Southern Border Prisoner

Southern Border, Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.

In a dark and damp giant cave, a water droplet fell from a stalactite hanging from the ceiling and cliff face. With a "plop," it landed on the forehead of a fair-skinned, thirteen or fourteen-year-old young man below.

The young man's lips were tinged with blue. Startled by the water droplet, he shivered violently and slowly opened his eyes.

He looked up at the dark ceiling, stunned for a moment, and struggled to sit up.

"Hiss..."

The pain from all over his body made him gasp involuntarily.

However, his will seemed quite resilient. He endured the pain and managed to sit up, leaning back against the damp, slippery cave wall.

His movements caused a series of "clanking" sounds, which were followed by a chorus of groans.

The young man was startled and looked around warily. He then realized that in the surrounding darkness, there were at least two to three hundred shadowy figures.

His wrist was shackled with heavy chains, and a lock extended from it, connecting to the shackles on the wrists of over ten people nearby, linking them all together.

"Where am I?" The young man's heart filled with questions in his surprise.

He pondered for a while but was horrified to find no answer.

The young man felt his mind was a complete blank. His memories of the past were hazy, and he couldn't recall anything. The only thing he could remember was his name: Yuan Ming.

He had lost his memory!

Before Yuan Ming could figure out what was happening, a heavy "rumbling" sound suddenly came from afar, making his heart tremble as if a heavy iron door had been pushed open.

Immediately after, a burst of fire tore through the darkness, and seven or eight burly men, holding torches, wearing animal skins, and carrying curved scimitars at their waists, escorted a tall, half-naked man.

In the flickering firelight, Yuan Ming saw that these people had reddish-brown skin, bulging muscles, and prominent lines, exuding a wild, primal aura.

Especially the half-naked man leading them; his muscle lines were even more defined than the others, and he radiated an explosive power, looking like a temple guardian.

However, their hairstyles were peculiar. The hair around the sides of their heads was shaved off, leaving only a tuft on top tied into a thick braid.

As Yuan Ming watched, for some reason, the words "Southern Barbarian" inexplicably surfaced in his mind.

As this thought arose, a portion of his memory seemed to piece itself together, revealing fragmented images.

In those images, he saw bustling, prosperous marketplaces, luxurious mansions, and crowds dressed in fine silks. Looking down at his own clothes, now tattered into strips, Yuan Ming was certain that he and these Southern Barbarians before him were not the same kind of people.

Just as Yuan Ming was filled with confusion, the naked man at the front suddenly glanced in his direction and uttered a string of words in a guttural language.

Yuan Ming listened to the strange pronunciation, which was completely different from the language in his memory, yet he understood it instantly.

This was the Southern Barbarian language!

The man said, "Last one. Hurry up, don't miss anyone."

The men in animal skins, each holding a torch, stepped forward. They each took out something that looked like a beast bone, embedded with a thumb-sized red stone.

"Who are you? What are you doing?" Seeing one of them approach him, Yuan Ming, feigning calmness, asked in the Southern Barbarian language.

The naked man glanced at him, a hint of surprise on his face. The Southern Barbarian who had walked up to him let out a low growl and swung his torch towards Yuan Ming's cheek.

Yuan Ming dodged to the side, and the torch grazed his shoulder, hitting the wall and scattering sparks.

The flying sparks startled someone next to Yuan Ming, who let out a "wah" and desperately shrank back, trying to burrow into a crevice at the base of the rock wall.

In the firelight, Yuan Ming saw that this person was bare-chested and wore a skirt woven from dry grass. His skin was dark, his frame gaunt, and his hair matted, making him look like a savage.

The Southern Barbarian bent down, grabbed the savage's ankle, and with a slight pull, dragged him out. Then, amidst the savage's violent struggles, he held the beast bone above his head.

The beast bone first lit up with a cluster of blue, ghost-like flames, and then the red stone embedded in its center also suddenly lit up.

However, as soon as the red light appeared, it immediately extinguished.

Seeing this, the naked man frowned and shook his head.

The Southern Barbarian holding the savage's ankle didn't hesitate. He drew the curved scimitar at his waist and swung it towards the savage's head.

With a "thud," a scream rang out. The savage's struggles immediately slowed, and he gradually fell silent.

"They killed him..." Yuan Ming felt a warm splash of blood on his cheek, his breath filled with a sickening smell of blood, and his mind went blank.

A chill rose from the depths of his heart, stiffening his body and making him forget to dodge.

Of course, he couldn't escape anyway.

His wrist was still bound by the cold chain to the still-warm corpse.

Before he could recover, the light before his eyes dimmed, and a beast bone was placed above his head.

Accompanied by the eerie blue ghost fire, a red light, like a candle flame, lit up but did not immediately extinguish.

Only after several breaths did the red light slowly fade.

The beast-skin-clad man holding the beast bone placed a hand on the hilt of his scimitar and turned to look at the naked man.

The latter pondered for a moment, seeming hesitant, but then nodded.

Only then did the beast-skin-clad man release his grip on the scimitar and turn to walk towards another person.

After he left, Yuan Ming finally recovered from his fear.

