BAW Chapter 128: Discovering a Gold Mine
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The Treemen, singing of their victory and overconfident in their abilities, had no idea that the two men they thought they had captured and subdued were currently sitting comfortably inside a large earthen sphere, chatting.
"It’s a good plan," Yan Mo said, offering immediate praise as he sat up.
Yuan Zhan smiled smugly. He tried to pull Yan Mo into his arms, but was kicked by the other man. Not minding it, he grabbed Yan Mo’s feet and said, "The Black Forest is so vast, and those Treemen can control the trees. It would be very difficult for us to find Bing and the others—or their home base—on our own."
"Instead of searching everywhere ourselves, it's better to let them deliver us there personally," Yan Mo nodded. After Yuan Zhan had winked at him earlier, he had understood the plan. Yuan Zhan's power allowed him to lead people out of the forest, but to lead them out, he first had to know where they were.
"Exactly. I knew you’d understand." Yuan Zhan poked several tiny air holes in the sphere. Previously, to prevent the mist from entering, he had sealed the entire orb.
"Did you hear what they were singing?" Yan Mo asked, reaching for Yuan Zhan’s wrist to check if he was affected by the song.
Yuan Zhan nodded. "At first, I felt dazed when they sang. Then you started singing, so I focused on your voice. Gradually, their songs couldn't affect me anymore."
Yan Mo felt this probably had less to do with his own singing and more to do with Yuan Zhan’s power. Perhaps high-level warriors, once on guard and holding onto their resolve, weren't so easily lured by the Treemen’s songs.
He wondered if these Treemen also had levels or even more powerful "ability warriors" among them.
"The Merpeople eat fish, and the Dwarves eat the same as us, but these Treemen treat humans as prey. That’s a bit of a problem." Yan Mo felt that once their positions were opposed, it would be difficult to become friends even if they could communicate.
"Are you worried about what to do if others are lured by the Treemen after we rescue Bing?" Yuan Zhan didn't need Yan Mo to answer; he was considering the same issue. "My powers can't suppress them, and we can’t actually set fire to the whole forest—it wouldn't burn well anyway."
"Threats should be used where they hurt most," Yan Mo said cryptically. There were some things he couldn't say explicitly.
Yuan Zhan gave a predatory grin. He didn't need his Priest’s reminder to know what to do next. He had already tested it; even if he couldn't kill all the Treemen at once, trapping a few to take with them wouldn't be difficult.
Yan Mo was also calculating. He wondered if he should extract some toxins from his lab that were highly destructive to soil and environment. He wouldn't need much—just enough to terrify the Treemen.
"I’m going to the Temple for a bit. I’ll be back soon." Yan Mo sighed; some increases in Scumbag Points were simply unavoidable. He vanished in front of Yuan Zhan.
Yuan Zhan’s eyelid twitched. The dull pain in his left ribs, which he had been ignoring, became noticeable again.
An hour later, Yan Mo reappeared in the earthen sphere to find they were still in transit.
"This forest is huge. The Treemen must live quite deep inside."
"Shh." Yuan Zhan, who had been eavesdropping on the outside world, raised a finger.
Yan Mo fell silent.
Outside, the Treemen’s pace had slowed, and their songs had become more descriptive.
"~That human is an ability warrior, he can control soil, we should throw him into the Child Pit, he might burrow into the earth and escape~"
"~Use the Nether Flower, no warrior can escape the Nether Flower~"
Inside the sphere, Yuan Zhan and Yan Mo looked at each other. Yan Mo whispered, "What is the Nether Flower?"
Yuan Zhan shook his head; he hadn't heard of it either.
After some thought, Yan Mo pulled a small, tightly tied packet from his herb bag and handed it to Yuan Zhan. "If you smell a certain fragrance and feel dizzy, or feel your body becoming paralyzed, find a way to tip this powder into your mouth. It's bitter; don't spit it out."
Yuan Zhan wasn't afraid of bitterness. He took the powder and asked, "Can't I take it now?"
"Absolutely not!"
"What if I pass out too quickly..."
"Then you're out of luck."
The earthen sphere was shattered from the outside. To pretend he was exhausted and poisoned, Yuan Zhan allowed the Treemen to break the ball and drag them out.
