I must be hearing something wrong!

How could demons be so savage as to skin someone?

Leo saw the fear on my face, and said.

“It looks like you have no idea about the culture, don't ya? What a country girl! In the Land of Ruins, skinning a dead body is so common. We demons have tough and warm skin, it makes the best fabric material to stand against the harsh winter. You don’t need to be so afraid, because we won’t skin you alive, only when you are dead. Soon you will become a blanket, and your corpse will be thrown away into the corpse hole to rot!”

Now I recalled the old couple’s jokes about blankets. Also, when I was curious about the fabric for my winter clothes because they were so warm, Grandpa Jin and Grandma Sha would immediately switch to another topic. I guessed they knew that I would be grossed out by the fact.

I lightly touched my clothes, and wondered if this was also made of demon skin. My whole body shivered, and then goosebumps were all over the body. I didn’t want to figure out what type of fabric I had on now, and didn’t want to accept the fact that I was wearing demon skin all along. It was hard to tell because the clothes were often dyed with other colors.

The two boys moved toward me with their hammers.

There were endless clanging sounds on the rocks in the background…….

Everyone was busy cracking their rocks to “make a living.” The armored guards were walking in and out minding their own business. No one was paying attention to the three of us. Maybe they were all used to seeing death and injustice that they all become numbed?

The boys were right that I was no opponent to them. They were shorter and younger than me, but that didn’t mean my strength was enough to combat the strength of demons. Even though I felt a lot better than yesterday, I was still hungry and weak.

I couldn’t die here.

I backed off a step, and lowered my voice, “You can have the coins, but give the basket back.”

They stopped and laughed at my cowardice.

“Leo, if she can give us thirty pounds of coins today, that wouldn’t hurt. A blanket is nice, but coins are even better!” Rene said.

Leo thought for a second.

“Fine, I will let you live another day, only if you can turn in thirty pounds by the end of the day!”

Afterwards Leo went away to harass another newbie. Rene was about to follow him, when suddenly turned around and threw a basket at me.

“Have your damn basket back!” Rene stuck out his tongue to make a silly face.

I ignored them, and picked up my basket to start my day.

Thirty pounds of coins……..

That might be easier to say than to do.

Yesterday I worked extremely hard and all I got was just a few pounds. These special rocks or geodes were all deeply embedded into the walls of the mountains. We had to chip away bit by bit around the geodes to loosen them, and then cracked them open. The purple crystals inside were circular and shone like expensive gemstones. Most of them were similar in size to coins, but there were some smaller or larger ones. No one seemed to care about the varying sizes, perhaps the outliers were used for other purposes.

The geode I just cracked was a small one, with only a couple crystals inside. Now I got a closer look at them, they didn’t resemble amethyst at all. The color was the same, but the shapes were totally different.

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If I could carry these gemstones to the modern world, I would easily become a millionaire. What a waste to have such beautiful gemstones to become an universal currency, but it seemed there was an abundant amount here that made them lose their values.

The rarer, the more precious.

This concept worked anywhere.

I observed a lot from the other demons, trying to get the skills of “seeing through” a rock from the outside, but had no luck. All the geodes looked the same to me. My hands were a bit shaky because I was so hungry. Even if I could make it to thirty pounds and give those to the boys, that would mean another day of no food. I didn’t know where my limit lies, but I couldn’t die here.

It was plain willpower that kept me going.

My shoulders were heavy.

I wanted to fight against injustice. Nobody deserved to die like the villagers. There must be a way to stop the pearl hunters from slaughtering the innocent. Most of all, I wanted Grandpa Jin and Grandma Sha to rest in peace in the Heavenly Realm.

It was near sunset already, and unexpectedly my basket was actually half full. I was alert to not bump into the boys again, otherwise they would take my coins away. It was much more than I had expected. I was not sure how many pounds there were, but at least heavy enough that I couldn’t carry it any longer.

“Excuse me, my basket is getting heavy. Are we allowed to unload it now, or wait until dinner time? I am new here, don’t know how the process works.” I asked an elderly woman standing close by, who was chipping away at one of the huge geodes.

At first she didn’t even look at me, so I asked her again, finally she gave me an expressionless stare.

“Go out the exit and turn left, there should be a guard collecting coins. You can turn in coins anytime of the day, the guard will keep a record of how much you contributed. Once a hundred pounds is reached, you will receive a wooden card, just turn it in at the food station during dinner time, you will get the food.” She replied and then turned her back on me.

“Thank you Madam!” I smiled.

I must turn in all these coins, otherwise my back would crack. Plus if the brats took them, then I worked for nothing today. I would not have enough time and energy to make extra coins. Nobody could take away these coins because they were my life. I would rather die fighting those two brats than starving to death.

Now the woman mentioned, I vaguely remembered where the guards were gathering coins yesterday.

It was outside the cave.

I hurried off to avoid encountering the boys.

As I was close to the exit, there were people blocking the way. Surprisingly a couple of them looked too robust and sturdy to be starving, but their faces also had the slave marks. They seemed to be the ones blocking the flow of the traffic. Most of the slaves were skinny to the bones because of the lack of food, but these guys looked quite healthy.

Two of them were Leo and Rene.

They were standing behind an older dude in his early “twenties,” who was giving some commands.

“Hurry and turn in your thirty pounds, otherwise you won’t have a chance to get out of here. If there is a delay in receiving your food, we would take no blame for it!”

It was close to sunset, therefore the crowd was eager to get out to turn in the coins to the guards and get food.

“For those newbies, listen to the rules! In the Underground, you have two bosses, alright? The first person is General K, and the second person is our Headman Daoba. If you don’t show respect to our Headman Daoba, then you won’t last long in the Underground! Would you rather turn in thirty pounds of coins than being kicked to death? This is your own choice! No one will hold you responsible for your decision, even General K will not care! Got it?”

Most of the crowd did not repel at all, and quietly dropped down the required amount in front of the gang before leaving. The gang of slaves were guarding the exit, there was no way to make it out without noticing. I was short, therefore hidden behind the crowd.

The gang were slaves themselves. How could they take advantage of their own kind?

To me, the gang was even worse than the guards. The guards had no choice but to follow the order of the king. The gang were slaves who got forced to labor like everyone else, but they abused their own kind just because they were stronger and healthier, all for their own benefits.

I thought those two boys were only picking on me for extra coins, now I realized it was actually a “rule” here.

Everyone was relatively obedient until a couple slaves suddenly repelled against the unjust exploit.

“You guys are slaves too, you have no right to take advantage of us!”

“Yes! You have no right. Thirty pounds everyday! That would take my life away! I am a full grown man, and I can only do a hundred pounds per day at most, your rules would force me to eat only once every two days! That is not fair!”

“Not fair! It’s not fair!”