“So many mid-grade spirit stones,” Wei Chen said softly. “It’s truly a waste of nature’s wonders to leave them rotting in this village. With these stones, a cultivator’s power can increase tremendously. I would truly be a sinner if I left them in the hands of you mere mortals.”
The elders said nothing in response.
“Tell me where I can find the source of these stones,” Wei Chen continued. “And don’t tell me they just washed up on shore. It’s impossible for such a large quantity of spirit stones to appear out of nowhere. There must be a geological feature where they were extracted.”
The mayor, who had been silent this whole time, finally spoke up. “We know where the source is. We can even tell you, as these stones are useless to us and merely used as currency and decoration. However, before we tell you, we want you to make an oath on the heavenly Dao. An oath that your bandits won’t kill or harm our villagers, and that you will release us once you are done extracting the stones.”
The bandit leader frowned. “You’re hardly in a good position to negotiate. I’ll have you know that I can simply torture you all to extract the answers. It would be better if you just told me, or this Buddha-like demeanor of mine will vanish and be replaced by a bloodthirsty devil that will destroy the villagers you hold dear.”
“The people in the village are all we have,” the old man said with a sigh. “Further, I’ve only brought these three men to confirm the truth of my words. Only the current and past mayors know where the source of the crystals is located, and the past mayor has already passed on. Generations ago, a mayor discovered the value of these stones and made these arrangements. It would be better if the crystals were lost than to make their location known to all.”
Wei Chen chuckled. “Such foresight. Very well. I can’t confirm the veracity of your words, so we’ll continue our search for now. I’ll let you know if you’re truly in a position to bargain.”
Every day that passed by was agonizing. Even though a small stream passed through the village, each prisoner was only allowed a cup of water per day to parch their thirst. Food was completely out of the question.
Cha Ming looked on at the destruction he’d sown. The bandits systematically destroyed their village, dismantling everything bit by bit in their search for the source. All this had started as soon as the leaders returned. They refused to discuss the contents of their meeting, but fortunately, the villagers trusted their elders unconditionally.
All Cha Ming could do during this time was continually destroy and replace old qi pathways. While it was difficult to concentrate with the body-restraining shackles, he was in a far better position than the qi cultivators who had their cultivation sealed. It seemed that the bandits had evaluated his condition and deemed it unnecessary to deal with a cultivator having crippled qi pathways.
Fair enough.
At some point, the old doctor had wandered over near his cell. The cell where he had been placed was a communal one that took up over 95% of the allocated space. He sat beside Cha Ming’s cell until the young man opened his eyes. Cha Ming looked away when he saw Li Yin. The old man had been right.
“Let me tell you another story, young man,” Li Yin said, sighing. He then looked to the side so Cha Ming could look up as he expounded his wisdom. “After the Spirit Doctor Association banned me from practicing medicine, I didn’t listen to them. I gathered a group of young men like you who were eager to learn my craft, and I taught them without reservation. I did this for five years, and we continued treating patients throughout the city.
“Despite their previous judgement, the association didn’t really want to bother with us. No one raised a stink, and we were able to continue practicing. One day, however, an up-and-coming spirit doctor came around looking for trouble. He was a noble, and he was keen on proving the superiority of his craft. He came swaggering into my establishment carrying two very badly beaten men. They were clearly on the verge of death, and I strongly suspected that this man had inflicted their wounds himself.
“Then he said, ‘One of these men is wealthy and worthy of my care. He’s a cultivator, and he’s useful to society. The other, however, is a mortal. He is also a thief, so he deserves to die. I will save the wealthy man; save the poor thief if you can with your meager abilities.’ After saying these words, he left. It was clearly a provocation, but I couldn’t help myself. Even though the man was a thief, he didn’t deserve to die.
“I spent the next three months nursing him back to health. I exhausted all my skills, and in the end, the thief’s health was restored to seven tenths of his original capacity. He still had some crippling disabilities that I couldn’t cure. Once he was healed, I released him. Little did I know that he was a plant by that young master, a pawn for him to squash my budding practice.
“I was arrested two days later on the charge of illegally practicing medicine. My apprentices were incarcerated as well. The thief who I saved, instead of being grateful, complained to the Spirit Doctor Association and said that my care had crippled him. Meanwhile, the young master that had brought him over that day said that while he had offered to treat the man, I had refused to let him treat him and had arrogantly insisted that my medicine was more than adequate.
“Of course, they believed his words over mine. My five apprentices were heavily fined, to the extent that they would need to submit themselves into indentured slavery just to live. Meanwhile, due to my previous offense, I was banished from every major city in the country.
“My actions ruined the lives of five promising young men and affected the many poor residents I normally treated. I was forced away from civilization. I traveled for many years until I finally encountered the current Crystal Falls mayor, who was out to do business. He noticed that I was a doctor but not a cultivator. After all, given the abundance of spirit stones in the village, he dared not invite spirit doctors for fear that greed might corrupt their hearts. He invited me to Crystal Falls, and I have been here ever since, tending to the village in peace.
