Desperate Mine

After three days of rest, Yuan and the other conscripted villagers began their upside-down mining lives, working through day and night.

Today was Yuan's shift. For some reason, they rotated shifts very frequently. Basically, after spending half a day down in the mine, they were forcibly replaced.

Still, that was a good thing. Otherwise, with such intense labor and the thin gruel in their bowls without even a trace of oil, their bodies would have given out long ago.

Even so, terrifying incidents continued to occur in this mine that held over ten thousand people.

Yuan, down in the mine, wiped away the sweat seeping into his eyes. Throughout the tunnel, an unfamiliar ghostly blue glow flickered faintly.

Though it was not his first time here, every time Yuan saw that beautiful sight, he felt an inexplicable dread.

"Shift change for Group Seven!" The overseer's brass whistle tore through the damp air, signaling that Yuan's next team had officially begun its work for the day.

After greeting the village chief, Yuan slowly walked into the tunnel. Behind him was Wizel, who was a year older than he was.

Wizel was also from a small village and had suffered much the same fate. But from Yuan's perspective, the man seemed to have run into a serious problem today.

He suddenly stumbled and collapsed to the ground, vomiting a huge mouthful of blood that splattered across Yuan's arm.

Blood pooled on the ground, glinting with an eerie metallic sheen beneath the midday sun, as though it were mixed with countless impurities.

"Help me... give this to Lilia..." Wizel trembled as he tore the tin tag from around his neck. The broken leather cord ripped away a large patch of ulcerated skin.

Such a horrifying scene left not only Yuan but even the elderly miners around him stunned.

"No, I don't know her. Why are you giving it to me?" Yuan received no answer, because Wizel was already dead.

Yuan picked up the tin tag, still warm from Wizel's body. A needle-like pain suddenly stabbed his palm. At the same time, white cervical vertebrae showed through the ulcerated flesh on Wizel's neck, yellow-green pus oozing from the gaps between the bones.

Before Yuan could ask anything, a miner who seemed to be Wizel's friend painfully picked up the rope tied around Wizel's foot.

As he pulled, the rope gradually tightened. The two heavily armored soldiers outside seemed to have received word and began pulling from the opposite direction as well.

That was right. Each of them had a long rope tied to their feet. It was not meant to stop them from escaping, but to make collecting their corpses easier after they died.

Those soldiers did not want to enter the mine either. It was as though they knew there was something terrifying within, which was why they had come up with such a clumsy method.

As for the panic it caused, or whether the corpses would be dragged beyond recognition, that was not something they needed to consider.

The rope dragged the mangled corpse across the ground, plowing two winding trails of blood through the rocky floor.

"Gods, that makes one hundred and thirty-seven." The old miner Brook whispered beside Yuan's ear.

He removed his worn-out leather glove, exposing festering sores between his knuckles. Endless sorrow filled his face.

"Hans, who buried the bodies this morning, started coughing up clots of blood by noon. This place is cursed by the gods. It is the dwelling of devils. Maybe I'll be next."

That was right. Only a few days after work began, this was already the one hundred and thirty-seventh miner to die.

One hundred and thirty-seven corpses had been piled into the corpse pit at the northwest corner. Yellow-green blood scabs had congealed at the corners of every mouth.

Some still had unclosed eyes, staring blankly toward the mine. Their faces had rotted beyond recognition, making the horrifying sight all the more chilling.

The old miner's words made Yuan feel as though his own body were beginning to ache faintly, but he said nothing.

He found a small corner and sat down steadily, as though savoring the last moments of his life.

That was right. He had no intention of resisting. A few nights ago, he had carefully observed the area and discovered that the soldiers stationed here were not limited to the hundred men behind Harris.

At night, there was a camp not far away. Faint firelight flickered there, and the neighing of fine horses could occasionally be heard.

The trembling of the sand and gravel on the surface showed that there was also a large cavalry force there.

Apart from the small hill beside this cave, the surrounding land was completely flat.

There was not the slightest hope of victory if they tried to fight those soldiers with mining tools as weapons.

"I'm not doing this anymore!"

Danny's sudden shout shattered the silence in the mine. He threw down his iron pickaxe, and blood seeping from his knees had already soaked through the legs of his linen trousers.

