Chapter 5 - Lightning Martial Spirit
Shi Yan opened his eyes, staring at the medicine slaves at a distance.
Those slaves mostly came from poor families. In order to survive, they had no choice but to sign the contract with Mo Yanyu, selling themselves as slaves. If they were lucky enough to survive the first six months, not only could they regain their freedom, but they would also get paid 200 Purple Crystal Coins[1]. If they were unlucky and died from medicinal trials, their family would receive the money instead.
In the Grace Mainland, one Black Crystal Coin was equal to 100 Purple Crystal Coins, which equaled 10 thousand Blue Crystal Coins. The annual income of an average citizen was merely 5-6 Purple Crystal Coins. 200 Purple Crystal Coins were almost the savings for 40 years of work in another job.
Upon signing the contract, their family would receive 50 Purple Crystal Coins on the spot, with the rest paid within the next six months. If something unfortunate happened, their family would be compensated regardless. It might take someone’s entire life to make 200 Purple Crystal Coins. But for the medicine claves, all it takes is six months of painful suffering. It was all worth it. At least that was what they thought...
However, when they signed the contract, it never occurred to them that the medicinal trials would be so cruel and tormenting. Every few days, some of them would drop dead in the most horrible way. This made them so terrified that they began to make their own secret plans.
But a contract was a contract. Once they signed their name on it, there was no way out. This meant, for the next six months, the Mo family[2] owned their lives. Any attempt to disobey the contract, or escape from the Mo family, would be a death sentenced.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. It was already too late for them to recognise the danger of these medicinal trials. They had no choice but to accept all the pain as well as their miserable fate.
Shi Yan knew that none of these slaves would make it. Sooner or later, they were going to die. Maybe tomorrow, or maybe later. He knew he was powerless to change all this. Therefore, he avoided contact with these slaves, thus avoiding any hurtful feelings when they died.
Shi Yan frowned as he took a quick glimpse at Master Karu sitting in the sedan atop the ground dragon, trying his best not to be discovered.
There were five White Medicine Bottles embroidered on Master Karu’s chest, which meant that he was a Level-5 Mortality alchemist. In the Grace Mainland, an alchemist was even more distinguished and rare than a Warrior.
Every alchemist had to be a Warrior. The medicine they refined could help enhance a warrior’s capability. There were special pills refined by a small number of extraordinary alchemists which could even enhance a warrior’s Martial Spirit.
Compared to the 10 levels among warriors, the ranking of alchemists were based on their expertise in the field of medicine. There were five categories of alchemists in the Grace Mainland; Mortality, Mystery, Soul, Royalty, and Divinity[3]. Under each category, there were seven sub-ranks.
Every alchemist would carry a special token corresponding to his ranking. Alchemists of the Mortality Category would be embroidered with White Medicine Bottles on their chests. Mystery Category - Red Flames; Soul Category - Medicinal Herbs; Royalty Category - Wonder Pills; and Divinity Category - Medicinal Cauldron. There were five White Medicine Bottles on Master Karu’s chest, so it was clear that he had the expertise of a Level-5 Mortality alchemist.
Since the medicine provided by alchemists could enhance the Profound Qi inside a Warrior, this small group of people held a prestigious status among all warriors. Due to the low number of alchemists, every group were desperate to hire a good alchemist, which made the alchemists even more revered and exceptional.
As a Level-5 Mortality alchemist, Master Karu was invited by Mo Yanyu from Medicine Valley within the God-blessed Empire. Like the Shi family, the Mo family were also one of the five distinguished families of the Merchant Union. The Mo family were famous for their own Martial Spirit which had the power of lightning. A lot of people from the Mo family were naturally born with the Lightning Martial Spirit, which would improve with the growth of their own skills.
Mo Yanyu was from the youngest generation of warriors born with the Lightning Martial Spirit from the Mo family.
The Mo family were working in the medicine business within the Merchant Union. They never stopped searching for great alchemists for their own use, no matter where these alchemists came from. However, most alchemists had quirky personalities and had weird demands. Above all, they were the haughtiest people on Earth and held very high opinions of themselves. Therefore, very few of them would accept the influence of powerful families like the Mo family, and thus the Mo family had tasted more failure than success when recruiting these alchemists.
Although Master Karu was merely a Level-5 Mortality alchemist, the Mo family had exhausted every means to convince him. Nobody knew what Mo Yanyu had offered this time in order to persuade Master Karu to leave Medicine Valley and come and work for them.
However, Master Karu was not the type of person who was fond of the orthodox. He was more interested in crooked ways of applying his skills to make poisons. However, the production of the finest poisons required a huge amount of medicinal trials, and the subject must be a living, breathing human. This was why these medicine slaves existed.
