Natural disaster at the beginning: I will lead the system to build a safe zone

At lunch time, Li's eldest brother Li Hu also came back. When he heard that Shi Anan and others came from Guangming Village, he also showed concern for Li Cuihua's life in Guangming Village.

After lunch, Shi Anan and the others also explained their purpose: "Uncle Li, we came to Changle Village this time to find someone to lead the way for us in the mountains. We are not familiar with the environment here and are afraid of getting lost in the mountains."

Li Hu pondered for a moment: "We haven't seen the minerals you mentioned, but if you need someone to lead the way, my youngest son can do it. He has loved running in the mountains since he was a child. In terms of being familiar with mountain roads, he may not even be as familiar as me."

"That's great. What's your youngest son's name?" Shi Anan asked.

Just then, a strong young man carrying firewood entered the yard. Li Hu saw him and called out, "Changlin, come here!"

Li Changlin put down the firewood, walked over, and his face turned red instantly when he saw Shi Anan.

"Changlin, this is a friend from your aunt's family. She needs someone who is familiar with the mountain roads to take her to look for minerals. If you have nothing to do, take her around the mountain." Although Li Hu did not believe that there were any minerals on the mountain, since the other party wanted to look for them, he could not stop them. As for leading the way, it was out of respect for Li's face.

Li Changlin was a little disappointed when he heard that he was only asked to lead the way. He thought this was the person his mother introduced to him.

But it was true. This girl looked like a fairy, and he was not worthy of her. After calming down, Li Changlin said, "I'll lead the way. What are you looking for?"

"Brother Changlin, have you ever seen any brown-brown stones in the mountains that are harder than ordinary stones?" Shi Anan asked.

Li Changlin thought about it carefully and said, "I think I have seen such a stone by a river before. I wonder if it is what you are looking for."

Shi Anan's eyes lit up: "Can you take us to have a look?"

"Let's go then."

-

Li Changlin led Shi Anan and the other two into the mountains. They still needed someone to lead the way, as Li Changlin walked much faster than them in the mountains.

Before, they had to mark the way everywhere for fear of getting lost. But Li Changlin walked as if he was strolling in his own back garden, and in no time he arrived at the place he mentioned.

The terrain here is relatively low, with a small stream winding down from the top of the mountain. The stone that Li Changlin mentioned was the one he found by the stream.

Shi Anan walked forward and took a look. She indeed saw a pile of brown stones scattered by the stream. She picked up one and lifted it. It was heavier than ordinary stones. Then she smashed it against a white stone next to it. The white stone broke, but this stone was still intact.

It seems so. Shi Anan checked the map and found that the iron mine was indeed nearby.

"Brother Changlin, do you know where this stone fell from?" Shi Anan asked. Since the iron ore is nearby, it proves that the iron mine should not be far away.

Li Changlin looked up and pointed at the hillside behind Shi Anan: "It should have slid down from there."

"Is there a way to go up here?" Shi Anan continued to ask.

"Okay, follow me." Li Changlin led them to continue walking up.

When she reached the hillside, Shi Anan saw that the stones there were all brown in color, and although there was some vegetation, it was not lush.

Just as she was trying to confirm whether this was iron ore, the system's surprise notification sounded again:

[Congratulations to the host for finding the iron ore point, and reward: Iron Smelting Technology Manual*1]

Found it! It’s really iron ore!

Shi Anan was very happy and turned to thank Li Changlin excitedly: "Brother Changlin, thank you very much, this is what we are looking for."

Li Changlin touched his head and said embarrassedly: "You're welcome. It didn't take any time. Just find it."

"But is there really a mineral here? What kind of mine is it?" He often passed by here and had no idea that this was a mineral deposit.

"It's an iron mine." Li Changlin was not as talkative and gossipy as Aunt Zhang, so Shi Anan did not avoid him. It was thanks to him that they were able to find this place.

Sure enough, when Li Changlin heard the word "iron mine", he immediately thought of the key point. He widened his eyes and said, "This... this is really an iron mine. What about outside?"

