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墨書 Inktalez
He took out the black powder he had collected earlier, and the system analysis interface lit up: [Main Component: Iron Sulfide (with Arsenic)]. It turned out that the Zhou family had been secretly refining poisonous sulfur!
The detonation point was chosen at an abandoned kiln far from the village. Lin Dahe followed the system's guidance to mix saltpeter and charcoal into a powder, using a bamboo tube to create a blasting barrel. Cui Xiaoman led her team to dig a trench fifty paces away as a shelter.
"Everyone, step back!" Lin Dahe ignited the fuse and ran towards the trench. The sparks from the burning fuse crackled brightly against the darkness before dawn.
Three, two, one—
"Boom!"
The shockwave sent dirt raining down like raindrops. As the dust settled, a basin-sized crater appeared on the rock face. Just as everyone cheered, the mute blacksmith suddenly let out a hoarse shout and tackled Lin Dahe to the ground.
"Whoosh!" An iron nail whizzed past their heads and embedded itself in a tree trunk behind them, its tail still wrapped in charred red string.
The one-armed veteran immediately led his men to surround the bushes, finding only a few scattered footprints and fallen iron nails—exactly the kind Zhou Liangzhang had secretly stuffed into the rock crevices!
"Continue loading the explosives," Lin Dahe wiped the dirt from his face. "This time, bury them deeper."
By the third explosion, the rock face finally cracked with spiderweb-like fissures. The one-armed veteran swung his rock-breaking hammer with all his might, causing a large section of the rock wall to collapse with a thunderous roar, revealing a damp passage behind it.
"It’s open!" Zhao Blacksmith's son was the first to crawl inside but quickly backed out. "The water is black!"
Lin Dahe peered in and saw water seeping from the crevice, bubbling with strange foam and smelling of decaying grease. The system's detection results were alarming: [Surfactant Contamination, Source: Soapberry Powder/Wheat Bran Mixture].
In a small puddle where the old woman used to sit, dead mayflies floated. A spindle she had used was stuck in the mud at an angle, as if pointing in a certain direction.
By midnight, Lin Dahe led two young men upstream along the waterway. The stench of decay grew stronger until they stopped at a concealed fork in the cave—dozens of empty burlap sacks were haphazardly piled up, their surfaces still bearing fresh red stamps from "Zhou's Grain Shop."
"It really is him..." Just as Lin Dahe bent down to inspect, he suddenly heard sounds of wooden barrels clashing from afar.
Following the noise, they reached the Zhou family's backyard where Aunt Ma was directing her servants to dump the last few bags of wheat bran into a well. Under the moonlight, those yellowish-brown powders mixed with soapberry juice churned up disgusting bubbles in the well water.
"That should be enough for those lowlifes to drink!" Aunt Ma's laughter was sharp and shrill. "The master said that when they come begging to sell their land, we’ll drive down the price to three dou of grain per mu!"
Hiding behind a woodpile, Lin Dahe clenched his fists as a new prompt suddenly appeared on his system: [Pollution Source Interruption Plan: Activated Carbon Adsorption + Alum Precipitation]. Just as he was about to retreat, he heard a "crack" behind him—one of his companions had stepped on a branch!
"Who?!" Aunt Ma shouted sharply as several torches immediately surrounded the woodpile.
At that critical moment, distant barking erupted suddenly. Cui Xiaoman charged into the backyard with her fierce guard dog, which lunged directly at the servant holding a torch.
"The wild dog is crazy!" Aunt Ma screamed as she ran into the house. Seizing this opportunity, Lin Dahe led his group over the wall and escaped; behind them came the sound of shattering porcelain—surely that woman had fallen again.
As they took a shortcut back to the construction site, dawn was breaking in the east. Cui Xiaoman had a scratch on her cheek but proudly waved a cloth bag. "Not only did we get sulfur, but we also got this!"
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