Chapter 2: Secret Realm Cannon Fodder
At the Fengshan Old Mine, outside the No. 7 pit, a horse-drawn carriage stopped at the entrance of the mine. Jiang Ziheng, a scholar wearing a patched gown and long hair, was dragged out of the carriage by four or five big men wearing torn linen hoods.
He tried to reason with them.
But no one listened to him.
The shouting and screaming could be heard from far away in the chaotic mine in the dark night, startling the crows and causing them to fly around and cackle.
"boom"
He was about to shout again, but a big man with a face full of flesh, wearing a short shirt and a boning knife on his waist, hit him on the waist with a stick so hard that the second half of his sentence turned into sobs.
Jiang Shusheng was carried by three people and walked down the mine.
Those people were very familiar with this place. They walked all the way to the bottom of the intricate spider-web-like mine. The scholar was thrown to the ground and the bag covering his head was opened.
There were shadows in front of me, and in the dim light, I could only see a few lights in front of me, and a few people gathered in a group.
There were two men wearing long gowns, who looked like leaders.
One was younger, the other older, and they were talking in low voices.
"Master Bao, the manager has brought the person here."
The lowly person who had kidnapped Jiang Shusheng spoke very respectfully and in a flattering tone. The old man who was talking to the young master turned around and looked at Jiang Shusheng who was lying limp on the ground.
He came over with a lantern, lowered the light to illuminate the pale face of the scholar, and said with a fake smile:
"Scholar, you are lucky today."
"You haven't paid me back the money you took from me for many days. The interest has accumulated and the ten taels of silver has become so high that you can't even pay it back even if you sell it.
In the past, in your situation, you would be thrown into the mines, forced to sell your body and work to pay off your debts.
But today our Lord Bao showed some mercy.
You don't have to pay back the money you owe.
Just do one thing for Ruyifang, and the debt will be written off."
"Didn't I make an agreement with the manager? We can settle the debt with writing, no wages required. The ten taels of silver can be paid back in just half a month... woo woo"
Jiang Shusheng, who was lying on the ground, spoke with good reason and had prepared a speech in his mind, but just as he started, a rope was thrown from behind and was about to cover his mouth.
Pulling it back hard, the words of argument turned into whimpering sobs.
Even though this is not taught in the book.
But at this moment, he also knew that something bad was about to happen, and his face turned pale with fear.
"help me!"
He shouted in his heart.
"Don't panic, be patient."
A voice sounded in my mind, not panicking at all, but with a hint of curiosity:
"What's that thing in front? Have you seen it?"
Following his reminder, the scholar with his mouth held tight looked forward and saw the young man called Bao Ye, who was dressed luxuriously and had a bandit-like face, taking out a box from his sleeve.
He took out a stone from it. It was square and the size of his palm. Deep in the mine where torches were burning and illuminating the area, the stone began to emit a faint blue light as soon as it was taken out.
It's like a small lamp.
It also looks like some kind of highly radioactive raw material.
The light above flowed through Bao Ye's five fingers like water. He bent down and placed the stone in the indentation in the middle of the stone slab under his feet.
Just the right size.
It was not until the light came on that Jiang Shusheng saw that the thing carrying the light stone in front of him was a strange thing.
The stone slab, several meters square, is pentagonal and very delicately made.
It looked very ancient, with all kinds of unknown carvings all over it, like a variation of the Bagua pattern, with long and short marks mixed together, seemingly following some kind of pattern.
But it looks more like a ghost painting.
"Click"
The moment the strange stone and the slab touched, it was like turning on an energy switch. The blue light flowed along the marks on the slab like mercury pouring on the ground, quickly filling every intricate line.
After a dozen seconds, the entire slate was lit up.
The runes on it flashed and danced rhythmically like a revolving lantern, and the double rings nested inside and outside rotated, making a clicking sound, just like the combination lock of a safe when it was opened.
