Chapter 979: Battle for the Tower (14)

After the overseers left, almost all the slaves lay on the ground in despair. Everyone felt that this was an impossible task and they would definitely be thrown into the magma. But at this moment, Batman threw the small demon in his hand out, and before throwing him, he said to him:

"Go, shout with all your might, and focus everyone's attention on me."

The small demon was thrown to the ground, making a "thud" sound, and fell flat on his face. But looking back at Batman's threatening gaze, he still tried his best to do as told, jumping and shouting on the spot until all the demons focused their attention on Batman.

Confirming that the overseers had gone far away, and that the group of Beholders didn't seem to care about the actions of these mining slaves other than mining, Batman jumped onto the mine cart. Seeing everyone looking up at him, he said in a deep voice:

"If you want to live, do as I say. Completing the mining volume of two carriages in one night is not impossible."

As soon as these words were spoken, all the demons stared at him with wide eyes. Batman looked up at all the minerals in the mine tunnel and then said:

"Currently, all the minerals on the surface of the mine tunnel are enough to fill these two mine carts, but the premise is that we must mine every corner's minerals without any omissions."

Hearing what he said, some old miners also started to size up the situation in the mine tunnel. After recovering from the initial fear, they started talking in low voices:

"It seems right. As far as I know, although our mine tunnel is in the shallow layer, there are quite a few minerals. If we can mine them all, maybe we really can fill them up."

"Impossible. Even if we can mine all the minerals on the rock walls, what about the ones on the ceiling? We don't have flying demons here, what should we do about the ore on the ceiling?"

"Maybe we can try. Even if we can't fill it completely, as long as we work hard, maybe they will spare us for the sake of our decent results?"

"That's right, that's right, I really don't want to be thrown into the magma, please, I beg you all!"

"Quiet, everyone." Batman spoke again: "As long as you are willing to listen to me, I guarantee that the task can absolutely be completed."

"Indeed, without anyone who can fly, it is difficult to mine the ore at the very top of the mine tunnel, but it is not completely impossible. But first, we need to start working immediately and mine all the ore we can get."

Batman scanned all the demons, his brain spinning rapidly, and then said: "The previous way of working was too inefficient. Now, I am reassigning the work. Everyone listen to my command. I will tell you which group of ore to mine, and I will tell you how to mine it..."

"If anyone doesn't listen to orders, then everyone might die. Whether you believe it or not, only I have a way to save you now. If you understand, start working!"

"All red-skinned trolls, take your tools to the edge of the mine tunnel, stand in the directions with the most ore, work in groups of three, and mine the large ore together..."

"All small demons, work in groups of five, stand in a circle next to the trolls, and as soon as the ore falls, pick it up immediately."

"Shuttle-snake demons, line up in a straight line, responsible for transporting the ore..."

"Attention, do not mine the shadow ore at the very edge in the east and west directions of the mine tunnel, don't even touch it... That shadow monster, yes, that's you, come here, stand here and don't move, I have other tasks to give you..."

Under Batman's arrangement, the entire mine tunnel began to operate in an orderly manner. Under the pressure of death, everyone was very obedient and hardworking. After all, demons are chaotic, cunning, and evil, but they are also afraid of death.

Moreover, intelligent beings, when in a panic, often instinctively rely on those who are the loudest. Regardless of whether what they say is right or not, as long as they can point out a direction for everyone, they will naturally obtain a leadership position. Batman was just like that.

Before Batman changed the rules of mining in the mine tunnel, the demons would just find a rock layer with exposed minerals and start digging. After digging, they would put the ore in a basket next to them, and then carry it to the mine cart themselves to dump it out.

This would cause a big problem. Small demons couldn't dig much ore and could only send a little bit of debris each time. Although trolls could dig a lot of ore, they moved slowly, and the time it took to send a basket was enough to knock down ore in two places.

Batman clarified everyone's division of labor, changing from individual work to collective cooperation, and the efficiency quickly improved.

The mine tunnel was bustling with activity. The trolls kept repeating their actions, using their strong arms to knock the rocks into pieces. The small demons moved flexibly under the trolls' feet, picking up all the fragments and throwing them to the shuttle-snake demons.

The shuttle-snake demons had snake tails for their lower bodies and human arms for their upper bodies. They could bend their snake tails and jump to very high places, and their speed was also very fast. They would often put the baskets containing ore on their heads, jump up, throw them directly into the mine carts, and then climb out.

There were also various demons with smaller bodies but who knew how to use tools, responsible for the smaller minerals in the rock layers, picking out the fragments from the cracks or corners that the trolls couldn't reach, putting them into baskets, and transporting them to the mine carts.

As time gradually moved forward and they got closer and closer to the deadline of death, everyone's movements became faster and faster.

Just when there were only two hours left until the deadline of death, the demons finally finished digging all the ore except for the minerals at the top of the mine tunnel.

Now, the two carriages were already one and a half full, but there was still half a carriage empty. At this time, all the demons cast their eyes on Batman. They didn't know what other methods this magical human could come up with to mine the ore from such a height.

The entire cave was very large, and the cave ceiling was also very high, with many sharp spikes like stalactites hanging down. There were many well-developed minerals growing around them. If they could all be knocked down, it would be more than enough to fill half a carriage.

Just at this moment, Batman took a small step back. A shadow monster that looked exactly like Liu Jiao walked forward, trembling. He said in a trembling tone: "You... you all hide back, hide in the tunnel, and don't show your heads until I say so..."

