82 Slave

A look of excitement flashed across Wei Chen's eyes when the heard the pale man's words. "As you wish, Sigil Master Guo."

Cha Ming had never heard of the sigil master occupation, but judging by Wei Chen's humble tone, they were not to be trifled with. He looked on with both frustration and curiosity as the man approached the five other prisoners. When pale man placed his hand on the first captive's head, Cha Ming felt the man's spiritual force inundating the man's entire being.

"Sixth-stage qi condensation, second-stage body transformation," the man intoned. "I can control him with a Servant Sigil, and he will be amenable to most instructions and perform them without question. I can also forcefully uplift his body cultivation to the fifth stage within three days. This will cost you fifteen mid-grade spirit stones. Do you accept?"

The commander's lips twitched at the cost but nodded nonetheless. Sigil Master Guo smiled and took out a black pen. He then began painting an intricate rune in midair with black ink.

He's a talisman artist? Cha Ming thought, frowning. He continued to observe as the rune in front of the man became increasingly complicated and three dimensional. The main character was for "servant," but it contained profound mysteries that Cha Ming couldn't understand.

As it continued to expand in scope, the character was complemented by several sub-characters that were joined to it with geometric symbols. Once the complex character was complete, the man painted three other characters beside the existing ones, along with their own three-dimensional supports. These three symbols were the two characters for "master" and "great master."

Finally, after a full one-hour drawing process, the rune was completed. The black symbol gleamed before rapidly condensing and landing in the man's palm. He grabbed the rune and pressed it onto the cultivator's forehead. Cha Ming's eyes narrowed as the man screamed intensely. It was like a dying man's wail, a roar of defiance. Sigil Master Guo ignored these screams and pressed harder, and soon the screams subsided. The cultivator's face was no longer flushed red from exertion, but his eyes were now glazed over. The pale man ignored him and broke off one of the master characters and placed it on his forearm, where Cha Ming noticed hundreds of similar characters were already imprinted.

Then he pressed the other master sigil onto a silver medallion and handed it and the great-master sigil over to Wei Chen. The bandit leader quickly imprinted the great-master character on his forearm, where it joined three others. After this, Sigil Master Guo tossed a bottle of pills to the newly converted servant.

"Take one of these pills every day for the next three days," the pale man said. "No matter how great the pain, you are not allowed to die."

"Yes, master," the cultivator said in a dull voice. All traces of joy or anger had disappeared from the man's eyes, and the complete lack of emotion made it extremely obvious that he could no longer exercise his free will.

The entire proceeding left Cha Ming feeling like he had been plunged into icy water.

Is the same thing going to happen to me? Have I worked so hard to find meaning in my life and restore my vital functions only to be turned into a slave with no choice whatsoever?

Cha Ming had been excited about his new life because of the ample choices it brought him, but now it seemed like these choices would be taken away.

He stirred from his despondent state as the screams of the next cultivator pierced the air. Before long, he too was reduced to a shell of what he once was.

Should I bite my tongue and commit suicide? He quickly banished that thought. Where there was life, there was hope. Things could potentially improve. He need only look within to know that.

The process continued, and soon the five cultivators had each been given medicinal pills and ordered back to their cells. The guards no longer supervised them, telling Cha Ming that they were used to this form of control. The cultivators were easily identified by the black "servant" character on their foreheads. As long as this character remained, the guards knew they were being controlled.

After finishing with the five men, the sigil master walked up to Cha Ming, who was still restrained by the body-restraining shackles. He shuddered when the man ran his finger along his chin, then placed a hand on his forehead. He gritted his teeth and stared at the man in defiance, his eyes bloodshot.

"I have good news, and I have bad news," the man said, looking back toward Wei Chen.

"Start with the good news," the man replied drily.

"The good news is that this man is already very strong," the pale man replied merrily. "I, Guo Jia, do not see such an excellent specimen very often. His base physical strength is 784 jin, as he's a body cultivator of the seventh rank. In addition, his body-cultivation technique is strange. His body has been strengthened by wood, fire, and earth qi and is also imbued with additional regenerative, defensive, and dextrous capabilities.

"In these areas, he can be considered one grade higher. That means that his physical endurance is monstrous, and his working speed will be extremely fast. What's more, it seems that this has been achieved through pure addition of attributes, meaning that his body has not yet been refined. If I refine his body using metal-qi, water-qi, and wood-qi pills, I can bring him up to the ninth stage of body cultivation with the defensive capabilities of a bone-forging cultivator!"

Wei Chen frowned. "What's the catch?"

