The captain, piloting the Golden Ape construct, was holding on by a thread against the incoming attacks.

If not for how much stronger his construct was than what it faced, he’d have been brought down long ago by those quick, coordinated personal guard constructs. The Golden Ape was certainly formidable beyond question — but the captain piloting it was not its original master, his own strength was insufficient for it under normal circumstances, and on top of that he was grievously wounded. Drawing out even a tenth of its full power was beyond him. That the captain had managed to keep the Golden Ape fighting until now was already remarkable.

“Stand down!” General Leihou let out an enraged roar. “The real opponent is that small mercenary!”

“What?” The personal guards paused in confusion.

Still not fully understanding the situation, they nonetheless withdrew quickly.

Only the Golden Ape construct remained.

Standing alone on the battlefield.

The captain seemed to want to press forward, unwilling to let the personal guards retreat in the final moment — but his body had nothing left to give. With unmistakable reluctance, the Golden Ape’s mechanical arm reached forward — and then his mind gave out completely. With a thunderous crash, the construct toppled to the ground, sending up a cloud of dust.

As the enemy pulled back.

The captain had exhausted everything. His already critically wounded body finally failed him and he lost consciousness entirely.

The personal guards had already caught the shift in their commander’s attention and were maneuvering their constructs to surround Yue Yang’s position. Along the ground, construct beasts swarmed in from all sides, encircling the young man comfortably seated on his blanket from every direction. The husband and wife looked on in astonishment at their own condition — and then at their daughter lying peacefully at Yue Yang’s feet, cheeks rosy, expression serene — and couldn’t trust their own eyes. But this was real, not a dream. What was happening? Had a deity genuinely intervened?

Seeing the tide of aggressive constructs pressing in from all directions, the couple’s hearts lurched.

They desperately wanted to tell Yue Yang to take their daughter and leave.

But they worried that speaking to him directly might be an impertinence toward someone of evident standing — toward this person who had saved their lives, they didn’t know how to conduct themselves. They wanted to express gratitude, and they wanted him to get away with their daughter, and they were afraid that opening their mouths would somehow give offense.

Yue Yang didn’t speak, didn’t move.

Apart from kneeling before him and looking up at him with pleading eyes, this couple — whose terrible wounds had somehow healed inexplicably — had no idea what else they could possibly do.

“Back when I told you to put on something nice, wear a proper dress, dance for me — that would have been your way to a comfortable life. Your daughter could have gotten free of slave status and become a proper commoner, and your man could have gotten a legitimate employment contract. But you refused. You insisted on being a laborer in the mines, working yourself half to death for a bowl of rice that was never quite full, dragging your whole family into suffering together. Can pride feed you? Can virtue fill a bowl?” General Leihou looked down at the blood-soaked woman and sighed at great length. “Actually, with your figure and your features — if you dressed up properly and put a little effort into your appearance — you wouldn’t be bad at all. Why make life so hard for yourself? The husband is one thing, but why drag yourself down with him? If you hadn’t been so headstrong from the start, life could have been comfortable. None of this is anyone else’s fault, and the world isn’t being unfair to you — you chose this, from the day you gave that flat refusal onward.”

The woman’s response was wordless.

She spat.

“Good — some character. I’ve never liked forcing anyone — unlike the thugs who use strength outright, I like watching a wild horse get broken in.” General Leihou tilted his head back and laughed, his eyes spending more time studying the quietly seated Yue Yang than looking at the woman. “I’ll keep giving you chances. Sooner or later you’ll come around.”

“Our family would sooner die than yield.” The husband made the final declaration for them both.

“I’ll deal with your family in a moment. Right now, I’d like to have a word with this young friend here.” General Leihou had been studying Yue Yang for the better part of ten repetitions by now.

And come up empty each time.

Not a single flaw outside the appearance of an ordinary new mercenary. Not a single piece of information beyond composed, still, unreadable calm.

Sitting there, Yue Yang gave General Leihou the feeling of a stone lodged in his chest, or a great tree root stuck somewhere between stomach and throat — profoundly uncomfortable and impossible to dislodge.

Faced with this young man, a thousand things tried to form in his mind and none came out.

Move against him, and the young man waited serenely, as patient as a fisherman.

Try to be pleasant, and the corner of the young man’s mouth held the faintest trace of mockery.

Neither lashing out nor laughing it off felt right. This strangely difficult young man truly had no obvious course of action.

“That’s some excellent concealment. To think that old hunting veteran Leihou misjudged you. Well done.” General Leihou offered this as a face-saving exclamation. He changed his position, rising to his feet atop the enormous lion-form construct, and looked Yue Yang up and down with fresh attention, as if genuinely trying to take the measure of him this time.

Yue Yang still said nothing.

As though sitting in some transcendent empty valley, surrounded by nothing but stillness and the quiet of a world with no one else in it.

General Leihou clapped his hands together loudly and laughed. “There aren’t many young people who keep this low a profile, and fewer still with composure this solid. For that alone, I’ve got some respect for you. How about this — let’s be friends? The name’s Leihou, serving under Prince Reno. They call me the Roaring Lion on account of my temperament. I’m a rough man — straightforward in everything I say and do. But rough as I am, I’ve got a heart that loves making friends. Prince Reno always says: one more friend is better than one more enemy. I’ve always taken that to heart. Here’s what I’m proposing: if you’re willing to accept this friendship I’m extending — a genuine connection from the first moment I laid eyes on you — then everything that happened today can be forgotten, like it never occurred.”

He wasn’t a fool. Getting this far took a functional brain.

One look at Yue Yang and he could tell this was no ordinary person.

His guess was that the young man had a powerful backer somewhere. Otherwise nobody could maintain this kind of unshakeable calm.

