Heaven Ring Attunement

After Qian Mo made his second move, every remaining member of the gang became completely obedient, terrified that Qian Mo's next sword stroke would slice across their necks.

After all, severed tendons in their hands or feet could still be healed by a healing-type Soul Master.

But if their throats were slit, they would truly die alongside their boss.

At that moment, a familiar voice rang out beside Qian Mo's ear.

"M-my lord, that's e-enough. P-please stop cutting. We really can't take any more.

"But how exactly did we offend you? At least tell us clearly. Can't we apologize and make it up to you?"

Qian Mo raised his eyes and immediately understood.

Wasn't this Er Gou, the one who had just urged their boss to make a move on him?

Qian Mo could not be bothered with pleasantries when dealing with human traffickers who deserved death. He merely snorted coldly.

"What grudge? What resentment? You were just planning to kidnap me, and you've already forgotten?"

Er Gou's smile instantly froze on his face.

The next moment, Er Gou struggled to his feet.

Just as Qian Mo thought the man was about to make one final desperate counterattack, Er Gou forcibly endured the pain and dropped to his knees, repeatedly kowtowing to Qian Mo.

"Spare me, my lord! I know I was wrong, I really do! Please just let me go.

"I have a fifty-year-old mother to care for at home, and a three-year-old son who depends on me to survive. That's why greed clouded my judgment just now.

"Please, my lord, spare me for the sake of my elderly mother and young child. I beg you!"

As he spoke, Er Gou sobbed and pleaded, while his kowtows grew increasingly forceful. Even after smashing his forehead bloody against the ground, he did not ease up in the slightest.

Seeing such apparent sincerity, an ordinary person might have believed that Er Gou was genuinely terrified that no one would care for his family after his death.

Unfortunately, Er Gou had encountered Qian Mo.

A member of the Halovian whose talent for spiritual perception was fully maxed out.

At this moment, Er Gou's spiritual fluctuations felt fearful yet sinister to Qian Mo.

But there was not the slightest concern for the family Er Gou claimed to care about.

Clearly, Er Gou had simply made it all up to save his life.

However, because Qian Mo needed to focus on his perception, the human traffickers mistook his silence for pity.

One after another, they immediately began to recount their own miserable stories as well.

For a moment, the scene became utter chaos, as though they were holding a contest to see who could sound the most pitiful.

Unfortunately for them, Qian Mo was still carefully sensing their emotions and gave no reply.

Thinking their performance had not been convincing enough, they began reporting their cultivation levels, claiming they were willing to become Qian Mo's lapdogs in exchange for their lives.

Qian Mo did indeed lack manpower at this stage.

But his heart remained utterly unmoved.

Qian Mo wanted to use the Path of Harmony to grow stronger, but he was not some garbage recycling station that accepted every piece of trash.

Especially not human traffickers, the kind of people Qian Mo hated most.

In his previous life, Qian Mo had been caught up in a massive infant abduction case shortly after birth. Since technology had been underdeveloped at the time, he had ultimately ended up in an orphanage.

Although he desperately wanted to kill these people on the spot, Qian Mo's rationality ultimately restrained him from swinging his final sword.

Qian Mo slowly walked over to Er Gou. Golden light flashed behind his head, and a Heaven Ring with eight corners, resembling a solar corona, appeared behind him.

Summoning his second martial soul, the Heaven Ring, meant Qian Mo was about to fully use his Halovian talent.

Qian Mo raised his right hand and held it suspended before Er Gou. Golden spiritual ripples immediately spread outward.

Attunement, begin!

Very soon, under the spiritual attunement, Er Gou became like someone hypnotized, spilling every secret he had.

However, Qian Mo was surprised to learn that Er Gou really did have a mother in her fifties and a young son.

But after going out into the world, Er Gou had long since stopped caring for his mother and had abandoned her in their rural hometown.

As for his son, Er Gou had personally sold him to a black-market dealer.

Qian Mo had never held any expectations for a human trafficker's character, so he did not react much to this.

He was merely curious. This group was generally composed of Soul Masters, and Er Gou was even a Grand Soul Master who could receive a Soul Master stipend. How had he fallen so low that he needed to sell his own son for money?

And ordinary children could not sell for much even if they possessed the aptitude to become Soul Masters. Wouldn't doing practically anything be better than selling children?

Thus, Qian Mo asked curiously.

Er Gou answered blankly, "Because children are very valuable now.

"Only then can I afford gambling and secret medicine. Otherwise, how could an ordinary commoner Soul Master like me possibly cultivate to the Grand Soul Master rank?"

"Valuable? Secret medicine?"

Qian Mo muttered as he frowned.

Although the Douluo Continent of this era had not yet developed anything like the Blackwater Pill from ten thousand years later,

the medicinal baths Yu Xiaogang had prepared while training Tang San and the others showed that the Douluo Continent had achieved something in this field as well.

However, the fact that this plot had emptied out Flender's private stash also demonstrated how expensive ordinary medicinal ingredients were.

Yet this group of human traffickers could exchange sold children for secret medicines that improved cultivation. No matter how he thought about it, something was wrong.

Sure enough, after Qian Mo repeatedly questioned Er Gou in detail, he received a shocking piece of information.

Black-market dealers had been purchasing children over the long term!

Moreover, only those who had sold children were qualified to purchase the so-called secret medicine Er Gou had mentioned.

Upon learning this, Qian Mo fell silent.

He had not expected that he would come out intending to build a career, only to uncover such a shocking secret hidden in Golden Ear City's dark underbelly.

Selling adult slaves was one thing. The Heaven Dou Auction House was practically conducting that kind of business openly.

But this involved children, and they were being bought in large quantities over a long period.

They even used special secret medicines to lure and incite low-level Soul Masters into doing this dirty work. It was practically obvious that Evil Spirit Masters were stirring up trouble in the shadows.

Having figured this out, Qian Mo realized that his original plan to dismantle this gang, rescue the abducted children, and continue building his career would have to be delayed slightly.

After all, how could one sweep the world clean without first sweeping one's own house?

Until he cleaned up the filth lurking in Golden Ear City's dark underbelly, Qian Mo had no intention of practicing the Path.

Two bright yellow soul rings emerged as Qian Mo used the soul skill Holy Light's Grace to heal the human traffickers.

Although these human traffickers deserved death,

as tainted witnesses, Qian Mo would not let them die so easily before squeezing every last bit of value from them for the coming operation.

Afterward, Qian Mo activated Attunement again and blurred their memories from this period, preventing anyone who came later from learning of his attunement methods.

Once he had finished everything, Qian Mo bound each person's wrists and, under cover of night, locked the group inside a warehouse he had rented temporarily.

As for why Qian Mo did not simply bring them back to the Martial Soul Hall, where a Soul Emperor would make things safer,

the reason was simple: Qian Mo knew full well that every forest had all kinds of birds.

Until he could determine whether anyone else in the Martial Soul Hall had been corrupted by Evil Spirit Masters, Qian Mo would not trust these colleagues he had only just met.

Everything could wait until his clansmen, who had gone crazy from wanting achievements, arrived.