Seven Northern Hill mine was located in the north of Seven Star Mountain. Other than a few mining areas that were in the open air, most of them were located in caves.
Although Ye Lingyue had been in the Seven Star Mountain for more than a month, it was her first visit to the northern part.
Different from the southern part that was lush all year round, the northern mountain did not have much vegetation. The bare rocks were exposed and it looked very desolate.
In the past, mine cars and miners were going in and out of the Seven Northern Hill. However, upon entering the mine that day, there were few people already in it, and it was a depressing scene.
Ye Lingyue followed Ye Sheng and hurried deep into the mine.
They had just arrived outside Seven Northern Hill mine when Ye Lingyue heard Ye Gu's angry voice.
After nearly ten years of mining, a third of the mine cave in the Seven Northern Hill had been excavated. The mine area was wide, about half the size of Autumn Maple town.
Pine oil torches lit up the mine cave. Ye Fengyun and Ye Fengcheng, the two brothers in their thirties, had their head lowered as they were being scolded.
"B*stards. How did you two supervise the work? Why did the ore become like this overnight?" Ye Gu's eyes were red from anger and the veins on his forehead were throbbing.
Some ores were scattered at his feet.
There were two distinct colors of dark iron ores. The one with poorer purity was grayish-black and the one with over 40% dark iron was grayish silver.
However, the ores in the Seven Northern Hill mine were reddish. Carefully looking at them, the reddish tint was a rust moss on the ores.
Anyone who had been in contact with the iron ore trading knew that rust moss would grow out of ore if it was damp and improperly preserved.
To keep the ores dry, they kept the mine cave dry all year round.
It was difficult to refine ores with rust moss.
Fearing that the Song family would do something to the mine on the Seven Northern Hill, Ye Gu had specially ordered Ye Fengyun and Ye Fengcheng to take charge of the mine handover.
The two brothers hadn't properly slept for the past few days. They took the Seven Northern hill mine from the Song family and they had seen the ores inside. Who would have known that in the next few days, they would find that the rust moss had covered most of the ores?
Moreover, the rust moss was still proliferating. There was even an enormous area of them growing on the mountain wall of the mine cave.
If that continued, they might destroy the whole of Seven Northern Hill mine.
What was worse, to obtain the Seven Northern Hill mine, the Ye family's mine had been handed over to the Song family, so the Ye family didn't have any other mines under their care.
If the incident about Ye Sheng almost getting scammed was drizzle for the Ye Family, then the mine crisis was a tidal wave that might destroy the Ye family business with a hundred years history.
Some miners who heard about the news left the Ye family and went to work for the Song family. There was a rumor going around that the Ye family would collapse this time.
"Father, when Big Brother and I took the mine over, the ores inside were all normal." Ye Fengcheng was the main person in charge of the mine. Looking at the piles of wasted ore, he felt like a knife twisted into his heart.
"Grandfather, Father, what happened to these ores?" Ye Sheng and Ye Qing entered the mine cave, where the ambiance was miserable.
"Go out. What are you children doing in the mine?" Ye Fengcheng was upset and seeing his son and the other children, he got even more depressed.
As soon as Ye Lingyue entered the mine, she felt that the air was damp.
Seeing what Ye Gu and the others were fretting about, she did not step forward to be scolded and circled the mine cave.
"Big Uncle, why are there frozen grass in the mine cave?" Ye Lingyue could see at one glance that there were clumps of white grass growing on the mountain wall and some inconspicuous corners.
Thinking of how the Song family had bought a lot of frozen grass from the medicinal shop, Ye Lingyue quickly recalled the records of frozen grass in Hongmeng's letter.
"Frozen grass? What is that? These are just some weeds." Ye Fengyun did not have the mood to care about those weeds.
"They are not weeds. Frozen grass is a kind of grass that gathers water vapor. When they are inside the mine cave, it will only take one night to rust the ores and grow a large amount of rust moss." Ye Lingyue had a headache. Although her uncles were experts in ore mining and refining, they knew nothing about herbs.
She had kindly reminded them earlier to investigate why the Song family bought a huge number of frozen grass. Now it was clear that the Song family used it to destroy the whole Seven Northern Hill mine.
"What! Lingyue, are you telling us the truth?" It shocked Ye Gu and Ye Fengyun when they heard this.
As for Ye Fengcheng, his expression did not look good either.
"Could it be that the Song Family planted these frozen grass? Damn the Song family, I will never let them off." Ye Gu was furious. He punched the mountain wall with one hand and it produced a hole in it and rocks scattered all over the ground.
"Grandfather, it's not the time to find the Song family to settle this. The important thing now is to remove the rust and refine the ores again." The people present understood Ye Lingyue's words. Removing the rust was easy to say, but doing it was difficult.
"That's easy for you to say. We can only remove rust moss with an elemental fire of high temperatures. In Great Xia, only a few big chambers of commerce and the Royal Alchemy houses have them. Even if we removed the rust, we still need a lot of money. We can't afford it even if we were to use up our family's fortune." Ye Fengcheng was crossed.
Ye Fengcheng had never heard of such a thing called frozen grass, and this incident was seen through by a 13-year-old girl—that made Ye Fengcheng very embarrassed.
Ye Lingyue had the Qian cauldron and it was easy to remove the rust moss from the ores. But if she did so, it would reveal that she had such an important treasure. The Seven Northern Hill mine cave was too large, so it would be difficult for Ye Lingyue's cauldron to digest so many ores at once.
"It's not only the elemental fire that can remove rust moss. From what I know, lava can also remove rust moss." Ye Lingyue remembered clearly that Immortal Hongmeng had written similar records in his letter.
"The temperature of lava is similar to that of elemental fire, but where are we to find lava at this time?" After hearing Ye Lingyue's suggestion, Ye Gu nodded, then shook his head.
"We will save the Ye family as long as we can remove the rust moss. Grandfather, do you believe me?" Ye Lingyue's eyes twinkled as she stared at Ye Gu. She also knew that it was difficult for everyone to believe her words immediately.
Ye Gu was skeptical. Now that there was no better way out for the Ye family, he would trust his granddaughter and make every effort.
Seeing Ye Gu believing her, Ye Lingyue no longer hesitated and she took Ye Gu to the cliff cave where she had found that Golden Crow Snake earlier.