The Sha'ah people all seemed to value their lives dearly—from the warrior who faked death the moment he was wounded, to the prince who chose to retreat out of fear of becoming a prime target despite holding an overwhelming numerical advantage.
Among the people Han Qingyu knew, probably only Liu Shiheng fit that same mold.
In the end, a wealthy life was just harder to let go of. All that talk about how rich people weren't truly happy while the poor were spiritually fulfilled—that had to be a lie, right?
They even used Tao Yuanming to hoodwink people. Old Tao had been born into a prominent, prestigious clan; he had tasted glory and riches in his time.
Han Qingyu had never spent a single day as a rich man in the ordinary world, and now he was being plagued by a lack of source energy blocks. His hope was that in this brutal world hidden behind the scenes, he would at least get to live in prosperity for a few years, with resources flowing smoothly and endlessly.
The spoils from this ambush in the dirt consisted, first and foremost, of three source energy blocks.
One of them, snatched straight from the pocket of the man playing dead, was full. The other two came from war boxes and were not heavily depleted; combined, they held about one and a half blocks' worth. Han Qingyu topped them off as a matter of course and handed them all over to Shen Yixiu for safekeeping.
Then there was a black spear, roughly 2.4 meters long, lying across the cave with one end propped against the wall.
It could be used to hang clothes to dry.
Of course not—because they didn't do laundry here.
"Actually, it's because this spear seems pretty impressive."
Han Qingyu gripped the spear in his hands and patiently explained, "When the guy in black spun it to deflect the Sha'ah fighters' dead iron scimitars, I saw notches chipped into some of their blades... So the purity of dead iron in this spear is probably higher than that of our weapons."
Due to the preciousness of raw materials, the dead iron straight swords used by the Azure Coalition were not forged entirely of dead iron. Instead, alloy was used to fill the non-contact sections of the blade.
This was common knowledge taught in Azure classrooms. Occasionally, warriors found themselves in the awkward situation where, after hacking away in battle for a while, the center of the blade gave out, leaving behind nothing but an empty frame.
"Besides, almost any of us could use this spear," Han Qingyu said, passing the weapon over as he continued. "Take Yin Caixin, for instance. If you activate the Wind-Fire Wheels and spin with a sword, you can probably clear an area the size of a basketball court. If you switch to spinning with this, maybe it'll clear a whole soccer pitch, sending anyone who can't run away fast enough flying all over the place..."
In reality, Yin Caixin was rather slender, which didn't quite match the fierce, overbearing Invincible Wind-Fire Wheels technique.
Intuitively, the move felt like it belonged to a burly powerhouse.
Thinking about it always brought a strange sense of contrast.
Seeing her take the long spear and test out a few moves, Han Qingyu gave a little laugh and went down the line with examples: Rusty Sister could skewer people like candied hawthorns, he could use it as a javelin...
And given its length, even Wen Jifei, if forced into battle as a last resort, could use it to look for an opening and poke at someone.
Who knew, maybe he'd poke out an 'A'? Even if he didn't get an A, poking out an E with one thrust and a B with the next would surely leave the enemy thoroughly bewildered.
In the end, the black spear was handed over to He Tangtang—the only one who seemed unlikely to gain much of a boost from it—simply because his build was best suited for carrying it.
Dusk was falling, and Han Qingyu prepared to abandon this cave and relocate.
The approximate location of the cave had already been exposed earlier. Han Qingyu couldn't be certain whether the black-clad man's teammates would come looking, or whether the Sha'ah prince would gather more men to return and avenge his humiliation... Even if all they did was pass along the information, staying here put them at a severe disadvantage.
"Also, that bunch of Sha'ah people seemed to bring in a trained eagle. Everyone keep an eye out on the way. If that feathered beast is still hanging around..." Han Qingyu paused.
"What if it is? We don't have guns with us," Wen Jifei grumbled, annoyed.
"Don't worry. If it's there, I'll go catch a snake and see if I can lure it down to roast."
Leading the way through the mountain woods, Han Qingyu said, as if the thought had just struck him, "By the way, once our rations run out, would you mind eating snake for a few days?"
Shen Yixiu: "..." *Good thing I don't need to eat.*
Yin Caixin: "Raw?"
