He didn’t have to search intently, since the traces of fighting were everywhere in the mine. He saw corpses from time to time.
Blaring noises could be heard from the top of the mine frequently. This meant the mine hadn’t fallen to the enemy yet. They were still fighting.
Jiang Chen climbed onto the mountain without any hesitation.
Halfway there, he heard a weak voice from the roadside, “Young Master Chen, is that you?”
Jiang Chen looked over. There was a lovely boy hiding in a tuft of grass to the side. He was dirty, but his eyes were very bright.
Jiang Chen asked him, “What’s your name?”
“I am Tiger.”
“Is there anyone else here?”
Tiger nodded with hesitation. He was very obedient, maybe because his parents had told him not to offend Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen followed him to a cave. He saw ten-odd miners and their families hiding there in the dark.
“Tiger, where have you been? Why did you bring a stranger here?”
These people became scared when they saw Jiang Chen. They kept stepping back. Some men with weapons were staring at him aggressively.
“Jiang Chen!”
Someone recognized him when he approached.
“Young Master Chen! Great! We are saved! Young Master Chen, how many people have you brought here? We’ll go with you to kill those bastards of the Qingcheng Sect.”
“I am alone,” Jiang Chen said.
Jiang Chen’s answer disappointed them. The man who had offered to join the fight kept his mouth shut.
These were only miners. They weren’t warriors.
Jiang Chen didn’t take their hurt expressions seriously. “I only need you to tell me the situation on the mountain. Are any of you able to tell me the states of the people?” he asked.
“Young Master Chen, we’ve never practiced. We have no idea how states are divided, but we’ve heard that the disciples of the Qingcheng Sect are all in the Gathering Yuan State. There are more than thirty of them. Some of them are in the middle stage of the Gathering Yuan State.”
“Are they in the beginning or the peak of the middle stage?” Jiang Chen asked again. There were huge differences between these two.
But these miners shook their heads, having no idea.
“Fine. You stay here. Don’t leave.”
Jiang Chen continued to walk towards the mountain top.
…
On the mountain top, another blast sounded. With the quake of the mountain, the smoke from the collapsed caves seemed like it intended to devour the people there.
A group of men and women in black clothes were standing at a distance, armoured and armed to the teeth.
They were shouting towards the last cave.
“Jiangs, there is only one cave left now! If you don’t leave the cave, you will die inside!”
“Apprentice brother, are we really going to bomb the cave if they don’t come out?”
A pretty female disciple in the back of the group was looking puzzledly at one man.
The man was in his early twenties, and very handsome. His looks were as sharp as a razor.
He was Cao Song, the eldest disciple of the Qingcheng Sect.
“What else can we do? The cave extends in all directions. The Jiangs know it perfectly. It’s too risky for us to go inside. ”
“But after that, we will have to open the mines by ourselves. It’s a waste of time and energy,” the female disciple said.
“Apprentice sister, everything has a price. You can’t have it both ways. Besides, it won’t be us who will have to open the mines. Instead, it will be all the Jiangs in the Southwind Ridge, who will become our slaves.”
Cao Song suddenly smiled. The light in his eyes became even brighter. He lowered his voice, “Bomb the last cave when the incense stick burns out!”
“Yes!” The other disciples of the Qingcheng Sect shouted in unison.
The cave was still dark. No response came from it.
Cao Song wasn’t in a hurry. He was waiting patiently.
“Wait!”
When the incense stick was about to burn out, finally a voice came from the cave.
“Don’t bomb the cave!”
A group of people walked out of the cave slowly.
“Looks like they are afraid of death, too.” A disciple of the Qingcheng Sect sneered at them loudly.
The Jiangs’ warriors didn’t say anything in response to the harsh laugh. They just kept walking somberly.
When all the disciples were relaxed, Cao Song suddenly shouted, “Freeze! Disarm yourselves first!”
“Ah!”
The Jiangs’ warriors responded quickly. They threw themselves over to the disciples of the Qingcheng Sect with an angry shout, like a herd of ferocious wolves.
“Not one of the Jiangs will die kneeling!”
A warrior of the Jiangs went up to the disciple who had sneered at them and pierced his scimitar into the latter’s chest.
Whoosh!
At the same time, an arrow shot through his head.
“Kill them all!”
Cao Song shouted coldly, and notched another arrow on his bow.
The Jiangs’ warriors who had been cornered in the cave were already the underdogs. They would like to fight one last time before their death.
The disciples of the Qingcheng Sect were not as courageous as them, but the cruelness they showed, as they were overwhelmingly superior, was scary as well.
The Jiangs’ warriors fell one by one.
Then, a sharp sound ripped apart the sky.
One arrow after another flew over. They were as fast as lightning. The disciples of the Qingcheng Sect were shot.
“Who is shooting arrows?”
Cao Song was sure the Jiangs’ warriors didn’t have any bows, since they had taken away their bows, so he thought it was a mistake of his own people.
But soon, an arrow came after him.
“What a fast arrow! How is that possible?”
The speed of the arrow was beyond his imagination. He didn’t have any time to dodge it, so he tried to grasp it by instinct. He failed. The arrow had already pieced into his chest.
Fortunately, the arrow was stuck in his armour. It was only a flesh wound.
“Find a place to hide! Quick!” Cao Song shouted immediately.
The Jiangs’ warriors reacted, too. They ran in the direction the arrows came from.
Jiang Chen was standing there, holding a bow and shooting out arrows.
The only victory in a battle was to kill enemies, by fair means or foul. It was unnecessary to compete for the position of number one warrior.
Bows, as the king of all weapons, functioned wonderfully at this moment.
Besides, the one Jiang Chen was holding was a spiritual bow, which was super powerful.
“Young Master Chen, are you by yourself?” the Jiangs’ warriors who had run to him stood there, astonished.
“Yes. What about you? Are these the only ones left?”
Jiang Chen counted roughly. There were only ten-odd warriors.
The leader was a big, bareheaded man. He said, “Young Master Chen, the Qingcheng Sect launched a sneak attack. They occupied our arsenal and killed many of us.”
“What’s your name?” Jiang Chen asked.
“Please call me Huoniu.”
“Tell me about them.” Jiang Chen saw the Qingcheng Sect’s disciples hiding behind some rocks, so he put down his spiritual bow to take a rest.
Huoniu nodded and said, “There are more than thirty of them. Most of them are in the preliminary stage of the Gathering Yuan State. Two of them are in the middle stage, a man and a woman. The man is their eldest disciple. His name is Cao Song.”
Cao Song?
The name sounded familiar to Jiang Chen. The Hundred Thousand Mountains was its own world. Some powerful people were famous throughout this world.
Cao Song was one of these men. He became famous because he achieved the beginning of the preliminary stage of the Gathering Yuan State at an early age.
Cao Song shouted from behind the rock, “Who is that?” He knew there weren’t any reinforcements. Even if there were, they wouldn’t have many people.
This was because the mountain town of the Jiang Mansion had been besieged… Once he was finished with the events at the mine, he would join his companions to attack the city.