He suppressed all his doubts and shock and looked around. He then noticed that almost everyone else bound by chains were savages with disheveled hair.

They, like himself, had been tested one by one with that beast bone on their heads in their panic.

Any whose red light flashed and extinguished were summarily executed with a single stroke of the blade. Only those whose red light on their heads persisted for a moment were allowed to live.

For a time, the sounds of wailing, exclamations, and the clanging of metal from dragging chains filled the air, one after another, ceaselessly.

It lasted for about an hour, and the entire cave was filled with a heavy scent of blood.

Seeing that all the tests were complete, the naked strongman began to issue orders in a guttural language.

Following that, Yuan Ming and the more than ten survivors were untied from their chains, then re-equipped with handcuffs and shackles, and led to the side to wait.

Yuan Ming felt a little uneasy, not knowing what these people intended to do, and dared not ask.

However, from the behavior of those Southern Barbarians just now, it was not difficult to infer that they had passed some kind of selection process and should not be killed for the time being.

At this moment, the leading naked strongman suddenly took out a silver bell, about an inch long, from his waist. He held its wooden handle upright and began to shake it.

"Clang..."

A clear, ethereal bell sound rang out, echoing in the vast cave.

The moment Yuan Ming heard the sound, he felt as if his head had been struck a heavy blow. There was no pain, but he felt a violent dizziness, and even the scenes before his eyes became layered and blurred.

In a hazy, illusory state, Yuan Ming saw a spiritual light ignite above the heads of the corpses in the cave, followed by vague shadows drifting out one after another.

After the shadows floated out from above the corpses, they merged one by one, eventually becoming identical to the bodies.

Yuan Ming was startled and sobered up a bit.

He then discovered with horror that those floating shadows were not his eyes playing tricks on him; they were all real.

They were all just bowing their heads, their legs suspended, floating above the corpses.

Yuan Ming gulped hard and looked at the naked strongman, seeing him holding the bell and shaking it again.

"Clang"

The same ethereal sound rang out. This time, Yuan Ming did not feel obvious dizziness. He watched as the suspended shadows all drifted towards the bell in the naked strongman's hand.

As they approached, the shadows turned into points of light, merged into the bell, and disappeared.

"Could it be... that these shadows are the souls of those people?" This thought arose in Yuan Ming's mind, sending a chill down his spine.

If he hadn't passed that mysterious test, he would not only have lost his head by now, but his soul would likely have been drawn out like those people.

"The harvest is quite good, thirteen of them. Alright, let's regroup and prepare for the return journey," the naked strongman said, putting away the bell and wiping the sweat from his forehead.

It seemed that shaking the bell twice had taken a considerable toll on him.

Yuan Ming stared blankly at the bell in the strongman's hand. Although he didn't know what it was, it was clear that these Southern Barbarians were no ordinary people.

Three days later, in a valley shrouded in mist within the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

A team, their faces uniformly covered with a piece of blue beast skin, was making its way through the poisonous miasma of intertwined purple and green colors.

These people were clearly divided into two categories: one group consisted of Southern Barbarians dressed in beast skins and carrying curved knives at their waists. There were only about twenty of them, positioned at both ends of the team, with a few occasionally moving within to maintain order. The other group comprised prisoners with bare upper bodies and shackles on their hands, forming a long line, silently lowering their heads as they marched.

Yuan Ming, as part of the latter group, was sandwiched in the crowd, trudging along with the team, his feet sinking into the mud.

For the past few days, they had been traveling through mountains and muddy terrain. He had not spoken a word, nor had anyone inquired of him. However, from the limited conversations among the Southern Barbarians, Yuan Ming learned that their current location was called "Southern Border," and their destination was the "Jade Luo Cave."

According to those Southern Border strongmen, it was a place blessed by the gods, their sacred ground for cultivation, and they themselves were the chosen ones being sent to receive the gods' gifts.

Given the sinister and strange methods of these people, Yuan Ming did not believe that "Jade Luo Cave" would be any good place, nor that anything good awaited him. However, with his fate in their hands, he could only take things one step at a time.

Even worse, his memory had not returned at all, and he still couldn't remember who he was.

But his residual memories of the "Central Plains" depicted a far more prosperous land than this uncivilized place. He should have come from there, but why had he ended up here from the Central Plains, and in such a severely injured state? Had he been framed by villains, or was he being pursued by enemies?

Yuan Ming's mind was filled with countless thoughts, but he secretly resolved to uncover everything!

Fortunately, amidst his misfortune, the Southern Border strongmen had not further troubled them along the way.

During the journey, they would distribute food to them, the prisoners, on time. Although it was only some unpalatable dried fruit and meager dried meat, they also applied herbal ointments to their wounds.

It was during the treatment that Yuan Ming discovered he had over thirty wounds of varying sizes, including lacerations, abrasions, and penetrating wounds, with even a broken rib.

The herbal ointment applied by the Southern Border strongmen was indeed effective. In just three days, almost all his external wounds had healed, leaving only the broken rib, which would take time to recover. Apart from some pain, it did not affect his movement.

Now that they had entered this poisonous miasma valley, the Southern Border strongmen had also issued them beast skins for protection against the poison. This made Yuan Ming even more cautious.