Chapter 533

When the YoungMaster, the Grand Steward, and the Deputy Grand Steward first met and engaged in open, unreserved power struggles, the servants over there were much more peaceful. The YoungMaster's people had others to host them; for instance, the Sword Guest accompanying the YoungMaster was hosted by a Sword Guest in the courtyard, and a small banquet was even set up to welcome them. Later, the YoungMaster's two green-robed attendants were received by servants, who at least provided hot dishes and soup.

As for the remaining slaves, they could not be "received"—they had to be "guarded."

As the only maidservant—a servant whose status was ostensibly only higher than that of the slaves—Chi Mingjing, with her gray hair, sent the four children to the small courtyard in the back to be held under guard.

Just as she entered the courtyard, Chi Mingjing froze.

She saw that in the small courtyard, two large pens had been built like pigsties, with over a dozen children squatting in each, pressed one against another; even a standard livestock shed would not be this crowded.

Even though Chi Mingjing had experienced much over the past few years and her heart had become as hard as iron, she could not help but trigger a stress response; for a moment, she stood stiffly in the courtyard, her eyes filled with faces that were all young, weak, and numb.

Seeing her freeze, the smallest girl nearby, who was closest to her, tugged on her sleeve.

Just as Chi Mingjing regained her senses and was about to call out, a short, stooped servant emerged from the side and said with an impatient tone, "Another delivery? Why come at this hour? Hand the people over to me, and you can go."

Chi Mingjing repeated, "Go? Where am I supposed to go?"

The servant replied dismissively, "Why wouldn't you go? Hasn't the payment been settled? Then go to the accounting office in the front to collect your money. We are a large manor on the mountain; we won't owe you money. Look at how many people have been received here? All of them were received in these past few days, and not one went unpaid. Are we going to owe you those three or five taels?"

Chi Mingjing suppressed the nausea in her heart and sneered, "Do you know who I am? I am a trusted aide brought by our YoungMaster. Delivering people here was also the YoungMaster's order. What kind of place is this? If this lady wants to leave, she leaves; if she doesn't want to leave, she doesn't."

The servant was stunned for a moment, then immediately began to smile, though the smile was very stiff; he clearly tried his best to smile, but it still looked very wooden. He lowered his head and said, "So it is a young lady brought by the YoungMaster. Forgive my lack of vision for not recognizing you, my lady. Please, do as you please, do as you please."

Chi Mingjing said, "Why is it so... I came to deliver people, treasures brought by the YoungMaster, different from the others. Where should I put them?"

She had originally wanted to ask why there were so many children, but considering her own identity, she felt she shouldn't ask too much, so for the sake of future matters, she had to force herself to change the subject.

She also had a fair understanding of Wangliang Mountain, and the "treasures" she mentioned were the standard used by Wangliang Mountain to classify sword slaves. It referred to that type of high-level sword slave who had the potential of a Sword Guest and could directly perform Sword Washing.

The servant hurriedly said, "Since they are treasures, they must be placed inside. Follow me."

He led Chi Mingjing and the others to a side room, where she saw that the room was also fitted with bars, made to look like a prison. Inside were three children; their clothes were still neat, and the room was relatively clean, with straw spread on the floor and even a water basin. However, the children inside were equally numb, knowing neither sorrow nor joy.

Chi Mingjing felt a churning in her heart. The servant beside her took out a key to open the door and flattered her, saying, "As expected of the YoungMaster, four treasures all at once. Like us, we've been receiving high-grade goods here for ten days in a row, and we only got three. It can't be helped; with the Deep Shadow Society approaching, all the manors are collecting high-grade goods, and demand truly exceeds supply. Especially those first-class treasures—they are all held by the big families and not released, just waiting for the price to rise. These are unscrupulous merchants."

At this moment, the door opened, and the servant signaled for the children to be put inside. Chi Mingjing remained silent and did not stop him from driving the few children in, but she could not bring herself to let go of the seven or eight-year-old girl who looked cute. The little girl was startled at first, looking up at her without showing any extra expression, but her eyes softened slightly.

Seeing this, the servant sensed her intention and immediately smiled, "Since the young lady likes her, keep this one to play with for now. Just hand her back before the Deep Shadow Society. Heh, if this were ordinary stock, I could just give her to you, but only the treasures are strictly accounted for. Actually, if you just say a word to the Master, wouldn't it be convenient to just take her away?"

Chi Mingjing felt some hesitation. She had only been in the group for a day and wasn't familiar with the children, let alone having any affection for them. Just now, she had merely been reminded of her own past and felt a sense of compassion. If she were to take the child back to live with her, she felt it would be restrictive and troublesome.

But to let go and let this seven or eight-year-old girl enter the cage was something she could not accept. Her heart struggled for a moment, and finally, she said, "Fine. If anyone asks, just say I took this child."

The servant agreed repeatedly, locked the prison door again, and locked the three children who had come from outside in with them.

Returning to the courtyard, Chi Mingjing still asked, "Why collect so many people? Even if the manor is a buyer at the Deep Shadow Society, aren't you? Are you changing professions to become sellers, learning from those merchants to hoard goods in advance?"

The servant apologized with a smile, "Of course not. Being a human trafficker is already beneath us, let alone being a middleman. We mainly sell some specialty materials at the Deep Shadow Society; buying sword slaves is, of course, to wash materials. We have accumulated quite a lot of materials, and ordinary sword slaves aren't durable enough. A while ago, the old Master... the manor was busy and couldn't attend to these small matters, so the collection of sword slaves was interrupted for a time, and the materials piled up. With the Deep Shadow Society approaching, it's better to buy more sword slaves to wash the materials clean."

Chi Mingjing also knew the grading of sword slaves. Treasure sword slaves, needless to say, were used for Sword Washing—putting old Sword Seeds or contaminated Sword Seeds into the Inspiration to wash them, then taking them out to become brand-new, usable Sword Seeds.

The principle of this trade was very simple, and in theory, the outside world could do it, but in reality, it was a unique trade exclusive to Wangliang Mountain. Because the outside world could create sword slaves, but there was one problem—it was easy to put the Sword Seed in, but difficult to take it out. Once it was washed clean, how could it be retrieved?

Otherwise, when Tang Zhao was plotted against by a Sword Seed, Si Liyu wouldn't have wanted to give him a quick end. His use of Glasses to retrieve the Sword Seed had stunned even knowledgeable figures like Xing Ji and Xue Yeyu.

But Wangliang Mountain could retrieve them; the specific method was unknown, and it was suspected to be a special ability of the Wangliang. This was a secret known only to a few manor owners, and outsiders were not privy to it.

Besides treasures, which were "sword slaves" in the most traditional sense, the various manors later expanded the scope of sword slaves to include those slaves who had a little bit of Inspiration but were far from enough to be Sword Guests. They couldn't wash Sword Seeds, but they could wash various materials. The method was more or less the same.

This usage was broad. Wangliang Mountain itself produced various materials, and the outside world had even more flawed materials produced from the Demon Cave, the Qianxian, and even the wilderness, all of which needed to be cleaned by sword slaves. It could be said that the market was vast. And because Wangliang Mountain monopolized this big cake, even with so many manor owners sharing it, everyone was still filling their pockets.

The only problem was that washing materials was very hard on sword slaves. Of course, washing Sword Seeds was also costly; a one-in-ten-thousand treasure sword slave could only wash one Sword Seed in their lifetime. Most sword slaves would die the moment the Sword Seed was retrieved, and only a few lucky ones could not only wash the Sword Seed clean but also form a connection with it, gaining an extremely rare opportunity for advancement.

