Wu Tie's face turned red as he hurriedly fled from the Outer Affairs Office building, head lowered in embarrassment.
Behind him, laughter surged like waves.
The first-class steward from the Shi family actually wanted to take on the task of exterminating ordinary Greyrock Lizards. The rough men in the hall were all mocking him like mad.
But in the blink of an eye, the laughter abruptly stopped.
Curious individuals rushed to ask the dwarf girl what task Wu Tie had taken.
A voice suddenly rang out in the hall, followed by someone shouting loudly, "If that kid can come back alive, I'll eat my own horns!"
"The game is on, the game is on! Can this kid make it back alive? Place your bets, hey, anyone willing to bet this kid can make it back alive?"
"Demon Abyss Mine, someone finally took this damn task... but I doubt he'll last long."
"Poor kid, even blushes shyly. Haven't seen such an innocent fool in years."
On the second floor of the Outer Affairs Office, behind a large window, Shi Meng held a large wine jar in his left hand and a large stone bowl in his right hand, pouring and drinking with great pleasure. His face had a tinge of drunkenness as he squinted his eyes, watching Wu Tie flee in distress.
"This kid is shy, interesting."
"He's young, right? Though he's tall, he can't be more than fourteen, right?"
"Yeah, young and shy. A kid like this is someone we should nurture as our own. At such a young age and able to be recognized as a first-class steward by Lao Er, that cunning and sly guy, he must have potential."
He put down the stone bowl and picked up a beast-skin book beside him, flipping to the line Wu Tie had written when he received the Magma Grass nine days ago.
"The handwriting is proper... no, this handwriting is quite beautiful... it seems that he really does come from a family and knows some characters..."
"Talented."
Shaking his head, Shi Meng said in a deep voice, "Only those who survive are talented. Demon Abyss Mine is a place those old people in the family don't want to go near. Who knows what's wandering around inside?"
"Go with a few people and follow behind him, providing assistance. But don't enter Demon Abyss Mine. I don't want my people to die for no reason. If he can come back alive, bring him back."
"As long as he can come back alive, we'll cultivate him as a legitimate member of the main family."
"He's young and shy... yes, compared to those old guys who have become heartless and ruthless, this kind of person is more reliable."
He lifted the large stone bowl and finished the fine wine in one gulp. Shi Meng murmured with a smile at the illusory sun in the sky, "Second brother, I trust your judgment. A young age, going alone, a talent recognized as a first-class steward by you, ha ha, better to kill the wrong person than let him go."
Wu Tie returned to his small courtyard.
Splashing cold water on his face, he eliminated the redness from his cheeks before he looked at the task book the dwarf girl had written for him.
It was simply a piece of beast-skin paper with two lines of simple words written on it.
'Investigate the cause of the anomalies in Demon Abyss Mine.'
'Reward: 60 Magma Grass and 1% of the future output revenue of Demon Abyss Mine for the next ten years.'
"Well, what a high reward. Demon Abyss Mine..." Wu Tie frowned and picked up a stone from the ground, throwing it vigorously into the neighboring yard. "Lao Bai, Lao Bai, are you here? I need to ask you something."
...
When the radiance emitted by the virtual sun was at its peak, Wu Tie left the city in a suit of iron armor, carrying a steel spear and a leather pouch. Iron armor and steel spear were acquired from the city's armory. As an Outer Affairs first-class steward of the Shi family, Wu Tie's equipment expenses were covered by the family.
Inside the leather pouch were wine, dried meat, healing medicine, and antidotes. There was also salt for outdoor barbecues... and rather luxuriously, a small bag of chili powder and spice powder.
Wu Tie clearly remembered that back in the Wu family fortress, Wu Zhan would always calculate how to open up more farmland to support more soldiers and slaves. The Shi family, however, was so extravagant that they had spare land to grow these crops purely for enjoyment.
Chili powder and spices... it was the first time Wu Tie had come across them, and he couldn't help but drool. He wanted to try adding these elements to barbecue, to see how delicious the taste of roasted meat could be.
But only the stewards on missions could receive such a small portion.
Even in the Shi family, chili powder and spices were quite rare treasures.
Leaving the city, Wu Tie confirmed his direction and activated his invisible force field. Suddenly, his body soared into the air, leaping dozens of meters high and covering over a hundred meters in a single step. He rushed towards the direction of Demon Abyss Mine like a raging wind.
In the city, two ratman scouts hurriedly ran out with four wolfman warriors.
They watched in amazement as Wu Tie's figure flickered by them and disappeared into the distance. The four wolfman warriors exchanged glances, and one old wolf with whitening fur, already quite old, slapped a ratman scout across the face.
"Why are you just standing there staring? Follow him! If you lose him, you'll be accountable to Liu Ye!"
The ratman scout stumbled in place, innocently blinked his eyes, and then quickly followed the faint smell left by Wu Tie in the air, hurrying to catch up.
In turn, they were each kicked by the wolf warriors, ruthlessly kicking them in the buttocks.
"Idiots, why did you follow the scent? He must be heading to Demon Abyss Mine... Lead him directly there! If we lose him, it's your responsibility."
The two ratman scouts exchanged glances, hurriedly followed the smell left by Wu Tie in the air, and sped away towards Demon Abyss Mine.
Demon Abyss Mine was only over 150 miles away from the city, and it required passing through a mine tunnel dozens of miles long to reach it.
