Lu Fan was bound and made to squat at the city gate for an hour. Beside him, Li Jingjing and Zhantai Ruomei, having somehow procured delicacies from the Heavenly Kingdom, were chatting and eating.
"Hey! Can you two show a little concern? Your master is about to be taken as labor, and you're eating so heartily! Can't you let me have a taste too?" Lu Fan rolled his eyes at the two beautiful girls. Couldn't these two little rascals eat without smacking their lips?
"Master! Don't worry. Since you wanted to conduct a private inspection incognito, you have to look the part and be discreet," Li Jingjing said between bites.
"Fine! You two ungrateful wretches! Hmph!" Lu Fan rolled his eyes again, but a slight smile played on his lips. These two little ones were finally not as nervous as they were when their memories were first awakened.
"Get up, all of you! Get up!" At this moment, a crowd of silver-armored soldiers gathered, dragging in many strong men. There were over twenty of them, clearly being taken to work.
As expected, the group was led out of the city by a squad of silver-armored soldiers.
After leaving the city, they headed in another direction. After walking twenty li, a mine appeared ahead, where hundreds of people were currently quarrying stone. The sounds of hammering and smashing stone echoed continuously.
"Go! All of you, get to work. Anyone who slacks off, I'll break your legs and make you lazy forever," a supervisor roared aggressively upon seeing the silver-armored soldiers bring in another batch of people.
"Hey! Why are there two young girls following along?" The supervisor suddenly noticed the two pretty young girls, Li Jingjing and Zhantai Ruomei, and yelled.
"These two little girls came willingly. They're quite pretty. Just arrange something for them so they can earn a meal," the silver-armored soldiers said before leaving.
"What can two little girls do? Nonsense!" The supervisor turned back and shouted at Lu Fan and the others again, "All of you, get to work! No one is allowed to be lazy."
*Crack...* As soon as the supervisor finished speaking, the sound of a whip cracking against stone followed, making many people flinch.
In such a small place, so many people were rounded up for labor. If they had truly committed a crime, it would be one thing, but to arbitrarily find a charge and force laborers to do hard work was too much.
Lu Fan looked at the hundreds of people on the mountain, sweating profusely as they smashed stones, and felt a surge of anger.
"Kid! Get to work! Are you trying to die standing there?" A supervisor, seeing Lu Fan standing around looking left and right, immediately rushed over, raised his whip, and swung it down towards Lu Fan's head.
"Scram...!" Lu Fan flicked his hand, unleashing a surge of energy. The supervisor was sent flying like a kite.
"Holy cow..."
"Damn... Who is that? That's amazing!"
The people nearby were stunned by the sudden turn of events.
"He dares to hit a supervisor, this kid doesn't want to live!" Someone looked at Lu Fan with pity, as if the kid was about to disappear from this world.
As expected, after a brief moment of shock, over a dozen supervisors rushed towards Lu Fan. *Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...* Whips rained down on Lu Fan.
The supervisor who had been looking at the two beautiful girls also recovered and lunged at Lu Fan, swinging his whip.
"Hey... You, come back here!" Li Jingjing raised her sword and struck the supervisor on the head. He immediately fainted and fell to the ground, motionless.
Following that, Li Jingjing and Zhantai Ruomei charged at the dozen supervisors. *Smack, smack, smack...* The two girls finally found an opportunity to hit people. They didn't even draw their swords, using their scabbards to knock all of them down.
"Rebellion! Rebellion..." Some supervisors in the distance started shouting.
In an instant, nearly a hundred silver-armored guards from the distant garrison rushed towards them.
"Didn't you two want to fight? Are over a hundred people not enough for you to fight?" Lu Fan smiled slightly and said to Li Jingjing and Zhantai Ruomei.
"Alright! Let's fight to our heart's content today! Pfft! So the Immortal Realm is nothing special! Watch how we two beat up a hundred of them." Li Jingjing pouted. It seemed fighting was addictive, and more importantly, the feeling of hitting people was exhilarating. As long as one hadn't been beaten, many people thought this way.
*Whoosh, whoosh...* The two girls drew their swords and charged at the silver-armored guards. A melee ensued at the foot of the mine.
Lu Fan did not intervene. Instead, he looked at the entire mountain. After searching, he suddenly grabbed a groaning supervisor lying on the ground and leaped towards the back of the mountain. In a deep gully, Lu Fan discovered over a dozen corpses. He surmised that these were the laborers who had met their end for disobedience. Lu Fan became even more enraged.
"How did these people die?" Lu Fan suddenly grabbed the supervisor and asked angrily.
"They... were beaten to death!" The supervisor was so terrified that he wet himself and stammered.
"Hmph! Whose mine is this?" Lu Fan asked again.
"This is the Third Prince's mine! We all serve the Third Prince!" the supervisor said hastily.
"Hmph!" Lu Fan leaped back to the front of the mine. At this moment, Li Jingjing and Zhantai Xiaoyue had already knocked down thirty to forty people, but both of them were panting from exhaustion.
"Master! You should also get your legs moving, otherwise you'll get fat and lose your handsome look!" Zhantai Ruomei called out to Lu Fan.
"Heh heh! You two lazybones, you're unwilling to put in a little more effort! How can you improve quickly if you don't practice more? Fight! You must knock all these people down!" Lu Fan said with mock anger.
"Master! I'm not even an adult yet! Isn't this considered child abuse?" Zhantai Ruomei protested indignantly.
"Kid! Don't be so arrogant! Let this military lord finish you off with one strike!" Suddenly, a silver-armored guard leader, wielding a large saber, lunged at Lu Fan. The saying "to catch the thief, first catch the king" came to mind. He could see that the two girls listened to this kid, and if they could capture him, the girls wouldn't dare to fight.
*Clang...* The saber in the silver-armored guard leader's hand was blocked by a small dagger. The leader couldn't believe it. His saber weighed dozens of pounds, and his opponent had blocked it with just a dagger. Was this guy looking down on him?
*Whoosh...* He swung his saber down again.
*Clang...* The saber struck the dagger again. However, this time, the guy wasn't so lucky. Lu Fan raised his leg and kicked him flying with a *bang*. He landed with a *thump* and slid over ten meters, crashing into several approaching silver-armored guards.