Jiang Yunhao

Seacloud City sprawled across a vast area and was still expanding outward without limits.

Meso-Sumeru technology was also widely used; even a room of one square meter could be expanded into a hundred.

But the rooms where slaves were held were only that tiny.

Less than ten square meters held eighty children crammed together. They ate, drank, relieved themselves, and slept here, leaving the entire room steeped in a strange stench.

Food was severely scarce, leaving them without even the strength to talk. Once darkness fell, they sank into heavy sleep, waiting for tomorrow to come, waiting for an unknown fate.

Whether they starved to death or were bought away by someone, there was not much difference.

"Brother Hao, I want to kill myself. I don't want to go on like this!" a child moaned softly. "I don't want to be a slave!"

"You're not allowed!" The boy called Brother Hao looked only eleven or twelve. Though he was skin and bones and hunched over, his eyes shone with extraordinary brightness. "You must live. As long as we're alive, there's hope. We won't be slaves forever. One day, we'll return to Jiang Yun and become upright, dignified people!"

"Will that day really come?"

"It definitely will!"

"When?"

"Maybe tomorrow, maybe far, far in the future. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that you have to stay alive to see that day!"

"Is that so? I really want to... see it... But I'm sorry, Brother Hao. I think I..."

"Liu'er? Little Liu?" The boy noticed that the voice had suddenly vanished and hurriedly lowered his head, only to see that the child had already closed his eyes, an peaceful smile on his face.

Dead? He was dead?

"Little Liu, Little Liu, don't die! Little Liu!"

The boys beside them silently glanced over, then silently looked away again.

They had seen scenes like this many times already. Slowly, they had grown used to them.

Only Brother Hao gritted his teeth and wiped at his eyes. But at a time like this, where could there still be tears?

"Put him in the corner. Someone will come collect him tomorrow." Brother Hao sighed, leaned against the wall, and stared helplessly at the cobweb-covered ceiling as he spoke weakly.

The boys nearby worked together to lift Little Liu and carry him toward the door.

This was an image Deep Blue displayed within the Spirit Realm, and also a reality unfolding somewhere in Seacloud City.

A very ordinary reality.

Yang Ning silently watched it all. He had known that slaves lived badly; just from the whip marks and sallow, emaciated bodies of the slaves he had passed in the market during the day, he could tell.

But he had never imagined the true situation could be this miserable!

"Jiang Yun, Jiang Yun!!"

"Calm down!" Deep Blue reminded him.

"Don't worry, I'm very calm." Yang Ning let out a long breath.

Whether it was their appearance, national character, or past experiences, Jiang Yun people all reminded him of his homeland.

But empathy was empathy. He still had to remain rational.

He had to remember at all times that all suffering stemmed from the inadequacy of the person enduring it.

That was why becoming an immortal was his foremost goal. As long as he could become one, he did not know about anything else, but at the very least, he could settle with a single word most of what he disliked in the Taiheng Realm!

"Him, then!" Yang Ning looked at Brother Hao in the image. Though young, he possessed firm will, was the leader among the children, and seemed rather eloquent as well.

He had searched through them all, and this one alone was the most outstanding.

"The communication mist drop has been arranged!" Deep Blue said. "You can speak now!"

"Mm, first set up a convincing voice," Yang Ning said. "Make it like Zhong Li's. It sounds steady and composed. Mm, use Zhong Li's appearance and name too. Oh, right, do you know Zhong Li?"

"Holy shit, Genshin!" Deep Blue cried out.

"Damn it, we're talking business here. Hurry up!"

"Setup complete!"

Sure enough, people would use AI voices and AI images for fraud. The very next second, Zhong Li's rich, resonant voice rang in Brother Hao's ears.

"He's not dead yet."

"I know." Brother Hao's answer surprised Yang Ning. "He fainted from hunger. But there's no food here. Death is only a matter of time!"

"You aren't surprised to hear my voice?" Yang Ning asked.

Shouldn't he have first warily asked who he was?

