Chapter 207 - 208: Kill if Can’t Be Sold
In Monument City, there happened to be a vassal family clan.
Belonging to the Zhu Gate’s outer court forces, and seeing that there were no decent inns in Monument City, Zhu Minglang had the vassal family arrange a residence for them.
The entire city was heavy with evil Qi.
Monument City used to be a small market; it gradually developed into a major city because it specialized in selling slaves transported from various parts of the Supreme Court Courtyard Continent.
In cities like these where slaves are sold, every one or two countries in the Supreme Court Courtyard Continent would have one, and the price of slaves was not low. Some powerful ones would typically be bought by major families to serve as house slaves or opponents.
“Ling Tu, come here, there’s something I want to ask you,” Zhu Minglang said.
“What would you have me do, Master?” Ling Tu hurried over and immediately knelt on the ground.
It seemed that these days the people of the Ling Family had already been disciplined by the slave owners, and had almost forgotten they were once the young masters of the Ling Family.
“Stand up and talk properly. I want to ask you, have you seen any slaves being dragged out of the city and killed recently, often involving the torture of eye gouging?” Zhu Minglang said.
Ling Tu hesitated for a moment, glanced at Nan Yuso, and only after she nodded did he dare to slowly stand up.
“Master, three days ago a group of slaves escaped towards the east, and later I heard they were caught and executed on the spot. As for eye gouging, I don’t know ” Ling Tu answered truthfully.
“Whose slaves were they?” Zhu Minglang asked.
“It seems they belonged to Wolf Fang Camp, but even if those slaves didn’t escape, they were still on the path to death,” Ling Tu said.
“Why is that?” Zhu Minglang asked, puzzled.
“Master, you will understand once you go look at the stele in the back,” Ling Tu said softly.
Li Xinghua’s backlash had not been extinguished.
Zhu Minglang naturally had to pursue the traces of the Sect of Sightless.
It now seemed that a group of slaves had escaped; they were caught near the hills and directly slaughtered by the people of the Eyeless Sect as a form of sacrifice.
The fact that Ling Tu mentioned those slaves were doomed from the start puzzled Zhu Minglang.
Even though night had fallen, Zhu Minglang still left the residence and headed in the direction Ling Tu had indicated.
Nan Yuso indeed followed him. She inquired about the previous situation, and Zhu Minglang couldn’t help but give a wry smile when he looked at his little aunt. She had been with him on the hill. Why couldn’t she wait until this matter was dealt with before having to go over it all again with someone else?
When they arrived at the stele in the back, Zhu Minglang found that many people were guarding the area. It was clearly private property where outsiders were not welcome. Zhu Minglang and Nan Yuso had to sneak in.
Torches illuminated the area, revealing that the slave owners who had been selling slaves during the day were coming and going in this place, bringing a group of unhealthy-looking slaves inside, and then coming out on their own.
“It seems these are the slaves that weren’t sold during the day,” Nan Yuso said in a low voice.
Zhu Minglang nodded, then decided to venture deeper to see how those unsold slaves were dealt with.
But soon, an extremely strong smell of blood hit them, almost at the moment Zhu Minglang climbed over a high rock wall
And Nan Yuso, after vaulting over the wall and seeing the scene behind it, turned deathly pale. Covering her mouth and nose, she nearly retched!
Zhu Minglang was also stunned, his face filled with shock and fear.
Behind that stone wall stood a giant stele, and below it was a furnace pit as large as a square. All the slaves that hadn’t been sold during the day were thrown into the furnace pit
Their shackles hadn’t been removed; the pit was filled with thick blood. The slaves had their eyes gouged out, then were pushed alive into the pit to drown!
The existence of this furnace pit was unknown, but the central stele had even been soaked to a bloody red, and the surrounding rocks of the kiln walls, once dried and smeared with fresh blood again, displayed shades of greyish red, tea red, and dirty red that sent chills down one’s spine!
Death Qi, resentment, and Evil Qi almost coalesced into a demonic cloud that enshrouded the skies above Monument City!
Nan Yuso dared not open her eyes to look anymore.
Zhu Minglang stared at the Ten Thousand People Furnace Pit, ten times larger than the hillside altar and as horrifying as hell itself, feeling as if his soul was about to be shattered!
Was this the true scene that Li Xinghua witnessed?
Is this really the realm of humans??
The blood pool was nearly full.
Zhu Minglang watched the vast pool of blood-red water and quickly noticed something swimming within!
Some slaves who hadn’t immediately drowned were trying to break free, but before they could reach the pit’s edge, something seemed to drag them down, and they were pulled into the blood pool with a churn of bloody waves!
It was the Blood Flukes!
The Blood Flukes in the furnace pit were many times thicker, larger, and more ferocious than those wild ones on the hill.
They could even directly leap at and bite living people!
Zhu Minglang was even more horrified.
He had thought the Blood Flukes were an accidental presence at that altar, feeding off the dragon transformed by the dismal Evil Qi, but what Zhu Minglang hadn’t expected was that someone was actually breeding these creatures and using the slave pool of Monument City as a breeding ground for Evil Dragons!
“There’s a Leech Dragon inside!” Zhu Minglang whispered to Nan Lingsha.
“I can’t take it anymore.” Nan Yuso, knowing she would see this scene, would never have come. She even wanted to faint right then and let Nan Lingsha take control.
Seeing that Nan Yuso was indeed about to vomit, and noticing a group of Black Robe People patrolling, Zhu Minglang immediately helped Nan Lingsha out over the rock high walls.
For some reason, the Evil Qi, the smell of blood, and the stench were blocked by the rock high walls, and not a bit drifted into Monument City.
Monument City was as usual, apart from many places being in disarray and splattered with bloodstains. Not many realized that such a horrifying scene lay beyond the stele.
After returning to the residence, Zhu Minglang called for the manager of this affiliated minor clan.
“Mr. Zhu, please give your orders. We have been instructed by the outer court to comply with any arrangement you make,” Shou Bin, the young Family Head, asked.
“The slave market, what happens to the slaves that aren’t sold in Monument City?” Zhu Minglang asked.
“Did the ?Did Mr. Zhu see something?” Shou Bin hesitated.
“You know the rules of Zhu Gate.”
“Mr. Zhu, although our Shou Family does business in Monument City, we have never been involved in the slave trade!” Shou Bin was startled and quickly said.
“Then answer my question.”
“It has always been the case that the Slave Camps in Monument City kill the unsold slaves. In order not to dirty Monument City, there are Black Robe People who at night take away the unwanted slaves from the Slave Owners, perform a mass execution behind the stele, but how the corpses are dealt with, we do not know,” Shou Bin said.
“Why kill them??” Wen Mengru asked, completely baffled.
“Miss, slaves also need to eat and drink, they get sick, and they need a place to stay. Since they can’t be sold, they don’t want to waste a drop of water or a morsel of food on them. Moreover, the cost of transport is also an issue, so it’s easier to just kill them,” Shou Bin explained.
Ling Tu stood by, his face mostly showing a numb stupor.
Although he ended up as a household servant, that was far luckier than being a slave.
In fact, on this journey, Ling Tu had seen too many inhuman horrors.
Within the crowds of slaves, if someone accidentally sprained an ankle and couldn’t walk, the people from the Slave Camps would simply chop off their heads with a knife and carelessly discard them by the roadside…