Recaps

After parting from Shadow Wolf, Shen Heng inspected the thickening darkness near the Underground Demon before returning to mine. Meanwhile, Black Jade Lion met with Steel-Mane Bear and Ridged Beast to discuss their investigation and cooperation, while hoping the Calamity Beasts exploring outside would bring back useful information.

• Shen Heng left Stone with Shadow Wolf, walked down the mine tunnel to check the darkness, then returned to mine out of sight of the others.
• Black Jade Lion visited Steel-Mane Bear and Ridged Beast and reported that its investigation had found nothing beyond the information gathered two days earlier.
• Steel-Mane Bear argued that they should focus on exploring outside, while Black Jade Lion urged the group to cooperate if they wanted to escape.
• Ridged Beast resented contributing half its food to the explorers and rejected Black Jade Lion's suggestion to keep their mined ore separate.
• Black Jade Lion reflected that Steel-Mane Bear and Ridged Beast were difficult to work with and hoped the explorers would return with useful information.

Black Jade Lion and the others secretly coordinated food sharing and kept their plans hidden from the supervising Black Rats. As the resting beasts settled in for the night, two scouts returned with news that they had found a way out.

• Black Jade Lion secretly distributed food to allied Calamity Beasts, instructing them to eat separately and return to the main path without drawing suspicion.
• Black Jade Lion, Steel-Mane Bear, and Ridged Beast left food for the remaining arrivals, while Spiny-Back Lizard stayed behind to guard it.
• Ridged Beast worried that Blast-Armor Rhinoceros might use its past connection to Lord Two-Horned Lizard to dominate the others.
• Black Jade Lion, Steel-Mane Bear, and Ridged Beast waited discreetly among the resting Calamity Beasts for the returning scouts.
• Two Calamity Beasts told Ridged Beast they had found a way out, leaving it, Black Jade Lion, and Steel-Mane Bear stunned.

The Calamity Beasts learned that Black Rats had driven captured beasts toward an enclosure in the northwest, far from the known eastern exit, suggesting Black Stone Valley had another exit. The Black Jade Lion proposed searching the area for signs of guarding Black Rats, leaving the group to investigate carefully and avoid a fight they might not survive.

• The Blast-Armor Rhinoceros told the Ridged Beast, Steel-Mane Bear, and Black Jade Lion that Black Rats had been seen driving Calamity Beasts toward their enclosure in the northwest, where no exit was known.
• The Calamity Beasts reviewed their findings on a map and confirmed that the known exit lay east, while the enclosure and the sighting were elsewhere.
• The Steel-Mane Bear and the Blast-Armor Rhinoceros reasoned that the Black Rat Clan must have another exit somewhere near the northwest sighting.
• The Ridged Beast agreed that a valley as large as Black Stone Valley likely had more than one exit.
• The Black Jade Lion proposed searching for Black Rats guarding the suspected exit, and said the group would search slowly if they found no guards.

The Black Jade Lion and the Steel-Mane Bear waited for the Ridged Beast’s search party to return, then planned to follow them if they found a way out. The next morning, they saw several wounded Calamity Beasts lying beside the Black Rats and realized their escape plan had failed.

• The Ridged Beast volunteered to lead a search party after the Blast-Armor Rhinoceros reported that three of its group had not returned.
• The Rock-Backed Beast secretly watched the herd and decided to wait for the searchers before revealing its identity and trying to escape with them.
• When the Ridged Beast and the other searchers failed to return, the Black Jade Lion and the Steel-Mane Bear debated whether they had been delayed, found the exit, or abandoned the herd.
• The Steel-Mane Bear proposed waiting another day before following the searchers, and the Black Jade Lion agreed.
• The next morning, the Black Jade Lion and the Steel-Mane Bear saw several wounded Calamity Beasts lying beside the Black Rats and concluded that it was over.

The Black Rats accused a group of Calamity Beasts of causing trouble and trying to escape, then demanded that the culprits identify themselves. No one stepped forward, leaving Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion waiting as the Black Rats prepared to drag out the captured beasts.

