The mountain path was steeped in blood. Tattered corpses were strewn all along the way, and the blood that seeped from them pooled together, flowing down the mountain like a crimson spring.
The chaos in the town below was easy to see from the mountain. As Chu Mu made his way up, he passed team after team of Inspectors heading down, all clearly mobilized by the disturbance.
Clad in his Inspector Armor and carrying a Waist Token, he was heading uphill against the flow. In a situation like this, no one paid him any mind.
’If he had a choice,’ Chu Mu thought, ’unless he could utterly crush that man in white, he would rather shed this Inspector’s skin and never set foot on this mountain again.’
But a nagging suspicion in his heart left Chu Mu deeply unsettled. If he didn’t confirm a few things, the consequences seed far too terrifying to imagine.
It was a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. Given the current chaos, the danger of coming to the mine was surely the lighter burden.
After traversing the blood-soaked path, he finally reached the summit. It was still a scene of carnage. In the distance, he could still see many of the Forced Laborers attempting to flee.
Amid the pervasive gore, a considerable number of Forced Laborers knelt on the ground with their hands on their heads, held at the point of gleaming blades.
"Brother Mu, over here!"
As Chu Mu was surveying the scene, a shout ca from nearby. He looked toward the sound and saw several familiar faces.
"Team Leader!"
"Team Leader!"
Several Inspectors saluted him one after another. Chu Mu nodded, scanned his surroundings, and then turned to Xu Yuan, who had just been waving at him excitedly.
"Brother Mu, I just killed three of them!"
Xu Yuan’s face was spattered with blood. He was both showing off excitedly and still looked shaken with fear.
"Keeping your life is what’s important. With those third-rate skills of yours, don’t get yourself killed!"
"Hehe, Brother Mu, don’t worry. I wasn’t charging in too fast..."
Chu Mu surveyed the area and asked casually, "By the way, what’s the situation now?"
"It was already over by the ti I got up here. The rioters had already been routed. Then the Hundred Households led the chase. A few dozen of us captured several hundred of them..."
"There’s not much going on now. A bunch of rioters escaped into the mountains, and so n have gone after them. Then we heard there was trouble in town..."
"Oh yeah, Brother Mu, didn’t you just co from town? What’s it like down there?"
Chu Mu shook his head. "They’ve already rebelled. If you were one of them, what would you do?"
Xu Yuan answered without hesitation, "Run! I’d definitely run as far as I could!"
"Exactly."
Chu Mu said noncommittally, "Rebellion is a capital offense anyway. They might as well go for broke. If they see sothing to loot, they’ll loot it before they run."
"With money and food, they’ll have more confidence to make a run for it."
Xu Yuan looked frightened in hindsight. "Then the town right now must be..."
"The smart ones would have looted and run. As for those who aren’t so bright... it’s hard to say."
Chu Mu shook his head. "But when I was coming up, plenty of n were already heading down. And the ones who happened to run into town should only be a small number..."
As he finished speaking, the Inspectors present all fell silent. It was clear most of them were worried about their families in town.
Only Xu Yuan kept chattering away, carefree. With his parents dead and only an uncle who was rotten to the core, Xu Yuan clearly didn’t have a care in the world.
"Yo, if it isn’t Divine Doctor Chu?"
"What a rare sight!"
During the silence, a teasing voice ca from behind. Chu Mu’s lip twitched. He turned to see Wu Shuo approaching, a mocking look on his face.
"Hundred Households."
Chu Mu clasped his fist in salute.
Wu Shuo looked Chu Mu up and down. When he saw the bloodstains on him, his mocking expression faded sowhat.
"You just ca from town, right? What’s the situation there?"
It was the sa question, and Chu Mu could only give the sa answer again.
"These wretched commoners, they deserve to die!"
Wu Shuo’s face darkened considerably.
"On my way up the mountain, I passed by your house, Hundred Households. The elders are all safe..."
"It was just a few rioters who happened to flee into town. Your ho has guards protecting it, Hundred Households. And by the ti I was coming up, a large number of Inspectors were already heading down..."
Hearing Chu Mu’s words, the look on Wu Shuo’s face eased slightly.
Chu Mu asked tentatively, "Hundred Households, this uprising... is it..."
Wu Shuo shot Chu Mu a glance. "Didn’t you experience it firsthand earlier?"
Seeing that Wu Shuo was unwilling to say more, Chu Mu didn’t press the matter. At that mont, Wu Shuo changed the subject, his gaze on Chu Mu turning sowhat strange.
"Your luck, kid, is really sothing awful."
"?"
Chu Mu was confused.
Wu Shuo said grimly, "The Thousand Households has given an order. Our company is to escort all the captured rioters to Mining Area Nineteen."
"Mining Area Nineteen?"
Chu Mu was even more stunned. "The mine... I thought there were only eighteen mining areas?"
The mont the words left his mouth, Chu Mu realized. His pupils constricted, and he stared sharply at Wu Shuo.
"Why else do you think I said your luck is awful, kid!"
Wu Shuo also seed exasperated. "You’ve been dragging your feet and refusing to report for duty all this ti. Wasn’t it because you were afraid of this?"
"..."
Chu Mu was speechless. After a long mont, he finally asked, "Is it too late for to go back down the mountain?"
"Hahaha..."
Wu Shuo burst out laughing, then shook his head, his tone holding a deeper aning. "Don’t worry. This mine, these Forced Laborers... we’re still the ones who have to watch over them!"
After speaking, Wu Shuo glanced around at the Inspectors present.
"All right, stop standing around! The Thousand Households has given the order! All Rebels are to be escorted to Mining Area Nineteen!"
Chu Mu turned to Xu Yuan. "How many prisoners did our team capture?"
"The Hundred Households just had us do a count. We caught about a hundred!"
Xu Yuan pointed to a nearby mining pit. "They’re all over there. Li Wei and the others are watching them!"
Chu Mu followed Xu Yuan’s pointing finger. In a nearby pit, a dense mass of heads swayed. They were all kneeling with their hands on their heads, and many of the Forced Laborers were visibly bound with ropes.
"Go make the arrangents."
Chu Mu waved his hand dismissively. Xu Yuan acknowledged the order, already used to Chu Mu’s hands-off style of leadership.
After all, ever since his Brother Chu had beco team leader, he had transferred Xu Yuan from another unit and dumped all the team’s affairs on him. His colleagues often joked about him being the "deputy team leader," and it seed they weren’t far from the truth.
As the orders were issued, hundreds of Inspectors moved out. Forced to move with them were the countless captured "rioters."
From Mining Area One at the top of the pit, they snaked down the winding path into the mine, forming a long, dragon-like procession heading toward Mining Area Nineteen—a place that existed outside the official layout of the Nanshan Mine.
The uprising, it seed, had been utterly aningless.
Or rather, ever since the Nanshan Iron Ore mine had opened, every uprising had been aningless.
Other than staining the mountainside a deeper shade of red, nothing had changed. What was, still was.
Those high above remained high above, and those as lowly as dust remained in the dust.
The common sense of the secular world, axioms like "the water that carries the boat can also capsize it," had beco completely useless in the face of a power that transcended the mundane...
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