No One Understands Humility Better Than I Do

On the way, Li You eyed Bai Ye suspiciously. Leaning closer, he whispered, "Brother Ye, where's your taboo item? I didn't see you throw it away either."

He did not actually say the words "taboo item," merely mouthed them.

Bai Ye glanced at him without answering. The taboo item was naturally still on him. As for why it had not been found, that was simple: when the soldiers searched his upper body, he hid it in his pants. When they searched his pants, he stopped time and hid it in his shirt. If they could find it, that would be a miracle.

Soon, led by the soldiers, the two arrived at the main force's camp. The soldiers were setting up camp and pitching tents.

The residents of Gray Soil Town, meanwhile, huddled together in an open area under the watch of several heavily armed soldiers.

Bai Ye kept looking around. Two people stood out among the soldiers: an officer in a high-ranking uniform and a young man carrying a silver metal case half the height of a person.

The officer looked to be in his thirties. His cold expression carried an air of arrogance. Both his legs and arms had been replaced with mechanical structures, and the uncovered portions gleamed silver like mercury. Those intricate, precision alloy mechanisms were clearly far superior to King Snake's mechanical arm.

The man carrying the silver case looked far more normal. His body was no different from an ordinary person's, except for his unsettling eyes. They were unmistakably a pair of eagle eyes! His golden-brown pupils were so sharp they seemed capable of piercing the night.

After giving the two a glance, Bai Ye roughly understood who they were: a mechanical augment and a genetically modified human. Just from their appearances, he could tell they were countless times stronger than King Snake and Tan Jie.

"Reporting, sir. Two wastelanders have been brought in. No weapons were found on them, nor any signs of genetic or mechanical modification," the soldier said respectfully.

The officer nodded coldly and casually glanced at Bai Ye and Li You. Seeing that they were dirty and disheveled, clad in tattered clothes no different from the other wastelanders, he said nothing more and merely waved impatiently.

"Assign them numbers in order and place them in the refugee camp."

Soon afterward, Bai Ye and Li You each received a crude number tag and were placed among the residents.

The two blended into the crowd without the slightest awkwardness. Looking at the sorrowful, numb expressions around them, they casually found a secluded spot and sat down.

A few wastelanders nearby looked up at them. Seeing that their faces were obscured by dirt and grime, they only gave them a brief glance before looking away.

Only when no one recognized him as Deputy Commander Bai did Bai Ye relax.

He had always been willing to judge people by their worst intentions. Among so many people, there were bound to be those with ulterior motives who might expose the fact that he possessed a taboo item in order to curry favor with the officer. That was why he had deliberately disguised himself.

"Brother Ye, you're 258 and I'm 259. Why are they assigning us numbers?" Li You asked, examining his tag in confusion.

"Did I arrive before you?" Bai Ye shot him a sidelong glance.

Li You froze. "No. Didn't we arrive together?"

"You know we arrived together, and you still ask me? Go ask someone else!"

After being snapped at, Li You muttered some indistinct curses under his breath, then went to strike up a conversation with someone nearby.

Before long, he returned with an ugly expression.

"The numbers are for grouping us. Twenty people to a group, and the twenty have to keep watch on one another. If anyone in a group escapes, the entire group gets shot. Those bastards are vicious. Now no one will dare run."

Bai Ye nodded thoughtfully. "Go ask what they captured so many people for."

Though he had already guessed, he still needed to confirm it.

"Brother, what are the officials from Dawn City planning to do with us?" Li You quietly sidled up to a wastelander and asked.

The wastelander looked numb and seemed unwilling to respond. Li You shamelessly asked several more times before the man finally muttered, "The big shots from the city are taking us to Black Mountain. They say they're short on manpower and want us to scout the way through Black Mountain. They also said that if things go well, they'll take us to Dawn City, and we won't have to scrape out a living in the wasteland anymore."

"That's a good thing, isn't it? We can become city people!" Li You said with feigned delight.

The man gave a miserable smile. "That might fool children, but who can just enter Dawn City? Even if the big shots are telling the truth, how many of us will survive after going to Black Mountain?"

After saying that, the man fell silent, his eyes vacant.

Li You was secretly alarmed. So it really was like this!

He moved back beside Bai Ye.

"Brother Ye, what do we do now? Should we find a chance to run?"

"Why run? You need to look at things from another angle, understand?"

"What angle?"

"It looks like we've become cannon fodder, but before we reach Black Mountain, this convoy is protecting us."

Li You's eyes lit up. "That's true. Mutant beasts are running rampant now, and nowhere is safe. If we stick close to this convoy, at least we won't have to worry about mutant beasts.

Brother Ye, that's brilliant! I understand what you said before even better now: people must carry reverence and humility in their hearts if they want to live long."

"Enough. Get some rest." Bai Ye lay directly on the ground and closed his eyes to rest.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The clock in Gray Soil Town's central square chimed. Midnight... had arrived.

Bai Ye, who had been feigning sleep, abruptly opened his eyes. Without drawing attention, he poked the sleeping Li You beside him.

Li You opened his eyes groggily. "What is it, Brother Ye?"

"Get ready to move." Bai Ye's low voice instantly woke Li You up.

He said in shock, "No, Brother Ye, move against what?"

"Kill them all!"

"Ah!?" Li You was dumbfounded. He suspected Bai Ye was joking, but the ferocity hidden in Bai Ye's eyes did not look like a joke.

"No, Brother Ye, it's just the two of us against a hundred heavily armed soldiers??"

"Yeah."

Li You: "..."

At that moment, his whole body went numb. Bai Ye's earlier words kept replaying in his mind.

The so-called way of survival in the wasteland was knowledge that could keep you alive for a long time. There were sixteen words of truth in total: insult the weak, bully the small, submit to the fierce, obey the strong.

To survive in the wasteland, one had to hold reverence and humility in one's heart...

"Brother Ye! My dear brother! This... this isn't what you said before!" Li You wailed. "Didn't you say people should be humble..."

"What's different? No one understands moving gravestones better than I do. While I'm moving gravestones, I move graves too!" Bai Ye sneered.

Li You stared at him, dumbstruck. No! Were they even talking about the same word, humility? How had he become a completely different person after one night's sleep?