An atrocity beyond all humanity

The arms trade brought unimaginable profits in any world, in any era, and in this era, arms meant cold steel.

The Guan Family Fort had secretly traded with the foreign peoples of the steppes for over a century, amassing an unimaginable fortune.

The silver alone amounted to over ten million taels and had filled an entire warehouse.

Had the Guan Family Fort not possessed so many ox carts and horse-drawn wagons, Tian Hao could never have moved it all quickly on his own.

Fortunately, this cesspit was large and deep enough. It had supposedly been converted from a pond. After all, the Guan Family Fort had housed many people and kept plenty of oxen and horses to pull its carts. All their dung and urine drained here; a small pit would never have sufficed.

"Traitors, every last one of them!"

Opening a chest, Yue Buqun and the others trembled with rage.

Inside lay tightly packed curved sabers, all bare blades without hilts or scabbards. Even after soaking in the cesspit for three years, they showed no rust. They were clearly exceptional weapons, and their gray-black sheen suggested they had all been forged from meteoric iron.

The Guan Family Fort had forged this chest of unfinished curved sabers from meteoric iron secretly collected over many years. The finest of the fine, they had been intended as gifts for the Yuan Kingdom's powerful nobles, to open up a larger market.

Tian Hao had recognized how extraordinary these curved sabers were back then and sealed them in the cesspit along with everything else.

Few people in the Central Plains used curved sabers; it was chiefly the foreign peoples of the steppes who favored such weapons.

Anyone could have figured out who the Guan Family Fort was making so many curved sabers for, even thinking with their toes.

They had originally harbored a sliver of doubt about their disciple's account, since the Guan Family Fort's reputation had been so good. Now that last sliver had vanished completely.

The Guan Family Fort truly had been a nest of traitors. Ten thousand deaths would not have paid for their crimes!

"Damn it, there are over ten million taels of silver here alone! Counting that gold and their everyday expenses, the Guan Family Fort must have cleared over three hundred thousand taels a year. Just how many curved sabers and crossbows did they sell to those foreigners on the steppes?"

A one-eyed elder's face filled with hatred. He, too, was furious.

Although martial artists like them were at odds with the imperial court, they still understood their duty to their people and despised these traitors who sold out their country above all others.

The sheer quantity of silver sealed away in the Guan Family Fort showed how many weapons these traitors had sold to the foreign peoples of the steppes over the past century. Those foreigners had then turned the weapons these people forged against the Central Plains, committing boundless slaughter.

They all deserved to die!

"My fellow brothers, these riches are the key to the Mount Hua Sect's revival. We cannot afford to lose them.

"This time, I will take all the gold and three million taels of silver to fund the construction of the Mount Hua Academy and its future expenses. The rest of you will take the remaining silver in batches and travel throughout the country to collect the precious medicinal ingredients we need for martial training. Be sure to spend it all within six months, and return to Mount Hua and the Qinling Mountains as soon as possible."

Setting down the curved saber in his hand, Yue Buqun forcibly suppressed his anger. His gaze swept over the more than two hundred people present as he gave his solemn instructions.

Although the Sword-Qi Conflict had inflicted devastating casualties, it had not left only him and his junior martial sister alive. Quite a few of his fellow martial brothers had survived as well.

However, these brothers either lacked the talent to break through to the Houtian Realm or had suffered grievous injuries that left them disabled, making further progress in their cultivation almost impossible.

Too many people in the martial world did not want Mount Hua to recover. Thus, after discussing matters with his fellow martial brothers back then, they had decided to take their people into the Qinling Mountains behind Mount Hua, quietly developing among the mountain villages and recruiting local children.

That way, even if the branch led by him and his wife were wiped out, the Mount Hua Sect's legacy would not be severed. This was precisely why a cunning hare kept three burrows.

The thirty-six martial brothers who had survived had all taken in numerous disciples. Though their talent was ordinary, they were more than sufficient to form the sect's foundation.

The three hundred-odd disciples brought along this time all came from those villages in the Qinling Mountains. Raised and trained from childhood, they were trusted confidants brought out specifically to move this treasure.

"Junior Brother Sect Leader, how are we going to get it all out?"

An older, tall man asked the question that had everyone else nursing a headache as well.

There was far too much treasure. If they used horse-drawn wagons, anyone with a discerning eye would immediately know what they were carrying.

