The blazing red setting sun was like a ferocious beast plunging into an enraged sea, resplendent beyond compare, while the shadows of the peaks on the earth were grotesque and eerie, as if harboring unresolved sorrows.
Occasional gusts of wind and sand swept through, leaving no blade of grass alive; as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but undulating desolation.
In a mountain hollow, a group of miners toiled incessantly, discharging the excavated earth and rock from deep underground, filling one gully after another in the nearby mountains.
As dusk fell, the light gradually diminished, and the scorching heat softened.
Alert personnel secretly positioned around the valley work site began to cautiously emerge and look around.
A crude lounge chair, pieced together from scrap wood, was carried up to the mountain top by two people and set down.
On the chair sat a gaunt, cold-faced middle-aged man, prematurely aged. He squinted at the setting sun, raised a hand to wave away those beside him who showed signs of melancholy, as the wind ruffled his graying hair, revealing a sickly, weary appearance.
Yet, his clothing was the most presentable here.
It was merely a set of ordinary clothes.
The others—the miners, including the surrounding guards and the people who had just carried him up—were so poor it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they had no pants. Most wore a few rags to cover their private parts, their bodies were dirty and emaciated, their hair disheveled.
One couldn't find a fat person here.
The difference between the guards and the miners, besides the weapons in their hands, was the straw-woven masks covering their faces and the black cloth strips tied to their arms to distinguish them.
The act of tearing an entire piece of black cloth into strips was already a luxury in this extremely resource-scarce land of exile.
The miners dumping earth and rock into the gullies, then returning to the mine shaft with their shoulder poles, had complexions where bronze was the lightest shade.
None were as pale and clean as the middle-aged man on the lounge chair; most were barefoot. Some genuinely had no shoes, while others hung their straw sandals on their waists, preferring to toughen their feet on less abrasive paths rather than overly wear out their shoes.
Fortunately, they were all accustomed to it; the skin on their soles was thick.
Among them, two individuals, one tall and one short, appeared somewhat unusual.
The terms tall and short were relative; the shorter one was not short compared to others, but the tall one was indeed a bit taller than a normal person.
Occasional gusts of wind and sand blew against their faces, sometimes parting the disheveled hair that covered them.
Even though their exposed faces were very dirty, and despite the stubble from long neglect, it couldn't hide the youthful aura on their faces.
The other miners' faces were numb with fatigue, but the two unusual individuals stared at the middle-aged man on the mountaintop, observing him from afar, so much so that when they reached the mine entrance, they didn't notice someone walking out to meet them from inside.
The other miners had already actively separated and moved aside to make way, but the two almost collided.
The newcomer, swinging his large sleeves, walked out quickly.
He was a man with a fleshy face, named Shen Youkun. Although his upper and lower garments didn't match and had many patches, he was one of only two people here who wore a full set of clothes.
Shen Youkun was the supervisor of this mine excavation. His temper was not good; he would beat and scold at the slightest provocation.
The summoned miners were all a bit afraid of him, but he had the capability to ensure everyone had two meals of dry rice daily, and he had promised rewards afterward—a sum of grain! Shen Youkun had been the top figure here until recently, when the middle-aged man lying on the lounge chair arrived, and his role seemed to immediately bow into that of an obedient subordinate. This was why the two young men, one tall and one short, paid particular attention to observing that middle-aged man.
They did not know the middle-aged man and had never seen him in this land of exile, but they knew Shen Youkun, and even had a past grievance with him.
After their head-on collision, the two couldn't help but feel a little nervous.
They truly hadn't expected to run into him directly like this. They quickly lowered their heads, letting their disheveled hair cover their faces.
The tall one even nodded and bowed, taking the opportunity to bend his knees, attempting to conceal his height somewhat. He was quite self-aware.
Fortunately, Shen Youkun's attention wasn't on them at all. As soon as he reached the cave entrance, he looked around at the surroundings, his gaze quickly locking onto the middle-aged man on the mountain top.
Impatiently, he shoved the two aside with a brusque “Get out of the way,” and walked straight between them, quickly striding towards his target.
The numb miners merely glanced back, not delaying their continued progress.
Lingering would invite suspicion of laziness, and the overseer's whip would show no mercy.
The tall and short duo, who were following, exchanged glances, both secretly sighing in relief.
The tall one, carrying his load, unconsciously patted his chest, muttering “Good, good,” in a relieved manner.
Without vegetation, the mountain body is unstable.
As Shen Youkun ascended the mountain, sand and stones occasionally clattered down beneath his feet. By the time he reached the solitary lounge chair, he was panting.
“Uncle, why have you come all the way up the mountain to brave the wind? Your cultivation has just been crippled, and your body is still very weak. Wind evils can easily invade; you should take good care of yourself and recuperate more.”
Panting, he himself had also been banished to this land of exile to fend for himself only after his cultivation was crippled, though he had arrived a few years earlier than the uncle he addressed.
His uncle, named Qi Ziru, stared blankly at the last splendor in the sky, as if murmuring in a trance, “You said we needed to clear out this East Nine Plains before acting.
Have all the people been cleared out?”
Shen Youkun, about to instinctively give a full guarantee, suddenly realized there seemed to be a deeper meaning in his uncle’s words. He glanced at the mountain below, which had been bustling with activity for many days.
