When the morning sun rose, Hutao opened her sleepy eyes and looked at the clear sky outside the window. She felt the warmth of her bed and grabbed the quilt with both hands, just like a wild cat sleeping in the warm sunlight in the afternoon. She let out a sweet hum.

  She rolled over, ready to continue sleeping. It had been more than a year since she'd last slept in a real bed, and not been woken up by the dew or harassed by stray dogs and security patrols.

  "Get up as soon as you wake up, I'll be leaving soon."

  Tang Dun was packing his backpack, to cover up the Demon's Manual and the Magic Medicine Book, apart from some clothes and daily necessities, he also stuffed a few other books in, of course, the goose feather pen and ink bottle were not left behind.

  Walnut suddenly heard a strange voice, all sleepiness disappeared, and she sat up at once. Then last night's memories flooded into her mind like a tide.

  "I actually ended up staying at a stranger's house." Walnut rubbed her forehead, somewhat unexpectedly. Since the incident three years ago, she had not trusted anyone again. As for yesterday, she had originally planned to leave after dinner.

  "Wash your face, I'll go cook."

  Tang Dun put on his backpack and went out, buying a bucket of milk from the aunt next door, then pouring it into an iron pot to boil.

  Walnut hugged the quilt, watching Tang Dun busy, cutting bread and smoked ham slices, placing them on a plate, sunlight passing through the glass, shining on his body, like a warm painting.

  "Come on, dinner's ready, go wash your face." Tong Dun urged.

  "Oh!" Little Lori responded with a voice, but she didn't move. She really hoped this scene could last forever and never end.

  Tang Dun washed several apples, took a bite, and threw one at Hutao's body, "Get up quickly."

  "Don't, sleep a bit more." The little loli burrowed into the quilt like a groundhog, making it bulge out in a big lump.

  Downton flung back the walnut counterpane, intending to say a few words, but found her lying on the bed with her head buried in the pillow and her shoulders shaking slightly.

  The little girl cried.

  Tang Dun stroked He Tao's hair and let out a soft sigh. A little loli who wandered around alone must have suffered a lot.

  Although Hutao was reluctant, breakfast also had an end time. Looking at Tangtong locking the door with his backpack, Xiao Loli knew that for this lifetime, she might never have the chance to come in and eat big brother's cooked breakfast again.

  "If possible, don't wander around anymore, find a kind couple and let them adopt you!"

  Outside the town of Morning Fog, Tang Don took over Little Loli's 'mountain bag' backpack and put it on Hei Huang's back, advising, "No matter what, you're still young, should have a home, should enjoy more warmth, rather than wandering."

  "Hmm!" Hu Tao nodded solemnly.

  Dangton took out a pouch of money and handed it to Walnut, then took out the Soul Steed badge and released the Moon Fang Unicorn.

  "Let's go, see you again someday." With a clank of his military boots on the stirrups, Tang Don swung himself onto his horse, waved his hand and then urged his horse forward with a flick of the reins, heading towards the Dagger Mine Mountain!

  Walnut stood still until Tang Dun's figure disappeared without moving a single step.

  "Master, let's go." The bored earth spirit urged, but was kicked by Hutao and rolled to the ground.

  "From now on, no one is allowed to speak without my permission, or I'll hang you." Hu Tao glared at the earth spirit with one eye, grasping the reins of Hei Huang and the leash of the 'pet' earth spirit, and regained her composure.

  The little loli was about to put the purse into her pocket, but she felt that it didn't feel like gold coins inside. When she opened it and took a look, surprisingly, they were all thumb-sized gems.

  "Is that guy an idiot? This bag of gems is worth at least 100,000 gold coins." The earth spirit sucked in a breath of cold air, and if not for considering Hu Tao's combat power, he would have stretched out his hand to snatch it.

  "Big brother is a good person!" Hu Tao pouted.

  Tang Don was suddenly given a good man card, and he threw off many followers. Of course, his unicorn mount also exploded with eyeballs on the ground.

  By morning, Tandon had already taken care of the trivial matters.

  The wolf and spice grocery store is still locked up, after asking the neighbors, it hasn't been open for business recently, apparently the female owner hasn't returned yet.

  Yilian's reply was not unexpected and had been sitting in the mailbox at the door for some time, accumulating a layer of dust.

  The letter was simple in content, with words that expressed concern for Tang's physical health and told him not to overwork himself. More importantly, it reassured him not to worry about Irene's situation, which was going well, and even asked him not to send money anymore, as she could take care of her tuition fees herself.

  "After this semester is over, I'll take the opportunity to send money to Yilian and also stroll around Wangdu." Tang Dun arranged his schedule. Since his mother passed away, he had been working hard for his sister's sake and hadn't taken a single day off. "Now we're also millionaires, playing for a few days is no problem."

  "You'd better think about how to get through this month first, that Li Si Te has definitely found someone to deal with you in the mine." Holma projected out fine and fragmented text, the color was very light, and it was almost invisible beyond a distance of ten meters.

