Shanghuang Tribe Is Developing Too

More than ten miles outside the Shanghuang Tribe.

In a lush forest, Huo Tang poked out his little head.

From afar, he gazed at an enormous mountain range in the distance, one half of it sheared flat.

Compared to the Blazing Flame Tribe's clan mountain, which spanned four or five miles, the entire Shanghuang Tribe lived on the mountain, and the floods had barely affected them.

Thanks to the tribe's earlier expeditions to scout the terrain, with Huo Tang personally leading the scouting party toward the Huang Tribe in the south, he had made it to the vicinity of the Shanghuang Tribe fairly easily.

Unfortunately, he could not get any closer.

The isolated hills outside the Shanghuang Tribe's clan mountain all had defensive watchposts built upon them.

Huo Tang stuffed his head and body full of branches, then lay prone amid the thick vegetation and peeked around. He planned to move closer after nightfall.

As the tribal chief, sneaking out to do this sort of spying did not make Huo Tang feel the slightest bit awkward. He would not trust anyone else to do it either.

A year had passed since the floods. The Blazing Flame Tribe had developed rapidly, but as he looked at the Shanghuang Tribe perched high above, the pride in his heart was suppressed.

Lingyu was too distant. The Shanghuang Tribe was the first hurdle right before his eyes.

Under the blazing sun and clear skies, thick black smoke rose above the Shanghuang Tribe's clan mountain, as though something was being scorched.

He waited until night had fallen before Huo Tang quietly slipped close to the Shanghuang Tribe to observe it.

Under the night sky, torches circled the clan mountain like a long dragon on patrol.

Bonfires had been lit at every watchpost atop the nearby isolated hills.

At the place that had belched thick smoke during the day, flames shot into the sky and joined into a sea of fire.

Even at night, the tribe was still busy at work.

After observing carefully for a long while, Huo Tang confirmed that the Shanghuang Tribe was smelting and forging.

After watching for less than half a shichen, Huo Tang quietly withdrew.

He was also afraid of being trapped. The Shanghuang Tribe openly had three Heaven Vein Warriors, while he had no idea how many they hid in the shadows.

Even Heaven Vein Warriors feared arrows. If a volley came at him and he could not evade it in time, his body would be riddled with holes.

Rumor had it that the Shanghuang Tribe's incomplete Martial Arts cultivation method could be cultivated to the Heaven Vein Ninth Tier.

But compared against Wu Zhiqi's account of cultivation in the Celestial Meridian Realm, it was clear that the Shanghuang Tribe had boasted far too much about that Martial Arts cultivation method.

If it truly could be cultivated to the Heaven Vein Ninth Tier, the Shanghuang Tribe could not possibly possess only this much strength.

Of course, boasting was one thing, but Huo Tang believed the Shanghuang Tribe definitely had several Heaven Vein Warriors hidden away.

Afterward, he continued hiding nearby and observing for several days, only to discover that the Shanghuang Tribe's forging had not stopped during that time.

The Shanghuang Tribe had mines, but there was no reason for them to forge day and night without pause.

Something was going on.

After thinking it over, Huo Tang headed toward the Shanghuang Tribe's mining area.

He could not infiltrate the Shanghuang Tribe itself, but perhaps he could pass himself off as a mine slave in the mining area.

Black Mountain Mine.

The Shanghuang Tribe had been mining it for over two hundred years.

Mine shafts and open-pit mines connected throughout the entire region, with heaps of broken stone piled everywhere.

Two gaunt figures in ragged clothes carried a breathless man to a large pit and tossed him straight inside.

Then, with numb expressions, they returned.

On a stone platform not far away, a Shanghuang Tribe warrior carrying a wooden bow on his back and gripping a ring-hilted saber in his hand watched the scene coldly.

At the bottom of the open-pit mine lay pools of murky black water. Figures continuously climbed out of the pit, either dragging large rattan baskets or hauling wooden buckets behind them.

The black water was dumped outside, while the ore in the baskets was poured into one designated spot.

People sorted through the crushed stones, picking the ore out from among them.

The excavated rubble did not contain much ore. Only stones with black or red tinges were worth forging.

After observing for two days, Huo Tang found that five mine slaves had died after being unable to endure it, while many others had suffered lashings and did not look likely to survive much longer.

Nearby mine pits were littered with burned, withered bones.

There were no fewer than two thousand mine slaves in the entire mining camp, while nearly two hundred Shanghuang Tribe members guarded the place.

Under the cover of night, Huo Tang, black from head to toe, crept outside the largest stone house in the mining camp.

He did not move. He simply wanted to listen for activity inside. Even one or two sentences related to the Shanghuang Tribe would make it worthwhile.

For several days in a row, he hid by day and emerged by night, his whole body smeared black like a charcoal ball. Squatting amid the rubble, he looked just like a large black stone.

