Henry walked back to the basin where the horses were kept.
The release progress bar now reached Level 3 at 8.78%.
Below the progress bar were 144 gray pearls, 71 white pearls, 8 green pearls, plus 248 gray pearl shells, 92 white pearl shells, and 2 green pearl shells.
This time he had gained 5 green pearls, 57 white pearls, and 65 gray pearls.
Of these, only two green pearls had talent or skill halos flowing.
This was roughly equivalent to 579 gray pearls, enough to upgrade another talent.
The upgrade would have to wait for a safe time - no rush.
Henry had already counted 82 horses remaining in this basin, meaning over twenty had run away.
The bandits' supply wagons were also still there.
He fused gray pearl shells into all 82 horses one by one and collected them into his storage space. Henry now had 120 horses in his space, occupying about 50 cubic meters.
He still had 166 gray pearl shells remaining, which was sufficient for Henry's use.
Henry also collected the bandit wagons along with their supplies into his space.
More than ten minutes later, Henry returned to the convoy, much to Richard and the others' relief.
The group immediately accelerated along the valley path toward Fresco Town.
When passing through the first half, Henry remained very vigilant, observing the mountains on both sides.
For safety's sake, this side should also be searched.
But it was already 5:42 PM with no time left, so Henry could only take the risk.
If there really were large forces from Fresco Town's direction lying in ambush here, Henry himself would be fine, but the others would almost certainly lose their lives, perhaps only Edith, whom he paid special attention to, would be spared.
Fortunately, Henry's effective strikes against criminal elements these past days meant this situation didn't occur.
The group successfully passed through this deadly path.
At 6:15 PM, Henry saw everyone on the hills in the distance.
Getting closer, he removed his hat from the carriage and waved it as a signal.
Linda, Pete, Mary, Charles, Owen and the others on the hill cheered with joy - a full 6 hours!
Henry stopped at the base of the hill and waited for everyone to come down.
Without much introduction between Linda and Edith's groups, Henry had a ranch-born officer take over driving the carriage while he mounted his police horse and directed everyone to depart quickly.
With more people, actions became slower. By the time they set out again, another ten minutes had passed.
Fortunately everything went smoothly after that. The group spent half an hour crossing Death Valley to reach the valley exit on Denver's side.
"Charles, we'll cross Guillotine tomorrow. Right now we need to find a place to camp for the night immediately. We must establish our campsite before dark and set up a perimeter," Henry ordered.
"No problem. About two miles ahead there's a hill suitable for camping," Charles replied, then spurred his horse forward to lead the way.
Western wilderness nights had many dangers - venomous snakes, scorpions, mountain lions, gray wolves, black bears, bandits, natives, plus natural disasters like floods, lightning, tornadoes, and landslides.
So camping in the western wilderness required absolute caution.
Over ten minutes later, the group reached the flat ground below the hill over 100 meters high that Charles had mentioned. This flat area was fifty to sixty meters from the Colorado River.
Except for the women and children, all the men including Richard began setting up tents, building fires, and taking water containers to fetch water.
Soon, through everyone's joint efforts, two campfires and ten canvas tents that could house 2-3 people each were set up.
With fire and water, using cooking tools like kettles and Dutch ovens, the aromas of coffee, bread, beef jerky, salt pork, and bacon soon wafted over the campsite.
Henry also took out two large packages of biscuits and dried fruits like raisins and black currants from his suitcase - actually from his space.
Dried fruits were essential items in western chuck wagons. They could add flavor to beans, meat, and bread, and could also be eaten as sweets.
Children especially loved them. This package of dried fruit made Becky and André happy as they ran around like fluttering butterflies.
With 20 adults working together, they quickly transformed what had been wilderness half an hour earlier into something resembling an outdoor dinner party, with the two lively children adding extra joy to the wild setting.
Henry watched this scene and inexplicably felt a sense of achievement from protecting the women and children of his territory, letting them live carefree.
——
In Fresco Town, Rafael was reporting to Mayor William again.
"...We can determine that all the men at Devonshire Manor should be dead, otherwise they wouldn't have failed to appear these past two days. According to the report from the two officers White sent to the manor, there were only a dozen or so women inside in poor condition. When the two officers arrived, they even had to fire shots to drive away several gray foxes and coyotes."
"According to those dozen women, around 5 AM yesterday morning a powerful gang attacked Devonshire Manor, even using explosives. All the guards died or disappeared, and later there was internal conflict resulting in all remaining men dying."
"The McKinley metal smelting plant was attacked by powerful forces last night. An entire company of over 200 men should have been completely annihilated, with even the corpses taken away, showing the opponent's strength and composure."
"Afterward, riots broke out at the silver mine, copper mine, and smelting plant, further expanding the McKinley family's losses. The McKinley family suffered huge losses this time."
"Town committee member Ballack took in those dozen surviving women from Devonshire Manor. He should have also telegraphed the McKinley family leadership in Denver."
William pondered for a moment, instructed Rafael to continue monitoring the mine situation, then dismissed him.
"What relationship does Henry have with this powerful force?"
William was now particularly puzzled by this.
Because he knew Henry's life trajectory from childhood very clearly.
Powerful forces couldn't just suddenly appear from nowhere - there would always be a period of accumulating strength beforehand.
So William really couldn't understand it now.
However, he was confident Henry wouldn't harm him - this could be seen from Henry's daily behavior.
——
At the McKinley family manor in Denver, Brendan's face was pale and his brow deeply furrowed. He had learned from Ballack's telegram what had happened at Devonshire Manor and the mines these past two days.
The losses were truly enormous. In just about ten days since the gold mine seizure plan began executing, the McKinley family had lost over 400 private soldiers, consuming nearly two-thirds of their private armed forces in the West at once.
Direct economic losses also exceeded $150,000. Including work stoppages and other losses, even $200,000 wouldn't cover it.
Brendan finally felt the tip of the iceberg of the Sinclair family's hidden power - a casual counterattack dealt a fatal blow to his side.
But this was all normal - the saying about being harmed when failing to kill a tiger existed everywhere.
Now Brendan's greatest worry was whether Richard's group could safely reach Fresco Town to help mediate for him.
Additionally, he had finally learned that Henry was also escorting Detective Bryan's widow to Denver to catch a train this morning.
So Henry and Richard would very likely encounter each other.
Brendan was now particularly worried whether Henry would find an opportunity to eliminate both his 31-man escort team and Richard's group together.
But even if Richard could successfully reach Fresco Town, that would be after 7 PM.
By then the town's telegraph office would already be closed.
Regardless, Brendan could only confirm Richard's whereabouts tomorrow morning at the earliest.
(End of Chapter)
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