Chapter 22 Another Deal

Chapter 22 Another Deal
"They took her."
​Bai Yun collapsed against the damp wall of the hidden cave. He gasped for air. His cheap tunic was soaked in dark sweat from running up the steep mountain trails.
​Ye Chen stopped wrapping his rusted iron sword in gray rags. He planned to leave for Blood Crag Valley tonight. He reached up and pulled the white porcelain mask off his face.
​"Who did they take, Bai Yun?"
​"The Enforcers raided the lower slums an hour ago," Bai Yun swallowed hard. "They dragged dozens of sick commoners into iron carriages. One of them was a little girl with severe lung rot."
​Ye Chen froze in the shadows. "Zhang Hu's daughter."
​Bai Yun nodded heavily. "Zhang Hu was a famous mercenary in the Capital. Everyone knew he spent all his silver trying to keep her alive. The Enforcers took her to the processing camp outside the city."
​Ye Chen looked down at his calloused hands. He had killed Zhang Hu in the Myriad Beast Forest. The mercenary died coughing up blood and begging for his daughter's life.
​Ye Chen fought for his own survival that day. He harbored no regrets about the kill. He respected the desperate motive of a father trying to buy medicine.
​He promised himself the sick girl would live to balance the scale of his guilt.
​Now Su Rou wanted to harvest that same innocent girl for a demonic ritual.
​Ye Chen felt a cold knot form in his stomach. He needed to farm System Points in the lawless valley. Walking away from this slaughter crossed a dark line he refused to ignore.
​"Blood Crag Valley will wait," Ye Chen said. He strapped the heavy sword to his back. "Show me the camp."
​They arrived at the base of the mountain near midnight. A fortified logging site sat in a wide muddy clearing. Tall wooden watchtowers cast bright torchlight over the scarred ground.
​Ye Chen activated his Swift Wind Steps. He channeled his golden Qi into his legs.
​The maxed skill responded without delay. His body felt weightless. He moved through the dense tree line like a hunting ghost.
​He bypassed the outer guards without disturbing a single dry leaf. Bai Yun followed far behind to avoid detection.
​Ye Chen crouched on the sloped roof of a wooden storage shed. He surveyed the center of the logging camp.
​Crude wooden cages built for wild beasts sat in the freezing mud. Dozens of starving mortals huddled together inside the tight holding pens. The stench of unwashed bodies and fresh blood rose into the night air.
​Outer Sect disciples walked between the cages holding heavy leather whips. They struck the prisoners without mercy. The sharp cracks of the whips mixed with the screams of terrified children.
​The disciples laughed. They placed casual wagers on which prisoner would cry first.
​They tortured the mortals to spike their fear. Su Rou needed maximum resentment to fuel her ascension. They farmed human misery just like farmers harvesting wheat.
​Ye Chen stared at the bleeding prisoners. His cold fury solidified into dark ice.
​He remembered the damp stables of the Azure Cloud Sect. He remembered starving in the dark while the righteous elites smiled in their golden pavilions.
​Su Rou was doing to these innocent people what she did to him.
​Ye Chen dropped from the wooden roof. His heavy boots thudded against the muddy earth.
​"Stop the whipping."
​His voice carried clear and cold across the bustling camp.
​The disciples froze. They turned to face the lone figure standing in the shadows.
​A massive man stepped out from the main logging cabin. He wore the dark blue armor of an Enforcer Captain. Deep scars crisscrossed his bald head and thick neck.
​He rested a heavy spiked iron mace on his shoulder. He narrowed his eyes at the intruder.
​His gaze dropped to the colossal rusted sword strapped to Ye Chen's back.
​"The beggar from the arena," the Captain sneered. He spat a wad of dark tobacco into the mud. "I heard you survived the Grand Assessment. You should have stayed hidden in your hole."
​"Release the prisoners," Ye Chen demanded. He kept his hands resting at his sides.
​The Captain laughed. It was a harsh grating sound. "You give orders to me boy. You are nothing but discarded trash."
​The overseer pointed his spiked mace at the wooden cages.
​"Lady Su Rou is ascending to realms you cannot comprehend," the Captain boasted. "These rats are honored to provide the fuel for a true master. Their pathetic lives finally have a purpose."
​"Their lives belong to them," Ye Chen stated.
​The Captain slammed his spiked mace against his open palm. "Elder Wang placed a bounty on your head. I am going to enjoy breaking your legs and dragging you back up the mountain."
​The Captain gestured with his chin. Two elite sect disciples stepped forward. They drew their steel sabers and flanked Ye Chen on both sides.
​Ye Chen stood surrounded by three trained martial artists. He did not reach for his heavy iron sword.
​He did not summon the freezing Demonic Yin energy pooling in his Dantian. He kept the Chaos Bone Shattering Fist dormant.
​He wanted to test the new limits of his forged mortal vessel. He needed to see what a maxed low tier skill could do inside an iron body.
​He settled into the basic stance of the Mountain Crushing Palm. He raised his bare hands.
​The elite disciple on his left charged forward. He raised his sharp steel saber high above his head.
​"You face armed masters with empty hands, beggar," the disciple mocked. "Die."
​Ye Chen watched the falling blade. His enhanced Perception tracked the crude trajectory.
​He stepped into the strike. His Agility allowed him to bypass the steel blade in a fraction of a second. The weapon sliced through the empty air next to his shoulder.
​Ye Chen drove his open right palm forward.
​He channeled his golden Chaos Qi through his dense iron bones. The basic physical form of the Mountain Crushing Palm executed without a single flaw.
​His palm struck the dead center of the charging disciple's chest.
​The force was devastating. The energy did not shatter his own arm. His Level One Iron Bone Vajra Skill absorbed the recoil.
​The disciple's thick leather armor exploded inward. His ribcage caved deep into his chest cavity with a sickening crunch.
​The brutal impact launched the lifeless body backward through the air. The dead disciple flew twenty feet across the muddy yard.
​He smashed through the solid wooden wall of the main logging cabin. The body disappeared into the splintered wreckage and did not move again.
​The screaming mortals in the cages fell silent. The Enforcer Captain lowered his spiked mace in shock.
​The remaining elite disciple took a terrified step backward.
​Deathly silence smothered the entire logging camp. Ye Chen lowered his hand.