Cultivation: Being Immortal-Chapter 524:

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"Sir, I have found out that those households are hiding in that cave."

In front of a certain cave in Yunzhong Mountain Range, a group of soldiers appeared. A man in civilian clothes spoke to the leader of the soldiers.

"Finally found them. Let’s go in and get them. Remember, don’t kill anyone, or we won’t complete this month’s mission."

The leading soldier shouted, and then the group rushed into the cave with torches, while from inside the cave came some cries.

Next came a chaotic noise, with crying, begging, and the sound of people being whipped.

When everything calmed down, the soldiers held torches, shining on the captured people. The plainclothesmen stepped forward to identify them, saying, "Sir, yes, these are the people from Shihao Village below. They are all craftsmen."

"Weren’t there supposed to be seven? Why are there only four people?"

"Sir, they are from three families, each with a child who is about thirteen or fourteen years old."

"What about the others? My task for this month was to recruit sixty new soldiers, but there are only around thirty here."

The lead soldier angrily asked. They were here this time to recruit soldiers, the task given to them was to recruit sixty new soldiers. There is still half missing, so even the teenagers who are thirteen or fourteen cannot be let go.

"Sir, please spare me. My eldest and second sons have died in battle. According to the law, our family should be exempt from conscription."

"Nonsense. What law? I don’t care! Hand over your son now. Otherwise, he will be considered a deserter, and he won’t just be joining the army. We’ll use him as a sacrifice."

"Adult, I don’t know. Our families from three houses are all lost."

"Hehe, can’t fool me. Come on, keep searching. The cave is only so big, let’s see where they can hide."

The leader soldier sneered, not angry but feeling helpless. The frontline battles were intense now, recruiting soldiers all the time. Before, they could follow the rule of drafting every tenth man, then every fifth man. But now, any man would do, they needed all the soldiers they could get. They were all just pawns, no difference between them.

The remaining soldiers quickly searched through the cave. It wasn’t big, so they finished searching soon. A soldier came back and reported. Adult, there is a cliff ahead. I checked, they are not there.

"I’ll go check."

The leader soldier went forward. True enough, deep in the cave, there was a cliff, pitch black. He used a torch to shine around, indeed, no one was there.

"Bad luck, let’s go, on to the next house."

The leader soldier didn’t think much of it. He didn’t have time to investigate further. With a heavy task ahead, it was better to move on to the next place. After all, there was no food in the cave, and those young men would have to come down eventually. They could be dealt with later.

The sounds of the soldiers moving away could be heard, along with the pleading of a few old men. They were nearing fifty, too old for the battlefield, but the soldiers paid them no mind. They needed regular soldiers desperately, and even more so, craftsmen. These men were all craftsmen, too valuable to be let go.

When the soldiers were completely gone, three people emerged from the cliff edge, hiding in a crevice just out of sight from the soldiers.

"Brother Zhai, what should we do now?"

The younger of the two boys asked the older one.

"We can’t go back to the village. My father said there are traitors in the village. If we go back, they will come looking for us. So many people from our village went to join the army, but none of them returned. They all died."

"Yes, my older brother and second elder brother also died."

"We still have a small bag of food here. We three will ration it, I hear water below, let’s go check it out. If there are fish, we will catch some and hide for a while."

The boy pointed to the bag of food at his waist, which still had more than ten pounds of supplies, enough to last a while, and catching fish would be even better.

The three quickly started climbing down the cliff bit by bit. They were used to climbing mountains to catch birds and fishing in the river in their village, and surprisingly, they made it down safely.

·······

The soldier was running in the cave when Lin Jiang woke up. Lin Jiang checked the time and realized he had been asleep for a thousand years. After the soldier left, Lin Jiang saw three young boys climbing down from the cliffs, their agile movements surprising him. They were impressive young men indeed.

Instead of revealing himself immediately, Lin Jiang watched as the three men searched around the underground river below the cliff. However, Lin Jiang knew they would be disappointed as this underground river didn’t have any big fish, only small and hard-to-catch ones.

As Lin Jiang had expected, the three men searched around and found nothing. The icy river water made them shiver, so they quickly lit a fire to warm themselves.

