Chapter 693: An Unexpected Harvest

The scout headed northeast.

The digging in the camp continued.

Xu Da led a group to try digging deeper on the leeward side, hoping to find a more stable water source.

The pickaxe struck the frozen ground, sending out sparks.

"This ground is damn hard!" a laborer spat, rubbing his numb hands.

Xu Da wiped his sweat, just about to have them take turns digging.

A shout came from not far away.

"Head Xu! Come look! Down here…… this stone isn't right!"

Xu Da hurried over.

In the shallow pit that had just been dug, several black, greasy‑glossy "stones" were exposed.

They were not ordinary river pebbles or mountain rock.

Xu Da bent down and picked up a piece; it felt heavy in his hand.

He scraped it hard with his fingernail, leaving a clear black mark.

He brought it close to his nose and smelled a faint, strange odor like a mix of sulfur and tar.

His heart jumped.

This thing…… he seemed to have heard the old folks mention it.

"Don't move! Nobody move!"

Xu Da shouted, carefully gathering the few black stones together.

He grabbed the largest piece and ran straight to Zhu Yue's shelter.

"Zhuba! Zhuba, look at this!"

Zhu Yue was studying how to make more effective incendiary bottles from the available materials when Xu Da's urgent shout interrupted him.

He raised his head.

His gaze fell on the jet‑black, lustrous stone in Xu Da's hand.

His pupils contracted sharply.

He stood up, took a few steps over, and took the stone.

The feel, the color, the smell……

"Coal."

The word squeezed out from between his teeth, filled with incredulous confirmation.

And it's a pretty good quality open‑pit coal mine!

He snapped his gaze to Xu Da: "Where was it dug? How much is there?"

"Just the shallow pit east of the camp! We'd barely dug three feet when we saw it— the pieces are scattered all around!"

Zhu Yue immediately put down what he was holding.

"Take me to see it!"

By the pit, a few people had gathered, curiously staring at the black stones.

Zhu Yue jumped into the pit and used his hands to scrape away the loose soil.

The black vein was clearly visible beneath the frozen earth, stretching outward.

He picked up several chunks of coal of various sizes and examined them closely.

Its heat output should be high.

The impurities don't look too bad either.

Most importantly—it's an open‑pit mine! Extraction difficulty is extremely low!

"Heaven helps me as well……"

He muttered softly, his eyes blazing with fervent light.

What does coal mean?

A stable, high‑calorific fuel.

It means we can smelt metal!

We can fire better pottery and even primitive bricks!

It can provide heat, dry food, and drive simple machinery!

This is the lifeblood of industrialization!

Before, he had been worrying about fuel, limited to firewood and dry grass.

Now, the problem is largely solved!

"Quick! Mark off this whole area!"

Zhu Yue gave the order at once.

"Dig carefully, don't use brute force, see how big the vein roughly is."

"Stack the extracted coal separately by size and quality."

"Get some clay too—I want to test just how well this stuff burns!"

Because of this discovery, the camp temporarily forgot the external pressures and sprang into busy activity.

Zhu Yue personally built a simple earthen stove.

He broke up a few chunks of coal, mixed them with dry grass and a little firewood, and lit them.

At first the smoke was thick and the smell pungent.

But as the burning continued, the flames steadied, showing an orange‑red glow that was more intense and longer‑lasting than wood fire.

Heat washed over.

Zhu Yue stared at the fire, and in his mind flashed the vague outlines of charcoal, blast furnace, and steam engine.

Although it was still far away.

But at least, they saw the first cornerstone.

He had people continuously add coal lumps to test burn time.

The result was exhilarating.

For the same volume, burn time was more than three times that of dry firewood, and heat was more concentrated.

"Good stuff... really good stuff..."

Xu Da rubbed his hands, his eyes bright.

He had already thought about how much trouble it would save for winter heating and cooking.

Zhu Yue, however, thought further.

He had Tang He lead people to scout farther out, to see if there were similar veins.

Meanwhile, they began planning how to safely and effectively mine and use this coal.

He drew a few simple sketches of ventilation shafts and tunnel support structures to prevent gas accumulation or collapse during mining.

He also designed several stoves of different uses, trying to maximize heat utilization.

The camp was bustling with activity.

With a stable, efficient fuel source, many things previously unimaginable now seemed possible.

However.

Zhu Yue had not forgotten that invisible "enemy".

For such an important resource, would the other side just ignore it?

Indeed.

The change appeared on the third day.

First, the person responsible for night watch of the coal pile reported hearing a strange "crack" sound from inside the pile, as if something inside was breaking.

Upon inspection, irregular fine cracks appeared on the surface of some coal lumps.

Next, two men digging at the edge of the pit fainted without warning.

After being carried back, their faces turned pale, breathing rapid, as if they had inhaled something bad.

Zhu Yue inspected the pit.

At the edge, a faint wisp of bluish gas was detected seeping from the cracks in the coal seam.

It was very weak.

But it did exist.

"Yuneng pollution..."