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All the demons were a bit confused, looking at each other, not knowing what to do. But some old miners seemed to have thought of something. They waved their hands and said: "Follow me! Everyone into the tunnel! Everyone retreat to the very inside!"

The demons straggled into the passage. Batman also followed the demons into the nearest tunnel, but he didn't retreat further inside, instead standing at the cave entrance to observe the situation.

That shadow monster squinted his eyes hard, suddenly emitting a silent scream. The sound waves spread out, blowing away the smoke and dust. All the demons instinctively covered their ears.

In an instant, all the tentacles on the shadow monster's body spread out, turning into a terrifying giant shadow of tentacles. But even more terrifying than him were two clusters of shadow vines that erupted from the corners of the mine tunnel.

The shadow vines surged out with lightning speed. Within a few short seconds, countless vines swept through every corner of the mine tunnel. The vine storm was like a hurricane sweeping across the sea surface, raising unstoppable waves, and even causing the entire mountain body to tremble.

Two or three minutes later, the chaos gradually disappeared. The shadow vines retracted into the ore. The first demon to rush out shouted:

"Ore! It's all ore! Look, everyone, the ground is full of ore!!!!"

The demons filed out, looking in shock at the sparkling ore on the ground. When they looked up again, the stalactite-like sharp spikes had disappeared without a trace, and more than half of the cave ceiling had traces of being whipped by the vines.

A dark red troll with a huge body swallowed his saliva and said somewhat tremblingly: "My god, so, so the shadow vines are this strong? They actually knocked down all the ore in an instant..."

Beside him, an old shuttle-snake demon, whose scales were even a bit wrinkled, sighed and said: "This reminds me of that vine disaster back then. Even powerful demon lords couldn't handle the underground shadow vines that had united into a whole..."

When Batman walked out of the cave entrance, he didn't feel surprised. He had long noticed the unusual nature of this plant, the shadow vine.

One of the clues was that when he was treating Liu Jiao's injuries, he discovered that the layer of black mist on Liu Jiao's tentacles had a very special property, just like shadow ore: tough, stable, but without any weight.

Batman's gauntlets couldn't cut through that layer of black mist at all. At the same time, the tentacles seemed to be able to extend infinitely. Except for fire and heavy strikes, sword slashes and axe chops didn't have very good effects.

Having discovered this magical property, Batman focused on asking Liu Jiao about the habits of shadow vines. According to Liu Jiao, this plant was very magical. When they inhabited the ground or the mountain body, they didn't occupy any space, didn't need a nest or residence, and were just like real shadows, attached to the surface of the minerals.

But if they turned into a physical form, they could extend infinitely. The greater the stimulation, the faster the eruption, and the more violent the eruptive power.

And Liu Jiao also told Batman a secret, which was that shadow monsters born from shadow vines, besides being able to soothe the shadow vines, could also conversely stimulate this plant, making them erupt in an instant.

Afterward, Batman gave Liu Jiao a plan, letting him use his characteristics as a shadow monster to stimulate the shadow vines and punish the lava demons who bullied him. At the same time, this also provided Batman with a good opportunity to observe this plant.

After confirming that the shadow vines were indeed as Liu Jiao said, and that a short-term eruption could cause huge destruction, Batman also observed another detail, which was that the whip held by the overseers was very likely related to the shadow vines.

Shadow vines were black, and when erupting, they were also like a black tide. But at the point of eruption, Batman could observe a touch of green light.

This touch of green light reminded Batman of the Green of All Things that had once descended upon Gotham. He thought that all plants in the universe were under the jurisdiction of the Green of All Things, so it was very likely that shadow vines were also in this category. The reason that whip could cause such great damage to demons might also be because it borrowed the power of the Green of All Things.

And the demon overseers' outrageous requirements for the workload gave Batman another opportunity. He discovered that the method the shadow monster used to stimulate the shadow vines didn't seem to be related to magic or mysticism, but rather utilized a certain sound frequency.

Batman felt that he had grasped the key. But just at this moment, the deadline of death finally arrived. After pouring the last basket of collected minerals into the mine cart, the overseers walked in aggressively.

After seeing the two full carts of ore, the overseers were stunned.

"How is this possible??!!! You group of stupid slaves, how could you possibly really, within one night..."

"Damn it! Someone must have cheated!! The miners under that idiot Claude couldn't possibly be this diligent. Come out! You get out here!"

"I can't let Claude win over me! Our Fourth Mountain is the mine most valued by General Fuxin. The Central Mine has so many minerals sitting there unmined, yet it has occupied this place for so many years in vain. Claude must step down!"

The leading demon lashed his whip fiercely and then said: "Take them all away, throw them into the magma! A group of slaves in the Central Mine didn't complete the task, kill them all!"

Batman, standing behind the mine cart, narrowed his eyes. So, this outrageous work requirement wasn't because the overseers had gone insane, but was related to the infighting within the power hierarchy of the mine.

It seemed that this big overseer named Claude had been occupying the Central Mine all along, causing dissatisfaction among the overseers of other small mines. They wanted to gang up and kill all the slaves in the Central Mine so that Claude wouldn't be able to complete the task.

Under such circumstances, if the slaves were all thrown into the magma, delaying General Fuxin's progress, then the fate of this big overseer named Claude could be imagined.

Just as the overseers were fiercely trying to grab people, a figure wearing a black cape jumped onto the highest dirt pile in the center of the mine tunnel. His voice echoed in the mine tunnel:

"Stop, you cannot take anyone away from here!"

Batman looked down from a high position at the strong demon overseers and said: "This is neither fair nor just... Stop your behavior, let them go!" ===== CHAPTER 980 =====