He rested until the afternoon before feeling sensations slowly return to his body.
After tidying up briefly, he limped out the door and headed toward the Spirit Slave Hall.
Today was the day he had agreed upon with Chu Yao.
It took him several hours of effort to successfully reach the Spirit Slave Hall halfway up the mountain.
He saw Chu Yao at the entrance of the Spirit Slave Hall.
Without greeting her, he walked straight into the Spirit Slave Hall.
The interior of the Spirit Slave Hall was immense, the entire grand hall supported by a dozen thick, gold-lacquered wooden pillars.
At this moment, there were not many cultivators inside, only a scattered handful.
Moreover, most of them were female fiends.
Ye Ba came up to the huge wooden table placed in the center of the hall, placed his disciple token on the table, and said with his head lowered, "Spirit Slave Ye Ba, having broken through to the Qi Condensation 3rd Layer the day before yesterday, am here to update my information."
Behind the wooden table, a pretty and delicate-looking disciple of the Spirit Slave Hall glanced at Ye Ba, then picked up the disciple token from the table.
She raised a hand and tossed the disciple token into a huge sphere of light beside the wooden table.
The light sphere churned, and after two breaths, Ye Ba's disciple token flew out again.
She tossed it back to Ye Ba, along with a pouch of spirit stones.
She spoke up, "Registration complete. This is your spirit stone reward!"
"Thank you, Senior Sister." Ye Ba expressed his gratitude, lowered his head, turned, and walked out of the hall.
Whatever happened next had nothing to do with him anymore.Just as he stepped out of the entrance of the Law Enforcement Hall, a group of Qi condensation practitioners rushed over from afar and landed right at the doorway.
Ye Ba kept his head lowered, glancing sideways out of the corner of his eye.
There were a dozen or so practitioners in the group.
Leading them was a young woman dressed in red. Her figure was bulky, and her appearance was unremarkable, bordering on ugly. Following closely behind her were over a dozen male cultivators acting as spirit slaves.
The complexions of these male cultivators were ashen, and they looked utterly listless and drained.
"Qi Hongyue!" Ye Ba inwardly startled.
Qi Hongyue was a disciple of the Spirit Slave Hall. One of the senior apprentice-brothers with the Pure Yang Constitution whom he knew had died precisely at this woman's hands.
It was said that she was the daughter of an elder on Hongluan Peak, and she never lacked for cultivation resources on any given day.
Yet her aptitude for cultivation was exceedingly poor, which was why she constantly kept a dozen or so spirit slaves surrounding her, taking turns to assist her in cultivation.
If that were all, it wouldn't have been much of an issue; after all, given the fate of spirit slaves, helping anyone cultivate was all the same.
However, the mortality rate among the spirit slaves who practiced with her was extraordinarily high.
Once chosen by her, a spirit slave was basically handed a death sentence.
Even if someone managed to survive, they would mostly end up crippled.
Consequently, her reputation among the outer sect spirit slaves was abysmal.At that moment, as if sensing Ye Ba's gaze, Qi Hongyue cast an ice-cold look in his direction.
Scared out of his wits, Ye Ba immediately turned his head and quickened his pace down the mountain.
Watching Ye Ba's retreating figure, Qi Hongyue had a strange light flickering in the depths of her eyes. She gently beckoned to a disciple inside the Spirit Slave Hall. "Bring me that spirit slave's file."
...
Walking briskly down the mountain, lingering fear gripped Ye Ba's heart.
Qi Hongyue's perception was far too sharp. Fortunately, she hadn't gotten angry and come looking for trouble with him.
"The outside world is too dangerous!" Ye Ba muttered to himself.
He had ventured out twice this month, and both times his luck seemed utterly wretched. Had this month's information update not required his personal presence, he would never have come to the Spirit Slave Hall.
Not long after he walked out, the sound of rushing wind suddenly came from behind him. Turning his head, he saw Chu Yao steering a spiritual skiff toward him.
"Get on!"
She reached out, pulled Ye Ba onto the spiritual skiff, and flew straight toward her dwelling.
The mere thought that Ye Ba would belong entirely to her for the next half-month filled her heart with irrepressible excitement. Now that Ye Ba's cultivation had advanced and he had broken through to the Qi Condensation 3rd Layer, the benefits she could reap from him would be even greater. Half a month was enough time for her to break through to the Seventh Layer of Qi Condensation and secure a good ranking in the sect tournament.
Moments later, the spiritual skiff landed amidst a verdant bamboo grove. A crystal-clear pool sat within the grove, by the edge of which stood a small Bamboo House.
Chu Yao walked up to the Bamboo House, took a token from her hand, and waved it in the air.
The space before the two of them suddenly warped, a faint spiritual membrane materialized, and an opening immediately appeared within it. Chu Yao led Ye Ba through the gap.
Ye Ba knew this was the protective formation guarding the immortal's cave. Without the token to activate the formation, entry was impossible. Such defensive formations were generally quite expensive; he had never possessed enough spiritual stones to buy one in the past.
"Senior Sister, how many spiritual stones does a protective formation like this cost?" Ye Ba asked curiously.
"This is a Tier 1 High-Grade Spirit-Guarding Formation. It costs about three hundred spiritual stones," Chu Yao replied. "Why? Are you thinking of buying one?"
"Where would I get that many spiritual stones? I was just asking out of curiosity," Ye Ba replied with a vague smile to brush it off."This Spirit-Guarding Formation looks pretty good. What are its functions?"
"It can fend off attacks from cultivators below the Ninth Layer of Qi Condensation, and it can also conceal spiritual energy fluctuations. No matter how much commotion we make inside, the outside world won't sense a thing."
"That's true. Well, it's getting late, let's rest." Chu Yao glanced at the sky and stretched lazily.
Her full chest threatened to burst out of her clothes.
Ye Ba felt a bit helpless. It was still at least two or three hours away from dark.
Chu Yao really knew how to lie with her eyes open.
She was so impatient!
Ye Ba muttered inwardly.
Yet he had no intention of refusing. Although Chu Yao's aptitude was mediocre and the experience she could provide was limited at present, every little bit helped, and if he cultivated diligently, he could still reap a bountiful harvest.
"Alright, Senior Sister!" Ye Ba nodded in agreement.
A smile appeared on Chu Yao's face, and she subconsciously licked her lips.
She couldn't wait any longer.
The next second, she lifted Ye Ba with one hand and rushed into the Bamboo House in a few strides.
Thud!
A muffled sound echoed.
The door of the bamboo house was slammed shut from the inside.
...
Inside a secret chamber in the inner hall of the Spirit Slave Hall, Qi Hongyue sat cross-legged on a huge warm jade bed.
Her eyes were tightly closed, and a look of pain occasionally crossed her face, as if she were enduring immense agony.
Icy frost occasionally drifted out from her body.
Crack!
A crisp sound came from the fine warm jade bed beneath her, which had actually cracked from the intense cold.
The next second, over a dozen semi-transparent spiritual energy channels burst forth from her body like pythons, 'biting' onto the spirit slaves sitting around her.
The spirit slaves were stripped to the waist, and copious amounts of sweat poured from their skin.
One could only imagine how high the temperature in this secret chamber was.
These spirit slaves had ashen complexions and pale lips, looking as though they had suffered from prolonged insomnia and been completely hollowed out.
As the cultivation session progressed, their bodies began to tremble slightly, as if they would collapse and fail to hold on the next second!
And that was indeed the case.
In less than half an hour, one of the spirit slaves collapsed.
His body withered at a visible rate, and all his vital essence was sucked dry.
Yet Qi Hongyue still did not stop her cultivation.
A maidservant waiting nearby stepped forward, removed the corpse from the bed, and tossed it like garbage near a huge furnace not far away.
The flames inside the furnace surged fiercely, swallowing the corpse whole.
In the end, not even ashes remained.
It wasn't until the third spirit slave collapsed that Qi Hongyue finally halted her cultivation.
A trace of anger lingered on her face. She glared at the surrounding spirit slaves and rebuked, "Useless! You're all useless!"
With so many spirit slaves, none of them could even last through a few cultivation sessions!
She suffered from the Nine Yin Meridians, and the Nine Yin Qi within her body was extremely potent. Without strong Yang energy to suppress and channel it, over time, her meridians would be blocked by the Yin energy, making cultivation impossible and even threatening her life.
Two years ago, if her mother hadn't found her a spirit slave with the Pure Yang Constitution, she might already be dead.
However, that Pure Yang Constitution was only a Spiritual Grade, just one tier above the lowest mortal grade. Even though she had been exceptionally careful during her cultivation, that trash still didn't last long before dying.
At this thought, she suddenly looked toward the maidservant nearby and asked, "Has the information on that spirit slave been sent over?"
"It was delivered an hour ago. Senior Sister was cultivating, so I didn't let them disturb you," the maidservant replied.
She then took a jade talisman from her bosom and handed it to Qi Hongyue.
Qi Hongyue nodded slightly, took the jade talisman, and pressed it against her glabella.
*Ye Ba, lower-grade five-element spiritual roots, entered the sect eight years ago, broke through to the Second Layer of Qi Condensation and Third Layer of Qi Condensation in quick succession recently... Resides in Courtyard Ding-1314 at the foot of the mountain. Rented out for half a month...*
Qi Hongyue frowned slightly. Aside from the shortened time interval between his two breakthroughs, this Ye Ba seemed entirely unremarkable—even more useless than the spirit slaves in front of her.
Yet... she recalled the sensation she had felt earlier while standing outside the Spirit Slave Hall.
Back then, the moment she landed at the entrance of the Spirit Slave Hall, her Nine Yin Meridians had suddenly trembled slightly.
Such an occurrence was extremely rare, happening only when encountering powerful Yang energy.
Of course, powerful Yang energy wasn't exclusive to spirit slaves; it could also come from other heavenly treasures.
"Unlikely though it may be, even if there's the slightest chance, I cannot let it go!" Qi Hongyue murmured to herself.
She decided to go and check out this spirit slave named Ye Ba in person.