Chapter 27: Silencing

Since Pang Xuan’s scavenging team possessed firearms, Liu Hen did not dare to get too close, uncertain if Pang Xuan was the only one armed. However, in the dead of night, he could still see clearly twenty meters away, and with his hearing significantly enhanced, he was not worried about losing them.

"Captain, we haven't spotted anyone following us yet. Could we slow down a little? The elderly and children are struggling to keep up." A man caught up to Pang Xuan, his face pale as he spoke.

"They have to keep up. If they can’t handle this little bit of cold, how are they going to survive once we’re out in the wild?" Pang Xuan’s voice was cold. "Pass the word down: anyone who falls behind is to be left to their own fate. No one is to help them."

"A bunch of useless trash!" He grew more incensed as he thought about it. "If it weren't for having to feed these wastes, would I have been reduced to this state?"

Having suffered repeated setbacks and lost seven men along the way, his chest felt as if it were about to explode with suppressed rage. Now, his subordinates were adding to his frustrations. Thinking of the various hardships they would face once they left the Red Snail Camp, he felt a dark urge to kill a few of them just to ease his burden.

The men behind him fell deathly silent, biting their lips as they forced themselves to keep moving.

*Damn it! Why are they so obedient now?* The lack of pushback only made Pang Xuan angrier; he couldn't even find a reason to vent by killing someone.

Finally, they reached the entrance of the abandoned mine. The entrance was a massive recessed bay, leading over ten meters inward before reaching the mine proper, with scattered iron ore littering the ground. Because the Red Snail Camp’s purchase price was too low and the team lacked the means to transport the ore, the deposits had barely been touched.

"Four men stay here to guard the entrance. The rest, come with me," Pang Xuan commanded coldly.

Liu Hen waited patiently for over ten minutes. Once the sounds at the entrance faded, he slowly approached to within twenty meters. From this vantage point, he could vaguely discern the silhouettes of the four guards. They were diligent, showing no signs of slacking, yet they stayed strictly within the entrance rather than patrolling outside, keeping watch for monsters and other dangers of the dark.

*This bay...* Liu Hen looked at the massive recess carved by miners and calculated the width. *About eight meters wide. It shouldn't be a problem. In the darkness, if a sound suddenly appears, a scavenger's first instinct is to hide and observe; they aren't likely to charge out immediately.*

He had plenty of time to set his trap. He signaled to Little Black Stone to keep watch, then slowly crept toward the mine entrance. Once he reached a position about four or five meters from the guards—safely outside their line of sight—he initiated Free Build mode.

As he had anticipated, the large rubble stones could be used as building material. He began placing them.

*Thud!*

The first stone was placed successfully, sinking into the ground and merging seamlessly with the earth. The sound caused him to freeze, glancing at the four guards. They immediately crouched, raising their wooden bows toward the noise, but they did not rush out to investigate. Never having heard such a sound before, they were gripped by the fear of the unknown, hesitating over whether to retreat deeper into the mine. They never imagined that someone would be "sealing" them in; given the size of the opening, constructing a wall thick enough to block it would be a massive, time-consuming project.

Though he had expected this, Liu Hen did not waste a second, continuously placing the rubble.

*Thud! Thud! Thud!*

Stone after stone appeared, each one fitting perfectly against the last, fusing into a solid mass. A stone wall, one meter thick, rapidly rose before him. Behind him, Little Black Stone watched in astonishment—how had his master’s abilities suddenly become so powerful?

Half a minute later, a two-meter-high stone wall stood at the exit, its edges fused completely into the rock walls on either side. Liu Hen climbed onto the wall to continue placing stones, stacking them higher and higher.

Inside the mine, the four guards grew increasingly nervous as the strange, rhythmic thudding persisted. One of them signaled the others to stay alert and quickly slipped away to inform the captain of the anomaly.

*Thud! Thud! Thud!*

The eerie sound echoed in the darkness, shifting from left to right. The remaining three men were on edge, their nerves frayed, terrified that a monster might burst in.

A minute later, the one-meter-thick wall reached a height of four meters. Liu Hen did not stop, continuing to build upward. Another minute passed, and the wall reached eight meters. Finally, he began building horizontally, placing stones along the sides to create a ceiling, fusing them together like a floor slab.

Since materials placed via Free Build fused together as if they had grown from the earth, he did not need to worry about the ceiling collapsing under its own weight. Liu Hen intended to seal the mine completely. According to the original owner's memories, this mine was deep, but it had no secondary exit.

Since they were enemies, he would show no mercy. Once the exit was sealed, Pang Xuan’s team would be finished, trapped inside to their deaths.

Of course, scavengers were resilient—they might eventually dig a tunnel—but causing them any trouble was worth it. *Besides, gathering materials is easy for me now; building this seal is simple.*

Just as he heard the sound of hurried footsteps echoing from deep within the mine, the entire entrance was sealed. Whether front or top, everything was blocked; the "ceiling" was fused into the mountain walls, leaving no gaps. The wall was a meter thick; even without proper tools, it would take them a very long time to dig through.

At that moment, Pang Xuan returned to the entrance with his men. Because the strange thudding had just ceased, he slapped the guard who had reported the anomaly and stepped forward with his pistol drawn to investigate. After walking only ten meters, he stopped dead in his tracks, blocked by a wall of stone.

"???"

He stared in confusion, wondering if he had taken a wrong turn.

*One meter might not be enough to be safe, as the quality of this rubble is quite average.* Outside the wall, Liu Hen gathered materials on the spot, swinging his Pick of All Things frantically.

[Large Refined Stone +1]

As expected, the ordinary rocks here were refined stones. He felt a surge of excitement and continued to swing his pick, gathering materials without moving.

"Who’s out there?!" Pang Xuan’s furious roar echoed from behind the wall. He must have realized that someone was targeting them; a wall like this could not have appeared out of thin air.

"Master Esper outside, it was our fault! Please, spare us..." Pang Xuan screamed, his roar turning into desperate pleading.

Liu Hen remained unmoved. Since they were already enemies, they might as well die in there. To prevent any excavation, Liu Hen accelerated his pace, his pick whistling through the air. Once he had enough materials, he used the refined stones to reinforce the wall.

Finally, when the wall reached a thickness of two meters, he felt satisfied and left the area with Little Black Stone.

Over half an hour later, they arrived at another small, abandoned mine more than three kilometers away. The pyrite had long been harvested, but plenty of common iron ore remained.

*I’ll harvest enough iron ore here to upgrade the workstation to the max level of Black Iron.* With this plan in mind, Liu Hen led Little Black Stone into the depths of the mine.