In the underground world, numerous bonfires were lit around a massive altar. Countless human slaves sat on the dusty ground, eating their freshly prepared dinner.
The so-called dinner consisted of tree bark and some stale, moldy rice husks, which the dwarves stirred together in a large pot and boiled briefly before serving it as the slaves' evening meal.
Of course, breakfast was the same.
Xu Mu, covered in dust, sat before a bonfire, his tattered grass clothing full of new tears from a day of hard labor. He gazed at the stone bowl filled with sludge in his hand, then at the people around him wolfing down their food, lost in thought.
"Don't talk about you, even I, a fierce beast, couldn't eat this," Qiongqi jumped onto Xu Mu's shoulder, looking at the contents of the bowl and shaking his head repeatedly.
Even when he had run away from home and was starving, he had never eaten anything so terrible. Even the domestic pigs in the mortal world would have found it disgusting.
"But they're eating it with such relish," Xu Mu tried a tiny sip, letting it linger on his tongue. An indescribable grittiness and sour stench instantly filled his senses, causing him to frown.
Just as Xu Mu was about to spit out the small amount of "rice porridge," several disheveled human slaves beside him were using all their strength to rush towards the large pot, hoping for another bowl.
"For them, this isn't food, it's life," Xu Mu mused, repeatedly tasting the tiny grains on his tongue, then said.
"So, what's your plan? There are no sacred relics here, I've looked," Qiongqi yawned and said. While Xu Mu was helping people move stones, he had already scouted the entire area. Apart from some totems and forged weapons, there were no sacred relics to be found.
"Except for the superpowered individuals who came with us, there are few human slaves willing to join me in rebellion," Xu Mu said, looking up at the rugged cliffs where the dark dwarf overseers, armed, stood guard at various passes. His eyes were cold.
"They've been oppressed for over a hundred years, generation after generation, living here. How could there be no resistance? But it all failed in the end, which is why they don't believe me."
"Whether humans or fierce beasts, there's a herd mentality," Qiongqi said with a serious expression. "As long as you can lead a portion of people upwards first, more and more will naturally join."
"That's what I mean," Xu Mu nodded. Then, he took out a strip of dried meat from his spatial ring and was about to eat it when he saw a scrawny little girl in the distance holding an empty stone bowl and looking at him.
Xu Mu was silent for a moment, then forced a smile and beckoned her over, "Come here."
The little girl tiptoed over. She watched as Xu Mu placed the dried meat into her bowl. Her eyes lit up, and she immediately picked it up with her small, dark, and thin hands, bringing it to her lips.
"Why aren't you eating?" Xu Mu asked, his smile tinged with pain as he saw the girl's actions.
"Brother, you said you could lead us out of here, to stop moving big stones every day. Is that true?" the little girl asked timidly, suppressing the temptation of the meat.
"Of course," Xu Mu reached out and gently ruffled the girl's hair, his smile warm. "Tonight, I will lead you all to escape."
"Really?" the girl asked, her surprise making her eyes shine even brighter, ten times more so than when she saw the dried meat.
"Fake," an old man with his hands behind his back walked slowly towards Xu Mu from afar, followed by a large group of human slaves, seemingly led by him.
"Decades of experience have taught us that those who are captured here should not even think of escaping."
Tap, tap, tap, tap…
In the vast sinkhole, the sound of feet crunching on gravel echoed like a dense forest. Dark dwarf goblins, armed with weapons, swarmed out of the cave entrances on the cliff face, blocking all paths leading to the surface.
Xu Mu looked up at the dark dwarf goblins on the cliff face, then at the old human slave beside him. After a moment of silence, he asked with confusion, "Why?"
"Because I cannot stand by and watch you lead them to their deaths!" The old man's clouded, resolute eyes were tinged with pain. "For over a hundred years, our ancestors have been building this altar. Countless people have led us in rebellion, but the outcome has always been failure. And failure means many deaths!"
