Chapter 1 - Chapter 1: Spring

The glowing red setting sun plunged like a fierce beast into a turbulent sea, brilliant beyond measure. Mountain peaks cast bizarre, grotesque shadows across the land, as if clinging to unresolved sorrows.Occasional sandstorms howled past, leaving the earth barren—no blade of grass grew, only endless undulating desolation stretching to the horizon.In the mountain col, miners busily hauled soil and rocks from deep underground, filling nearby gullies one after another.As dusk fell, light faded and the scorching heat softened. Sentinels lurking around the valley construction site began to emerge, craning their necks to scan the surroundings.A shabby recliner made of broken planks was carried to the mountain top and set down. Seated on it was a thin, cold-looking middle-aged man, prematurely aged. Squinting at the sunset, he waved away his attendants, his face clouded with melancholy. Wind ruffled his graying hair and beard; though sickly and weary, his clothes were the most decent here.Decent was relative—just a set of ordinary garments. Everyone else, from miners to guards to the men who'd carried him up, was barely clothed, most covering their modesty with tattered rags. Their emaciated bodies were dirty and unkempt; not a single fat person could be seen.Guards differed from miners only by their weapons, straw masks, and black cloth strips tied around their arms. Tearing whole pieces of black cloth into strips was a luxury in this resource-starved exile land.Miners returning to the mine shaft with loads of soil had skin as dark as bronze at the lightest. None were as pale and clean as the middle-aged man on the recliner, and most went barefoot. Some truly had no shoes; others hung straw sandals from their waists, preferring to wear down their calloused feet rather than their footwear on less rough paths—they were used to it, their soles tough and thick.Among them, two men—one unusually tall, the other of average height—stood out.Sandstorms blew intermittently, occasionally lifting the loose hair covering their faces. Even beneath the dirt and unkempt beards, their youthfulness was undeniable.While other miners wore expressions of numb exhaustion, the two stared intently at the middle-aged man on the mountain top, sizing him up from afar. So focused were they that they failed to notice someone emerging from the mine shaft. Unlike other miners, who stepped aside to make way, the two almost collided with the newcomer.The man who emerged waved his wide sleeves and strode forward. With a fleshy face, he was named Shen Youkun. Though his top and bottom garments mismatched and were patched, he was one of only two people here with a complete set of clothes.Shen Youkun oversaw the mine excavation. He had a terrible temper, often beating and scolding miners, but they feared him—after all, he ensured they got two meals of dry rice daily and promised a reward: a portion of grain!Shen Youkun had always been the top figure here until the middle-aged man on the recliner arrived recently. Since then, he'd immediately become an obedient subordinate—hence why the two young men watched the middle-aged man so closely.They didn't know him and had never seen him in the exile land, but they knew Shen Youkun—and even bore a grudge against him.After the near collision, the two grew nervous. They hadn't expected such a direct encounter. Hurriedly lowering their heads to hide their faces behind messy hair, the tall man even bowed repeatedly, bending his knees slightly to disguise his height—self-aware, at least.Fortunately, Shen Youkun paid them no mind. Reaching the shaft entrance, he scanned the surroundings, quickly locking eyes on the middle-aged man atop the mountain. Impatiently shoving the two aside with a rude "Get out of the way," he strode straight between them toward his target.The numb miners only glanced back briefly, not delaying their progress. Dawdling would be seen as slacking, and the overseer's whip showed no mercy.The two exchanged a look, silently sighing with relief. The tall miner, still carrying his load, patted his chest subconsciously—thank goodness.Mountains without vegetation cannot stand firm.As Shen Youkun climbed, gravel slid constantly beneath his feet. Reaching the solitary recliner, he panted heavily: "Uncle, why are you sitting on the mountain top in the wind? Your cultivation was just abolished; your body is still weak. Wind and evil energies can easily invade—you should rest and recuperate."He too had been exiled here to fend for himself after his cultivation was stripped, arriving a few years earlier than his uncle.His uncle, Qi Ziru, stared distractedly at the last glow of the sky, muttering as if in a dream: "You said we could only act after clearing Dong Jiuyuan. Have all the people been removed?"Shen Youkun was about to promise