The Treemen tried to separate the two, but Yuan Zhan held Yan Mo in a death grip. The Treemen pulled for a long time, nearly breaking his arms, but couldn't pry them apart. Frustrated, they simply tossed both into the same "Child Pit."
"~Should we use the Nether Flower?~"
"~They are already unconscious~"
Just as the pair relaxed slightly, they heard a melodious yet deep bass voice sing with an undeniable authority: "~This is a Level 4 warrior, use the Nether on them!~"
Yuan Zhan kept one hand near his lips, ready to consume the bitter medicine.
However, the power of the Nether Flower exceeded their expectations. A Treeman held something up to their noses. Yuan Zhan didn't smell a fragrance, which slowed his reaction. By the time he realized something was wrong, his body felt as if it had been struck by lightning. After a violent shudder, he could no longer move. He felt as though he had lost all sensation of his body.
It was different from the paralysis of a Man-eating Bee sting. That at least felt like "numbness," but the Nether Flower made him lose all connection to his physical form, though his mind remained clear.
The powder packet fell to the bottom of the pit, unnoticed by the Treemen.
Yan Mo received the same treatment, making him extremely curious about the medicinal properties of the Nether Flower.
"~Separate them~"
At the command, Yan Mo was pulled out of the pit by several branches. Yuan Zhan could no longer hold him; his limbs had lost all control. But just as Yan Mo was about to be dropped into another empty pit, the deep bass voice let out a cry of surprise.
"~Why does he have the aura of the Long-Life Clan on him?! Stop, bring that human to me!~"
Yan Mo kept his eyes closed but felt the branches wrapping around him pause, then change direction. A branch brushed against his body, sliding over him.
The surrounding Treemen began to sing in discussion: "~I thought it was strange, why can't I feel enmity toward this human? It turns out he is also of the Long-Life Clan... but wait~ why does a Long-Life member look like this?~"
"~A hybrid of human and Long-Life Clan?~"
Good, Yan Mo thought, they even have the concept of hybrids here. Considering most humans here claimed to be descendants of gods and strange creatures, the term wasn't surprising.
"~Oh oh oh, unbelievable! A human could actually have a child with the Long-Life Clan~"
"~This hybrid is so ugly~"
Yan Mo: ...Ugly your ancestors!
"~Oh oh oh, so ugly, so ugly! He has no beautiful leaf crown, no sturdy trunk, he even only has two arms~"
I'd be terrifying if I had more than two arms, okay? Yan Mo fumed.
"~How pitiful~"
"~But he can speak~"
"~Ah ah ah, yes, yes, he hasn't completely lost the Long-Life bloodline, at least he can still speak~"
Yan Mo was speechless. Apparently, his only merit in the eyes of these Treemen was that he could talk. Listen to that pitying tone!
"~No, he is not a hybrid~" the deep voice interrupted their fantasies.
I never said I was. Yan Mo figured the only "Long-Life" connection he had was the fruit in his belly.
"~What?~" the Treemen cried. "~If he's not a hybrid, why does he have the aura?~"
"~Because...~" The deep voice seemed puzzled. Its branches slid back and forth over Yan Mo’s abdomen, finally singing: "~Oh, because this human is carrying the bloodline of the Long-Life Clan!~"
Bullsht!*
"Pfft!"
"~Oh oh oh!~" A chorus of high-pitched notes erupted. "~A human combined with the Long-Life Clan, a human who is pregnant with the Long-Life bloodline! Be shocked, brothers!~"
Yan Mo was so startled he almost opened his eyes.
"~Eek! Why did this ability warrior spit blood?~"
Yan Mo: "..." The person spitting blood wasn't him.
If Yuan Zhan could move right now, he would have pounced on his Priest and eaten him alive!
Why is my Priest pregnant with some other guy's kid?! Impossible! If he has a kid, it can only be mine!
Wait, could it be... I am the Long-Life Clan?
Yuan Zhan, refusing to believe his Priest would carry any other bastard's child, began to deeply doubt his own bloodline heritage.
Yan Mo, suspected of carrying a Long-Life seed, was carried away by the deep voice, attracting many onlookers.
