The Treachery of the Human Heart

In theory!

Yin Ming could also be considered an evil god.

Weak, pitiful, and helpless—and without the infinite vitality of endless resurrection. He was the disgrace of the disgrace pillar of the evil god world.

The black dragon only needed one clawed toe to crush him with ease, obtaining a divine spark without competing with anyone.

Unfortunately, once the spatial ripples subsided, the black dragon had completely missed its chance.

Yin Ming vanished entirely into the boundless void and appeared a thousand li away, atop a bluish stone shaped like a crouching ox.

"Caw, caw..."

Beside the stone stood a withered, crooked-necked tree.

Its dead branches twisted like snarling demons. Two jackdaws perched at its crown, having witnessed a living person vanish and reappear, flapped their wings and let out harsh cries.

His luck was decent. If he had teleported into midair or underground, he could only have abandoned his body and escaped.

The Pure Altar Envoy must have considered that, setting the Minor Teleportation Immortal Talisman's coordinates at the boundary of the ground's surface.

[Primordial Spirit Leaves Body!]

The higher one stood, the farther one could see. Yin Ming climbed a dead tree and leaned against a thick branch.

His Primordial Spirit rode the Corpse-Liberation Gourd out of his body, continuously flying upward to survey the surrounding environment from above.

Behind him stretched an endless range of steep mountains, from which the low roars of wild beasts occasionally sounded. Before him lay flat plains at the foot of the mountains, where a majestic city stood, surrounded by scattered small towns inhabited by humans.

"I need to find a way to settle down and survive in this world before thinking about cultivating again."

Once the visualization technique was cultivated to the Void Lightning Realm, his eyes could see in the darkness.

With his divine sense fully spread, he could detect every movement within a kilometer. Avoiding savage carnivores would not be a problem.

The night posed no trouble at all, so Yin Ming headed toward the settlement below the mountains.

"Thud, thud..."

Mountains looked close but were far away in practice!

By the time Yin Ming reached a populated area, the eastern sky had begun to brighten. Dawn had arrived.

To keep the sacrifices from embarrassing themselves during the execution blood sacrifice, Viscount Orson had scrubbed the serfs clean inside and out three days in advance.

At that moment, Yin Ming was thirsty, hungry, and exhausted. He walked up to a house and knocked on its door.

"Who is it? Knocking at the Door Opening so early in the morning."

An elderly man's voice sounded from inside the house.

Then came rustling sounds. Dim lamplight lit up, and a watchful gaze peered through the crack in the door before the two battered wooden doors were pushed open.

The one who opened the door was a kind-faced old man.

He was broad and powerfully built, though somewhat hunched. His graying beard was meticulously groomed, and he wore clean grayish-white clothes.

He was probably a freeman, somewhere between a noble and a serf in status.

"I'm a hunter who entered the mountains to hunt and accidentally got separated from my companions. I'm thirsty and hungry now. Sir, could you sell me some water and food?"

Yin Ming politely bowed.

He took more than a dozen copper coins, nearly coated in patina, from the hollow soles of his shoes.

This was all the wealth of the body's former owner, Eno, and the only thing he had on him.

The "Purity" law bestowed by Zhu Bajie and the jade inheritance of artifact-forging techniques were not real material objects existing in this world. They had already been stored inside the Corpse-Liberation Gourd.

"What a pitiful child! In weather this cold, even kind-hearted masters can't bear to leave their dogs outside. Come in and rest!"

The old man blatantly scrutinized Yin Ming.

His clothes, manner of speech, build, and skin tone—he inspected him from head to toe without missing a single hair. The scrutiny made Yin Ming's skin crawl. Only after seemingly confirming that Yin Ming posed no threat did a warm smile appear on his face, and he took the initiative to welcome Yin Ming inside.

"Then... excuse me."

Yin Ming hesitated for a moment before deciding to follow the old man inside to shelter from the wind.

Dawn was the coldest time of day. Staying out of the wind would reduce his body's energy expenditure.

It would be an enormous joke if this primitive body had survived the blood sacrifice only to starve to death afterward.

