Inhuman Heavenly Dou Nobles

"The third-to-last item in this auction is next."

Auctioneer Qianqian clapped her hands, and several burly men pushed a wooden cart carrying a large iron cage onto the stage.

Qianqian pulled away the red cloth covering the cage, revealing the scene inside.

Three scantily clad young girls were imprisoned within the iron cage!

"This is the item up for auction: three triplet girls from Barak Province! They sold themselves to repay their debts because they could not afford the land tax." Qianqian introduced them in the same tone she used for merchandise. "Distinguished guests, please look. Though these three girls look identical, each has her own charms. Just imagine how wonderful it would be to possess three such exquisite beauties at once..."

The auctioneer onstage continued hawking the "goods" in her cloyingly sweet voice, hoping to sell them for an even higher profit. In the private room, Ming Lunyu's expression had completely turned cold.

"Starting bid: five hundred Gold Soul Coins!"

"Five hundred and fifty!"

"Six hundred!"

"Seven hundred!"

"..."

How ugly.

Ming Lunyu stared coldly at the powerful nobles below, who looked refined and elegant on the surface yet wore frenzied expressions as they waved around piles of gold to purchase members of their own kind. An indescribably complicated feeling filled his chest.

"One thousand Gold Soul Coins, going once, going twice, sold!" As the auctioneer's hammer fell, the fates of the three girls in the prime of their youth were decided.

A fat, jewel-adorned man wore a ** smile as he hurried impatiently out of a black private room. Right there on the spot, he dragged the three girls out of the cage and pulled them into the private room...

For a moment, Ming Lunyu seemed to meet the gaze of one of the girls. What a numb, despairing look it was. She seemed utterly hopeless about the world, as though life had already lost all meaning at that moment.

"Young Master..."

Dugu Bo still held Ming Lunyu's arm and could clearly feel the veins bulging beneath his skin.

"Why..." Why could human trafficking appear so openly in public!

"Why..." Wasn't this an auction house operated by the royal family? How could it permit something so filthy to happen! Wasn't slave trading prohibited by imperial law?

"Why..." Had these people all lost the bottom line of being human? Did they truly have no moral bottom line at all?

If so, what was the difference between these people and the scum in the City of Slaughter? Why were they still able to live extravagantly beneath the open sky!

For years, the chaos within the City of Slaughter had never shaken Ming Lunyu's heart, because he had told himself that anything was normal there. It was a prison full of scum, rotten to the core!

But after finally leaving the City of Slaughter and returning to the outside world, he suddenly discovered that the same things seemed to exist beyond it as well. And these depraved beasts were actually the lofty nobles of the empire!

They could capture, trade, and toy with commoners from the lowest ranks however they pleased!

Ming Lunyu suddenly understood. The disasters of Douluo Continent were far more than just Evil Soul Masters. There was also a group of imperial nobles who occupied their positions while contributing nothing.

A glimpse through a tube revealed the whole leopard. He had merely come here on a random day and already witnessed such evil. How much more had happened that he had not seen?

Ming Lunyu was no saint. He had never shown mercy when facing enemies, but he could not stand seeing these bastards extend their black hands toward defenseless commoners!

"Young Master, there are simply too many cases like this. Local nobles set taxes extremely high, often just to force families with pretty daughters to sell them voluntarily... The smaller the noble, the more they enjoy doing such things," Dugu Bo said helplessly.

She had encountered such things before. Although she had stepped in to help at the time, it had only treated the symptoms, not the root cause. In the end, the politics of the Heavenly Dou Empire had been thoroughly ruined by the nobles.

To be fair, even among Heavenly Dou's noble faction, there were still nobles of truly noble character who regarded benefiting the people as their duty and genuinely possessed the spirit of nobility. But there were far too few of them. The Heavenly Dou Empire's hereditary title system more easily produced ignorant, dissolute playboys. Generation after generation, they had grown too powerful to control.

Together with all sorts of complicated factors, this had created the scene before them.

Previously, Ming Lunyu had never deeply encountered the empire's countless realities. Yet on a casual outing, he had witnessed something so absurd.

Whether this was commonplace or mere coincidence, the image of Heavenly Dou Empire nobles in Ming Lunyu's heart had undoubtedly fallen to rock bottom at that moment. He had originally been indifferent to Spirit Hall's young master plotting to seize the nation, but now he genuinely began to hope that person would succeed.

Ming Lunyu took a deep breath and calmed himself.

"It is too rash to make a judgment so easily. I need to observe more and gain a more concrete, objective understanding of the situation."

Ma Hongjun, who was sitting on Ming Lunyu's lap, also let out a long breath.

"Brother's Killing Qi just now was so terrifying {(°△°; "}!"

The atmosphere in the private room became somewhat heavy.

No one could defend what they had just seen. Treating human beings as merchandise truly violated human nature. Perhaps some would say it had always been this way. But did that make it right?

The auction continued.

The second-to-last item was a rare metal called Mountain Coiling Cloud Pattern Silver. At Tang Fu'er's request, Ming Lunyu bought it for one thousand seven hundred Gold Soul Coins.

The final item was a valuable piece of jewelry imported from overseas, but none of them were interested and did not join the bidding.

After the auction ended, Ming Lunyu collected the items and left the auction house with the three girls.

As they walked back, they reached the entrance to a dark, narrow alley. Ming Lunyu saw three men dressed as servants furtively carrying a large box into it. Few people passed through here. If Ming Lunyu had not noticed them by chance, the three servants truly would not have been discovered.

"Those people are..."

Ming Lunyu's gaze turned cold. Only after the three men had sneaked away did Ming Lunyu and the others enter the alley.

At the end of the alley stood a large box in the corner. It was clear that whoever had placed it there did not want it to be discovered, deliberately hiding it behind a pile of old clutter.

Ming Lunyu stepped forward and threw open the box. The moment he saw what was inside, his pupils shook.

"What's inside?" Ma Hongjun poked his head over and looked in, only to be stunned as well.

Even the two Titled Douluo, who had seen countless storms and great waves, were shocked by the sight.

The large box contained the mutilated remains of the three girls they had seen at the auction house. Their bodies were covered in wounds and gave off an indescribable stench, marked with unspeakable traces.

The Killing Qi Ming Lunyu had previously suppressed could no longer be contained.

It was not only Ming Lunyu. Everyone present wore expressions so grim they were frightening.

"Bastard!"

"Beast!"

"Is this truly something a human being could do?!"

Ming Lunyu did not curse aloud. He could no longer feel anger. What he felt more was sorrow.

Sorrow for the three girls, sorrow for the nobles of the Heavenly Dou Empire, and even more sorrow for the entire Heavenly Dou Empire.

They simply dug a pit and buried the three girls. In the end, they left with heavy hearts.