After a century of worship, I became the ancestor of the tribe.

Chapter 50: The Upper Yellow Division is also developing (Please continue reading)
It is more than ten miles outside the Shanghuang area.

In a lush jungle, a small fire tree peeked out.

Looking into the distance, there was a huge mountain range that had been cut in half.

Compared to the Zhiyan tribe, whose settlement was located four or five miles away, the Shanghuang tribe, whose entire population lived on the mountain, was not greatly affected by the flood.

Thanks to the tribe's previous scouting trips to explore the terrain, and the fact that Huotang personally led the scouting team to the south towards the Huang tribe, he arrived near the Shanghuang tribe relatively easily.

Unfortunately, getting any closer wouldn't work.

These isolated hills outside the Shanghuang tribe's mountain range all have defensive outposts.

Huotang tied branches all over his head and body, and lay down in a lush area to spy on the situation. He planned to go closer at night.

As the tribal chief, Huotang felt no discomfort at all about sneaking around doing such voyeuristic things, and he wouldn't feel comfortable letting anyone else come.

A year after the flood, the Blazing Flame Tribe had developed rapidly, but as he looked at the Upper Yellow Tribe, which was perched high above, his pride was suppressed.

The Lingyu is too far away; the Shanghuang section is the first hurdle in front of us.

Under the blazing sun and clear sky, thick black smoke rose from the mountains of Shanghuang tribe, as if something was being scorched.

They waited until nightfall before Huotang quietly crept closer to the upper part of the body to observe.

As night fell, torches, like a long dragon, circled the mountain.

On the nearby isolated hilltops, sentry posts lit bonfires.

Where thick smoke had previously billowed during the day, flames now shot into the sky, forming a continuous expanse.

Even at night, the tribe is busy.

Huotang observed carefully for a long time and confirmed that the upper part of the furnace was being smelted and forged.

After observing for about half an hour, Huotang quietly withdrew.

He was also afraid of being blocked. There were three Heavenly Vein Warriors in the Upper Yellow Division on the surface, but he didn't know how many more there were in secret.

Even the Heavenly Vein is afraid of arrows. If a volley of arrows is fired, he will be riddled with holes if he cannot dodge in time.

Legend has it that the incomplete martial arts technique of the Upper Yellow Division can be cultivated to the ninth level of the Heavenly Meridian.

However, compared with the Heavenly Vein Realm cultivation described by Fu Fu, it becomes clear that the martial arts technique of the Upper Yellow Division is exaggerated to a great extent.

If one could truly cultivate to the ninth level of the Heavenly Vein, the Upper Yellow Division would not be limited to this level of strength.

Of course, bragging aside, Huotang believed that Shanghuang Department had secretly hidden several Heavenly Vein martial artists.

Afterwards, he secretly hid nearby and watched for a few more days, discovering that the forging of the upper sulfur section had not stopped during those days.

There is mineral deposit in the Shanghuang area, but it's not enough to warrant continuous forging day and night.

Something's wrong.

After pondering for a moment, Huotang headed towards the mining area of ​​Shanghuang.

He couldn't get into the Shanghuang tribe, but he might be able to become a mine slave in the mining area.

……

Black Mountain Mine.

The upper sulfur mine has been mined for over two hundred years.

The entire area is filled with interconnected mine shafts and open-pit mines, and piles of broken rocks are everywhere.

Two gaunt figures, dressed in tattered clothes, carried a lifeless man to a large pit and threw him in.

Then, he returned with a numb gaze.

On a stone platform not far away, a warrior from the Upper Yellow Tribe, carrying a wooden bow on his back and holding a ring-handled sword in his hand, coldly watched this scene.

In the open-pit mine, there was still some black, murky water at the bottom, and figures were constantly climbing up from the pit, either dragging large wicker baskets or wooden buckets.

The black liquid would be poured outside, while the ore in the baskets would be dumped all at once in one place.

Some people will sort the gravel to separate out the ore.

The ore content in the mined gravel is not high; only some of the blackish or reddish stones are worth forging.

Huotang observed for two days and found that five miners had died because they could not withstand the torture, and many others had been whipped and did not seem to live much longer.

The nearby mine pits were littered with burnt bones.

There are no fewer than two thousand miners in the entire mine, and there are also nearly two hundred Shanghuang tribesmen guarding the area.

Under the cover of night, the pitch-black Huotang reached the outside of the largest stone building in the mine.

He didn't move, just wanted to hear what was happening inside. He would be happy if he heard even a word or two about the Huang tribe.

For several days in a row, he stayed up all night and slept all day, his whole body covered in charcoal, and squatting among the rocks, he looked like a big black stone.