Originally called "Cold Crystal Mine", it was a large mine where gold and copper veins intersected. It gave birth to an extremely precious kind of "Cold Crystal". In the eyes of the people of the Lu family, who were experts at forging in the Crimson Flame Domain, this kind of Cold Crystal was called "Xuanlan Crystal."
Xuanlan Crystal could increase the toughness of weapons and armor forged out of it by more than double. Additionally, it could inscribe runes and arrays twice as effectively during the forging process. It was an extremely valuable forging material. One piece of Xuanlan Crystal could be exchanged with the Lu family for gold blocks a hundred times its size or materials of equal value.
But years ago, anomalies occurred in the Cold Crystal Mine, resulting in heavy casualties among the enslaved miners.
After several powerful elders from the Shi family entered, they barely escaped, losing everyone except themselves.
Ever since then, the mine was abandoned, leading to a substantial loss in revenue for the Shi family.
The Lu family, which desperately needed forging materials, had cooperated with the Shi family to organize a powerful exploration team to enter the mine, but they also suffered heavy casualties and lost one of their elders forever trapped in the Mine.
Thus, the Cold Crystal Mine gained the ominous name of Demon Abyss Mine. The Shi family's task of investigating the cause of the anomalies in the mine had been open in the Outer Affairs Office for several years, and there were people who took the task one after another, but none returned alive.
Wu Tie recalled the information provided by Lao Bai, nibbling on a piece of dried meat.
He hadn't taken long to cover the distance of over a hundred miles. He was running swiftly in the wide and spacious mine tunnel. A small stone fortress appeared ahead, and several grey dwarves warriors blocked Wu Tie's path.
"Kid, this is Demon Abyss Mine. What are you doing here? Seeking death?"
A drunken grey dwarf, reeking of alcohol, smashed his heavy hammer fiercely onto the ground, shouting loudly at Wu Tie.
Wu Tie handed over his task book. The cream-colored beast-skin paper clearly displayed the black writing, and there was also the Outer Affairs official seal of the Shi family stamped at the bottom, a blood-red insignia made by mixing cinnabar and animal blood. It was quite eye-catching.
The several grey dwarves became ecstatic like they were injected with chicken blood, running around Wu Tie in excitement before the intoxicated one slapped Wu Tie's thigh.
"A good lad! Go ahead, go ahead... When you die, us brothers will remember to pour some liquor for you."
The group of grey dwarves laughed heartily.
They were responsible for guarding the entrance to Demon Abyss Mine all year round, witnessed some inexplicable incidents with their own eyes, and bore great pressure, but with no one to relieve them from duty, they had long lost their normal state of mind.
Wu Tie glanced at the laughing grey dwarves and shook his head, striding past the stone fortress.
Several torches, about the size of human heads, were inserted into the outer wall of the fortress. The torches burned fiercely, casting a brilliant light and illuminating a large area outside the fortress.
Outside the range of the stone fortress's light, strands of gray-white mist hung quietly in the air like spiderwebs.
These "mists," for now, let's call them mists, silently floated in the dead air, motionless.
Occasionally, a light cold breeze would blow from the mine tunnel, causing the torches to flicker. The red flames would turn faintly green in that instant.
The green light emitted by the dozen or so torches illuminated Wu Tie, his shadow swaying in the mine tunnel. It was particularly eerie.
Laughter came from behind:
"Afraid to go in? Then come back... It's not embarrassing, really."
"Kid, come back. Don't go to your death... Don't say that... Half a year ago, the Outer Affairs Office's Fifth-Class Special Steward, Big Ox Steel Axe, also perished in there. He was a master at the Heavy Tower stage and had comprehended the Bull Demon Tyrant Body technique!"
"Indeed, why don't you come back and have a drink with us brothers... After we finish drinking, we'll go back to the city and sleep... Isn't it just a task? If you can't complete it, it's not shameful."
Wu Tie hesitated as he stared at the gray mist beyond the area illuminated by the torches.
The mist hung heavy in the air, and Wu Tie had a vague feeling that someone was staring at him from behind that mist.
Those eyes, greasy and resembling overnight sour rice porridge, were cold, sticky, and difficult to shake off. In short, they gave him a bad feeling.
The laughter of the gray dwarves came from behind. "Are you scared? Then come back... It's not embarrassing."
"Kid, come back. Don't go to your death... Don't you have any insight? You should go back and tell Liu Ye that this kid is an Elemental Mage... He runs faster than Laozi when he was running for his life with a knife in his ass. Proves that he can at least control wind power."
"He can also use fireballs as torches, illuminating his way... This kid, he has even mastered the power of fire."
The mixed wind and fire powers, when this kid reaches the Sensory Xuan stage and condenses mana, he can set off a huge fire that can burn hundreds of people at least. If the terrain is right, burning several thousand people isn't an issue." The old wolf head licked his nose and ruthlessly kicked two ratman scouts.
"Go back to report to Liu Ye immediately. Tell him this kid is a treasure and ask him what to do... He's already gone in... It's all your fault for leading him too slowly!"
One ratman scout turned and ran, leaving in a flash.
Four wolfman warriors stood at the entrance of the stone fortress, dumbfoundedly looking at the gray misty area. They dared not enter.
Wu Tie, on the other hand, strode into the mine tunnel. A faint golden light flickered in his eyes, and for some reason, he suddenly recited aloud a passage he had never studied.
"Heaven and earth possess righteousness, and tumultuously bestow flowing form..."
With every step he took, the gloomy mist in the air seemed to inexplicably collapse, dissipating and never appearing again.
(End of chapter)