Chapter 70: Coal mine and iron mine

With over two hundred people working together, the valley, which had been devastated, immediately changed its appearance.

The severed corpses and broken limbs on the ground were all collected to the deep east side of the valley and burned together with branches and broken wood. Although everyone looked at the fire pillar with pain on their faces, they had to handle it this way to avoid causing an epidemic.

Although that Giant Wood Puppet was already dead, its body remained. Shang Ping led people to piece together the usable wood, and soon built a square wooden house thirty meters wide.

The stove was soon set up in the house, and Shang Ping led people to move over a hundred pieces of pitch-black coal stones from a small cave on the south side of the valley, throwing them into the stove.

As the firelight rose, the wooden house immediately became much warmer.

Xia Hong withdrew his gaze from the small cave on the south side, reached out and picked up a fist-sized coal stone from the ground, weighed it a few times, and a strange look immediately appeared on his face.

"Coal stone, actually so heavy!"

Looking at the coal stone that was only fist-sized, under Xia Hong's perception, it actually weighed about forty jin.

Thinking of Wang Ming's great blade earlier, which was only one and a half meters long but weighed a full six hundred jin, Xia Hong quickly accepted it in his heart.

Clearly, the coal and iron of this world could not be viewed with the concepts of his previous life.

"Can be converted into two units of coal resources, twenty jin for one point."

Xia Hong quickly understood the conversion ratio of coal resources through the system.

This conversion rule was probably also based on the preciousness of the resources.

Wood had been tested before; it took about one thousand jin to exchange for one point; coal was twenty jin for one point; iron was ten jin for one point.

Just as Xia Hong was pondering, Yuan Cheng, beside him, suddenly leaned over.

"Leader, the heat produced by burning coal is several times higher than wood, and the radiation range is also wide. I just asked the people from the Luo Ge camp, and they said that for the previous five large wooden houses, each only needed one hundred and fifty jin of coal stones, combined with a portion of wood, to maintain heating for one day."

Xia Hong nodded. He had also inquired about this when Shang Ping led people to transport coal from the cave earlier, so he also knew about these things.

Watching Yue Feng also leaned over at this time, looking at the coal blocks with great excitement.

"Not just for heating, if there is an iron mine, it can be used for blacksmithing, casting tools, and forging weapons. And I just heard them say that Li Hu, from before, said that coal stones can also be used to soften the land. After softening, crops can be transplanted."

Xia Hong immediately became interested and turned his head, preparing to inquire.

"Little brother, I hadn't finished speaking just now. According to what Li Hu said, softening the land requires a large amount of coal. Previously, when there were five Earth-Digging Realms, we could only mine one thousand jin of coal every day. Now that only three are left, I'm afraid it's even more difficult."

It turned out that Luo Ming, who had finished his work, had also leaned over at some unknown time.

Watching Yue Feng and Yuan Cheng both scratched their heads. Clearly, the two had just heard the news from Luo Ming and were relaying it to Xia Hong, only to be discovered on the spot. The two naturally felt a bit embarrassed.

Luo Ming waved his hand with a smile, indicating it didn't matter, and then looked at Xia Hong: "Leader Xia, you must be worried about not being able to find coal mines and iron mines, right?"

Xia Hong didn't hide it, nodded directly, and asked: "After breaking through to the Earth-Digging Realm, I searched through Red Wood Ridge, the surroundings of my own camp, and even the mountains, but didn't find a single thing. I hope Leader Luo can bestow some advice. I would be extremely grateful!"

After speaking, seeing Luo Ming dazed and not speaking for a long time, Xia Hong thought for a while, stood up, and bowed to Luo Ming.

This startled Luo Ming awake. He hurriedly stood up, helped Xia Hong, who hadn't yet bowed down, up, and smiled bitterly: "Leader Xia, don't misunderstand. The Luo Ge camp has received such great kindness from you; how could Luo not repay kindness? Besides, it's not some earth-shattering secret. I was just thinking of other things just now and was a bit distracted."

After speaking, Luo Ming didn't explain what the other things were, just signaled Xia Hong and the others to sit down, and then turned his head to call over the four camp leaders—Hong Gang, Huang Zhao, Chen Ying, and Lu He—all together.

