“Hey! Come back here!”

A young woman was seen running through a forest. Her hair was messy and her clothes didn’t seem like they had been washed in weeks. Calluses had formed on her bloodied feet as she was bolting into the distance. She kept looking back while hearing angered shouts that were getting closer with each moment.

“Damn slave!”

“What?”

The girl was preoccupied with looking behind her while escaping but suddenly she heard a voice from the front. The moment she turned her face she saw a fist coming her way.

“UGhhh…”

She was struck down during her attempt to flee and crumbled like a deflated balloon onto the ground. Soon another man that was following her came out from the bushes.

“Stupid slut, making me run!”

The man looked maddened by the unruly slave and quickly took it out on the young woman. His foot was planted in her abdomen which made her tumble into some bushes.

“Hey, be careful. The Lord wanted her alive for the big event.”

“Tsk…”

The angry man clicked his tongue while going over to where the woman tumbled towards.

“Come here… hm?”

The young woman was barely moving at this point and the man grasped her arm. He leaned down to do this but while there he also noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

“Hey, what’s that?”

“Where…”

He pointed to the shrubs, there he could see a foot sticking out. The other person that was there pulled out a large saber and slowly approached.

“Huh? Did another slave escape?”

What he saw was another person down on the ground. It was a man this time, it looked like this person had been through a lot. The robe that he was running was all cut up and his body had also many small wounds all over it.

“No… is he still alive? Was this bastard attacked by some beasts?”

The man with the saber moved closer and gave a poke to this man’s foot with his weapon. The moment he did he could see it twitch slightly.

“Still alive? Must be a tough bastard but he doesn’t feel special…”

The two men looked at each other. One of them grabbed the girl and slung her over his shoulder.

“Take him, the more stock we have for the event the better.”

The other slaver looked to the half-dead man and grinned.

“This is your lucky day, you’ll help us please the clan lords.”

The man that was covered in a mix of soil, blood, and leaves was grabbed by the other man and dragged back to where they came from.

“Took you long enough, who is that?”

“We found this one in the bushes, he is half dead but should prove as a nice addition to the ‘event’, Boss.”

The two large burly men returned to what looked to be a caravan of people. There was a row of slaves all tied up in shackles with a couple of muscular men surrounding them. They were holding whips and when anyone got out of line or slowed down they would deliver punishment.

“For the event?”

An old man in a robe moved his hand over to the passed-out man. He yanked his hair up to look at his face, his eyebrow was raised instantly after examining.

“Not bad… if we cleaned him up he could go for some spirit crystals.”

This man was wearing an expensive-looking robe. His long skeleton-like fingers were adorned with many rings and gemstones. He was quite lanky and tall and was clearly the owner of this slave caravan.

“Alas there is no time, toss him in the cage with the others, we will use him. Don’t let the girl escape, if we lose her the lord will have our heads, is that understood!”

“Yes, boss.”

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The half-dead man and the young woman were then promptly tossed into a large carriage. This carriage was just a big cage with a lot of shackled people in it. All of them were wearing metal collars around their necks and the same collar found its way onto this man’s neck as well.

“Young lady...”

The moment the girl was tossed into the cage a few people moved over to her.

“I’m sorry… I wasn’t fast enough… I just didn’t have enough strength and this slave collar.”

Most of the people from this cage gathered around the girl that was caught. They were all wearing similar robes with the same emblem. They all had seen better days, everyone was beaten and bruised. The food and water rations were minimal and everyone was barely holding up.

“Save your strength Lady Yanmei, there is still hope… if we can survive through that...”

An old man commented from the side while looking out through the cage bars.

“Do you really think that if we survive they will keep their promise?”

“The White Tiger Clan isn’t known for their mercy… but if they go back on their word then they will lose face... They will let us go but I’m sure their assassins will be sent soon after, that will be our chance to escape…”

“I’m sorry… if I just accepted the White Tiger Clan’s young master’s proposal this wouldn't be happening…”

“It’s fine young lady… no one expected them to poison the lord so swiftly…”

“But we need to look towards the future…”

The man tried to reassure the young lady that there was still hope but soon he looked to the side. There the half-dead young man was lying, barely breathing while also bleeding.

“Who is that?”

