...

...

For the next two days, Luo De did not continue studying the mysterious stone door.

Instead, he stayed with Durant, overseeing the soldiers as they excavated all the weapons from the cave floor.

The haul was substantial, with a total of twenty-seven fish spears and eleven hammers and wolf fang clubs, among other weapons.

These weapons were equally hard and durable, no worse than Luo De's enchanted weapons.

Luo De instructed the guards to carefully pack up all these weapons to bring back.

He needed to study these weapons thoroughly.

Luo De was filled with curiosity about these extraordinary items.

Luo De must learn.

As for extraordinary knowledge, Luo De could only seek advice from the Dawn Society.

Of course, he couldn't possibly tell the Dawn Society the whole story, saying something like "there's a deep-sea relic in my salt mine, come quickly" would be foolish.

Luo De wasn't that stupid.

He merely picked a few unrelated characters from the books, planning to ask Lusen Linda what they meant, and if there was any information about them.

As for the reason, Luo De had already thought it through, saying he discovered the mixed remnants in the books he purchased.

Linda had promised to send Luo De a pamphlet on the Meditation Technique, so she left him a contact address.

However, that place was quite far, requiring one to cross the Border City, heading to a remote mountain valley.

Luo De had no choice but to send someone to deliver the letter and retrieve the items Linda had promised him.

After returning to the town, the weather in the Northern Territory became clear again.

The temperature rose, and in some sunny places, the snow had completely melted.

This was the end of autumn in the Northern Territory, with one warm day and one cold day.

After the snow, it became very cold, but in a few days, the temperature would warm up again.

Luo De shouldn't hold on to any hope for warmth.

The natives knew that after the snow, the days would only get colder.

Luo De didn't stay in Frost Leaf Town waiting patiently for Linda's reply.

Taking advantage of the good weather, Luo De went with others to the iron mine to start laying tracks in the mine shafts.

When Jess and the miners saw Luo De assembling mine carts with the carpenters, they were filled with doubt.

In the rugged caves, the roads are uneven, covered with rocks, and uphill; using carts seemed like a foolish act.

The efficiency of using carts couldn't compare to carrying the load by hand.

But out of trust in Luo De, everyone kept these doubts to themselves.

The same was true for Jess.

But when Luo De guided everyone in laying the tracks, Jess suddenly realized that the situation was completely different from what he imagined.

The wheels of the mine cart were different from ordinary wheels, with a groove in the middle.

And the width of that groove perfectly allowed it to fit onto the two tracks Luo De was laying on the ground.

Jess, who had some mechanical aptitude, immediately understood the purpose of this design.

—With the cart running along the track, there was no need to worry about the rocks on the ground!

Jess was both surprised and delighted, uncontrollably exclaiming to Luo De, "My lord, you truly are a genius!"

Luo De smiled without responding, thinking to himself that he wouldn't dare to call himself a genius.

He was merely borrowing learned knowledge.

Those who developed these technologies were the true geniuses.

Luo De stayed at the mining site for three days, and once everyone was relatively familiar with the rail-laying techniques, he left the matters to the carpenters and Jess, then returned to the manor.

This project would take at least two weeks to complete, Luo De didn't have the leisure to accompany them throughout.

After returning to the town, Durant immediately came to find him, reporting the latest information found by the patrol team to Luo De.

"A group of refugees, numbering over seventy, has appeared outside the southeastern White Rock Canyon, migrating in this direction."

Luo De was somewhat surprised.

After that war, Count Hawk actually didn't set up defenses at White Rock Canyon to prevent refugees from crossing over.

Though he had his doubts, Luo De still dispatched a small team to investigate these refugees.

Refugees could easily become robbers, so they must be handled properly.

Luo De's team quickly located the refugees wandering in the Desert; they showed no resistance when faced with the fully armed soldiers.

The team ordered them to stay where they were and then brought their leader—a village chief named Kosai—before Luo De.

Upon meeting Luo De for the first time, Kosai appeared nervous, directly kneeling before Luo De, not daring to look up.

Luo De scrutinized the middle-aged man before him, who seemed unremarkable, and then asked, "Why have you come to Black Pine Ridge?"