“Let’s move!” With Mo Yanyu’s order from the distance, the resting warriors all stood up and got ready for the march ahead. The medicine slaves resting on the road side also quickly got up, for fear of the punishment they would face if they didn’t manage to keep up.
Shi Yan stood up, still and silent. He took a sniff at the woman who had the appearance of an angel but the heart of a scorpion. He had no choice but to follow the group before him obediently.
In the Merchant Union, the relationship between the Mo family and the Shi family was not that smooth. The fifth uncle of Mo Yanyu was killed by Shi Yang three years ago due to a dispute over the mining rights at a mountain. After that, the Mo family started a relentless vendetta against the Shi family, causing the death of dozens of Shi family members. With this kind of hatred rooted between these two families, there were endless conflicts and fights going on.
Shi Yan understood that death would be his fate if his true identity was ever discovered.
But luckily the original owner of his body kept a low profile. He was not endowed with a Martial Spirit, didn’t take much interest in the martial fights, and barely showed up to any martial activities organized by the Merchant Union. Therefore, there was no way that Mo Yanyu would ever recognize him. Otherwise, Shi Yan wouldn’t have been this lucky.
As night fell, the moon was like a silver plate floating in the dark sky, accompanied by several sparkling stars.
The Mo family troop was camping and resting by the river. The ground dragon was resting quietly with only the sound of its heavy breathing permeating the air. The Mo family warriors were gorging themselves on dried meat and laughing aloud in a perverted way, exchanging gossip about some notorious whores in a Merchant Union’s brothel.
When Mo Yanyu was not looking, a few audacious warriors would gaze at her sexy body in secret, lusting after her body. They knew that for people of their level, Mo Yanyu was way out of their league. All they could do was fantasize.
Shi Yan sat down in silence. When he was ready to circulate the Profound Qi inside his body, he noticed Mo Yanyu and Master Karu coming towards him from the front of the troops.
“Shit!” Shi Yan felt that something bad was going to happen. His face suddenly looked like hell.
“The Gut Cutting poison is way too strong for normal people. It has already killed six slaves within the past two days. I guess only Warriors can sustain its influence. That boy looks better than before, with much of his Profound Qi recovered, he can be our new lab rat.” Master Karu said with a viperous smile on his face and a bowl of some black sticky liquid in his left hand.
“Well, Master Karu, please. Help yourself. He is all yours. Don’t show any mercy. I want him to die as miserably as possible.” Mo Yanyu also laughed.
“Haha, no problem. Miss Mo, your wish is my command. I promise you that there is no way he will die easy. As you have seen in the previous trials of the Gut Cutting poison, all the slaves died with their flesh and skin slowly decaying off their bones bit by bit. This boy looks tough. The stronger the subject is, the longer and more painful this decaying process will be. Just wait for the grand show and enjoy!” Master Karu burst into wild laughter, as if Shi Yan were not standing right in front of him.
“That is perfect!” Mo Yanyu smiled in consent. Her eyes were obviously shining with excitement, her hatred of Shi Yan churning in her gut.
It was only a matter of time before the two of them finally arrived in front of Shi Yan. Master Karu didn’t even bother to explain. He handed the bowl of black sticky liquid to Shi Yan and ordered with a cold voice, “You, finish this!”
While Mo Yanyu took out her left hand, generating a snake of electric power circling around her fingers; her skin like porcelain and the electric power sparking like lightning. This was the perfect combination of the Lightning Martial Spirit and Profound Qi. The energy was like a catalyst in the air with sound of small explosions all around.
“Woo-hoo!” Johnson sneered from behind, “Boy! If you ever dare to resist, you know what’s gonna happen to you, right?”
Master Karu couldn’t contain his excitement. He clapped his hands, and shouted, “Hey boy, the Gut Cutting Medicine is lots of fun. You are going to decay from the inside, little by little…”
The whole time, Mo Yanyu was staring at Shi Yan with an icy expression on her face. She assumed that he would say no. Her plan was, as soon as Shi Yan showed any disobedience, she would kick his ass with the electric sparks on her fingers, showing him who was the boss here.
For days, every time she looked back on the humiliation she received from this man, she couldn’t help but rage inside. Even her fiancée wouldn’t dare to do that to her. Who the hell was this guy? How dare he?! She would never forgive this guy.
“Sure. I’ll do it.” Shi Yan said dismissively. He took the bowl of nasty medicine and drank up with no hesitation.
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[1] Purple Crystal Coins: money in the Grace Mainland.
[2] The Mo Family: one of the biggest and most powerful families in the Grace Mainland, famous for their Lightning Martial Spirits.
[3] Mortality, Mystery, Soul, Royalty, and Divinity: 5 categories of alchemists.