⛏️Chapter 27: Secrets in the Stone
🌍 October 27, 99 BCE – Mid Autumn 🍂
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With the village fortified, the granaries stocked, and the militia sharpening blades like they meant business, things finally felt stable. Safe, even—at least on the surface. No invader could stumble across this hidden haven without serious bad luck and worse timing. So Junjie decided it was time.
Time to disappear for a while.
He'd been eyeing several ore-rich locations far beyond the valley, tucked deep into the surrounding mountains. Places marked with strange mineral signatures only Nano could detect. Titanium, tungsten, platinum, vanadium—materials the villagers had no names for, let alone uses. If anyone else knew about them, they'd call them cursed rocks or throw them into rivers. Which was exactly why Junjie kept the best spots to himself.
His official excuse? "Ore scouting run. I'll map what's safe to mine and see how far we can expand." Sounded noble. Responsible. Practical. Just what a village hero was supposed to say.
Lianhua, his mother, fussed over his gear like he was about to walk into a war zone. His father Chengde just grunted approval from his seat by the fire, flicking a glance Junjie's way that said, Don't die, kid.
Junjie left at dawn with a wide-brimmed hat, a massive basket strapped to his back, and more weapons than most soldiers carried into battle. A short sword at his hip, a long hunting knife in his boot, and a recurved bow slung across his shoulder. He'd also hidden a few micro-tools Nano had engineered—multi-function survival bits disguised as simple ironwork. Plus, his trusty pickaxe, worn smooth in the handle, ready for work.
Once out of view, he dropped all pretense. Legs pumping faster than any human should be able to, he sprinted across valleys and ridgelines, cutting the days-long journey down to hours. Nano kept watch from his bloodstream, alerting him to anything with teeth or claws heading his way.
He visited ore site after ore site. The "basic" ones—tin, copper, lead, iron—he dug up openly, even leaving behind stone markers and half-full baskets so villagers would find the spots easily. But the platinum veins? The titanium? Those he marked only in the private map Nano maintained. No one else needed to know. Not yet.
Wildlife got bold in these remote hills. Junjie ran into a bear that roared like thunder and two tigers that circled him with unsettling coordination. Wolves stalked him at dusk, watching with ember eyes from the tree line.
None of them survived.
He butchered and cleaned what he could, dried meat on makeshift racks, and stuffed pelts into a separate pack. With every kill, the predator population thinned. Eventually, the mountains fell quiet. Too quiet.
Each night, he camped alone, fire low, Nano scanning for parasites, pathogens, and anything that might bite. By day five, he had enough ore to start a trading economy. But he wasn't done.
Junjie found a small, hidden valley—tucked into a steep ravine cloaked with mist and thick brush. Impassable without a map. Perfect for stashing his private stockpile. He began ferrying the rarest ore there, concealing the entrance with deadfall and camouflage netting. That stash? For the future. For whatever came next.
When he returned to the village, he limped in like a man who'd wrestled a mountain. He dropped a massive tiger pelt in front of the weaving hall like it was no big deal. His basket held gleaming chunks of silver, gold, copper, and tin—what he called "the public metals." Everyone lost their minds. The miners were practically dancing, and the blacksmith looked like he'd seen the gods.
He gave them a clean, easy-to-read map of where to dig.
Then he vanished into the smelter.
Locked the doors. Barred the windows. Claimed it was "private alloy work," and even Chengde didn't argue. For eight days, he worked like a machine. Inside that sealed forge, he mixed strange metals with small infusions of Nano-engineered compounds. Alloys no one in the empire could name—stronger, lighter, more flexible than anything in their world. He poured them into molds shaped from volcanic stone and bone-charcoal. Every hour, smoke curled from the vents, and the whole back of the valley reeked of metal and fire.
He didn't sleep. He didn't eat outside. He came out only when it was done.
Junjie emerged covered in soot, muscles aching, eyes rimmed red. The villagers clapped him on the back, called him a genius, and had no idea what he'd actually made.
But they would. One day.
He'd hand off more pelts, more meat, more maps. Let the legend of Junjie grow piece by piece. Let them think he was simply a better hunter, a faster scout, a skilled smelter.
He was something else entirely now. And deep in the hidden valley behind the hidden village, the future waited beneath piles of ore and secrets.