Rushing out of the hut, Jiang Beiran's expression was one of shock. He found that the surrounding clouds of black smoke had almost completely blocked his vision. It made him somewhat confused, as he originally thought that the mine pit had exploded. However, at the moment it looked as if someone had set the mountain on fire!
After thinking for a bit, Jiang Beiran hurriedly ran back into the hut and took out a soaked towel. There really was too much smoke. He was afraid that he would choke to death before he could escape down the mountain if he was to rush into the black smoke without thought.
Covering his mouth and nose with the wet towel, Jiang Beiran no longer stopped to consider other matters. He began to dash wildly down the mountain!
With the black clouds of smoke as cover, Jiang Beiran made his way all the way down, and he really did not encounter any supervisor on his way.
"Could it be that they have all gone to put out the fire?" he wondered.
Although he did not know what was happening, it did not prevent Jiang Beiran's mood from getting better and better, and his footsteps also became livelier. One really couldn't go wrong with trusting the easiest option. He was finally going to escape this godd*mn place.
However, just as Jiang Beiran breached the many unguarded checkpoints and was about to reach the foot of the mountain, a burly man who was hurrying along his way and carrying a long knife suddenly ran into him head-on.
The burly man was at first surprised, then burst out shouting, "You d*mn thing! How dare you try to escape!?"
'It's the end of me!' Jiang Beiran thought.
Looking at the bright shiny big knife, Jiang Beiran, who didn't even know how to dodge, could only hug his head and crouch down, his heart already completely filled with despair.
One second... two seconds... three seconds passed. Jiang Beiran, who had been cursing the treacherous system in his heart, realized that it seemed that he... had not been stabbed?
Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Jiang Beiran plucked up the courage to look up and found that the burly man holding the long knife now had a large hole in his chest. After coughing up several mouthfuls of blood, he fell to the ground with wide eyes.
"He's dead... Dead!?"
Jiang Beiran was not afraid of the dead. After all, he had seen too many of them in the mine these two months, and the deaths were far more tragic than the one in front of him.
What surprised him was why the burly man had suddenly died without any sign.
"Little buddy, are you alright?"
Just as Jiang Beiran didn't know what to do, a hand suddenly rested on his shoulder, scaring him so much that he almost fell on his butt.
"Who is it!?" Jiang Beiran shouted while turning his head, only to see a man in white standing behind him with a smile.
The man had black shiny straight hair, thick slanted eyebrows, elongated eyes with black irises and a sharp look in them, thin and slightly pursed lips, angular contours, and a tall, sturdy, but not rugged build. His entire vibe seemed to highlight his chivalry.
At the same time, three options appeared in front of Jiang Beiran.
[Option One: Shout, "Don't come near me!" Reward for completion: Dragon's Whistle of Shying Fire (Yellow Grade High Tier)]
[Option Two: Turn around and continue to dash wildly down the mountain. Reward for completion: Thirteen-Linked Chain Gun (Yellow Grade Low Tier)]
[Option Three: Shout, "Oh great hero, save me." Reward for completion: Random basic attribute point +1]
Without any hesitation, Jiang Beiran directly chose Option Three and shouted emotionally, "Oh great hero... Save me!"
With eyes red from the smoke and streaks of dusty tears down his face, at the moment, Jiang Beiran looked as pitiful as could be.
Seeing Jiang Beiran call for help so decisively, the man in the white shirt was surprised for a moment. After all, he had just killed a person in front of the young lad, and most of the young men he had saved in the past would shout, "don't kill me, don't kill me," while backing away.
That's why he deliberately forced out a smile, as he was afraid that he might scare Jiang Beiran. However, at the moment, it seemed that the young lad in front of him was a lot more courageous than he had thought.
"Alright. I'll bring you down from the mountain now." After saying that, the man in the white shirt came up to Jiang Beiran, carried him, and ran towards the bottom of the mountain.
Later, when Jiang Beiran settled down, only then did he slowly learn the story.