Feeling dejected, the three men huddled around the fire and started chatting. Lin Jiang overheard mentions of kingdoms like Zheng Kingdom and Qi Kingdom, with the conversation revolving mostly around conscription and avoiding military service.

"So, Xia Kingdom is truly no more?"

Lin Jiang sighed, realizing that even after a thousand years, Xia Kingdom could not escape the cycle of dynasties.

Lin Jiang had anticipated this situation long before. He knew that unless one remained vigilant and rational at all times, it was impossible to avoid the cyclical nature of dynasties; change in power was inevitable.

Lin Jiang had a strong attachment to Xia Kingdom, but he also possessed great wisdom.

Seeing the three men getting drowsy, Lin Jiang decided to create some noise.

"Who, who is there?"

Mo Zhai exclaimed, holding a sharp little knife in his hand. His father was a carpenter, so it was normal for him to have a small knife.

"Don’t panic, young man, I’m not a soldier."

Lin Jiang took a deep breath, preparing for a dramatic act. He spoke in a very weak voice.

Mo Zhai held up a torch, took two steps forward, and saw Lin Jiang lying on the ground. Lin Jiang had been traveling for several years, his clothes were all torn. He used animal fur for clothes while hunting on the road. Now he threw away the fur, smeared some mud on his body, looking pitiful.

"Who are you?"

"I’m from the village below, Huangmu Village. Young man, which village are you from?"

"Where is Huangmu Village?" ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

Mo Zhai was a bit puzzled. Although he had been working as a carpenter with his father for several years, he had never left the village or heard of Huangmu Village.

"Excuse me, Huangmu Village is at the foot of the mountain, where are you from?"

"We’re from Shihao Village. My dad is a carpenter, and these are my two younger brothers. Their dad is my dad’s sworn brother."

"My dad is a stonemason."

"My dad is a blacksmith."

The other two boys quickly lifted their heads and said proudly about their identities. After all, craftsmen are skilled workers, much better than ordinary farmers.

"Your dads are really amazing!"

"Sir, what do you do for a living?"

"I am on the run, hiding here for days. I heard you coming down earlier, but I couldn’t make a sound. I can breathe easy now."

"Sir, are you hungry?"

"Yes, I’m very hungry."

"I have some food here, please eat some quickly."

The three of them were completely unprepared and eagerly took out some dry food, which was a type of mixed grain bread, very rough. Lin Jiang immediately regretted playing this trick, not because he had slept too long and was bored.

"Big brother, aren’t you eating?"

"Brother Zhai, this big brother might be too hungry to even bite. How about we chew it up for him?"

"No need, I can eat it."

Upon hearing this, Lin Jiang suddenly became a bit anxious, oh no, things have gotten out of hand.

Under the kind gazes of the three, Lin Jiang gritted his teeth and swallowed two rough bread pieces, almost choking on them.

Lin Jiang quickly pretended to regain some strength and tried to engage them in conversation, wanting to know about the situation outside. But the three were all young, although slightly better than others their age, their knowledge was very limited.

"Let’s go hunting."

After learning about the personalities of the three people, Lin Jiang mentioned going hunting. None of them dared to agree, but they couldn’t resist Lin Jiang’s persuasion and soon agreed.

Lin Jiang led the three people to climb out of the cave with difficulty. After searching for a while, they found two wild rabbits and a mountain chicken. Lin Jiang casually picked up a small stone and knocked them down, leaving the three people stunned.

"In the past, my family used to herd sheep. When sheep misbehave, you just pick up stones and throw them, one hit one accurate."

Lin Jiang explained with a smile, "Being a shepherd, I can aim with stones without any problem."

The three people looked at each other. They didn’t understand much. Lin Jiang didn’t explain further and just gathered some firewood to make them a dish of roasted chicken and rabbit. They all ate with delight.

After solving the wild game, Lin Jiang prepared to go check the situation outside, but Mo Zhai insisted on following him with the other two. Lin Jiang asked them what they wanted to do.

"Brother, we want to follow you because being with you means we get to eat meat."

Mo Zhai was straightforward. They had never had so much meat before, and a meal of meat had won them over.

"Come, follow me."

Lin Jiang didn’t mind, he thought these three people seemed honest and reliable, so he accepted them as his followers. Maybe he could use their help too.

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