……

"It's still too slow. The clan is pressuring us again. At this rate, we won't be able to gather enough ore to smelt ten thousand jun of crude iron." Inside the house, Huang Mao sat on top, with ten people below him.

"Old Uncle."

At this moment, Huang Chen, who was sitting to the left, was reprimanded as soon as he opened his mouth.

"At the mine, refer to our company as 'mine'!"

"Yes, Director of Mining."

Huang Chen shrank back, "You know that there's plenty of groundwater now. You have to take out several buckets of water for every basket of ore you dig."

Our mine has a low iron content, so we can only select ore that is blackish or reddish. Even if these miners didn't eat or sleep every day, how much could they possibly mine?"

"That's right, old mine manager. Unless the clan captures another batch of new mine slaves, the current batch of mine slaves are already in bad shape."

"If this continues, the number of miners will likely decrease significantly, and production will drop even further."

……

"Shut up, everyone."

Huang Mao rebuked everyone present, "After the flood, we captured nearly three thousand mine slaves for you, and now we've almost lost two thousand. With the plague, where are there any more mine slaves to capture nearby?"

"Master of Mining, the water in the mine is so thick that it's impossible to scrape it all off. These people are soaking in water all day long, no wonder they're not in good health. It's not like we're just being ruthless."

"Why is the clan in such a hurry to gather ten thousand jin of coarse iron before the annual sacrifice? Why not give them some more time and wait until next year..."

"Shut up, the clan leader has his reasons for making these arrangements!"

Huang Mao angrily shouted, "The clan needs to gather 10,000 jin of crude iron. This is a major event concerning the clan's barter trade. The mine must guarantee the supply of ore."

A silence fell over the house.

"Are you all deaf? Speak up. If you can't think of a solution, then try your best to come up with one right here today."

"What can we do? The iron ore content is so low, even if we all go to mine, he won't be able to find any before the annual festival."

“Uncle, we definitely can’t finish this on our own right now. Why don’t we talk to the clan and go capture some more mine slaves?”

Huang Mao rubbed his forehead. "After the plague, we cleared out all the small tribes in the surrounding area."

The women we captured have all been incorporated into the tribe, and they're all busy chopping firewood now. You should know how much firewood is consumed in smelting crude iron.

"All the able-bodied men are working in the mines; where would you find anyone to capture and enslave as miners?"

Huang Chen spoke up, "Of course we should go to the far south to catch them. Are we going to go to that dead land in the north to catch them?"

The plague originated from the Juyue Mountains in the north. Before that, the tribe had only traveled north to a few tribes and had not captured many mining slaves, but they encountered several groups of plague worms, which infected even the warriors in the tribe.

In this situation, there are probably very few people left in the tribe if they go north.

"Go ahead and catch it." Huang Mao glared. "The tribe is short-handed. Most of the warriors are escorting the trade routes, otherwise it's too dangerous on the road."

“Uncle, you won’t give us any resources or solutions, so we can’t mine any ore.”

"Get out, all of you. You'll all be digging with me tomorrow. If that doesn't work, I'll dig myself."

Under Huang Mao's angry shouts, everyone inside the house ran like the wind and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

After sitting there in a daze for a while, Huang Mao quickly left the mining area and headed back towards the clan's territory.

After watching the person walk away, Huotang quietly moved towards another house.

These houses were the residences of the overseers.

"Our old clan uncle is desperate. He wants to increase the amount of ore mined by more than ten times in a short period of time. We really have no choice. The clan arranged it too hastily."

"There's nothing we can do about it; all our tribe has to offer is crude iron."

"Do you know what the clan intends to exchange 10,000 jin of thick iron for at the Copper Shell Market?"

"Huang Yun, you said that I remember you went to the ancestral temple after the flood and the clan collected so many pieces of ironwood boats. Did you discover some secret?"

"Yes, at first we were looking for the remains of ironwood ships everywhere, but then we stopped looking for ironwood ships and increased the amount of mining."

Huang Yun was a young man with a slightly thin frame.

"How would I know? The temple only showed me the patterns on those ironwood boats; I didn't understand them at all."

"It's Brother Afu's little brat who's lucky enough to be taken in as a disciple by the temple. Maybe he really did see something from those patterns."

"The fact that the clan is in such a hurry to smelt 10,000 jin of crude iron might actually be related to the ironwood ship."

……

Outside the house, amidst the pile of rubble, Huotang longed to rush in, grab everyone, and then extract all the information they had to say.

Despite his thoughts, he remained nestled among the rocks like a stone, muttering to himself.

"Tell me more, I love to hear it."

(End of this chapter)