81 A Debt Reneged

Cha Ming woke to the smell of smoke. The suffocating cloud permeated the entire room. Fortunately, his constitution was strong enough for him to handle this little bit of inconvenience. He quickly donned his robe and warily felt the door handle. It was cold.

Opening the door, he kept low and rushed over to the doctor's room, where he saw the old man asleep at his desk. This was a common occurrence—the man was committed to his work and sacrificed his sleep far too often. Looking around, he grabbed the doctor, who was unconscious due to the smoke, and threw him over his shoulder, then proceeded to the doctor's office. Using a burst of his strength, he broke open the locked shelf and willed all the books into his Clear Sky World. Then he opened the door to the clinic and exited.

As soon as he stepped out, a carpet of ten nets flew out, forming an inescapable enclosure. In his prime, it would not have been a problem. Without his qi, however, he had no movement techniques that could help him escape. In addition, he was burdened with the old doctor, who he would never abandon.

The nets struck Cha Ming, and his knees weakened. He crumpled under his own weight, taking Li Yin down with him.

"How do you like our body-restraining nets?" a voice asked. "We prepared these just for you, the only threat in this village."

Cha Ming's eyes narrowed when he heard the voice. It was the member of the Serpentine Sword bandits he had released the other day, Lei Dong.

"Why did you come back?" Cha Ming asked bitterly, already knowing the answer. "What could you possibly have seen to make you want to come back?"

"Normally, I wouldn't tell you," the man responded. "However, you are my savior. It was the two kids that gave it away. They wore those spirit stones casually, like they were as plentiful as cabbages. If it weren't for them and your overly protective attitude, I wouldn't have given it a second thought."

Cha Ming's glared at the man. This was the first time he'd encountered such a hateful person in this world. Someone who would betray their savior for material gain.

"You have no one to blame but yourself and your naivete," Lei Dong continued. "If you were smart, you would have cut my throat without another thought." He looked at his companions. "Wrap them up and send them to the cage."

Cha Ming looked around as he was transported by four men. Their house wasn't on fire, and neither was any other house in the village. There were only burned packages that had been set out around the house to lure him out. In the distance, he saw hundreds of people being herded toward the center of town like cattle. There, the bandits were assembling an intricate cage with practiced grace. They had evidently done this many times before.

Cha Ming didn't dare look at his fellow villagers as they were transported away from their homes. He felt immense guilt about what was transpiring. The doctor had been right—he shouldn't have saved the man. Soon, he found himself shackled in a separate cell from the others, who he could still see through wooden bars. Beside him was a group of five men whose wrists were bound with qi-restraining manacles. They were the only cultivators in the village, the ones who kept them safe from spirit beasts.

They looked at him with complicated expressions. It wasn't scorn or loathing. Rather, it was a mixture of disappointment and understanding. After all, he was a healer. It was difficult for him to resist healing a stray cultivator who washed up on their shore, just like he had.

"Everyone listen to what I have to say," one of the bandits said. He exuded a familiar but powerful presence, the aura of foundation establishment. Even in his peak shape, Cha Ming would not be his match. "I, Wei Chen, have captured this village in order to obtain these crystal stones." The man held out a fistful of shards for the thousands of villagers to see.

"You are all worthless as slaves, and we are only interested in harvesting these stones," he continued. "If you provide us information on where to obtain them, we will simply take them and leave. All your houses and storefronts have already been pillaged. However, these stones are far from enough. We are searching for the source. What is useless to you is extremely useful to us. Don't force us to act recklessly for something of so little value to you."

He motioned to one of the guards, who brought a little girl out. It was the one who had unknowingly revealed the village's wealth, Yi Qiao. She no longer wore her bracelet and necklace. Her arms were covered with bruises. Seeing the villagers break out in hushed whispers, he brought a dagger out and nicked her throat slightly. A small stream of blood trickled down her tender skin.

"We will tell you everything," a calm voice said. "After all, these stones are worthless, and our children's lives are priceless. Mr. Zhou, Mr. Xing, Mr. Chen, please step out and help me hold a conversation with these gentlemen." These people were the elders in charge of the village, while the voice that called out was that of the mayor.

"Excellent!" Wei Chen exclaimed. "I knew you would be reasonable people. Men, please gather these four and bring them to my tent."

***

A tall, slender cultivator in a black robe sat on a large chair inside his makeshift tent. He held a bronze sword covered in intricate blue runes at his waist. Known in his group as "Archaic Sword," Wei Chen was a legend among bandits, and the amount of loot he'd pilfered over the years could allow him to retire several times over.

Still, he didn't stop. People speculated that he robbed and murdered for pleasure. Regardless of their conclusions, they all they knew it was foolish to oppose the Archaic Sword, the vice leader of the Serpentine Swords.

