Love and passion, cutting up the wasteland.

"General, the royal mine is just ahead!" A warrior from Kaiton City pointed excitedly to the front, "If we can mine and utilize it, we will never lack raw materials in the future!"

The abandoned mines in front of us are undulating. This is the special feature of Ai Mine Town. The entire city-state was built relying on the mines from the beginning, just like drifters rely on depressions and lagoons to live, constantly attracting more people to settle outside.

Until it becomes more and more prosperous.

Therefore, the appearance of the mine is actually a strange sight inside the city-state.

Since the blockade of Ai Mine Town, the manufacturing cost of Kaidun City has continued to rise, so some people once thought that this was also a means for the coalition forces to weaken this forging capital. After all, after the decline of the Imperial City, Kaidun City was the most powerful among the southern states.

Unexpectedly, the great lord of Kaiton City at that time, the father of General Tianxin and Lord Shilang, had no intention of opposing this proposal at all. The strategy of the coalition forces was almost completed smoothly. This made many people wonder whether the old lord was too old and his mind was confused.

It was not until the Ai Mine Town was actually blocked that people realized that although the cost of forging weapons and armor in Kaiton City had increased, their technology and productivity were in a cliff-like monopoly position.

Although the truly powerful may not look down upon it, when it comes to large-scale military equipment, the Kaiton City series is still the best choice.

These increased costs can be passed on to all buyers, so Kaiton City itself does not suffer much loss. On the contrary, most of the other armor guilds that were originally somewhat competitive went bankrupt because they could not bear the rising costs because they were not as big and powerful as the Scrap Master Group.

This further enhances the monopoly of Scrap Master.

Everyone knows that Kaitun City, which seemed to have suffered a loss, actually gained far more than it lost - the rise of this city-state in recent years is naturally inseparable from Tianxin Lizheng's defense, but no matter how powerful its military force is, it must have something to defend.

However, by the time the effects were apparent, the old patriarch of Tianxin had already passed away, and the position of great lord was passed on to his youngest son Shilang. No one knew whether he was truly shrewd or just taking advantage.

Now that Kaidun City has re-entered Ai Mine Town and reached the Royal Mine again, and it is possible to take it over, this is undoubtedly a great advantage.

"I know." The man nodded calmly after hearing his subordinate's report. "I was fighting the rebels here at the time. It was very dangerous."

You can't tell the man's age from his face. His back is straight and he is still wearing a simple linen robe. Compared to the soldiers around him in armor and with sharp weapons, he looks like a passerby who has mistakenly entered the military camp.

But no one dared to look down on him, because he was the commander of the entire army and the chief of the junk masters.

Heaven's will is to benefit and be righteous.

"I'm sorry, General..." The warrior said with a slight 'ah' and bowed, "I forgot."

Tian Xinli had the merit of saving the lord, and it was said that it was in the war to quell the bloody rebellion. It should be his glory and achievement, but only his personal soldiers and subordinates knew about it: somehow, the general was not very happy for people to mention this matter.

The coalition soldiers at the time were all old or dead, and Tian Xinli Zheng's personal soldiers were all replaced. If the general didn't mention it, no one would know what happened during the Bloody Rebellion.

But now, the samurai chief couldn't help but waver in his heart about the general's previous decision: their progress was not smooth, but it was not difficult either. It seemed that the Ai Mine Town had been blockaded for generations, and although the people were crazy, the resistance inside was no longer the same as before.

It seems that there is no need to cooperate with the Red King of the Flash Land. You can take down the Mine Town on your own with your own strength.

The general's order could not be disobeyed, but the Royal Mine was one of the most valuable heritage sites of Ai Mine Town. Now that they had gotten it first, it could be considered as some compensation and they had the upper hand.

Tian Xinli was leading the army forward. Normally, if an army commander personally served as the vanguard, his subordinates would feel ashamed and guilty, but the general insisted on doing so. In addition, with him in charge, the pressure and casualties of the front army were greatly reduced. It was not easy for others to continue to stop him in the name of honor.

The surface of the earth here is all open-pit mines, but the mining town of Ai is rich in minerals. After thousands of years of mining and excavation, there are many mines that are dozens of meters deep, and circles of trails meander downwards.