"Well, there are two issues, one minor and one major," Guo Jia continued. "The first issue is that his tissues are badly damaged from an injury. His cultivation is stalled, and his qi-directing meridians and qi pathways are badly damaged. Qi pathways aside, I will need to use medicinal pills to bring back his base strength and heal the injuries to his muscles and bones.

"The more difficult issue is that his soul is at half-step foundation establishment. This means that I will need to use a more advanced sigil, a Lesser Slave Sigil. This sigil is sufficient for controlling someone up to Foundation Establishment. It is, however, quite expensive, and it comes with a minor degree of personal risk to me. All in all, the process will cost you 500 mid-grade spirit stones."

"Five hundred?" Wei Chen bellowed. "You may as well rob me! Forget it. I'll just kill the boy and be done with it. It's not worth it."

"Come now," Guo Jia said. "A foundation-establishment slave is normally worth 5,000 mid-grade stones. You'd be getting him at quite a bargain. Also, he isn't just good for mining. You can bring him with you afterwards and have a strong bodyguard who doesn't fear death. On account of our long-term friendship, I can knock the price down to 450 spirit stones."

Wei Chen hesitated. "Three hundred fifty, and not a single stone more."

"Let's split the difference at 400 and both leave happy," Guo Jia said, smiling. Wei Chen grunted and tossed him a jingling purse.

"Great! I can't wait to get started. I'm going to enjoy him thoroughly."

Wei Chen grimaced in disgust when he heard this, but he didn't leave, lest his merchandise be sullied.

All this time, Cha Ming had remained silent. He knew that his words would change nothing, and he didn't want to give them the satisfaction. He only glared at the both of them, burning their images into his memory. One day, he would have his vengeance.

He looked on as the man took out his pen once more, tracing out a sigil that seemed ten times more complicated. It wasn't any larger, but the fine details it contained were much more extensive. The single character contained twenty to fifty sub-characters that he couldn't comprehend. He also noticed that, unlike the previous effortless exercise in penmanship, the man was panting and sweating profusely.

The process continued for eight hours, until finally the Lesser Slave Sigil and its master components were fully completed. Cha Ming braced himself for the inevitable fight against the sigil, but to his surprise, the man held it in his hand and sat cross-legged in front of him. He stabilized his condition for four hours before opening his eyes once more.

Wei Chen had not left the tent. He merely sat down and cultivated in peace, occasionally sending out his spiritual force to probe. Time flowed differently for those in the Foundation Establishment realm. They could go for weeks without eating or sleeping, using the energy of heaven and earth to sustain them.

Guo Jia, who had just awoken, stood up and looked down at Cha Ming, who was still firmly restrained. He should have been exhausted, but the strength of his body and soul enabled him to be fully lucid throughout the whole experience.

"You don't like to talk a lot, do you?" the pale man said. "Well, that won't change much by the time I'm through with you." He then took out the complicated Lesser Slave Sigil and pressed it onto Cha Ming's forehead. He immediately began screaming.

It felt like a burning hot iron had been pressed on his forehead, branding into his flesh, his bones, and his very soul. He tried to fight back, but the barrier surrounding his mind was quickly torn open by the sigil.

Suddenly, he found himself standing in a white space that expanded in all directions. Looking down at his hand, he saw that it was slightly transparent. He walked, and his footsteps echoed through the space as though he were wearing dance shoes on a wooden dance floor. The space reminded him of the Clear Sky World, where anything could be shaped according to his imagination.

"Nice mental space you have here," a voice said from behind him. He turned around to see the pale man with shoulder-length black hair. His black robes rustled as though a wind was blowing, despite its clear absence. He held his hands behind his back, and he walked slowly with an aloof expression.

"White is such a pure color, a blank slate," the man continued. "With such a powerful soul, no doubt you would have achieved very much in this life. Unfortunately, you met me. And I very much enjoy destroying such budding geniuses.

"Now, I don't have to do this, but I'm going to explain what's going to happen. I do this solely for my own enjoyment. I will use this piece of my soul to invade yours and force you to submit. The sigil is my weapon. To make things interesting, I'll let you make the first move."

Guo Jia then took out his hands from behind him. In his right hand, he held a writhing black sigil, the one he had drawn earlier. In the outside world, it had seemed tame and docile. Here, in his mental space, nothing could be further from the truth. To make matters worse, Cha Ming could sense that his own soul was very ethereal, while the other man's soul seemed almost palpable.

Cha Ming didn't need to be told twice. It was clearly a hopeless battle, but even if it gave the other man pleasure, he would fight to his last breath. He looked around at the white space and reached out with his spiritual force to see if it behaved in the same way as the Clear Sky World. He imagined four metal walls, and they instantly appeared and enclosed the pale man. Then he imagined a spiked stone, sending it down toward the man to crush him.

However, he didn't relax after this. Sensing an impending threat, he dodged out of the way just in time, and he saw several chains shatter the white "floor" of his mental space. The black chains dragged out Guo Jia, who was still holding the black sigil.

"Interesting," Guo Jia said, smiling and cracking his neck. "It seems you're already a little experienced in the world of mental spaces. Unfortunately, you're far too weak. You don't truly know what a mental battle entails."

The sigil in Guo Jia's hand glowed, and several chains sprouted out of it, forming itself into what resembled a chain devil. It creaked as it moved. Cha Ming, knowing that fire was the enemy of metal, summoned a sea of flames, bathing the intruder and the devil inside it. To his surprise, the chain devil was unaffected, and it walked out with two more companions. The surface of each chain devil was covered in frost.

What sort of metal is this that it can resist such hot flames?

He didn't think for long and willed his Clear Sky Staff to appear. It felt much more solid than his previous manifestations, and the familiar feeling it emanated proved that it was the Clear Sky Staff itself that had been summoned, and not just a representation.

I can win this, he thought. It looks like Guo Jia has no ability to manipulate my mental space and can only draw power from the sigil he's holding. If I can outlast its power, I'll stand half a chance. Maybe I can even take him down with me. He held no illusions of living past the battle.

He wielded the Clear Sky Staff as he would normally, drawing imaginary qi through his spiritual body. Fortunately, in his mental space, his cultivation was intact. In fact, it was much more powerful than usual. He remembered the feeling of half-step foundation establishment that Huxian had granted him before, and that was all he needed. Here, his memories mattered more than his actual power.

Not wanting to remain passive, he rushed toward the chain devils with his Swift Staff Art, striking them many times successively. They wailed as the staff struck them, as though they had met their mortal enemy. Guo Jia frowned when he saw this, and his disposition swiftly changed from that of a cat chasing a mouse to that of a tiger using all its power to catch a rabbit.

The sigil erupted with fierce power, and soon Cha Ming found himself surrounded in thick black chains. Seeing this, he willed a set of soul pearls into existence, which instantly surrounded him, glowing red.

Cataclysm Manifestation!

This was the highest manifestation possible, using 108 different pearls. Although they were brought together into a basic flame formation, several pearls flew around violently, incinerating everything they touched.

This time, the flames were hot enough to restrain the chains, and they began to melt. Guo Jia roared angrily as he poured even more power into the chains, manifesting hundreds more from above and below. His soul dimmed noticeably as he activated this function, and so did the sigil.

"You can't run from me!" he yelled. "Even if this is your mental space, there's no way you can resist the overwhelming difference in power."

Cha Ming continued dodging chain after chain, but he soon began weakening. His soul was also thinning, just like Guo Jia's. Unfortunately, his power was also finite in this mental space, even though he had more tools at his disposal.

Still, he didn't give up. He smashed chain after chain thrown at him. They kept breaking apart and reforming in a split second, continuing their dogged pursuit. Soon he was no longer able to dodge them all, and black wounds appeared on his soul. He gritted his teeth and detonated another Cataclysm Manifestation, destroying one tenth of the chains in the process.

Unfortunately, this was the last of his energy. The chains finally caught up and wrapped themselves around his arms and legs until he was no longer able to move, just like in the outside world.

"I told you resistance was futile," Guo Jia said. "But you didn't listen. No one ever listens. Then again, that's what makes it fun." He then pressed the writhing black sigil onto Cha Ming's forehead, and several chains dug into his soul's "brain."

The world went black, and when he recovered, he was sitting in front of Guo Jia. This was the real world, and they were still in the tent. Guo Jia was even paler than he was before, and sweat covered his forehead. However, he wore a euphoric expression as he reveled in his latest conquest.

Cha Ming noticed that the chains that had held him back had been removed, so he instinctively attempted to lash out and smash Guo Jia's face in. Guo Jia did nothing to stop him, and he soon realized that he hadn't moved, despite his intent to do so. It was as though thick invisible chains restrained his motions as he tried to fight against them. The thought that this person was his "master" surfaced, and that attempting to harm the master was forbidden.

Confused, he walked several steps. Before he could get very far, Guo Jia's voice sounded out.

"Stop!" The chains appeared once more, this time preventing him from walking and moving in general. "Breathe," the man said.

Cha Ming was forced to breathe once more.