227: Chapter 227 Mining Town! Survivor's Account! Magic Crystal Mine Stolen!

Golden Flame Territory, Waller Mining Town.

This town was situated right next to the only magic crystal mine in the Golden Flame Territory.

Initially, this place was merely a set of dwellings built for the miners, used for storing tools and resting in shifts.

However, as the scale of the magic crystal mining expanded year by year, the subsidiary industries surrounding the mining area gradually flourished.

The magic crystal mine did not only produce magic crystals; there was also the extraction of many subsidiary mineral veins and their products.

It was just that only the produced magic crystals were the most valuable, while other subsidiary products could only be exchanged for gold coins. Even so, the output value was enough to support many families.

Crude refining of ore, trading of scrap materials, the daily living expenses of the miners...

Slowly, a population of over ten thousand gathered here, forming a small town that lived off the mining industry.

But today, the entire town was shrouded in an atmosphere of anxiety.

There were far fewer pedestrians on the streets than usual, with only the occasional person hurrying by.

Doors and windows in every household were tightly shut, and only a few shops remained half-open, with shopkeepers standing at the doorways, looking anxiously toward the mining area.

The sky in that direction was still emitting a faint haze of dust and smoke.

Just then, the sound of hoofbeats came from the entrance of the town.

Someone poked their head out to take a look and shouted in great joy:

"The Lord is here!"

After this shout.

Many people poked their heads out from behind doors and windows.

Voices of discussion began to rise one after another.

"The Lord came personally? It seems the matter is truly very serious..."

"I heard many people died at the mining site. I even heard the explosion from my house; it rattled my windows."

"I hope the Lord can resolve this. Otherwise, our town is finished, and I do not know where we will have to go to make a living..."

"Sigh, the world has become increasingly unsettled lately. I heard people are dying inexplicably in the neighboring White Rock Town, with all the blood in their bodies drained..."

The cavalry troop stopped in front of a stone building.

Rowan looked around and saw a middle-aged man running hurriedly toward them.

The man looked to be about thirty or forty years old, and he ran up to Rowan, panting, and bowed in salute:

"The, The Count... I am Corbin, the mayor of Waller Mining Town... I am truly sorry for failing to welcome your arrival in advance..."

Rowan waved his hand and asked directly:

"You were the one who sent people to the City Guard with the news, right? What is the specific situation now?"

Mayor Corbin caught his breath and began to say:

"Reporting to you, my Lord, it was me."

"Around this morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, there was a boom from the mining area. It gave me a huge fright. I ran out to look as soon as I heard the sound..."

Speaking up to this point, his voice trembled:

"Then I saw a large cloud of dust and smoke rising from the mining area, as if something had exploded."

"Later, some miners slowly escaped from the direction of the mining area, all of them injured."

"According to them, the mining area was attacked by unidentified personnel, causing heavy casualties."

He paused, then continued:

"I have already had people settle those miners who escaped, but they were quite shocked, and what they said was a bit incoherent. I was still asking about the specific situation just now."

After listening, Rowan nodded:

"Take me to see them."

Upon hearing this, Mayor Corbin hurriedly led the way.

He took Rowan and his personal guards through several streets and arrived in front of a stone house that emitted the scent of herbs.

Inside, several tattered miners lay on a few crude wooden beds.

They all bore injuries of varying degrees.

Some had blood-soaked bandages wrapped around their heads, some had their arms fixed with splints, and some had large, dark blue bruises on their chests.

One of them lay on the innermost bed, his face ashen, breathing weakly, the rise and fall of his chest becoming smaller and smaller, clearly on the verge of death.

Rowan walked over to that bed.

He thought for a moment, then reached out, and a layer of moon-white glowing Battle Aura shimmered on his palm.

The [Vitality] Battle Aura seeped into the person's body, repairing those damaged internal organs.

The miner's breathing became steady, and his ashen complexion gradually regained a hint of color.

Subsequently, he treated the other several miners as well.

Those miners who could still move hurriedly struggled to crawl off the beds and knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly:

"Thank you, my Lord!"

"Thank you, my Lord, for saving our lives!"

Rowan withdrew his hand, signaled for them to stand up, and then began to ask about the scene they had witnessed in the mining area.

The few miners began to speak all at once.

Their perspectives were different, but pieced together, they roughly outlined the contours of the incident—

This was a premeditated attack!

Moreover, the opposing party was extremely familiar with the internal structure of the mining site, making no unnecessary moves and heading straight for the core objective, which was the magic crystal storage point.

At this time, Commander Portia also walked in from outside and reported to Rowan:

"My Lord, I have already sent people to visit several outposts on the periphery of the mining area and the nearby residents."

"Synthesizing information from all sides, it is confirmed that someone attacked the mining site and triggered an explosion to create chaos."

Speaking up to this point, she paused, her tone becoming heavier: "Additionally, we discovered the corpses of the City Guard squad stationed at the entrance of the mining area; the wounds are clean and precise, without any superfluous marks."

After hearing this, a sharp look flashed in Rowan's eyes: "Let us go; we will enter the mining site to take a look."

He walked out of the stone house, taking Commander Portia and Mayor Corbin toward the direction of the mining area entrance.

Behind him, a squad of personal guards followed closely.

At the entrance of the mining area.

The original iron gate had been twisted and deformed, hanging crookedly on the door frame.

On the mining site behind the gate, rubble and broken wood were scattered about, and over a dozen corpses lay in disarray, with dark red blood flowing out slowly.

The air was filled with a stench of blood.

Rowan stood at the entrance, scanning this scene of devastation, his heart sinking slightly.

Then, he looked toward the ruins on one side of the mining site, secretly channeling the life-sensing ability of the [Vampire Prince] to investigate whether there were still any survivors inside.

A moment later, his gaze narrowed slightly.

Under that collapsed ruin, he captured a faint trace of life.

Consequently, he walked quickly to the front of the ruins, his Battle Aura surging out, lifting the rubble to reveal a narrow triangular space in the lower layer of the ruins.

There, two crossbeams intersected to form a gap, which just happened to accommodate a person curled up within it.

"Someone, get him out!"

Rowan turned back and shouted.

Several personal guards immediately stepped forward, carefully crawling into that narrow space, lifting the person out, and placing him on the open ground of the mining site.

Rowan crouched down and checked the other person's injuries. Fortunately, he had only fainted.

He channeled his Vitality Battle Aura to wake him up.

A moment later, the man opened his eyes, first looking confused, then seeing the situation on the field clearly.

He struggled to sit up, faced Rowan, and shouted: "The Count! You are here! I am the dispatcher, Edgar! There is a traitor in the mining site!"

"It is the deputy manager, Alec; he led people into the depths of the mining area and stole all the magic crystal mines stored below!"

"Manager Jasper... he was killed by Alec!"

"And also the guard captain, Knight Orion; he fought a great battle against the invaders brought by Alec, but was ultimately defeated..."

"However, the City Guard also took the opportunity to use armor-piercing crossbows to wound that person! That person was also not lightly injured!"