The four had originally been sitting elsewhere with their own people. After walking over, they all greeted Luo Ming in unison, then signaled to Xia Hong, looked around, and sat opposite Luo Ming and Xia Hong.

The temporarily built wooden house naturally had no conditions; everyone sat on the ground. Interestingly, when Hong Gang and the four sat opposite, the others also leaned over, so on Luo Ming and Xia Hong's side, there were only the two of them.

Xia Hong didn't feel anything, and the others couldn't see any expression.

Only Luo Ming, seeing this scene, revealed a thoughtful expression.

"Everyone, Leader Xia asked me how to find coal mines and iron mines. Thinking that everyone must be very curious, I called you all over to tell you all at once. In the future, after you break through to the Earth-Digging Realm, it will save you from having no clue where to find coal mines and iron mines."

The reactions of the four leaders, Hong Gang and the others, as well as some Woodcutting Realms of similar age, were all shaking their heads with smiles. Clearly, none of them thought they had hope of breaking through to the Earth-Digging Realm.

It was the young Woodcutting Realms behind them who revealed a look of eagerness, clearly much more confident than their elders.

And the most peculiar were Watching Yue Feng and the others behind Xia Hong.

Except for Lin Kai, who was taking care of Xia Chuan, the four—Yuan Cheng, Watching Yue Feng, Qiu Peng, and Lu Yang—all had very spirited expressions, and their bodies even leaned forward, clearly intending to listen carefully to Luo Ming's next words.

Taking in the reactions of the three groups of people, Luo Ming spoke slowly:

"Let's talk about coal mines first. You should all know about the Jin Lin Tree, right?"

Hearing this, Xia Hong's expression immediately became strange, and a guess arose in his heart.

"Generally speaking, where there are Jin Lin Trees, there are coal mines. And the thicker the Jin Lin Tree, the higher the coal content underneath!"

It really was.

Xia Hong shook his head secretly. He had searched for so long in Red Wood Ridge before and hadn't found anything. He was puzzled at the time that in this world, regardless of animals or plants, everything was much stronger and more numerous than in his previous life, so mineral resources should also be abundant.

It turned out he had never looked in the right place; the coal mines were all hidden under the Jin Lin Trees.

"Leader Luo, what about iron mines?"

Xia Hong continued to ask about iron mines.

"Iron mines are also simple. Look for a plant called Black Caltrop. This plant generally grows in the crevices of rock walls and mountains. It is considered a companion plant of iron ore. Finding it is equivalent to finding an iron mine."

Speaking of this, Luo Ming seemed afraid that everyone wouldn't understand, and signaled to Shang Ping.

Shang Ping hurriedly ran out and brought back a plant after a while.

Luo Ming took the plant and directly showed it to everyone.

It was a strange plant that was pitch-black all over. Although it only had a single stem, it had at least twenty or thirty leaves on it. The leaves were feather-shaped and distributed evenly on both sides.

"To be honest, this kind of Black Caltrop is not easy to find. The iron mine our Luo Ge camp is currently mining was passed down from several generations ago. To this day, we haven't found a new iron mine..."

Luo Ming paused suddenly when he said this, then shook his head:

"Of course, there's no need to find a new one. Based on the strength of our camps here in Red Wood Ridge, basically finding one is enough for several generations to dig."

Hearing this, the others all laughed softly.

That was true. That iron mine in the Luo Ge camp had been dug for several generations, but even now, iron tools hadn't been popularized throughout the camp. This proved that the difficulty of mining iron ore must be terrifyingly high.

While the others were laughing softly, Xia Hong frowned, feeling a bit heavy in his heart.

Finding iron mines was already very difficult. Listening to Luo Ming's meaning, even if found, subsequent mining would be even more difficult.

This was not good news for him, who needed massive resources.

"Leader, Chuan is awake!"

Just as he was pondering, Xia Hong was interrupted by Lin Kai's voice and hurriedly stood up to go over.

Yuan Cheng, Watching Yue Feng, and the others also hurriedly followed behind him.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 71 =====