Xu Mu shook his head. "So what? If you don't resist, do you want your descendants to spend their entire lives in this dark, sunless underground world?"
"The altar is almost complete," the old man's voice returned to calm. He pointed to the massive altar behind him. "In at most another month, it will be finished. At that time, we might be able to go home."
Xu Mu sighed, pointing to the dark dwarves at the entrance. "If one altar is finished, there will be thousands more. The dwarf race is inherently greedy and brutal. If you don't resist, you will never go home."
"We have to try. If they really don't let us leave, we'll deal with it after a month," the old man said after a moment of silence.
Hearing this, Xu Mu held his stone bowl and smiled enigmatically.
These human slaves, exploited day and night for a century, were now pinning their hopes on the very people who exploited them.
"Who wants to rebel? Step forward and let me see!" a short, dark dwarf commander, wielding a massive wolf-toothed club, stood at the cave entrance of the cliff, roaring menacingly.
Below, no one spoke.
The dark dwarf commander became angry. Enraged by the silence of the lowly human slaves, he swung his club violently and shouted, "If you don't step forward, the human slaves below will die with you!"
As he spoke, countless dwarves armed with bows and arrows swarmed out of the cave entrances on the four sheer cliff faces. They were clearly ready to draw their bows and aim at the crowd below.
No matter who it was, no need to know who it was, they only knew that if they killed someone, then the people would no longer resist.
"Don't shoot, don't shoot, it's not us who want to rebel…" someone among the slaves, holding their child, pleaded desperately to the dwarf archers above.
"If you don't want to die, tell me who it is!" the commander roared with triumphant anger.
"Who is it, hurry up and say!" dark dwarves from another direction shouted in unison.
"Hurry up and say who it is, hurry up and say who it is…"
Countless dwarves joined in the shouting, their violent and triumphant voices filling the vast sky, mixed with the cries of some human slaves. They were all panicked, their helpless eyes darting around, and finally, they all stirred and fixed their gaze upon Xu Mu.
"Base human slave, restless on your first day here! I order you to commit suicide as atonement!" a dark dwarf recognized Xu Mu and roared angrily.
Xu Mu remained silent, his gaze fixed on the familiar faces around him, some young, some old.
These were the people he had helped during the day. He had blocked the overseer's hammer for that old man, pushed the heavy wooden cart for that young man, given that woman clothes to cover herself, and given the little girl in her arms a piece of dried meat.
He had given many things, but now, these people were all looking at him, with those pitiful and complex eyes.
"Kill yourself, so as not to implicate innocent lives," the old man among the human slaves said.
Nash and Sina stood in the distance, frowning as they watched everything. They didn't know what choice Xu Mu would make.
Qiongqi knew, so he stretched.
"Bang!"
At some point, Xu Mu had a handgun in his hand. After a long silence, he finally pulled the trigger expressionlessly, piercing the head of the dark dwarf clad in armor.
As his body slowly fell, the eyes of countless human slaves widened in shock. The old man who had reported the rebels to the dwarves was so terrified he couldn't speak, only pointing at Xu Mu with trembling fingers, "You… you!"
Xu Mu looked at the smoke rising from the muzzle of the gun. He finished the coarse husks in his stone bowl with one hand, chewed for a moment, then handed the gun to the old man, his expressionless face saying, "Take it."
"This…" The old man glanced at the enraged dwarves above. The arrows hanging overhead seemed ready to fall at any moment, and he hesitated. But just then, a young human slave darted forward and snatched the handgun.
His eyes burned with fervor. Mimicking Xu Mu's action, he clumsily chambered a round and fired a shot upwards.
"Bang!"
Hearing the gunshot, Xu Mu smiled. He threw more guns from his spatial ring, then drew the saber at his waist. Expressionlessly, he pointed the blade upwards and said in a deep voice:
"The dwarves compel you to kneel with their brutal authority and false honor. I will make you stand."