Hell on Earth: Nobles and Generals Really Were Born to Their Rank

The flying boat landed in a clearing. Liu Yi had barely stepped off when a powerful feeling of suffocation hit him.

It was as though he had been transported in an instant to the Tibetan Plateau, where the air was thin. Even breathing became difficult.

After a while, he gradually adjusted.

Sensing that the concentration of Spiritual Qi outside was only one percent of what it was in the Heavenly Revelation Sect, he sighed helplessly. Achieving Foundation Establishment in such an environment was simply too difficult.

He watched the flying boat rise swiftly into the sky and disappear into the distance. Ignoring the hundred-odd outer sect disciples beside him, he headed straight for the nearest city.

Yunping City, Jin State.

Liu Yi walked along a street in the city.

The street bustled with activity. Vendors called out one after another, and pedestrians streamed past without end.

The vast majority of people in the crowd had sallow faces and numb expressions and wore tattered clothes. Only a tiny few were dressed in finery.

He even saw more than a dozen people selling themselves into slavery. He had only seen such things in films and television dramas before, but now he was seeing them in real life.

Many beggars lined the roadside, holding out their hands for alms. They were dressed in rags, their faces yellow and their bodies emaciated.

He entered a steamed-bun shop and spent most of his money on piping-hot buns, which he handed out to the beggars.

That was all he could do. He had little money left and simply could not help any more people.

In times like these, there were simply too many people living in poverty.

Along the way, he also encountered several groups of human traffickers.

Not only did he secretly sabotage their operations, he also marked the traffickers without their knowledge.

He planned to track them down that night, both to rid the people of a scourge and to take the opportunity to fill his own shriveled purse.

As he walked through the city, the grand estates with their vermilion gates stood in stark contrast to the dilapidated thatched huts.

The rich feasted on delicacies from mountains and seas, while the poor could only hope not to starve to death, some even reduced to eating grass and dirt. The immense gulf between rich and poor was shocking.

His predecessor's memories had told him of the vast disparity between rich and poor in this world.

Yet seeing it with his own eyes, he was still deeply shaken by a gulf beyond anything he had imagined.

There had been a gap between rich and poor in his previous life too, but compared to this world, it was like a small shaman before a great one. Even ancient China had been nowhere near as terrifying.

In this world where extraordinary powers existed, ordinary people had almost no chance of ever turning their lives around.

Here, nobles and generals really were born to their rank.

Just then, cries and pleas for mercy suddenly rang out:

"Spare me! Steward, spare me! I really wasn't slacking off! I've guarded the estate gates for three years straight, sleeping only four hours a day. I really couldn't hold on just now, so I shut my eyes for a little while!"

Liu Yi turned to look. Before the gates of the Zhao estate, a man dressed as a servant had blood on his forehead from knocking it against the ground as he begged relentlessly.

The steward's expression was cold as he shouted, "You dare doze off while on duty at the gates? Drag him away and give him twenty strokes of the paddle! Let's see who dares slack off after this!"

Human lives are worth less than grass. Those words flashed through Liu Yi's mind as he watched the servant being dragged away.

The servant was gaunt and already terribly weak. Whether he would survive twenty strokes was hard to say.

This world was sick!

This world had gone mad!

The mortal world was even more insane than the immortal cultivation world, and the oppression was worse.

Leaving his previous life aside, even in the Heavenly Revelation Sect, where he had to operate a formation for twelve hours a day and was worked like a beast of burden, he could at least eat his fill and keep warm.

Though he lived like an ox or a horse, he at least had food to fill his stomach. Compared with ordinary people struggling on the brink of life and death, he was actually fortunate.

How could I have such a thought?

He gave his head a sharp shake, forcibly driving the absurd thought from his mind.

In the world before him, immortal cultivators were nothing like immortal cultivators. Powerful, wealthy lineages monopolized resources generation after generation, while ordinary people struggled even to find a place where they could live and make a livelihood.

In this world filled with extraordinary power, "fairness" had become the most extravagant word of all.

He clenched his fists, his heart filled with the urge to overturn it all, but reason soon dragged him back to reality.

With his current strength, he could not shake the rules of this world in the slightest.

Even if he achieved great cultivation someday, the world was so vast. What could one person alone change?

