Chapter 50: Chapter 21: Upper Huang Division Is Also Developing

Ten or more miles outside Upper Huang Division.

In a lush jungle, Huo Chang poked out his little head.

He gazed afar at a massive mountain, half of which had been leveled.

Compared to the four or five miles of the tribe mountain of the Blazing Flame Tribe, the entire Upper Huang Division lived on the mountain, largely unaffected by floods.

Thanks to prior reconnaissance work outside the tribe, Huo Chang personally led the scouting to the south towards Upper Huang Division. He found it relatively easy to reach the vicinity of Upper Huang Division.

Unfortunately, getting any closer was not possible.

Outside the tribe mountain of Upper Huang Division, these independent small mountains had established defensive outposts.

Huo Chang filled his head and body with branches, lying hidden in the lush vegetation, preparing to move closer at night.

As the tribe leader, sneaking around like this didn’t make Huo Chang feel uneasy; he couldn’t trust anyone else with the task.

One year after the flood, the Blazing Flame Tribe developed rapidly, but at this moment his pride was suppressed as he looked at the towering Upper Huang Division.

Lingyu was too distant; Upper Huang Division was the immediate threshold.

Under the blazing sun, dense black smoke rose into the sky from the tribe mountain of Upper Huang Division, as if something was burning.

Huo Chang quietly moved closer to Upper Huang Division to observe as night fell.

Under the night sky, torches surrounded the tribe mountain like a dragon during patrol.

Bonfires were lit atop independent small mountains nearby as outposts.

In places where dense smoke rose during the day, flames streaked up into the sky in unison.

Even at night, the tribe’s interior remained busy.

Huo Chang carefully observed for a long time, confirming that Upper Huang Division was engaged in smelting and forging.

After observing for half an hour, Huo Chang quietly retreated.

He feared being trapped, considering that Upper Huang Division openly had three Celestial Vein Martial Artists, and there might be others in secret.

Even Celestial Veins feared arrows; a volley could leave him riddled with holes because he couldn’t dodge in time.

Rumor had it that Upper Huang Division’s incomplete Martial Dao cultivation technique could allow cultivation to Celestial Vein Ninth Layer.

But comparing it to the Celestial Vein Realm cultivation described by Jifu revealed that Upper Huang Division’s cultivation technique was somewhat exaggerated.

If it truly could cultivate to Celestial Vein Ninth Layer, Upper Huang Division wouldn’t have just this small amount of strength.

Of course, exaggeration aside, Huo Chang believed Upper Huang Division definitely had more Celestial Vein Martial Artists secretly hidden.

Afterwards, he continued to hide nearby and watched for several days, discovering that Upper Huang Division’s forging had not ceased during this time.

Upper Huang Division owned mines, but not to the extent of working day and night without stopping.

Something was definitely going on.

After pondering, Huo Chang headed towards the mining area of Upper Huang Division.

He couldn’t blend into the tribe interior, but perhaps he could become a miner slave in the mining area.

…

Black Mountain Ore.

Upper Huang Division had been mining for over two hundred years.

The entire area of mine shafts and open pit mines was connected, with piles of shattered rocks everywhere.

Two emaciated figures in tattered clothes dragged a lifeless body to a large pit and threw the person directly inside.

Then, with dull eyes, they returned.

On a stone platform not far away, a Martial Artist from Upper Huang Division, carrying a wooden bow and holding a Ring-Handed Blade, watched coldly.

In the open pit mine, at the bottom, there were still some dark, muddy water, with figures constantly crawling up, dragging either big vine baskets or wooden barrels.

The black water would be poured out, while the ores in the baskets would be piled uniformly in one place.

Someone would sort the fractured stones, extracting the ores within.

The ore content in the extracted stones was not high; only the black or red ones had forging value.

After observing for two days, Huo Chang found that five miner slaves had died from exhaustion, and several others had suffered whipping, looking as if they wouldn’t survive much longer.

The nearby pits were filled with charred bones from burning.

The entire mining site had over two thousand miner slaves, and about two hundred people from Upper Huang Division guarding it.

Under the night sky, Huo Chang, covered in pitch-black, quietly approached the largest stone dwelling outside the mining site.

He remained still, intending to listen for any movement inside; any word about Upper Huang Tribe Division would be worthwhile.

For several days in a row, he rested during the day and emerged at night, smeared all over like a charcoal ball, squatting among the chaos of stones like a Big Black Stone.