No one spoke. Everyone was watching the stone slab turning. The turning stone slab stopped at a certain scale, and then a light appeared before their eyes.
A ball of dancing light gathered on the stone slab, like smoke being inhaled and exhaled, gathering to half a person's height, and then like a tightly closed eye, opening little by little.
Finally, it became an upright elliptical light curtain.
The light flows inside and outside, which looks very beautiful.
Seeing the light curtain open, Bao Ye took a few steps back and wiped the sweat from his forehead caused by nervousness. His eyes were fixed on the light in front of him, full of desire.
It was like looking into an open, unguarded treasure house filled with gold, silver and treasures.
After a few breaths, Bao Ye took a deep breath, waved his hands, and signaled that it was time to begin.
"Hey, Mr. Jiang, don't you always tell everyone that there is a ghost living in your body? If there really is a ghost in your body, this trip can ensure that you are safe and sound."
Huang Guanshi, the old lackey, laughed in a low voice and whispered something in a sarcastic tone to the provincial general. He then stuffed a short dagger into the scholar's belt and untied the ropes on his body.
"help me!"
Jiang Shusheng was shouting in his heart. Even though he was a loser, he felt that disaster was about to happen.
"Don't panic."
The voice in my mind was still calm, yet it also had a hint of eagerness.
He said to Jiang Shusheng:
"Ask them first, what is this thing?"
"what is this?"
Jiang Shusheng was already panicking at this point, and he shouted loudly, but no one answered him.
Behind him, Manager Huang kicked him in the waist, but the old man was weak, and the scholar fell to the ground but did not fall into the light.
But he didn't need to give any more instructions.
Several big men nearby strode forward, grabbed the scholar's limbs, shook him a few times, and tried to throw him into the light.
"Old Four! Old Four, help me!"
In his panic, the scholar saw a thin man and shouted as if he had seen a savior.
The skinny guy called Lao Si hid in the crowd, swallowed his saliva, and stole a glance at the manager's face. As if he couldn't bear it, he stepped forward.
He held the scholar's mouth shut to stop him shouting.
He stuffed his broken water bottle into the scholar's waist bag, patted him on the shoulder, sighed, returned to the crowd and turned his back.
This was the last thing he could do for the poor man.
Bao Ye, who had been holding back his posture and not speaking, saw Jiang Shusheng struggling, thought for a moment, and then spoke:
“We have our own rules in Ruyifang. We are not asking you, an ignorant and poor person, to die. I am just asking you to be a pioneer and take a trip to this unknown secret place.
You have no parents, no family, and naturally you have no worries. If you risk your life, you may be able to gain a new life.
This is an opportunity that many people would love to have.
You have to be content! "
"After passing through this star array and reaching the secret realm over there, just follow the light. The star array is integrated in both directions. If this side opens, the other side will also open.
Remember, that's your only chance to come back.
hardworking!
If you can come back on your own, my Ruyifang will definitely give you great benefits."
This is a reminder.
But judging from the current situation, it is probably not out of kindness.
Jiang Shusheng was in a panic and had no memory of these things.
He grabbed the short sword at his waist and wanted to fight to the death, but the next moment, before he could throw the dagger in his hand, the men who were pressing down on his limbs exerted force in unison.
It was like a flying swallow across the sky, or like a heavy object falling into the water. Jiang Shusheng was dancing with joy, and was thrown into the light in front of him.
The body and cheeks suddenly had a clear feeling of passing through the water.
There was even a real feeling of suffocation.
But that feeling only lasted for a moment. The next moment, the scholar opened his eyes and saw a vast expanse of yellow sand below him. The desolate scene kept getting bigger in his eyes.
The power from the earth pulled him down to the ground.
accelerate.
Speed up again.
“Save me!”
The poor scholar struggled frantically. He shouted in his heart, hoping that the ghost in his body could save him. He also waved his arms frantically, wishing that he could fly like a bird.
But unfortunately, he has no wings.
And there's something wrong with the landing point of that light curtain.