The man in the white shirt who had saved him was named Lu Bogui. He was a disciple of the Sect of Returning Hearts who had descended from the mountain the sect was located on with his juniors for a trial. The content of their quest was to annihilate the illegal mine on Mount Lingmao.
But because several male juniors of his were too conceited, thinking that those on the mountain were just some ordinary people, they did not notify him, the Iron Seal responsible for leading them, and made their way up Mount Lingmao by themselves. The result was that those supervisors directly activated the Big Mountain-Guarding Formation after discovering them, causing the whole mountain to be burned down.
According to Lu Bogui, the Big Mountain-Guarding Formation was very malicious. Its main function was not to defend against foreign enemies, but to burn away all trace of evidence on the mountain with a single fire so that the people who had come could not yield any results with their investigation.
Hearing this, Jiang Beiran could not help but feel a cold shiver creeping down his back. If he had chosen to stay put in the room or to help put out the fire, he would probably be cooked until he was well done by now.
After choosing another series of the simplest options, Jiang Beiran was smoothly inducted as a disciple of the Sect of Returning Hearts under the referral of Lu Bogui. From then on, he could be considered as having a place to stay...
Putting away his memories, Jiang Beiran said with emotion, "If it wasn't for Brother Lu back then, I'm afraid I would have died on that Mount Lingmao long ago."
Lu Bogui smiled and shook his head. "It's my fault for bringing up your bad memories. I shall punish myself by taking a shot."
Watching Lu Bogui drink the Wine of Cold Springtime in front of him in one gulp, Jiang Beiran picked up the cloth bag and said, "Brother, you shouldn't have. Your gift is really too expensive."
"You are being overly courteous with me again. Do you agree that you should be punished with a shot?" Lu Bogui asked.
"Yes. My bad, my bad." Jiang Beiran smiled and also downed a shot of the Wine of Cold Springtime in one gulp.
"Hurry, open it and see if you like it."
"I will definitely like it since it's from you, Brother," Jiang Beiran said while opening the cloth bag, and he took out a round bronze mirror with a protrusion in the middle from the bag.
"This is... mirror armor!?" Jiang Beiran said in pleasant surprise.
"Yup. It's just not of very high quality, only of High Tier. You can just make do with it for now. I'll see if I can ask for a better one for you when I go to Lusville next time."
"Brother, what are you talking about? A mirror armor of High Tier is already very good. I am a little shy to accept it even," Jiang Beiran said.
After coming to the Sect of Returning Hearts, Jiang Beiran finally realized why the few missions that offered rewards of Yellow Grade martial art techniques or weapons were so devastatingly difficult for him back then. It was because in this world called the Land of the Black Dragon, Yellow Grade treasures referred to magical items that already possessed spirituality. These were great treasures that the average person wouldn't even think about, and some low-level sects would even consider them their most treasured pieces.
When he first learned of this knowledge, Jiang Beiran really wanted to get ahold of the system and ask it what godd*mn grudge it had against him to attempt to trick him to his death.
Because the magical items of the four grades of Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow were too high-end, even the young disciples of some big sects couldn't afford them, not to mention the ordinary people.
So below the four grades of Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow, there were still weapons and armor crafted by some famous experts. From the bottom to the top, they were divided into Normal Tier, Good Tier, High Tier, Excellent Tier, and Peerless Tier.
An item of High Tier was already considered quite a good treasure, and for a sect disciple to give one away, it was definitely considered a generous gift.
"Don't say that. Actually, the reason I gave you this piece of mirror armor was also partly to thank you. The bottle of Pills of Lingering Fragrance you gave me last time was very effective. Did you really make them yourself?" Lu Bogui asked.
"Yep." Jiang Beiran nodded, not hiding anything.
"Then you are really gifted. Why don't I refer you to the Order of Fine-Haired Grass? You have no desire to practice cultivation anyway. If you can achieve something in alchemy, your status might rise even faster than mine in the future."