16: Chapter 16 Mine Accident

Under normal circumstances, someone like Pei Tianming, the highest person in charge of the mine, would not voluntarily enter the mine shafts. His primary role was to suppress any disturbances in the mine.

If Pei Tianming voluntarily entered the mine, it must be because something had happened in the mine shafts that required him to personally intervene.

"Just an hour ago, a worker suddenly collapsed while mining in the shafts. At first, I thought the worker was just overworked, but who would have thought that shortly after, several more workers would collapse in the mine shafts one after another. Upon inspection, I discovered that this worker seemed to have been infected by Demon Qi. Considering the danger of Demons, I went down into the mine shaft myself."

"After some investigation, there were indeed traces of a Demon in the mine. I just didn't expect that this Demon would actually be a Second-Stage one..."

Pei Qingyun could guess the rest without Pei Tianming having to tell him.

No wonder Pei Tianming looked so exhausted and disheveled when he came out.

When it came to things like Demons, no one in the entire Pei family understood them deeper than he did.

He had killed at least several dozen, if not a hundred, Second-Stage Demons.

A Second-Stage Demon corresponded to a Martial Artist in the Divine Strength Realm. However, it was no easy task for a Martial Artist in the Divine Strength Realm to suppress a Demon.

Pei Tianming was able to do this precisely because he was already a Late-Stage Divine Strength Martial Artist. If a Martial Artist at the Early Stage of the Divine Strength Realm encountered a Second-Stage Demon, they could at most ensure their own survival.

After listening to Pei Tianming's account, Pei Qingyun also fell into deep thought.

If Pei Tianming hadn't gone personally but had instead chosen to send an investigation team to handle this sudden accident, it would have inevitably led to heavy losses for the investigation team.

Pei Tianming had performed a great service by suppressing the Second-Stage Demon.

There was a principle of rewarding merit.

Pei Qingyun rewarded Pei Tianming with a divine power pill.

Upon receiving the divine power pill, Pei Tianming was very happy; his originally listless spirit seemed to immediately improve by a notch.

One divine power pill would not allow him to reach Divine Power Perfection, but it would shorten the process by one-tenth. In other words, one divine power pill was worth half a year's salary for him.

Compared to Pei Tianming, who was immersed in joy, Pei Qingyun was thinking about much more.

Don't look at how many Demons had died by his hands; that didn't mean Second-Stage Demons were common.

In a remote place like the mine, the probability of a Demon appearing was originally very low, let alone a Second-Stage Demon.

Yet, it just so happened that it appeared as soon as he came for an inspection.

If one were to say it was because he had bad luck that he encountered it.

Pei Qingyun would absolutely not accept this reason; he wasn't someone with bad luck.

It made no sense that trouble would break out as soon as he arrived.

He firmly believed that when things were abnormal, there must be a Demon involved.

This Second-Stage Demon incident made him smell something unusual.

Thinking of this, Pei Qingyun looked at Pei Tianming again and asked, "Tianming, tell me about the situation in the mine over the past few months."

"Then I will start from the day I took over..." Pei Tianming straightened his expression and began to recount.

Pei Tianming spoke in great detail, clearly recounting the mine's revenue over the past three months as well as all the large and small accidents.

Pei Qingyun didn't actually care about the mine's revenue. That aspect had always been managed by the family head, Pei Tianrong.

Instead, it was these accidents that caught his attention.

In these three months, there were a total of twelve large and small accidents. On average, an accident occurred every week.

For example, mine collapses, exotic beast attacks, Demon invasions...

Among them, what he was most concerned about was the Demon invasion. However, in Pei Tianming's account, apart from this one Demon invasion, no other Demon invasions had occurred in the three months.

This made Pei Qingyun involuntarily doubt his own intuition.

"It seems this was truly an accident," Pei Qingyun muttered to himself.

But the next second, he rejected this conclusion.

"No, although no Demons appeared, the frequency of exotic beasts appearing is clearly twice as high."

Compared to the usual one or two exotic beast attacks on the mine per month, the average over these three months was four per month.

Especially in this third month, there were as many as six exotic beast attacks.

If one were to say this change was still an accident, Pei Qingyun absolutely would not believe it.

What was the reason for the significant increase in the number of exotic beasts in the mine?

Suddenly.

Pei Qingyun seemed to have thought of something, and his originally calm face instantly became serious.

The Evil Suppression Bureau's actions, the blockade of trade routes to other counties, and the anomalies occurring within the mine.

Connecting these events together, Pei Qingyun reached a conclusion.

As the intensity of the Demon erosion continued to grow, it was not only the living space for humans that was shrinking.

Exotic beasts were also facing this situation.

The danger of Demons was not just for humans; the living space of exotic beasts was also being compressed.

So much so that even in a remote place like the No. 1 Mine, a Demon invasion had occurred.

Following this conclusion, Pei Qingyun could imagine just how broken the situation was.

If nothing went wrong, other mines, including the No. 1 Mine, probably also had anomalies, just not yet developed to the extent of a Demon invasion.

Of course, this kind of thing was not only a huge threat to his Pei family. Similarly, major forces were also about to face the same predicament as the Pei family.

It was no wonder that the Evil Suppression Bureau, knowing that his Qi and blood were in decline, still pressured him to cooperate with their actions.

Perhaps there was the reason of the other two families causing trouble, but the deeper reason was likely that the danger of Demons had already seriously threatened the safety of Wuyang County.

In order to verify this conjecture, Pei Qingyun no longer had the heart to learn more about the No. 1 Mine.

Although Pei Qingyun did not reveal his inner guesses, before leaving, he still urged Pei Tianming three times to strengthen the mine's safety precautions and ensure his own safety.

If things became impossible to handle, mining could be suspended.

Listening to Pei Qingyun's instructions, the joy Pei Tianming originally felt from receiving a divine power pill instantly vanished.

The Old Ancestor had spoken to this extent.

If he still hadn't realized the severity of the problem, then there was truly something wrong with his brain.

After leaving the No. 1 Mine, Pei Qingyun did not take the carriage again but arranged for two fast horses.

One of them was the one the guard rode to lead the way, and the other was naturally for him to ride.

The situation was urgent, so he couldn't care about so much; he mounted the fast horse and galloped all the way toward the No. 2 Mine.