Chapter 143: Xiaoyi, Did You Take Xiaoxue to Dig a Hole?
At first, everyone ignored the Zhang family, but whenever people were digging caves, Zhang Yuan and his family silently followed along, helping out on the sidelines. Even though others gave them cold looks, they stubbornly refused to leave. After a few days, everyone was worn down by their persistence. In the end, even the Armor-Claw Beast found a cave for Zhang Yuan’s family.
Zhang Yuan, thick-skinned as ever, came to borrow tools from Yu Haojie. Thinking about how Zhang Yuan’s wife, Tao Fanghua, had been heartless before—stopping Zhang Yuan from rescuing Yu Luo—Yu Haojie became furious.
Naturally, Yu Haojie refused to lend the tools. But Zhang Yuan, being just as stubborn, simply left without complaint.
However, just when Yu Haojie thought Zhang Yuan had given up, he saw Zhang Yuan and his son lifting large rocks and smashing them against the stone walls using inner strength.
Although they had inner strength, smashing stone against stone was inefficient. Either the rock wall was too solid, or the stones in their hands shattered. After a long while, the thick rock wall barely had a dent. Meanwhile, small rocks and debris from the interconnected caves kept falling due to their violent hammering.
Everyone got scared and fled their caves, fearing the Zhang father and son duo would bring the whole place down!
Seeing Zhang Yuan and his family’s hands bloody and raw from chiseling the cave, Yu Haojie finally walked over and tossed them two iron hammers and two chisels before heading back to figure out how to make red bricks and cement.
Looking at the tools on the ground, Zhang Yuan picked them up and gratefully watched Yu Haojie’s departing figure.
If he could turn back time, he would never have listened to his wife’s selfishness.
In the past few days, because of all the cave-digging, Yu Luo earned another 5,000 system points. She converted them all into growth points, using two to upgrade her Beast Taming Skill. As expected, she could now fully understand the Armor-Claw Beast when it spoke! The remaining three points were allocated to inner strength.
With these three points, she silently snuck out of the cave at night to test her light-footed movement technique. Sure enough, her speed had improved significantly!
Meanwhile, Yu Haojie, having some downtime, was struggling with making bricks.
To fire bricks, he needed a large amount of firewood. Just as his family of three was fretting over this issue, the Armor-Claw Beast and Xiaoxue returned from playing outside.
“Ah! Is… is this still Xiaoxue?!”
Seeing the once snow-white-furred Xiaoxue now completely covered in black soot, Yu Luo’s family widened their eyes in shock!
Ye Jiamei, startled, quickly picked Xiaoxue up and examined it closely. The more she looked, the more she was convinced it was still Xiaoxue.
“Who else could it be?”
Yu Luo lifted the little creature and gently smacked its butt.
“Mother, take it inside and give it a bath.”
“Alright. But later, ask Xiaoyi where he took Xiaoxue to play. No more running off like that! Look at the mess!”
“But wait… the snow outside hasn’t melted yet. Why is Xiaoxue this black? Something’s off.”
Yu Haojie grabbed Xiaoxue from Ye Jiamei’s arms and scrutinized it, completely ignoring his wife and daughter. He muttered to himself.
Noticing her father’s suspicion, Yu Luo reached out and rubbed Xiaoxue’s fur.
Her originally clean white hand instantly turned pitch black. Bringing it to her nose, she caught a familiar scent—and suddenly, her eyes lit up!
“Coal! It’s coal! The black stuff on Xiaoxue’s fur is coal!”
Hearing her daughter’s excited voice, Ye Jiamei leaned in to check but was skeptical.
“Are you sure? The Bai and Liu families make fires outside for cooking. Maybe Xiaoxue just rolled around in the ashes.”
“No! This is definitely coal! Coal and wood ash are different. Coal is deep black, while wood ash is lighter in color. If this were wood ash, Xiaoxue could just shake it off. But look, its fur is stained black! This is definitely coal!”
This discovery thrilled Yu Haojie, who had been struggling for days!
If there really was coal in this barren land, then forget making bricks and cement—coal mining could make them rich!
This land didn’t belong to any country. If they mined privately, no government could interfere.
Unless they drew the attention of powerful forces, who might use military action to seize control. In that case, all they could do was watch helplessly as others took over the coal mine.
Thinking of this huge opportunity, Yu Haojie’s eyes gleamed with excitement!
“Xiaoyi, did you take Xiaoxue to dig a hole?”
Coal was usually found deep underground. Knowing the Armor-Claw Beast’s abilities, Yu Luo couldn’t help but suspect.
Now that her Beast Taming Skill had reached level 3, she could communicate with Xiaoyi normally.
Hearing Yu Luo’s words, the Armor-Claw Beast lifted its head and obediently nodded. It seemed to understand that Yu Luo’s family was no longer mad at it for causing trouble.
[Yes! Xiaoyi got even better at digging today!]
Yu Luo: ………
Ignoring Xiaoyi’s excited, soft voice, Yu Luo stood up and looked at Yu Haojie.
“Father, let’s go check it out! If it really is coal, we’ll be rich!”
“You two go ahead, just be careful. I’ll take Xiaoxue inside for a bath before it dirties the bed.”
Seeing how excited the father and daughter were, Ye Jiamei didn’t overthink it. She just hoped they could fire bricks to build a courtyard, making their home sturdier.
Father and daughter set off, with Xiaoyi leading the way. Heading southwest, they walked for nearly half an hour before reaching the digging site.
They found a small, deep hole—barely 10 centimeters in diameter, pitch black inside.
Yu Luo lifted Xiaoyi to the hole’s entrance.
“Go inside and bring me a piece of the black rock that stained Xiaoxue’s fur. Got it?”
[Understood, Master!]
Obediently, Xiaoyi wagged its long tail and slipped into the hole.
Father and daughter waited in the cold wind for about 15 minutes before seeing Xiaoyi’s tail slowly emerge.
As the Armor-Claw Beast fully backed out, it was holding a lump of coal in its mouth!
Seeing this, father and daughter burst into joyful laughter!
“We were right! There’s an actual coal mine underground!”
“Yes, Father! And I just had an idea…”
Perhaps, while Yu Haojie and Ye Jiamei were just thinking about using coal for daily survival, Yu Luo saw a much bigger opportunity.
“What idea? Tell me, and if it works, I’ll fully support you!”