• The Calamity Beasts woke to find several of their kind lying beside the Lord Black Rats, and the enormous Black Rat accused a group of causing trouble and attempting to escape.
• Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion feared the Black Rats had noticed their group’s earlier exploration and decided they could only wait.
• The enormous Black Rat offered the culprits a final chance to come forward, threatening harsher punishment if the Black Rats had to find them.
• When no Calamity Beast stepped out, the enormous Black Rat turned to the captured beasts and asked whether any wanted to speak.
• The captured beasts looked toward the silent herd, but no one came forward to help them.

Black Spine tortured the captured Calamity Beasts until one revealed that a Tier 3 Blast-Armor Rhinoceros had led them. As the Blast-Armor Rhinoceroses were summoned from the herd, the Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion realized the accusation had left them bewildered.

• The Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion considered whether to fight or flee while Black Spine questioned the captured Calamity Beasts.
• Black Spine whipped one Calamity Beast to death after it claimed they were trapped in a world built by the Lord Speaker.
• Black Spine lashed the remaining captives until an Iron-Mane Beast agreed to confess in exchange for a quick death.
• The Iron-Mane Beast identified a Tier 3 Blast-Armor Rhinoceros as the one they had followed, and Black Spine ordered all Blast-Armor Rhinoceroses out of the herd.
• The Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion watched the Blast-Armor Rhinoceroses emerge and exchanged bewildered looks.

The Iron-Mane Beast failed to identify the Blast-Armor Rhinoceros and Gray-Clawed Xingxing it had seen, leaving Black Spine suspicious of its claims. To support its account, it named a Tier 2 Spiny-Back Lizard that had found the captured beasts, and two Calamity Beasts confirmed the lizard’s existence.

• The Iron-Mane Beast searched the gathered Blast-Armor Rhinoceroses but could not find the Lord Blast-Armor Rhinoceros it had seen.
• The Iron-Mane Beast told Black Spine that it had also seen a Lord Gray-Clawed Xingxing, then searched the gathered Xingxings and failed to find that one either.
• The Iron-Mane Beast pleaded with Black Spine to believe it and said other Calamity Beasts had seen the missing beasts too.
• The Iron-Mane Beast mentioned a Tier 2 Spiny-Back Lizard that had found the captured Calamity Beasts and urged them to confirm it.
• Two Calamity Beasts told Black Spine that the Tier 2 Spiny-Back Lizard had found them and could lead him to other Calamity Beasts.

Black Spine forced the Iron-Mane Beast to identify Calamity Beasts, and a fleeing Spiny-Back Lizard exposed several others before Black Spine had them executed. The Iron-Mane Beast found no one he remembered and told Black Spine he had no more names to give.

• Black Spine gave the Iron-Mane Beast one last chance to identify a Calamity Beast among the Spiny-Back Lizards.
• The Iron-Mane Beast failed to recognize anyone, but noticed a tier 2 Spiny-Back Lizard acting nervously and watched him flee into the herd.
• Black Spine's Black Rat captured the fleeing Spiny-Back Lizard, who identified six or seven Calamity Beasts.
• A fourth-tier Black Rat exposed one captive's lie, and Black Spine ordered the protesting Calamity Beasts whipped to death.
• Another captive identified more Calamity Beasts, and Black Spine continued the capture-and-questioning process.
• Black Spine asked the Iron-Mane Beast for more names, and the Iron-Mane Beast answered that he had none.

The Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion watched the Black Rats execute nearly a hundred Calamity Beasts accused of plotting to escape, though the two leaders suspected the prisoners had not all belonged to their group. They realized the missing Spiny-Back Lizard might have been involved in the strange arrests, and questioned whether one of their scouts had been captured.

