"The Hu family mine is a private mine. According to the law, slaves who have committed serious crimes and were sent to the mines for hard labor are not allowed to be used. Prisoners of war are also not allowed to be used."

Shen Lang nodded:

"Private mine owners can only recruit regular miners."

Mu Qingxue sneered:

"But according to what Xiaogu has seen, the miners in the Hu family copper mine are simply more ruthless than the slaves in the official mine who serve felons and prisoners of war."

For official mines, felons and prisoners of war do not deserve sympathy, but they are important free labor and can greatly save mine operating costs.

Besides, there are also strict regulations on the loss rate of felons and prisoners of war. If the loss exceeds the upper limit, the mine supervisor has to spend his own money to replenish manpower.

Therefore, although the government officials and mines also exploited felons and prisoners of war very harshly, at least they would not torture them to death easily.

Shen Lang said:

"It seems that regardless of whether Yuan Hu is related to the deaths of Cheng Xin and Guan Yue, his family's mines should be severely rectified. The entire private mines in Tongshan County should also be rectified."

Hearing this, Shen Wu looked ashamed:

"I introduced Junior Brother Cheng and Junior Sister Guan here because I didn't know the person well and I didn't conduct any on-the-spot investigation, so that they acted as an accomplice and made a big mistake..."

Shen Lang patted his shoulder lightly:

"Although Brother Shen made an oversight, it is excusable. After all, although you once wandered and begged when you were young, after you went up the mountain ten years ago, you were highly regarded by the head of Zhou and respected by your junior brothers and sisters. You lived a good life for ten years.

I'm afraid that I have gradually forgotten the sinister nature of people's hearts.

"Executive member Hu is a businessman, the kind who does shady business. Cheating is his instinct. Brother Shen is a warrior, and it is normal for him to be deceived by a shady businessman."

In fact, until now, Shen Lang still remains suspicious of Shen Wu - this is not a suspicion, but the basic qualities of a head catcher.

However, he somewhat believed that Shen Wu really didn't know the true situation of the Hu family's mine.

As the disciple with the highest martial arts among the younger generation of the Fengchai Sect, Shen Wu will definitely inherit the mantle of the leader and take charge of the sect in the future as long as he does not die prematurely.

The Feng Zhui Faction is at least the largest sect in Wuyang Mansion. It has many properties under its name. It wants money and land. It is also a Baidao sect that pays taxes according to regulations and obeys government management.

Why should Shen Wu, who has a bright future, collude with Hu Yuanwai to open a dark cave and stain himself?

Besides, if Shen Wu was really greedy for money, he would have saved Miss Hu's family the year before last. When Mr. Hu wanted to marry a daughter, he should have agreed. In Shen Lang's view, the logic behind Mr. Hu's marrying a daughter was by no means simple.

To repay Shen Wu's kindness of "hero saving beauty".

I am afraid that they want to use Shen Wu's identity as the leader of the Wind Chasing Faction to hook up with the Wind Chasing Faction and attract the Wind Chasing Faction as an ally.

It's a pity that Shen Wu was preparing to condense the Qi seeds and attack the fourth level at that time. Maybe he felt that women would only affect his speed in chasing the wind, so he declined Hu Yuanwai's kindness.

However, Hu Yuanwai did not become angry because of his "open-minded nature". He just wanted to maintain a friendly relationship with Shen Wu and slowly win over Shen Wu and then the followers of the storm.

Cheng Xin and Guan Yue took Shen Wu's recommendation letter and worked for only three months and immediately "made a lot of money". I'm afraid it was precisely because Hu Yuanwai had always had plans for Shen Wu and the Wind Chasers.

Shen Lang always likes to deduce various "possibilities".

At the beginning, Bai Shishi was overwhelmed by his "possibilities" one after another, which caused her confidence to collapse and her faith to collapse. She finally got on his boat and abandoned the darkness for the light.

And now, after confirming that there is indeed a ghost in the Hu family's mine, Shen Lang couldn't help but think about Yuan Hu over and over again, deducing various "possibilities" and trying to combine these possibilities with Cheng Xin and Guan Yue being captured and fed to the monsters.

Things are connected in series.

The four-winged demon owl's bird's nest is filled with bones...

Among those skeletons, although there are many warriors with tough and strong bones and at least the ability to "refining muscles and bones", most of them are ordinary people...

Member Hu opened a black kiln and illegally used slaves in the mines...

They didn't treat the mining slaves as human beings, exploited them arbitrarily, and threw them into the sinkhole when they died...

So, will all the mine slaves be tortured to death?

Is there a possibility that most of the mining slaves will be tortured to death and thrown into the sinkhole, while a small number of strong but extremely unruly mining slaves whose management costs are too high will be sent away?

other places?

