16: Chapter 16 Stealing a road is worse than stealing ore.

"We still need to eat one more time."

Grey Pupil knelt by the thermal vent, his grey eyes fixed on the map of the mining field on the ground, his claw tips tracing outwards bit by bit.

Lu Jin watched that line, his voice very faint.

"Eat whom?"

Grey Pupil did not answer immediately.

He connected all the surface ore veins around the Central Sinkhole, then drew a long, thin arc behind each vein, with the ends of these arcs all falling near several low-lying dry gullies, broken bridge ramps, and abandoned cable shafts.

"Eat the road."

He raised his head, his grey eyes chillingly still.

"The ore veins have the most people, the most flags, and the most eyes."

"But the ore must be carried away, the wounded must be sent back, and water and medicine must be sent forward."

"When they are staring at the ore, the roads become empty."

Lu Jin's eyes flickered slightly.

Grey Pupil continued, his tone as steady as if he were dismembering a corpse.

"To snatch ore, you have to clash head-on with the strongest group of people."

"To snatch the road, you wait for them to hoist the ore onto their shoulders and walk right into our mouths."

The cave was very quiet.

The thermal vent puffed out air in bursts, and the grey fire fungus flickered faintly in the breeze, illuminating Grey Pupil's thin face and making it look even colder. He had only been out of the furnace for a short time, yet his speech was becoming increasingly fluent, and his killing intent was becoming clearer.

Lu Jin looked at the crude map on the ground, his lips pressing together slightly.

"Do it."

Grey Pupil stood up immediately.

He did not shout or yell; he simply raised his claw and quickly carved six marks into the black stone ground.

The first mark: the Digging Squad split into three groups.

The second mark: the Transport Team dragged up bone ropes, leather bags, and black stone rings.

The third mark: the Ambush Squad sank entirely into the outermost grey crevices.

As the fourth mark fell, several of the sturdiest male rats dragged the hard shell of an Armor-Splitting Rock Badger and wedged it into the Main Nest entrance and the corner of the thermal vent, creating two half-buried, half-exposed shell gates.

As the fifth mark fell, the grey fire fungus nuclei were sent to the deepest warm chamber, and several mother rats with swollen bellies were herded inside separately.

Grey Pupil's claw stopped, pointing at the head of one of the mother rats.

That mother rat had lighter fur, a thin white ring of fur under its belly, and was not large in size, but its tail was thick. Just now, when the grey fire fungus was being distributed, it had eaten the most steadily and was best at suppressing other mother rats to snatch food.

"Keep this one."

Grey Pupil's voice was calm. "It can give birth, and it can withstand the heat."

"Feed it the fungus nuclei and the badger marrow first; don't let it go to the front line."

Lu Jin glanced at the White-Bellied Mother Rat and nodded.

"Open a separate nest."

Grey Pupil's pupils constricted slightly, as if he had committed it to memory.

With these words, the Transport Team immediately dragged the black stone rings and soft grey ash to the left side of the thermal vent, quickly carving out a more enclosed small nest beside the warm chamber. When the White-Bellied Mother Rat was nudged inside, it looked back at Lu Jin, its eyes holding a rare, quiet quality.

Lu Jin noted this bit of quietness.

In the underground cave, there was rarely any useless quiet.

Half an hour later, the first road network was complete.

Seven narrow paths had been dug out from the thermal vent Main Nest.

Three led to the dry gullies and broken slopes at the edge of the Abandoned Zone.

Two wound into the area below the old ore layer.

And the two deepest ones went straight to the abandoned cable shafts on the periphery of the Central Sinkhole.

These tunnels were not wide, just enough for a Gray-tailed Burrowing Rat to pass through; any larger beast or human would have to crawl if they wanted to squeeze through. The Digging Squad had been cunning in their excavation; wherever passage was necessary, they left thin shells underfoot and hid fault lines overhead. The Transport Team pressed layers of tawan iron sand, damp ash, and black stone rings into the corners, making the entire road capable of both hiding people and consuming them.

Lu Jin stood at a newly opened peephole and looked out.

Above was a slanted dry gully.

In the gully, a small squad happened to be retreating from the red-dot ore vein. The squad was not large, five people in total: two armored servants were clearing the way in front, three pack beasts were in the middle carrying large bags of ore and two boxes of supplies, and a healing-type student carrying water skins followed behind.

Someone in the squad cursed.

"Damn it, they fought like mad dogs over that ore vein. We struggled for half a day and only snatched two bags of iron ore."

"That's enough. Let's transport it back to the transfer point first."

"Don't worry, no one comes this way. Who would look twice at the edge of the Abandoned Zone?"