Once the area around the "Child Pits" grew quiet, Yuan Zhan snapped his eyes open. He saw a branch reaching toward his chest, holding a black seed the size of a thumb.
"~Eek~" A melodious sound of surprise came from the Treeman. But then it laughed: "~As expected of an ability warrior, you can still open your eyes. But with the Nether, you can never escape. Stay quietly in the Child Pit.~"
A sharp wooden thorn sliced his chest, and the black seed was shoved into the wound.
Yuan Zhan felt no pain. From the neck down, he had no sensation. As the Treeman left singing, Yuan Zhan began to observe his surroundings.
He was slumped in a deep pit. It was just deep enough that his head stuck out, and the size forced him into a sitting position with his knees pulled up.
He looked down at his chest. His leather armor was torn, but no blood flowed. The wound seemed to have already closed.
He looked around. His eyes narrowed, and his expression became ferocious.
As far as he could see, there were human heads sticking out of the ground. Not far away was Bing, who had disappeared two days ago.
Bing’s eyes were open, but his expression was strange—he looked as if he were in a beautiful daydream, wearing a blissful, dreamlike smile.
However, from Yuan Zhan’s angle, he could see a bright green sprout emerging from the pit Bing was in. The sprout swayed in the wind, looking delicate with two tiny leaves and several transparent-looking tendrils. It looked "cute," but it was growing out of a human body!
Child Pits. So this was what they meant.
Mo had told him that plants grew better where people or animals were buried because the corpses made the soil fertile. These Treemen clearly knew this too—and they were using living people as fertilizer to grow their offspring!
Yuan Zhan saw many heads, mostly the missing warriors from the Yuanji Tribe. All those whose faces he could see had the same expression as Bing.
Further away, he saw small trees about a foot tall. They already looked like Treemen. Where the trees grew, the heads were gone. Behind the one-foot trees were two-foot trees, and then trees as tall as half a person. Adult Treemen were walking among them, caring for the "children."
Yan Mo saw this too, and finally couldn't help but open his eyes.
Without the human heads, this "nursery" would have looked harmonious and full of life. But knowing a corpse was buried under every sapling made his skin crawl.
Leaving the nursery, the path was filled with birds and flowers—a completely different world from the edges of the Black Forest.
The deep forest wasn't as dense as he expected; there were valleys, peaks, and vast meadows. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, and clear streams flowed.
Golden sunlight? Yan Mo’s eyes were drawn to the stream.
It wasn't a metaphor. He actually saw a shimmering golden light.
The pebbles and sand at the bottom of the stream weren't just stones—they were natural, exposed gold ore!
Any human would be intoxicated by this. Even if they didn't value gold yet, the sheer abundance was staggering. Yan Mo swallowed hard. Even he felt his heart race at the sight of a high-quality natural gold mine.
He began to wonder: Where does this stream lead? That mountain over there... is it made of gold?
Then, he laughed to himself. Even if he had a mountain of gold, what would he do? Build a house? It would be too gaudy! Right now, when filling stomachs was the priority, gold was just a decoration.
But... would the "Three Cities" see gold as a treasure? If distant civilizations have reached the metal age, this gold could be incredibly useful.
He began to ponder why every civilization on Earth eventually chose gold as a symbol of power and status. It couldn't be eaten or used for weapons... who gave it such high status?
"~You're awake?~" The Treeman carrying him was surprised but didn't care much since Yan Mo still couldn't move.
"~Where... are you taking me?~" Yan Mo asked, realizing he could still control his throat muscles.
"~To see our Sama,~" the deep voice replied.
Sama? Yan Mo recalled a mountain tribe from his previous life that used the term "Sama" for their ancestral grandmothers and deities—a matriarchal leader who acted as both Priest and Chief.
The terrain began to slope downward. He heard the roar of water—likely a large waterfall.
They entered a wide underground rift that looked like a sun-drenched canyon.
Suddenly, the fruit inside his belly began to kick violently.
Yan Mo was shocked. He had lost sensation in his body, but as the fruit kicked, he felt a sharp pain at the point of impact. Slowly, his sensation began to return.
Just then, the deep voice spoke again: "~Our Sama is just ahead.~"
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