cw; slavery
The Watering Hole was a place that people with morals even the size of a pebble would not go to. It was located in the most shadowed alleyways of one of the many unnamed and forgotten towns that lined the entrance to Devil’s Desert. Pieces rotting, half-eaten food littered the floor, attracting all sorts of pests. The dead bodies, that had yet to be picked up, gathered various flies, maggots, and beetles—all of which had names that the locals didn’t bother to learn, though they knew their appearances by heart.
The entrance leading into the Watering Hole would always be splashed with water once every week, but that did little to dampen the scent of bile and urine that had long soaked into the cracks of the earth and the bricks that made the establishment. Unconscious people mingled with the deceased, just several paces away, all smelling of alcohol and of sweat and dirt. The ones that were conscious were prostitutes, dressed scantily, and waiting for a pretty penny to arrive at their door. None of them seemed bothered at all by the foul scenery or the putrid smells.
Lüba, a bartender at the tavern, woke up today like any other day—by the screams of a drunken man getting mugged at the crack of dawn. His eyes were swollen and puffy, having forgotten to close his window the night before. He let out a sneeze before looking around his room. He would have to ask the maid to give his room a dusting again today.
After changing into his clothes, he sleepily sauntered down to the tavern below.
It took about two hours to prepare for opening. There was little to do, since standards here were low, but Lüba still took pride in his job. As the sun slowly reached the middle of the sky, the regulars began pouring in, with foul mouths and an even fouler smell.
Lüba wrinkled his nose. He scowled at the drunkards and left with their orders. The only thing he could be happy about was that these regulars were the ones who actually paid their bills.
In the afternoon, business got busier. Amidst the regulars, who spent their entire days here, there were also people the prostitutes dragged in to get tipsy before they went off to their rooms. Lüba looked on with a glazed expression.
As he placed a jug of beer beside an already wasted man, the curtains to the tavern fluttered and a man, dressed all too well to be coming here, came in and sat down at a seat near the back of the bar. The moment this man entered, more and more new faces poured in, all accompanied by frightened companions. If they weren’t young looking men or women, then it would be some type of animal that had been beaten bloody before coming here. Regardless of what or who was brought forth, the well-dressed man accepted them all the same.
Of course, the price would be different.
As evening approached, when the tavern was at full capacity, a hunched-back man entered.
For a moment, the tavern stilled. Everyone’s gaze was concentrated on the face of the young man who was dragged in.
The young man’s eyes widened under the perverted gazes of the people around them. Men, with callouses coating their palms, reached out and brushed against the young man’s behind. Prostitutes looked on with narrowed eyes and a coy smirk. Humiliation slowly painted the young man’s jade-like face a seductive red.
One of the bolder prostitutes stopped the hunched back man. Her fox-like eyes scanned the young man in front of her up and down. She moved closer, like a snake would to her prey.
“How much does he cost?” the woman asked in a melodious voice.
The hunched-back man scoffed and grunted. “He’s not for you.”
The woman pouted, her chest shifting even closer. A slender hand touched the side of the hunched-back man’s face. “Why not? I have money.”
“There’s not enough money you could give me that would let me hand him to you,” the hunched-back man said, moving back with mild disgust on his wrinkled face.
At this, the people of the tavern reached an understanding. This man wasn’t just out for money. A few of the soft-hearted people looked at the trembling young man with pity while others gloated at his misfortune. After all, around here, they were always looking for someone worse off than themselves so that they could feel better.
The young man was tugged forward, but his gaze remained on the woman. It seemed that prostitution was a nicer option than whatever the hunched-back man had promised him.
The woman let out a sigh. What a pity. With a face and a body like that, there would definitely be paying customers.
Soon, the hunched-back man arrived in front of the well-dressed man. The well-dressed man looked up. Upon seeing the young man’s face, his eyes lit up with interest.
“How much?” the well-dressed man asked, not even bothering to make friendly conversation this time.