• The Black Rats killed nearly a hundred Calamity Beasts, terrifying the miners and making them reconsider joining any escape attempt.
• Lord Stone told a Shadow Wolf that wanting to escape was normal, but the Shadow Wolf warned him to stop speaking so openly.
• The Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion noticed that far more Calamity Beasts had been captured than their surviving group could have supplied.
• The Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion realized the Spiny-Back Lizard they had last seen guarding food had disappeared.
• The Black Jade Lion asked whether one of the Steel-Mane Bear's scouts had been among the captured Calamity Beasts, and the Steel-Mane Bear doubted it.

Shen Heng’s group returned to the mines after secretly rescuing Calamity Beasts and eliminating witnesses, while the Black Rats’ leaders debated the suspicious disappearance of their scouts. That night, the Black Rat chieftain asked Black Spine how his assigned task had gone, and Black Spine grinned as the others watched.

• The Black Jade Lion and Steel-Mane Bear suspected an unknown force might be responsible for their missing scouts, while the Two-Horned Lizard Rock-Backed Beast admired their plan to silence witnesses.
• Shen Heng told Qin Yu that the deception might fail if the Black Rats noticed the suspicious gaps in their plan, but said the rescued beasts could be useful and the risk was acceptable.
• The Black Rat chieftain returned with a captured fifth-tier Azure-Horned Beast, prompting Black Spine, Gray Whiskers, and Moya to hurry to the stone house and eat from its carcass.
• The aged Black Rat chieftain asked Black Spine how his assigned task had gone, and Black Spine grinned as the other Black Rats turned to him.

The Black Rat chief questioned Black Spine’s account of the captured Calamity Beasts and concluded that the group had deceived them. He left the others to consider how the threat of death for both silence and cooperation may have shaped the testimony.

• Black Spine told the Black Rats that nearly a hundred Calamity Beasts had caused trouble, and the group discussed the incident without concern.
• The chief asked whether Black Spine had searched for the missing Blast-Armor Rhinoceros and Gray-Clawed Xingxing, and Black Spine said he had not because he believed they were invented.
• The chief pointed out that the Iron-Mane Beast had named the missing beasts while knowing it would die regardless, and asked about the many captives who denied being accomplices.
• The chief told Black Spine he had been deceived, then asked what happened to captives who refused to talk and learned that they were whipped to death while those who talked were killed immediately.
• The Black Rats questioned whether anything was wrong with that punishment, as the chief left them pondering the captives’ testimony.

The Black Rat clan discovered that the Calamity Beasts who devised the escape plans were still hiding among the beasts, but they could not identify them without disrupting mining. The clan chief ordered that twenty percent of the mining Calamity Beasts be killed the next day.

• Moya reasoned that the final Calamity Beasts identified had stopped naming others, while Black Spine confirmed that unrelated beasts had been implicated and killed.
• The clan chief revealed that the Blast-Armor Rhinoceros and Gray-Clawed Xingxing had been named at the beginning, meaning the actual planners remained hidden among the beasts.
• The Black Rats demanded to drag out and kill the hidden planners, but Black Spine pointed out that all the Calamity Beasts brought back had already been killed.
• Moya and the other Black Rats considered increased patrols and killing every Calamity Beast, but neither option resolved their problem without serious costs.
• The clan chief ordered the Black Rats to select and kill twenty percent of the mining Calamity Beasts the next day.

The Black Rat chief explained how to kill the strongest Calamity Beasts by increasing mining quotas and using punishments to screen them, so weaker beasts would be unable to organize another escape. The next day, Black Jade Lion and Steel-Mane Bear found that fifteen Calamity Beasts had died, matching the number of beasts involved in the expeditions and searches and reinforcing their suspicion that someone was secretly helping them.