"It's still too slow. The tribe is urging us again. At this rate, we simply cannot gather enough ore to smelt ten thousand jun of crude iron."

Inside the house, Huang Mao sat above while ten people stood below.

"Old Clan Uncle."

Just as Huang Chen, seated lower down on the left, opened his mouth, he was rebuked.

"At the mining camp, address me as Mine Overseer!"

"Yes, Mine Overseer."

Huang Chen shrank his head. "You know it too. There's plenty of groundwater now. Every basket of ore we dig out means hauling up several buckets of water at the same time.

"Our mine has low iron content, so we can only select ore with black or red tinges. Even if these mine slaves went without food or sleep every day, how much could they dig?"

"Exactly. Old Mine Overseer, unless the tribe captures another batch of mine slaves, this batch is nearly worn out already."

"If this continues, the number of mine slaves will likely plummet soon, and production will fall even further."

"Shut up, all of you."

Huang Mao berated everyone present. "After the floods, nearly three thousand mine slaves were captured for you bit by bit. Now, not even two thousand remain. With the plague disaster, where nearby can we still capture mine slaves?"

"Mine Overseer, the water in the mine pits cannot be scraped clean no matter how hard we try. These people soak in the water all day long. It would be strange if their bodies stayed healthy. It is not as though we are simply being excessively harsh."

"Why is the tribe in such a hurry? Why must we gather ten thousand jun of crude iron before the annual sacrifice? Couldn't we relax the deadline and wait until next year..."

"Shut up! The clan chief has his reasons for the arrangement!"

Huang Mao shouted angrily. "The tribe needs to gather ten thousand jun of crude iron. This concerns a major matter of trade for the tribe. The mining camp must ensure the ore supply."

The house fell silent.

"Are you all deaf? Speak! If you cannot think of a solution, stay here today and think until your brains burst."

"What solution could we have? The iron content is so low that even if all of us went digging, we still could not extract enough before the annual sacrifice."

"Old Clan Uncle, we definitely cannot finish with our current manpower alone. How about informing the tribe and having them capture more mine slaves?"

Huang Mao rubbed his forehead. "After the plague disaster, the small tribes throughout the surrounding region were swept clean by us.

"The women we captured were all absorbed into the tribe and are now busy chopping firewood. You should know how much firewood it takes to smelt crude iron.

"The able-bodied men are all at the mines. Where would there be anyone left to capture mine slaves for you?"

Huang Chen spoke up. "Then go farther south and capture them. Are we supposed to capture them from that dead land in the Northern Mountains?"

The plague disaster had surged out from the Northern Giant Peak Mountain Range. Previously, the tribe had not encountered many tribes while heading north, had captured few mine slaves, yet had run into several swarms of plague bugs. Even the tribe's warriors had become infected.

Under such circumstances, there were probably not many people left north of the tribe.

"Then you go capture them." Huang Mao glared. "The tribe has limited manpower. Most of the warriors must escort the trade routes. Otherwise, the roads would be far too dangerous."

"Old Clan Uncle, you will not give us people, and you will not give us a solution. We cannot dig out the ore."

"Get out, all of you! Tomorrow, you will dig alongside them. If that still is not enough, this old man will personally start digging too."

Under Huang Mao's furious roar, the people inside the house fled like the wind, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

After sitting there blankly for a while, Huang Mao quickly left the mining area and headed back toward the tribal grounds.

Once Huo Tang saw him go far away, he quietly moved toward another house.

This row of houses was where the overseers lived.

"Old Clan Uncle is desperate too, but there is simply no way for us to increase ore production more than tenfold in such a short time. The tribe's deadline is too rushed."

"There is nothing we can do. Crude iron is the only thing our tribe has that can be put on the table."

"Ten thousand jun of crude iron. What exactly does the tribe intend to exchange for at Copper Shell Market? Do any of you know?"

"Huang Yun, you tell us. I remember that after the floods, you went to the ancestral temple. The tribe gathered so many Iron Wood Boat fragments—did they discover some secret?"

"That's right. At first, we searched everywhere for Iron Wood Boat wreckage. Later, we stopped looking for Iron Wood Boats and increased the mining output instead."

Huang Yun was a young man with a somewhat gaunt frame.

"How would I know? The temple priest only had me look at the patterns on those Iron Wood Boats. I did not understand any of it."

"Still, the little brat from Big Brother A Fu's family is lucky. The temple priest accepted him as a disciple. Maybe he really saw something in those patterns."

"The tribe is in such a hurry to smelt ten thousand jun of crude iron. Perhaps it truly has something to do with the Iron Wood Boats."

Within the rubble outside the house, Huo Tang wished he could rush inside, seize them all, and pour out every word from their bellies.

But wishing was one thing. He still curled up amid the stone pile like a rock, muttering continuously in his heart.

Keep talking. Say more. I love hearing it.