Star Meridian Synchronization was a spiritual technique that used weakness to overcome strength. It could lower a stronger opponent’s Star Meridian level or raise the user’s Star Meridian level to match the opponent’s within the formation. Though it was a balancing formation, it also possessed a measure of offensive capability. How it was used depended entirely on the cultivator casting it.
Because Ming Li’s Spiritual Court Meridian had not been at Full-Boundary, many Eight Meridian formations had been unusable to her. Now that she had advanced, she had many more options to either restrict Yuan Lu or escape from him.
Yuan Lu raised his hand to look at the star line on his wrist, then quickly changed his attitude and smiled: “It seems I shouldn’t have held back. I should have gone for a killing blow from the start.”
Ming Li shook the star line: “Do you want to be dishonorable?”
“I was never honorable to begin with,” Yuan Lu shrugged. “I do what makes me happy, and I don’t care about anything else.”
“Since your Spiritual Court Meridian is now at Full-Boundary, let’s switch to the Spiritual Court Meridian.” As soon as he finished speaking, the star line binding their wrists suddenly tightened.
A hint of seriousness appeared in Yuan Lu’s eyes: “For the Eight Meridian formations, I don’t like losing to you in this meridian either.”
The taut star line snapped instantly.
Black symbols and incantations flowed over both their hands. Star lines continuously rose from the water’s surface, intertwining and disappearing, densely covering the heavens and earth in the blink of an eye.
Both Yuan Lu and Ming Li formed their formations with exceptional speed. Though one was a Pilgrim and the other had once been a Pilgrim, both had profound research into the Eight Meridian formations, making their contest in the Eight Meridian formations difficult to determine a winner.
Fire Formation.
Water Formation.
Wind Formation.
The most basic yet most offensive Eight Meridian formations were cast repeatedly. As soon as one side formed a formation, the other would break it. Only whirlwinds raising water columns and fierce flames burning along star lines remained.
Xiang An’ge looked down at the ice surface beneath his feet, which seemed to extend several feet deep.
When he raised his head again, the two had already been enclosed in each other’s large formations. It would take more than a brief moment to determine a winner.
*
Yuan Lu’s Star Power fluctuated, and news of his challenge to Ming Li in Wu Fang Nation quickly reached others’ ears.
Shu Sheng, who was handling affairs at the Wu Jian Alliance, merely shook his head upon hearing this. His expression beneath his white mask was unseen, but his tone seemed to carry a hint of amusement as he said: “Smart.”
In contrast, Ye Yuanqing, discussing matters at the Yi Xian Hong Merchant Guild headquarters in the west, said flatly when he heard the news: “Foolish.”
The Yi Xian Hong Guild Leader, sitting to his right, handed him various official documents while saying: “Guild Leader Zhou has already taken action. It seems he has chosen the Imperial Capital’s side.”
“He thinks he has secured the west and wants to venture into the Imperial Capital.” Ye Yuanqing casually flipped through the documents handed to him, not looking up as he asked, “Where are the goods to be sent?”
The Yi Xian Hong Guild Leader nodded: “They’re already waiting at the entrance.”
Ye Yuanqing stood up: “I’ll go deliver them and return. Tell Guild Leader Zhou I’ll see him tonight.”
“Yes.”
Ever since the chaos in the pit many years ago, whenever it was time to send slaves to the pit, Ye Yuanqing would personally oversee the process to prevent any unwanted individuals from being sent in.
After all, before the incident, he could never have imagined that his disciple would be sent in, causing countless consequences and changes.
Tai Yi was close to the Myriad Mountains Forest in the west, with treacherous and complex terrain. The forest was full of fierce beasts and birds. Terrifying stories about people being eaten there circulated every year, gradually instilling fear in people, who would avoid the area.
It wasn’t easy for ordinary people to enter. Guardians watched every entrance to the Myriad Mountains Forest. Ordinary people who stumbled in by mistake would be persuaded to leave by these guardians.
The transport team’s carriages were covered with black cloth, completely concealing the goods inside. The mountain path, originally rugged, had been worn smooth over many years of use.
Their destination was deep in the Myriad Mountains, where three massive ancient mountains stood together. The entrance to the pit was inside the mountain. Ye Yuanqing stood in the shadows, his brows furrowed as he watched the transport convoy arrive.
The person in charge of overseeing the transport was the Vice Guild Leader of the Yi Xian Hong Merchant Guild, Xu Liangzhi.
At Ye Yuanqing’s signal, he had the black cloth covering the carriages entering the cave removed, allowing Ye Yuanqing to inspect the people inside. Approaching, Xu Liangzhi said: “I’ve already checked them before coming. They’re all native Earth Ghosts from Ting Lan State—an entire village of fifty-seven people.”
“The remaining one hundred and sixty-seven include homeless orphans, beggars, and those bought from slave markets or sold to workhouses by their families. Among them, forty can sense Star Power but haven’t awakened it. They know nothing about cultivation.”
These people being sent into the pit as slaves ranged from as young as five to as old as fifty or sixty.
