Lock and secure

"Me?" The assassin looked at the prince in disbelief.

Ye Qing: "Your Majesty, let this old man try."

The old man's head was covered with bruises from bites by poisonous insects, and he ran too slowly, so Zhang Huao had to carry him on his shoulders.

Hearing Ye Qing's words, Zhang Huao carried the old man over and placed him on the stone on the right.

After a slight shake, a passage appeared on the right wall. It was dark inside and nothing could be seen clearly.

"This...can't be two doors?"

Li Er: "No, there's wind only here. I can feel it."

The passage was pitch black, without any light at all.

He couldn't see anything under his feet, and Luo Yao was so nervous that his palms were sweating.

Bei Zhenting held his hand tightly and pulled him forward, moving freely like a nocturnal animal.

"Your Majesty..."

The space in the cave was huge and the sound was very ethereal. Luo Yao was frightened by his own voice which was amplified several times. He quickly covered his mouth and pulled Bei Zhenting's hand to write on Bei Zhenting's palm.

Where did those servants go?

We weren't very far from them, how come they disappeared in a moment...

Bei Zhenting grabbed his hand, held it back, and pulled him forward, ignoring his pile of questions.

Li Er, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped. Everyone stopped as a faint light appeared in front of them, and two passages appeared.

Bei Zhenting gestured and the group split into two teams and walked separately.

Bei Zhenting pulled Luo Yao and the other person into the narrow passage on the left, while the rest of the people took another route.

After walking for a while, we entered a very large cave. There were a few luminous stones in the cave. With the faint light of the luminous stones, we could see the layout inside clearly.

The entire space was filled with bags and boxes of all sizes, leaving only a few small paths for passage.

Luo Yao was curious and wanted to go over to see what was inside, but Bei Zhenting pulled him back and made a gesture to silence him.

"Have you finished moving?"

"We've finished moving. There are eight boxes here."

"They're pressing us. Young Master has been stepping up his research these days and has made some breakthroughs recently. Go get another batch back in the next few days. If you succeed, we'll need a lot more."

"But... isn't it a bit too frequent?"

"Most of them are in the mountains. Whether they are frequent or not, the people above us are guarding the supply outside. Are you worried that someone will follow us into the mountains?"

"Sir, don't you know? I heard that the ghost village was burned down!"

"Burned? Everyone in that place has fled. Who would burn that damn place? No matter what, you have to bring back a batch every four days."

"Yes……"

The footsteps faded away, and Bei Zhenting and Luo Yao walked out from the darkness.

"Your Highness, are they talking about food? Who can eat so much in just four days?"

Bei Zhenting frowned. The only place that could eat so much food was the military camp, but all the soldiers raised by Bei Zhenqing were wiped out...

Could it be that the Prime Minister has his own troops? Bei Zhenting's face turned serious when he thought of this.

The ground here is mostly sand and gravel, and you can occasionally see some millet and rice fallen on the ground.

Luo Yao was moving around in the grain pile on the left side, while Bei Zhenting was exploring on the other side. Suddenly, he heard Luo Yao scream. Bei Zhenting ran over and saw Luo Yao hunched over and getting up from the ground.

"Oh my god!" Luo Yao kicked the bag of grain that tripped him.

As luck would have it, Luo Yao kicked something sharp and hissed in pain, almost falling to the ground again.

Bei Zhenting sneered and walked over to help him.

"What are you laughing at!" Luo Yao glared at Bei Zhenting and lowered his head to see what he had kicked.

Black powder... Luo Yao squatted down, picked up a small handful and put it to his nose to smell it. Uh, what does charcoal smell like?

Bei Zhenting also noticed the powder with his sharp eyes, and pulled Luo Yao's hand to smell it.

"It's charcoal."

"Charcoal? They're secretly transporting charcoal? But what are they going to do with it?" Luo Yao didn't know what to do with this stuff after it turned into powder.

Bei Zhenting had been in the industrial equipment department for several months and was very familiar with this stuff, so he immediately thought of gunpowder.

Thinking of gunpowder, Bei Zhenting's face became serious. He ignored Luo Yao's questions and started looking around.

"Prince, what are you looking for?" Luo Yao followed behind Bei Zhenting.

Bei Zhenting randomly checked dozens of bags and finally found the item.

Seeing Bei Zhenting standing there in a daze, Luo Yao leaned over to look at the light yellow powder in Bei Zhenting's palm.

"what is this?"

"sulfur."

"Sulfur... charcoal? They're not going to make gunpowder!"

Bei Zhenting nodded, "It seems someone in the Instrument Department leaked the secret."

Luo Yao: "The civil strife is over, so why are they making gunpowder now? Could it be that Qi is really ready to make a move as Prince Qi said?"

"I don't know yet. If what Bei Zhenqing said in the letter is true, I'm afraid that war will break out within a few months." Bei Zhenting said seriously.

Luo Yao frowned and thought for a while, "Your Highness, didn't King Qi Qing want gunpowder? Now it seems very simple!"

Bei Zhenting glanced at him and said, "What do you mean? Bei Zhenqing is a traitor. His words cannot be trusted. Your Majesty cannot believe the words of a traitor without any evidence."

Luo Yao scratched his head in annoyance. "Can't we just do it secretly? Let's wipe out everything here and send all this stuff to Prince Qi..."

Bei Zhenting patted his head and said, "You have enough heads to chop off. Don't worry. Once this matter is settled, I will go and investigate the affairs of Bei Qi. If what Bei Zhenqing said is true, I will definitely find a way to assist him."

"This group of people are using the food transport as a cover to secretly transport materials for making gunpowder. They are clearly planning a rebellion. What should we do next?"

"According to what those two men just said, they only know the ingredients for the gunpowder, but not the exact ratio. The ratio that my craftsmen have been researching for months, bit by bit, is not something they can just come up with casually. They haven't figured out the formula for gunpowder yet. Let's figure this out first, and then write a letter to the Emperor."

Luo Yao: "No, wait until we find the lair of that group of people and take down this place first. Then we will send people to investigate slowly. First, we will go to see what the situation is in Qi State and then inform the emperor!"

Bei Zhenting thought about it and nodded, then pulled Luo Yao to continue exploring inside. The cave space gradually became smaller, and a narrow passage appeared.

Bei Zhenting and Luo Yao walked in cautiously. After walking for a long time, they came across many complicated forks in the road. The two stood in the dark at the fork in the road, not knowing which direction to go.

After hesitating for a while, I heard a voice coming from behind.

"Oh, although these people live in the deep mountains and old forests, they don't have many people and they don't fight. I really don't know why they store so much food."

It was Yuan Xiaobei's voice.

Yuan Zhaoling saw Bei Zhenting from a distance and exclaimed, "Your Highness, how long have you been here?!"

"The time of a stick of incense."

Luo Yao: "Have you found anything over there?"

The group shook their heads.

Li Er: Young Master, I have checked many places but found no suspicious items. The bags piled up are all filled with food.

This group of people had a strong sense of secrecy. They bought a large amount of grain under the guise of buying food, and they knew how to hide the materials for making gunpowder among the grain. One cave had food mixed in with the other...

But...why is there not even a guard in this place?

Luo Yao didn't understand. These people were quite conceited. They didn't even send anyone to guard such an important place. It seemed that they were very confident in their artificial disease-free forest.