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Huo Yuhao looked at them from afar, listening carefully to the way they spoke, extremely seriously.
"What are you doing?" Huo Qiuer asked puzzledly.
“Listening to the tone of their voices, did you notice anything wrong?” Huo Yuhao realized.
Huo Qiu'er also listened carefully and answered uncertainly, "What a heavy accent."
Huo Yuhao nodded: "Yes, this is the Xingluo accent, which means they were originally from the Xingluo Empire."
But it’s not just these few families who have the Xingluo accent, almost everyone in this neighborhood has a similar accent.
"I guess these people are all immigrants from the Xingluo Empire. This is an immigrant community."
(End of this chapter)
Chapter 443: Dilapidated Mining Areas and Immigrant Communities
Near sunset, the sun hung above the horizon and slowly fell. The dazzling golden light covered the entire southeast mining area from far to near, and many mines were dyed a dim yellow under the setting sun.
The huge residential area was shrouded in the setting sun, and the air was filled with a faint but very strange smell. The entire southeast mining area presented a desolate and beautiful bleak atmosphere.
The community before us is completely different from ordinary rural areas. There is no comfortable and peaceful pastoral atmosphere at all.
The streets are generally narrow, and the buildings, which are mainly bungalow-style, are mostly not spacious and are very close to each other.
Huo Yuhao and Huo Qiuer walked side by side on one of the few wide roads. Tian Meng also emerged from the sea of consciousness and looked around curiously.
Huo Qiuer frowned, sniffed the air briefly, and whispered, "What a strange smell."
"This is a metallic smell mixed with the smell of fireworks. It is completely different from the strong metallic smell in the laboratory." Huo Yuhao explained to her.
Soul masters are of course very familiar with the smell of metal, but Huo Yuhao is more accustomed to the metallic smell in the air here.
Huo Qiuer asked: "Have you been here before?"
"No, the Southeast Mining District is also famous in Mingdu's history, but this is my first time here."
Huo Yuhao shook his head and told the information he had learned.
"The construction of Mingdu was not done overnight, and as it continues to expand and develop, it requires a huge amount of resources, especially metals."
"About a hundred years ago, the Ming capital expanded to the southeast and arrived here, discovering this large mining area. Although no rare metals were found, only ordinary silver, copper and iron ores, it still made people ecstatic at the time, and they began large-scale development."
Hearing this, Tian Meng asked curiously: "Yuhao, didn't you say that the metal business is very profitable? Then why is this place still so shabby?"
She happened to walk to a cracked wall and was about to kick it, but before she could lift her leg, a large piece of gray dirt fell off the gray-green wall. Tian Meng shrank her neck and put her foot down.
Huo Yuhao glanced at her speechlessly and continued, “Large-scale development continued until about fifty years ago. The output of metal resources in the major mines in the entire Southeast Mining Area fell precipitously in just a few years.”
"As resources become depleted, metals will naturally become more and more difficult to mine. Once the cost of mining is greater than the metal revenue obtained, those mine owners will consider closing the mines."
"This is not a precious rare metal mine. About 30 years ago, all the major forces stopped developing the southeast mining area, leaving it to the smaller forces to fight for it."
I heard from that person from the Ordinary Alliance that the largest mine owner in the Southeast Mining Area now only has a fifth-level soul engineer. It can be seen how decadent this place has become.
Now, no one with the cultivation level of Soul King or Soul Emperor has been found within the range of spiritual detection. The strongest is only at the third ring. Is the mine owner not here?
Maybe it's in a mine farther away.
Huo Yuhao did not find any trace of the mine owner, but he did not take this issue to heart for the time being.
He continued, "When small forces develop mines, they naturally don't use giant soul guides to dig directly into the mountains like the big forces do. They all hire miners."
"But how much ore can a low-level miner dig every day? How much silver and copper can be refined from these ores? I don't know if it is enough to pay the miners' wages."
While Huo Yuhao was muttering to himself, he was also estimating the benefits of a mine here, and he felt deeply moved.
