"Let you go? That's impossible." The leader snickered.
"I'm begging you, please spare us! We swear we won't tell anyone what happened." The man immediately dropped to his knees, kowtowing repeatedly. The heavy sound of his head hitting the ground echoed over to Evan Yang.
Watching this, Evan Yang felt a surge of furious anger rise within him.
"Only dead men keep secrets. So today is the day you die." The leader laughed loudly.
The other three cultivators laughed wildly as if watching a show, casually raising their weapons to attack the two helpless mortals.
"Please, I'm begging you!" The man kept kowtowing desperately, refusing to give up hope.
"Go die!" the leader shouted with a laugh. The other three cultivators raised their weapons, ready to strike.
The child, however, stood like a rock, staring at them with wide eyes, his fists clenched tightly, utterly unafraid of death.
Just as the child and adult were about to be struck by a barrage of ruthless sword energy, three crisp 'clang' sounds rang out. The weapons in the hands of the three cultivators were broken, their swords rendered useless in an instant.
It happened so suddenly that the leader was shocked. He looked toward the spot where something had just flown in. "Who?!"
"Let them go." The speaker was Evan Yang, his eyes blazing with anger at the cultivators who toyed with mortal lives.
"Kid, do you know who we are?" The leader was in high spirits, assigned to slaughter these people, but being interrupted made him furious. The other three cultivators felt the same, but seeing their swords broken by the intruder, realized he was no ordinary person and stood behind the leader cautiously.
The man who had been kowtowing and the child about to die, seeing someone had saved them, quickly moved to stand in front of Evan Yang.
Looking at the child's pure eyes and the bloodied man, Evan Yang felt a strong urge to wipe out these heartless cultivators.
"Wait over there," Evan Yang told them, then turned to face the heartless cultivators and said, "No matter who you are, you have no right to toy with mortal lives."
"Ridiculous—mortals are just mortals. How could they compare to us cultivators? My advice: mind your own business, or when our clan arrives, you can wait for death!" the leader said sinisterly.
"You won't need your clan to come—you'll die right here!" Evan Yang knew the leader spoke the truth, but not wanting to cause too much trouble, he planned to deal with them quickly.
"What a joke!" The leader sneered, as if he'd just heard the most ridiculous thing, and the other three cultivators did the same.
Before they finished speaking, the four cultivators' auras vanished from Evan Yang's sight. Three lay on the ground, eyes wide open, their chests pierced by sharp weapons. The leader had a gaping hole in his chest, all killed by Evan Yang's daggers and fists.
"You scum!" Evan Yang recalled how these cultivators toyed with mortal lives, chasing and slaughtering them, and spoke angrily.
Only then did the man and child react, and under the man's lead, they quickly ran to Evan Yang's side, thanking him, "Thank you, lord."
"Don't call me lord—I'm just a mortal too," Evan Yang said to the two honest mortals with a smile.
"No matter what, we have to thank you, lord. If not for you, my son and I would have died here," the man said with gratitude.
"Ah, it's a pity I couldn't save your other relatives," Evan Yang sighed helplessly.
"Don't say that—it's just our fate," the man said, holding his child's hand and looking at Evan Yang gratefully.
"Why are you here?" Evan Yang asked, knowing mortals shouldn't appear near the Death Crystal Field.
"We're miners, but recently we found something we shouldn't have," the man said sadly.
"Miners?" Evan Yang asked, surprised.
Seeing Evan Yang's confusion, the man explained the situation to him.
The Wong Clan operates a small mine nearby, bringing in many ordinary mortals to dig. They use mortals to prevent rebellion and theft.
The man and his child were among the miners, lured here by promises of survival but trapped for years. They thought their lives would be stable, but just days ago, someone found a small piece of top-grade Spirit Crystal Ore in one of the mines—a treasure only great sects and clans ever see. To cover it up, the clan drove everyone who had seen it to the riverbank and began killing them.
After hearing the man's explanation, Evan Yang was shocked. He never expected to encounter such cruelty here, and his hatred for the Wong Clan deepened.
"Sigh, this is just our fate—we dug up something we shouldn't have," the man said helplessly.
"You said they're from the Wong Clan?" Evan Yang asked, calming himself.
The man nodded and even told Evan Yang the location of the Wong Clan Mining Base.
After listening, Evan Yang came up with a plan and instructed the two to leave through Strange Gorge.
"Sigh, I hope you make it out safely," Evan Yang murmured, looking at the dead miners with regret. He then searched the bodies of the four Wong Clan cultivators and found some token-like items.
"Could this be a pass token?" Evan Yang muttered as he examined a particularly large one.