“One piece of gold.”
The well-dressed man, whose hand was lingering on his wallet, froze. He looked the hunched-back man up and down.
Cold sweat began to bead on the back of the hunched-back man. Just as his lips began to twitch, the young man behind him aggressively pinched his arm. The hunched-back man regained his composure quickly, but that didn’t stop him from glancing back at the young man.
Gui Yin ignored Li Fangyin’s gaze. He was far too ugly right now to be looked at properly. In fact, everything in this tavern and in this alleyway hurt his eyes. The smells made him want to hurl, yet he still had to put on a pitiful face. It took all his self-control to not grab Li Fangyin’s cloak, throw it on, and then plow this place to the ground.
Thankfully, the well-dressed man and the others around them didn’t notice this exchange at all.
“You have a deal,” the well-dressed man said with a dark smile.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The one piece of gold was placed into the hunched-back Li Fangyin’s hand. Li Fangyin tried his best to seem unhurried as he stuffed the key to Gui Yin’s handcuffs into the well-dressed man’s hands.
“Ds atf kjs, ktja vlv tf vb ab sbe?” atf kfii-vgfrrfv wjc jrxfv meglberis.
Ol Mjcuslc rmboofv jcv ibbxfv ja Xel Tlc lc vlruera. “Tbe rtbeiv jrx wbgf bo ktja tlr wbatfg vlv ab wf.”
Xel Tlc rtgjcx yjmx, jr lo tf kfgf jogjlv bo yflcu tla. Llr fsfr afjgfv eq pera atf gluta jwbeca ab rtbkmjrf ktja j vfilmjaf yfjeas wluta yf ilxf. Ktf kfii-vgfrrfv wjc gjlrfv j ygbk klat j tlca bo lcafgfra, yea atf tecmtfv-yjmx wjc tjv jigfjvs oifv ogbw atf ajnfgc.
The well-dressed man leaned back and looked Gui Yin up and down. “He must really hate you to ask for so little.”
Gui Yin remained where he was. He lowered his gaze as his jaw clenched.
Seeing this type of appearance excited the well-dressed man. He pulled Gui Yin down by the handcuffs. His dark eyes slowly scanned Gui Yin’s face.
“You would normally be worth more than just one piece of measly gold,” the well-dressed man caressed Gui Yin’s cheek with the back of his hand. “It’s a shame I can’t hide you from those people.”
Gui Yin’s eyes widened. He trembled slightly and reached out a hand to cling onto the well-dressed man’s sleeve. “P-please—please take me in. I-I’ll do anything.”
“Your voice is also not bad,” the well-dressed man sighed. He shoved Gui Yin away. “Take him to the back.”
Gui Yin landed against a hard surface. Before he could even recover himself, he had already been dragged off by a burly bodyguard. They went through the back entrance until they arrived in front of a beaten down carriage that was enough to transport cargo. At the head of the carriage were not regular horses, but demonic beasts that were the size of bears and that had the appearance of shadowy wolves.
It was just a cursory glance. As Gui Yin looked away, another guard approached them.
“Is this one of the new goods?” the guard asked.
“He is. But who knows if he’ll make it to the tower?” the first guard said as he waited for the other man to unlock the back of the carriage. “The boss seems to have taken a liking to him.”
“Mm, but the boss can’t be bothered to raise anymore. If he does, the local officials of the town he lives in might get on his case,” the guard said.
“Well, he could always just hide him,” the first guard glanced at Gui Yin, a hungry look in his eyes. “If I were him, I wouldn’t want to let this one go either.”
Gui Yin showed a horrified expression again. However, his heart was numb. He let out an internal sigh as he lamented the foulness of humanity. With his good looks, Gui Yin knew that he would receive certain looks here and there. In the twenty-first century, if anyone tried to bother him, he would just give them a good punch. In this xianxia world, he was even more powerful—a lord immortal above all. Who would dare try to harass him? Yet, when a noble figure fell to the mire, there would always be hungry wolves coveting him.
