Life was often easygoing for the slaver thugs. The only real trouble they would face was the expectations of their boss. The boss of the Thousand Link Slavers was not an easygoing or kind man after all.
Expectedly, the three slavers who had gone over to scout the city and report back to him did not have an easy time once they were late. They had been struck and pushed all the way to their boss's tent. However, they had survived thus far with a boss like this because they knew how to spin a tale.
The boss of the Thousand Link Slavers was a man who had named himself Lian Lingzhu. He had also forced everyone in his slaver gang to change their surnames to Lian, which meant chain.
However, this act was not because he was compassionate nor was it because he considered his gang his family. He had always hoped that if he did enough business, he could one day establish his own Unorthodox clan and start cultivating. Yet, he kept culling down his own numbers each year by executing members of his gang that he considered weak.
With the numbers never going up, and no talent being found in random thugs, Thousand Link Slavers remained a gang with no cultivators within it. And Lian Lingzhu remained a wealthy and elderly criminal.
Despite being at 65 years of age, Lian Lingzhu had bought consumed plenty of elixirs, and practiced some cheap and common Body Arts for fighting since his youth. Thanks to that, he was larger and taller than any of his men, and his chest muscles brimmed with vitality under his leather vest.
"Explain yourself, you dumb bastards." Lian Linghzu said with a disinterested expression on his face.
The three slavers had practiced what to say on the road and one of them quickly went forward and knelt while yelling his report.
"This humble one greets his master, Lian Lingzhu! We have been delayed on our report since we were poisoned and feverish! There are over 30 thousand children who are physically fit to be captured and sold within the city and only 2 soldiers from the Black Peak County Army guarding the dead disposal pits outside the city! We also counted 250 maidens and 400 women ripe for use or brothels!" The slaver only shut his mouth when Lian Lingzhu raised his hand.
"Pass the numbers, tell me more about who poisoned you."
Lian Lingzhu was not the kind to believe others easily, but he could clearly see that all 3 of his men here were sweating heavily despite the winter air breezing outside.
The thug had been waiting for this chance and slammed his forehead on the floor to prostrate himself before Lian Lingzhu before speaking.
"You are too kind, Master Lian Lingzhu! We were poisoned by a gray haired brat who acted like a ghost! We saw him shuffle while we were half asleep, and he stole only our cauldron while leaving behind hot porridge from the cauldron for us! We only noticed after eating it all that the cursed boy had poisoned our food!" The slaver was explaining it hoping his boss would take revenge for him and kill that boy while they were capturing kids to sell as slaves in the city.
Unfortunately for that slaver, Lian Lingzhu had gotten rich not because he was frugal, but because he knew when a slave would sell for good money.
"We will capture that boy first! Take 5 more men with you and capture him and other eye catching kids while the rest of the men round up other good kids around the city. Appraiser Tong with you, he will know a lot better than you idiots." Lian Lingzhu did not bother listening to anything else the 3 of them had to say and allowed his subordinates to handle the report.
Lian Lingzhu was already in a good mood. He was not knowledgeable about martial arts or cultivation too well, but he knew what his customers in the Demonic Sects wanted the most: talent. He clapped and a couple of young slave girls, who were no older than 16, rushed over to pour his wine. He could sell a poison brewing kid for many times the price of an ordinary one.
After all, Lian Lingzhu understood that apothecaries and poisoners were one and the same. This was why he would only go and buy his own medicine while dressed as a traveling noble and wearing gold and silk, and never twice at the same apothecary. Any pill could kill an ignorant fool like him who could not discern poison from medicine by the smell.
Appraiser Tong was the only man besides Lian Lingzhu who had this much common sense in the Thousand Link Slavers. He had lived to be 83 thanks to being able to discern what product was good since birth. He had never been swindled and could choose good slaves as easily as choosing fresh fish. Lian Lingzhu and him were good friends and drinking buddies.
The raid on the city was set to start at the next dawn, and Appraiser Tong was grinning with excitement underneath his white beard that reached his belly. If he could choose some talented slaves in this raid, he would get a good cut when they were sold. He wanted to buy a 15 year old concubine for himself this time around since his 7th wife had already turned 30 and he was ready to sell her off to a brothel for cheap.
Tian Mingyun woke up with an oddly refreshed expression on his face atop a small mound of burnt grass and leaves. He had never felt this healthy and clean before. He tried to remember why, and then suddenly opened his mouth.
"Speak... I can speak! Hahahahahaha!"
His laughter and shouts did not subside for minutes, and only stopped when his stomach growled. His abdomen had sunk in and his stomach was basically roaring at him to eat. He quickly ran around to find something to eat.
Before long, he spotted a large insect on a tree busily drinking its. That insect was bigger than his palm and had dark blue lines on its white back. Tian Mingyun had eaten this kind of insect before, so he quickly caught the distracted insect in his palms, flipped it over, and started eating it raw.
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In the past, Tian Mingyun had tried to cook this insect and saw how the half digested resin and sap in its body exploded like a torch. He did not know it, but this was called a Pine Flea and was seen as slave food. It was more common than dirt if one knew to look for the top branches of a pine tree, and only small ones like this would climb down. The large members of this kind of insect did not fly but jumped from tree top to tree top at night.
Tian Mingyun ran around the forest and ate another 5 Pine Fleas before returning back to his den. He finally felt full, but the taste of the Pine Fleas was truly like cow dung, so he kept spitting the saliva in his mouth.
After resting and napping for a few hours, he woke up at sunset to grab another Pine Flea and walked into the city. His belly was full, and he had managed to heal his voice. Now, he wanted to speak to another person for the first time in his life. It was truly hell for him to know the language but be unable to convey his words to anyone so far.