“I don’t know… they picked him up from the forest, I think he was attacked by some beast… an unlucky bystander…”

“Truly unlucky… he would have a bigger chance surviving in the forest than here…”

Some weak chuckling escaped from the people in this cage. They all knew that they were more than likely heading towards their demise. This person that had barely lived through the beast attack would soon meet his end as he wasn’t in any condition to survive through what was coming next.

“We should help him...”

Lady Yanmei called out while moving over and having trouble turning the man around. The man’s face was covered with dirt, blood, and grass even with that it was clear that he was quite handsome. There was no water that they could use to clean it. At most what the slaves could do was bandage up the wounds with ripped cloth parts.

Soon the trip continued and lasted a day till they arrived at a large city. The carriage with the slaves was covered up by a thick cloth so they couldn’t really see what was happening outside.

Xia Yanmei was a young lady from the Snapping Turtle clan. A month ago her life looked bright, her clan was prospering and everyone was living their lives to the fullest. Then she met him, the young master from the White Tiger Clan.

He demanded that she became his concubine but she refused. Their clan wasn’t much weaker than the White Tiger Clan but their parents told her to reconsider as they all knew how vicious those people were.

She knew that her refusing the offer was just a pretext to strike. There were already spies among them within a short amount of time her grandfather the strongest cultivator was poisoned and she was captured. A war was started which left her clan decimated, no one knew how many members were still alive or even if there any remained.

No one would come to help out. This was a fight between two small clans that didn’t account for much. Even this city was at the sidelines of the empire. Not many bigger factions showed up here and even if they did no one was counting on any help.

“All of you get in!”

The sound of a rusty metal door closing was heard by the captured clan members. They were all forced into one cell that clearly didn’t have enough for everyone.

“Is this the end…”

“Are they really going to do this to us?”

“Calm down everyone, there is still hope!”

“What hope? We are all doomed… we will all die tomorrow!”

The people from the Snapping Turtle Clan lamented while pushing against the metal bars. They would learn the hard way about why they shouldn’t be doing that. After a few seconds, the person that was yanking on the metal bars found himself being shocked. He dropped down to his knees with his hair standing up, not dead yet unconscious.

“Idiots, don’t touch the bars if you know what is good for you!”

The guard that was on duty laughed after seeing the first person being shocked. This wasn’t the first time a slave did this, he could never get enough of seeing people get electrocuted.

Xia Yanmei slumped against the cell wall and slid down onto her posterior. She curled her knees up all the way to her chest while hugging them. Everyone was dead tired, the lamenting and cursing stopped as no one had enough stamina to keep up.

“Is this really the end… father… mother…”

Tears started pouring out of her eyes while she tried not to sob. If she knew that this would be the outcome she would have accepted the proposition. Even then there was no guarantee that her clan would be left alone. In this cruel world, only strength prevailed and the weak were snuffed out like candles in the wind.

“Ugh…”

She heard a grunt to the side, the man that was dragged along with them was still here. She placed her hand on his forehead and could feel that he had a fever. There was not much that she could do for him though. No medicine herbs, no water, and no food. The only thing she could do for him is to place him in a comfortable sleeping position with her lap as a pillow.

“This is the real world huh...”

The girl lived a sheltered life so this was a first. The man before her looked weak but he was still struggling to survive. She wished that he would manage but even if he recovered, tomorrow his death would be assured.

During the night she couldn’t really sleep. The man continued to mumble strange things while tossing and turning. He mentioned a few unknown names of people and families that she had no idea about.

“I… I need to go b-back…”

He continued to mention these words while stretching out his hand as if he wanted to grasp something. She could only grasp it instead, the man’s grip was quite weak and she couldn’t feel an ounce of cultivation in him. The only thing she could think of, was him being crippled or just being one of the unlucky mortals that walked this world.

“Get your asses in gear, it's time for the big show!”

An obese man with yellowy teeth greeted them in the morning along with many guards. It was time to go towards their demise, still a little bit of hope remained as they were led through a corridor. The man that she spend the night nursing was pulled along, it seemed that he was close to waking up but not like the slavers would give him much time to recover.

When outside she was blinded by the bright sunlight and cheering people. All of them were led up to the outside, their shackles were quickly removed and the doors they came from closed behind them as they found themselves in a large arena, the people around them calling out for a good show and blood.