In the end, the one-eyed man made his decision.
He stared fixedly at Chang Jiu and the others and sighed theatrically.
“This time, I’m going to show some mercy and do a little good deed to build up some virtue.”
The moment he said this, everyone stared at him in astonishment before their faces lit up with joy.
Could this vicious man really be planning to release them?
Instead, the one-eyed man drew a knife from his waist and walked toward Chang Jiu first.
The man at the very front, who had seemed to be unconscious, suddenly sprang back to life.
He squirmed and slammed into Chang Jiu, raising his bound hands as he hoarsely begged,
“Let me go first! Brother, let me go first—”
“Pfft!”
In the blink of an eye, the man directly in front of Chang Jiu collapsed to the ground.
Crimson blood, thick with the metallic stench of rust, sprayed into the night and splattered across her entire face.
The heat was shockingly intense.
In these three days, Chang Jiu had already lost count of how many people had died before her eyes.
There were always people carrying corpses along the roadside, and the deathly aura in the air seemed impossible to dispel.
But being drenched in blood—
This was the first time.
Yet the one-eyed man acted as though he had merely done something trivial. Holding the knife in his right hand, he pulled the piece of grass he had been using to pick his teeth from his mouth with his left, spat to the side, and expressionlessly nudged the corpse with his foot.
“What are you all staring at? If you ever run into a soul beast, then you’ll know what real suffering is. I’m wasting a huge amount of energy just to give you all a quick death. That makes me a saint, doesn’t it?”
The refugees no longer dared to move.
The one-eyed man shook the clinging blood from his blade before fixing his gaze on Chang Jiu.
Most of the others were people he had tied up along the way. Only this little girl had been picked up by chance from a pile of corpses.
She was so thin and small that it was impossible to tell her age. Her entire body was covered in black soot, and whatever she had gone through had left her hair scorched black and barely a patch of uninjured flesh on her body.
She had clearly been dead.
The one-eyed man had even removed the silver bracelet from her corpse and was about to leave when, all of a sudden, she started breathing again.
It had been almost like a corpse coming back to life.
He had originally thought she would be the first to die, yet somehow, she had managed to hold on until now.
And it was at that moment that Chang Jiu, who had crawled out from the pile of corpses, finally raised her head.
Unexpectedly, there was no twisted fear on her face.
Instead, she smiled at the one-eyed man.
The only pair of eyes on her entire body that could still be considered clean curved into bright crescent moons.
“Big Brother is absolutely right! If it weren’t for you, I would’ve died in that mass grave long ago. How could I possibly have survived until today? I can’t speak for everyone else, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re one of the greatest good Samaritans in all of Qiuxu!”
Her tone was sincere—so sincere that she almost sounded genuine.
“It must have taken a great deal of effort just to drag me out of that mass grave. How could I possibly trouble you any further?”
The one-eyed man stared at her with a smile that never reached his eyes.
Finally, he sneered.
“You sure know how to spout bullshit. As a reward, I’ll let you be the second one to die a quick death.”
Seeing the knife descend without the slightest hesitation, Chang Jiu kept her head raised and suddenly screamed with all the strength left in her hoarse throat—
“Buy one, get ten free! One soul stone for the whole package!”
The one-eyed man’s knife paused midair, startled by her sudden shout.
Chang Jiu seized the opportunity and used the last bit of strength in her body to roll sideways across the ground, narrowly dodging the blade as it came down toward her head.
“You’ve got something wrong with your head. What the hell do you mean, ‘buy one, get ten free’?”
“Don’t rush me!” Chang Jiu curled up on the ground, most of her face covered in a mixture of blood and mining dust, making her look like some kind of vengeful ghost.
She gasped for breath, every breath sending a sharp pain through her chest, yet she still forced out a cheeky laugh as she stalled for time.
“You went through all that trouble to catch these people, and now you’re going to go through all that trouble to kill them yourself? Isn’t that exhausting? Luckily, I’m a great humanitarian too. I’m just helping lighten your load!”
“What a coward with a silver tongue.”
Chang Jiu showed no sign of anger at the insult. Instead, she struggled to raise her voice and shouted hoarsely,
“People for sale! We can mine, cook, and do laundry! One soul stone gets you an entire group of hardworking people!”