As Gui Yin was shoved into the carriage, he thought to himself: “It would be horrible if one day I stopped being Lord Immortal Ninglan.”
Even if Gui Yin were to fall, he had to do so gracefully. With a dainty shriek, he face-planted onto the ground. He looked over his shoulder with teary eyes as the doors closed.
Then, silence.
In the darkness, normal people wouldn’t be able to see his surroundings, but Gui Yin could see everyone perfectly. He could see the ten pairs of eyes that were silently concentrated on them. He could hear the softest breathing of the rabbit demon, hiding in the corner, and he could hear the suppressed sniffles of a young child, not too far away.
Gui Yin stood, no longer bothering with his weak maiden act. He stood and dusted off his clothes, as if he had never been affected in the first place, and he found a place to sit nearby. He gave a brief scan of the carriage.
Everyone here was pitiful, but Gui Yin didn’t bother giving them any words of comfort. He was just one person without anyone to back him up—even if he managed to free them, he didn’t have anyone to help them escape. The only chance he would have to let them free was when they were in Devil’s Desert but with the state most of these people were in, they would most likely die of dehydration and blood loss before they could find any of the towns again.
Gui Yin felt a headache coming on. He reached into his sleeve and shuffled around until he found his Qiankun bag. He opened it and peered inside. Was there anything he could even use?
After a long time, Gui Yin decided to do something risky.
“Fangyin.”
“Gui-qianbei, are you in?” Li Fangyin’s voice echoed in Gui Yin’s mind, telling him that he wasn’t far away from where Gui Yin was.
“Mn, I’m in. Remember how I said I would contact you if I needed to get out?”
“Yes. Did something happen?”
“No, nothing happened. But there are a lot of people here. There are even spirits,” Gui Yin said.
“S-spirits? What are they doing there?” Li Fangyin asked, his voice obviously panicked.
Gui Yin smirked. “There are a lot of people who treat spirit cultivators as if they are exotic pets—didn’t you know?”
“I heard about it but…Gui-qianbei, what should we do?”
“I have a bit of a plan. You’ll have to follow this carriage out into Devil’s Desert for a few days. Once night falls, bring a couple of your subordinates and act like sand pirates to pillage the carriage,” Gui Yin said. “Take these people away and tell your subordinates to bring them back to the Beidou Alliance. They’ll be good evidence of the slave trade.”
“What about you?”
“The leader has his eye on me. If I end up being his only product to sell, he won’t be able to keep me by his side. It’ll be better this way,” Gui Yin said.
After hearing his explanation, Li Fangyin agreed.
Gui Yin glanced around at the captives. All of them were injured and trembling or injured and on guard. None of them spoke and none of them breathed too loudly.
For a while, this silence continued.
At some unknown point, the carriage became slowly enveloped in a sound-proofing spell. Those little spirit cultivators noticed only when it had crawled over to them. And then, a single light source lit up the carriage.
The young man, who had previously come in in tatters, was now well-dressed. His robes were not only expensive and of high quality, but had about five layers. His hair was drawn up nicely and the injuries on his body disappeared. Luckily, his appearance was memorable so no one thought he was a completely different person.
“Be quiet,” Gui Yin said, pressing a finger to his lips.
The captives remained so.
“You all need to listen to what I’m about to say and listen closely if you want to survive,” Gui Yin said. “Nod if you can understand me.”
Gui Yin watched as the desperate captives nodded their heads. None of them questioned him. It was a given. The place they were going to was hell on earth, even death seemed like a welcome escape at this point.
“I’ll introduce myself first,” Gui Yin held up the pendant at his waist. “My name is Qinle, many know me as Lord Immortal Ninglan. I’m a peak lord of Yunjing Pavilion and I’ve come out here in disguise to follow a case.”