"You're just someone who has taken a fancy to this life of mine," Brother Hao said with a smile. "After all, I'm only a slave now. Other than my life, what value do I have left to exploit? Those slave traders don't have the leisure to joke around with me either."

He rose to his feet, and the boys beside him immediately moved apart, allowing him to walk over to the corner.

The next moment, the groans in the cell suddenly grew louder.

"You can't be a competitor of this slave merchant either. How could a business with no capital ever have competitors? Are you an enemy of Taiheng?" Brother Hao asked.

"You're acting a little too clever for a child," Yang Ning sighed.

"If I weren't clever, would you have chosen me?" Brother Hao countered.

"True!" Yang Ning nodded. He had picked Brother Hao from among more than a hundred cells. He knew Brother Hao was smart, but he had not expected him to be this smart!

"Then guess what I want you to do?" Yang Ning asked in return.

"I don't know what you want, but I know you have a way to save Little Liu," Brother Hao said. "If you couldn't do it, you wouldn't have spoken!"

Yang Ning understood. This child wanted to see his capabilities first!

Of course, it was also possible that he merely wanted to freeload on Yang Ning's abilities. He could save Little Liu first, then refuse to cooperate with him!

At that moment, the initiative had actually fallen into Brother Hao's hands!

Of course, that initiative was fragile. It rested on Yang Ning having no choice but to pick Brother Hao, but in truth, Yang Ning could replace him at any time.

Yang Ning needed a smart person as a partner, but that did not mean he had to choose the smartest one.

So Brother Hao was gambling!

His expression was calm, but Deep Blue had already detected his racing heartbeat.

"Brat!" Yang Ning was somewhat impressed. Would this person become Jiang Yun's savior?

He did not know, but Yang Ning did indeed want a smarter collaborator. Otherwise, this person would come asking for help every few days. Wouldn't that turn him into a nanny?

"Do you see the spiders above your head?" Yang Ning asked.

"I see them. And then?" Brother Hao looked up. The spiders on the ceiling were as large as a child's palm, with black-and-white stripes across their bodies. There were not many, only a dozen or so.

"These spiders are called Zebra Spiders. They're nonvenomous. Remove the heads and legs, and you can eat them!" Yang Ning said.

"Hm?" Brother Hao's eyes lit up. He immediately got to his feet, then realized he could not reach them and hurriedly beckoned.

Two children beside him quickly came over.

"Help me catch the spiders!" Brother Hao said.

The two children immediately crouched down and lifted Brother Hao up. He stretched out a hand and directly caught the two largest spiders. He removed their heads, then their legs, and called to his companions, telling them to wake Little Liu.

"Brother Hao, can we eat these things?" one child asked.

Naturally, they trusted Brother Hao, but the spiders were hairy. Just looking at them was enough to make one's skin crawl!

"They're edible!" Brother Hao said firmly.

He did not think that person had gone to such trouble to find the smartest person there just to make a joke.

Even if this was a joke, it only meant that a companion who would die tomorrow morning would instead die tonight. Was there really a difference?

For people in his circumstances, there often was no choice at all!

Little Liu slowly came to. Before he had fully regained his senses, he felt someone pry open his mouth and stuff something inside.

He did not see clearly what it was, only that it felt furry.

When someone was starving to death, how could they care what they were eating? Since it had already been stuffed into his mouth, Little Liu bit down two or three times. Then his eyes brightened, and he took several more savage bites before swallowing it.

After eating something, he finally regained a little strength. Little Liu opened his eyes and saw Brother Hao beside him.

"How do you feel?" Brother Hao asked.

"Tastes like chicken." Little Liu blinked. "Where did it come from?"

Brother Hao pointed upward, and the other boys immediately swarmed forward.

These spiders had lived here for years. How had they ever seen such a scene? They had no guard up at all and were caught red-handed.

Unfortunately, there were too few. Several people had to share one, and it was nowhere near enough.