Shi Anan nodded seriously: "It is really an iron mine, so this matter today cannot be spread out. If there is an iron mine near Changle Village, Changle Village will probably not be at peace."

Li Changlin obviously also knew the seriousness of the matter. He nodded heavily and said, "Well, this place is rarely visited by people from our village. If I hadn't often gone to the mountains, I wouldn't have been able to find it. As long as we don't tell anyone, it should be difficult for those outside to find this place."

"Just can I ask, Miss Shi, what are you looking for the iron ore for?" It's not that he doubted Shi An'an, but the importance of the iron ore was self-evident. He was also afraid that if Shi An'an and others mined it with a lot of noise, it would alert others. If he had known that they were looking for iron ore, he might not have agreed so straightforwardly and brought them here.

"Don't worry, for now we will just mine some to build houses and roads, and we won't be refining weapons on a large scale." Even if we want to refine weapons, we will wait until the houses are built.

"Can iron ore be used to build houses and roads?" Li Changlin's face was full of question marks.

But Shi Anan didn't want to explain this to him, and only said: "When it's finished, you can come to Guangming Village to have a look."

Shi Anan and his group were very happy after finding the iron mine. They marked the location of the iron mine and prepared to go back to Guangming Village to find someone to mine it.

But on the way down the mountain back to Changle Village, something unexpected happened.

The weather, which was sunny just now, suddenly became cloudy. Just when Li Changlin thought it was going to rain, an ice cube the size of an egg fell on his head.

"Be careful! It's hail!" Shi Anan shouted.

He quickly took out the iron pot that the system rewarded him from his backpack and put it on his head.

By the way, he also took out three thick wooden boards and gave them to Li Changlin, Wuyang and Wu Hui.

Li Changlin had no time to think about how these things of Shi Anan appeared, because after the egg-sized hailstone fell just now, the subsequent hailstones tended to become larger and more dense.

Shi Anan dodged and asked loudly: "Brother Changlin, is there a cave here where we can hide?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she quickly dodged again, and a piece of ice bigger than a basketball fell next to her with a "bang".

"Ah!" Li Changlin was unable to dodge and was hit on the leg by a basketball-sized ice cube. He fell to the ground. Shi Anan hurried over and covered his head with her big iron pot.

The large and small ice cubes hit the iron pot, making a clinking sound, which made Shi Anan's head buzz.

"Hurry up and say something! Is there a cave? The ice is getting bigger and bigger, we can't hide!" Shi Anan said anxiously. The ice grew from the size of an egg at the beginning to the size of a fist, and now the falling ones are as big as a ball!

"Over there - there's a small cave over there!" Li Changlin was sweating coldly from the pain, but his hand still pointed in a direction.

"Wu Yang, Wu Hui, hurry up! Carry him!" Shi Anan shouted.

The two men reacted quickly, and immediately carried Li Changlin on their left and right and ran towards the cave.

Although there were some tree branches blocking the view, the falling ice cubes were becoming more and more dense and larger, so the people could only protect their heads as much as possible.

"Hiss—" Shi Anan was tripped by a suddenly fallen tree, which was just broken by a large hailstone. Just as she was about to get up, Shi Anan felt a sense of danger, and when she looked up, she saw a hailstone coming towards her head.

The body's subconscious reflex outweighed thinking, and Shi Anan quickly avoided the vital points, but his shoulder was hit hard by the hail.

"Miss!" Wu Yang and Wu Hui shouted worriedly.

"I'm fine! You guys keep going, don't worry about me, be careful of the falling hail!" Shi Anan said, enduring the pain and getting up, using his uninjured hand to continue holding the iron pot to protect his head, and followed Wu Yang and the others.

Fortunately, the cave was not too far away, and with the help of some branches, the four of them reached the cave safely.

But everyone was injured to varying degrees.

The most seriously injured was Li Changlin. His leg was hit directly by the hail and it looked like it was broken.

Although Shi Anan's shoulder was also hit, she dodged slightly and the hail just brushed past her, only breaking her skin and causing a lot of bleeding.

Wu Yang and Wu Hui both suffered mostly superficial injuries.