• The Black Rat chief told the Black Rats to kill twenty percent of the Calamity Beasts, increase the survivors’ quotas, and gradually identify and kill those strong enough to keep meeting them.
• The Black Rat chief explained that he did not expect the plan to find the original escape plotters; he wanted to remove strong leaders who could rally others.
• Black Jade Lion and Steel-Mane Bear discussed their failure to locate Spiny-Back Lizard or another Calamity Beast who had helped contact the others.
• Black Jade Lion and Steel-Mane Bear counted nineteen survivors among thirty-four Calamity Beasts and determined that fifteen had died.
• Black Jade Lion and Steel-Mane Bear realized the deaths matched the beasts involved in the expeditions and searches, including two who had not gone exploring, deepening their suspicion that someone was helping them from the sidelines.

The Black Jade Lion and Steel-Mane Bear suspected someone had secretly changed the Calamity Beasts’ search plans, while the Black Rats’ behavior left them wary. At the Dull Star Stone mine, Lord Feixu separated the herd and forced the Calamity Beasts who had passed through to take on the blocked group’s assignments, raising their mining quotas by twenty percent.

• The Black Jade Lion and Steel-Mane Bear wondered whether an unseen figure had redirected the Ridged Beast and others, and they hurried along with the herd to avoid displeasing the Black Rats.
• The herd reached the mine, where Lord Feixu impatiently waved the Calamity Beasts forward past the supervising Black Rats.
• After more than half the herd had passed, the Black Rats moved back to block the remaining Calamity Beasts, leaving a little over two hundred trapped opposite the larger group.
• Lord Feixu ordered the Calamity Beasts who had passed through to take over the blocked group’s assignments and increased their daily ore quotas by twenty percent.
• A Coiling Mountain Beast agreed on behalf of the group, and the others echoed its assent before heading into the mine as pleas, cries of pain, and roars sounded behind them.

The Dust Horn Beast and Phantom Shadow Leopard struggled to meet a suddenly increased mining quota after Black Rat overseers tightened the rules. As more Calamity Beasts went hungry or were punished each day, both companions eventually became too weak to mine enough ore and received no food.

• The Dust Horn Beast and Phantom Shadow Leopard discussed the extra twenty-percent mining quota, the recent killings, and why the other Calamity Beasts had tried to rebel.
• The two beasts met their quotas on the first day, collected food, and watched increasingly exhausted and injured Calamity Beasts return from the mine.
• Over the following seven days, the numbers of Calamity Beasts failing to meet quotas and being punished rose, while some starving beasts were killed.
• On the eighth day, the Dust Horn Beast and Phantom Shadow Leopard could no longer mine enough dull star stone and joined those denied food.

The Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion waited to see whether the Black Rats would keep killing the strongest Calamity Beasts, while the starving herd continued to dwindle. The Rock-Backed Beast, having confirmed the Black Rats’ plan and lost faith in the two, was approached by someone offering to work together.

• The Steel-Mane Bear urged the Black Jade Lion to act, but the Black Jade Lion proposed waiting five more days to see whether the Black Rats continued killing selected Calamity Beasts.
• The Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion agreed that if they acted later, they would each find food separately to avoid suspicion.
• The Rock-Backed Beast observed that the Black Rats had killed the strongest Calamity Beasts but continued forcing the herd to mine and starve.
• The Rock-Backed Beast decided it could no longer rely on the Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion and needed to find its own way out.
• An unnamed Calamity Beast approached the Rock-Backed Beast, lay down beside it, and said, “Let's work together.”

Shen Heng approached the Two-Horned Lizard and proposed working together to escape the valley. He revealed that many Black Rats had left and suggested they could improve their chances by eliminating several more, leaving the Two-Horned Lizard to decide whether to join him.

• Shen Heng asked the suspicious Two-Horned Lizard to work with him, and the Two-Horned Lizard wondered how Shen Heng had found him.
• The Two-Horned Lizard questioned whether Shen Heng could trust him, and Shen Heng pointed out that the Two-Horned Lizard could not resist if the Black Rats tried to arrest him.
• Shen Heng proposed starting a riot and escaping while the Black Rats were distracted, but the Two-Horned Lizard objected that their strength was insufficient.
• Shen Heng told the Two-Horned Lizard that nearly half the Black Rats had left the valley, including enough powerful guards to weaken its defenses.
• Shen Heng proposed eliminating three or four more fifth-tier Black Rats, and the Two-Horned Lizard weighed the risks of accepting his offer.

