Settling the Score
"What bears?! It's Profound Nether Main City! Those bandits from Profound Nether Main City who have sons without an anus!"
The short, stout priest wiped the blood from his face and screamed in utter grief and rage, "Three months ago, they came to Blackstone Mountain to trade with their Trade Gold Slip, and everything was fine at first. But when those bastards entered the mining area and saw the Red Essence Copper Marrow we were mining, their eyes turned green with envy!"
"Then what?"
Chen Fan suppressed his mischievous smile, his eyes becoming calm.
"Then they tried to trade two baskets of rotten Spirit Grain for a whole cartload of top-grade copper marrow!"
The fat man pointed at the severely injured miners on the ground, his voice shrill, his fat trembling with rage. "When the brothers refused to give it to us, those guards pulled out bone knives and started hacking, injuring more than a dozen of our mining brothers on the spot!"
"I went up to reason with them and laid out the rules of our Sunset Gorge New Alliance. The caravan's guard commander just sneered and said we were nothing but a bunch of ignorant mountain dogs, daring to talk to the Profound Nether Main City about rules!"
The fat man pointed to his sunken chest, his eyes filled with resentment and frustration. "That bastard was a late-stage Seventh Rank expert. He kicked me and broke three of my ribs! He even hung me on the flagpole in the mining area and whipped me all day! They even forcibly confiscated the tens of thousands of kilograms of spirit ore we mined!"
The main hall was deathly silent.
The dozen or so Fire Crow warriors guarding the area gripped their Bone Spears tightly, veins bulging on their arms, eyes bloodshot, breathing heavily like oxen, yet they dared not utter a word.
Profound Nether Main City.
The only colossal entity within a radius of 30,000 li, a super overlord overseeing six Eighth-Order giants.
To the indigenous tribes of the Black Wilderness, the people in that majestic city were no different from gods high above.
After the short, stout priest finished his lament, he lay on the ground, panting heavily, his whole body trembling as he looked at Chen Fan.
Chen Fan did not speak immediately.
The carefree and nonchalant look on his face vanished completely in that instant, and his deep, dark eyes remained as still as an ancient, icy pool.
But deep within those seemingly calm eyes, a chilling, bone-chilling ferocity was gathering wildly.
Chen Fan squatted down and casually patted the fat man's swollen and bruised face.
"When did it become the business of these stray dogs to discipline my people?"
Chen Fan slowly straightened up, looking down at the vast Great Wilderness outside the hall. His tone was casual, yet chillingly cold:
"Those lords from the main city who beat people up, are they still in Blackstone Mountain?"
"They're here! Those bastards have no intention of leaving!"
The short, stout priest clutched his collapsed ribs, his mouth twisted and eyes squinting from the pain, and his speech slurred.
"They directly occupied our main mine's barracks, killed our raised spirit deer for roasting and eating, and even erected the Profound Nether Command Banner at the mine entrance, saying that Blackstone Mountain would henceforth be their commander's private property!"
Chen Fan pulled a round, bright red pill from his sleeve and flicked it into the fat man's wide-open mouth.
Swallow it.
The pill melted instantly upon entering the mouth, transforming into a warm, scalding current that flowed down the throat.
The fat man felt a tingling sensation at the fracture site, and the excruciating pain subsided by more than half. His previously bruised and dark complexion visibly regained its rosy hue.
"This... this is Seventh-Rank Bone-Mending Resurrection Pill?!"
The fat man's eyes widened in surprise.
Such a life-saving elixir, even if you traded a small mountain stronghold for it in the Great Wilderness, you might not be able to get it, yet their own leader casually tossed it over like a sugar pill.
Chen Fan patted the dust off his clothes, a harmless smile playing on his lips.
"We can't let this medicine go unused. Let's go, lead the way, let's collect the debt."
"Chief, they have over thirty Sixth Stage Peak experts, and their commander is a solid late-stage Seventh Rank warrior. Are we... really not taking the tribe's warriors with us?"
The fat man swallowed hard, his heart pounding.
"Why bring them over there? To see you get beaten up like this?"
Chen Fan glanced at him sideways, then stepped out of the main hall. "Finish this in a quarter of an hour. I still need some meat soup when I get back."
The fat man shrank his neck, and seeing that this excessively young master looked relaxed, he gritted his teeth and jogged after him on his short legs.
Blackstone Mountains, main mining area.
The entire valley was filled with the pungent smell of sulfur and copper rust, and the ground was riddled with potholes.
In front of the council camp that originally belonged to the Fire Crow Tribe, the battle flag embroidered with black background and red patterns had been trampled into the mud and torn into several pieces of cloth. In its place was a Blackwater Giant Python Banner fluttering in the wind.
Dozens of burly warriors, clad in heavy black armor, stood imposingly around a bonfire, clutching roasted, greasy animal legs and chugging cheap wine from large bowls, their wild laughter echoing through the valley.
At the mine entrance, several Fire Crow Tribe miners, suspended upside down from wooden stakes by hemp ropes, had already suffered cuts and lacerations, with blood dripping from their hair, and were barely breathing.
In the very center of the camp, a burly man with a dark face and a face full of scars leaned against a stone chair covered with a snow-white tiger skin.
The man, whose right arm was bare and whose skin was covered with blue-glowing Blackwater Snake Mark, was none other than Duan Heavenly Wolf, the guard commander of the Profound Nether Main City caravan.
As he picked at the bits of meat stuck between his teeth with a bone skewer, he glanced sideways at the miner hanging upside down and sneered.
"A bunch of ignorant barbarians! It's a miracle you're mining for my Profound Nether Main City! Your ancestors' graves are emitting auspicious smoke! You dare to ask me for a price? One more snarl, and I'll chop you all up and feed you to the dogs!"
"Commander, that fat pig that got beaten up ran back to Fire Crow Old Stronghold to get reinforcements. Could it be that he really dares to send people?"
A guard wielding a heavy iron spear approached with a fawning smile.
Duan Heavenly Wolf scoffed, his eyes filled with disdain.
"Call for help? In this Black Wilderness land, who with a brain would dare to touch the people of my Profound Nether Main City? They'd be lucky to get ten lives! If they really dare to come, I'll raze their entire village to the ground, the men to mine, and the women to be forced into prostitution!"
The heavily armored guards around immediately burst into a lewd jeer.
Clatter
A very light footstep suddenly rang out at the entrance of the camp, directly drowning out the wild laughter that filled the area.
Duan Heavenly Wolf paused slightly in his movements and looked up.
Just then, at the bend in the mountain path, the short, fat priest, whose ribs he had recently broken and who had been beaten for a whole day, emerged with his head tucked in.
Beside the fat man was a tall and slender young man dressed in a plain black robe.
The boy looked nonchalant, his hands tucked into his sleeves, his gaze sweeping aimlessly across the camp before finally settling on the half-torn Fire Crow Battle Banner on the ground.
"Oh, you really came back?"
Duan Heavenly Wolf spat the bone skewer onto the ground, slowly sat up straight, glanced at Chen Fan, and then burst into unrestrained laughter.
"Fatty Zhao, have you lost your mind after being beaten? I told you to go back and get the mine Land Deeds, and where the hell did you bring this brat who hasn't even grown his beard yet? What, is this the young master of your Fire Crow Tribe, who came all this way to kowtow and serve tea to me?"