Without a backward glance at the weeping, pathetic thugs, the old madam strode alone through the lavishly decorated courtyard. Her silk robes whispered against the polished stone. She moved with a grim, singular purpose toward 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 were unnaturally dark. A spiraling stone staircase descended into a damp, swallowing darkness. Without hesitation, she descended into the hidden chamber below.
The air that greeted her at the bottom was a physical blow. It was a stark contrast to the glittering luxury above. The atmosphere was thick and heavy, saturated with the cloying, sweet stench of decay that smelled of 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 was covered in thick, fissured calluses that made it resemble a gnarled and withered tree trunk that had somehow learned to sit in meditation.
"Mistress," the madam whispered. Her voice was 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 was hunched so low that 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. It was 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 bruised against the hard stone before she crashed hard into a cold wall, finally coming to a gasping, wheezing stop. As the turbulent air currents swirled and disturbed the dust of the chamber, the space beneath the decaying figure's bed was revealed. It was piled high with bones. They were slender and delicate, the unmistakable, clean-picked remains of young girls. It was a silent testament to the horror of this place.
"Just one more." The Master's voice was a dry rasp, like stone grinding against stone. It was 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 chi 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. She struggled to push herself up onto her elbows while her body ached.
"No," the raspy voice corrected. A note of sharp, cold impatience cut through the air. "Don't 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 closed around the cold, unnaturally smooth metal. She didn't 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. It misted 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 seemed sharper and 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. It was a thin but steady stream where there had been only emptiness. The only drawback was that the Changchun Gong wasn't a martial path known for swift or violent surges of power. A flicker of her system panel confirmed her progress. The words were 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)]
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 and her senses were slightly heightened.
"Still," she reminded herself, the smile fading into a look of sober assessment, "this is only the beginning of body refinement. I haven't even approached the Innate Qi Cultivation stage. This doesn't truly count as cultivation. It's closer to advanced martial arts."
The most important task now was to find a remote and quiet place where she could cultivate in peace. She needed to be 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 pressed in on her.
"I can't recall any safe havens in this region, and this dynasty..."
Su Min's heart grew heavier with every passing moment of reflection. This wasn't merely an unfamiliar land. It was a dynasty that had officially marked her for death. The Su Clan had been exterminated. Their name had been scraped from the records and memory alike. 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, and every long, shivering night staring at the cold, stone walls of a prison cell never meant for a child—all of it was hers. Even if these memories were inherited, they were now carved deep into her bones. They were 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 remained. 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. It was a fire she had to bank for now.
"Ten years," she whispered. The vow was a quiet promise to the dawn light filtering through the broken temple roof. "Twenty, if that's what it takes. Let them forget me. Let them believe the last of the Su is already dead and buried."
Su Min's 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'm 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. The noise echoed 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's 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 didn't stop. She vaulted from one branch to another.
Her movements were urgent and clumsy rather than graceful. Her new strength was not yet mastered. Her balance wavered and her vision swam from the strain and sudden exertion. It wasn't efficient, but it was desperate. 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. She 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. Their eyes scanned the undergrowth with a predatory, practiced precision, looking for any sign of movement.
"Damn it. Fan out! She couldn't 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 and the resources deployed were 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 was cold and clear.
Sensing the grave danger, Su Min chose not to reveal herself or engage. Instead, she began to stealthily retrace her steps. She moved 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 hadn't yet caught up to that ideal. She crept away slowly, staying low to the ground. Her movements were cautious and deliberate. The heavy ache in her limbs hadn't lessened; in fact, every crouch and stretch seemed to amplify it. Her qi circulation was still sluggish and her stamina was 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 did 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 was 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 didn't even die immediately!" one of the thugs wailed, his voice cracking with remembered terror.
"Governor, there's no need for further hesitation," the brothel madam interjected. Her tone was 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 was issuing commands to the city's highest official as if he were a servant. Yet, shockingly, the Governor didn't 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 won't 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 couldn't 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's 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's clear now that the one targeting her wasn't an ordinary person, and the web of power she was trapped in was far more vast and dangerous than she had ever imagined. This wasn't just about an escaped slave; it was about something much, much darker.