The tense atmosphere in the carriage seemed to untangle.
“Since I’m already here, I will also break you free,” Gui Yin continued. “In about five days’ time, there’s going to be a commotion. The traders will think they are sand pirates attacking, but they will actually be on our side. You’ll know it’s them because they won’t be using sand surfers—they’ll be riding demonic beasts. And the young man at the head of them all will have a pendant about this size on his waist that is made of white jade and is attached to a violet tassel.”
Only after seeing the captives nod did Gui Yin continue. “Don’t be concerned about me—I will be staying behind. No matter what happens, no matter who you hear screaming, just follow those people, okay?”
The captives nodded again.
“Afterwards, they’ll get you cleaned up and you’re going to go to the headquarters of this organization called Beidou Alliance,” Gui Yin explained. “They’re going to ask you a few questions, but don’t be scared. Afterwards, you’ll be set free.”
“B-but then…what about you, Lord Immortal?” a soft, sweet voice asked.
Gui Yin looked at the rabbit spirit, who watched him with watery red eyes. He offered a soothing smile. “I’ll be fine. If anything goes wrong, I still have backup.”
The captives were both relieved, yet scared. They slowly shifted closer to Gui Yin, as if his presence was the only source of warmth in the cold. Gui Yin didn’t mind and remained where he was. Soft conversations were exchanged and Gui Yin got to know more and more about the slave trade that occupied this area.
The people and creatures here were not just from the area around Devil’s Desert. There were some who were from far up north before they were hunted and brought here. Those cases belonged mainly to the spirit cultivators. The people who were considered locals were mainly humans. The more Gui Yin listened, the darker his expression became.
According to the memories he had, spirit cultivators had been used as tools for people who had a weaker cultivation base or who, in general, wanted to cultivate faster but didn’t want to fall into the demonic way. If a human cultivator were to dual cultivate with a spirit cultivator, then their cultivation would improve by leaps and bounds. Thus, in the past, they would often be captured and treated as exotic pets.
In today’s world, because spirit cultivators were considered equal to humans, many had given up on that idea. Yet, because it had become more and more common for spirit cultivators to fall in love with humans and vice versa, the practice of dual cultivation to benefit the humans was still a known concept. It was just illegal now to capture spirit cultivators and enslave them like in past generations.
“Is it possible for spirit cultivators to enter the Beidou Alliance?” Gui Yin asked one of the nearby little demons.
The spirit cultivator’s eyes widened before she shook her head. “Not that I’m aware of…You see, Lord Immortal, us little spirits aren’t as unified as humans. We all stand by our own races, but we don’t bunch together in sects or under an alliance or a ruler. We consider ourselves as individuals, but human cultivators might think otherwise.”
“It’s like how there are many types of practices in demonic cultivation, but the Beidou Alliance only categorizes them as ‘demon cultivators’,” someone explained.
“Although some of the species want to become part of the Beidou Alliance, others might reject,” the rabbit demon added. “For example, the cultivators who take the form of predators think we’re better off without humans, while preys like us wish we could have someone make laws that keep away from our territory.”
The silence that followed made the captives nervous. It wasn’t until Gui Yin sighed that the tension was slightly released.
“Alright, I understand,” Gui Yin murmured, the flame in his palm flickering slightly. He glanced at the spirit cultivators. “Where are you from?”
“We’re gathered near Kunlun,” the canary spirit whispered.
“Kunlun is a sacred place,” Gui Yin felt a new bout of anger. He sat back. “You’re telling me there are people daring enough to step into Kunlun to kidnap people?”
Forget the Qi Du Cult or the ghost cultivators—righteous cultivators didn’t need anyone to bring them to ruin. They were already working towards that goal themselves!
Despite how Gui Yin might feel, the only thing he could do now was nod and reassure them that the situation would be better taken care of when he returned. After their discussion, it was time for the carriage to begin its journey. Gui Yin returned to the appearance of a broken young man and sat in the corner, looking as if the entire world had abandoned him.