It was normal that the big powers looked down on this place. The metal resources in the mines in the southeastern mining area were already very scarce. Whether it was using artillery shells to blast the mountains to mine or using giant excavators to dig soul guides, it would be a loss every day, so it was better to stop the loss in time and leave.
At this time, four or five middle-aged men with dark faces walked by from the other side of the street in the distance.
They were not tall, but were very strong. Their dark faces were darker than those of the Sun and Moon royal family, but it was not their natural skin color, but was stained black by stains.
The man in the middle cursed as he walked.
"Finally, I'm off work. I've been digging since early morning for most of the day to earn one gold soul coin, but that guy surnamed Sun wants to take away half of it. This is really too much!"
Hearing his complaints, his companions immediately advised him, "Brother, keep your voice down. He is a second-ring Great Spirit Master. If he hears you, he might smash your head with a punch."
Another person also advised: "Yeah, big brother, just bear with it. Even if half of it is taken away, it is still much higher than the income from other jobs. Think about it, we are a group of people who are not even soul masters. How can we earn so much in a day in Mingdu?"
"Isn't this treatment much better than what we had in Xing Luo?"
After several people persuaded him, the black-faced man in the middle temporarily suppressed his anger.
One person advised: "Don't be sulky, big brother, we are all the same, let's go and have a couple of drinks tonight."
The man snorted coldly, "This tavern is also owned by the Sun gang. The food and drinks are much more expensive than other places in Mingdu. A bottle of the most throat-splitting liquor costs five copper soul coins. They really don't treat us as human beings."
No matter how much he complained in his heart, the man could only shake his head helplessly and sighed, "Let's go and have a drink. I'll drink two bottles less and save more for my wife at home."
Someone next to him laughed and said, "Brother, I didn't expect you to be a henpecked man."
"Go away, I'm not like you. If one person is full, the whole family will not be hungry."
"Hey, when I save enough money, I'll move to the center of Mingdu and see if I can find a Sun Moon woman."
"I didn't expect you to be so good at this. Haha, good, you have ambition."
The atmosphere suddenly became lively. Amidst laughter and scolding, several middle-aged men walked away together and disappeared at the end of the street.
Huo Yuhao naturally took in all their appearances and conversations.
The soul power of these middle-aged men is very weak, only slightly stronger than that of ordinary people, and should be less than one ring. And their occupation should be miners in the surrounding mines.
Huo Yuhao savored their words carefully and was able to analyze a lot of useful information from their brief conversation.
Huo Qiuer asked: "Judging from their accents, they should all be from Xingluo, right? But one of them has a very nasal tone, more like a Tianhun accent."
“Accent is something that is difficult to change in a lifetime. It’s probably not wrong.” Huo Yuhao nodded.
After receiving Huo Yuhao's affirmative answer, Huo Qiuer lowered her head in thought and spoke to herself after a long while.
"I never noticed before, although the accents are slightly different, your four human countries actually speak the same language."
This sentence suddenly made something clear to Huo Yuhao. He was slightly stunned, frowned and fell into deep thought.
It sounds unintentional, but it seems to imply some very important information.
At this time, Bingdi also quietly appeared on the street, took a quick glance at the desolate scene around him, and asked softly, "Isn't Xingluo Yuhao's hometown? Why are those people here? They don't look like they are being coerced. They can leave at any time."
Huo Yuhao finished his brief thought and replied, "Of course it's for a better life. People will spontaneously vote with their feet on where is more suitable for living."
"The man just now said that if you mine here, you can earn one gold soul coin a day."
Tian Meng stuck out his tongue and said with a look of disdain: "Is one gold soul coin a lot? Yuhao, don't you always spend five or six digit gold soul coins every time you make a move... Ouch, it hurts..."
Huo Yuhao hit her head with his finger knuckles. Facing his blow, Tian Meng did not use the octagonal sword in her arms to block it.
"Don't let your constant following by my side lead you to a wrong understanding of the currency system. For ordinary people, the income of one gold soul coin a day is simply unimaginable."