He swallowed his words and mumbled, “Almost.”
Qi Ziru remained indifferent, “Previously, you said the people of East Nine Plains were difficult to deal with, and that it would be hard to keep things secret without clearing the area.
You also said you needed sufficient supplies to clear them out. You should know how difficult it is to get things into this land of exile, even a piece of paper is hard to bring in.
Yet, I still found every way to help you infiltrate the supplies. Now you’ve already started excavating, but you tell me the clearing is ‘almost’ done.
How much is ‘almost’?”
Shen Youkun lowered his head, stammering, “It’s basically cleared out, just two remaining.” He then looked up again, “Just two people, not worth worrying about.”
Qi Ziru still stared at the sky, still appearing uninterested in anything. “Just? You have so many people at your disposal, yet a mere two people prevented you from completing the clearing.
I want to know what kind of ‘mere’ two people they are.”
Shen Youkun was a bit embarrassed.
With the conversation reaching this point, he dared not conceal anything and confessed honestly, “One is the chief of East Nine Plains, Shi Chun, and the other is his staunch follower, Wu Jinliang. All their hundred-plus men in East Nine Plains have already been sent into the city according to my prediction and plan.
Now, only the two of them remain in the entire East Nine Plains. Without their eyes and ears, they won't discover the secret activities here in such a large area.”
Qi Ziru slowly turned his head, staring coldly at him. “So, the ones not cleared out happen to be the two biggest leaders of East Nine Plains.
What is the background of these two?”
Shen Youkun scoffed dismissively, “Local natives. Their ancestors' circumstances are long untraceable.
Both their parents died in a fight over a water source. The two grew up eating ‘a hundred family’s food’ in East Nine Plains, two stinking beggar bastards.
It’s a miracle they didn’t starve to death.”
His tone held a hatred as if he wished to trample them into mud.
Qi Ziru raised his eyelids slightly, realizing that after his nephew was banished here, some unspoken conflict might have occurred between him and that chief.
What his nephew didn't want to say, with his current energy, he didn't want to ask further, and he had his own judgment on what had already been stated.
Although he was here in the land of exile for the first time, he already had a general understanding of the environment and knew the situation of the so-called local natives.
People who struggled to survive here were either banished to this place or were descendants of those banished.
Those banished for crimes, inevitably both male and female, due to natural instincts, could not help but multiply. Those new generations were the so-called local natives.
Resources were extremely scarce in this place. For both the banished and the local natives, the biggest problem was actually survival.
People often fought over food and drink, such as water sources, and sometimes even over a single tree. Anything that could be sent to the city to exchange for “money” was prone to contention.
Indiscriminate logging, reckless digging, and excessive harvesting led to severe ecological destruction, causing most necessities of life to lose their regenerative capacity, which in turn led to a vicious cycle of survival competition.
The so-called “money” did not circulate in the land of exile; it only circulated in designated cities, where it could be used to purchase survival supplies.
This “money” was also called “merit.” Accumulating a certain standard of “merit” allowed one to leave this land of exile through that city and gain freedom.
The so-called “city” was actually the gate of this large open-air prison, and also a node connecting two realms.
There were multiple similar cities distributed throughout the land of exile.
Banished individuals like him, who had suffered punishment, could not directly escape even if they accumulated enough “merit.” For example, if he was sentenced to ten years and not pardoned, he could not leave with sufficient “merit” before his sentence was up.
Most people banished to this place were cultivators. Before being thrown in, they had to endure a cruel torture, their cultivation completely crippled, essentially cutting off any possibility of further cultivation, at least during their exile.
They were akin to ordinary mortals, the punishment undeniably brutal.
Without cultivation, surviving in this harsh environment was extremely difficult; most people found it hard to endure their sentences.
Those punished and thrown in were not allowed to bring anything, not even a piece of paper, besides the clothes on their backs.
The new generations were not subject to the same crimes.
Descendants of the banished could leave this place directly with enough “merit,” but accumulating a sufficient amount was not easy.
Shen Youkun, grunting twice, continued, “That Shi Chun originally had no surname, and his parents couldn't figure out their own origins or what their ancestors' surname was.
It is said that he was born in spring, so they named this child 'Chuntian.' This is also a common naming method for the lower-class commoners in this land of exile; for them, a name is just a designation, without much fuss.
When Shi Chun was half-grown, a banished woman drifted to East Nine Plains. She was said to be very beautiful.
Because of some guidance she offered, the locals allowed her to settle in East Nine Plains. Perhaps out of repayment or idleness, it is said that the woman, seeing the ignorance of the people in the plains, taught several young boys there how to read during her stay, and Shi Chun was among them.
After staying for about three years, that woman left, no one knows where she went, or if her sentence was up and she gained freedom. No one even knew her name; her background is probably only known to those in charge at the city gate.
Shi Chun regarded that woman as his teacher, and out of gratitude, he took the 'Shi' character from his teacher's name as his surname. Because he only knew a few characters but had never studied, he turned his name into a joke, often mocked as 'Si Chun.
'
Once it spread, by the time he understood the meaning, it was too late to regret, and he often got into fights because of it.”