Brother Hao directed them, giving more to the older children and less to the younger ones. Then he asked, "Senior, are you still there? Can the spider legs really not be eaten?"

"Just now I was still 'you,' and now I'm 'Senior,'" Yang Ning said with a laugh. "My name is Zhong Li. As for the spider legs, if you're starving and wolf them down, their sharp legs will cut your esophagus. If you chew slowly and thoroughly, they're fine. The spider heads are the same. Remove the fangs, and you can eat them!"

"Mm!" Brother Hao nodded. "My name is Jiang Yunhao. Thank you very much, Senior. I'll tell everyone right away!"

He was very careful not to say Zhong Li's name aloud.

"Jiang Yunhao? The Jiang Yun Nation surname?" The Jiang Yun Nation had taken its name from the Jiang Yun surname, and Brother Hao was called Jiang Yunhao.

"You're a prince of Jiang Yun?" Yang Ning asked.

"I'm no prince!" Jiang Yunhao said. "Many people in Jiang Yun Nation didn't have surnames before. After the nation was founded, they took Jiang Yun as their surname. My ancestors were farmers!"

"Is that so!" Jiang Yun had been destroyed nearly a hundred years ago. Yang Ning truly did not know what the Jiang Yun Nation of old had been like.

"How do you feel?" Seeing that Jiang Yunhao had even eaten all the spider legs clean, Yang Ning asked.

"Better!" Jiang Yunhao said.

But half-grown boys could eat their fathers poor. How could a tiny spider possibly be enough?

Jiang Yunhao had sensed Yang Ning's goodwill, which was why he was unwilling to trouble him further.

So Yang Ning said, "Beside you, three steps away, there's a nest of snakes beneath that floor tile. They're nonvenomous and edible too. But be careful when catching them; there might be quite a few!"

Deep Blue had heard the hissing of snakes.

Jiang Yunhao's eyes immediately lit up again. What did many matter? There were more than eighty of them—they were only afraid there would not be enough!

He quickly directed his companions. They lifted the floor tile and began catching snakes.

This time, they caught more than a dozen snakes, along with more than a dozen snake eggs.

Conditions were limited, so they could only eat them raw. Jiang Yunhao gave the snake meat to the older children and the eggs to the younger ones. Surprisingly, the distribution was fairly even overall.

"This child is a strong leader too!" As the saying went, fear not scarcity, fear unevenness. To see whether someone had leadership, one only needed to watch how they distributed things.

"Thank you, Senior, for letting us have a full meal!" Jiang Yunhao let out a long breath and sighed. "Now, even if I died immediately, I'd be willing!"

Yang Ning laughed. "I let you eat your fill, not so you could go die!"

"Senior, please tell us whatever you need. So long as it isn't asking us to betray Jiang Yun." Jiang Yunhao no longer tried to show off his cleverness. Displaying it once before was enough; excess was as bad as deficiency.

"No rush. Let's get you out first!" Yang Ning said. "I have two ways to get you out. Which one will you choose?"

"Please tell me, Senior!"

"First, tomorrow I send someone over to buy all of you."

"Second, I save you tonight, but the entire city will hunt you down. Every slave merchant, and even cultivators, will take missions to find you!"

"With the first way, all of you can survive. With the second, you may die, and die terribly! Even after death, you won't be left in peace. Your corpses may be hung from the city walls to warn those who come after!"

Jiang Yunhao fell silent for a long time before asking, "If we escape tonight, will you still help us while we're fleeing?"

"I will!" Yang Ning answered.

"Then there's no need to consider it. I choose the second!" Jiang Yunhao said.

"Tell me your reason?" Yang Ning asked. "Didn't you say that only the living have hope?"

"Once we get out, I will become hope!" Jiang Yunhao said earnestly. "As long as we're alive, they'll know that someone is fighting for everyone's freedom!"

"As long as we have been free, they'll know they won't remain slaves forever!"

Yang Ning was silent for a long while before saying to Deep Blue, "I think I just saved someone extraordinary!"