Ye Yuanqing carefully examined the people in each carriage. Once he confirmed there were no issues, he said to Xu Liangzhi: “How is he doing in there?”
Xu Liangzhi smiled: “His clothes were stripped off. He’s not doing well.”
Ye Yuanqing, expressionless, said: “Teach him a lesson. It doesn’t matter if he’s ruined.”
Xu Liangzhi nodded: “Yes.”
*
Zhou Yi lay humiliated on the ground, unwilling to get up. Once standing, he would feel uncomfortable all over. He was struggling internally, wondering whether to steal some clothes to cover himself while the slaves were sleeping, but then worried that if discovered, the slaves might attack him as a group.
While he was conflicted and humiliated, warm clothing suddenly fell on his back. The female slave with a dirty face but bright eyes looked down at him without speaking. By the time Zhou Yi looked up, she had already turned and left.
Zhou Yi was first stunned, then felt a pang in his heart. In such circumstances, any act of kindness could instantly make him feel somewhat wronged.
He gritted his teeth, grabbed the thin garment, tied it around his waist, and slowly stood up with one hand supporting himself on the ground. His body was covered in bruises from the beating.
Zhou Yi walked toward the female slave. He lowered his head before her as she crouched by the tree, hugging her knees. His hair tips fell, covering his brows and eyes, as he said in a hoarse voice: “Thank you.”
The female slave pointed to the space beside her and said softly: “Rest here.”
Without her long-sleeved outer garment, her exposed arms revealed snow-white, delicate skin. Zhou Yi’s gaze fell on her shoulders, where both sides showed bite mark scars. He looked away, not daring to imagine what she had endured.
The female slave seemed to notice where his gaze had lingered, so she let down her bound hair to cover the marks on her shoulders.
Zhou Yi silently sat next to her by the tree. Both his body and spirit were exhausted. Today’s humiliation reminded him of home for the umpteenth time.
His father always had a harsh tongue but a soft heart. His sister had been sensible and understanding since childhood, making people feel protective towards her. One was his protector, and one was the person he needed to protect.
Why had he gone to Tai Yi in the first place?
Because of Ye Yiyi.
His father always said he wasn’t smart or decisive enough, that he was too soft-hearted, which wasn’t good for managing the guild. If he took over the Zhou Merchant Guild in the future, he might suffer many losses and create weaknesses for the guild.
What good was having some talent in cultivation if he had no talent for business? He couldn’t inherit the family business.
Sometimes, when annoyed by his father’s criticism, he would retort, “Why not let my sister Zhou Caicai inherit the guild? She’s smarter than I and skilled in business. She could manage the guild’s operations in the future, and I could cultivate to protect the guild’s safety. Wouldn’t that be perfect?”
His father’s expression would become one of exasperation, saying, “Your sister is indeed smarter and more capable than you, but she always acts on impulse and has almost no sense of responsibility. She might agree to be the guild leader today, but if she becomes infatuated with something else tomorrow, she’ll simply abandon her duties and leave.”
His sister, listening nearby, would look innocent but whisper, “Brother, Father is right. Yesterday, I thought being the guild leader would be nice, but today I think it’s too troublesome.”
Their father feared she would change her mind too quickly. His son might be slower, but at least he had a much stronger sense of responsibility than his daughter.
So Zhou Yi cultivated while learning how to manage the guild. But he truly had no talent in this area and learned very slowly. At his most discouraged moment, he happened to meet Ye Yiyi.
That year, during a gathering of the Eight Major Merchant Guilds, Ye Yiyi happened to witness him being scolded by his father. After everyone left, she came out to comfort him in a corner of the corridor. She corrected each mistake he had made and encouraged him to study hard, saying: “I used to be quite stupid too, not learning things as quickly as my brother. But as long as I was willing to keep learning, there would eventually be a day I understood. You shouldn’t give up either.”
That night, Zhou Yi realized that apart from his sister Zhou Caicai, there was such a lovely girl in the world.
Later, he joined Tai Yi as a disciple against his father’s objections and cultivated there. Only now did he realize he would pay a huge price for that moment of infatuation.
*
While Zhou Yi fell asleep thinking, the female slave who had let him rest didn’t sleep. She rested her chin on her arms, gazing downward at the ground.
From a distance, Chen Zhou, expressionless, walked to another giant tree and kicked awake the sleeping, scarred man, Gu San. Gu San hissed, about to curse, but seeing it was Chen Zhou, he rolled his eyes, suppressing his anger as he asked quietly: “What do you want?”
Chen Zhou said, “Clothes.”
Gu San instinctively glanced toward the female slave’s direction, then darkened his face and took off his upper garment to give to him.
Chen Zhou took the clothes and walked toward the female slave.
The female slave seemed to sense something. As she raised her head, Chen Zhou was about to drape the clothing over her, but she reached out to stop him. Their eyes met. Chen Zhou, bending over, met her calm gaze and recognized the refusal in her eyes.
As she straightened up, her black hair swayed. Chen Zhou’s eyes reflected the marks on her shoulders.
The two remained in a standoff. The female slave gripped his hand tightly. Chen Zhou looked at the calm face before him, easily seeing through all the emotions beneath that calmness.
