The little boy clenched his teeth and raised his head to say, “Or, you… You can turn me into a slave, I know all martial artists can have slaves. This way you don’t have to be worried about whether or not I’ll run away, right?”

The corner of Hexi’s eyes slightly jumped, “Do you know what it means to be turned into a slave? Spirit soul slaves must draw out a part of their soul, this means that if you want to cultivate in the future, you won’t be able to amount to much.”

The little boy’s face twisted with pain when Hexi said that, but when he turned back around to look at the naive faces of the children behind him, he still clenched his teeth and told Hexi, “I’m willing to be your slave, but… You have to agree to let all of us follow you, moreover, you can’t turn them into slaves!”

They both stared at each other, neither backing down. There was obvious fear in the little boy’s eyes and his body was shaking, but despite this, he didn’t hesitate.

At last, a satisfied expression appeared on Hexi’s face. She took out a porcelain bottle and threw one at him, faintly saying, “If you became a spirit soul slave, your strength would greatly decline. Why would I raise a useless piece of rubbish, to play with it?”

“Since you guys are so confident that you won’t betray me, each of you has to swallow one of these pills. This is a medicine that I refined myself, it’s purpose is to control people’s hearts. As long as you don’t change your mind and decide to betray me, the poison won’t flare up. But if there’s any disloyalty on your part, this pill will let you taste the feeling of being unable to beg for your life nor for your death.”

“How about it, are you guys still willing to swallow it?”

The little boy held onto the porcelain bottle and hesitatingly said, “We.. All have to eat it?”

“Of course.” Hexi faintly laughed, “Granted, even if you’re able to guarantee that these children won’t betray me today, what about in ten or a hundred years? I stick by my words, I refuse to raise a bunch of thankless wretches.”

“Okay, we’ll swallow it!” The little boy clenched his teeth and opened the porcelain bottle. He poured one pill out and then swallowed the entire thing in one go.

For the most part, the children behind him were all still ignorant to what was going on. When they saw the little boy swallowing the pill, they each obediently grabbed one pill from the boy and swallowed it, yet they didn’t know what the pill was for.

Satisfied, Hexi nodded her head. “Very good. Since this is the case, stay here first and wait with those other little fellows. Once we’re done dealing with our matters, we’ll come get you all.”

When the little boy heard of Hexi’s plan, his face immediately showed doubt and he nervously asked, “We all swallowed your medicine, you won’t go back on your word right?”

Since a young age, he had roamed around alone. He’d long grown accustomed to adults’ mean features. Even if the Elder Brother in front of him caused him to unconsciously want to draw closer, he still held some suspicions in his heart. Hexi sneered, “If I were to abandon you guys, would you be able to keep up with me? Would it be necessary for me to waste a bottle of pills?”

After she finished speaking, she didn’t wait for the little boy to reply before grabbing onto Gu Liufeng. Their bodies both flashed and then disappeared.

Dazed, the little boy stood still and stared at the spot Hexi and Gu Liufeng were just at. Then, he snapped out of it and wiped at his still bloody-smelling face. Grinding his teeth, he muttered, “We’ll… We’ll just wait here. Elder Brother will definitely quickly come and bring us out!”

These words were comforting to all the children in the basement, including himself.

»»————- ✼ ————-««

In the dark prison, Murong Feng’s hands gripped onto a lash that had been dipped in salt water and firmly wiped a woman on the floor.

The woman’s hair was in disarray, her whole face was bloodstained, and her body was full of bruises. As she was being whipped, she couldn’t make any sounds aside from howling and crying.

Murong Feng retrieved his whip and ruthlessly kicked the woman. Then, he walked over to the nearby torture shelf.

The slender figure bound on the shelf had half a mask hanging off his face and his body was also entirely bruised.