"The harvest was already half of what it used to be, and after the autumn harvest, most of it was taken by the Lord."

"As you know, there was a big war in our place this year, everyone had a hard time."

"We're out of food, everyone is near starving, so we had no choice but to move this way."

Kosai lowered his head and answered, "I heard from a merchant before that they treat refugees very well here, so I wanted to come here to find a way to survive."

Someone must compensate the losses of Count Hawk, and if Luo De doesn't give it to him, he'll have to scrape it from the citizens.

A lord needs to protect his own interests first, before he can think about the citizens.

Lords like Count Hawk don't care if a few citizens starve to death.

"Merchant? That merchant is probably long gone, isn't he?"

Luo De slightly narrowed his eyes, "You guys didn't just blindly head this way, did you? Are you familiar with the roads to the southeast?"

Kosai explained, "Someone in our village bought a map from that merchant, to prevent everyone from starving."

This Simon, his death wasn't unjust.

He could even sell the road leading southeast.

Luo De sneered coldly in his heart, but his expression remained calm.

Looking at Kosai, Luo De continued to ask, "So are all these refugees from your village? Did they come through White Rock Canyon? Wasn't it blocked there?"

"No, my lord."

Kosai introduced, "We came through the mountain road outside the canyon, not daring to let Count Hawk's team find us. They wouldn't let us leave."

"Count Hawk won't let you escape, so why do you want to escape?"

Luo De slightly frowned, "You don't even want the food they give you and insist on coming to Black Pine Ridge?"

"No, my lord, they don't give us food at all!"

The old village chief smiled bitterly, "Sir, they don't care whether we live or die. Those soldiers only want us to stay dutifully, but won't provide us grain."

Luo De was momentarily stunned, realizing he isn't as ruthless as the lords in this era.

If they don't give you food and don't let you run, that's harsher than robbers.

"Do you understand the rules here?"

Luo De indeed has enough grain to support these people, but he still can't randomly take them in,

"You can become refugees, and I will give you food, but for the first five years, you must be my slaves and work for me for free."

"Alright, my lord! No problem!"

The old village chief quickly nodded, with an excited expression on his face.

Refugees don't have many rights, and someone willing to take them in is already something.

Having a place to eat and live well is already sufficient, and Luo De's conditions are not harsh.

"Since you are the village chief, you follow my steward later,"

Luo De called Lawrence over, "This is my steward, Lawrence. Take him and record the information of every refugee among you. I need detailed information, entered into a record."

"Also, I want the mountain road you used to pass through White Rock Canyon."

"No problem, my lord, I'll tell you whatever you want to know!"

Kosai promptly agreed and then added, "Most of the people in the group are my villagers, I'm familiar with them. It's just that a few are refugees we encountered on the way, I'm not familiar with them."

"I don't care who they are, I just need their information clearly documented and statistics gathered for me."

Luo De's tone brooked no objection.

"Hold on."

Luo De slightly frowned,

"Where did you encounter the refugees?"

"Mountain road? Black Pine Ridge? Or in Count Hawk's territory?"

"In Black Pine Ridge, my lord."

Kosai honestly replied immediately, "We had just crossed White Rock Canyon not long ago when we encountered them in a mountain gully, also fleeing."

"How many?" Luo De asked.

Kosai gestured with his fingers and answered, "Seven people, two couples with children."

Luo De waved his hand, indicating for Kosai to step back.

Lawrence realized something and quickly pulled Kosai to start taking down the village members' information.

"What's going on?"

Luo De frowned deeply, turning to Durant beside him, "Why were these seven people not discovered by the patrol team?"

"I'm sorry, Lord Baron, I'll check immediately!"

Durant also realized the seriousness of the issue.

A couple of people was understandable, but now it's seven.

Luo De would not allow them to appear silently in Black Pine Ridge.

After all, there are patrol teams in both the southeast and northwest directions, and the road towards Border City also has patrols.

Luo De raised his hand to interrupt Durant.

"First, assign people to monitor these seven individuals, and then have Bai Shuang divine whether their arrival here is a good or bad thing."

Prophet Bai Shuang can't foresee specific things, but the general trend of events can still provide some reference.

"I'll handle it now!"

Durant responded and quickly strode out of the hall.

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