Chapter 3: Spirit Slaves

At the top, where the nine giant peaks twisted and collided, there was a blood pool, from which a nine-thousand-foot blood waterfall cascaded down onto the ritual platform, filling every hollow pattern carved into it. At the center of the platform stood a purple-red palace.

Extraordinarily magnificent and imposing, it stood out against the landscape. At the base of the nine peaks lay vast open spaces, dotted with antique buildings—almost none were ordinary structures made of common bluestone or wood.

Golden bricks paved the ground, and walls as white as snow were adorned with carved dragons and painted phoenixes. Everything appeared exceptionally refined and elegant, completely different from the gloomy and terrifying place Wang Yu had imagined.

The Stone Lake City lord's mansion would be just an ordinary building here.

Only the streaks of escaping light in the sky matched Wang Yu's stereotypical expectations—either rolling with black mist or blazing with blood-red radiance.

The flying artifacts they controlled came in all varieties: skulls, spinal bone swords, corpse clouds, paper figure palanquins, coffin hearses... and so on. Large numbers of Foundation Establishment cultivators traveled back and forth through the sky.

Qi Refinement cultivators were much simpler—mostly using black cloth pieces, apparently standard-issue artifacts distributed uniformly by the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect.

Wang Yu's heart burned with excitement. As long as he could access cultivation techniques, so what if they were demonic? He had no prejudice or preference regarding power—as long as it worked, there was no difference.

Since the demonic cultivators had bribed the guards at Black Mountain Pass, he figured they wouldn't let them die outright. At the very least, they'd need to extract their expected value.

Without stopping, the black-robed demonic cultivators brought them to the foot of the third peak from the left. The environment here was markedly different from the base of the nine peaks, and it was fenced off with cultivators standing guard everywhere.

"Brother Xu, you're finally back. Only a hundred people this time?"

Hearing this, the leading black-robed figure finally removed his hood, revealing a deeply lined, weathered face.

"No choice. Stone Lake City's spirit vein is too poor, so naturally, it produces far fewer cultivation prospects. If we'd gone to Thousand Autumn City instead, we'd have at least five hundred spirit slaves."

"Count them up and take them all down."

Spirit slaves?

Unable to hear more of the conversation, Wang Yu's cart was pulled to a row of stone houses, where they were released after their shackles were removed.

A chubby, round middle-aged man spoke with a sinister tone.

"My surname is Duan. You can call me Steward Duan.

"From today on, you are spirit slaves of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect. Until you pay off your 'indenture fee,' you cannot take a single step away.

"If you perform well, it's not impossible to escape spirit slave status and become an outer disciple of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect. Work hard."

Steward Duan gave this speech without further explanation and left. Wang Yu's group of mortals, who hadn't yet crossed the threshold into cultivation, naturally had no power to resist.

In turn, Wang Yu moved into stone house number eighty-three.

The room was furnished with a bed, table, chair, stool, and even a small compartment serving as a toilet. The bedding and square pillows were sewn from fine brocade, not worse than the living standards of the Wang family.

Though the windows and door could open, they had iron bars—only hands could pass through them. Exactly like a prison cell.

Before long, a Reverse Spirit Blood Sect disciple walked past, tossing a basketball-sized cloth bag into each stone house as he passed. When he reached house eighty-three, he gave Wang Yu an identical item and walked away without a word.

Opening the cloth bag, the first things that caught his eye were food and a water pouch. Twenty steamed buns, still giving off heat. Having not eaten yet today, Wang Yu was very hungry and ate five in one go.

The fillings included both meat and vegetables, savory and flavorful with rich taste. Each had thin skin and generous filling, even more excellent than what the pastry chefs in Stone Lake City made.

This kind of treatment made Wang Yu develop greater expectations for his identity as a spirit slave. After all, these were cultivation practitioners—even demonic cultivators weren't the blood-drinking, raw-meat-eating monsters from novels and stories. Stereotypes were no good!

Humans have desires, and demonic path cultivators, to put it bluntly, were just a group of cultivators who took extreme shortcuts. Their desires were stronger, their material enjoyment more prominent than the righteous path, and they weren't ashamed to express it.

Even the treatment of spirit slaves was better than what most common people enjoyed at home.

In addition to today's meal, there were also two books inside—one thin, one thick.

The thin one recorded extensive knowledge about the cultivation world, explaining the rules here and what spirit slaves needed to do.

It also outlined each person's "indenture fee" target—once achieved, they could become outer disciples of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect.

Wang Yu carefully pondered each item, deeply memorizing them.

First were the rules for the stone house area.

[Rule One: Daily, from the hour of the Rabbit to the hour of the Snake (5 AM to 9 AM), two time periods, twenty Qi Refinement cultivators are responsible for answering questions.]

Whether cultivation doubts or problems like illiteracy, all could be answered. This was also the only time period when spirit slaves could leave their stone houses each day.

[Rule Two: After breaking through to the first layer of Qi Refinement, spirit slaves must damage their cultivation to condense one tael of spirit sand monthly and deliver it to any steward in the stone house area.]

This rule was where Wang Yu and the others' value lay.

Spirit stones were the essence of heaven and earth, formed by natural precipitation where spiritual energy gathered. The higher the grade of spirit vein, the more likely it was to produce accompanying spirit stone veins.

They were divided into four grades: inferior, medium, superior, and supreme. They were also the most widely circulated currency in the cultivation world. Due to high consumption, relying solely on mine production was far from sufficient.

Thus existed the role of spirit slaves.

If cultivators were willing to damage their cultivation, they could also manually create spirit stones—printing their own money, so to speak.

Early-stage Qi Refinement cultivators could only condense Spirit Sand. Each tael of spirit sand was worth one inferior spirit stone.

Spiritual energy that seemed incredibly pure to Qi Refinement cultivators appeared mixed and impure to Foundation Establishment cultivators, so the higher one went, the more expensive spirit stones became.

[Rule Three: Once spirit slaves repay one hundred spirit stones of "indenture fee," they can apply at the steward's office to become outer disciples of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect.]

The spirit stones mentioned here were naturally inferior spirit stones.

Converting at the rate of one tael of spirit sand equaling one spirit stone, under ideal conditions, it would take 100 months to pay it off—over 8 years. Adding time for learning and breakthroughs into the path, it would take at least 10 years.

"Twenty-six years old before paying it off..."

Closing the booklet that recorded extensive cultivation world knowledge, Wang Yu took a deep breath and didn't exhale for a long time.

Although living conditions weren't bad, when it came to spirit stones and wealth, he didn't believe the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect would be so kind-hearted. Theoretically, it would take ten years, but in practice, it might take twenty years.

As for the other thick booklet, it was the Qi Refinement technique given by the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect. They generously provided all nine layers, allowing cultivation up to late-stage Qi Refinement perfection.

Giving all spirit slaves psychological comfort with a "we believe in you" attitude.

The thing he wanted most was right in front of him. Wang Yu abandoned all unrealistic fantasies. This was the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect's headquarters, their mountain gate. Even though the stone house area was in a remote location, it still had large numbers of cultivators standing guard.

The probability of escape was minimal. The only path to survival was to comply with the Blood Sect's rules—only by becoming an outer disciple would there be any possibility of freedom.

Even if it was just a carrot on a stick, he had to work toward it and move forward. There was no other choice!