Lu Jin listened, his eyes showing no ripples.

The bone clacker spun between his fingers.

"Thump."

The Ambush Rats in the grey crevices instantly pressed themselves against the ground.

"Thump, thump."

The Digging Squad began to hollow out the ground from beneath the pack beasts' feet.

When the third sound fell, a Red-Eyed Rat had already darted out from another side passage, sprinting along the bottom of the dry gully, its tail leaving a very shallow mark in the crushed ash.

The pack beast sensed the movement first, twitched its nose, and let out a low hiss.

The next moment, the ground beneath its feet suddenly emptied.

The front pack beast's front legs sank directly into the hole, its entire body pitched forward, and the ore bags and supply boxes on its back flew off. The two beasts behind were pulled by the ropes and also panicked, and the middle of the squad instantly crowded into a mess.

"Steady!"

The front-row armored servants were just about to turn their heads when the grey earth on both sides of the dry gully exploded simultaneously.

Swarms of Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats lunged out from the gully walls.

They didn't bite the people; they bit the ropes first.

One bite per rope, aiming for the connection points between the pack beasts' necks and the ore bags. The thick hemp ropes were bitten through, and the heavy ore bags slammed into the bottom of the gully with thuds. The moment the boxes hit the ground, the Transport Rats that had been buried underneath had already lunged forward, dragging bone ropes, looping them around the corners of the boxes, and pulling the entire boxes downwards.

"Rats! Rats!"

The healing-type student screamed and retreated, almost dropping the water skin in their hand.

One armored servant swung his blade and killed two, but a third had already crawled through the gaps in his leg armor, its incisors biting into the hollow of his knee, causing him to drop to one knee in pain. The other pack beast fared even worse; led by a Red-Eyed Rat, a dozen Ambush Rats gnawed its eyelids to shreds, causing it to crash around madly, scattering the entire formation even further.

Lu Jin had no intention of grinding with them at all.

He raised his hand and pressed down.

"Collect the goods, retreat into the tunnels."

The Transport Team dragged away two boxes of supplies and three ore bags, while the Digging Squad casually collapsed the edges of the pit, causing fine tawan iron sand to pour in and bury most of the traces. By the time that small squad regained their footing, only one kneeling pack beast and a floor of torn rope scraps remained at the bottom of the gully.

The ore was gone.

The medicine was gone too.

The people were still standing, but their faces were completely pale.

"Who the hell is down there!"

"Get out here!"

The echo in the grey gully was loud, but the cursing was hollow and empty.

Lu Jin had long since led the rat swarm to retreat completely through another secret passage.

In the thermal vent Main Nest, the first batch of spoils had already been piled up.

Three bags of red-black iron ore, seven water skins, two packets of hemostatic powder, and a box of high-energy compressed biscuits that could feed herbivorous pack beasts.

Grey Pupil stood before the pile of supplies without even glancing at it; with a swipe of his claw, the Transport Team sorted the piles by category.

Iron ore to the middle layer.

Water skins hung high up.

Hemostatic powder sent to the grey fire fungus chamber, prepared to be mixed with fungal pulp.

As soon as the box of compressed biscuits was opened, a flurry of restless, tiny movements came from the White-Bellied Mother Rat's small nest. Several mother rats sniffed repeatedly through the black stone rings, their tails tensed.

Grey Pupil looked back at Lu Jin.

"This stuff is suitable for feeding the breeding nest."

"Save it for now."

Lu Jin nodded: "You decide."

Grey Pupil did not stand on ceremony; he raised his hand and designated the destination for each pile of supplies.

He even began to name the cave chambers.

The one for piling sand was called "Sinking Layer."

The one for raising fungus was called "Fire Room."

The one where the White-Bellied Mother Rat stayed—Grey Pupil stared at it for a few breaths, and finally spat out only two words.

"Breeding Cave."

As soon as this name was spoken, several mother rats in the outer circle actually lay down in unison, as if they understood.

Lu Jin's eyes darkened.

This thing was no longer just capable of relaying orders.

It was establishing order for this group of rats.

The second road, Grey Pupil chose the medicine transport slope outside the blue-dot relic area.

That place was narrower than the dry gully, with a collapsed slope on one side and an old mine wall on the other, the road full of deep grooves dragged out by wear. Whoever snatched a relic had to pass through there.

Grey Pupil was not in a hurry to attack the second squad.

He first had the Digging Squad hollow out the base of the mine wall, then had the Transport Team bury Fire-pattern Moth sacs inside, covering them with a layer of thin ash and broken ore crusts. The Ambush Squad dispersed into the crevices above, focusing solely on the people and boxes being transported; they didn't touch the main group, didn't get entangled, and just struck once before leaving.