Cheng Xin and Guan Yuexin have not been here for a long time, and they are also amateurs in the world of martial arts who have just started their careers. They are still young and may not be that vicious in character.

They may have only done security work outside the mine before and had never been into the mine. They knew a little about the miserable experience of the mine slaves, but they did not feel the same way. For the sake of money, they could turn a blind eye or close one eye.

.

But on the first or second day of the Lunar New Year, they returned to Tongshan County to work. In the mine or at the Hu family, they accidentally discovered something that was beyond their bottom line. The two conscience-stricken people decided to

What I did was accidentally exposed...

Well, Cheng Xin and Guan Yue thought too well about this possibility.

However, Shen Lang still preferred to believe in the glory of human nature.

After all, even among pirates there are heroes and there are people worth saving.

The storm chasers are more decent than the pirates, right?

Since it is a Bai Dao sect and it is not a demonic heretic, it will not teach disciples who are inhumane.

Although Cheng Xin and Guan Yue are eager to change their family situation, as eldest brothers and sisters who are willing to work tirelessly and work hard for their parents and younger siblings, they have a kind side that pities the weak in their nature.

It is possible to suddenly realize your conscience.

However, Shen Lang did not express this inference verbally.

There is no conclusive evidence, just based on few clues, and it is a bit unreliable to make wild guesses.

Even with the situation reported by Xiaogu, Shen Lang had to go into the mine to witness it with his own eyes and see how vicious these black hole diggers could be.

At that moment, Shen Lang said to Shen Wu:

"Brother Shen, please stay here and help us look out. I and Mu Captou sneaked into the mining area to investigate for ourselves."

Shen Wu nodded in agreement and watched Shen Lang and Mu Qingxue leave side by side under the guidance of the little skeleton that turned into a shadow again. Shen Wu didn't notice at all. When Shen Lang patted his shoulder to comfort him, he used a "Water Mirror to Identify Shadows"

The curse mark of "spell" was left on his shoulder.

He also didn't notice that after Shen Lang and Mu Qingxue walked forward for more than ten feet, a kitten silently jumped out from Shen Lang's palm, jumped into the woods beside the road, climbed to the treetops a few times, and stared at it eagerly from a distance of more than ten feet.

Staring at him.

"You don't trust him?"

After Mu Qingxue was promoted to the second level, the insight obtained by condensing the "Tianmu Point" became stronger, and he could see that Shen Lang had tampered with Shen Wu's shoulders.

As for releasing Xiao Zhao and monitoring Shen Wu, they did not hide it from her.

"I just have reasonable doubts about him. At present, Shen Wu's suspicion is relatively small, but it still cannot be said that he is completely without suspicion. I want to know if he will do something inappropriate when we are not around him."

"Well, that's how it should be."

"By the way Qingxue..."

"What did you call me?"

"...Muda people?"

"Well. When your strength surpasses mine, you can call me Qingxue, Sister Qing, Sister Xue, or Xue'er as you wish. You can also call me Xiaomu."

"..."

"By the way, what did you want to say before?"

"Already forgotten."

"Are you having trouble?"

"How could it be? I'm not a child. If you interrupt me, I really forgot what I wanted to say."

"Not a kid, but younger than me."

"..."

After a brief conversation through voice transmission, Shen Lang and Mu Qingxue gathered their energy and, under the guidance of Xiao Gu, easily avoided the Takou Fort Tower sentry and entered the valley.

Inside the valley, there are scattered houses, with a few regular wooden houses housing supervisors and guards. Inside the simple shacks, there are mine slaves who are half-clothed, covered in dirty skin, skinny and shackled, and their feet are shackled.

Almost every mining slave has old and new whip marks on his body.

Naturally, there are guards patrolling the valley at night. They are basically low-level third-level warriors. With Shen Lang and Mu Qingxue's cultivation, they can easily avoid their eyes and ears and sneak around in the valley at will to check the situation of the mining slaves.

After seeing the situation of the mine slaves, the two continued to sneak deeper and saw a three-story wooden building surrounded by a courtyard wall in the center of the valley.

Shen Lang was more than ten feet away and scanned the small building with his mental power. He was slightly startled:

"A sixth-grade warrior is guarding the door? Is there still a 'big shot' living in the building?"

There is a concierge on the first floor of the small building. In the concierge are two sixth-grade warriors. Their skills are quite profound and they are not far from the fifth-grade.

There were only two people on the third floor of the small building, one was just an ordinary person, and the other seemed to have an ordinary person's body and energy. However, when Shen Lang's mental power swept over that person, he noticed a faint fluctuation of his spiritual power.

Is he still a Taoist monk?

But a serious Taoist cultivator, even if he is only at the ninth level, as long as he practices formal visualization methods, he can control his spiritual power very well and will not easily escape and be noticed by others.

So, is he a wild monk?

Shen Lang informed Mu Qingxue of his discovery.
To be continued...