Translator: Reverie_ Editor: Kurisu

The miners explained one by one. Ling Han gave them food to dispel their misgivings as they told him everything he wanted to know.

So, it turned out that one would die on the second day of leaving the mineshaft. That was right, but it didn’t mean that one wouldn’t die if one didn’t leave. In here, some people would die suddenly after three to four days, and some people could drag on for ten days to half a month, but without exception, all would die in the end.

With a day of life, they would linger on whilst at death’s door for one day; they still needed to struggle to fill their stomachs.

The guards didn’t dare to enter the mineshaft and could only take food to exchange for the ores they mined at the separation of the mining area, throwing back and forth. However, no one dared to hide the food in the mining area, since it would be robbed clean by others. They ate it immediately as they got it and definitely wouldn’t leave a single bit.

Although this was a mineshaft, there weren’t many blood-red ores, so some people who had a tough life weren’t killed by the curse but died of hunger and thirst. No one would think of eating their corpses, because the dead’s meat was black—extremely toxic or something; anyway, whoever ate it would die.

Thus, other than the misdeed of some people eating others at first, it never happened again.

Not everyone was doing their best to dig ores. Some people banded together, or those who thought they were strong enough, began the business of robbing. However, the people here died too quickly, and all gangs and elites would soon vanish into thin air.

As Ling Han listened, he didn’t quite know how to feel.

“They’re so pitiful!” Hu Niu said.

Never would’ve thought this little girl would pity others? Ling Han rubbed Hu Niu’s head and said, “Niu Niu’s grown up, knowing to care for others!”

“However, they can’t steal Niu’s food to eat!” Hu Niu immediately defended her rights.

Ling Han smiled faintly, and said to those miners, “Did you guys dig up any ores? Give it to me, sell me a piece!” He took out a bunch of food and water again.

“I’ll give it to you!”

“I’ll also give it to you!”

“Buy mine!”

Those miners hurriedly crowded in, fumbling out blood-red rocks that were pathetically small. The largest one was only the size of a pinky. Fearing that Ling Han would be dissatisfied, they looked at him with hopeful eyes, fearing that he’d say no.

…Because Ling Han gave much more food than the guards outside did, and it was also much tastier.

Ling Han had mixed feelings. It was only some food, yet it could make people so meek and subservient. He distributed the food to everyone and stored those ores, an extremely small amount that could all be held within a single grasp.

He placed the ores in his hand and instantly felt the martial flower within his body aroused with an intense rapaciousness, wanting to devour and absorb these rocks—to be precise, a certain substance within the rocks. At this moment, five burly men came out from the mine roads at the bottom, and seeing the food in people’s hands, they instantly revealed an expression of burning desire. Each one of them revealed a threatening look and yelled, “Hand over all the food!”

A burly fellow pointed at Hu Niu and said, “Brother Yang, there’s also a little girl!”

“What, a girl!” Brother Yang saw Hu Niu and instantly licked his lips. “I love these young chicks the most. Haha, I’ve held back in here for ten days. Today, not only can I get a delicious meal, but also feel some pleasure!”

Ling Han sighed. Inside the mineshaft, the ugliness of human nature was enlarged infinitely, and passing a day without knowing whether tomorrow would come, whose evilness within wouldn’t be unleashed? Anyway, if one didn’t have many days to live, why not do as one pleased for once?

This Brother Yang was obviously the typical case.

However, this person’s natal horoscope was truly tough. Staying in here for ten days and not having his life taken away, this confirmed an old saying that bad guys lived for thousands of years.

Seeing these five people, the miners all trembled in fear. These five had a notorious reputation. It was said that before the other miners came, the five were already tyrants here, but they could never die; the gods truly had no eyes. They had already fallen to such a degree and had to be bullied by these scums.

“Little beauty, brother will take you to have some fun.” Brother Yang stared at Hu Niu, almost drooling out of his mouth.

“The gods won’t take you, then I will!” Ling Han snorted faintly and pointed out with a finger. Pu , a hole opened in Brother Yang’s head and penetrated all the way to the back of the head, blood mixed with white-colored brains splattering violently.

Everyone was first startled, and then the five burly fellows immediately screamed. If one didn’t personally hear it, it was truly hard to imagine that four burly men could actually let out such a womanish scream. They turned to run right away, knowing they bumped into a hard spot.

“All of you can stay!” Ling Han flicked his fingers and four flashes of Sword Qi fired out. Pu, pu, pu, the four people instantly fell to the ground, thoroughly dead.

The miners looked at Ling Han with gazes of reverence, and also filled with gratitude because once Ling Han showed his strength, they definitely would reply honestly; however, Ling Han chose to use food to exchange with them, evidently treating them as humans.

‘So we’re still human!’

Some spirit ignited with the miners’ eyes; so they weren’t walking corpses waiting for death to befall them.

Ling Han saw this, and made up his mind to immediately “communicate” with the Fire Emperor and Na Zhi Yan, making them give up on the idea of excavating the mineshaft. Then, he would store all the miners into the Black Tower, purify the curse on them, and then have them leave.

They were just a few normal people, and couldn’t possibly discover the secret of the Black Tower. They would only feel as if they slept, and then everyone would return to normal.

With his mind set, Ling Han turned around.

The martial celestial flower within his body could no longer endure the intense craving to devour these ores. Ling Han tried to refine the smallest rock, and a strange power was instantly extracted from within the ore and entered his dantian, being absorbed by the martial celestial flower

The vein-like patterns on the celestial flower radiated and raised a wave of red Qi; the celestial flower grew slightly.

The extent was truly pathetic, but Ling Han was sure that the martial celestial flower certainly grew a little. However, his bloodlust was also stimulated, giving him the urge to act violently.

This was shocking; the martial celestial flower’s growth couldn’t be separated from one’s understanding of martial arts—without deepening martial comprehension, the celestial flower would never grow and bear fruit in the end, birthing a spiritual infant. Ling Han had the complete martial arts experience, so he naturally didn’t need martial comprehension, but for others, martial comprehension was the most important thing after crossing into the Flower Blossom Tier.

These ores could let martial artists go around it.

Inconceivable. If there were a bit more of these ores, then wouldn’t a Flower Blossom Tier, Spiritual Infant Tier, and even a Shattering Void Tier be easily achievable?

Ling Han immediately stored the rest of the ores into the Black Tower, and said, “Small Tower, analyze it, what are these things?”