Chapter 1: Wusao Ridge (Part 2)

Eisen and De Da stared at Yad Lan with extreme envy. Ezekiel already possessed vast space, so he disdained token bags and said, “Overreacting… lacking experience.” With a slap, he shattered the newly discovered wooden door and stepped inside.
Guo Shier followed in. It was another stone cave house, but with several windows in the stone walls. They were at the edge of a cliff, which explained the small windows. Breezes blew into the stone house, and there were many shelves inside, filled with strings of pickled meat and numerous large jars. Guo Shier found that the jars contained salt and a small amount of dried wild fruits.
De Da exclaimed in delight, “Salt… so much.” Salt was scarce here; it wasn’t produced locally and had to be obtained through robbery. Two large jars of salt were already a staggering amount for De Da.
Yad Lan quickly stored the salt in the token bag and also took some of the pickled meat.
Guo Shier was disappointed. “No wonder they were left behind—just food,” he said. He scanned the area with his spiritual senses and found that this was the end of the path, with nothing else to discover.
The group left the underground stone house.
Someone reported that treasures buried beneath the building had been found—eight large wooden chests, all placed in an open area. The bones had been thrown over the cliff, and the ground had been cleaned.
The chests were made of local ironwood, a unique material from this world. It was as hard as iron but not very heavy, dark in color, and ideal for making furniture. All eight chests on the ground were made of ironwood, rectangular in shape, about one meter in height and width, and roughly one and a half meters long. One chest was already open, filled neatly with gold bars.
As the chests were opened one by one, three contained gold bars, four contained silver bars, and the last contained dozens of blue-colored metal ores of varying sizes. Yad Lan exclaimed in surprise, “Skyblue gold! These are skyblue gold ores!”
Guo Shier curiously picked up a piece of skyblue gold ore and asked, “Is it very precious?”
Yad Lan replied, “It’s the best ore for crafting barbarian weapons. It’s extremely expensive…”
Guo Shier was no longer very interested in gold and silver. He already had plenty of gold tokens, but he was interested in precious ores. “Hmm, I’ll keep these to study first. I’ll distribute the rest of the gold and silver bars among everyone.”
Yad Lan was puzzled. “Distribute among everyone?” She looked at Guo Shier in disbelief. There were eight or ninety thousand gold bars in just one chest—such a huge amount.

Guo Shier nodded and said, “Take a small portion for common use, and distribute the rest. Give more to those at the captain level. Well, you decide how to divide it.” Yadelan, Eson, and De Da all showed ecstatic expressions, especially De Da, who was extremely excited. With such a large amount of gold, he would have full confidence in returning home. The ironwood chest containing gold and silver was extremely heavy, requiring two strong men to carry it. Yadelan was also quick to act, ordering his men to watch over the chest while they prepared to go back and distribute it. Guo Shier placed the sky-blue gold on the altar and handed it to the old man, asking him to study it to see if it could be utilized. The materials in this world were quite different from those in the world of spells; any unfamiliar material needed to be studied and tested to determine its usefulness. The old man was very interested and said, “Okay, I’ll purify it first and then conduct experiments.” Guo Shier was also eager. If the precious metals here could be used, it would mean opening up a new path. The successful application of new materials would represent another improvement in spellcasting abilities. This meant that even if he went to the greater world, his spellcasting skills could continue to develop—something extremely important. Collecting materials was Guo Shier’s greatest task. He had already reached the peak of professional advancement, and further progression would be extremely difficult. Surpassing the ninth-tier altar was also extremely rare in the Spell Continent; so far, he had only seen Li Ran and Qi Wu Zhen achieve this level, and no one else had. Therefore, he didn’t expect to reach such an extraordinary level himself. The group left the Wusao Ridge camp and came to the foot of the mountain. Eson and De Da quickly assembled their teams, while Yadelan, along with dozens of strong men, opened the chest and began distributing the contents. This single action completely subdued these bandits; no one tried to sneak away anymore. Everyone was sensible—without even fighting, they had already received such a large amount of gold and silver. These two powerful captains were truly generous. The group of eight hundred people each received about two thousand gold and three thousand silver. This was a huge amount. If they lived in Edlu Fort, thirty to eighty gold would be enough to live comfortably and support a family. For a family of five, two thousand gold would allow them to live easily for three years, or even five years if they were frugal. Naturally, these bandits were overjoyed.

The gold and silver bars were distributed quickly because they were difficult to carry. Marching with wooden boxes along the Karabaza Trail was a very tough task. Yadelan and the others hadn’t yet gotten used to using treasure bags; it wasn’t until distribution was complete that they remembered they could use them to store gold and silver. Of course, she didn’t regret it—she put the remaining gold and silver into the treasure bags before going to Guo Shier’s side.

Guo Shier asked, “Done distributing?”