After checking them over, Evan Yang took the largest token and headed toward the Wong Clan Mining Base.
The Wong Clan Mining Base had fifty disciples; after Evan killed four, forty-six remained. Not knowing who the leader was, Evan decided to sneak in and investigate.
"Warren Wong, and the Wong Clan—you shouldn't exist in this world." Following the man's directions and using the token, Evan Yang slipped into the base's outer perimeter and witnessed many things that enraged him.
There were at least several hundred miners, divided into more than a dozen groups. Each group had a dozen people, all assigned to a specific spot to dig. They ate and slept right at their designated area, forbidden to leave. Every mining point was overseen by a Wong Clan member with two or three clan juniors.
The clan juniors acted arrogant, constantly shouting orders at the mortals to keep digging. Every piece of Spirit Crystal Ore mined was immediately pocketed by the minor overseers.
Evan Yang's arrival surprised the outermost Wong Clan disciples. One stepped forward to question him, "Which mining point are you from? Why are you outside?"
Evan Yang didn't say much. He simply took out the token, and when the disciple saw it, he didn't press further and let Evan pass into the base.
With that token, Evan Yang easily made his way deep into the base, just in time to see some miners being harshly reprimanded by cultivators.
"These scumbags," Evan cursed inwardly, watching the cultivators. He was about to intervene when he noticed a large mountain cave nearby, guarded by two cultivators.
Seeing the cave, Evan Yang suppressed his anger and walked toward it. Before he entered, one of the guards asked, "Which mining point are you from?"
Evan Yang took out his token.
The guard checked the token and said, "Go in."
Inside, the chamber was lavishly decorated, as if someone had embezzled plenty of treasures. The moment Evan Yang entered, he sensed something was off—it didn’t feel like a mine at all, more like a private retreat. Not far ahead, a fat man lay on a bed, holding a piece of pure green crystal, examining it closely.
"Is that top-grade Spirit Crystal Ore?" Evan Yang thought in shock, recognizing the sparkling crystal in the man's hand. Such a treasure was priceless, usually monopolized by major clans and sects. If a small family found one, it would be seized by higher powers. As the person in charge here and a core member of the Wong Clan, the fat man knew this well—so he had all witnesses killed at once.
The fat man, toying with the crystal, saw someone enter and rolled over, lazily complaining, "Why come in without announcing yourself?" His tone carried a hint of anger.
"I have something to report," Evan Yang said.
"Out with it, and make it quick. If I’m not satisfied, I’ll have you thrown out and punished by the clan," the fat man said impatiently.
Evan Yang was surprised the fat man hadn't noticed anything unusual about him. He wondered if the clan disciples were divided into ranks. Seeing Evan hesitate, the fat man grew angry and barked, "What's wrong, cat got your tongue? Had enough of this place? If you want to leave, just get lost!"
"I wanted to tell you: those people are all dead," Evan Yang said calmly.
"Dead? Good, that's how it should be. The sooner those people are dealt with, the sooner I can wait for the clan head to come collect this thing." The fat man laughed, as if the deaths were nothing. Evan Yang, furious, clarified, "It was Wong Clan members who died."
The fat man, excited a moment ago, instantly turned grim and cursed, "What did you say? How could Wong Clan members die? It was just a few mortals!" As he spoke, he unleashed his cultivation aura.
"So he really is at the Core-Formation stage, though his aura isn't as strong as City Lord Tu's," Evan Yang thought. He'd provoked the man on purpose to test his strength. Now that his goal was achieved, he sneered, "They deserved it!"
"Kid, what did you just say? Are you looking for death?" the fat man shouted, his anger drawing the two guards from outside into the chamber.
Evan Yang tossed the token aside.
The token symbolized identity, but Evan Yang had no use for it anymore. To the fat man and his followers, this was shocking. The fat man quickly stashed the top-grade crystal and demanded, "Who are you?"
"You'll find out soon enough," Evan Yang said with a smile. He spun around and, using Phantom Step, attacked the two low-ranked disciples.
The fat man was stunned—not so much that Evan killed his subordinates right in front of him, but that someone at peak Foundation-Building dared to stir up trouble in the Wong Clan's base.
"Kid, looks like you're tired of living, thinking the Wong Clan has no experts!" the fat man roared in fury.
"Even if your clan has experts, sooner or later there won't be any left," Evan Yang sneered.
"Damn you, die!" The fat man yelled, grabbing two heavy clubs and swinging at Evan Yang. But Evan's speed was so fast that every time the clubs were about to hit him, he dodged easily with Phantom Step, leaving the fat man stomping in frustration.