His face sank.

The Iron Crow Army indeed discovered it.

They could not directly erase him or forcibly overturn him.

But they could use this sinister method to pollute resources, create danger, and increase his cost and risk of using resources.

"Move the fainted people to a ventilated place and wash them with clean water."

"Pause mining in the pit; everyone withdraw."

"Find some long branches, tie rags to them, light them, then extend them into the pit to probe, to see if the blue gas fears fire."

The orders were carried out.

When torches were inserted, the bluish gas encountering open flame emitted a faint "hiss" sound, recoiling backward, but did not completely dissipate.

Obviously, ordinary flame can only temporarily disperse, not eradicate.

Zhu Yue frowned.

The other side, with little effort, gave him considerable trouble.

Directly abandoning the coal mine is impossible.

But continuing mining means facing the risk of Yuneng pollution.

"We need to find a way to restrain Yuneng..."

He again recalled the signal from the east, which described the opposition between Yuneng and Fortune Momentum, along with a simple identification method.

It mentioned that pure "Life Fire" and "Order Power" have a restraining effect on Yuneng.

"Life Fire?"

Zhu Yue looked at the burning coal lump in his hand.

"Is this fire enough 'life'?"

"Obviously not."

"Then what is 'Order Power'?"

As he pondered, his gaze unintentionally swept over the crude flag raised on a wooden pole at the camp's center.

On it was a simple pattern he had Tang He draw with charcoal—a circle containing a crossed knife and plow.

Symbolizing defense and cultivation.

It was a rough emblem recognized by these refugees themselves.

A cohesive, mutually recognized "symbol"...

Could it be considered a primitive form of "order"?

A bold idea occurred to him.

"Xu Da!"

"Present!"

"Go find the flattest stone slab you can, the bigger the better."

"Also get some… rooster blood, or dog blood, anything will do, as long as it's fresh."

"Also, bring over our flag."

Xu Da didn't understand why, but he still complied quickly.

The stone slab was washed clean.

That tattered cloth flag was solemnly spread over the stone slab.

Zhu Yue used a relatively clean small knife, dipping it into a pigment made from a little cinnabar (obtained from a passing peddler) mixed with rooster blood.

He began to carefully copy and enlarge the flag's design onto the stone slab.

He drew slowly and carefully.

Each stroke seemed to be fighting against something.

When he finished the last stroke, joining the lines representing 'plow' and 'knife' at the center.

An anomaly suddenly occurred.

The rough pattern on the stone slab suddenly flashed a faint, warm white light, barely perceptible.

The light flashed and was gone.

It was so quick one might think it was an illusion.

But Zhu Yue clearly felt it.

At the moment the pattern was completed, a weak but definite sensation, utterly different from that bluish aura, spread out from the stone slab as a center.

Very weak.

Extremely weak.

Not much better than a candle in the wind.

But… it really existed.

He immediately had someone bring the stone slab to the mine entrance, facing inward.

Then he lit a torch again and probed inside.

This time.

Those bluish auras retreated at a noticeably faster speed.

The hissing grew louder.

The retreat distance also grew greater.

"Effective!"

Zhu Yue's heart jolted.

Although the effect was limited, this proved his idea might be correct!

Shared will, a symbol of recognition, perhaps could truly gather into some kind of 'power of order' against the gloom energy!

Of course, this stone slab's 'power' is too weak, and its range is small.

To protect the whole mine, it's far from enough.

But this points the way!

"Keep drawing!"

Zhu Yue made a swift decision.

"Find more stone slabs, more pigment!"

"Paint our emblem all over the camp, around the mine!"

"Let everyone come see, come remember this pattern!"

"Tell them this emblem represents the path we chose ourselves, the rules we set, and no one can force us to change!"

The order spread.

Although many didn't understand why, they acted out of trust in Zhu Yue and their desire to survive.

Seeking stone slabs.

Gathering usable pigment.

Some even cut their fingers, dripping blood into the pigment.

The rough, stubborn‑tinged emblem was drawn one by one on stone slabs, wooden boards, and even carved directly into the tree trunks and rocks around the camp.

A weak, intangible connection seemed to form among those rough symbols, and in the hearts of those who looked up to them and acknowledged them.

The bluish aura at the mine entrance did not increase further.

On the contrary, as the 'emblem stone slabs' were placed around, it gradually grew thinner.

Mining work cautiously resumed under extra care and the continual watch of the 'emblems'.

Zhu Yue stood at the edge of the mine.

Watching the busy figures below, and the rough symbols around.

His heart held little joy.

Only a deeper sense of urgency.

This is only the initial countermeasure.

The Iron Crow Army's means of polluting resources will certainly not stop here.

And his 'power of order' is still pitifully fragile.

He needs greater strength.

Need more systematic knowledge.

Need…… to quickly contact the existence on the other side of the light curtain that truly masters the method to counter the nether energy.

He looked toward the east, his eyes resolute.

"This path, I will walk it."

"If you guys block again……"

"Then I will step past!"