Shen Heng persuaded Two-Horned Lizard to help organize coordinated Calamity Beast riots to draw away the Black Rats and create an escape opportunity. Two-Horned Lizard agreed to review the detailed plan, then asked Shen Heng for escape routes and was offered two to consider.

• Shen Heng explained that his group would coordinate staggered riots at the mines and enclosure while Two-Horned Lizard rallied the Calamity Beasts.
• Two-Horned Lizard insisted on seeing the detailed plan at least a day in advance, and Shen Heng proposed starting the next day.
• Two-Horned Lizard worried that his Tier 2 status might make it difficult to persuade Tier 3 beasts, so Shen Heng suggested claiming credit for earlier acts that had helped them.
• Two-Horned Lizard asked how Shen Heng planned to escape, but Shen Heng told him to decide from the plan if he would not leave with them.
• Shen Heng offered Two-Horned Lizard two escape routes to consider, and Two-Horned Lizard asked what they were.

Shen Heng gave the Two-Horned Lizard two possible escape plans for the Calamity Beasts and asked it to prepare for one of them. After agreeing to begin within three days, the Two-Horned Lizard privately weighed the risks and realized both options depended heavily on luck.

• Shen Heng explained that the Two-Horned Lizard could wait for unrest to spread, then climb the cliff where it began, hoping the Black Rats had moved elsewhere.
• Shen Heng proposed that the Two-Horned Lizard wait at the valley mouth and lead a charge after he killed the main Black Rat force, warning that many Calamity Beasts might die.
• The Two-Horned Lizard agreed that three days was more or less enough time to prepare, and said it could identify Calamity Beasts that only pretended to want to escape.
• Shen Heng warned the Two-Horned Lizard not to alter his later plan, especially during the attack on the Black Rats, and the Two-Horned Lizard agreed.
• After Shen Heng left, the Two-Horned Lizard considered the dangers of climbing the mountain or gambling on the Black Rats leaving the valley mouth.

The Two-Horned Lizard decided to begin acting rather than wait, then woke the Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion to reveal its role in their earlier preparations. It explained that their situation no longer allowed them to delay, but the chapter ended before it finished describing its plan.

• The Two-Horned Lizard considered the escape routes and decided to start before the three-day deadline.
• The Two-Horned Lizard woke the Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion, who initially rebuked it for disturbing their sleep.
• The Two-Horned Lizard identified itself as the one who had accompanied Lord Feather Owl, and the Black Jade Lion recognized it as the Thunder-Scale Beast.
• The Two-Horned Lizard confirmed it had arranged the earlier expedition and secretly passed on the warning not to finish mining.
• The Two-Horned Lizard said their situation no longer allowed further delay and began to explain what it had already done.

A Rock-Backed Beast called on the starving Calamity Beasts in the mine to rebel, and a Steel-Mane Bear tried to take it to Lord Feixu and the Black Rat lords. The other beasts stayed silent, caught between reporting the rebel and fearing the consequences.

• A hungry Scalearmor Lizard watched the gathered Calamity Beasts struggle to meet their mining quotas and avoid being attacked for food.
• The Rock-Backed Beast stopped mining and asked the gathered beasts, “Shall we... rebel?!”
• The Scalearmor Lizard considered reporting the Rock-Backed Beast but realized the other beasts might report it too.
• The Steel-Mane Bear accused the Rock-Backed Beast of being linked to an earlier escape attempt and grabbed it, offering to take it to Lord Feixu and the others.
• The Rock-Backed Beast said it would own its words and warned the Steel-Mane Bear that it would be waiting for it down below.
• The Steel-Mane Bear insisted the Black Rat lords would not punish it, while the other Calamity Beasts remained silent.