"That's not much..." Tian Meng said with a wronged look on his face, "Isn't it just the income from selling twenty grilled fish, Yuhao?"
Huo Yuhao was about to continue hitting her, but reluctantly withdrew his fingers: "It's not your fault for not knowing enough. It's because the worlds of spirit masters and civilians are too divided. It's hard to know what ordinary people's lives are like without investigation."
"Do you know how much the monthly salary of an adult man who has just joined the military reserve in Xingluo is?"
Tian Meng pouted and said, "...How should I know?"
"A low-ranking soldier gets four to five silver soul coins, and a high-ranking soldier gets six to seven silver soul coins." Huo Qiu'er answered for her, "The Heavenly Soul Empire is at a similar level."
Huo Yuhao nodded: "This little bit of military pay, plus free food and accommodation, is enough to attract countless people to join the army. But..."
His tone suddenly changed and became serious.
"The income of those miners can actually reach one gold soul coin per day. Even if half of it is taken away, there are still five silver soul coins. This is more than what a soldier would earn in a month when he first entered Xing Luo."
“That’s just one day’s income.”
He emphasized the time difference again.
Tian Meng gradually understood and asked again: "So they came here just to make money?"
"Mostly yes."
Huo Yuhao sighed with emotion.
Perhaps only a mine near a big capital city like Mingdu could offer a middle-aged man who is not even a soul master an income of one gold soul coin a day.
According to a rough estimate, even if a miner worked hard all day, he could only dig out one cubic meter of copper ore. After refining, less than one-tenth of the brass would be left, which was almost enough to earn him one gold soul coin a day, and the mine owner would still make some money.
If it were replaced with more valuable silver ore, the mine owner would definitely make more money.
Although the mineral content of the mines detected by the spiritual detection is very low, Huo Yuhao believes that the local mine owners will not do business at a loss, so this income is definitely reasonable.
The Ice Emperor frowned and said, "I don't quite understand. Don't you humans value the concept of nation? Then why would the Sun and Moon Empire easily accept them and tolerate them living here?"
Huo Yuhao shook his head: "They are just ordinary civilians. Even if there are thousands of them, they will not pose any threat to Mingdu. On the contrary, accepting immigrants from enemy countries can create an image of a country that is tolerant and free."
"But it is still difficult to integrate into the Sun-Moon Empire. The differences in customs and habits are too great. Therefore, these immigrants did not choose to live in Mingdu, but gathered here to form an immigrant community."
He sighed, "Teacher Xuan is also an immigrant from Tianhun, but someone as talented and gifted as him will definitely go to other major forces in Mingdu and will not stay here with other immigrants. The people living here are just civilians."
Having said this, Huo Yuhao suddenly laughed.
“Perhaps the decline of the southeastern mining area and the birth of the immigrant community are not coincidental. With the decline of the entire mining area, the mine owners chose a cheaper type of worker, namely immigrants, in order to reduce labor costs.”
"As the number of immigrant miners continued to increase, an immigrant community gradually formed here."
Huo Yuhao stated his speculation and smiled. Behind all seemingly coincidental things, there might be some kind of law waiting for others to dig out carefully.
Bingdi then asked, "How did they get here? Judging from the strength of these people, it doesn't seem like they can cross the Mingdou Mountains."
When this topic was mentioned, Huo Yuhao suddenly became interested.
"Hey, Hyotei, you know what. Humans always burst out wisdom that you can't imagine at some point. For this reason, humans invented a kind of knowledge called Runxue."
"Anyway, there are no guardrails on the Mingdou Mountains, so the difficulty of routing is actually not as high as imagined. If we are careful to avoid the soul beasts, we can cross the Mingdou Mountains safely in the third or fourth ring."
"But if you find the right path, even a six-year-old can get through safely."
Hearing Huo Yuhao's tone becoming somewhat passionate, Huo Qiu'er suddenly said, "Are you talking about bribing the people in the caravan and taking a ride with them?"
Huo Yuhao narrowed his eyes slightly: "Yes, you guessed it."
Huo Qiu'er looked at him and asked in a deep voice, "You almost took this path."