"She’s mine. Open the cage." Lu Feng declared and a moment later, he heard the sound he was becoming familiar with. The sound of his system.
Ding!
[Quest Accomplished!]
The old man was stunned by Lu Feng’s request but he didn’t hesitate to open her cage as he’d requested.
While he was stunned that Lu Feng had chosen her of all slaves, he also understood two things.
The first was that the slave Lu Feng had gotten was rather pretty. Way too pretty and Lu Feng was probably after her for her beauty. He also would’ve done the same if he had two gold coins to purchase her.
The second thing he understood was even more important. The purchase. He understood that no one might come again to purchase her for such a price as other customers would likely haggle for a lower price. That was why he didn’t want to lose out on the profit Lu Feng’s payment would fetch him. He was afraid this young master in front of him might change his mind.
As the iron door creaked open, the woman didn’t move. She remained curled up, a shell of a person whose soul had been hollowed out.
"Han Lin, please help her up," Lu Feng requested.
Han Lin hesitated for a moment, her heart aching for the stranger, before stepping into the filthy cage and gently placing an arm around the woman’s shoulders unbothered that she might get stained. "It’s okay," Han Lin whispered to the lady. "We’re getting you out of here."
It didn’t take much for Han Lin to get her moving and soon, she was up after being convinced that she was leaving the cage.
They moved with a desperate speed. Lu Feng led them out of the Black Market, his eyes constantly scanning for any sign of his uncle’s men or the city guards. They returned to the Silver Crane just long enough to use the washroom facilities.
Han Lin took the lead, bringing the woman into a private room. For nearly an hour, Lu Feng paced the hallway outside. When the door finally opened, he stopped.
The woman was dressed in one of Han Lin’s spare robes. Her skin, which was now clean, was as pale as marble, and her hair, although cut short, was a dark, shining black. Her eyes, however, remained dead as they stared at the floor with a haunting emptiness.
"We have to go. Now," Lu Feng said.
The group of three moved as fast as they could through the streets, reaching the Grand Transport Agency just as the drivers were tightening the harnesses on the bulls for the noon departure to Crimson Vale City.
"We would like a carriage for three," Lu Feng panted, handing over the silver coins required for their transportation.
They climbed into the carriage which had a small cramped space, smelling of old leather and sweat, but as the wheels began to turn against the cobblestones and the gates of Silver Jade City finally vanished behind them, Lu Feng felt a massive weight lift from his shoulders.
He sat across from the two women. Han Lin was fussing over their new companion, trying to offer her a piece of bread. The woman sat in the corner, her hands trembling in her lap.
The silence lasted for miles as the carriage bounced along the southern road. Finally, the woman’s head lifted. She looked at Lu Feng, not with the dead stare from the cage, but with a hint of confusion and a spark of hope or something that looked like it.
"Thank you," she whispered, her voice cracked and dry from months of silence.
Inside the cramped cabin, the scent of dust and the unvoiced tension of three strangers tied together by a transaction of blood and gold slowly unraveled.
Lu Feng was about to open his mouth to respond to the woman’s fragile "thank you" when his world suddenly tilted.
Ding!
The sound was louder than any he’d heard before. It was the same resonant, metallic chime that seemed to vibrate in his very marrow but slightly louder.
The floating blue box in front of him didn’t just flicker but rather shattered into a thousand shards of light dissipating in front of him before reforming into a much more complex interface.
[Mission Complete: The Investor’s First Step.]
[Target Identified: Ye Chenxue (Crippled Heroine).]
[Calculating Return on Investment...]
Lu Feng’s heart hammered against his ribs. He had spent two gold coins which was a considerably large amount due to his financial limitations, on a woman the world called defective. It was a gamble fueled by madness and nothing but belief in a white haze only he could see.
[Calculation Finished!]
[Investment: 2 Gold Coins.]
10,000x Multiplier Applied!]
[Return: 20,000 Gold Coins.]
His eyes widened as he saw the words before his eyes but even before he could fully accept the information displayed before him, another panel popped up.
[System Feature Unlocked: Divine Inventory (Infinite Space).]
[Note: Rewards have been deposited into the Inventory.]
Lu Feng nearly choked on his own breath. Twenty thousand gold coins? In the Lu family, such a sum was an annual budget for an entire branch house.
To any man who had been living on scraps and a few stolen coins, it was a king’s ransom. He suddenly felt a weightless sensation in a part of his mind, a mental space that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
It was a void, vast and silent, and at the center of it sat a mountain of glittering, minted gold similar to the ones in his pouch.
Beside him, Han Lin was busy wetting a cloth from a waterskin, gently dabbing at a smudge of dirt on the stranger’s cheek that she’d failed to notice back at the Inn. Neither of the women seemed to notice that Lu Feng had gone completely still, his eyes wide and glazed.
’Is it real?’ he thought, his pulse thundering. ’It has to be a hallucination. There is no way twenty thousand gold coins just... appeared.’
He focused his mind on the internal void. He visualized a single gold coin, then five. With a sharp, mental pull, he willed them into his hand.
In an instant, his palm felt heavy. He looked down, his hand tucked beneath the fold of his cloak to hide it from view. Five cold, hard, round, and golden coins sat in his grip.
He rubbed them together, the unmistakable clink of high-purity gold reaching his ears. He brought one up slightly, catching the dim light filtering through the carriage curtain. It was real. The weight, the smell of the metal, the cold bite of the stamp—it was all real to his eyes.
Now, it was clear to him that the system wasn’t just a guide. It was more like a god.
He willed the coins back into the inventory. They vanished as silently as they had appeared. A wave of exhilaration washed over him, followed by a cold, sharpening clarity.
Lu Feng was no longer a beggar running from his family. He was the wealthiest man in this carriage—perhaps the wealthiest man on this road.
Lu Feng took a deep, steadying breath and finally turned his attention to the woman sitting across from him.
The white haze was still there, wrapped around her body and clinging to her like steam on hot buns.
Now that he knew she was the source of his fortune, his gaze upon her was no longer one of curiosity. It was one of ownership—not of her body, but of her future. Her future with him. Their future together.
"Ye Chenxue," he said, his voice steady and calm.
The effect was instantaneous.
Han Lin dropped the waterskin, the water splashing onto the floor of the carriage. The stranger—Ye Chenxue—flinched as if he had struck her. Her dead eyes snapped wide, filled with a sudden, sharp terror. She pressed her back against the wooden slats of the carriage wall, her breath coming in broken gasps.
"How..." she almost choked, her voice trembling. "How do you know that name?"