Tian Mingyun headed to the Huo Household, which was nothing but a shed that used to be occupied by a widowed granny. He knew that Huo Zheng would not return for a while since he was busy collecting the dead soldiers' tokens outside the city every day. So, he wanted to speak to Huo Lan. He pitied the starving girl after all.
When Tian Mingyun finally reached there, he saw Huo Lan's mother weaving a straw hat for his son while singing. Huo Lan on the other hand was crying behind the house while holding her belly.
Tian Mingyun quietly walked up to her and handed her a Pine Flea. He knew the taste was bad, and most of the other people in the city did not eat it even when they starved. So, he did not expect Huo Lan to quickly snatch it away from his hands and start devouring it.
She was eating like an animal, using her hands just to hold the living insect while he mouth tore into the insect bite after bite. Tian Mingyun could do nothing but look at her, he appreciated it. Finally, someone was honestly eating food in the way he did.
Huo Lan did not seem to care the least bit about the taste and licked the exoskeleton of the insect clean of every last bit of its flesh. She then took a palm full of dirt and smacked it against her mouth and lips to turn any liquids left from the insect into mud before wiping it clean with her forearm.
She was only 9 years old, but she had been hungry for so long that she had been planning about how to quickly eat food and hide it from her mother if the chance arose.
She only spoke a word after she was done.
"Thank you. What was your name?"
She had never bullied Tian Mingyun, or gone outside all too much at all, so she did not know he was a mute.
"Tian Mingyun. You?" Tian Mingyun said with a bright smile.
He was not smiling because he liked Huo Lan particularly, but instead because he was glad to speak. Huo Lan also smiled, not because she liked Tian Mingyun much, but because she had been looking forward to eating for so long.
That moment became the first of their mutual understanding. They both knew that they were doing something that the other side enjoyed. It was also the first time that either of them enjoyed anything close to a friendship.
Tian Mingyun brought over a few more Pine Fleas that evening and they both kept eating as they talked, Huo Lan's mother too busy weaving straw clothes for her son. After all, a straw hat and cape could protect one from the rain and snow for a whole season.
"Tian Mingyun... You have a long name. Mine is too short when you compare." Huo Lan was saying whatever came to her mind first.
"I guess so, but it looks cool when you write it down. It was on a token around my neck when I was small, it got burnt a few years ago though."
"Token? Like those ones that the soldiers have that my big brother collects?"
"Oh, much smaller. Also made out of dry clay. It only had 'Tian Mingyun' written on it. It is what I first learned to read and write, the rest I learned from thrown away account books and reports from inns and nobles."
"Wow... You are smart. Not even my dead knew how to read and write."
"Hehehe... Smart. Yeah, I am pretty smart. I guess."
This was the first time Tian Mingyun heard a compliment. So he gave a compliment back.
"Your hands are really strong. Those insects usually scratch me up real good, but your hands are perfectly fine."
Huo Lan smiled brightly before she answered.
"Yes! I pick out and bind the straws for my mom too. My hands never get red or hurt. Well... Mom does not like it when I do it though, so I haven't done it in a while."
Tian Mingyun saw it, that spark of joy that he felt the moment he cured himself with the Cauldron Fevers recipe. That same spark, a far less bright form of it, was inside Huo Lan's eyes. She wanted to use her hands, even more than she wanted to eat while starving.
Before Tian Mingyun could speak more, Huo Lan told him to run away since her mother was done weaving a straw cape for Huo Zheng. He was still smiling as he grabbed the insect shells on the floor and ran away.
Huo Ai was a loving woman, though one would not think so if they were to be her neighbors. Huo Ai's love was always selective since birth. She had loved her father dearly, and never showed any love to her mother but learned whatever she could about being a better daughter or woman from her. She then finally met the man who would be her husband soon after her father's death. She also loved him wholeheartedly.
Huo Ai's love blossomed all the more once she had her son, Huo Zheng. She had even chosen a high and mighty sounding name for her son because she had such deep love for him from the first moment she embraced him in her arms. She would gladly carry her son on her back if he did so much as ask.
However, Huo Ai never found it in her heart to love her next child. Huo Lan had been born healthy and strong, the midwife even burnt incense to thank the Heavens for such a healthy daughter being born in the Huo family. Huo Ai tried to celebrate it too, she showed effort to love her daughter. Even if only because her husband had shown such joy at having 2 healthy kids.
Huo Ai stopped trying once her husband died. Huo Lan was a well intended and healthy child, yet Huo Ai had no compassion for her. Even Huo Lan's naturally strong hands became a point of dislike for Huo Ai. She even secretly hoped Huo Lan would die during the war, Huo Ai was only glad that Huo Zheng had survived and was doing well.
When the slavers started their raid into the ruined and defenseless city at dawn, Huo Ai noticed them and quickly grabbed both of her kids and yelled.
"Run! Run to where those two soldiers outside the city are!" She made no effort to alert anyone else.
The slaver raid descended upon the Yellow Leaf City like dogs pouncing on a dying animal. They were swift and ruthless, but they made no rush once they got in and spent their time picking the best pieces. Whenever someone tried to run away, they were shot with bows. Whenever they resisted, they were lashed to teach others a lesson with their screams.
Leaving the city from the main gates was impossible, as the Thousand Link Slavers had deployed their Thousand Li Chain. It was a thick bronze chain drawn taut by 4 oxen that blocked the main exits of the city while a few people lit fires near it to keep it too hot for people to touch. The oxen were protected from the hot chain thanks to the last links being made of stone, so they did not transfer any heat. This method was Appraiser Tong's idea and had been effective for 25 years.