Fortunately, Sword Seeds were rare, so even on Wangliang Mountain, treasure sword slaves and Sword Seeds maintained a balance or even a slight surplus. But ordinary sword slaves were different; there were as many materials as one could want, but sword slaves were limited. Especially since washing ordinary materials would consume the sword slave's Inspiration, a sword slave would become an ordinary Mortal after washing once or twice and would be useless. Therefore, all the manors were short of sword slaves, especially on the eve of the Deep Shadow Society when large quantities were shipped out; all the manors were buying in bulk.

However, the Deep Shadow Society was at a higher level and required more treasure sword slaves; ordinary sword slaves were not presentable and were only used as tools for washing materials.

The servant continued, "We have been washing them these past two days. Washing them now has a benefit: there are plenty of human traffickers in the city. Once a sword slave is spent, they are directly resold to the traffickers, which is convenient and fast. This is also the benevolence of the Grand Steward."

Chi Mingjing was amused to the point of anger and said, "Sold to human traffickers? Benevolence?"

The servant said, "Naturally, this is setting them free. When people are sold to traffickers, no matter where they go, they will always have a bite to eat. On the mountain, they can only be offered to the Wangliang Lord all at once. Except for our manor, other manors just throw them into the pond for convenience, and it was the same when the old Master was here. After all, sword slaves without Inspiration aren't worth much, and it's inconvenient to wash swords at the foot of the mountain, so they don't do it that way. Only the Grand Steward thought of this method. A batch of living people—isn't this benevolence? Other manors only take in and don't let out; we have both intake and output. It truly is a virtue of cherishing life."

Chi Mingjing was almost convinced by him and said, "Is that so?"

The servant seemed to have opened the floodgates and said, "Our Grand Steward is truly a good person; you'll know once you stay longer. When the old Master was here, he often showed mercy to us underlings. Take me, for example: I had my Inspiration ruined, and if it weren't for the Grand Steward keeping me on to work, I would have long since been offered to the Wangliang Lord. After all, the Grand Steward was a sword slave himself; he knows our suffering, unlike that..."

Speaking of this, he suddenly realized he had made a slip of the tongue and froze in place. For a moment, the muscles on his face twitched, as if he were having a seizure.

Chi Mingjing did not let it slide; instead, she sneered, "What did you just say?"

The servant became even more stunned, his whole body trembling like chaff. Suddenly, a fierce glint appeared in his eyes.

Chi Mingjing let go of the girl's hand, pushed her behind her, and stared at the servant, saying, "What, do you want to use the rules of Wangliang Mountain to decide the winner?"

The servant's teeth chattered. Chi Mingjing continued calmly, "Either you make a move, or you answer whatever I ask. If you answer, I will forget that sentence just now; if you don't answer, I will tell the YoungMaster that you were gossiping about your master behind his back. Don't worry about the fact that only the two of us heard it; I will only tell the YoungMaster. You tell me, will he believe you or me?"

The servant trembled all over and said hoarsely, "What do you want to ask?"

Chi Mingjing said, "How many children do you have here? How many ordinary ones, how many treasures? How many have already been ruined, and how many are waiting to be resold?"

The servant had thought he would be asked about some confidential matter, especially since anything concerning the Grand Steward was absolutely not to be spoken of—it was death either way. He was in despair, but hearing her ask about such trivial matters, he felt as if he had been granted an amnesty and said in a rush, "We received one hundred and five children, three treasures, thirty-one have already been ruined, and for resale..."

Chi Mingjing asked in detail about the manor's population, then asked about the number of managers, and about each person's temperament and strength, and then, with a turn of her head, she actually asked for the names and contact information of the traffickers who did business with the manor.

The servant answered one by one, only he didn't know much about the traffickers outside, and he found it even stranger why she was asking about this.

Seeing that Chi Mingjing was asking too specifically, he could only try to find a way to evade, but he didn't dare. Just then, two servants rushed over from outside, shouting, "Quick, the new goods are down! Pick a few sword slaves to start working!"