Devil’s Son-in-Law

as before.
Under those eyes, he was calm and took out the magic letter of appointment signed by Shea personally.
While everyone was paying attention at him, Chen Rui was also observing these “soldiers” under him.
There were about a dozen guards, composed mainly by centaurs and dark elves.
There weren’t many miners present, and they were all imps and dark elves.
Most of the demons present shared the same characteristic, that was, they look dispirited.

Gade took the letter of appointment and his brows gradually frowned.
With his eyesight, he could clearly distinguish between true and fake.

The centaur looked at Athena.
He had no more doubts in his heart.
He immediately bowed at Chen Rui and said,”The mining office guards’ captain, Gade reporting to mining officer.”

The guards and miners were all surprised as they saw Gade bowed.
It seemed that Princess Royal truly appointed this weak human as a mining officer!

Like many people, Gade was rather disapproving against this appointment. How can a powerless human lead everyone. However, as Athena was there, he couldn’t say much.
He made a welcoming gesture, “Sir and Miss, please come in to talk.
Connor, get us some food! The rest of the people… do whatever you need to do!”

Chen Rui and Athena followed Gade into the stone house.
The facilities in the stone house were very simple.
They were just two stone tables with several chairs and a bed at the back.

“I’m sorry, Miss.
The conditions here are very difficult, so I have nothing good to serve.
Please simple eat something later.” Gade welcomed the two to sit and asked Athena, “Miss, when are you going back to Dark Moon City?”

Athena shook her head, “I was ordered by Princess Royal to always protect Chen Rui here until his work is over or transferred.”

Gade was slightly shocked, then he nodded with a complicated expression.

Chen Rui saw that and pondered.
He asked, “Gade, we just arrived here.
Can you briefly introduce the situation here?”

Gade hesitated for a moment and began to talk.

Mountain Xilang was extremely rich in minerals.
It had a long history of mining.
It had always been the largest and most important resource for Dark Moon.
After the Beelzebub Royal Family incident in the Dark Moon 400 years ago, the bustling Dark Moon began to run down.
The mines had undergone many changes as well.
The underground creatures that had been sealed suddenly broke through the seal and occupied the lower layer of the pit, which was equivalent to controlling the largest mining area.
That made mining’s difficulty increased greatly and life-threatening.

More than a year ago, a powerful Red Devil bandit gang appeared.
They not only robbed and killed the caravan sent by Princess Royal, Shea, but they also harassed the mines from time to time.
They also sent a small team to occupy the main pit and several newly-opened small mine sources.
They even killed the miners who went there to mine.

Now, the miners could only mine some cheap open-air ores while defending the bandits’ attack under Gade’s lead.
Although the danger was reduced, the income and output were extremely low.
Princess Royal once sent Sheriff Alan to eliminate the bandits because of the caravan incident, but both attempts were defeated by the bandits.

Athena heard that the mine’s situation was so bad; it was much worse than what Shea knew.
She frowned and said, “Why didn’t you report to the Dark Moon City?”

“We’ve reported it countless times.” Gade sighed, “However, even the army sent by the Dark Moon City has failed.
What other way is there? If it wasn’t for miss’ arrival today, I thought that Princess Royal has already given up on us.”

Chen Rui knew that the direct supervisor of the mining industry was the financial officer, which was Joseph.
Therefore, it was “reasonable” that only limited information was passed to Shea.
At that moment, he asked a key question, “What happened to the previous mining officer?”

The previous mining officer was Tim of the Saiful Family.
Gade’s evaluation of Tim was relatively high and within his words revealed a contempt toward Chen Rui.
After Tim came to the mine, he made a series of rectification and was quite prestigious.
At that time, the main problem of the mine was the underground creatures.
When Tim led a group of people to investigate the situation in the main pit, everyone suddenly disappeared, even their bodies couldn’t be found.
They were probably eaten by the demonic beasts.

Chen Rui calculated the time.
When Tim was in power at the time, Shea hadn’t sent a caravan to the west.
So, at most, there was just a sporadic of bandits.
When a caravan was dispatched, a powerful bandit gang appeared accordingly which was obviously on purpose.
After cutting off the trade route to the west, their controlling target transferred to the mine.
It seemed that they wanted to choke the Dark Moon until it completely suffocated.

The reason why they left Gade and the others alive wasn’t because of the bandits’ kindness, but they didn’t want to attract more attention from Shea until the last moment.
Once a certain time had come, Chen Rui could imagine that everywhere would have troubles at the same time.
Even if Shea had extraordinary ability, she would be helpless as it was a relatively perfect and cruel plan.

“I came here this time is also for a task given by Master Aldas.” Chen Rui thought about it and said the most important purpose of the trip.
“The master is now experimenting with a peculiar potion which requires the crystal powder on the waste ores.
Can you bring me to them?”

“Waste ores? Crystal powder?” Gade frowned and thought.
He finally realized, “You must be talking about the thing stuck on the ores.
The crystal is very troublesome and difficult to get rid of it, let alone make it into powder.
Also, this waste ores with crystals are only found in the main mining pit of Mountain Xilang.
Now, it is under the bandits’ territory.”

Chen Rui didn’t give up and asked, “Where are the waste ores before this?”

Gade answered, “The waste ores are piled up in the waste ores room, which is located at a certain corner above the main pit.
Currently, the mineral production is too low, so several people have stolen the waste ores and shipped them back to the city.
After that, the bandits killed them all after they noticed it.”

Chen Rui’s brows frowned even more. Zach mentioned this before, but I didn’t expect the actual situation to be much worse.
Every piece of waste ore that I converted at the blacksmith shop in Dark Moon City was stained with the blood of the miners!