Gray emerged from his hiding hole in the middle of the night. He was finished with practice and cultivation for the moment. His body was refreshed and his wounds were all healed. Even his Golden Body of the Bodhi had improved and now covered up to his elbow and his knees.

He was brimming with energy and a vindictive determination to mess with the bandits and cause them any trouble he could, especially Tang and that despicable elder.

Gray covered his tracks and traveled back to the bandit town to scout around. This town and Jade Hill Town had walls that were around the same height with an overall shape that was roughly similar. Strong gatehouses protected four entrances in each direction and a large contingent of bandits stood guard atop the walls.

The whole area was on high alert and he could almost feel the tension in the air. It was too much for him and he could not approach any closer. It was already tricky avoiding scouts along the periphery. Scaling the wall undetected was possible but he was sure to run into more of them in the streets. Once he went in, he wouldn't be able to get out unscathed.

Gray gave up on the town and scouted the surroundings. There were a few farms, many holes indicative of mining attempts, and a few hunting parties coming and going. Everything was ordinary except for one thing.

He discovered it to the west of the bandit town, only a short distance away. It was a large mine, much larger than any of the operations run by Jade hill Town. The whole thing was inside a basin in the flatland that looked like a dried-up lake. It was wide and its depth was unclear from a distance. Surrounding the lake was an earthen embankment, several camps, and around a hundred bandits. They patrolled the perimeter, carrying torches or crude lamps, lighting the way as they walked. The flames gave them warmth from the cold night and a false sense of security. In reality, it left them even more blind to the darkness all around them.

The fact that it was a mine wasn’t that interesting. What was interesting was the abnormal number of bandits assigned to guard this place. There weren’t any other bandit groups around to compete with the Duanmu Clan bandits so they had to be something here.

Feeling curious, Gray edged closer to investigate. He crawled through the tall grass, like a deadly beast stalking prey, until he was right next to a tent. The occupants in it were not yet asleep and he could make out a conversation.

“Shit, I’m tired…” A young man’s voice drifted out.

Another person chimed in. “Same, little brother. My feet are about to break from walking around in circles so many times… It never ends. We have to guard the prisoners again tomorrow. Mother of demons... this is a waste of time...”

“At least, we won’t have to do night duty for a few days…” Someone else said and sighed heavily.

The voices drifted off to other topics but that tiny bit was enough to stir Gray's spirit. In such a big mine where there should have been ordinary miners, they specifically mentioned guarding prisoners.

This only meant one thing, those captured during the attack on the River Mine were here!

Gray retreated into the grass and considered his options. Breaking out hundreds of prisoners by himself was impossible. Even if he managed to kill all the bandits without any of them raising the alarm, a fleeing group of hundreds would be easily chased down. He could also go back to town and report the location of the prisoners. That was possible but he didn’t know how long it would take for him to return and for the lord to organize a rescue.

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Regardless of the choice, he decided without any more delay that the right thing to do was to go down and check on the miners. He wanted to know that Krish and his sons were still alive. He wanted to know how his people were doing and figure out what to do afterward.

Gray made a temporary retreat and returned to his hiding hole. He dug up one of the wolf carcasses and grabbed the skull with sharp teeth that could slice through bison hide like it was tofu. It was the only thing he needed and he reburied the rest.

Gray returned to the lake mine the next evening. He hid within the tall grass and watched the bandit guards do their usual thing. They were unaware anything was amiss but then again, those assigned as guards weren’t the best. The strongest among them was a single bandit leader at the sixth level.

His sneaking skills had continuously improved with each breakthrough. Although his body was large, his footsteps were light. His breath was quiet as the wind. He could see everything perfectly in the darkness, even in which way the bandits were facing and where their eyes were pointed. There was no chance they could find him unless he chose to reveal himself.

He circled the lake and found what he wanted. It was a tent that was only occupied by one person. He sneaked up beside and waited to see if the person inside was asleep. He made a few small noises to make sure but there was no response.

“Alright…” He breathed out quietly and set to work.

On the side of the tent that faced the plains, he used the wolf skull to cut a messy hole. Once it was big enough, he dashed into the tent with lightning quickness and slammed his golden fist into the sleeping figure with a dull thud. The unfortunate man, who was only at the second level of strengthening, had no chance before his brain was scrambled. Gray hit him a few more times but the man was already dead.

Gray dragged the body out of the tent, making sure to leave a faint trail of bent and crushed grass behind. At a satisfactory distance away, he used the wolf skull with its sharp teeth to crush the dead man’s skull. It was the best he could do to make it seem that the animal did the deed.

He then slinked off into the night like a ghost. By the time he got around to the other side of the lake mine, a scream rang out from the opposite side.

“Wolf attack! There are wolves!”

“It came from the west!”

“Hurry!”

Most of the bandits on the eastern side rushed over to help. The distraction worked and in front of Gray, there were only a few bandits left, leaving huge gaps in the perimeter. Gray chose the biggest gap and sneaked through. He vaulted over the dirt wall and crept into the lake mine without anyone noticing.

The ground started to slope downward at a steep angle and he proceeded cautiously. Tall grass gave way to a shorter grass which then gave way to sand and eventually gritty, clay-like dirt that was the original lakebed.

At the bottom, besides a pond that covered a small section, there were mining tunnels in every direction, dug horizontally into the lakebed. From the original shoreline to the deepest parts, mining tunnels dotted all around the empty lake. There were hundreds of them.

The sheer scale was breathtaking. It took a tremendous amount of work and many decades to create something like this. This had to be the primary mine of the bandits but there was something amiss.

He entered a tunnel near the top and confirmed his suspicions. The interior was a maze of smaller tunnels and corridors. Some were interconnected with other entrances while others had collapsed from age. There were countless dead ends as well as mining chambers large and small.

There were only a few sparkles of jade and spiritual stones within the mines, far fewer than what an active mine should have. The leftover concentration of treasure was even less than the abandoned mining tunnels of the River Mine. Even if a thousand miners worked here, without Gray’s special eyes, they wouldn’t be able to produce enough to make any money, not even enough to feed themselves.

The Lake Mine was massive, it was old, and it was depleted. Countless generations of bandits had mined this place until, to them, there was nothing left. It was a useless relic of past days of glory and wealth and the perfect place to keep prisoners.