…

“Still too slow. The clan is urging again. At this rate, we won’t be able to gather enough ore for ten thousand jun of smelted pig iron.”

Inside the house, Huang Mao sat above, with ten people below.

“Old Clan Uncle.”

At this moment, Huang Chen, seated at the lower left, was reprimanded as soon as he spoke.

“Call me Mine Manager at the mining site!”

“Yes, Mine Manager.”

Huang Chen shrank his head, “You know as well as I do, the underground water is abundant now. We have to draw up several buckets of water for each basket of ore we dig.

Our mine has low iron content. We can only select ore that shows black and red hues. Even if these miner slaves don’t eat or sleep every day, how much can they dig?”

“Exactly, Old Mine Manager, unless the clan catches another batch of new miner slaves, this batch is almost crippled.”

“At this rate, the number of miner slaves will likely decrease further, and output will drop even more.”

…

“Silence, all of you.”

Huang Mao scolded everyone present, “After the flood, nearly three thousand miner slaves were caught for you, and now even two thousand are almost gone. After the plague, where can we find miner slaves nearby?”

“Mine Manager, the water in the mine pits can’t be cleared out properly. These people are soaking in the water all day. How can their bodies be fine? It’s not like we’re being too harsh.”

“Why is the clan in such a hurry to gather ten thousand jun of pig iron before the annual festival? Why not relax the time limit until next year…”

“Shut up, the Clan Leader has his reasons!”

Huang Mao shouted angrily, “The clan needs to gather ten thousand jun of pig iron. This concerns a major matter of trade within the clan. The mine must assure the supply of ore.”

The room fell into a sudden silence.

“Are you all deaf? Talk, if you can’t think of a solution, then stay here and think hard today.”

“What solution do we have? The iron content is so low that even if we all dig, it won’t be enough before the annual festival.”

“Old Clan Uncle, relying on us alone, we certainly can’t finish. How about talking to the clan and catching more miner slaves.”

Huang Mao rubbed his forehead, “After the plague, we have cleared small tribes in the surrounding area.

The women we’ve caught have been integrated into the tribe. They’re all busy chopping wood now. You should know how much wood is consumed in smelting pig iron.

The able-bodied men are all on the mine. Who else is there to catch for you to use as miner slaves?”

Huang Chen spoke up, “Of course, go further south to catch them. We certainly can’t go north, into dead territory.”

The plague surged out from the Northern Giant Mountain Range. Before, the clan ventured north but found few miner slaves and encountered several groups of plague insects, which even infected some martial artists within the clan.

In this situation, there are likely very few people left going north from the tribe.

“Then you go catch them.” Huang Mao glared, “The clan doesn’t have enough people. Most martial artists are needed to escort trade routes, or it’s too dangerous on the way.”

“Old Clan Uncle, without people, without solutions, how can we dig ore?”

“Get out, all of you, follow along and dig tomorrow. If it still doesn’t work, I’ll personally go and dig.”

Under Huang Mao’s furious reprimand, everyone in the room scattered like the wind, vanishing in an instant.

After sitting there in a daze for a while, Huang Mao quickly left the mining area and headed back towards the clan land.

Huo Chang, seeing the people leave, quietly approached another house.

This house was where the overseers resided.

“Old Clan Uncle is panicking too. But to increase the mining output tenfold in such a short time, we really have no way. The clan’s arrangements are too rushed.”

“There’s no other way. Our tribe only has pig iron to offer.”

“Ten thousand jun of pig iron, what exactly does the clan plan to exchange for at the Copper Shell Ruins Market, do you know?”

“Huang Yun, you say, I remember you went to the Ancestral Temple after the flood. The clan collected many remnants of ironwood ships. Did you discover some secret?”

“Right, at first we were searching everywhere for ironwood ship remnants. Later, we stopped and increased mining instead.”

Huang Yun was a young man with a slightly thin frame.

“How would I know? The Ancestral Temple Keeper only had me look at the patterns on those ironwood ships. I don’t understand at all.”

“But Afu’s brother’s little cub is lucky, being taken in as a disciple by the Ancestral Temple Keeper. Maybe he really saw something in those patterns.”

“The clan is in such a hurry to smelt ten thousand jun of pig iron. It might really have something to do with the ironwood ships.”

…

Outside the house in the pile of rocks, Huo Chang desperately wanted to rush in and grab everyone, to make them spill everything inside their minds.

But thinking was one thing, he still huddled in the stone pile like a rock, muttering to himself.

“Keep talking, say more, I love listening.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep