If she had not left anyone alive to learn what was going on, she would certainly have delivered the women straight to the officials at Heaven Dou's border and left. But now that she knew how corrupt the border was, she could hardly do that anymore. What if those officials, all wallowing in the same filth, simply turned around and sold them again?
"All right, I suppose I did happen to run into you." Leng Xiyue sighed, then walked over to Tian Meng and addressed the young women who had been abducted. "Ladies, fate brought us together. Don't worry, I'll take you home."
To her surprise, none of them looked excited. Instead, most seemed terrified. Finally, a woman in her twenties stepped forward and said with a bitter smile, "Lord Soul Master, we appreciate your kindness, but there's really no need to send us home. You may not know this, but many of the women here were sold by their families, just like me. Coming to this unfamiliar northern province might mean extraordinary suffering, but for us, it might also be a release."
"We don't dare ask for much. We only hope you'll leave us here. Letting this land of ice and snow become our burial ground seems like a decent choice, too."
"She's right, Lord Soul Master. I was a wanderer, already living with too little food to fill my stomach and too few clothes to cover my body. Death was only a matter of sooner or later. Dying here wouldn't be so tragic. At least it's better than being thrown into a ditch in the end."
"Me too."
"Same here."
Leng Xiyue had thought such pessimistic words would not strike much of a chord. Surely at least half of them wanted to live?
Yet not one of these twenty-odd women had any desire to keep living, and none wanted to return to the Heaven Dou Empire. All they wanted was to use this rare taste of freedom to end their suffering here.
One thing remained consistent, though: none of them tried to cling to her leg and beg her to take them in. Whether that was because she was a Soul Master or for some other reason, not one wanted to trouble her.
But the more they acted this way, the less Leng Xiyue could bring herself to abandon them.
"Aren't you planning to start a new trade guild? These women seem to have good dispositions. Keeping them as trusted aides would be a fine choice. Have Tian Meng train them properly, and perhaps they'll become the pillars holding everything up for you someday." Xiao Bai swept her gaze over the crowd, then looked away and offered her suggestion with a smile.
Leng Xiyue had actually wondered whether they were playing a game of letting go to reel her in, pretending to be pitiful to stir her sympathy. But after examining them carefully, Xiao Bai also thought they could be trained as trusted aides, so there was surely no problem.
"All right, ladies. I happen to be short of help. Come back with me, and I'll arrange work for you."
After thinking it over, Leng Xiyue realized she did indeed need to cultivate some reliable people. These young women, with no backgrounds or family ties to hold them back, were undoubtedly a dependable choice. With Tian Meng looking after them, even if they had no particular abilities, they could at least serve customers or do odd jobs.
If they could not even manage that, she would have to give them a few Gold Soul Coins and send them on their way. That would count as doing everything kindness and duty required.
At these words, the young women who had already sunk into despair froze. They looked at one another, then dropped to their knees in unison and kowtowed to Leng Xiyue. "Thank you, my lord, for giving us a new life!"
After helping them up, Leng Xiyue prepared to take them back to the Heaven Dou Empire. But Xiao Bai said, "Xiyue, don't you think this is an opportunity? We're on one of the main roads connecting Heaven Dou's border pass to Extreme Ice City, the capital of the northern province. People must pass through from time to time. We could rob a few more caravans like this one. Not only would we be carrying out justice on Heaven's behalf, we could also gather more unfortunate people for you."
"In plain language, please~"
"They have money, and after they die, I can absorb half their cultivation."
That cultivation naturally referred to the age of their Soul Rings. When Soul Masters died, their Soul Rings automatically dispersed, making them very difficult to capture, but that certainly posed no trouble for Xiao Bai.
These tyrants were mostly Soul Elders or above, and half their Soul Ring ages amounted to roughly one or two thousand years. Ten of them meant nearly twenty thousand. The total psionic energy experience required to reach level thirty was now a staggering three hundred thousand. Even after subtracting the ninety thousand the cold pool water could provide, she still needed another two hundred and ten thousand. Robbing a single caravan here for twenty thousand psionic energy experience really was a lucrative job.
After all, these villains traveled in packs. It was much faster than hunting Soul Beasts.
The remaining ten-thousand-year cold marrow could also help her level up quickly, but Leng Xiyue did not intend to use it now. Saving such high-quality resources for later was the best choice.
"All right, then. Tian Meng, find somewhere to settle them first. I'll keep watch here for a while and see if I can catch a few more unlucky souls." As she spoke, Leng Xiyue summoned several Legionnaires and had them stealthily advance along both sides of the road, so she would receive advance warning whenever someone approached.
Ordinary people almost never traveled the roads of the northern province. Those in the slave class might never leave the area where they had been born, while merchants coming from Heaven Dou naturally could not be good people either. What decent person would come here to do business with this gang of vicious criminals~?
Events unfolded exactly as Leng Xiyue had expected. Over the next few hours, twenty-three caravans passed through, twenty-one of which were involved in the slave trade. Leng Xiyue showed no mercy, leaving not a single survivor among the roughly four hundred people in total. She did not want anyone knowing she had done it.
There was no shortage of people spinning tales of misery, shifting blame, and acting pitiful, but Tian Meng could detect all those liars with his spiritual power. In truth, there was not a single good person involved in this trade. The remaining two caravans, though not trading slaves, were transporting grain. Leng Xiyue naturally treated them the same way. Those who funded villains were even more hateful than the villains themselves.
However, the abilities of these four hundred people varied considerably. Squads of Soul Masters like the earlier one were uncommon, and there were only a little over a hundred Soul Masters among them. The occasional high-level Soul King, and even one powerful Soul Emperor, were naturally hacked to death by the Legionnaires, fierce as wolves and tigers. The rest were overseers who, like puppet troops, helped the tyrants commit their atrocities and oppressed their fellow slaves. Leng Xiyue mercifully sent them to meet their masters.
Altogether, they provided Leng Xiyue with one hundred and eighty thousand psionic energy experience. Once she absorbed the cold pool water and bought some medicinal herbs, she could prepare to advance to level thirty.
There were fewer rescued young women than she had expected, only a little over eighty. Quite a few were "merchandise" that had already lost their souls and obeyed orders unconditionally.
Most of the caravans had arrived empty-handed to "collect the goods," or were preparing to return to the Heaven Dou Empire and enjoy themselves after selling their cargo. Altogether, she plundered nearly five hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins-a truly bountiful harvest.
However, Leng Xiyue was not greedy. She had already gained more than enough, and staying much longer might attract unnecessary attention.
Thus, she did not bother cleaning up the battlefield, leaving behind a scene of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Let it serve as a warning. These villains could not be allowed to live too comfortably; it was time to remind them what righteous punishment meant.
After giving a speech to persuade the hundred-odd women she had rescued to abandon their suicidal intentions, the group set off on the journey back.
Far from the battlefield, heads quietly emerged one after another from a seemingly empty stretch of snow, watching Leng Xiyue's departing figure with thoughtful expressions.
Before you continue