Chapter 371: Digging Through the Mineral Vein

Zhang Ping'an followed the route he had come by to return, and only emerged from the old forest when the horizon began to turn a fish-belly white.

He took out a dusty, long-forgotten little beat-up van from his space and sped all the way back to the original market, where he bought a few pieces of jade with decent quality before preparing to set off for Myanmar.

Zhang Ping'an did not have a map of Myanmar and it was not suitable to enter from there, but he knew that Ruili County was the closest place to the Myanmar mining areas, and it would be much more convenient to enter from there when the time came.

Zhang Ping'an bought a map; it was seven or eight hundred kilometers from here to Ruili County, a day's journey would be enough.

Zhang Ping'an spent the next day focused on traveling, and without encountering any village bandits or road bullies, he arrived safely in Ruili.

At this time, there was absolutely no open jade trading in Ruili County; it was mostly underground, and it was scattered and lacked scale, which happened to be convenient for Zhang Ping'an.

Zhang Ping'an came here and spent several days familiarizing himself with everything, wanting to integrate into the local area as quickly as possible, until someone organized a group to go across to mine, and Zhang Ping'an secretly mixed in with them.

Zhang Ping'an had been hanging around here for more than half a month, and he could already simply understand the local Dai language and Burmese, and could conduct simple daily communication; no one would ever guess that he was from Sijiucheng.

Also, the average height here was around one meter seventy, so Zhang Ping'an's stature was a bit eye-catching, though fortunately there were quite a few outsiders coming here as well.

In the evening, the group of twenty-three people was taken to the other side in a dilapidated Jeep, and the leader simply threw them to the mining area to count money and ran off.

"Holy shit," Zhang Ping'an reacted at this moment; this was being tricked into being a black slave.

Some people wanted to resist, but after being pointed at by the pitch-black muzzles of guns, they instantly quieted down and obediently followed into the mine tunnel.

This actually saved Zhang Ping'an a lot of trouble; wasn't this just like a mouse falling into a rice jar?

Zhang Ping'an activated his space scan and discovered that almost all the stones here carried some green; damn it, I must dig this place through.

The leader chattered on for a while, left behind two armed guards, and retreated; Zhang Ping'an also picked up a chisel and hammer and began to work.

At noon, steamed buns and water were sent down from above, and after eating, they were driven to continue chiseling the walls before they had even rested for a few minutes.

It was not until evening that Zhang Ping'an took advantage of avoiding everyone's line of sight to slip into his space.

In the evening, everyone was driven back to the entrance of the mine tunnel; the leader noticed one person was missing but didn't care, as they couldn't run away inside the mine anyway.

As for Zhang Ping'an, he began his great tunnel-digging enterprise; deep in the mine, he used his space to chisel out a hole to crawl into, then sealed it up, and began his journey of digging for jade.

"Damn, came too late; if I had known the jade reserves here were so astonishing, I should have come long ago."

"Fragrant, truly fragrant."

Zhang Ping'an held a football-sized, lush green piece of jade; this was already the umpteenth piece he had dug up tonight.

"This is simply a gift from nature, hehehe."

As long as it was jade, regardless of the quality, Zhang Ping'an would dig it out and take it away without hesitation; he threw the ordinary material into the pond, and the high-quality pieces were temporarily stored in the mountain cave of his space.

Zhang Ping'an took pleasure in it and didn't feel tired at all, just like the gold miners of yesteryear, digging and digging non-stop.

"Digging and digging and digging in the little mine tunnel, putting big jade into my home, hehe."

It was the first time Zhang Ping'an had worked so happily; even when he was digging for jade in Beijiang, it hadn't been this satisfying.

Zhang Ping'an dug like this day and night, entering his space to replenish and rest when hungry or tired, then digging again, repeating the cycle over and over.

It was not until the space gave a thundering tremor that Zhang Ping'an stopped digging; looking at his watch, he had already been a miner for more than half a month.

Flashing into his space, Zhang Ping'an noticed something wrong as soon as he entered; damn it, why had the time flow decreased? It used to be one to twelve, but now it had become one to two.

Although the air was fresher, the highest peak of the mountain was shrouded in clouds, the branches of the Tea Tree were more gnarled, and the pond water had actually returned to being clear and bright.

Zhang Ping'an was a bit bewildered; he scooped up two big mouthfuls and drank them, and suddenly his whole body felt comfortable, and the fatigue from many days of mining was swept away.

He leaned down and gulped down a few more mouthfuls; Zhang Ping'an stood up and smacked his lips, but other than his body's cellular activity increasing a bit, he didn't feel much else.

"Better go back and find the old man to test it out first."

It seemed that when the space upgraded, it improved his physique, so this water was of little use to his current body.

Zhang Ping'an dug for another half a month like this, and seeing that the space still had no reaction, he finally gave up.

Looking at the mess behind him, Zhang Ping'an felt a tiny bit of guilt, but thinking that this place was once under the administration of our Great Ming, it was normal to take some things from one's own home, and he instantly felt at ease again.

Zhang Ping'an didn't return the way he came, but dug directly on the spot, and only emerged after sensing there was no one around.

"Damn, where the hell did this bring me?"

It was evening, and this was a piece of wasteland; Zhang Ping'an kept his Space Perception activated all the way, running toward where there were signs of people.

From their conversation, Zhang Ping'an barely understood a little; this was still northern Myanmar, thank goodness, he hadn't run too far.

It was a mess here now, and Zhang Ping'an couldn't drive around, so he had to travel on foot, hiding during the day and coming out at night.

When passing by other mining areas, Zhang Ping'an would take away any good things without hesitation, and it wasn't until half a month later that he returned to the border.

It really wasn't easy; this trip to Yun Province had taken Zhang Ping'an a full two months.

Arriving in Kun City, he found a post office to report his safety to his family, and only then did Zhang Ping'an buy a plane ticket to return to Sijiucheng.

It was already evening when he returned home, and the family was waiting for him to eat; Zhang Ping'an found a wine cup and filled it for his father.

"Ahem, Dad, try this."

"Wine from Yun Province?" Zhang Laohan didn't suspect anything and sniffed it carefully.

"Doesn't smell like wine?" He then downed it in one gulp and smacked his lips carefully.

"Isn't this water? No, wait." Zhang Laohan only felt his whole body warm, an indescribable comfort.

"What's wrong, dear?"

"Nothing, it feels quite comfortable; is this Medicinal Wine again?"

"Ahem, yes," Zhang Ping'an nodded awkwardly.

Zhang Laohan had black lines on his forehead; this brat was using him as an experiment again, but fortunately the amount was small this time, and there were no side effects.

Zhang Laohan picked up the wine bottle wanting to drink another cup, but thinking of his experience in the toilet last time, he put it down again.

"Prepare two bottles for me tomorrow; I'm going back to my hometown to visit."

"Oh, okay."

Zhang Ping'an understood that his father was taking it for his grandparents and two uncles; it had been the same last time.

"Dad, still need to watch the amount; this time it might be more potent than the last."

"Fine, I know."

Zhang Ping'an poured the remaining Space Water in the bottle into the household water vat, planning to add more after they finished drinking it.

That night, Zhang Ping'an and Li Aihua sparred for a long time before finally stopping.

"Brother Ping'an, why do I feel like you've become even stronger?"

"Ahem, I found some rare medicinal herbs in Yun Province this time, so my cultivation has greatly advanced," Zhang Ping'an spouted nonsense casually.

Li Aihua did not doubt this; after all, with Zhang Ping'an practicing Taiji every morning and his previous record of defeating four people at once, she could not help but believe him.