CHAPTER 321: CHAPTER 183: RESCUE

"Everyone, listen carefully. Starting from now, we must all be united. If you cooperate, I assure you, I will bring you out alive to reunite with your families. But if you dare to be double-hearted and disobey commands, I guarantee, you will die uglier than these corpses," Yun Sheng is not old, but at this moment, her body exudes a terrifying and awe-inspiring might.

To the ignorant and useless villagers, an absolute authoritarian leader is essential.

Yun Sheng’s actions made every villager present, from the depths of their souls, feel a kind of fear.

But accompanying this fear was also a desire for survival.

Yun Sheng’s magic, her every word, was like a sweet rain, giving these spiritually desolate villagers a glimmer of hope once more.

No one dared to make another sound. They formed lines as instructed by Sixth Son’s father, supporting their family members, spouses, and friends, and collected medicinal herbs and food.

In just one night, the order within the cave had subtly changed, a fact completely unknown to the mysterious people outside.

Day and night passed, shortly after Yun Sheng and others were abducted to the mine.

"Commander, the people from Zhou Village have been abducted. Our men who were sent to tail them did as instructed, not startling the snake. The captors are a group of masked figures, and their identities are unknown. They have a large number of Flying Magical Beasts, flying towards the south, in the direction of Nanya Town, close to Tang Yuan," the night Yun Sheng and the others were abducted, the Hunting Corps ambushed near Zhou Village immediately sent back the news to the inn at Nanya Town.

Yun Canglang and others had already been anxiously waiting there for days.

"My bats have also followed those Demon Beasts to the mine area. With my master’s wit, I don’t think there should be any big issues. But tell me, Yun boy, what are we supposed to do?" For safety, Yun Sheng had ordered Zong Ren not to follow them.

He was several generations older than Yun Canglang, calling Yun Canglang "Yun boy" made Yun Canglang somewhat bemused.

"I plan to go see the garrison of Marquis Weiyuan, after all, we are short-handed. If we can get assistance from the military, I believe there’s a much higher chance of rescuing the villagers," Yun Canglang still had hopes for the local garrison.

He immediately went to the garrison of Marquis Weiyuan, only to be bluntly turned away.

"I want to see your General. I am Yun Canglang, and I was a staff officer with your General in the earlier years," Yun Canglang reiterated his identity.

Two sharp-mouthed garrison guards glanced at Yun Canglang. One of them rolled his eyes, swallowed deeply, and spat out a mouthful of phlegm, "Yun Canglang?! An ignorant fool like you, also wants to impersonate Great Zhou’s number one fierce military general, the Young General of the Yun Residence? Take a peek at yourself in your own piss. If you’re Yun Canglang, then I must be the Great Zhou Martial Saint Yun Bahe!"

Yun Canglang felt his blood rush to his forehead with anger. If it were not for considering that he had already left the military, he would have surely dealt with this guard using military law at this moment.

He suppressed the surging rage in his heart, "Brother, whether you believe it or not, I really have an urgent matter to report to your General. It is about the missing villagers from the nearby villages."

Upon hearing this, the eyes of the two guards filled with a trace of astonishment and doubt. One of them said, "You wait here, I’ll go inside and inform the General."

The guard hurried into the military camp.

"General, someone outside asks for an audience, claiming to be Yun Canglang, and they say they have clues about the disappearance of villagers from the nearby villages."

"Yun Canglang? It’s a joke. Yun Canglang is merely a cripple; how could he have come to Nanya Town? He must be either a swindler from somewhere else or a spy from an enemy state, trying to infiltrate our camp. Someone! Follow my orders, take that thief and beat him out of here with military batons," inside the luxuriously decorated golden-domed main tent, Marquis Weiyuan’s nephew Ni Renyi waved his hand dismissively.

The guard hurriedly bowed his head and took the order.

"General Ni, you just sent Yun Canglang away like that. Aren’t you afraid that he will barge in?" Inside the main tent sat a man and a woman.

Dressed in fine garments, they exuded an aura of nobility. Upon closer examination, these were none other than Xuan Wuji and Xuan Meimei, siblings from Dihong City.

"You flatter me. What’s Yun Canglang but a mere Martial Artist stripped of his official rank? If he dares to obstruct our path to wealth, I will make him regret ever setting foot on the borderlands again," Ni Renyi spoke, eyes gleaming with greed, in front of him laid two large pieces of ore, shining with purple light, dazzling like crystals.

Each piece of ore weighed fifty pounds, and if crafted into Wuji Purple Gold Coins, the value would undoubtedly exceed a hundred thousand.

Ni Renyi was merely a Fourth-rank military general. Even with the backing of his uncle Marquis Weiyuan, the annual embezzled military provisions scarcely amounted to tens of thousands of Gold Coins.

How could that compare to the rewards offered by Dihong City and the mysterious people?

Just for handling a few impoverished villagers, Ni Renyi naturally enjoyed a great fortune.

"Rest assured, I will find a way to cover up the disappearance of the villagers. However, you need to hasten your actions. Otherwise, if it attracts the coveting of other forces, it will become impossible to conceal," Ni Renyi chuckled.

"General Ni is truly aware of the times. If the mining of the Purple Gold Vein succeeds this time, neither Dihong City nor the Prince will treat you unfairly," Xuan Wuji inwardly scorned Ni Renyi’s character, but his face overflowed with compliments.

The two siblings exchanged looks, their eyes revealing a hint of cruelty.

Ever since Yun Sheng and the others arrived at the cave, the villagers’ lives had quietly begun to change.

The group of mysterious people would split into three shifts every day to enter the cave and escort the miners to extract Purple Gold Ore. Following Yun Sheng’s arrangement, Sixth Son’s father secretly organized the miners into groups to excavate.

Yun Sheng stayed in the cave for a few days. Thanks to timely measures in purifying and isolating the sick, there had been no more death from illness in the cave, and the number of new infections had significantly decreased.

Under the coordination of Sixth Son’s father, those who went up to the Purple Gold Mine were all strong individuals, which led to a daily increase in the amount mined, pleasing the mysterious figures.

The quantity and quality of water and food provided to the cave improved from before.

Although the mysterious figures were unaware of what had happened, they were clearly satisfied with such improvements.

That day, Yun Sheng was pondering how to enter the Purple Gold Mine area to check on the situation.

"You lot, follow me out. It’s your turn to go up to the mine," a few mysterious figures walked in and selected twenty people from the cave.

"Brother, can we go down to the mine instead? He is my uncle, and he hasn’t been feeling well recently," Yun Sheng exchanged a glance with Huang Que and the others and stepped forward while the mysterious figures were selecting people.

**Thank you sunny and Little Black for the rewards**