In the evening, a squad transporting relics indeed came down from the slope.

Three examinees and four servants were pushing a bone-wheeled cart, covered with animal hide, with a blue light clearly pressing underneath the hide.

Grey Pupil lay by the peephole, his grey eyes unblinking.

"Count to the third rotation, then tap the left wall."

Lu Jin looked at him.

"You count."

Grey Pupil raised his hand and tapped the stone wall three times lightly.

The first tap: the bone-wheeled cart entered the slope.

The second tap: the escorting servants walked to the narrowest point.

As the third tap fell, the Fire-pattern Moth sacs buried in the mine wall exploded with a boom.

The fire powder didn't explode outward; it all sprayed forward along the hollowed-out wall cavities and grey crevices, instantly plastering onto the cart's animal hide and the servants' faces. The entire narrow slope immediately erupted in flitting flames; the first reaction of the people on the cart wasn't to guard the cart, but to pat out the fire.

In that half-breath, a thin crack suddenly split open at the base of the mine wall.

Seventy or eighty Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats rushed out, bit through the axle belts, the bone wheels tilted, and the entire cart slid into the adjacent collapsed slope. The animal hide covering the cart was pulled away, revealing three broken military badges and a box of sealed spirit-stabilizing medicine underneath.

The escorting examinees were just about to pounce down to snatch it when a rain of ash poured down from the crack overhead.

It wasn't stones; it was tawan iron sand.

The fine sand got into their eyes, hurting so much they couldn't open them. By the time they opened their eyes again, the cart was already gone from the slope, and so was the medicine box.

Only a trail of messy rat paw prints remained, leading into a shallow hole in the direction of the Abandoned Zone.

"Lu Jin!"

Someone roared, their voice cracking.

"That bastard is stealing the road!"

This sentence spread like the wind through the outer circle of the mining field.

The leaderboard in the sky, however, didn't move much.

Lu Jin's score remained stuck in a mediocre position, occasionally jumping a notch, as if he had scrounged a couple of scraps. Those on the surface staring at the leaderboard, seeing this, would only think that he had been hiding in the Abandoned Zone picking up leftovers, not even daring to come out for a fight.

But inside the thermal vent Main Nest, things had already piled up to fill two levels of cave chambers.

Iron ore, medicine, water, compressed biscuits, military badges, animal hides, ropes, bone wheel remnants—each item was sorted neatly. The seven newly dug secret passages had been expanded by Grey Pupil into thirteen. He even had the Digging Squad open up two backup loop passages; if any one was blocked, the entire underground network could still function the same.

Lu Jin stood before a newly opened peephole on the top level, lifting his eyes to look into the distance.

Night had just descended.

The mining fires and divine art lights on the surface made half of the Collapsed Star Mining Field flicker. The area of the Central Sinkhole was the darkest, dark like a mouth that hadn't yet opened.

Grey Pupil stood right behind him, his voice very low.

"They've started losing things."

"The ore veins haven't decreased, but the bags on the road have. The wounded can't get back, supplies can't be sent, and the squads will fall into chaos on their own."

He paused, his grey eyes lifting, falling toward the direction of the Sinkhole.

"Wait a little longer."

No sooner had he spoken than the entire mining field suddenly shook.

First, the thermal vent beneath their feet jumped, and immediately following that, a visible grey-red pulse exploded from the direction of the Central Sinkhole. The pulse was like the heartbeat of some giant creature, rippling out from the bottom of the pit and sweeping along the surface ore veins and the old underground layers.

The grey fire fungus colonies on the cave walls all lit up in unison.

In the White-Bellied Mother Rat's Breeding Cave, all the mother rats simultaneously let out a low, sharp cry, their tails tightly coiled around the ground.

The surface exploded even more directly.

Strong squads in the distance turned around almost simultaneously; Fire Marsh, Thunder Wing, Wood Spirit, and Wilderness Beast herds all pressed toward the direction of the Central Sinkhole. The flying familiars in the sky stretched into black lines, and the teams on the ground crashed through each other's defensive perimeters; no one cared about hiding anymore.

Even the leaderboard shook.

Several high-scoring names simultaneously converged toward the central area.

Lu Jingyao.

Ji Mingxiao.

Lin Ce.

And several seeded teams that were originally buried in the corners of the map all moved.

Deep within the thermal veins, it seemed as if something had awakened.

Grey Pupil stared at the fleeting grey-red pulse, his grey eyes constricting slightly into pinpoints.

"The pool has stirred."

He turned his head to look at Lu Jin, his voice pressed very low, like the back of a knife scraping across bone.

"This time, the strong squads will pave the way for us."