"Last night, Vince's intestines came out from... from there. Didn't any of you see it?"

The entire mine abruptly fell silent again. Only the sound of dripping water echoed through the blue light.

Yuan saw Danny's pupils contracting violently. This youth, who could still carry stone three days ago, now had ribs so sharp they nearly pierced his thin chest.

"Damn it, what are the people inside doing? Why hasn't any ore come out after so long?" Harris's voice came from outside the mine.

He held a round object in his hand, large on one end and small on the other. Yuan had no idea what it was, but the sound coming from it was incredibly loud.

Even with Harris screaming outside, everyone inside the mine could hear him.

"Start mining immediately! If no more ore comes out, then don't come out yourselves, understand?"

After he finished speaking, the miners seemed to awaken from a dream and raised their tools to start digging. Seeing this, Yuan stood up as well and picked up the iron pickaxe from the ground.

As the pickaxes slammed heavily into the rock wall, the mine once again filled with mechanical pounding, as though the deaths from moments earlier had never happened and the usual clamor had returned.

Ding! Ding!

Ding!

Bang! Bang!

Several small stones falling down interrupted Yuan as he worked hard at mining. He looked up in confusion, and his pupils immediately shrank.

A sharp crack of breaking wood came from high in the depths of the mine. It was one of the support beams, the beam holding up their very lives.

"This is bad. The mine is collapsing."

"The mine is collapsing! The mine is collapsing! Run!"

Yuan was not the only one who saw it. Many of the other miners noticed as well, and panic immediately spread through everyone's hearts.

Everyone threw down their tools and sprinted toward the exit with all their strength. Yuan was among them, shoved along by the crowd as he ran desperately outside.

Yet what awaited them was not light, but a dark mass of soldiers holding spears.

"All of you, stop right there! What are you afraid of? Get back inside! You haven't met today's quota, so you must finish it!"

Harris glared mercilessly at the miners trying to escape through the entrance. His words made everyone's hearts sink.

Splat!

Splat!

At Harris's signal, two soldiers randomly stabbed several miners near the outside and sent them sprawling to the ground.

"Defying the king's command is a death worthy crime. Now get back inside immediately."

"The mine is collapsing. Going back in now means certain death."

"That's right. You're treating human lives like grass."

"Fight them!"

A voice from nowhere rang around the mine, and countless miners, their eyes bloodshot, picked up their tools and erupted into rebellion.

It was clear that after only a few days, the stench of death in the mine had nearly driven them mad.

"You're courting death!"

Harris, dressed in splendid clothes, was not as weak as everyone had imagined. He casually drew the longsword from a nearby soldier's side and wielded it with practiced ease.

Before long, several people had been cut down by him. Just as Yuan expected, the loud uprising here had drawn the attention of the cavalry.

Chaos. It was utter chaos.

Harris and over a hundred soldiers were surrounded by the miners, but with their armor, sharp blades, and disciplined training, they had more than enough strength to defend themselves.

Yuan knew that in less than a quarter of an hour, the distant cavalry would charge over. Left with no choice, he let everyone rush ahead of him.

He, meanwhile, silently retreated backward.

But amid the chaos, there was nowhere for him to slip away. Clearly, the kingdom had dealt with this situation many times before.

Tall fences surrounded the mine, covered in countless crisscrossing spikes of different sizes to prevent climbing.

Even if everyone cut the ropes from their feet, they would have no chance of escape.

The black blood scabs covering the fences and the surrounding ground made Yuan immediately understand why the kingdom's latest conscription had demanded so many people.

"Damn bastards... don't tell me everyone from the last batch died."

At that moment, under the desperate gazes of countless miners, Harris's cavalry force arrived.

The heavily armored cavalry came charging in at high speed, their iron hooves lined with barbs raised high. The wolf-fang spikes on the horseshoes flashed coldly as they effortlessly crushed the bodies of countless miners.

Red, white, blue—countless colors sprayed through the air and intertwined into a deadly sort of beauty.

"Lowly scum, you've dirtied my armor. In the name of kingdom law, soldiers, trample their bodies and crush their bones."