“We haven’t managed to sell you in three days. Who else would want you besides the soul beasts…”
The one-eyed man hadn’t even finished speaking when he suddenly saw someone in dull iron armor emerge from the darkness.
“Any useful people left?”
He seemed to recognize one of them. After pausing for a moment, he quickly wiped the vicious look from his face and forced out a smile.
“Oh, it’s Lord Sang Biao. There are still a few people left, but I’m not sure how much use they’ll be…”
The one-eyed man shifted aside so Sang Biao could get a clear look at the bound refugees.
A deep vertical crease ran between Sang Biao’s brows, and a gloomy expression seemed permanently etched onto his face.
Just when the one-eyed man thought he was about to turn and leave, Sang Biao suddenly tossed a soul stone onto the ground.
“Fine. I’ll take them.”
The one-eyed man froze for a moment before quickly bending down to pick up the soul stone.
But he was worried Sang Biao might cause trouble for him later, so he cautiously reminded him,
“Lord Sang Biao, these are all the leftovers. They probably won’t be able to mine many soul stones. How could they possibly be worthy of Mine No. 7? How about this—I’ll bring you a batch of strong, healthy people next month instead?”
Sang Biao shook his head.
“Too late. And I don’t need them for mining.”
“Huh? Then…are you planning to have them haul ore?”
“No. A fifth-grade soul beast appeared at Mine No. 7 yesterday and killed dozens of miners. That thing is good at hiding, and we still don’t know which tunnel it’s hiding in. Hiring a Soul Refiner of fifth grade or higher to search for it would cost at least a hundred soul stones.”
Sang Biao glanced coldly at the refugees on the ground, looking at them like nothing more than merchandise.
“How could that be worth it when these people are so much cheaper?”
The one-eyed man immediately understood.
A living person’s soul was the most tempting food for a soul beast.
These half-dead refugees were being bought as bait to lure out the soul beast.
And if he thought about it another way, a soul beast could only consume so many souls in a day. Even if they used this entire group to feed the beast, it could still buy the miners at least three days of uninterrupted mining time.
At the very least, they could earn another hundred soul stones from it.
Sang Biao waved his hand.
The several miners following behind him immediately stepped forward and cleanly cut the restraints around the refugees’ feet.
Someone asked, “My lord, two of them look like they’re barely breathing. Do we take them too?”
“If they’re still breathing, that means they still have some life left in them. Carry them along. If they haven’t completely died by tomorrow, they’ll be the first ones we throw in.”
Sang Biao glanced at the one-eyed man.
His smile held both provocation and smug satisfaction.
“Besides, it’s one soul stone for the whole lot. Why would I turn down something that’s practically free?”
Only now did the one-eyed man realize just how useful these refugees could be.
Regret immediately filled him.
For someone in the business of buying and selling, watching someone else walk away with a bargain was even more painful than losing money himself.
Unfortunately, Sang Biao wasn’t just the captain of the guards at Mine No. 7.
He was also a second-grade Soul Refiner.
There was no way an ordinary man like him could afford to provoke him.
Clutching the soul stone, the one-eyed man glared bitterly at the most inconspicuous person in the group—Chang Jiu.
He secretly cursed her for shouting those two damn lines.
“Just you wait, little brat.” He gritted his teeth and muttered, “Once you die in the mine tomorrow, you’ll know just how comfortable it would’ve been to die by my blade.”
Chang Jiu still wore her usual good-natured expression.
“Thank you for your kindness, Big Brother. If I ever get the chance, I’ll definitely repay the favor and make sure you’re comfortable too.”
Before the one-eyed man could explode, Chang Jiu had already lowered her head and slipped into the line of refugees waiting to die.
Together, they headed toward Mine No. 7.
Chang Jiu had narrowly escaped death, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel happy about it.
All she wanted to do was sigh.
People always said that a bad life was better than a good death.
But come on, Heaven…
Wasn’t this taking “staying alive” a little too far?
One trap after another.
If this were a game, this would practically be a hell-difficulty starting point!
Perhaps the heavens had heard Chang Jiu’s silent plea from the depths of her soul.
Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out from deep within her mind—
【Ding! Summoning System at your service!】
【Dear Summoner, would you like to select your initial summon now?】