It seemed Switzerland pulled that same trick of eating raw meat during the first half of recruit training. Han Qingyu chuckled and said, "Roasted."
"That's good then. But can you catch any? It's pretty cold here right now," Yin Caixin asked in all seriousness.
"Now that question is out of line, Little Caixin. No disrespecting generations of Han family ancestors," Wen Jifei chimed in with a grin, then added, "When Qingzi makes a move, catching a female might be a toss-up, but a male... piece of cake."
Because they were in a rush to move, Yin Caixin didn't have time to make trouble for him, which made him lively again.
"Shh, quiet down." To prevent Plague Chicken from stirring up any more awkwardness, Han Qingyu cut their exchange short and led the way forward with caution.
A short while later, He Tangtang caught up quietly. "Can we really find another cave?"
Virtually every team entering the trial ground had brought tents; Han Qingyu alone had confidently said they wouldn't need any.
"We can. Just follow me," Han Qingyu replied.
And He Tangtang believed him.
......
His black clothes tattered and his entire body soaked in blood, Wu Xu held a scavenged Sha'ah dead iron scimitar in each hand, struggling forward through the woods.
Fearing he would leave traces, he dared not hack away at bushes to clear a path, making progress through the dense forest arduous.
Fearing he would waste source energy, he dared not activate his device; his wounded body ached constantly, slowing his pace to a crawl.
After deliberately making a wide detour to ensure he wasn't being followed, and then searching through the woods for a long time, Wu Xu finally spotted the scattered markers left by the Eldest Miss and her group, following them onward.
Ahead, there were no more markers. Wu Xu knew this meant he was likely not far from their hiding place.
Exhausted, he leaned against a tree trunk. His body slipped downward uncontrollably until he simply sat on the ground.
He pulled a piece of dried meat from inside his robe, took a bite, and chewed with great difficulty, as though chewing tree bark, before swallowing it down.
He wanted a drink of water, but when he reached for his waterskin, he found it had been punctured in the battle. All he could do was peel it open, tilt his head back, and let the few remaining droplets from the bladder drip into his mouth.
The sound of a stream wasn't far off, but he dared not leave, afraid that the Eldest Miss and the others wouldn't be able to find him.
He waited like this for nearly an hour.
*Thunk.*
A pebble struck a tree roughly a hundred meters ahead of him.
An ancient method of contact.
Wu Xu pushed himself to his feet.
The other party didn't wait for him. Following the sound, Wu Xu walked a long way before finally finding the other four people, including Eldest Miss Yu Fengzi, beneath a rock wall concealed by trees.
"Are you sure you weren't followed?" Yu Fengzi was a woman who looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, carrying a Generation 8 device on her back. The moment she saw Wu Xu, she questioned him.
"Certain," Wu Xu answered, remaining standing.
"Oh, good then." Yu Fengzi looked him up and down. Her expression suddenly turned angry, and she demanded agitatedly, "Where's your spear?"
"The spear..." Wu Xu paused. "Someone took it."
"Took it?!"
"Yes."
Yu Fengzi seemed to hold back her temper. "Then did you get any source energy blocks?"
Wu Xu lowered his head and shook it. "No."
*Swish!* Unable to restrain herself any longer, Yu Fengzi struck Wu Xu with the flat of her dead iron weapon, which was shaped like a broadsword.
Wu Xu didn't move.
"Fengzi." A man in his thirties beside them grabbed Yu Fengzi's wrist, smiled at Wu Xu in a show of goodwill, and pulled her aside, whispering, "Fengzi, what are you doing? ... Calm down. We still need to use him here."
"He'll still be useful even if I hit him. Tell him to live and he lives, tell him to die and he dies. You outsiders don't understand." Yu Fengzi smiled with a touch of smugness at the man named Yuan Qing from the Self-Preservation Faction. "He's a war slave belonging to my family. Don't get it, do you? My father found him and raised him. From childhood to now, he knows nothing except fighting and loyalty."
Yuan Qing was taken aback. He secretly thought to himself that these secluded clans really knew how to produce bizarre things. "Still, he seems very strong."
"Of course. Those who weren't strong were eliminated long ago."
Chapter 131