The Great Song Dynasty: You were put in charge of teaching, and you produced a whole bunch of prime

The icy river water instantly swallowed the three of them.

It was a bone-chilling cold, as if it could freeze one's blood. Zhao Lingjun choked several mouthfuls as soon as he entered the water and instinctively began to struggle.

"Don't move! Hold me tight!" Jiang Lin shouted in the water, using all his strength to pull Zhao Lingjun into his arms and make her keep her head above water.

The river was flowing faster than they had imagined, like a runaway buffalo dragging them wildly through the dark riverbed.

Jiang Lin could barely control the direction, trying his best to avoid the sharp rocks protruding from the rock wall.

Shen Kuo seemed to be a good swimmer; he followed closely behind Jiang Lin and even tried to observe the structure of the river channel with a cold light stick.

"Chief! Judging from the direction of the water flow and the degree of erosion of the rock face, we are moving northeast! This direction should lead to the Zhanghe River outside the city!" he shouted in the rushing water.

Jiang Lin didn't have the energy to answer him. All his attention was focused on protecting Zhao Lingjun and determining the direction.

They drifted in the darkness for an unknown amount of time, time itself seemed to have lost its meaning. Their bodies slammed against the rock walls again and again, their entire bodies burning with pain.

Zhao Lingjun's lips had turned purple from the cold, and his consciousness was beginning to blur.

Just as Jiang Lin felt that his strength was about to be exhausted, he suddenly saw a faint light in front of him.

It's an export!

Jiang Lin's spirits lifted, and with his last bit of strength, he paddled toward the light.

The light grew closer and closer, and they could even hear the sounds of the wind and water outside.

"Splash—"

With a dizzying sensation, they were finally swept out of the narrow river channel by the current and crashed heavily onto a shallow beach full of pebbles.

"Cough cough cough..."

The three of them lay on the ground, coughing desperately, spitting out the water from their lungs.

The fresh, earthy air filled their nostrils, giving them a feeling of being in another world.

Jiang Lin struggled to lift his head and found that they were in a huge cavern. At the top of the cavern, there was a huge skylight, through which the cool moonlight shone and illuminated the entire space.

The underground river flows into a larger underground lake here. And they are on the shallow shore of the lake.

"We... got out?" Zhao Lingjun's voice was weak, but full of joy at surviving a disaster.

"Not yet." Jiang Lin's expression remained grave. He pointed to the other side of the cave, "Look there."

Looking in the direction he was pointing, on the other side of the cave, there was a man-made stone staircase winding upwards, leading to a dark cave entrance.

"There are other exits here... and they're man-made. This means this place is also part of the mine." Shen Kuo also noticed this.

A bad feeling rose in Jiang Lin's heart.

He struggled to his feet, walked to the stone steps, and found a series of wet footprints slowly extending upwards.

The footprints were very fresh, clearly made recently.

"This is bad!" Jiang Lin's expression changed drastically. "Xue Gang and his men know this exit! They're blocking our way here!"

The voice just fell.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Several crossbow bolts, whistling sharply through the air, came down from the hole above and embedded themselves hard in the pebbles at their feet, the fletchings still buzzing.

"Jiangshan Chang, how have you been?"

Xue Gang's chilling voice came from above.

The three looked up and saw Xue Gang standing at the end of the stone steps, leading a dozen or so guards in black, looking down at them.

Xue Gang's shoulder was wrapped in thick bandages, and the scar on his face looked particularly ferocious in the moonlight. His eyes were filled with a cat-and-mouse smirk.

"I truly admire you. To escape from 'Old Ghost' and find this place, you are the first group in the past three years." Xue Gang slowly walked down the stone steps. "It's just a pity that this is where it ends."

Jiang Lin's heart sank completely.

They had just escaped death, only to fall into another desperate situation.

They were soaked to the bone and exhausted, while their opponents were waiting in comfort, armed with powerful crossbows.

This was a battle with absolutely no chance of winning.

"Xue Gang, it's not too late for you to stop now," Jiang Lin said, forcing himself to remain calm. "Zhao Liben has committed treason, and I have the evidence. If you persist in your wrongdoing, once the imperial army arrives, you will face utter ruin!"

"Evidence?" Xue Gang laughed as if he had heard the funniest joke. "Jiang Shanchang, have you gone stupid from reading too much?"

"In this dark and sunless underground, might makes right! After I cut your heads off and burn everything on your bodies, who will know what you've discovered?"

He waved his hand, and the guards behind him immediately raised their crossbows, the dark arrowheads aimed at Jiang Lin and his companions.

"Move! Leave no one alive!" Xue Gang coldly ordered.

Just as the guards were about to pull the trigger...

"Who dares!"

A clear, sharp shout suddenly rang out in the cave.

But this sound... is wrong.

Jiang Lin turned his head sharply. The voice was no longer the slightly hoarse one of a boy going through puberty, but a clear and penetrating female voice he had never heard before!

Zhao Lingjun struggled to her feet. The rushing river washed away the smear of mud and disguise from her face, revealing a face that was astonishingly fair even in the dim moonlight.

His soaked clothes clung tightly to his body, outlining a shapely figure that was definitely not that of a young boy.

Jiang Lin's pupils dilated instantly.

He looked at his "apprentice" beside him, and it felt as if a thunderbolt had struck his mind.

That delicate neck, that throat without an Adam's apple, and those sideburns, now disheveled and clinging to her cheeks after being washed by the water…

A woman?!

Zhao Lingjun, who spent every day with me, was punished by me to copy books, and even had her hands slapped... was actually a woman?!

Before Jiang Lin could recover from the huge shock, an even more suffocating scene unfolded.

Although Zhao Lingjun was pale and disheveled, her posture at that moment exuded an innate and awe-inspiring majesty that made people dare not look directly at her.

That kind of aura is something that ordinary daughters of officials could never possess.

She pulled a gleaming gold token from her bosom and held it high.

The token reflected a dazzling golden light under the cool moonlight. The five-clawed golden dragon carved on it seemed to come alive, overlooking all living beings.

"Do you recognize this?" Zhao Lingjun's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unyielding royal authority, clearly echoing throughout the entire cave.

"This is an imperial gold medal, as if the Emperor himself were here! Xue Gang, are you and your men plotting a rebellion?"