Moreover, the Guan Family Fort was the only settlement for several li around. If anyone made the connection, they would be in serious trouble.

And as the wealthiest and largest clan in Guanzhong back then, the Guan Family had owned far more than a single fort. The Guan Family Fort had merely housed its main branch. Members of the Guan Family were scattered over a hundred li around, and they had to keep all of them in the dark.

"Don't worry, Senior Brother. The Guan Family Fort traded with those foreigners for over a century without being discovered. There must be a secret passage connecting it to the nearby Yellow River. We need only find that passage to move the treasure without a sound."

Yue Buqun was confident; that disciple had already thought this through as well.

The Guan Family Fort stood in northern Guanzhong, less than ten li from the Yellow River. Once they got the treasure to the riverbank, they could take it downstream into Mount Hua's territory.

Tian Hao had once mentioned a clue: the Guan Family Fort had never brought in coal or iron ore from outside, nor had it shipped weapons out. Even its smithies had been built underground. Otherwise, outsiders could not possibly have failed to notice something amiss over an entire century.

Clearly, the Guan Family Fort had a secret passage leading outside. Unfortunately, Tian Hao had been pressed for time back then and had had no chance to search for it.

One thing was certain, however: the secret passage had to be near the underground forge, making it convenient both to forge the weapons and to transport the finished curved sabers and crossbows.

Without further discussion, Yue Buqun followed Tian Hao's clues and soon arrived at a patch of ruins.

This had originally been the Guan Family Fort's ancestral shrine, but the great fire had reduced it to rubble.

"Here it is. Brothers, dig!"

Finding the large stone Tian Hao had described, Yue Buqun signaled for them to begin digging.

The others wasted no time. Drawing their swords, they reinforced them with inner qi and began cutting into the stone.

This enormous square stone covered the entrance to the underground forge and could be operated by a mechanism. However, he suspected the Guan Family members living nearby had long since destroyed that mechanism to keep the secrets within from being exposed.

After all, manufacturing weapons and crossbows in large quantities carried the same punishment as treason, let alone selling them to foreigners on the steppes. If exposed, all nine degrees of kinship would face extermination, and at least ninety percent of the nearby Guan Family members would die.

Unless they were fools, those people would certainly have destroyed the mechanism here, leaving the secrets inside buried forever.

The stone was enormous, three zhang square and an astonishing one zhang thick. Even with thirty-six Inner Qi Realm experts cutting into it, it took two hours to break through.

Yet it was precisely the stone's thickness that had kept anyone from discovering the secret passage beneath it. Otherwise, an experienced person could have identified it by knocking and listening to the sound.

"Don't go in yet. Plenty of people must have died inside. Let the air circulate. We'll enter tomorrow night."

Catching an impulsive junior martial brother who was about to jump inside, Yue Buqun gave a grave warning.

According to that disciple, more than two thousand slaves had been gathered in the Guan Family Fort's underground workshops, yet nothing had been heard of them after the massacre at the fort.

Coupled with the deliberate destruction of the mechanism controlling this great stone, the fate of those slaves was easy to imagine. The Guan Family members who had arrived afterward must have killed them to silence them, leaving their corpses sealed inside.

No one objected. They immediately gathered firewood, tossed it down, and lit it to burn away the foul air within.

After keeping the fire burning for several hours, they finally entered the underground forge wearing makeshift cotton masks. Everywhere they looked, skeletons lay packed across the entire floor.

"Guan Family, sooner or later, you will pay this blood debt in blood!"

At the sight of the endless bones before them, everyone from the Mount Hua Sect seethed with rage. These skeletons clearly belonged to the slaves who had forged weapons for the Guan Family, murdered here to silence them.

And this was only one generation. The Guan Family Fort had operated for over a century; the slaves it had abducted must have numbered in the tens of thousands. Their ultimate fate was easy to imagine.

They might not have been saints, but how could anyone remain unmoved by such an atrocity beyond all humanity?

"Half of you stay and explore this place. Gather everything useful, especially the steel and iron. The rest, follow me east to look for the secret passage."

Forcing down his rage and killing intent, Yue Buqun issued his orders and led the way east.

Although Tian Hao had not known where the Guan Family Fort's secret passage to the Yellow River was, it had to lie to the east. After all, the Yellow River was east of the fort.

Before long, they did indeed find a secret passage.