looked at the old people, feeling a little confused.

"I'll go out and take a look. You better be careful."

Chu Lingxian went downstairs and opened the door of the inn. Those people seemed to have not expected her to open the door directly. They all stood there in a daze, at a loss as to what to do.

The man knocking on the door boldly asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Old man, we are just here to look for medicinal herbs. I am injured and need the herbs from Changxi Mountain for treatment."

The old man was skeptical, "Really?" Others were also whispering.

"Of course. You are..."

The old man put down what he was holding and said, "If you are just here to collect herbs, then there is nothing to worry about."

Su Liyue also came down and asked Chu Lingxian what was going on. Chu Lingxian briefly explained what happened.

"Old man, if you weren't here to collect herbs, would anything have happened?"

The old man sighed and said, "This place was originally very prosperous. Many people came to Changxi Mountain to collect herbs and hunt animals, so people from all over the place gathered here.

But five years ago, a group of people suddenly appeared here, saying that we were recruiting soldiers and wanted to rebel. We are all permanent residents here, and we don’t know anything about military tactics, economics, etc., but that group of people insisted and arrested all the young men.

Then when those people saw what happened here, they stopped coming and went up the mountain from other places. Later, a few of our town’s people went up the mountain and saw that they had chiseled a big hole under the cliffs. They said they were going to dig for gems, so they took over the place. We had no choice but to find other ways to make a living.

But they were afraid that we would leak the news, so they trapped us here and took all the young and strong men they captured to the mountains to dig for gems. Now there are only old people, women and children left in the town."

Seeing that the two girls had not come up yet, Lu Nanyin and Xia Xiaoxiao went downstairs to look for them and happened to hear this.

Lu Nanyin thought about it. When she was in the palace before, some maids and servants had talked about this matter. It seemed that the Fourth Prince did it. Her mother was the daughter of a general, so she had some private soldiers.

Three years ago, on the birthday of Palace Master Qianling Qi Yuanhe, the gift the Fourth Prince presented seemed to be snow crystals mined from here.

Snow crystal is a six-petal snowflake-shaped crystal. Wearing it for a long time can gather spiritual energy for self-cultivation. Smaller ones can be used as decorations. Because it is a naturally formed snowflake-shaped crystal, it does not need to be polished to shine, and is very popular in Qiandi City.

The fourth prince? After reading Lu Nanyin's thoughts, Chu Lingxian roughly knew what happened.

Looking at these skinny old people in front of me, I couldn't bear to see them suffer like this.

When the old people left, they invited them to their homes, saying that it was unsafe there and asked them to be careful.

After they sent those people away, Lu Nanyin also told them about the Fourth Prince.

"So the Fourth Prince made a lot of money with this snow crystal."

"Not only did he make a lot of money, he was also very good at pleasing old man Qi Yuanhe. Plus, his grandfather was a great general, so everyone had to give him face."

"If we go up the mountain, will we run into those people digging for snow crystals? If there is a conflict, with our current strength, won't we be chased and beaten by them?"

"What you said makes sense, so we have to first figure out where they are digging, and then we avoid them and go up the mountain."

"Okay, let's go see which way those people take tomorrow, and then think about the rest."

After they had discussed it, it was almost four o'clock in the morning. They were exhausted from the journey and had to deal with all these things, so they went upstairs to rest.

The next day, the four of them got up one after another and went to look for the people in the small town first.

"Old man, we want to ask where those people came from. We want to avoid them and go up the mountain to collect medicinal herbs."

Then, the old man gave them a detailed map of Changxi Mountain and told them: "You guys, go this way, turn here, and try not to go this way. These people will come down from here and send the mined snow crystals to other places. Also, you must be careful of the snow pits on the side of the road. If you step on them, you will disappear and you won't be able to climb out."

"Okay, thank you, old man." Several people gave the candies they bought outside to the children who followed the old man. The children were so happy to get the candies that they jumped and skipped to find their friends.

The few of them followed the old man's instructions and went up the mountain. They saw some footprints on the road and met two old men from the town. They were holding two snow rabbits in their hands. They greeted them and went down the mountain.

A few people came to the fork in the road that the old man mentioned and walked in another direction. After walking for a while, they saw a group of people pushing a cart coming down the mountain. When they passed by the place where they were hiding, they heard them say.

"Oh, this is a difficult job. You have to dig the snow crystals underground and use a knife to dig them out bit by bit. You can't break the snow crystals."

"Who said it wasn't? The money he was given was not enough. If I had known, I would have left. Let's see who would dig this thing for him."

Several people kept cursing, and Xia Xiaoxiao asked curiously, "Why don't they have anyone to watch over them? Aren't they afraid that they will run away with the snow crystals?"

"You see they have shackles on their feet. They can't run far. And if I'm not mistaken, the shackles have a mechanism on the side that touches the skin. As long as the person wearing them leaves the corresponding position, a circle of silver needles will shoot out from the shackles and pierce their ankles."

"It's so cruel. From what they said, they don't eat well, they don't sleep well, and they don't have freedom. That fourth prince is too abominable."

After those people left, a few people continued to move forward. On the way, they met three groups of people coming down the mountain, all wearing the same shackles on their feet.

Finally, they arrived at the foot of a cliff. Just as the old man said, they continued to dig downwards. However, they didn't know much about snow crystals and didn't know how deep they grew underground. They couldn't go down rashly, so they just looked around.

Then they discovered that there were not many people guarding the place, only a few people guarding the entrance of the cave counting the snow crystals.