The rain poured without end.
Icy rainwater lashed savagely against the muddy mountain path, washing away the chaotic footprints left behind by Fourth Li and his group.
More than a hundred mine slaves, freed from their iron chains, trudged through filthy water above their ankles, stumbling deep and shallow in Fourth Li's wake. Not one of them looked back toward Black Mud City.
A young mine slave in the group clutched half a broken iron spear tightly in his hand. Wiping mud and rainwater from his face, he hurried two steps to catch up with Fourth Li.
"Fourth Master, the rain's too heavy. The mountain path is completely slick." The young mine slave panted heavily and pointed to the side. "Are we really not going back to the outskirts of the immortal city to beg the chief steward of the City Lord's Manor? That way leads straight into the depths of the Great Desolation, where man-eating demon beasts are everywhere. We don't even have a proper weapon between us. Going in there is just courting death!"
Fourth Li stopped. A chipped butcher's knife hung from his belt.
"Beg them?" Fourth Li turned his thick neck, his voice hoarse. "Stay on the outskirts of the immortal city, and you'll still be a drug slave or blood food for those immortal masters. Go into the depths of the Great Desolation, and you might survive if you fight a demon beast. Run into those lofty cultivators, and you won't even have the right to fight with a spear."
Fourth Li raised his rough, broad hand and pointed into the pitch-black distance.
"We clawed these lives back from heaps of corpses. From now on, we follow only the rules of the blade in our hands."
No one spoke again. Everyone gritted their teeth and