Scout Team

The carriage jolted along the rugged mountain road.

Besides Li Tui, two other men sat in the carriage. One stared blankly at the canopy, lost in thought, while the other hugged his knees and stifled his sobs.

No one spoke. The only sounds were the monotonous rumble of wheels crushing gravel and the guards outside occasionally shouting threats.

Li Tui curled up in the innermost corner, his back against the cold carriage wall. He kept his eyes closed, his head swaying slightly with each jolt. His face was pale, his lips pressed tight.

To anyone looking, he was just a half-grown boy, exhausted and terrified.

Only Li Tui knew that the true qi within him was slowly circulating through the Qingmu Jue. At a time like this, he needed strength more than ever. Even if it was only a little more.

'Lin Shouyi had only just gotten into trouble, and I was already branded a criminal and sent here.' Li Tui coolly reasoned it out. 'The mine must be desperately short on workers, or... something else has gone wrong.'

'A head-on confrontation would be suicide.'

'First, stay alive. Then figure out what's going on here.'

The carriage lurched to a stop.

"Clang!"

The rear gate was roughly lowered. The pale afternoon light poured in, mixed with the smell of dirt and damp.

"We're here! Get your asses out!"

Li Tui climbed down with the others. His legs went weak, so he lowered his head and steadied himself, quickly surveying the area.

Deep in the back mountains, a clearing had been cut out of the forest. A crude camp had been built against the mountainside. Wooden palisades surrounded it, while figures in the watchtowers stood guard with bows.

The air smelled of sweat and earth, with an indescribable chill beneath it.

A hundred or so people were busy inside the camp. Most were gaunt and sallow, with vacant eyes. Overseers walked among them, whips in hand, lashing anyone who moved too slowly and making sure no one dared slack off.

Li Tui was shoved along with several dozen other newly arrived "convict laborers" to the center of the clearing. A middle-aged cultivator in Zhou Family attire stood before them, his face hard.

The cultivator's sinister gaze swept over the rows of faces.

"Listen up." His voice wasn't loud, but it silenced everyone. "This is a Zhou Family mine. You bear the burden of your crimes, and have come here to serve. This is your chance to atone! There's only one ironclad rule here: obey every order! Anyone who breaks it will be punished without mercy!"

Then he began assigning work from the roster. Those assigned to hauling, construction, or cooking showed at least some relief, as though they'd escaped death by a hair.

Li Tui's name was called near the end.

"Lin Qing, Wang He, Zhao Laosuan..." Along with Li Tui, eight others were called forward.

The middle-aged cultivator glanced at them. "You nine will form the Vanguard Scout Team."

A few quiet, relieved breaths came from the crowd.

But of the nine selected, all except Li Tui turned deathly pale. Wang He's knees buckled, and he would have collapsed if someone hadn't caught him.

"Scout... scout team?" Zhao Laosuan stammered.

"Mm." The middle-aged cultivator's expression didn't change. "Gather here at a quarter past the hour of the Rabbit tomorrow morning. Bring your gear. Head over to the abandoned northern mine tunnels and take a look around. Check the terrain and watch for signs of bandits. Bring back useful information, and you'll earn merit. If you try to shirk your duty or report lies..."

He left the sentence unfinished, but everyone understood what he meant.

Some scout team. They were being sent to die. The abandoned mine tunnels were already a sinister place, and now they bordered bandit territory. Sending the nine of them there was no different from feeding them to wolves.

Li Tui lowered his head and said nothing.

'As expected, the worst assignment.' He sneered inwardly. 'They're using us as stepping-stones to test the ground.'

'But a chaotic place also brings opportunities...'

The nine of them were herded toward a tumbledown shed at the edge of the camp. Wind whistled through its gaps. Rotten straw covered the floor, and the place reeked of mildew.

Once they squeezed inside, no one spoke. Only heavy breathing and muffled sobs filled the shed.

Li Tui sat near the edge, hugged his knees, and buried his face in them, as if he were exhausted.

His teammates... Wang He, scared stiff; Zhao Laosuan, muttering prayers; the young man weeping in secret...

From the corner of his eye, he glanced toward the darkest corner at the back of the shed.

Someone was curled up there, wearing a tattered felt hat and an old garment far too large for them. They were hunched into a ball and utterly silent. They hadn't moved since coming in, like a shadow.

But Li Tui remembered what had happened while they were lined up earlier. A pile of stones beside them had suddenly collapsed, sending rocks tumbling down. Everyone else had scrambled to get out of the way. But that person had moved half a step aside with startling speed, almost at the very moment the rocks began to fall, neatly avoiding them.

The figure looked even thinner and smaller than a youth, and probably wasn't very old. Li Tui couldn't tell at a glance whether they were male or female.

Footsteps suddenly sounded outside. A patrol. The shed fell even quieter.

The figure in the corner curled further inward, its breathing nearly imperceptible.

Li Tui buried his face more deeply in his arms.

The hand hidden in his sleeve moved almost imperceptibly.

His fingertips brushed the ground and touched a broken wooden splinter half buried in the rotten straw. He quietly gripped it, feeling its sharp point prick his palm.

'The scout team... nine people...'

Li Tui closed his eyes and quickly began to calculate.

'The abandoned mine tunnels, bandits, a sinister place... The Zhou Family doesn't expect us to bring back any useful information. We're just being sent to die—and to test the way.'

'But if all nine of us die, why not...'

His fingertips lightly rubbed the splinter's sharp tip.

'Why not let some people die first?'

'At least let their deaths mean something.'

In a crisis, these people could block an attack. Draw attention away. They could...

Serve as sacrifices.

Li Tui slowly opened his eyes. Through the gap between his arms and knees, he scanned the faces in the shed.

Fear, despair, numbness.

And that figure in the corner... far too calm to be trusted.

'You're thinking about how to survive, too, aren't you?' Li Tui sneered inwardly. 'Then let's see which of us is more ruthless.'

The footsteps outside faded into the distance.

Li Tui closed his eyes again and continued circulating his true qi.

A faint current coursed through his meridians, slowly gathering, thread by thread. He needed more strength. He needed to survive tomorrow.

And if he wanted to live, he had to be colder, more ruthless, and stronger than the others.

Outside the shed, night deepened. Inside, the boy huddled in the corner like a young beast lying in wait.