The victory of 'One' does not signify the end of life in the grottoes.

One three-year period has passed, and another three-year period has begun.

The second group of children entered the grottoes one after another.

Of course, 'One' didn't know whether these children were the second batch, or perhaps the third, fifth, or even the tenth batch.

Because these children were renumbered, and one of them was numbered 1.

But this one wasn't so lucky; it died in less than three months.

They died from exhaustion.

'One' thought to himself, "It seems that the good luck wasn't brought to me by the number one."

Not long after, 'One' was assigned missions by the mountain lord, most of which involved disguising himself as a child to commit murder.

Yi found it ridiculous that she was clearly a child, yet she had to pretend to be one.

But he dared not reveal this disrespectful sentiment towards the mountain lord.

The mountain lord was still as powerful as ever. He was the only adult in the entire cave, but the situation never got out of control.

He seems to have no subordinates; he can handle everything by himself.

The mountain lord always had a way of 'appeasing' these children.

Two years have passed in the blink of an eye, and these children are now facing their final year, which will determine their fate.

But their battles were clearly more brutal than the previous ones, because with only one year left, there were only nine children left.

The mountain lord seemed eager to get the final result as soon as possible, so he flexibly adjusted the plan, summoned 'One' back to join them, and divided them into two teams to carry out the mission.

The mountain lord appointed 'One' as captain and let him choose his four team members.

The five people who were not chosen formed their own team, and the mountain lord would appoint a captain from among them.

All nine children looked at 'One' with earnest eyes, hoping that 'One' would choose them.

They knew that 'Yi' was a winner among the previous batch of children and a veteran who had been carrying out missions for two years. With 'Yi' leading the mission, the success rate and survival rate would be much higher.

There are five boys and four girls among the nine children.

'Yi' didn't even glance at the four girls' faces, even though they were looking at him with adoration.

It wasn't that he looked down on these girls; it was that whenever he saw them, he would think of the girl who tried to bite off his neck but he managed to break it instead.

His gaze then fell upon the faces of the five boys.

Choose four out of five.

'Yi' first chose the three who were the strongest and had the most determined eyes.

There are 'three' and 'fifty-nine' left.

'Fifty-Nine' was clearly stronger, and seemed to know 'One's' selection criteria, and even deliberately showed off his muscles.

'San' looked at 'Yi' with a sincere gaze, his eyes even welling up with tears, looking like a coward.

'One' gave the last spot to 'Three'.

This result surprised everyone, except for the mountain lord, who was laughing.

The mountain lord made the rejected 'Fifty-Nine' the captain and assigned him and 'One' their respective tasks.

The mission of this small team, 'One,' is to ambush a caravan on the mountainside behind Black Mountain. A caravan will be passing through in the next couple of days. The team will slaughter the caravan, take their valuables back to the cave, and reward them according to the number of heads taken.

Upon hearing that it was just a massacre of a caravan, the children breathed a sigh of relief, but 'One's' intuition told him that the mission couldn't be that simple.

When has the old man, the mountain lord, ever been gentle?

Two days later, the caravan appeared, consisting of forty or fifty people, and indeed pulling several horse-drawn wagons loaded with goods.

When the caravan reached the ambush site, the five children disguised themselves as children fleeing famine and went to beg for food.

But when the caravan members brought them food and water, the children quickly observed and analyzed the situation, and then launched a surprise attack on the caravan.

The caravan was caught off guard. After several men fell, the rest immediately pulled out their sabers from under the carriage floor.

Seeing the sudden surge of power emanating from these people, 'Yi', who had killed countless people, knew that they were definitely not businessmen.

"Damn it! I've spent my whole life hunting eagles and now an eagle has pecked my eye out! Catch these little bastards and stew them!"

Later, Yi learned that this group was indeed not a merchant caravan, but a band of bandits disguised as a merchant caravan heading to Black Mountain to take advantage of the situation and seize the stone mine.

Their mission, according to the address given by the mountain lord, was to kill all the families of these bandits.

The mission of the 'Fifty-Nine' squad was rewarded based on the number of people involved.

Those chosen by 'One' think themselves lucky, but little do they know that they are likely to be sent to their deaths.

Thus, Yi learned why the mountain lord was called the mountain lord, because not only the grotto belonged to him, but the entire Black Mountain also belonged to him, naturally including the stone mine.

The five children were no match for the fifty bandits. Under the command of "One", the five children split up to break through the encirclement. In the end, three children fell during the breakout, while "One" and "Three" broke through the encirclement.

But bandits still kept up the chase, and 'San' was eventually caught by two bandits.

Both 'One' and 'Three' were injured, especially 'Three', whose strength was far inferior to 'One', and he was no match for the two bandits.

The bandit laughed cruelly, "The boss said he was going to stew these little bastards, but unfortunately the other three are already dead and not fresh enough. Luckily, we caught one alive!"

San knelt down, tears welling in his eyes as he looked at the two bandits.

A child under ten years old looking like he's begging for mercy would soften the heart of anyone who isn't heartless.

Bandits are not soft-hearted, but they will let their guard down.

The two bandits dismounted and walked to 'San's' side, touching 'San's' face as if they were harassing women.

"A child is just a child, so naive! You want to live? Become my slave from now on, and I'll beg the boss to spare you!" the bandit laughed.

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