The purple swirling vortex closed.
Hengsheng appeared in an open area in a residential district.
Following his appearance, numerous big and small dimensional vortexes opened here and there throughout the area, and human figures emerged from them; they were slaves who had once stayed on Blackfin Island.
When Hengsheng looks at these slaves, his heart fills with an indescribable emotion, and one word emerges within his mind: "Weak."
The slaves that emerge from the dimensional vortex are more than a hundred thousand, 99% are unconscious, and some are even more severely in a coma state. Only 1% are strong enough to remain conscious, yet still, no one is on their feet; they collapse on the ground.
They were mostly mortals; some possessed spirit cores but had no cultivation realm. They were too weak to travel through the dimensional tunnel—that's why they ended up in this state.
"Pathetic…" Hengsheng murmured as he felt disdain toward the slaves, then frowned as he realized something was off about himself.
Hengsheng realized that he was beginning to develop a disdainful feeling toward the weak.
This feeling had not reached the point of seeing the weak as worthless, but it was enough to make him feel uncomfortable around them.
He did not know what caused this feeling to emerge.
'Did I change after acquiring the superpower?'
'The absolute power corrupts absolutely. Is this quote true?!'
'Or does this feeling not originate from himself but is imbued in all cultivators by the Heavenly Dao, like an extreme greed innate trait that all people in this world have?' Hengsheng thought.
Whatever it was, he felt that if he let this feeling develop, he would one day become like other cultivators who treat mortal life as worthless or merely a resource, existing only to fuel their cultivation.
Without letting them die, Hengsheng began to release pure wood qi throughout the area, healing them.
The green wood qi moved like a gentle wind, sweeping across all the people on the ground, mending their conditions.
Those in comas were no longer in danger, those who were unconscious began to regain their senses, and those who had succumbed to dizziness quickly felt better.
When they regained their strength, one after another, they got to their feet, and their reactions to the situation varied.
"W-what… happened?" Some people asked in confusion.
"Mommy! Waaa…" Some little children cried, unable to find their mothers.
"Xiao Chen! Please wake up, don't leave me… sob…" Others wept beside their unconscious loved ones, fearing they were dead.
Hengsheng acted immediately; he didn't want to drag this situation out any further, as he was eager to return to his mansion and test the Heavenly Treasure.
His divine sense sent a mental message to the minds of all the slaves.
Well, they were no longer slaves… former slaves, since his faction didn't promote slavery.
So technically, they were free men… no, not truly free either, since he was holding them in a closed area until Xiaorong's operation ended. In this case, they were now his prisoners.
Anyway, he sent a mental message explaining their situation and informed them that a cultivator would come to visit them soon.
After Hengsheng sent the mental message, he prepared to leave.
However, before he had the chance, a young man, who somehow managed to notice his presence among the countless people, pushed through the crowd, stopped in front of Hengsheng, and knelt on both knees.
"Immortal Lord, please… this lowly one dares not ask for much, but I beg you—punish them!" the young man pleaded, his eyes burning with vengeance as he pointed toward a group of men within the crowd.
After seeing the young man's actions, the crowd began to notice Hengsheng's presence. One by one, they knelt in immense fear, their bodies trembling uncontrollably—they were clearly terrified by the presence of a cultivator to the point of developing PTSD.
This makes sense; the years spent on the island ruled by the wicked pirates were not good for the people's mental health.
Also, Hengsheng was quite surprised that there was a mortal who could notice him while he was intentionally concealing his presence.
He thought for a moment about why this young man requested him to kill other slaves and immediately understood.
He cursed himself for forgetting to consider this.
The group of men that the young man was pointing at was likely slaves who had served the pirates and abused their status toward the other slaves.
When Hengsheng's gaze landed on the group of men, they trembled in fear—some even wet themselves. Judging by their reaction, they were undoubtedly guilty, just as he had assumed.
Hengsheng considered whether or not to comply with the young man's request. After some thought, he decided against it. He had no intention of killing others simply because someone asked him to.