Soon, four older figures were ushered in. They were all mere mortals with not hint of cultivation in their weak bodies. They sat down meekly, fully aware that their lives were in his merciless hands. Still, to rub the impression in, he let them wait for a quarter hour without saying anything. They sat in silence while Wei Chen stared at them, and they did not dare look up. After enough time had passed, he took out a large chest and set it on the ground. After opening it, he picked up a handful of shards and let them drop back down into the chest.

"So many mid-grade spirit stones," Wei Chen said softly. "It's truly a waste of nature's wonders to leave them rotting in this village. With these stones, a cultivator's power can increase tremendously. I would truly be a sinner if I left them in the hands of you mere mortals."

The elders said nothing in response.

"Tell me where I can find the source of these stones," Wei Chen continued. "And don't tell me they just washed up on shore. It's impossible for such a large quantity of spirit stones to appear out of nowhere. There must be a geological feature where they were extracted."

The mayor, who had been silent this whole time, finally spoke up. "We know where the source is. We can even tell you, as these stones are useless to us and merely used as currency and decoration. However, before we tell you, we want you to make an oath on the heavenly Dao. An oath that your bandits won't kill or harm our villagers, and that you will release us once you are done extracting the stones."

The bandit leader frowned. "You're hardly in a good position to negotiate. I'll have you know that I can simply torture you all to extract the answers. It would be better if you just told me, or this Buddha-like demeanor of mine will vanish and be replaced by a bloodthirsty devil that will destroy the villagers you hold dear."

"The people in the village are all we have," the old man said with a sigh. "Further, I've only brought these three men to confirm the truth of my words. Only the current and past mayors know where the source of the crystals is located, and the past mayor has already passed on. Generations ago, a mayor discovered the value of these stones and made these arrangements. It would be better if the crystals were lost than to make their location known to all."

Wei Chen chuckled. "Such foresight. Very well. I can't confirm the veracity of your words, so we'll continue our search for now. I'll let you know if you're truly in a position to bargain."

***

Every day that passed by was agonizing. Even though a small stream passed through the village, each prisoner was only allowed a cup of water per day to parch their thirst. Food was completely out of the question.

Cha Ming looked on at the destruction he'd sown. The bandits systematically destroyed their village, dismantling everything bit by bit in their search for the source. All this had started as soon as the leaders returned. They refused to discuss the contents of their meeting, but fortunately, the villagers trusted their elders unconditionally.

All Cha Ming could do during this time was continually destroy and replace old qi pathways. While it was difficult to concentrate with the body-restraining shackles, he was in a far better position than the qi cultivators who had their cultivation sealed. It seemed that the bandits had evaluated his condition and deemed it unnecessary to deal with a cultivator having crippled qi pathways.

Fair enough.

At some point, the old doctor had wandered over near his cell. The cell where he had been placed was a communal one that took up over 95% of the allocated space. He sat beside Cha Ming's cell until the young man opened his eyes. Cha Ming looked away when he saw Li Yin. The old man had been right.

"Let me tell you another story, young man," Li Yin said, sighing. He then looked to the side so Cha Ming could look up as he expounded his wisdom. "After the Spirit Doctor Association banned me from practicing medicine, I didn't listen to them. I gathered a group of young men like you who were eager to learn my craft, and I taught them without reservation. I did this for five years, and we continued treating patients throughout the city.

"Despite their previous judgement, the association didn't really want to bother with us. No one raised a stink, and we were able to continue practicing. One day, however, an up-and-coming spirit doctor came around looking for trouble. He was a noble, and he was keen on proving the superiority of his craft. He came swaggering into my establishment carrying two very badly beaten men. They were clearly on the verge of death, and I strongly suspected that this man had inflicted their wounds himself.

"Then he said, 'One of these men is wealthy and worthy of my care. He's a cultivator, and he's useful to society. The other, however, is a mortal. He is also a thief, so he deserves to die. I will save the wealthy man; save the poor thief if you can with your meager abilities.' After saying these words, he left. It was clearly a provocation, but I couldn't help myself. Even though the man was a thief, he didn't deserve to die.

"I spent the next three months nursing him back to health. I exhausted all my skills, and in the end, the thief's health was restored to seven tenths of his original capacity. He still had some crippling disabilities that I couldn't cure. Once he was healed, I released him. Little did I know that he was a plant by that young master, a pawn for him to squash my budding practice.

"I was arrested two days later on the charge of illegally practicing medicine. My apprentices were incarcerated as well. The thief who I saved, instead of being grateful, complained to the Spirit Doctor Association and said that my care had crippled him. Meanwhile, the young master that had brought him over that day said that while he had offered to treat the man, I had refused to let him treat him and had arrogantly insisted that my medicine was more than adequate.