He said softly, “Wen Su.”
With just these two words, she lost the strength to refuse. Her grip on his hand gradually loosened as she lowered her head, allowing Chen Zhou to drape the clothing over her shoulders.
Wen Su clutched the corner of the garment and said quietly: “Don’t worry about me. I don’t need your protection anymore.”
Chen Zhou didn’t speak.
Wen Su continued: “No one here is worth your protection.”
Chen Zhou listened in silence, helping her tie back her loose hair. When he looked at her one last time, Wen Su still kept her head lowered.
He left.
Wen Su’s hand gripping the clothing gradually tightened, her fingernails almost digging into her flesh as she controlled all the emotions surging within her. She dared not raise her head to look at Chen Zhou.
Chen Zhou hadn’t said anything, but she understood everything.
He didn’t dare give her his clothing for fear that Wang Geng and others would discover it and torture her instead.
Wen Su wanted to say, don’t worry about me, don’t worry about anyone, just protect yourself.
But she couldn’t utter another word. If she spoke again, she wouldn’t be able to control her emotions.
*
The bell rang from the drum towers at the edge of the pit. The slaves’ rest period ended. Because there was an urgent need for goods outside, the slaves’ rest time was shortened today, and they were called early to work in the fire caves.
The supervisors saw Zhou Yi with only one piece of clothing tied around his waist and smiled meaningfully, poking him with their clubs while laughing: “Quite fleshy, aren’t you?”
Zhou Yi remained expressionless, thinking to himself: endure it.
He looked for Wen Su in the lineup but couldn’t find her. Instead, he ended up in the same cave as Chen Zhou and Gu San. Drawing on his memory, Zhou Yi realized that the thirty-some people in each cave weren’t fixed.
When Zhou Yi descended into the cave, he discovered that the person who had been kicked down from above yesterday was dead. The supervisors cursed their bad luck and ordered the slaves to help carry the dead person up: “Throw him into the cremation pit.”
The name alone told him it wasn’t a good place.
Zhou Yi felt a strange sense of security in the cave. He looked at Chen Zhou, his heart a mix of emotions. He never expected that Bei Dou’s senior disciple would end up in such a state.
Although he had never met Chen Zhou before, he had heard the name of Bei Dou’s Yaoguang Hall’s senior disciple. This man was also friends with Zhong Anqi. Among the elite young generation from the major sects, these two names often appeared together.
Besides these two, there was also a disciple from East Yang.
One was Ye Yuanqing’s disciple, and one was Song Tianjiu’s disciple.
Though Dong Yeshou hadn’t broken through his boundary, his strength was on par with a Pilgrim’s.
Moreover, the disciple trained by him, who had reached the Life and Death Boundary, far outshone the disciples of the two Pilgrims.
Zhou Yi walked to Chen Zhou’s side as he worked and, after hesitating for a moment, said: “You’re Chen Zhou, aren’t you?”
Chen Zhou ignored him.
Zhou Yi, with a complex expression, said: “Do you know why I’m here? Because I overheard Zhong Anqi talking with someone… That person has been impersonating you as the senior disciple of Yaoguang Hall at Bei Dou for years. Recently, Bei Dou discovered this, and he fled back to the west to find Zhong Anqi.”
Chen Zhou, who was digging out a small piece of fire jade from the black mud, paused in his movement.
Gu San, who was scraping the wall nearby, turned his head in shock.
*
When the new slaves were chained and released into the pit, they didn’t see many people because the other slaves were working in the fire caves at that time.
Because there were many new arrivals, those who cried and resisted were beaten with clubs by the supervisors and fell behind. Some in the procession trembled with fear, while others remained silent and resigned to their fate.
The newly arrived Earth Ghosts weren’t sent to the fire caves first but to a higher ground at the edge of the pit where the flames were more visible.
This was the place called the cremation pit.
Black pillars stood above the pit, from which iron chains could be lowered into its depths. Inside, flames burned endlessly, and an entire wall of the pit showed flowing patterns of magma.
The new Earth Ghost slaves stood at the edge of the pit. The supervisor made them look down: “You know you can’t be killed, but there are plenty of ways here to make you wish you were dead. Look carefully!”
The most terrifying sight wasn’t the flowing magma or the burning high temperature, but the figures climbing on the pit walls. They were burned to death repeatedly, only to regenerate and come back to life, desperately climbing upward in agonizing screams, trying to escape this fiery hell.
The shrill screams made one’s scalp tingle, and the smell of burning flesh was nauseating.
The supervisor randomly kicked two unfortunate souls into the pit. The Earth Ghosts on the shore cried out in shock, looking at the fallen people in disbelief.
“As long as you obediently follow orders and work honestly, you won’t fall in,” the supervisor pointed his club at them. “Understand?”
The panicked people huddled together, trembling and nodding desperately.
Cheng Jingbai, his face smeared black with dirt, disgustedly pushed away someone who was hugging him and crying with snot bubbles. Listening to the screams from this human inferno, he secretly felt relieved that he hadn’t let Zhou Xiang come along this time.