Gray and the prisoners were herded north, away from the battle. Tang Duanmu guarded them meticulously with a detachment of around five hundred bandits, dashing any hopes of escape. They arrived at the open-pit mine owned by the Southern Seas Mining Company and were sent down into the mine along with pickaxes and shovels.

The bandits took up guard posts above the cliffs that lined the deep pit. It was the perfect place to keep a thousand prisoners, especially miners.

Tang addressed them, "Listen up! Our Duanmu Clan will win the battle for Jade Hill Town. Wipe the dreams of our defeat out of your heads. It won't happen! Now, you are finally going to earn your keep. Since you all are miners, your job will be to mine. If you don't mine, you won't eat. If you don't produce jade and spiritual stones, you won't eat. But rest assured, when Jade Hill Town finally falls, you all will become members of a new Duanmu Clan, the new ruler of these plains. Work hard and you will live!"

Tang left after that and wasn't seen again. The prisoners went to work, not because they wanted to but because they wanted to eat. Gray helped Krish the others but there wasn't much he could do while there was daylight.

The afternoon passed uneventfully and so did dinner. The prisoners were able to exchange jade and spiritual stones for extra food, just like before.

Something different happened after dinner. When they were about to go sleep, they were instead roused by the arrival of a squad of bandit leaders and two bandit elders.

“Keep back!”

“Stay back!”

The powerful bandits went ahead, plowing through the prisoners to make room. Gray and the others were shoved to the edges of the mine. The central area was vacated for the two elders with even the bandit leaders giving them a wide berth.

The elders ignored everyone else and went to the middle of the mine. Gray’s greatly improved hearing caught bits and pieces of their hushed conversation.

“Here?”

“Don’t remember exactly... will have to examine the ground...”

“... people around us?”

Gray strained his ears to try and hear more. Golden energy surged from his spiritual sea, heightening his physical senses.

The older elder with a head of white hair and a well-groomed beard glanced around the mine and shook his head, “No need to make them suspicious, they can’t hear us and they soon won’t be able to see anyway. Brother, let’s hurry up.”

“Okay… Men, extinguish the torches and campfires!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Extinguish all the light!”

The order was carried out throughout the bandit camp that encircled the open-pit mine. One by one, sources of light were put out until everything fell under total darkness. Nobody could see anything, except for Gray.

The head elder fished out a small contraption out of his robe. It looked like a metallic tube of some sort that was as wide as an eyeball and slightly longer than a finger. The man cradled the item with both hands as if it was priceless.

The elder then got on all fours. He placed the contraption on the ground and leaned one eye to align with the other end. He then crawled around on the ground like a turtle, changing positions after long intervals.

“How is it?” The younger one with a clean-shaven face asked.

“It's tough… the stars are too bright. Give me something to cover my head.”

A black robe was brought over and with it draped over his head, the lead elder resumed his work.

Gray felt a tightening in his chest. His instincts were going off in alarm. He knew for certain what the bandit was doing. The usage of the black robe was the same as his seeing bag. Then that tool surely operated on the same principles as his eyes. It required darkness to see through solid earth!

The elder continued his examination of the ground. A tremendous amount of clear spiritual energy, far beyond what Gray needed for his eyes, flowed from the bandit into the instrument and disappeared, as if into a bottomless void. Only occasionally would the tool let out a pulse of black energy in response.

There was also another strange and distinct presence of spiritual energy, a faint hue of deep blue around both elders' faces. This energy was calm and unmoving and did not come from their spiritual sea. Having different colored spiritual energy in only one body part was suspicious. Cultivators like Anand gave off a gusting cyan aura across his entire body. Xueling was the same with her golden yellow energy.

Gray squinted long and hard but there weren’t any other details he could see. He was too far away.

After an eternity, the elder stood up and stretched his back. “Ahh… that hurt…”

“You alright?”

“I’m fine. Time is short.” The lead elder replied as he walked around a wide circle, “Here, this is the rough spot. Have them start digging tomorrow.”

The marked area was huge, at least the size of a town square. The other one expressed his doubt but was silenced.

“Just make them dig, once we get deeper, I can examine the ground again.”

“Ah, my apologies.”

