Around midday, Yue Yang finally got up and joined a group of about a dozen other mercenaries who’d also come from elsewhere after seeing the notice, entering the mining district together.

Not a single one of these dozen-odd mercenaries was a reincarnated challenger.

Every one of them was a challenger’s descendant.

In Human Valley, while challengers were forbidden from using combat power, their fundamental strength was still intact — no matter how impoverished they became, it wasn’t truly possible to die of hunger or cold. They might endure hardship, certainly. And as challengers, most of them had at least some social connections — otherwise who would dare take on Human Valley alone? Grandma Sha, who had successfully cleared the sixth gate’s Demon Valley in her day, had faced Human Valley and been forced to turn back, knowing she couldn’t conquer it.

From that alone, one could imagine how difficult clearing this gate was.

The greater the difficulty of clearing it, the longer challengers ended up staying.

Many challenger-reincarnators might spend their entire lives unable to leave Human Valley. Others, though personally capable of leaving, had lived in the valley long enough that loneliness won out — they formed marriages and had descendants. Because the requirements for taking others along were extremely demanding, even for the most important loved ones, a challenger’s decision to leave and bring people was never made lightly. And time kept passing — a challenger’s descendants might have multiplied across several generations, or even dozens, branching out into entire clan networks with thousands of members spread far and wide. Taking all of them was simply impossible.

And so those who were left behind, generation after generation, continued to pair and reproduce.

Each passing the legacy on to the next.

If the original challenger ancestor had held high status, perhaps the direct descendants still benefited from some residual prestige. But if the founding generation had been commoners, their descendants had no choice but to struggle and scramble to survive.

The lucky ones found their way into trade or mercenary work.

The ordinary ones held their ground as commoners. Those less fortunate became poverty-stricken laborers, scratching out a living doing others’ heavy work. And at the very bottom were those who had lost their freedom entirely, sold to others in exchange for money that might keep some remaining family members alive — slaves.

The dozen-odd mercenaries entering the district alongside Yue Yang were likely distant collateral descendants, separated from the original challenger blood by many generations.

By now, whatever challenger bloodline they carried was extremely diluted.

Their strength was also quite limited — the strongest among them barely reached Earth-rank tier five.

That might not have been bad on the Sky Tower, but in Human Valley, where the average challenger was a Supreme-tier powerhouse and even the weakest ones were above Sky-rank tier five, Earth-rank strength was simply too low to matter.

Fortunately Human Valley banned direct combat. Otherwise any one of the challengers could have crushed these people with one finger.

“Do you have an animal battle construct?” The group’s leader was already looking down on Yue Yang somewhat. In their view, personal combat strength was irrelevant — what mattered was what you had on you. Each of them carried an animal battle construct of varying strength, which gave them real fighting capacity and made them feel they were in an entirely different category from this sword-wearing small fry. To be fair, as mercenaries their own social standing was low, and they had no particular grounds for arrogance — the most they could manage was to claim a little seniority in front of someone they considered more junior.

“I have one.” Yue Yang had briefly considered saying no, but anticipated the “I’m your senior, let me lecture you” performance that would inevitably follow. For the sake of his own ears, he decided to tell the truth.

“What tier?” The leader was taken aback. Was this young man not the broke bottom-rung mercenary he’d appeared to be?

“Bronze, Silver, or Gold — which are you asking about?” Yue Yang shot back.

“You have all of those?” A mercenary standing nearby who’d accidentally overheard went completely blank. An ordinary mercenary having a single animal battle construct was impressive enough — having two was already the ceiling, and that only after a lifetime of struggle. A young person simply couldn’t have that many. Within Human Valley, besides the powerful nobility who commanded armies, who else would carry around a whole collection of animal battle constructs?

“A relative of mine several generations back specialized in battle construct research.” Yue Yang indicated he came from a family that had once been prosperous, even if he himself hadn’t done as well.

“That explains it!” The lead mercenary nodded in sudden understanding.

From that point on, the moment word spread that Yue Yang’s ancestors had included a battle construct master, every mercenary’s attitude toward him shifted. An unspoken respect rose among them. No matter how modest the descendants turned out, an ancestry of genuine achievement represented something that no amount of money could purchase.

When they reached the mine’s formal entry registration and queued up, everyone instinctively fell in behind Yue Yang.

Even the group leader tried to defer to him.

But Yue Yang waved this off and gestured for the leader to take the front, displaying a humility and good manners that young people rarely showed — which only deepened the mercenaries’ respect further.

After all, if they had been the ones carrying several animal battle constructs, would they really have kept every last one tucked away without putting even one on display, choosing instead to play the role of a sword-decorating small fry?

How many people in this world truly practiced the art of concealing their light?

Especially at this age, when pride was at its peak.

“Entering the mining district doesn’t mean we’ve agreed to whatever work you’ve got lined up! And what’s this about a one-crystal deposit? I’ve never once heard of a mine that requires a crystal payment just to get in! Is this really the attitude you show people you’re trying to recruit?” The group leader took one look at the entry conditions and immediately fumed. Having to hand over a Heaven Crystal before starting a single day’s work — what was the logic in that?

“Don’t want to? Then get lost.” The stationed gatekeeper’s attitude was as savage as a guard dog — biting the moment he opened his mouth.

“What?” The mercenaries were accustomed to being looked down on, but usually only when they’d lost a fight or made some mistake of their own — being cursed out when they were clearly in the right was another matter. Arriving at the gate before even entering, and already being barked at like this?