Only by passing through these mines can you truly reach the initial establishment of Ai Mine Town, its later history and the former imperial palace.

After the riots, many roads between mining sites were damaged and collapsed. The Kaiton City Legion of several thousand people could only follow the paths that the miners had taken in the past, carefully circling, descending and then climbing up. It was not as easy as they had imagined at first.

Inside the huge mine, the soldiers were like bright silver ants. Looking up, they saw a circle cut out of the sky.

Perhaps because it was winter, even though it was not yet nightfall, the largest moon was already hanging in the sky, showing a vague outline, fixed in position and motionless.

The legion reached the bottom of the pit, where the terrain was slightly flatter. An officer from Kaidun City led his men to explore the way ahead. As a son of a noble family, he would not have volunteered to do so. However, now that he had General Tianxin supervising the battle behind him, if he performed well, the general might notice him. He decided not to miss the opportunity.

crunch.

There was a sound under his feet, a sound different from the gravel and ground he had stepped on before.

The officer picked it up curiously and examined it in his palm: "What is this?"

It looks like a grass stalk with something like grass seeds on it.

"My Lord, these are ears of wheat."

A soldier reported.

"Wheat?" The officer was puzzled. "Why isn't it in powder form?"

He threw it casually and was about to drop it on the ground, but it was caught by another person.

The officer looked back and saw a colleague who had ended up wandering, and he was very interested.

The Drifting End is located on the Hook Coast. Many people make a living by fishing, and many also rent land in the neighboring Koslon to make a living. Except for the hooded guards of the overlord, there are few professional warriors in the army, and most of them are temporarily recruited.

In peacetime, they serve as civilians; in wartime, they serve as soldiers.

After getting used to it, they were able to mobilize the largest number of soldiers among the southern states.

When the Kaiton City officer saw his colleague's behavior, he thought that he must be a country bumpkin again, and he looked down on him. But then he heard him mutter to himself in confusion:

"Where's the new wheat here?"

"What's wrong with Xin Mai?" he replied.

"It's impossible to grow crops in Aikuang Town. There's no soil here. It's just abandoned urban areas and barren mountains. The little vacant land is desertified and has no fertility. Wheat can't grow well." The officer at the end of the drift touched the cut of the wheat ear. "And it's so flat. Someone must have harvested it. I guess it was leaked when it was just transported away..."

"Are there farmers?" The Kaiton City officer understood what he meant.

The citizens we met before ate raw meat and drank blood, and seemed to have degenerated into beasts.

Didn't expect they could farm?
The officer was about to report the discovery to the general when he suddenly heard a melodious horn, resounding throughout the pit.

This is the alarm of their legion.

But before they could react, another voice overwhelmed the sound of the horn. It was a strange chanting in unison:
"The blood moon's sweet rain will cleanse the world from filth..."

"…Flesh and bones return to birds, blood to the sand…"

The voices grew louder and louder, like the roar of millions of people, but they came from all directions and could not be found in any specific direction.

Suddenly, someone realized it.

That's from underground!

There was a loud bang, and the originally flat ground collapsed everywhere, revealing a deep cave entrance. It was like countless black eyes opened at the same time, spreading to the four walls of the mine, staring straight at the legion below.

The chanting became clearer.

"…rains of rain return to the harvest, blood to the sand…"

"Blood for the sand..." "Blood for the sand!"

Click.

Compared to the echoing chanting, this was just the insignificant sound of the sword being unsheathed.

"You have finally gone completely crazy..." the man in the linen robe said softly, "and you are really still alive."

"The bloody remnants—"

Tian Xinlizheng raised his sword and a short knife appeared in his hand.

The blade is thin and sharp.

It was the inscribed blade presented by Grace.

Accompanied by the sound of chanting, countless figures walked out of the mine tunnels, all of them wearing rusty chain mail, tattered, just like their own hunched bodies.

……

……

The fire was raging, the Embers drew out their spears, and the tall and fat cannibal giant took a few steps back and fell into the fire pit behind him.

The yellow fat that was curling up at the wound suddenly began to sizzle and then began to burn. The flames spewed out from its belly like a long snake, crawling all over its body from the inside out.

There were countless corpses under the giant, but they had been burned to charcoal.

