When he heard the familiar voice, among the dozens of miners, a strong-looking middle-aged man lifted his head. He looked blankly at Yun Sheng and the others.
When he saw Sixth Son’s face, the man’s eyes suddenly bulged.
He was Sixth Son’s father, who had been forcibly taken to the cave over a dozen days ago.
Neither father nor son could have imagined that they would meet again in such an environment. They hugged each other, overwhelmed with emotion.
"Sixth Son, is that really you? Why did you come here? This child, why don’t you ever listen? Didn’t I tell you to run far away? What are you doing here?" Upon seeing his son, Sixth Son’s father was at once overjoyed and grief-stricken.
His joy was due to his son being unharmed; during his time here, he had seen countless people from neighboring villages being captured, and he had been worried about Sixth Son’s safety outside.
But just when he got news of his son, the boy had walked into the lion’s den. Everyone knows that once you enter this hellish cave, there’s no hope of coming out alive.
Yun Sheng noticed that among the miners, Sixth Son’s father seemed the most spirited.
He seemed to be only physically tired, but mentally, still in quite good shape.
This was probably because of his experiences with life-and-death situations in his early years, making his willpower much stronger than the average person.
"Dad, let’s not talk about that for now, where’s mother?" Sixth Son did not see his mother’s figure, and a wave of panic hit him.
"Don’t worry, your mother is fine. A few days after we were imprisoned here, those villains selected a few nimble women from the cave to cook and wash clothes for them," Sixth Son’s mother was lucky to have been chosen, thus avoiding disaster.
After listening to Sixth Son’s recount of the general events, Sixth Son’s father also calmed down.
Especially when he heard that Yun Sheng and the others were descendants of the Yun Family Army, a glimmer of hope for life sparkled in his previously dim eyes.
"You’re the descendants of the Yun Family Army, how wonderful," Sixth Son’s father said with a friendly expression.
After staying in the cave for more than ten days, because he was strong and did not attempt to escape, the mysterious captors treated him fairly well.
He was assigned to distribute food and water within the cave.
While Sixth Son’s father outwardly submitted, he never stopped secretly observing the activities of the mysterious people,
This cave imprisoned all the villagers who had been captured, and a large number of people had come and gone over time.
At its peak, there were five to six hundred people.
The cave had only one entrance. Because it was guarded day and night by someone from the mysterious group, they took turns guarding the cave, and fierce Fire Lizard Beasts patrolled.
Some villagers had attempted to escape, but without exception, they were all caught and brought back.
The captured villagers were mostly beaten to death.
Sixth Son’s father had also thought of escaping before, but when he remembered that Sixth Son’s mother was still in the hands of those people, he gritted his teeth and persisted. Sixth Son’s father also shared some information about the Purple Gold Mine.
The mysterious captors had somehow acquired a map of this vein. They captured the villagers to mine.
Inside this Purple Gold Mine, there are vast amounts of Purple Gold Ore.
Every day, nearly a thousand catties of Purple Gold Ore are transported out by Flying Magical Beasts.
But as for where exactly they were taken, Sixth Son’s father did not know.
"Father, who exactly are those people?" Sixth Son asked.
"I’m not sure, but their leader seems to live in a treehouse not far from here. Judging by their accent, they don’t seem to be from Da Zhou," Sixth Son’s father shook his head. He went out to mine and scout daily, and that was all the information he could gather.
With the detailed description from Sixth Son’s father, Yun Sheng started to outline the entire mining area in her mind.
The outskirts of the mining area were dense tropical forests, divided into eastern, western, southern, and northern zones. The main harvesting area of the Purple Gold Vein was to the east, while the villagers held captive in caves were located to the west. Other soldiers and animal pens were placed to the south, and the mysterious people’s leader, along with some powerful Mages, Martial Artists, and Summoners, resided in the north.
In the middle of these four regions, there were more than a dozen Thunder Explosion Arrays.
Without personally exploring the environment, escaping was impractical. Yun Sheng decided to stay in the mining area for a few days, ideally getting a chance to visit the Purple Gold Vein before devising a way to escape with the villagers.
While talking, Yun Sheng heard a pained groaning sound. An adult miner who had returned with Sixth Son’s father earlier had collapsed on the ground, his face covered in sweat, suffering from severe stomach cramps.
"What happened?" Yun Sheng immediately went to check.
"It’s an old problem; the conditions here are too poor. We often suffer from stomachaches and diarrhea. Those of us who are stronger can still bear it, but it’s too much for the young and the women," sighed Sixth Son’s father.
While listening to Sixth Son’s father recount the situation in the mining area, Yun Sheng also paid attention to other conditions inside the cave.
Just as she had noticed when she entered the cave earlier, the environment here was very poor.
Those mysterious people didn’t regard the villagers they had captured as human at all. Yun Sheng checked the daily water and food supply for the hundreds of villagers; the water was turbid yellow mud water, not purified or settled at all.
The food was also severely lacking, mostly stale and rotten. Under such conditions, yet having to mine with high load undoubtedly greatly increased the mortality rate of the villagers.
"Uncle, I’m a Doctor. I’ll alleviate his pain first. Find a few villagers for me; I have a few things that I need your help with," said Yun Sheng as she rolled up her sleeves.
Sixth Son’s father looked at Yun Sheng with doubt, while Huang Que chimed in, "Really, our master is amazing. She’s a famous Divine Doctor in Yujing."
Sixth Son also said that Yun Sheng had healed his wounds.
It was only then that Sixth Son’s father quickly summoned a few men from the same village.
Per Yun Sheng’s instructions, they divided the people in the cave into two groups: the sick and the healthy.
The sick were collectively arranged inside the cave, while the healthy were placed towards the outer side of the cave, near the ventilation area.
The villagers also gathered some sand and charcoal, and following Yun Sheng’s instructions, used them for preliminary purification and settlement of their drinking water.
Yun Sheng had made thorough preparations before coming; her storage ring contained some Medicinal Herbs, a small amount of food, and some Demon Beast Meat.
The Medicinal Herbs and food were prioritized for the sick patients to consume, while the Demon Beast Meat was cut into portions and distributed to the healthy villagers.
These villagers had been half-starved for a long time, and the moment they saw the food, their originally dim eyes instantly lit up.
Disregarding the arrangement made by Sixth Son’s father, they all rushed forward, attempting to snatch the food from Yun Sheng and others’ hands.
"Huang Que!" Yun Sheng had already been prepared for this, and Huang Que mercilessly knocked several leading villagers to the ground. In Yun Sheng’s hand, the Magic Wand aimed at the wall, casting a Fireball.
The Fireball instantly turned a hanging corpse on the wall to ashes.
Yun Sheng’s face was tightly strained.
The actions of the two calmed the noisy villagers down.