At the foot of the mountain,
Two corpses were tangled together in a struggle. Neither had won; one had a wound on the back of the head, the other on the back.
One man's fist was slightly open, as though he had still been trying to grasp something before he died.
"Gold!"
A sharp-eyed clerk spotted two scattered gold melon seeds beneath a leaf, and his eyes immediately lit up.
The other clerks were greatly envious.
After savoring the sight for a long while, the clerk reluctantly handed them to Long San. "Shopkeeper, these are for you."
"They're yours."
Long San waved a hand and continued climbing the mountain.
"Thank you for the reward, Shopkeeper!"
The clerk excitedly cupped his hands in salute and tucked the gold melon seeds into his robes.
There were only two of them, but this was gold—worth at least twenty taels, enough for him to work five or six years. And he had gotten it without lifting a finger, simply by picking it up off the ground.
The other clerks immediately widened their eyes, unwilling to overlook a single detail on the ground.
The farther Long San climbed, the more alarmed he became.
The excitement on the clerks' faces also faded, replaced bit by bit by fear.
Corpses!
There were too many. Corpses lined the entire path, and the higher they went, the more there were!
Some were locked together in a struggle. Some had been pierced through the chest by long spears. Some were headless bodies, their missing heads nowhere to be found. Some were charred black from head to toe, covered in horrifying blisters...
When they arrived before Tiger Den's main stronghold, an immense shock swept through Long San and the clerks, leaving them standing there in a daze.
Across the vast wilderness