“In case you didn’t pick up on the moral of my story, I’ll spell it out for you. I felt guilty for involving those around me, but I don’t regret my actions. It’s in a doctor’s blood to save people, even the guilty. A doctor cannot betray his own consciousness. He can only do what he thinks is right and bear the consequences, just like I did. Just like I hope you will do now.”
The doctor left shortly after, leaving Cha Ming in deep contemplation.
Another week passed, and the residents of the village were weakening, and the frequent outbursts of rage from Wei Chen’s tent indicated that things weren’t going as the bandits had hoped.
Finally, Wei Chen couldn’t take it anymore and ordered the three elders and the mayor be brought to his tent. After six hours, a peal of thunder traveled across the clear sky, and indication that an oath to the heavenly Dao had been made. The mayor was dragged back to his cage, bloodied and with broken fingers but with a smile on his face. The three village elders didn’t make it back, and Cha Ming soon saw their corpses being dragged out of Wei Chen’s tent.
Over the next week, life improved for the villagers. The bandits began bringing them water and food, and they finally regained some strength. They were still weak, but they were no longer on the verge of death.
But the following week, things took a turn for the worse. One by one, the villagers were filed out and separated into three groups: women, children, and men. It didn’t matter how old each man or woman was or what their occupations were, they were separated this way regardless. The village got busy as people were organized into construction groups and ordered to build joint accommodations to replace the ruins that were once their homes.
Then increasingly large numbers of young men were led away from the village toward the large waterfall nearby. These men were taken for a full ten days before they came back, filthy and utterly exhausted.
Cha Ming and the cultivators were not part of this group. They remained shackled as things progressed. The
once peaceful village had been transformed into a work camp. With every day that passed, Cha Ming’s heart ached at the sight of the villagers and their suffering. Fortunately, he saw no deaths. After the first three elders died, not a single villager was killed.
Still, Cha Ming was left with the realization that some fates were worse than death.
Cha Ming woke to the rare sound of his cage door being opened. He looked up to see three burly bandits, who picked him up unceremoniously and dragged him with them. He saw the pitying looks of many villagers as he passed by. Their eyes didn’t linger. The bloody lash marks on their arms and backs made it clear that the fear of their captors was being etched into their very bones.
He sighed when he saw a cage full of children; only a handful of mothers were supervising and comforting them, while a handful of men were looking at them from the outside. Off to the side, he saw a group of women performing mundane tasks like preparing food and stitching and washing clothes.
As he walked, he saw a bandit groping one of the women. The others were too fearful to respond, but fortunately, a bandit captain walked up to the offending man and slapped him in the back of the head.
“Use your brain, you idiot,” he said. “How do you expect the men to work properly if they see us violating their women? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend any longer in this shit hole than I have to.”
Cha Ming was relieved that things weren’t as bad as they could be. At the very least, it seemed like these bandits weren’t just another group of devilish cultivators. They were just bad men trying to make a living. Perhaps that was something he could exploit.
Before long, he was led to a small tent. Inside, he was shoved down next to the other five cultivators in the village. He saw Wei Chen, the leader of the bandits, and two of his personal guards. The vicious man looked over at them, smiling.
“Welcome, everyone,” he said. “As many of you have speculated, we’re looking forward to utilizing your skills to mine spirit stones like the other villagers. However, as cultivators, you are all uniquely useful to us. However, before we do that, we’ll need to make you more docile than you currently are.”
At these words, another man walked into the room. He was pale and sickly looking, but his vast spiritual force made Cha Ming feel oppressed. There was a clear difference between a soul at half-step foundation establishment and actual foundation establishment, and this man was clearly in the latter realm.
He felt the man’s soul force oozing over him, probing him. He resisted it with all his might, but he was unable to stop the man from inspecting every nook and cranny of his soul. The man grinned when he felt his resistance.
“Interesting. You have someone here with a strong soul, and it will take more than just a small effort on my part to tame him.” He looked over to the other five. “Let’s get these appetizers over with before we start the main course.”
Chapter 15: Slave
A look of excitement flashed across Wei Chen’s eyes when the heard the pale man’s words. “As you wish, Sigil Master Guo.”
Cha Ming had never heard of the sigil master occupation, but judging by Wei Chen’s humble tone, they were not to be trifled with. He looked on with both frustration and curiosity as the man approached the five other prisoners. When pale man placed his hand on the first captive’s head, Cha Ming felt the man’s spiritual force inundating the man’s entire being.
“Sixth-stage qi condensation, second-stage body transformation,” the man intoned. “I can control him with a Servant Sigil, and he will be amenable to most instructions and perform them without question. I can also forcefully uplift his body cultivation to the fifth stage within three days. This will cost you fifteen mid-grade spirit stones. Do you accept?”
The commander’s lips twitched at the cost but nodded nonetheless. Sigil Master Guo smiled and took out a black pen. He then began painting an intricate rune in midair with black ink.
