Without a backward glance at the weeping, pathetic thugs, the old madam strode alone through the lavishly decorated courtyard, her silk robes whispering against the polished stone. She moved with a grim, singular purpose to an unremarkable, shadowed corner, a place where the gaudy decorations ended and the true darkness began. There, she lifted a heavy wooden panel hidden by a thick, trailing vine, its leaves unnaturally dark. A spiraling stone staircase descended into a damp, swallowing darkness, and without hesitation, she descended into the hidden chamber below.
The air that greeted her at the bottom was a stark, physical blow, a stark contrast to the glittering luxury above. It was thick and heavy, saturated with the cloying, sweet stench of decay, like spoiled meat and old flowers. The source of the odor was the figure seated in the center of the room. It could hardly be called a person anymore. The body was a mass of decay, its skin covered in thick, fissured calluses that made it resemble, from a distance, a gnarled and withered tree trunk that had somehow learned to sit in meditation.
"Mistress," the madam whispered, her voice a tremulous thread, barely audible. "The girl, the one chosen for you, she escaped today."
The woman who had been so imperious and domineering before her thugs now cowered like a frightened kitten before this decaying entity. Her body trembled uncontrollably, her form hunched so low she looked like a golden ingot that had been tossed upon the rough stone floor.
"That girl," she stammered, forcing the words out, "the one with the exceptionally strong innate spiritual energy, the one meant for your offering..."
Boom!
A deafening, concussive force erupted from the center of the room, a wave of pure malice given form. An invisible power slammed into the old madam, lifting her from her feet and sending her tumbling across the floor like a kicked ingot. She rolled several times, her body bruising against the hard stone, before crashing hard into a cold wall, finally coming to a gasping, wheezing stop. As the turbulent air currents swirled, disturbing the dust of the chamber, the space beneath the decaying figure's bed was revealed. It was piled high with bones, slender and delicate, the unmistakable, clean-picked remains of young girls, a silent testament to the horror of this place.
"Just one more." The voice that emerged from the rotten form was a dry rasp, like stone grinding against stone, devoid of any moisture or warmth. "Just one more, and this old body will cast off this decay and regain youth. I will grant you the immortality you crave. At dawn tomorrow, go into the city. Find the Governor. Tell him to mobilize every soul in Yu City to search for her. They must dig three feet into the ground if they must, but they will find her. Such an innately gifted vessel is a treasure that appears once in a century."
"Yes! It will be done!" the madam gasped from the floor, struggling to push herself up onto her elbows, her body aching.
"No," the raspy voice corrected, a note of sharp, cold impatience cutting through the air. "Do not wait for dawn. Take my token now. Find the Governor and have him set out before the sun rises. She must not slip away."
With a flick of a skeletal, barely fleshed wrist, the old monster tossed a black, glistening token toward the prostrate woman. It clattered on the stone beside her. The madam scrambled to catch it, her fingers closing around the cold, unnaturally smooth metal. She did not dare to delay for even a single moment. She knew, with a certainty that froze her blood, that disobeying the Master's orders meant a death far more gruesome and prolonged than any she could imagine.
—
Dawn. The Mountains.
A long, steady breath escaped Su Min's lips, misting slightly in the cool morning air as the first rays of sunlight pierced the horizon, painting the sky in hesitant hues of gold and rose. She opened her eyes, emerging from her deep, trance-like meditation, the world seeming sharper, clearer than it had before.
"I have finally crossed that first threshold," she murmured to the quiet, dusty temple. "This Changchun Gong truly harmonizes with my talents, though its pace is undeniably gradual." It was a method of patient accumulation, not explosive growth.
Feeling the subtle, thrumming changes within her body, a faint, satisfied smile touched her lips. The energy circulating through her meridians was fresh and vital, a thin but steady stream where there had been only emptiness. The only drawback was that the Changchun Gong was not a martial path known for swift or violent surges of power. A flicker of her system panel confirmed her progress, the words solid and real in her mind.