What met his eyes were old, battered tables and chairs, a brick fireplace whose firewood had burned out, a kerosene lamp hanging above the dining table, and miscellaneous household items piled in the corners.

"Who is it? Has Little Arthur come back?" A trembling old woman emerged through the open wooden bedroom door.

The old man quickly turned around and instructed the old woman who had just come out from the inner room, "Old woman, prepare the 'good' food. This poor child must be starving!"

The old woman nodded, took out some flour, poured in water, and kneaded it into spindle-shaped loaves with pointed ends. She then put them into the fireplace to bake.

Before long, the fragrance of bread wafted from the fireplace. It was sliced and brought out on a plate.

According to the information lingering in Eno's brain cells,

the staple food of serfs was dry, hard black bread mixed with gravel, bran, and husks.

White bread was only bestowed in a few slices during holidays or harvest seasons, when the lord happened to be in a good mood.

This Household was not materially well-off, yet they were using "good" food to entertain a stranger?

Smack!

He was fucking starving to death!

Even if it had been laced with poison, he had to eat it. Besides, he had watched them cook the entire time. There had been no movement suggesting they had poisoned it.

"Thank you for the meal!"

Yin Ming truly was starving. If he did not eat soon, this body might really starve to death.

He ate very quickly, yet did not look the least bit rude.

It was not because—elegance never went out of style.

His next meal was still uncertain. Naturally, he had to draw as much nutrition as possible from this hard-won food. Only after being thoroughly chewed could food be digested by the stomach and intestines with less energy.

"Hehe..."

Yin Ming swallowed the last piece of bread.

The old man's kindly smile instantly vanished. With a sinister expression, he sneered twice. "The bread you ate was kneaded with Drunken Dragon Grass juice. I bet you won't last ten seconds."

Kneaded with it?

Yin Ming: [...]

When other people poisoned someone, they used poison as an additive.

You, on the other hand, had directly sprinkled two handfuls of flour into poison. If nothing else, you could at least have used some technology. There was no shame in that!

"We have never met before. Why are you..."

Before ten seconds had passed, the effects of the Drunken Dragon Grass fully took hold.

Yin Ming felt dizzy. Every muscle in his body stiffened, and his eyelids became as heavy as if they had been filled with lead.

After he fainted, his consciousness remained clear, but his nerves were paralyzed and he could not control his body, as though suffering from sleep paralysis.

"Your speech and behavior really don't make you look like a slave. You might have fooled someone else!"

His limbs were darker in color than the rest of his body. His hands bore many old calluses, and his back still showed healed whip scars. He was clearly a runaway slave from some territory.

When the old man was young, he had been an elite member of a slave-catching squad.

There was naturally no reason to let a slave who had delivered himself to the door escape.

He rummaged through the pile of clutter and found a thick hemp rope. He tied Yin Ming's hands behind his back, looped it around his neck, passed it beneath his ribs, wound it around several times, and tied a dead knot.

"Good teeth! Strong body too! A top-quality serf. Old John will pay a good price!"

Like a livestock trader selecting an animal, the old woman first carefully inspected his teeth, then squeezed his biceps hard. She grinned, revealing her few remaining large yellow teeth.

Yin Ming: (_).

His Primordial Spirit left his body!

He looked down at their every movement.

The bread might have been adulterated, but it had also replenished his energy, pulling this body back from the brink of death.

Less than half a day after regaining his freedom, he was once again bound in familiar hemp rope. It even gave him a strange sense of coming home.

Still, being sold was not all that bad. Compared with his current circumstances, it could even be considered an improvement. At least he would have somewhere to eat and time to slowly familiarize himself with this world.

"..."

"With this money, little Joseph can definitely become a real knight."

The old man slung Yin Ming over his shoulders and walked without pause to the edge of town. His stamina was abundant, and he did not resemble an elderly man at all.

There stood a dilapidated little wooden house. Inside lived a lame, gaunt man—the old slave trader named John.

After some friendly negotiations, the two finally reached an agreement. The deal was settled for thirty silver coins.