There was a disturbing smell that harassed their nose the moment they entered the holding pens. It smelled like rotten flesh and rusted iron, a mixture of pungent smells that originated from the neglected wounds of the inhabitants of the holding pens.
Scattered around were different individuals. Some looked too lean to still be alive, their flesh clinging tightly unto their visible bones. Others seemed too weak to move.
Lu Deng noticed a few of them like that just lying on the floor or on the bars of their holding pens. The only way he could tell that they were still alive was that he could see the rising and fall of their chest area which told him they were still breathing.
However, they were too weak to do more than breathe.
’How the hell is this allowed in this city? Lu Feng mentally asked himself with an obvious frown stretched across his handsome face.
Han Lin was in a far worse state than Lu Feng though. Pressing her nose with two fingers, she shook her head at the sight before them and turned to Lu Feng. "Young Master, please..."
Her plea caught Lu Feng’s attention, his gaze telling her to speak more and explain why she was pleading with him.
She sighed and gestured lightly around them with her head. "There’s nothing but the stench of those close to death all around here. The whole place is filled with misery and suffering and I do not get why the higher-ups allowed such a thing to exist within this city."
Lu Feng remained silent, agreeing with her logic in his mind.
However, Han Lin wasn’t done speaking. "We still have to make it to the noon carriage or we’ll wait till night. Or worse, tomorrow which would mean we’ll be spending another night at the Silver Crane Inn."
Slowly, a small smile appeared on her face. "While I have no complaints about spending another night at the Inn, I think it’s better we leave today so we would have a head start over whatever your uncle might be planning to do to us after the stunt we pulled on him."
Lu Feng nodded. Han Lin was right. She was correct in every sense of the word. Knowing his uncle wanted him dead than any other person for the main reason being nothing other than Han Lin, it was surprising to see the man hadn’t already made a move.
Or had he?
Lu Feng felt like the man had. It just hadn’t played out.
Having no choice but to leave, he sighed and turned to leave the place with Han Lin. He’d already checked the holding pens and didn’t find what he was looking for so there was a high chance it wasn’t here either.
’Where then could she be? Maybe she wasn’t a slave at all?’
He had been the one to conclude that the Heroine had to be a slave. For all he knew, she could just be very sick or dead.
Han Lin’s words were the final fuel he needed to leave. "In the end, the female slave you were looking for wasn’t found. I’m sorry about that."
They’d both turned toward the entrance but as she spoke, Lu Feng turned to his side to reply to her. That was when he noticed something strange.
There was dim light flickering at the edge of his eyesight. Lu Feng halted, his half opened mouth closing immediately. He turned fully toward the source of the light and began walking in its direction.
At the very end of a row of crowded cages that he’d ignored—close to the entrance—sat a single, isolated cell just like the other cells.
Inside of this cell, a woman was curled into a tight ball, her forehead resting against the cold iron bars. She was covered in so much dirt that her clothes could no longer be differentiated from the floor, but that wasn’t what stopped Lu Feng’s heart and drew his attention to her.
What caught his attention and made his heart stop for a moment was the white haze that was slowly coming off her body like steam from something hot. It shone in his eyes like moonlight on water, visible only to him within the dirty confines of her isolated cage.
"Han Lin," Lu Feng said, his voice almost inaudible for her to hear. "Can you see that?"
Han Lin replied with a question of her own. "See what?"
"The white haze coming off her?" Lu Feng’s response came almost immediately after her question dropped, his hand pointing at the lady’s cell. It was as though he’d been expecting the question from her.
She remained in place for a moment and then squinted her eyes slightly so she could focus on where he was pointing at.
Han Lin squinted at the cage, then looked back at Lu Feng with an expression that revealed the deep pity she felt for the girl inside of the cage. "Young Master... there is nothing there. Only a poor girl who looks like she has given up on life. Please, let’s go."
Lu Feng didn’t turn to leave though. It wasn’t a trick and he could feel it on his gut. The haze was slowly coming off her at the same pace at which the countdown was dropping in the blue box in front of him.
Was she a heroine? He had no idea what defined one, but the visual confirmation and gut feeling he had were all he needed since this event was only happening around the girl in the cage. She was the only one with the haze.
Lu Feng walked toward a slumped, elderly man sitting on a stool nearby with a set of heavy brass keys strapped to the side of his belt.
"The girl in the end cage," Lu Feng said, gesturing toward the girl in white haze. "Is she for sale?"
The old man looked up, his eyes covered with cataracts. He let out a wet, rattling cough before he answered Lu Feng’s question. "That one? Oh yes, she’s for sale. But she’s a defect, young man."
After a short pause, the old man resumed his speech. "Most of the stock in this section are defects. We sell ’em cheap to people who don’t care if they last through the week. Usually for... well, pleasures that don’t require them to talk or move much."
Lu Feng’s jaw tightened and he leaned closer to the man. "Tell me about her. Where did she come from?"
The old man shrugged, scratching at a patch of dry skin on his neck. "Rumor is, she was once a main disciple of a sect far to the south—the Frost Heart Pavilion, I think. She was supposedly a genius. But she bit the hand that fed her. She turned against the Sect Leader, who was her own master."
The man also leaned in, his voice dropping. "Her master didn’t just exile her. She stripped the girl of her spiritual essence and shattered her dantian as punishment. Left her as a mortal with a broken foundation."
The man coughed again and after drinking water from the leather skin used to hold water beside him, he continued. "And because of who her master is, no one dares take her in. To help her is to invite the wrath of a powerhouse. So, she ended up here. A broken bird with clipped wings."
Lu Feng smiled. It wasn’t a smile of pity, but rather the smile of a man who had just found a diamond in a mountain of coal. A disgraced genius with a vengeful master? She was the perfect definition of a high-risk, high-reward investment.
"How much?" Lu Feng asked.
"Two gold coins," the old man grunted. "A steep price for a defect, but her face is still pretty under the dirt."
Lu Feng didn’t haggle. He reached into his pouch and slapped two gold coins into the old man’s rough and calloused palm. "She’s mine. Open the cage."
Ding!
Surprisingly, the box had suddenly turned a vibrant, expectant gold as though he had won the lottery.
[Quest Accomplished!]