[Name: Su Min]
[Cultivation: Early Body Refining (Mortal)]
[Talent: Immortality (having infinite lifespan and not aging)]
[Divine Ability: Heavenly Dao Insight (Over time, comprehend techniques from the cosmos)]
[Cultivation Art: Changchun Gong (Fragmented)][Skill: Basic Sword Control, Three Forms]
[Life-bound Spirit Treasure: Flying Sword Embryo (Yellow-Grade, Low-Quality)][Life-bound Spirit Treasure: Flying Sword Embryo (Yellow-Grade, Low-Quality)]
At her current level of strength, she could easily overwhelm the thugs from the previous night, even without relying on the surprise of her spirit treasure. Her body felt tighter, her senses slightly heightened.
"Still," she reminded herself, the smile fading into a look of sober assessment, "this is only the beginning of body refinement. I have not even approached the Innate Qi Cultivation stage. This does not truly count as cultivation. It is closer to advanced martial arts." The most important task now was to find a remote and quiet place where she could cultivate in peace, far from this turmoil, and build this foundation properly.
Yet, despite this small achievement, a shadow fell over her features as she sifted through the inherited memories clamoring in her mind, the ghost of another life pressing in on her.
"I can't recall any safe havens in this region, and this dynasty..."
Her heart grew heavier with every passing moment of reflection. This was not merely an unfamiliar land, it was a dynasty that had officially marked her for death. The Su Clan had been exterminated, their name scraped from the records and memory alike. And she remembered it all, not as a story, but as her own past.
Every moment from infancy to the age of fourteen, every childhood fear soothed by a mother's hand, every public humiliation endured with a stiff back, every long and shivering night staring at the cold, stone walls of a prison cell never meant for a child. Even if these memories were inherited, they were now carved deep into her bones, woven into the fabric of her soul like scars that would never fade. She was Su Min, in every sense that mattered.
But even with all those memories, or perhaps because of them, she knew she was powerless for now.
Her body was still weak, barely touched by the Early Body Refining stage. While her status as a former official's daughter had spared her the very worst brutalities that befell others in the purge, her body still bore the invisible weight of that trauma, the malnutrition and the fear. The brothel's hounds had almost dragged her back just last night.
All she could do was hide, endure, and grow stronger. She exhaled slowly, forcing down the cold, tight knot of fury that burned in her chest, a fire she had to bank for now.
"Ten years," she whispered, the vow a quiet promise to the dawn light filtering through the broken temple roof. "Twenty, if that is what it takes. Let them forget me. Let them believe the last of the Su is already dead and buried."
Her eyes gleamed, not with tears of grief, but with a hard, unyielding resolve that felt older than her years.
"I will take it all back when I am ready."
And when that day came, not a single soul who had wronged her family or her, past or present, would be spared. The debt of blood would be paid in full.
However, just as this resolution solidified within her, loud, harsh shouts shattered the morning calm, echoing from far too nearby, ripping her from her thoughts.
"There! The tracks lead this way! It looks like she went into that abandoned temple! Hurry! There is a big reward for her capture!"
The shouting sent a jolt of pure alarm through her. Su Min's breath caught in her throat. Pure instinct took over. She forced her aching body upright, gritting her teeth against the sharp protest in her muscles from a night of meditation and flight. Without a second thought, she pushed off the dusty ground and darted into the deep cover of the trees behind the temple. Her limbs screamed with every movement, but she did not stop.
She vaulted from one branch to another, her movements urgent and clumsy rather than graceful, her new strength not yet mastered. Her balance wavered, and her vision swam from the strain and sudden exertion. It was not efficient, but it was desperate, and it carried her far enough to reach a thick, shadowy patch of underbrush a hundred paces away. There, she dropped low, pressing herself against the leaf litter and earth, and stilled her breathing into near silence, becoming just another shadow.