"Of course, they believed his words over mine. My five apprentices were heavily fined, to the extent that they would need to submit themselves into indentured slavery just to live. Meanwhile, due to my previous offense, I was banished from every major city in the country.

"My actions ruined the lives of five promising young men and affected the many poor residents I normally treated. I was forced away from civilization. I traveled for many years until I finally encountered the current Crystal Falls mayor, who was out to do business. He noticed that I was a doctor but not a cultivator. After all, given the abundance of spirit stones in the village, he dared not invite spirit doctors for fear that greed might corrupt their hearts. He invited me to Crystal Falls, and I have been here ever since, tending to the village in peace.

"In case you didn't pick up on the moral of my story, I'll spell it out for you. I felt guilty for involving those around me, but I don't regret my actions. It's in a doctor's blood to save people, even the guilty. A doctor cannot betray his own consciousness. He can only do what he thinks is right and bear the consequences, just like I did. Just like I hope you will do now."

The doctor left shortly after, leaving Cha Ming in deep contemplation.

***

Another week passed, and the residents of the village were weakening, and the frequent outbursts of rage from Wei Chen's tent indicated that things weren't going as the bandits had hoped.

Finally, Wei Chen couldn't take it anymore and ordered the three elders and the mayor be brought to his tent. After six hours, a peal of thunder traveled across the clear sky, and indication that an oath to the heavenly Dao had been made. The mayor was dragged back to his cage, bloodied and with broken fingers but with a smile on his face. The three village elders didn't make it back, and Cha Ming soon saw their corpses being dragged out of Wei Chen's tent.

Over the next week, life improved for the villagers. The bandits began bringing them water and food, and they finally regained some strength. They were still weak, but they were no longer on the verge of death.

But the following week, things took a turn for the worse. One by one, the villagers were filed out and separated into three groups: women, children, and men. It didn't matter how old each man or woman was or what their occupations were, they were separated this way regardless. The village got busy as people were organized into construction groups and ordered to build joint accommodations to replace the ruins that were once their homes.

Then increasingly large numbers of young men were led away from the village toward the large waterfall nearby.These men were taken for a full ten days before they came back, filthy and utterly exhausted.

Cha Ming and the cultivators were not part of this group. They remained shackled as things progressed. The once peaceful village had been transformed into a work camp. With every day that passed, Cha Ming's heart ached at the sight of the villagers and their suffering. Fortunately, he saw no deaths. After the first three elders died, not a single villager was killed.

Still, Cha Ming was left with the realization that some fates were worse than death.

***

Cha Ming woke to the rare sound of his cage door being opened. He looked up to see three burly bandits, who picked him up unceremoniously and dragged him with them. He saw the pitying looks of many villagers as he passed by. Their eyes didn't linger. The bloody lash marks on their arms and backs made it clear that the fear of their captors was being etched into their very bones.

He sighed when he saw a cage full of children; only a handful of mothers were supervising and comforting them, while a handful of men were looking at them from the outside. Off to the side, he saw a group of women performing mundane tasks like preparing food and stitching and washing clothes.

As he walked, he saw a bandit groping one of the women. The others were too fearful to respond, but fortunately, a bandit captain walked up to the offending man and slapped him in the back of the head.

"Use your brain, you idiot," he said. "How do you expect the men to work properly if they see us violating their women? I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend any longer in this shit hole than I have to."

Cha Ming was relieved that things weren't as bad as they could be. At the very least, it seemed like these bandits weren't just another group of devilish cultivators. They were just bad men trying to make a living. Perhaps that was something he could exploit.

Before long, he was led to a small tent. Inside, he was shoved down next to the other five cultivators in the village. He saw Wei Chen, the leader of the bandits, and two of his personal guards. The vicious man looked over at them, smiling.

"Welcome, everyone," he said. "As many of you have speculated, we're looking forward to utilizing your skills to mine spirit stones like the other villagers. However, as cultivators, you are all uniquely useful to us. However, before we do that, we'll need to make you more docile than you currently are."

At these words, another man walked into the room. He was pale and sickly looking, but his vast spiritual force made Cha Ming feel oppressed. There was a clear difference between a soul at half-step foundation establishment and actual foundation establishment, and this man was clearly in the latter realm.

He felt the man's soul force oozing over him, probing him. He resisted it with all his might, but he was unable to stop the man from inspecting every nook and cranny of his soul. The man grinned when he felt his resistance.

"Interesting. You have someone here with a strong soul, and it will take more than just a small effort on my part to tame him." He looked over to the other five. "Let's get these appetizers over with before we start the main course."