  "I'll be careful." At the thought of that guy, Tanton felt a wave of disgust. "I must squeeze his father out of the position of mayor of Morning Mist Town and see how he can still be arrogant!"

  Dagger Mine is a newly discovered mine five years ago, producing black steel ore. It's about a day's journey on foot from Mistfall Town.

  The sale of ore is an important source of income for the Duke of Western Border, Praxido, so every month, free people are assigned to go to the mine to serve labor in units of small towns.

  Although Tang Dun was only fifteen years old, he had already served twice in the dagger mine, so he was not unfamiliar with this place. On the contrary, he had a deep impression of it - exhaustion, blood, and the pain of flogging.

  In order to meet the duke's required amount of ore excavation, those ruthless and cruel overseers didn't treat miners as human beings at all, holding whips and beating them to death.

  Of course, the situation of free miners is slightly better. Compared to those slave miners, at least they don't have to worry about being beaten to death or dying from exhaustion.

  Dagger Mine is surrounded by mountains on all sides, nestled in a valley. From the sky, it looks like a giant mouth torn open. It's said to be the divine artifact of the ancient dragon clan from ten thousand years ago, the split opening.

  To transport the ore, the Duke of Prasutagus expended a great deal of manpower and financial resources to carve out several winding mountain roads and tunnels between the peaks, but it was still difficult to travel.

  Danton started climbing when he encountered a convoy of twenty ox carts carrying refined black steel metal.

  To avoid trouble, Tang Don put away his soul steed and ran forward on foot, which was also a form of exercise.

  By the time they reached the second tunnel, Tanton caught up with a group of one hundred free men from Lima town, who were on their way to serve in the mines this month.

  Thinking of the life that is about to come, the villagers are all in a bad mood, one by one scolding and complaining about the heavy taxes.

  "Hey, are you in a hurry to suffer?" The speaker was a fifteen-year-old boy who couldn't help but strike up a conversation when he saw Tang Don running with sweat dripping down his face.

  Danton stopped and took out a canteen of water and drank from it.

  "My name is Ge Ce, what's yours?" The youth had a smattering of freckles and looked somewhat worried. "You're also going to the Dagger Mine for the first time, right? I've heard that life and work there are really tough."

  Ge Ce's father broke his leg and was unable to serve in the army, so he had to let his son go; otherwise, he would be imprisoned in a water dungeon and demoted to slavery.

  In the team, except for Ge Ce, the youngest is also twenty years old, so he can't get in a word edgewise and will only chat with Tang Dun.

  "This is the third time." Tong Dun put away the water bottle and took a look at the gloomy mountain, "One more hour to go, we'll be there."

  "Third time? Doesn't that mean you entered the mine at thirteen?" Gertz was shocked, looking up and down at Tangton, finding him to be quite tall. Although his leather armor was a bit old, there were no signs of mending or damage, and paired with a pair of long military boots, he looked very cool.

  "That damned Praxido is a real vampire."

  "Just be content with what you have. I heard that he recently doubled the tax on prostitutes, and they also have to go to the barracks for free five days a month to serve the soldiers."

  "Ah, life is getting harder and harder."

  The villagers sighed, no matter how much money they earned, most of it flowed into Praxido's treasury, and they had to make a living by drinking black bread and vegetable soup.

  No one sympathizes with Tang Dun because there are too many young people like him who want to survive and have to rely on their own efforts.

  "Aren't you afraid?" Ge Ce looked at Tang Don with a calm face, very nervous. "I heard that the mine is very dark, not only the foreman but also the mine owner bully people. If we offend them, we will die miserably."

  "Follow your leader and do as he says, usually nothing will go wrong."

  Dunton muttered the experience he had learned before, and suddenly froze. If this time when encountering those dark rules again, what should he do? Should he endure silently or fight back?

  "Ah, Father also said that the boss's words are everything, no matter what he asks me to do, don't resist, or else I'll suffer." Gertz let out a sigh of relief, it seems it's not too dark after all.

  Tang Dun wanted to tell Ge Ce that it wasn't as simple as he thought, but looking at the relieved young man, he really didn't want to break his smile.

  Although the townspeople kept complaining and wishing time would stand still, the day of the knife mine finally arrived.

  Outside the canyon, there are large stone walls stacked with stones, with dried bloodstains on them, and nearby are some bone sticks, which are the price left by bandits and indigenous tribes who attacked the mine.

  Every thirty meters, there was a ten-meter-high watchtower, and barbed wire was stretched across the stone wall. Gao Zhi's legs began to tremble as he felt that the mine entrance was like the mouth of a devilish monster in hell, ready to devour people at any moment.

  "Get ready to pay the entrance fee, or you'll be in trouble. Five silver coins each." The leader of the civilians shouted, then smiled and quickly walked towards the gate.

  "What? Why do you still want money?" Ge Ce was stunned, he only had a dozen or so copper coins on him, which his mother had secretly given to him when he left home.