Chapter 61

Two burly bandits led Zhou Lu all the way to a dark and spacious stone cave, where they finally removed the sack from his head.

Zhou Lu shook his head vigorously, his eyes gradually adjusting to the light.

In the stone cave, a bonfire was burning in one corner, the flames flickering, making the entire cave seem even more eerie.

The cave walls were lined with bloodstained torture instruments: sharp hooks, clamps, guillotines, needles... Each one was enough to make one's hair stand on end. Zhou Lu felt his body tremble as he looked at them.

Three burly executioners sat at the head of the cave. There had been so many people joining the Blackbeard Mountain gang recently that the three executioners were not surprised by this fat man.

As part of the routine, the three men interrogated Zhou Lu in great detail, trying to dig up every bit of information about his ancestors. Fortunately, Zhou Lu had prepared a flawless personal history with Ertu on the way, and the three men found nothing suspicious about him.

The three men meticulously recorded everything they had learned on a piece of animal skin and sealed it in a wooden box. With the help of the two bandits, they then forced Zhou Lu to strip naked and doused him with several buckets of cold water, making him shiver like a wet chicken.

Finally, they threw Zhou Lu a rough bandit uniform, a treasure pouch, and a few sections of demon bones that could be used to get food. This completed all the procedures for joining the mountain.

Zhou Lu put on the bandit uniform, wiped the cold water from his forehead, and cursed the bandits in his heart, wishing them all to die a thousand deaths. However, he did not dare to show any of this on his face, maintaining a smile the whole time.

After the interrogation, Zhou Lu followed a messenger bandit out of the cave and into the depths of Blackbeard Mountain.

"Finally, I'm in the mountain." Looking at the treacherous mountains ahead, Zhou Lu sighed with relief, thinking that this must be where the Blackbeard Mountain stronghold was. He thought to himself, "I wonder if the next step of gathering information will go smoothly. The location of the mine must be a big secret in Blackbeard Mountain. How can I get close to someone who can provide me with the information?"

As they continued along the mountain path, Zhou Lu gradually became puzzled. Why hadn't he seen the bandit stronghold yet? Looking up, he saw a simple shanty area, clearly a temporary settlement.

The messenger bandit arranged for Zhou Lu to sleep in a damp and dark basement for the night. The next morning, before dawn, the messenger bandit woke Zhou Lu up, and they ran forward in the darkness, with Zhou Lu's clothes still half-buttoned.

The messenger bandit said he was taking Zhou Lu to the New Bandit Valley for a three-month special training before joining the mountain.

"New Bandit Valley? Three months of training before joining the mountain?"

Zhou Lu was stunned. After all this effort, he still hadn't infiltrated the inner circle of Blackbeard Mountain?

"Damn it, three months of training? Am I supposed to lose weight here?"

...

Before dawn, in the heart of Blackbeard Mountain, in the Black Wind Gorge, hundreds of people were undergoing hellish training under the supervision of fierce captains. The new bandits who had joined Blackbeard Mountain were drenched in sweat, groaning and moaning.

A captain as strong as a bear stood on a rock, holding a thick wooden club, watching the new bandits of various sizes and shapes train, like a wolf watching a flock of sheep, with a vicious grin.

Beside him, another captain, shorter by half a head with a head of earth-yellow hair, sneered and shook his head, saying, "These fools really think it's easy to join Blackbeard Mountain?" He turned to the bear-like captain and asked with a smile, "Wild Bear, how many did they assign you this time?"

The bear-like captain grunted and said, "At least half of them will die in training."

The earth-yellow-haired captain pretended to gasp and asked exaggeratedly, "So many this time?" The bear-like captain's eyes flashed with a hint of killing intent as he looked into the distance, grunted again, and said in a low, disdainful voice, "Damn it, these fools really think Blackbeard Mountain is a good place to stay? They come here one by one, ready to die. Even if I don't kill them in training, they'll be killed by the old bandits in the mountains."

"Exactly!" The two captains sneered together.

Outside the gorge, a messenger bandit led a fat man over a stone path, squeezing through a large group of bandits who were doing frog jumps with stones on their backs, sweating profusely and training hard.

The messenger bandit saw Wild Bear waving from a distance and ran over with the fat man, panting and laughing, "Captain Wild Bear, another new recruit. The executioner leader said to assign him to your team." The messenger bandit's eyes gleamed with a cruel, mocking light, "Captain Wild Bear, you can train this fat man however you like. Take good care of him."

"Another one to die?"

The two captains looked at the fat man together. The fat man's black bandit uniform was crumpled, and his collar was unbuttoned, exposing a large part of his chest. He pressed his hand against his flapping collar and smiled obsequiously, bowing to the two captains, "Brothers, leaders, sirs... I'm new here. Please take care of me. If I make money in the future, I won't forget to show my gratitude..."

Zhou Lu saw the new bandits training like animals as soon as he entered the valley. He drew a deep breath, thinking that gathering information was one thing, but first, he needed to survive here. He couldn't die before he even started his mission.

The two captains looked at the fat man, both surprised and amused.

Fools are born every year, but this year there are more than usual. A fat, noisy man like this wants to join Blackbeard Mountain? Does he even know what "death" means?

"Team Five, assemble!"

Wild Bear shouted, and the sixty or so bandits doing frog jumps with stones on their backs dropped the stones and ran over as fast as they could. They couldn't afford to be slow; the bear-like captain could find ways to kill them if they were.

With a rustling sound, the sixty or so bandits formed two uneven lines, panting heavily and staring at the fat man in front of the two captains.

"Another new one?"

The bandits' eyes were filled with curiosity.

"Fat man, come here." The tall and strong Wild Bear squinted and gestured to the fat man, "What's your name?"

Zhou Lu didn't dare to delay, running up to Wild Bear, "Captain, my name is Zhou Lu."

"From which mountain?"

Wild Bear's voice was cold and deadly, his eyes making the fat man feel extremely uncomfortable, his legs trembling involuntarily.

"I'm from Oxhead Mountain." Zhou Lu's face was sweating, and he tried to smile as he answered.

"Why did you come to Blackbeard Mountain?"

"Speak!"

The earth-yellow-haired captain also glared at him, scaring the fat man into a shiver. This was a common tactic to intimidate new bandits, to give them a taste of fear from the start.

The fat man pouted, his eyes welling up with tears, and he bowed, "Because I heard that if you make money here, you can have women..."

Zhou Lu's face was shy and hesitant.

"Have women?"

Wild Bear and the earth-yellow-haired captain were stunned, their faces twitching as they tried to hold back their laughter. Their faces turned green, but the bandits couldn't hold back and burst into laughter, some of them laughing so hard they couldn't stand up, and others crying from laughter.

This fat man was truly bizarre.

Was he bored? Or had he been deprived of women for too long? To come to this den of bandits just to fulfill his desire for women?

Wild Bear had many more ways to scare new bandits, originally planning to give this fat man a good beating to show him who was in charge. But now, he felt extremely deflated. Staring at this silly fat man, could he even understand?