"No. Your karma is not mine. If you want vengeance, take it yourself," Hengsheng said to the young man.
At the same time, Hengsheng activated an inspection on him, suspecting that the young man possessed something special that allowed him to perceive his presence, and his assumption was correct.
The inspection revealed that the young man had a spirit reception physique that heightened his sensitivity to spiritual qi, a valuable trait that could shorten the time needed for cultivation, not a very powerful physique, but better than nothing.
'Blue, add this young man to the Wealth Keeper Training Program,' Hengsheng said in his mind.
The Wealth Keeper Training Program is the Endless Wealth Company's cultivator training initiative. It selects young individuals from humble backgrounds or orphaned origins who show good potential or signs of special talent.
The company takes them in while they are still mortals or in the early stages of cultivation and raises them.
Its purpose is to nurture cultivators for his faction from the ground up and instill loyalty toward Endless Wealth Peak.
He created this program because he cannot rely on loose cultivators for important matters—he needs loyal individuals to serve as key figures, as the 100 members of the Lan and Wang clans are not enough to support a large-scale faction.
'Yes, Master. Also, the employees have already accepted the quest—they'll be arriving in a few minutes,' Blue responded.
'Good job,' Hengsheng complimented.
'This is my duty, Master,' Blue replied, her tone carrying a hint of joy.
…
"What's your name?" the Immortal Lord asked.
"My name is Mingye," the young man replied, lifting his head in hopes of seeing the Immortal's face clearly—but the Immortal was already gone.
The young man felt disappointed.
In the end, the Immortal Lord didn't care about mortals like him. His anger burned even hotter as he remembered how his mother had died.
He wanted to take revenge himself, like the immortal lord had said, but he couldn't. They were bigger, stronger, and they knew martial arts.
Suddenly, he felt chilled as his special senses warned him.
He quickly turned and saw the group of men approaching.
"You bastard! How dare you ask an Immortal to kill us?! You're dead!" the ugly man shouted, leading his group toward the young man in a rage after noticing the Immortal had left.
Mingye gritted his teeth. He thought he wouldn't survive this. But before the group of men could reach him, some of the slaves leapt at them.
"You raped my wife!" a random middle-aged man roared, punching the gang leader in the face.
Another man yelled something as he jumped and kicked the gang leader in the chest, sending him crashing to the ground.
"Ahhh! Kill them!" the gang leader yelled—but none of his men followed his command. They had all realized they were surrounded.
More and more slaves closed in around the group, their eyes filled with hatred, ready to tear the abusers apart. Before, they couldn't act—those men had pirates backing them. But now the pirates were gone. And they remembered the Immortal Lord's words:
"If you want vengeance, take it yourself."
Without further hesitation, afraid that the Immortal Lord might change his mind and stop them, they quickly charged toward the group of men, beating them up with overwhelming numbers.
"Ahhh! Please stop!" The group of men all fell to the ground in less than ten seconds, being massaged by countless feet.
Their begging was useless—it only encouraged the vengeful ones to kick even harder.
Mingye was shocked at how quickly things turned, but he didn't want to miss his chance to take revenge either, so he stepped forward and joined the kicking party.
…
Hengsheng reappeared in the hall of the Maker Mansion. Yunsu immediately leapt off his shoulder and dashed outside.
Hengsheng followed closely behind—after all, they still had a Heavenly Treasure to test.
Yunsu stopped at the cultivation grounds, sat in her usual spot, and began cleaning herself as always.
Hengsheng approached her, but she pretended to ignore him.
"Yunsu… about the Tenth Heaven…" Hengsheng said in a gentle, affectionate tone.
Yunsu shivered at her human's unusual approach.
She stopped ignoring and turned to face him.
She knew her human was desperate to learn about her precious treasure.
Honestly, she didn't mind sharing things with him.
But this time, things were different. This was the first time that she had a chance to be in the provider role, so she had to act a little more authoritative.
"Meow," Yunsu cried, tapping her aching hind legs as if asking her human for a massage.
Hengsheng smiled and did whatever he could to please her.