The Rock-Backed Beast convinced the Calamity Beasts in the mine to rebel against the Black Rats and explained how to recruit allies without exposing their plan. After the Steel-Mane Bear and the other third-tier Calamity Beast backed it as commander, the Rock-Backed Beast vowed to die before its followers.

• The Rock-Backed Beast told the Steel-Mane Bear that the Black Rats were squeezing the miners to death, leaving rebellion as their only path.
• The Steel-Mane Bear released the Rock-Backed Beast, and the Calamity Beasts began voicing support for rebellion.
• The Rock-Backed Beast stopped the beasts from shouting and warned that charging straight up would be suicide.
• The Rock-Backed Beast urged the Calamity Beasts to recruit others cautiously and proposed choosing a commander to coordinate their escape.
• The Steel-Mane Bear and another third-tier Calamity Beast endorsed the Rock-Backed Beast as commander, and the others joined their support.
• The Rock-Backed Beast said it could not guarantee their escape but promised to fall before them if they had to die.

Two-Horned Lizard argued that the enslaved Calamity Beasts should be free to choose whether to join the rebellion, even if that meant he faced the danger alone. He set Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion to recruit allies across the five mines, then privately admitted he hoped the human’s plan would help him escape and considered using other Calamity Beasts as decoys.

• Steel-Mane Bear warned Two-Horned Lizard that refusing to kill or restrain nonparticipants could let them report the rebellion to the Black Rats.
• Two-Horned Lizard insisted the Calamity Beasts deserved to choose their future and offered to take the blame if the plan was exposed.
• Two-Horned Lizard assigned Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion to find strong-willed recruits who could persuade others across the five mines within two or three days.
• After the others left, Two-Horned Lizard privately worried about the plan and considered keeping Calamity Beasts nearby to take the fall if danger arose.
• As Steel-Mane Bear and Black Jade Lion headed off to recruit, Steel-Mane Bear wondered aloud why Two-Horned Lizard would rather die himself.

The Calamity Beasts quietly spread a rebellion through the mines while the Black Rock Leopard struggled to meet its quota after ten days without food. At the end, it encountered a gathering led by the Rock-Backed Beast, who began speaking about their lost freedom.

• The Black Jade Lion explained to the Steel-Mane Bear that Lord Two-Horned Lizard treated lower-tier beasts as equals, and the pair went separate ways to find others.
• Calamity Beasts persuaded one another to join the rebellion while keeping their mining output high enough to avoid punishment.
• The Black Rock Leopard entered the mine hungry and exhausted after hearing Black Rats mock its chances of meeting its quota.
• After mining all day, the Black Rock Leopard found its crate less than one-fifth full and watched the other beasts leave without helping it.
• The Black Rock Leopard wandered deeper into the mine and found thirty or forty Calamity Beasts gathered around the Rock-Backed Beast.
• The Rock-Backed Beast beckoned the Black Rock Leopard over and began asking the gathered beasts to remember their freedom and question their present condition.

Shen Heng explained a plan for the Calamity Beasts to delay the Black Rat Clan and questioned Two-Horned Lizard about the Underground Demon. Two-Horned Lizard left still wary of Shen Heng, weighing whether it could betray him without ruining the uprising.

• Shen Heng explained why the battle plan relied on fixed orders rather than relayed information, and Two-Horned Lizard memorized the strategy for the uprising beginning the next night.
• Shen Heng tested Two-Horned Lizard's recall, then erased the map and told it to leave by a different route.
• Two-Horned Lizard told Shen Heng that the Arcane Lizard Clan invented the Underground Demon story to make miners work harder and secretly used the supposed sacrifices as food.
• As it walked away, Two-Horned Lizard wondered why Shen Heng had asked about the demon and considered having Black Jade Lion and the others investigate.
• Two-Horned Lizard suspected Shen Heng might have hidden a trap in the escape routes and considered betraying him at the Origin Ore mine, but feared that could leave the Fifth Tier Black Rats alive to pursue them.