He’s a talisman artist? Cha Ming thought, frowning. He continued to observe as the rune in front of the man became increasingly complicated and three dimensional. The main character was for “servant,” but it contained profound mysteries that Cha Ming couldn’t understand.
As it continued to expand in scope, the character was complemented by several sub-characters that were joined to it with geometric symbols. Once the complex character was complete, the man painted three other characters beside the existing ones, along with their own three-dimensional supports. These three symbols were the two characters for “master” and “great master.”
Finally, after a full one-hour drawing process, the rune was completed. The black symbol gleamed before rapidly condensing and landing in the man’s palm. He grabbed the rune and pressed it onto the cultivator’s forehead. Cha Ming’s eyes narrowed as the man screamed intensely. It was like a dying man’s wail, a roar of defiance. Sigil Master Guo ignored these screams and pressed harder, and soon the screams subsided. The cultivator’s face was no longer flushed red from exertion, but his eyes were now glazed over. The pale man ignored him and broke off one of the master characters and placed it on his forearm, where Cha Ming noticed hundreds of similar characters were already imprinted.
Then he pressed the other master sigil onto a silver medallion and handed it and the great-master sigil over to Wei Chen. The bandit leader quickly imprinted the great-master character on his forearm, where it joined three others. After this, Sigil Master Guo tossed a bottle of pills to the newly converted servant.
“Take one of these pills every day for the next three days,” the pale man said. “No matter how great the pain, you are not allowed to die.”
“Yes, master,” the cultivator said in a dull voice. All traces of joy or anger had disappeared from the man’s eyes, and the complete lack of emotion made it extremely obvious that he could no longer exercise his free will.
The entire proceeding left Cha Ming feeling like he had been plunged into icy water.
Is the same thing going to happen to me? Have I worked so hard to find meaning in my life and restore my vital functions only to be turned into a slave with no choice whatsoever?
Cha Ming had been excited about his new life because of the ample choices it brought him, but now it seemed like these choices would be taken away.
He stirred from his despondent state as the screams of the next cultivator pierced the air. Before long, he too was reduced to a shell of what he once was.
Should I bite my tongue and commit suicide? He quickly banished that thought. Where there was life, there was hope. Things could potentially improve. He need only look within to know that.
The process continued, and soon the five cultivators had each been given medicinal pills and ordered back to their cells. The guards no longer supervised them, telling Cha Ming that they were used to this form of control. The cultivators were easily identified by the black “servant” character on their foreheads. As long as this character remained, the guards knew they were being controlled.
After finishing with the five men, the sigil master walked up to Cha Ming, who was still restrained by the body-restraining shackles. He shuddered when the man ran his finger along his chin, then placed a hand on his forehead. He gritted his teeth and stared at the man in defiance, his eyes bloodshot.
“I have good news, and I have bad news,” the man said, looking back toward Wei Chen.
“Start with the good news,” the man replied drily.
“The good news is that this man is already very strong,” the pale man replied merrily. “I, Guo Jia, do not see such an excellent specimen very often. His base physical strength is 784 jin, as he’s a body cultivator of the seventh rank. In addition, his body-cultivation technique is strange. His body has been strengthened by wood, fire, and earth qi and is also imbued with additional regenerative, defensive, and dextrous capabilities.
“In these areas, he can be considered one grade higher. That means that his physical endurance is monstrous, and his working speed will be e
xtremely fast. What’s more, it seems that this has been achieved through pure addition of attributes, meaning that his body has not yet been refined. If I refine his body using metal-qi, water-qi, and wood-qi pills, I can bring him up to the ninth stage of body cultivation with the defensive capabilities of a bone-forging cultivator!”
Wei Chen frowned. “What’s the catch?”
“Well, there are two issues, one minor and one major,” Guo Jia continued. “The first issue is that his tissues are badly damaged from an injury. His cultivation is stalled, and his qi-directing meridians and qi pathways are badly damaged. Qi pathways aside, I will need to use medicinal pills to bring back his base strength and heal the injuries to his muscles and bones.
“The more difficult issue is that his soul is at half-step foundation establishment. This means that I will need to use a more advanced sigil, a Lesser Slave Sigil. This sigil is sufficient for controlling someone up to Foundation Establishment. It is, however, quite expensive, and it comes with a minor degree of personal risk to me. All in all, the process will cost you 500 mid-grade spirit stones.”
“Five hundred?” Wei Chen bellowed. “You may as well rob me! Forget it. I’ll just kill the boy and be done with it. It’s not worth it.”
“Come now,” Guo Jia said. “A foundation-establishment slave is normally worth 5,000 mid-grade stones. You’d be getting him at quite a bargain. Also, he isn’t just good for mining. You can bring him with you afterwards and have a strong bodyguard who doesn’t fear death. On account of our long-term friendship, I can knock the price down to 450 spirit stones.”
Wei Chen hesitated. “Three hundred fifty, and not a single stone more.”
“Let’s split the difference at 400 and both leave happy,” Guo Jia said, smiling. Wei Chen grunted and tossed him a jingling purse.
Light in the Darkness Page 15