During the five days of travel, the slave traders would open the doors once in a while to throw in bits of leftover food. Gui Yin naturally passed them off to the more injured. He also pulled out some snacks from his food reserve that Ye Liuxing had shoved into his Qiankun pouch before leaving. He told himself that he needed to remember to thank Ye Liuxing when he returned.
On the fifth day, when even the guards were beginning to fall asleep in their camp, a loud whistle pierced the sky.
Gui Yin’s eyes snapped open. His brows furrowed slightly and he sat up in alert. He held a hand out to stop the others from moving and peered out of the carriage himself.
There was a group of people, dressed completely in black, with a full-face mask. Several of them wielded broadswords and scimitars while others used a strange circular bladed weapon. In total, there were only three people attacking, but Gui Yin could tell that these three people were martial arts masters. He could sense that these individuals were cultivators, but they sustained from using their cultivation.
His brows furrowed. Were they with Li Fangyin? But then what was that whistle?
The carriage jolted, as if someone had hooked up the demonic beasts and were moving them.
“W-what do we do, Lord Immortal?” someone anxiously whispered.
Gui Yin looked back at their frantic expressions. He hadn’t seen the sand boards, but that didn’t mean they weren’t sand pirates. After a split second of hesitation, Gui Yin condensed his spiritual power to his palm and slammed it into the doors.
The doors splintered and flew open.
“We have to leave now,” Gui Yin said. “But make the carriage look like it had an accident.”
“H-how do we—”
“You all go first. I’ll stay,” Gui Yin rushed to hand the children to the less injured.
“Will you be okay?” the canary spirit asked nervously.
“I’m not actually injured, I’ll be fine,” Gui Yin said. “The man who’s supposed to pick you up should be nearby. They must have been held up by something. Don’t go back to the camp and stay around this area, alright?”
After saying this, Gui Yin threw down a wind talisman that he often used to cushion his fall and began to shove the captives out of the carriage. Only after the carriage was empty did Gui Yin climb onto the rooftop.
The person driving the carriage didn’t look like he was participating in a robbery at all. He was laidback and had the composure of a young master who pretended to be a stagecoach for leisure. The thought was entertaining, but Gui Yin’s heart hammered against his chest. For a brief moment, he wondered if he should even attack this man, but all considerations were thrown out the window when he remembered he still had to deal with Qi Du Cult.
Gui Yin groaned. Just a few weeks ago, he had still just been a simple editor for a webnovel agency—now he was attacking a thief from the top of a moving carriage! Oh, how quickly the world changed!
Ironically, though Gui Yin had the mind to bemoan these fast-paced changes, it never occurred to him just how odd it was that he acclimated to these changes so quickly.
Gui Yin shook and scolded himself for thinking such useless thoughts at a time like this. Without any more hesitation, Gui Yin threw himself on top of the man. The carriage swerved and tilted, but the man held tightly onto the reins. As Gui Yin yanked on the front of the man’s cloak, he caught a glimpse of a pair of star-filled eyes in the darkness of the hood.
A/N: If you saw that I posted this chapter on Friday…no you didn’t………….
Star… why is the play guy here again? He is legit everywhere all the time
[biting my handkerchief] we gotta bring these guys down! interesting that Mysterious Stranger ;> knew this plan too… here lad, you take the baddies down (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ alxbakxbsm
wait hold on, if Mystranger knew about the 5 Days They Ride plan, why do it instead? something else possibly came up, unless Mystranger wants to encounter Gui Yin earlier… hm…… i think they should join hands and rain destruction alxhakxhsm
Ahnnn not gui yin having to fall prettily
It’s the hooded sick dude again!! (er-ye/sun I think), well pretty sure
Thanks for the chapter!!!
Geeeeeeeeeezaaas, should the potential ML be showing up like this to snatch his wifi away?!