As Jin met Big Lu’s gaze, a chill ran down his spine. An oppressive pressure formed around him. He tried to shake it off, but he couldn’t even look away. The qi which was happily racing through his meridians jerked and faltered, slinking back into his dantian.

Big Lu’s dark eyes held him captive. The amulet bearing the Sect’s sigil hanged on the man’s chest, but Jin didn’t even notice it. His mind was trapped, ensnared in the grim intensity of the chief warden’s gaze.

He had thought he had grown numb to it.

In fact, he did. In that time when the world stopped, Jin stared at Big Lu’s face until it lost all meaning. But it was different in the living world. Now, he felt the full weight of that gaze again.

Rou Mi, one of Lil’ Lu’s lackeys, sidled up to Big Lu and whispered something in his ear.

Boss Lu listened without any change of expression. His gaze shifted, temporarily releasing Jin from his confinement. His eyes wandered around the gathered crowd, pausing briefly on Hao, the three instigators, and the unconscious miner.

By the time Rou Mi had finished his report, Boss Lu’s gaze had focused on Jin Sou again.

Or so Jin thought.

“Warden Feng,” Big Lu said.

The warden, who was still pinned to the ground by Jin, stirred, and awkwardly scrambled himself to an upright position. Once on his feet, he performed a deep bow.

“Boss Lu,” he replied in a voice laced with anxiety.

Big Lu stared at him without a word. Emotions didn’t reveal themselves easily on his face. That was why Lil’ Lu was so important. He was able to decipher the inner thoughts of his elder brother with an uncanny ability, like a horse whisperer.

The miners only needed to look for the shifts in Lil’ Lu’s expression, whether it be a broad smile or a deepening frown, to understand what fate had in store for them.

His absence was felt. But even without him present, the air in the room was heavy. If Lil’ Lu was here, he’d be reaching for his whip already.

“Five miners injured. A quarter of your crew unable to work...”

The words hung heavy in the air.

The warden shivered. “We was just upholdin’ discipline, he stuttered. “Justice for big brother Lil’ Lu…”

“Two of them crippled.” Big Lu continued, approaching the warden. His voice was low and measured. “On your watch.”

Fear twisted warden Feng’s face. His eyes darted around wildly, searching for a way out. Suddenly, he bellowed in a panic-stricken roar. “And how many were injured yesterday?! At your order!”

His outburst caused the gathered miners to flinch. The warden also realised his mistake. His eyes bulged out in terror, as if he couldn’t believe the words that had escaped his mouth.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You can’t do it!” he backtracked, pleading in a desperate voice. “It was our generation that raised you! I still remember when you came to the mine, you and your brother. Shortie Lu and Fatty Cheng, you were just chicks! Who was it that taught you the ropes? You wouldn’t be here if not for us!”

“I remember,” Big Lu nodded. “You, Liang, and Xianbao were good seniors. That is why when the corruption took you, and you could barely lift a hammer, I looked the other way.”

Warden Feng’s face convulsed with conflicting emotions, each vying for supremacy. In the end, terror prevailed.

“You didn’t contribute. And I allowed it. But now you’ve jeopardised the Sect’s interests.”

The warden’s mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. His chin trembled.

Big Lu stood in front of him, so close they were almost touching. The silver amulet bearing the Sect’s sigil glinted in the dim light.

“Pay respects to the Sect,” Boss Lu said.

Warden bowed at ninety degree angle.

“No,” Big Lu shook his head. “Do it proper. Face on the ground.”

The warden looked around, but wherever he turned, everyone averted their eyes. With trembling hands, he prostrated himself on the ground.

Jin felt a surge of pressure. With shock, he realised that up to now Big Lu hadn’t even began circulating his qi. The suppressive aura he projected before came only from his own person.

Now, Jin could feel his qi. It was heavy. Hard and relentless, like the mines it was forged in.

Lu raised his bare foot, positioning it above warden Feng’s head.

Time seemed to stop. Jin didn’t see what was happening, his eyes were firmly fixed on the ground. He also didn’t hear a wet crunch, the blood pounding in his ears blocked it out. And he certainly didn’t feel any warm spray splashing on his face, it was just the sweat rolling down from his brow.

Boss Lu scrubbed the sole of his foot on the stone floor. It left behind a slimy trail. When that wasn’t enough, he tore a strip of fabric from the old warden’s robes.

“Rou Mi will take over after Feng,” he announced, his fingers working the rag between each toe, cleaning every crevice.

Rou Mi forced himself to look away from the remains of his predecessor. “It’s an honor,” he replied with a bow.

“The next batch of workers arrives in three months. Until then, you'll have to manage with a smaller crew. The Sect won't tolerate a dip in output.”

“I won’t disappoint,” Rou Mi vowed.

Boss Lu shifted his eyes, looking to Hao and the others. “Get the healer in the upper Pit to check on the injured. Since they weren’t directly responsible, they won’t be punished for missed labor.”

“Yes, boss.”

Big Lu turned his attention the gathered miners. Some of them were older, still stuck in the first layer and unable to progress. Most, however, were young boys, who only just arrived in the mine from the camps.

“Let me share with you the lesson I was taught by my seniors when I was your age,” he said, crumpling the soiled rag and throwing it to the ground. “Listen well, because one day you will be passing it down to juniors of your own.”

“Our one and only duty is to serve the Sect,” he said in an emotionless voice. “Nothing else matters and nothing else will be permitted.”

The words themselves were straightforward. But the hidden implications lingered in the air like a suffocating weight even after Big Lu had departed.

Jin couldn’t believe it.

When Boss Lu arrived, he braced himself for the inevitable fight to the death, fully expecting a brutal repeat of the ‘discipline’. But to his surprise, nothing happened. He even suspected that the only reason he thought he was being looked at was because he happened to be sitting on warden Feng at the time.

Rou Mi stood nearby, his gaze shifting between Jin Sou and the dead warden. No matter how he wracked his brain, he felt like there was something wrong with the image he was seeing, as if the roles had been reversed.

A calculating look flitted across his face. Fighting back a wave of disgust, he rifled through the warden’s pockets until he retrieved a small pouch. It was heavy with silver.

He kept half for himself and tossed the rest to Jin, “For the quack in the upper Pit. He’s paid by the Sect, but he’ll bandage you with dirt, if you don’t slip him something extra.”

Jin was caught off guard, but given everything else that had transpired, this unexpected act of generosity was of little importance. He grasped the coins, bowed his head in gratitude, and scooped up Hao Ling to rush him to a healer. At that moment, nothing else mattered.