Yadelan nodded. “Yes. Everyone is very grateful to you…”

Guo Shier smiled. “Maybe we can get more in the future. Tell them we’ll sweep through the entire Karabaza Trail.” His real goal wasn’t to rob bandits—he saw them as no threat at all. What he needed were the treasures hidden in their dens, valuable materials.

Ezekiel had no energy at all. He slouched against a big tree, squinting at the woman who had hurt him. In truth, he rather liked her—he thought she was attractive, but that knife wound had left a shadow in his heart.

Yadelan deliberately avoided Ezekiel. She could certainly sense his intense gaze, that highly aggressive look, which made her feel uncomfortable.

Guo Shier glanced at Ezekiel with amusement. He knew what this guy was thinking. If not for Yadelan stabbing him hard, he would have already tried to approach her. He said, “Yadelan, since this place has already been emptied, let’s move to another one!”

Yadelan looked up at the sky helplessly, thinking, “Do you think all bandits are trash? Can they just be swept away like that? It’s frustrating—this guy doesn’t even treat bandits as human beings.” She said, “Alright, let’s go to another place. I’m not very familiar with this area around Wusao Ridge… Well, I’ll discuss it with the others. Maybe someone among them knows this place well.”

Bandits were also mobile. Many of those who hung around Eagle’s Beak Rock came from bands deep in the Karabaza Trail. Some left because they had offended someone else, while others left because they couldn’t survive there. In any case, there were still quite a few in the group who knew the Karabaza Trail well.

Soon, Yadelan brought back an old man. She said, “This is Wu Si. He knows this place well. He’s been part of at least six groups in this area…”

Wu Si stepped forward respectfully and bowed. “Wu Si greets the leader.”

The old man had a hunched back; his hair had almost all fallen out, revealing most of his bald head. His face was covered with countless wrinkles, and he had sparse beard. His eyes were clouded, clearly indicating that he was in his later years. He was dressed in coarse linen clothes and tattered leather armor, looking utterly disheveled.

Although this man was old and worn out, Guo Shier knew his experience must be considerable. Just the fact that he had managed to join this group instead of staying in the camp showed he had some skills and influence. He asked, “Wusi, are there any similar camps in the vicinity?”

Wusi replied, “There used to be many groups in this area, but…” He hesitated for a moment before continuing, “But when I came with the group, I noticed something was wrong…”

Guo Shier asked, “Oh? What’s wrong?”

Wusi said, “With such a large group as ours entering this region, we should have encountered many scout teams. Yet even after reaching Wusao Ridge, we didn’t see a single scout. I think there’s a serious problem.”

Yade Lan said, “Ah, now that you mention it, I also think something’s off. In the past, even a small group would easily be detected when entering this area. This time, with eight hundred of us here, there’s not the slightest sign of activity—indeed, it’s quite abnormal.”

Guo Shier hadn’t noticed this before. Of course, this was because he was an outsider; he didn’t know the original situation in the Wusao Ridge area, so it was normal that he hadn’t realized it. He said, “Wusi, do you mean… the camps in this area have already been cleared?”

Wusi replied, “Judging from the situation at the Wusao Ridge camp, that’s the case.”

Guo Shier thought for a while before asking, “What other well-known camps are there in the vicinity?”

Wusi answered without hesitation, “There’s another camp at Luanshi Tan. It’s two hours’ journey from Wusao Ridge, and they are allied with Wusao Ridge.”

Guo Shier said, “Good. Set off immediately for Luanshi Tan.” He glanced at the large group behind him and suddenly felt there were too many people. He said, “Form groups of fifty people each to search the nearby camps. If there’s no one there, search the camps immediately for valuables. And most importantly, collect any ores or special items you find.”

Eight hundred people could be divided into sixteen groups. Guo Shier ordered that a select group of elite fighters accompany him to Luanshi Tan, while the rest were sent out to search their designated areas. After completing their tasks, they were to gather at Luanshi Tan.

Guo Shier ordered Wusi to come with him, then led the group off toward Luanshi Tan.

A two-hour journey would take only a few minutes by flight, but since Guo Shier wanted to blend in with the local bandits, he had to follow the group, so he slowly moved forward with them. Yet Ezekiel was constantly complaining; he hated having to follow a group of people with such poor abilities.

Along the way, Guo Shier noticed some trees with strange appearances. Though he didn’t know their uses, he still collected a few, as the sacred realm inside the altar was spacious enough to make it easy to transplant a few trees.

The bandits remained silent, each with a look of terror in their eyes, as they saw Guo Shier removing trees—with just a wave of his hand, several large trees would disappear. This filled all the bandits with extreme fear, as they wondered: If the leader waved his hand at me, good heavens! I’d disappear too!

As the bandits were lost in their thoughts, someone said, “We’ve arrived at the Rocky Beach!”