“I’m in a foul mood today. If you don’t clear out immediately, I’ll have every last one of you arrested as slaves!” The four stationed gatekeepers were radiating menace.

“What do you think?” The group leader knew they’d come here to find work and make a living, not to pick fights. As the one in charge, he had to show greater restraint. He drew a deep breath, pressed down the seething frustration in his gut, and turned to Yue Yang, seeking his read on the situation — should they stay or go?

“Stay where you are. If you try to leave, you’ll be charged with attacking noble domain property and thrown in a black dungeon.” The four gatekeepers’ posture was one of complete arrogance.

An air of absolute certainty that this group of mercenaries was already beaten.

And they were right that if the charge of “attacking noble domain property” could be made to stick, it was a crime nobody could afford. Not quite treason, but close enough — if arrested, imprisonment was the light outcome. Summary execution at a designated platform was also on the table.

The group leader’s brow furrowed sharply. He immediately waved his people backward, signaling them absolutely not to provoke a conflict with these four thugs — one wrong move and the gatekeepers would use it to make the charge official.

Just as the leader was preparing to take his group and leave, a commotion suddenly erupted from deeper inside the mine district.

Voices raised. Chaotic, urgent footsteps, approaching rapidly from a distance.

Within about ten seconds, two figures came running toward them in desperate flight, several animal battle constructs with red-glowing eyes in hot pursuit.

Yue Yang looked beyond them first. The furthest back was a mass of dark shapes moving — people dressed in rags, bodies filthy beyond description, evidently the slave laborers of the mine. The two figures fleeing in front shared the same condition. The one on the left, though disheveled and grimy, was clearly a woman; the one on the right was a tall, lean man who clutched something small and dark against his chest as he ran. Yue Yang guessed that this small dark bundle, held protectively like the most precious thing in the world even in flight, was their child.

After the prolonged chase, both had spent most of their strength. Their breathing was labored, their steps growing unsteady.

Their pace was slowing.

Animal battle constructs never tired. Their speed wouldn’t surge, but it wouldn’t drop either.

In moments, one construct had nearly closed the gap on the woman, jaws opening to snap at her calf. The man surged with his last reserves, grabbed her, and barely pulled her clear of the construct’s teeth — but in doing so, he hadn’t noticed that the stationed gatekeepers had already sent constructs to cut off the route ahead. While focused on what was behind him, he failed to see the ambush from the front. A wolf-shaped construct hit him from the side and sent him crashing to the ground.

He reacted fast enough to curl his body around the small dark bundle, protecting it.

But the wolf construct was already closing its jaws — and with effortless brutality, tore a chunk of flesh from the man’s forearm. Blood sprayed.

“Impossible!” One of the mercenaries cried out. “Battle constructs can’t attack people without a valid reason — that’s the law!”

“This means… this couple has been found guilty of something.” The group leader felt a chill run through him.

“How can that be? They’re unarmed — they haven’t attacked anyone…” The mercenary still couldn’t accept it. “The law is supposed to protect us humans. How are they circumventing it to hurt people? It isn’t possible!”

“There’s actually a terrifying piece of lore about Human Valley that’s been around for a long time.” The group leader lowered his voice, clearly frightened. “When they gained the War God’s recognition for their constructs, they had the law classify every commoner as an enemy. The law does protect the right to survival — but they deceived it. To ensure survival for certain individuals, they designated the overwhelming majority of people as ‘guilty parties’ who could be attacked.”

“……” At this revelation, every mercenary in the group went cold, their bodies trembling.

Just ahead of Yue Yang, several animal battle constructs closed in on the man, preparing to tear him and the small bundle in his arms to shreds.

The man struggled with everything he had, but couldn’t break free from the wolf construct’s hold.

He let out a low, desperate sound.

Mustering the very last of his strength, he shoved the small bundle out with one hand, rolling it beyond the attack range. One battle construct spotted the escaped target immediately and went after it, jaws open wide, preparing to crush the small bundle’s skull.

The woman, beset by multiple constructs on all sides, found strength from somewhere and sprinted forward, scooping up the bundle before the construct could reach it.

She raised it as high above her as she could.

It was the only protection she was capable of — and as a mother, there was nothing more she could do.

“Chew her legs! Hahaha — start from the top of her feet and work up slowly! Don’t bite her to death yet — make sure she watches the child get eaten first. Every last bit! Haha, this is beautiful — what a moving scene!” The four stationed gatekeepers were howling with laughter.

“No!” The man let out a wail of anguish. Bleeding, he dragged himself upright and threw himself forward, getting his arms around both the woman and the child and lifting them.

As a man, he was powerless to protect his wife and child.

The only thing left he could do was ensure they died behind him rather than before.

Life had given him despair long ago, but somewhere inside him a thread of hope remained — a hope that the divine laws created by whatever ancient power governed this place would produce one miracle, that the loopholes exploited by the wicked would be sealed, that the poorest and most powerless would still be left with a path to live. At the very least, please — not this. Not dying in the jaws of battle constructs being used against the very people they were made to protect. He still remembered what the Conquest Queen had originally created animal battle constructs for: to protect ordinary people.

“Heaven, open your eyes!” The man, surrounded by battle constructs, let out a cry of absolute despair that rang across heaven and earth.

(End of Chapter)