The elders left after that, taking the guards with them. The mine and the bandit camp quieted down as everyone went to sleep.

Gray remained alert. He waited until the prisoners around him had all fallen asleep and crept to the marked area. He stood in the middle and studied the ground. Compared to the elder, he didn’t have to crawl. He didn't need a seeing bag either. It was a cloudy night with barely any stars, it was already dark enough.

His eyes activated and the same scene he had seen many weeks ago exploded into sight.

It was a brilliant starfield of jade; gleaming deposits of fabulous wealth that were hidden below. It was the motherlode of jade, his jade. It was unbeknownst to anyone except him... until now.

This was the Duanmu Clan's true plan.

It was truly despicable, something only these bandits could think of.

The only thing that stood in their way was the extremely tough layer of bedrock. If they managed to break through, the Duanmu Clan would be able to use the newfound jade to rapidly strengthen their army. There was also the chance of finding flawless-grade jade. As a true Spiritual Control Realm treasure, if the elders obtained enough flawless jade, they might be able to break through to the Spiritual Control Realm. If that happened, it would be a total disaster for him as well as the town.

Gray couldn't let the bandits get away with this. He couldn't let them steal his jade. He needed to leave, escape this open-pit mine and report the bandits' true plan to the Patels.

He walked to the southern cliffs of the mine. He was about to climb up when he paused. He wasn't worried about the sentries above but something else.

It was the puzzle of the blue light around those elders' faces. Instinct told him that this was important. He didn't know why but he needed to figure it out or he would regret it.

So, he decided to stay one more day and get a closer look.

---

The first day was a victory for Jade Hill Town. They managed to cause substantial casualties and damage to the Duanmu Clan army. There were no casualties on the side of the defenders except for a hapless guard who managed to stab himself in the foot with an arrow and another who fell down the stairs.

"Good job, everyone." Alisha said as her captains finished the battle report, "The bandits will fight back soon and we can't avoid losses like today. Tanvi, how goes the conscription?"

During the day, guards and captains that could be spared from the walls went door-to-door around the town, enforcing the lord's decree and its mandatory conscription.

"My lord," Tanvi said, "Because of the lack of action in the afternoon, we managed to inform all households before night fell. We were able to tally a roster of six hundred and eighty-two."

"What?"

"So little?"

The other captains made their disappointment heard. Alisha felt the same. They had simply lost too many at the River Mine. Without those losses, the Duanmu Clan would not have dared to attack. Now, their forces were outnumbered three to one.

"What about the northern district? The merchants?" She asked.

"The tally does include them... I thought they would give me more trouble but they were surprisingly compliant." Tanvi said.

"Of course, sister. Even they can't refuse the lord's emergency decree." Hana said.

Zheng scoffed and crossed his arms, "What use are bunch of merchants in a war? I wouldn't trust Tarek Baba to protect my back in the middle of a fight."

The captains started arguing about the merits of the merchants, who they hated almost as much as the bandits. Only Alisha and Harsh stayed silent. The two looked at each other and Harsh shot her a smile.

"Quiet!" Alisha said and turned to Harsh, "How did it go?"

"Good!" Her most reliable captain said, "By now, even the newest guard recruit will have heard about our unfavorable conditions. Their trusted head guards have spread the word... that we have already expended all of our cloud burst arrows, that we have no other spiritual items for our defense, that our food reserves will not last us more than two weeks due to an infestation of prairie mice, and the most damning secret that nobody from the south is coming to our aid."

"What in demon's hell? That was you?" Zheng burst out. "I even punished three of my guards for spreading lies!"

"It's fine, it makes the rouse more believable," Harsh said.

"That's not the point! None of it is true! It's crushing our morale!" Zheng shouted.

"That last part is true though." Hari chimed in unhelpfully.

"Shut up!" Zheng snapped back.

"We had a plan?" Yan spoke up for the first time, opening his sleepy eyes.

"Yes, the real plan..." Alisha said, "To lure the fat rabbit out of its hole."

"Which rabbit?" Zheng asked.

Hana slapped his head, "Use your pig brain, isn't it obvious?"

Alisha put a finger to her lips, "Shh... there's more to my plan than a little fake news. Now, listen closely. This is what's going to happen tomorrow."