Unless he became powerful enough to rewrite the rules of the world, it would all be futile in the end.

He thought of widespread education and the internet in his previous life, but an instant later, he shook his head in self-mockery.

No, it was impossible to achieve that here. The cost alone would be astronomical.

Besides, all resources were held firmly in the hands of those with vested interests. How could there be any possibility of reform?

Even if it did appear, it would become a tool for the meat-eaters.

Unless something appeared that was not controlled by those powerful elites and immortal cultivators.

That's right, a system!

Liu Yi's eyes suddenly lit up. He did not need one of those flashy, powerful systems that rewarded killing or signing in.

If he could just create something like the computer operating systems of his previous life, run it directly in the minds of the people, and combine it with a series of other measures, he might really be able to overturn the whole world!

He could pull all those lofty immortal cultivators and meat-eaters down from their high horses.

If it worked, he could also reap enormous benefits from it.

The bold plan left him burning with excitement, itching to get started immediately.

But he soon calmed down again.

For now, creating a system was far too unrealistic. With his current abilities, it was nothing but an idle fantasy.

The most urgent task was still to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm. Otherwise, in a few years, he would be laid to rest in the earth.

With that thought, he decided to settle accounts with the human traffickers.

It would be a good way to vent his anger.

He would let them taste the iron fist of justice.

That night, he made his way to a secluded courtyard. With his face covered, he kicked the gates open and charged inside, brimming with murderous intent.

His fists flew in a blur, killing everyone he saw without mercy.

In just a few moments, only three of the more than twenty people in the courtyard remained, slumped on the ground and barely breathing.

Liu Yi looked at the corpses covering the ground, feeling a little uncomfortable. After taking several deep breaths to recover,

he did not rush to question the three. Instead, he raised his hand and treated them to a thorough session of the great memory restoration technique.

The excruciating pain made the three scream incessantly. Once they had recovered, he interrogated them coldly:

"Who's pulling your strings? Tell me the truth, and I'll give you a quick death. Otherwise, I'll make you experience what you just felt another dozen times or more!"

The man in the lead stared in terror at the killing god before him, his voice trembling:

"Spare us, hero! There really isn't anyone behind us! We just abduct children and sell them to wealthy households or brothels, or turn them into beggars to make money."

Liu Yi frowned and looked at the other two. One of them turned deathly pale with fright and nodded hurriedly.

"He's telling the truth! We're willing to pay you silver. Please spare our lives, hero!"

His gaze hardened, and he pressed them further. "Where are the abducted children being held? Where have you hidden your ill-gotten gains?"

The three answered in a panicked chorus, "In the next room! The money and valuables are all in the cellar beneath the western wing!"

Liu Yi swiftly sealed their acupoints, leaving them unable to move, then strode toward the next room.

The moment he pushed open the door, a stench of rot mixed with blood hit him.

Inside the dimly lit room, thirteen children were locked in rust-spotted iron cages. Three of them had already had their arms and legs broken; they were evidently going to be turned into crippled beggars.

The horrific sight made his eyes go wide with rage, his killing intent almost taking tangible form.

I was still too kind. I let them die too easily.

He clenched his fists and barely managed to suppress the anger in his heart.

Seeing the children's terrified eyes, he gave them a smile and said gently, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to rescue you."

As he spoke, he stepped forward, opened the cages one by one, and gently carried the children out.

"Thank you, big brother!"

"Thank you, benefactor!"

The children's tearful thanks rose one after another. Little hands clutched tightly at Liu Yi's sleeves, as though grasping their only hope.

Liu Yi crouched down and carefully examined the injuries of the three children with broken arms and legs.

Finding that the wounds were still fresh and the bones had not yet healed, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Thankfully, I found them in time. There's still hope of treating them.

He then used the bone-setting techniques he had learned from medical books in the Heavenly Revelation Sect's Scripture Repository, correcting and resetting each displaced bone.

After treating their injuries, he dug out gold, silver, and valuables from the traffickers' cellar and gave some to the rescued children. "Take this money. I'll take you home to find your families."

By the time he had taken the children home one by one, the sky was beginning to brighten.

He returned to the courtyard and looked at the three traffickers, their acupoints sealed and limbs crippled, lying on the ground unable to move. A faint, meaningful sneer appeared on his face.