Moments later, several men in the distinct, dark uniforms of city constables charged into the clearing she had just vacated. They were armed with broad blades, and their eyes scanned the undergrowth with a predatory, practiced precision, looking for any sign of movement.
"Damn it. Fan out! She could not have gone far!"
From her hiding place, Su Min narrowed her eyes, watching them through the gaps in the foliage.
"This feels wrong," she thought, a deep frown of confusion creasing her brow.
Even in her weakened state, her instincts screamed that this was no ordinary manhunt for an escaped slave. The timing was too immediate, the resources deployed too significant. For city constables to be this deep in the mountains at dawn, on the trail of one girl, spoke of a priority that made no sense. Something about the situation reeked of a deeper, more sinister purpose.
"I should check somewhere else," she decided, the thought cold and clear.
Sensing the grave danger, Su Min chose not to reveal herself or engage. Instead, she began to stealthily retrace her steps, moving with painstaking care back toward the area where she had first entered the mountains, hoping to find a different, less watched path.
In theory, an Early Body Refining cultivator should have been able to move with effortless ease, scaling walls and leaping across rooftops like the martial heroes of legend.
In theory.
But her body had not yet caught up to that ideal. She crept away slowly, staying low to the ground, her movements cautious and deliberate. The heavy ache in her limbs had not lessened, in fact, every crouch and stretch seemed to amplify it. Her qi circulation was still sluggish, her stamina poor. Every motion was a conscious effort, driven not by cultivated strength but by sheer, desperate necessity.
For now, however, necessity was enough. It had to be.
Meanwhile, deep in the ravine at the mountain's base, a group of people stood gathered around a gruesome corpse, the morning light doing little to soften the horror of the scene.
"The wound is perfectly smooth, cleanly severed as if by a master bladesmith's finest work," the Governor of Yu City murmured, his face a mask of deep trouble as he knelt to inspect Niu Ma's remains. "Are you certain it was that girl? To inflict an injury like this would require considerable strength and a very rare weapon."
"I saw it with my own eyes! That witch conjured a sword from nothingness! With one swipe, Boss Niu Ma was chopped into pieces, and he did not even die immediately!" one of the thugs wailed, his voice cracking with remembered terror.
"Governor, there is no need for further hesitation," the brothel madam interjected, her tone blunt and arrogant, cutting off any further doubt. "The girl has fled into the mountains. You must mobilize the city's forces and seal off this entire mountain range. Search every inch if you have to."
The scene was disturbingly incongruous, a mere brothel keeper issuing commands to the city's highest official as if he were a servant. Yet, shockingly, the Governor did not oppose her. He merely furrowed his brow in thought, weighing her words.
"Very well," he acquiesced, his voice low. "Before His Majesty sent me here, he did grant me certain special authorities. I will deploy five thousand troops to surround the mountains. That pampered little girl will not last long. I will treat it as a public service, ridding the people of a menace."
He turned to a middle-aged officer clad in polished armor and whispered a string of low, urgent instructions. The officer's eyes widened slightly in surprise and unease. Mobilizing five thousand troops on such a pretext, for a single girl, was an extreme, unprecedented measure, but with the order given, he could not object. He turned, mounted his horse with a sharp command, and galloped toward the city to rally the soldiers.
From her vantage point on the ridge, having circled back to assess the threat, Su Min looked down and saw the Governor and the old madam conversing. The madam was speaking, and the Governor listened with a politeness that was entirely out of place, his head slightly bowed. Unfortunately, she was too far away to hear their words, but the body language was unmistakable.
"That is the Governor," she whispered, a cold certainty settling in her stomach like a stone. "And he is speaking to a brothel madam with the deference of a subordinate. Something is seriously wrong here." It was clear now that the one targeting her was no ordinary person, and the web of power she was trapped in was far more vast and dangerous than she had ever imagined. This was not just about an escaped slave, it was about something much, much darker.