The area where the mine is located is a bit remote, and it takes a day and a night to walk to the town, and even to ride a horse, it takes nearly a day.

After Yu Xiu left, silence returned to the vicinity of the cave, and the water in the stream continued to wash away the medicinal herbs he had placed in it, and everything was normal.

But something was wrong with the Duan family's mine.

Last night, the miners in the mine revolted again, although they were discovered in time by the night patrol and suppressed by the warriors.

However, after daybreak, several miners had disappeared and escaped from the mine. As a result, the mine had to send additional personnel to search for fugitive slaves in the mountains and forests.

For a time, the nearby mountains and forests were noisy and dogs barked.

Until it was dark, Yu Xiu rode back from the town, and people with torches could be seen in the mountains and forests, searching around.

Fortunately, the place where he settled was still a little far from the mine, and most of them were rock walls that were difficult for ordinary people to climb, so they were not discovered by the mines.

"Let's go and see why. Yu Xiu returned to the cave, put his things away, and escaped from the Yin God and rushed to the mine. After a while, he learned what had happened from his family.

After returning to the Yin God, Yu Xiu opened his eyes and shook his head gently.

Although there are many mountains and forests nearby, and the roads are difficult and dangerous, once the mine slaves escape from the mine, they have the possibility of escaping, but the mine is not easy to get along with.

Every third family member sent out will have a big dog in his hand, and he can find people and things. Yu Xiu roughly counted them, and twelve had been found.

In other words, the mine can completely sweep around like a carpet search, and there is no worry about not catching fugitive slaves.

Sure enough, in the middle of the night, Yu Xiu suddenly heard a scream outside the cave, and when he stepped out, he found that a line of sparks rushed out of a mountain forest in the southeast, exploding in the sky, which was very obvious.

Soon, another place burst into flames and exploded, resembling fireworks.

"It should be that the fugitive slave has been found. Yu Xiu squinted at the crimson fireworks in the night sky, and thought in his heart.

He wasn't thinking about the fugitives from the mines.

"The ghost market newspaper is right, this place is really secretly refining gunpowder, and according to the current situation, it should have successfully refined inferior gunpowder. ”

In this world, there are already firearms, and naturally there are fireworks and other things, but ordinary people can't afford to use them, and they are mostly used to warn the enemy.

Yu Xiu thought of the sulfur and saltpeter piled up in the mine, and thought to himself: "I don't know if the Taoist priests in the mine have refined gunpowder of the same grade......

Because he was worried about being discovered by the Taoist priest in the mine, he had not explored the residence in the mine, so he didn't know what the other party's cultivation was and what his methods were.

After thinking quietly for a while, Yu Xiu turned around and walked into the cave and began his daily practice.

Because of the temporary lack of gunpowder, he was unable to effectively refine the Yin God in order to break through to the realm of day travel. But he can still polish his thoughts bit by bit through the visualization of the Dharma, and purify his spirit.

Although this progress is extremely slow and the effect is not good, he still does not dare to slack off.

Day 2.

When Yu Xiu was about to refine gunpowder again, he suddenly frowned slightly, staring at the fire pit in the cave.

The fire pit was laid out by him with stones, and charcoal was always kept in it, so that he would not have to make a fire, and he could bake the medicinal herbs placed around.

"This is ......" Yu Xiu walked to the edge of the fire pit, crouched down, and looked at the specks in the wood ash.

Footprints appeared on the ashes, as if someone had run barefoot over them. But the footprint was quite small, only the size of Yu Xiu's thumb.

Yu Xiu searched around again, and found that the residue after yesterday's refining was also messed up, and the half-burned coins were missing.

Other than that, there is not much to trace.

"Spirits have been here. He thought about it for a moment, and then he judged.

Yu Xiu looked at the cave again, and did not find any obvious demonic energy remaining, "This spirit is not only very small in size, but also low in cultivation, and most of them are afraid of people. ”

Yu Xiu had done a lot of tricks around the cave to remind him if there had been outsiders in the cave, but these measures were obviously not enough to detect guests the size of rabbits.

He secretly memorized this lesson, and thought, "I don't know if this spirit grew in the wild, or if it was raised by people......

After meditating for a while, Yu Xiu relaxed slightly. There were no anomalies near the cave last night, most likely the former.

He looked at the small footprints of the monster in the fire, and he was curious, a little curious, and wanted to know what it was, and wanted to capture it.

Because in the ghost market, the price of a spirit is not low, not only the skin and flesh can be used in medicine and alchemy, but if it is alive and has special abilities, it is a golden rooster that can make money.

At that moment, Yu Xiu had a plan, he cleaned up the residue of the alchemy, and messed up the small footprints on the fire pit, making it look like he had not found it.

Then Yu Xiu continued to refine the medicine as usual, and as expected, he failed again. Yu Xiu gathered the medicine residue in the corner of the cave and threw an extra coin into it.

When night fell, he led the thin horse and left the place again.

Several times in a row, Yu Xiu always finished refining gunpowder before evening and then left. It's a pity that during this period, no trace of the spirit was found, but his alchemy method has improved a little.

Finally, on the fourth day, when Yu Xiu returned again, all the coins in the dregs had disappeared.

He quietly looked at the traces in the cave, and found that the spirit was obviously much bolder, leaving footprints not only in the fire pit, but also on the sulfur, saltpeter powder and other items that Yu Xiu had grinded.

Yu Xiu didn't deliberately erase these traces, but just pretended not to find it and continued to do his own thing.

For the next three days, whenever Yu Xiu discarded a coin in the residue, the coin would disappear overnight.

It's night.

Yu Xiu put away his body, escaped from the Yin God, landed in a high and low place, looked at the cave from afar, and waited patiently. After a while, a cloud of red light suddenly appeared around the cave, which made his heart flutter slightly.

The red light jumped up and down into the cave. Yu Xiu looked around again, but didn't notice anyone else coming.

"This little thief, I really was wronged. He chuckled, turned back to his flesh, and walked into the cave in the darkness of the night.

Walking outside the cave, the spirit has not yet come out. Yu Xiu thought about it, took out the long knife at his waist, and squeezed it in his hand. Although he had already judged that the spirits in the cave did not have much cultivation, he still had to guard against it.

Quietly walking to the entrance of the cave, Yu Xiu looked sideways and caught a glimpse of a red light lying in the fire, quietly unmoving, not noticing his appearance at all.

So he stepped out with his knife, blocked the hole, and looked closely.

I saw a boy the size of a palm, shaped like a puppet, red all over, sitting paralyzed in the fire, holding a coin and roasting it in the fire, and at the same time shaking his head and smoking, gulping down the incense in the coin.

Seeing this scene, Yu Xiu was slightly stunned, and muttered in his heart: "Fire boy ......"

"Gunpowder is available!" he immediately saw surprise in his eyes.

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"Daozi can't refine medicine, a boy knocks on the door, only a few inches in body, can pound medicine and burn the fire, watch the fire and get medicine. —"Tao Treatise: Miscellaneous Things"