It was opened at a height of nearly fifteen meters. The scholar was not a martial arts master, nor was he an immortal cultivator. He had just borrowed money to buy talisman water and drank those weird things all day long.
Such a weak body, such a high distance.
There's no way he could survive.
"Hold your dagger tight!"
The voice in his mind sounded at this moment, giving Jiang Shusheng, who was in desperate situation, a glimmer of hope.
He shouted:
"Can you survive this way?"
"cannot."
The voice in my head said slowly, as if to enlighten me:
"But this way, at least you, a loser, can die with dignity. Jiang Ziheng, I have taught you for three years, and you are still so useless. There is no hope for you. I am tired of you.
Just die.
Anyway, I've died once, so there's nothing to be afraid of."
"You fool me!!!"
At the last moment before falling to the ground, the scholar cursed in despair.
"I was just teasing you, so what? You didn't listen to me, and it's all your fault. It makes me sad to see you living such a cowardly life.
A real man should be upright, free and unrestrained, and indulge his life. You have two taels of meat under your crotch, but you are not a man, so I will let you die like this...
It also gives you liberation.
It also freed me, Jiang."
The voice in my head was even more sarcastic, and also sounded a bit bored, as if it had seen through life and death.
The desperate scholar raised his head and saw a blue light floating like a torch in the distance, beyond the sand dunes.
That was probably the light of the star array that Mr. Bao mentioned.
It seems not far from here, at most one or two kilometers.
Unfortunately, he could no longer go there.
Like a bird with a broken wing, he danced and plunged into the yellow sand, flapping his arms and legs a few times. Pain surged from his limbs to his heart like a tide.
All that was left before his eyes was darkness.
Behind him.
In the sky tilted upward at forty-five degrees, the light fifteen meters away slowly went out like a lamp after a few breaths.
——
Jiang Xia watched as Jiang Ziheng, the scholar, fell to the ground in the desert and died.
He yawned himself.
The good-for-nothing scholar he lived in is dead, so he should be free soon. Being trapped in this scholar's consciousness for three whole years was like being in prison, it was pure torture.
Actually, it’s good to be liberated like this.
It's like reincarnation.
Maybe when I wake up next time, I won’t be so miserable.
This lonely soul jumped and moved his body in Jiang Shusheng's dissipating consciousness. He could already feel himself dissipating, and perhaps true death was right in front of him.
He closed his eyes and prayed to every spirit he knew to get him to a good place.
Then……
Jiang Xia felt the hot, rough yellow sand with a bloody smell right in front of him.
The first breath I took after opening my eyes was sand, which was very uncomfortable. Amidst the violent coughing, the aches all over my body flooded into my mind like a tide.
It was as if a hundred horses and elephants were taking turns trampling over it.
pain!
It's not just painful.
The moment he hurriedly sat up and looked into the distance, he was completely stunned.
What meets the eye is a vast expanse of yellow sand. Under the scorching sun, there is a wind blowing the sand, which rolls across the sand dunes in gusts. The surrounding sand absorbs so much heat that it is as hot as a red-hot pot.
And he was the crab that was thrown into the pot to be fried.
The desert before my eyes looks so familiar.
Amidst his confused thoughts, Jiang Xia looked up at the sky. Fifteen meters above his head, there was no longer any shining light. The light gate that had thrown the scholar here in the bizarre dream had disappeared.
"this……"
After being stunned for a few seconds, Jiang Xia stretched out his hands like a neurotic person, touched all over his body, then stretched out his aching hand and pinched his cheek hard.
The clear pain on his cheek told him that everything was real.
He is free.
I came out from the cage of consciousness that I had been trapped in for three years.
Not only was he free, but with each gift he received a new body.
"Kill the host and take over the nest. Is this the correct way to be reborn?"
Jiang Xia held his head, sat cross-legged on the sand dune, stroking his chin, and said thoughtfully:
"So this is ah."
"I understand."
