The interior of the mountain was deep and dark.
The human slaves, carrying their baskets, walked inside. At intervals along the way, clusters of white crystals on the mountain walls emitted a faint glow.
This was just enough to allow them to see the path ahead.
Tap, tap, tap… Dong—
Inside the mountain, all sounds were amplified infinitely.
The sound of the human slaves walking, the sound of small pebbles being kicked and rolling.
Everything was exceptionally clear.
After walking for some time, Yi Hao's eyes brightened.
His body was illuminated by various colored lights.
He saw that the mountain walls were covered with clusters of crystals of varying sizes.
Red, blue, white, purple…
Sparkling and emitting a soft radiance.
They looked incredibly dazzling.
Upon seeing these stones, the human slaves took out their stone picks and began to work.
The sounds of dinging and donging echoed within the mountain.
Yi Hao also took out a small stone pick and began to collect stones.
He observed the techniques of the other men and followed suit.
However, as soon as he touched a red crystal, he felt the energy within surge towards him.
It felt as if he were absorbing energy.
Yi Hao instinctively let go.
Ding dong—
The crystal in his hand fell to the ground.
Hearing the sound, the young man beside him looked over.
Seeing the crystal on the ground, he assumed Yi Hao was simply weak and had lost his strength after collecting the crystal.
He said, "This is your first time here. Observe how everyone else does it first."
"Don't use brute force."
Yi Hao looked up. The speaker was the young man who had stepped forward first yesterday to stop the middle-aged man's frenzy.
The young man demonstrated to Yi Hao how to collect stones with skill.
Then, he placed the collected stones into a nearby basket.
Casually, he asked, "What's your name?"
What's my name?
Yi Hao thought of the names of the people here and didn't come up with a new one. He replied, "Yi Hao."
"Yi Hao? What kind of name is that?"
The young man continued collecting stones as he said, "But it doesn't matter…"
"My name is 'Shan'. Do you know what 'Shan' means? It means the place we are in now, it's called Shan."
Yi Hao listened to his words and asked,
"What is most important here?"
Shan's stone pick struck the mountain wall below a crystal, making a 'dong' sound.
"Being able to eat every meal, that's the most important!"
Perhaps because they were close, as Shan collected the crystals,
Yi Hao suddenly saw a trace of red energy flow along Shan's arm and into his body.
It flowed into his dantian and merged with other red energies.
These energies, unscreened, presented many mottled impurities.
At the same time,
Yi Hao noticed that Shan's strength seemed to have increased by a bit.
Dong dong dong—
Dong dong dong—
The sounds of striking continuously echoed within the mountain.
Yi Hao carefully observed the others.
He discovered that everyone was the same.
During the process of collecting crystals, the red energy clusters in their dantian grew larger and larger.
Upon realizing this series of changes, Yi Hao finally understood how the middle-aged man's frenzy and explosion yesterday had come about.
He also understood why the human slaves of this stone village existed.
These crystals were indeed rich in magical energy.
But they were also mixed with many impurities that could not be absorbed. Absorbing them rashly would only increase the burden on the body.
Going mad, exploding, dying… all were possible.
Only after a series of processing could they be effectively absorbed and utilized.
However, during the collection and processing, there would be a certain degree of erosion.
Therefore,
The demons kept the human slaves to do these tasks.
That's why, when entering this mountain,
The supervising demons only remained at the entrance and exit.
"..."
Ding dong—
Yi Hao looked at the red crystal in his hand, resisting the erosion of the impurities.
While pondering how to remove these impurities.
...
In the blink of an eye,
An entire morning passed.
The human slaves had already collected five carts of crystals.
As long as they collected another five carts in the afternoon, they would complete the task assigned by the demons.
"Alright, everyone take a break."
Shan said.
The others heard this, put down their stone picks.
Stretched their bodies, and walked towards the open space.
"Finally, a chance to rest."
"Emma, I'm starving."
"How many crystals did this little guy collect? His speed is too slow."
"Enough, it's because 'He' went crazy."
The human slaves gathered together, some standing, some sitting.
They took out their dry rations to eat.
While eating, they chatted.
At this moment, they finally seemed like 'people'.
Instead of being dominated livestock.
And only here—where the demons dared not enter, could they slightly relax their tense nerves.
"Hurry up and replenish your energy."
Shan said, and from a basket, he took out a small piece of dry food and handed it to Yi Hao.
Yi Hao took the dry food and tried to take a bite.
It was indeed very hard.
He didn't know what this thing was made of; it was a dark lump, hard and unpalatable.
As Yi Hao was eating, he suddenly noticed that everyone else was sprinkling something on their dry rations.
The next second, a hand reached out.
And sprinkled some tiny red particles on Yi Hao's dry rations.
"Crystals?" Yi Hao looked curiously at Shan beside him.
Shan withdrew his hand and said indifferently,
"Eat it, and you'll have strength."
Yi Hao frowned, scanned around, and found that everyone else was sprinkling these shattered small crystals on their dry rations.
Seeing that he wasn't eating, a man opposite him scoffed.
"This is good stuff. If you don't want to eat it, give it to me."
Although there were all sorts of stones here, it wasn't easy to break them into such small particles.
Yi Hao said, "These stones are good stuff, but eating them directly will kill people."
As soon as he said this, others looked over in surprise.
The man opposite him laughed mockingly, "Look, this little guy actually knows this, hahaha…
What's the difference between living and dying here?"
Shan was sitting next to Yi Hao.
Hearing Yi Hao's words, he swallowed the dry food in his mouth with a calm expression.
He said, "Not eating is also death. Eating might let you live a little longer."
Without strength, one cannot complete the daily workload.
Without completing the task, one cannot eat.
Starving leads to illness.
It's still death.
"..." Yi Hao looked at the dry food in his hand and said nothing.
The others also fell silent.
After a brief silence, a whimper suddenly echoed within the mountain.
It was a short man with pointed ears and sharp fingernails.
Due to doing rough work, several of his fingernails had split.
His fingertips were stained with traces of blood.
He held the dry food in both hands, bit into it with his teeth, and whimpered.
"Living here is worse than dying…"
The burly man sitting opposite Yi Hao touched his head.
There was a blood scar there, left from a previous fall onto the crystals.
He cursed, "What are you crying for? What good does crying do?"
"Who told you that you weren't born into a demon's womb?"
"Human slaves are born with lowly lives. Where would they not be slaves?"
Human slaves, human slaves…
Otherwise, why are they called human slaves?
They don't even deserve to be called a 'race'!
Even if they weren't here, it wouldn't be much better.
"Alright, stop arguing."
Shan spoke up to end the topic, "Finish eating quickly to replenish your energy. We still have five carts of tasks."
The mountain interior immediately fell silent.
All the men silently ate the dry food in their hands, and the red crystal particles on the dry food.
Feeling their strength gradually returning.
Yi Hao lowered his head, looking at the crystal particles on the dry food.
He remained silent for a long time.
Seeing that everyone had finished their dry food and were getting up to get their stone picks,
Yi Hao suddenly spoke, "Are humans weak?"
He raised his head and looked at this group of people called 'human slaves'.
Are humans inherently weak?
Are they inherently lowly born?
Then why do they possess intelligence and such complete meridians?
...