The miraculous healing of the small slave girl and her parents was the other data point — whatever had produced that was well beyond the ordinary, and no ordinary person could deploy something like that within Human Valley.

A young man this strangely extraordinary — better not to make an enemy of him if it could be avoided.

This marked the first time in nearly ten years that General Leihou had shown this level of patience.

The first time he’d genuinely tried to suppress his own temper.

An offer of friendship.

Those words coming from the normally tyrannical General Leihou were something approaching miraculous.

Not just the slave mine workers — even his personal guards who’d served under him for years.

Had never heard the like.

“You’re not worthy.”

Yue Yang’s answer hit General Leihou like a hard slap across the face. The humiliation reached its absolute peak.

He touched his cheek. It burned. He looked around at the expressions of those nearby — everyone staring at him in shock — and confirmed he hadn’t misheard. The young man had flatly refused him. And delivered the words “you’re not worthy” in the process. General Leihou worked very hard to keep his hands still, genuinely afraid he might let out a roar and hurl himself forward like a lunatic, reducing the entire mine district to rubble in his fury. But — nothing. Leihou found his own response baffling. Why was he so calm right now?

Any other day, any other circumstance, far less than this would have sent the whole world sideways.

As for General Leihou’s personal guards.

When their commander was humiliated, it felt worse than death to them.

“You’re not worthy” — what kind of humiliation was this? General Leihou, whose temper was pure fire, had voluntarily lowered himself, extended the hand of goodwill, and attempted to reach an understanding.

Only to be met with a cold and pitiless “you’re not worthy.”

“KILL KILL KILL KILL—”

Leihou’s personal guards, fury making their voices crack and distort, charged at Yue Yang in a mass.

“Stand down!”

A powerful voice cracked through the air like a thunderbolt, making everyone’s ears ring. A flash of movement, faster than lightning, crossed a thousand meters in the blink of an eye and descended with a ground-shaking crash into the center of the scene. It was a fifteen-meter humanoid construct — one glance at the craftsmanship told you it had come from a grandmaster-level maker, exquisite beyond comparison, the distinctive Silver Maple emblem prominently displayed on both shoulders. Anyone who knew constructs recognized this immediately — one of Silver Maple City’s three most famous constructs, the “Sword Dancer,” a gold-grade battle machine renowned for its agility, speed, and ambush capability.

A grade above the Golden Ape construct.

And far beyond the mass-produced bronze-grade constructs General Leihou’s personal guards piloted.

Before the Sword Dancer had even fully settled, a figure leaped out.

He issued a second command: “Stand down!”

The arrival was, naturally, Silver Maple City Lord’s tenth son — the man who had been going out of his way to win Yue Yang’s favor — the Central Divine Hall’s Hall of Light Master, Zhonghua.

“Baron Zhonghua, this is a friend of yours? I was wondering who had the gall to pick a fight in front of me, Leihou — turns out it’s your man!” General Leihou’s mood, upon seeing Zhonghua making this grand entrance, soured immediately. The mine district might have been carved three ways, but it had been Prince Reno’s people managing it for ten solid years. When Zhonghua had sent someone to warn that Star Diamond Castle’s master was back and the property should be returned — however that message had been phrased — Leihou had been furious. Meat that was already in the belly couldn’t very well be thrown back up.

Now seeing Zhonghua arrive, Leihou felt a certain clarity settle over him.

He understood now. Zhonghua was here to pick a fight.

Then use it as cover to take over this mine district.

The sword-carrying mercenary, the whole group of hot-blooded idiots — every one of them was nothing but Zhonghua’s chess pieces.

Without Zhonghua backing him from behind, what chance did a broke mercenary have of owning something like the Golden Ape construct? Too transparent for words.

“General Leihou — I’ve always had respect for you. But there are some people even you absolutely cannot touch. This young brother here is one of them.” Zhonghua, hearing General Leihou imply that Yue Yang was his friend, was perfectly content to let the misunderstanding stand. What he needed was to bind this heir of the Eastern Immortal Clan firmly to his own side. As for whether this would offend General Leihou, or Prince Reno behind him — that wasn’t even worth thinking about. Prince Reno wouldn’t lightly make an enemy of Silver Maple City. And even if he would — the stakes of Human Valley’s power struggles were nothing compared to the Heavenly Realm and the Central Divine Hall. With the Eastern Immortal Clan behind him, what was there to fear from General Leihou or Prince Reno? A general in Human Valley throwing his weight around — did he really think the heir of the Eastern Immortal Clan was someone to be pushed around?

Zhonghua was a hundred percent certain: even without him intervening, General Leihou was going to lose this badly. But by personally stepping in and taking the hit —

He’d make an impression of someone who stood up for friends without hesitation.

For that alone, Zhonghua was almost hoping General Leihou would go ahead and attack, so he’d have a justification to step in and show off. Come on, then — if you dare move, I dare stop you. Alliances? They’re made to be broken. Nothing in heaven or earth outweighed the investment being placed in an Eastern Immortal Clan heir.

“And if I choose to move anyway?” General Leihou was fully past his limit. Say what you mean — if you want to swallow the mine district, just say so. Stop putting on this act.

“Try it.” Zhonghua gave a cold smile. If you dare move, don’t blame me for stepping over your remains on my way up. For the Central Divine Hall succession, even Ji Wuri had to be brought down — what was one minor general? He’d been giving face all this time out of his own modesty, choosing not to show what he was truly capable of. If this idiot had taken that for actual deference, he really had overestimated himself.

“Fight it out already — without a proper knockdown, drag-out battle, this performance has no entertainment value whatsoever.” Yue Yang, in the spirit of hoping for maximum chaos, offered this cheerful recommendation.

(End of Chapter)