outright, but suddenly sensed deeper meaning in his uncle's words. Glancing down at the mountain where excavation had proceeded for days, he swallowed and rumbled: "Almost."Qi Ziru showed no reaction. "Earlier, you said the people of Dong Jiuyuan were hard to deal with—that we couldn't keep this secret without clearing them out. You said you needed enough supplies to do it. You should know how hard it is to smuggle things into this exile land—even a scrap of paper barely gets through. Yet I still found a way to sneak the supplies in for you. Now you're already digging, but tell me the clearing is 'almost' done. How far short is 'almost'?"Shen Youkun hung his head, hesitating: "Basically, it's cleared. Just two left." He looked up again: "Merely two—they're no threat."Qi Ziru still stared at the sky, indifferent: "Merely? With all the men at your disposal, two who eluded your clearing must be quite some 'merely'."Shen Youkun looked embarrassed, but dared not hide the truth. He confessed honestly: "One is Shi Chun, leader of Dong Jiuyuan, and the other is his loyal follower Wu Jinliang. I've already sent all over a hundred of their men in Dong Jiuyuan to the city as planned. Now only the two remain. Without eyes and ears across this vast land, they'll never discover the secret here."Qi Ziru slowly turned his head, staring coldly at him: "So the only ones not cleared are Dong Jiuyuan's two top leaders. What's their background?"Shen Youkun sneered disdainfully: "Local natives. No one knows their ancestors' origins—their parents died in fights over water. The two grew up eating from various households in Dong Jiuyuan, two lowly beggars who were lucky not to starve to death."Hatred dripped from his tone, as if he wanted to grind them into dust.Qi Ziru raised an eyebrow, realizing his nephew must have had some unspeakable conflict with that leader since being exiled here.Uninterested in pressing for details in his current state, he formed his own judgment based on what had been said. Though new to the exile land, he knew its general conditions well—what "local natives" entailed.Those struggling here were either exiles or their descendants.Exiles sent here for crimes included both men and women. By nature, they reproduced, and their offspring became the so-called local natives.With extreme resource scarcity, survival was the greatest challenge for both exiles and natives. Fights over food, water, and even firewood were inevitable—sometimes even over a single tree.Anything tradable for "money" in the city sparked contention.Uncontrolled logging and mining had severely damaged the ecosystem, rendering most necessities unrenewable, creating a vicious cycle of survival competition.The "money" here wasn't circulated freely—only in designated cities, where it could buy supplies. Called "merit," accumulating a sufficient amount allowed one to leave the exile land through the city and regain freedom.The "city" was essentially the gate to this massive open-air prison, a junction between two worlds.Similar cities dotted the exile land.Exiles like him, punished for crimes, couldn't escape even with enough "merit"—for example, if sentenced to ten years, he couldn't leave early without pardon.Virtually all exiles were cultivators, stripped of their powers as torture before being banished, essentially cutting off their ability to cultivate—at least during their exile—reducing them to ordinary mortals. The punishment was brutal.Surviving this harsh environment without cultivation was extremely difficult; few endured their full sentences.Exiles were allowed only the clothes on their backs—no paper, no possessions.Descendants of exiles, however, could leave directly with enough "merit," though accumulating it was no easy task.Shen Youkun snorted and continued: "Shi Chun originally had no surname. His parents didn't know their own origins, let alone their ancestors'. Born in spring, they named him 'Chun'—a common naming practice among the lower riffraff here. To them, a name was just a label, nothing more."When Shi Chun was a boy, an exiled woman took refuge in Dong Jiuyuan. Said to be very beautiful, the locals let her stay out of gratitude for some small favor. Bored or repaying kindness, she taught a few boys in Dong Jiuyuan to read—including Shi Chun."After staying about three years, the woman left, no one knew where—whether her sentence ended or not, no one even knew her name. Only the officials at the city gate could have known her true background."Shi Chun revered the woman as his teacher. Out of gratitude, he took the character 'Shi' (teacher) as his surname. Illiterate beyond a few characters, he accidentally turned his name into a joke—often mocked as 'Si Chun' (longing for spring). By the time he understood the double meaning, it was too late, and he frequently fought over the taunt."