The surface is pitch black and no human shape can be seen.

The Ashen Iron Guard put away his spear and belatedly looked at his right arm, which had been bitten by the giant. His cloth and leather armor were pierced and torn to pieces, revealing an arm of steel.

This mechanical prosthesis looked so thin that it was just a skeleton, but it was extremely strong and tough, so it was not damaged by the cannibal giant.

He breathed a sigh of relief and went back to receive care and treatment from Miss Ludai.

The mechanic apprentice has been quite busy these days.

On the other side, the giant in the fire pit had not yet died completely. He let out a miserable wail under the severe pain of being licked by the flames, and crawled towards the shore while roaring.

There was a figure standing on the shore.

Heat waves rolled up, blowing his white hair long like a strong wind, and the giant's twisted hand grabbed his feet.

But there was no further action.

The cannibal died after all.

"It seems that he thinks I am more delicious." Lu Meng smiled silently and said.

Everyone found it hard to laugh, but they had to admit that it was true.

What they encountered along the way were similar to those of the Kaiton City Legion, mutated bodies, cannibalistic citizens... The difference was that Lu Meng was not surprised at all.

He had already confirmed it himself.

And we know that these citizens have not simply degenerated into beasts and launched indiscriminate attacks on outsiders, but this is their way of survival.

Human flesh has a fatal attraction to cannibals, and eventually it may even become the only food they can swallow and digest. From a survival perspective, this is actually a very inefficient behavior.

Then, it cannot be natural evolution.

And if it is deliberately designed.

Then his heart is punishable.

The larger the crowd on the other side, the more it looked like a bonfire in the dark night in the eyes of the cannibals. The presence of the Kaiton City Legion helped them attract most of the attention.

Even so, the fighting along the way was still thrilling. Unlike a battle between two armies, every figure that appeared here was an enemy.

It can be said that there is no moment of rest.

But this only deepened the friction between them. Originally, let alone ordinary Embers, even masters like Chad and Bo thought that if they came alone, although they would be more flexible and less likely to attract attention, they would probably not survive until now under the siege of so many cannibals.

The small bone that activated the mountain dog's bloodline actually played a huge role, just like its peers, in searching for the traces of the cannibal tribe and guiding the route of everyone.

Finally, the Red King used himself as bait, just like he had lured the wolves of the Boneyard in the Flash Land, to lure a large group of cannibals here, and killed them in a fire pit - the contents of the hundreds of pack beasts were only then revealed. In addition to carrying equipment and supplies, more than half of the remaining loads were fuel produced in the swamp.

Shi Cha's noble caravan did not follow. They unloaded their goods at the city wall market controlled by the High Wall Shield Guards. However, their pack animals were requisitioned and merged with the original herd.

Not only has the number of pack animals doubled, but the pack animals that Lu Meng originally carried were the strongest among the major Shan tribes. The strength of one pack animal is almost equivalent to that of two ordinary pack animals. The current load capacity is already three times that of the Shicha caravan.

However, the backpacks of the newly added pack animals were mostly empty, and they didn't even carry their own food. At first, some people were worried that there would not be enough supplies, but now their doubts have been dispelled.

Both Xiaogu and the beasts of burden had no shortage of food along the way - because of the curse, they could eat things that humans were not allowed to eat.

Listening to the squeaking sound of the beast, everyone didn't want to think too much.

The flames in the crematorium were burning fiercely, and the dust produced by the explosion of oil rose up like a black pillar cutting through the sky.

It looks extremely eye-catching from a distance.

After a while, sparse figures appeared among the ruins and walked towards the fire pit. However, when they saw Lu Meng and others next to them, they were shocked and quickly raised their weapons to parry.

They were dressed in rags.

But he appears well-trained.

Lu Meng noticed the weapons in these people's hands - he was not unfamiliar with them, as they were the Moon Blade Knife that he had used before.

Now the last piece of his conjecture has been fulfilled.

Being obscured by cannibals, but also using them to protect himself, still a rebel all the same...

The 'mountain dwellers' living in the mine tunnels.

The so-called bloody remnants.

All these elements correspond to the external situation of this continent one by one. Is this really a coincidence?

(End of this chapter)