After the Pretend Aloof Master Overturned His Cart - Chapter 6

The Bafang Region.

A red moon hung in the sky, and black sand filled the air. The atmosphere was permeated with a dense scent of blood, and coarse sand mixed with flesh and bones accumulated on every single inch of land within sight.

Beside a tree with bald branches, several burly men were currently drinking alcohol and playing finger-guessing games together. The weapons beside their hands were scattered, and the muscles on their exposed arms were tightly coiled.

This was the place closest to the Immortal Continent, and it was also the mandatory path one must take when entering the Bafang Region from the Immortal Continent.

Every interval of time, the Immortal Continent would exile a batch of “lambs” to the Bafang Region, and normally there were also fragmented lambs entering.

This place could still be considered peaceful. Further inward, every three steps was a villain and every five steps was a ferocious fiend. These several burly men were all people who couldn’t mix well further inside, running specifically to the entrance to sit by a tree trunk and wait for a chance encounter.

These people were the first barrier for the “lambs” entering the Bafang Region.

If they couldn’t pass it, their white bones would be buried in the sand, closing both eyes, and from then on they wouldn’t care about behind-the-death affairs.

Supposing their fate was hard and they lived until the very end, they would then no longer be lambs; having gone through the baptism of blood and intent to kill, they also became “humans” of the Bafang Region.

This expanse of land grew increasingly dangerous the further inward one went.

These burly men claimed to be the reincarnations of Bodhisattvas, delivering the lambs earlier so it would be better than them being captured by other people to be used as amusement.

The newly arrived lambs were stupid, clean, and tender-skinned, capable of letting their weapons drink their fill of blood, allowing their intents to kill to be vented.

If they were to tear off another piece of flesh, smear it fully with blood, and feed it to the wild brutes in the sand, who knows, they might even entice a ferocious beast to accompany their bodies. Having a beast meant having the capital to live long-term in the Bafang Region.

After all, the wilderness was originally for brutes to reside in; humans could never adapt to it.

Amidst the dust and sand filling the sky, a figure appeared.

One of the burly men gulped down a mouthful of alcohol, wiped his mouth, lifted his weapon, and stood up.

“Another lamb has come.”

The remaining burly men stood up one after another to take their weapons, the cold iron colliding to emit clinking sounds.

That person was far away, and through the black sand only a physical outline appeared. However, without waiting for him to walk close, the first burly man who stood up let out a silent curse, dropped his weapon, and dove fiercely into the ground, burying himself into the sand, soil, flesh, and bones.

Along with that curse of his, the remaining burly men realized something, and scrambled into the soil in terror one after another. In less than a moment, only empty alcohol jars and randomly thrown knives and spears remained on the ground.

A great wind howled, rolling up the black sand, and the large red crescent moon grew denser, imbuing a layer of blood color upon this expanse of land.

The young man from the Immortal Continent strolled through the wind, in a narrow-sleeved red robe, his black hair tied high. The violent wind blew his robe to make a rustling sound.

His features were handsome, yet his pair of purple eyes was demonic and evil. His gaze coldly and gloomily swept across the surroundings. His double swords were without sheaths, held in his hands, like two beasts waiting for an opportunity to spring.

Having entered the Bafang Region, nobody wasn’t tightly strung at all times.

Even if one entered that grand palace in the deep recesses and sat onto that central treasure throne, one couldn’t drop one’s guard against anyone kneeling at one’s feet.

The more they feared you, the more they wanted to kill you.

It was still the Immortal Continent that was good, and the time spent together with Jiang Zhou was the best.

Only when thinking about Jiang Zhou did Ji Yunlang feel that he himself was different from this crowd of people; he had a home in the Immortal Continent.

Suddenly, his footsteps paused, and he tilted his head up minutely to look toward the edge of the sky. His purple eyes reflected the blood-red moon, looking like the firelight from not long ago.

He had lived in that residence for five years; he hadn’t expected Jiang Zhou truly would just leave like this, without even bothering to eat breakfast.

Compared to five years ago, Jiang Zhou’s body had already been played by him into the most enticing appearance. He forced Jiang Zhou to put on various postures, prostrating before him without any preservation.

That face truly grew well. The corners of his eyes were soaked with desire, and the downward arc of his shoulders and back was beautiful, looking like a soul-snatching charm-demon from a storybook.

It was only his body that was honest, while his mouth was stubborn, opening up only on rare occasions.

However, Jiang Zhou hadn’t spoken little to him recently, and had even called his name; thinking back, he was already making plans for running away at that time.

Ji Yunlang searched all through the house but couldn’t find the spirit-locking chain Jiang Zhou had left behind. Therefore, he used a bunch of fire to burn that residence down, and in the end found the broken silver chain covered beneath his own spiritual energy in the melted snow.

Following that, he tracked over to the Qingxiao Sect.

Jiang Zhou had been here; the shattered swing in the courtyard carried his aura.

Ji Yunlang thought back to when he was ten years old, his Master who was rumored outside to be an incomparably miraculous genius clumsily followed a blueprint to make a swing, wasting who knows how many materials before barely making one that could be looked at.

Although Ji Yunlang didn’t love to play with it, he had long since implicitly accepted that the swing was his.

Later he went to the old carpenter’s house, plundered countless blueprints of small toys, and tossed them to Jiang Zhou all at once.

And then after Jiang Zhou spent all his thoughts finishing them, his interest was lacking, throwing them around everywhere in a messy scatter.

It was Jiang Zhou who stubbornly insisted on bringing him home, so naturally he had to satisfy all his requirements.

He could choose not to want them, but Jiang Zhou couldn’t choose not to give them.

Now Jiang Zhou had surprisingly made a special trip back to smash the swing into pieces; Ji Yunlang was completely unable to understand it after a hundred thoughts.

Master daring to not consider his feelings like this meant either his brain was broken or he had lived long enough.

Looking at the blood moon for a long time made his eyes hurt. Ji Yunlang withdrew his gaze, ignored those several piles of shivering, suspicious sandbags, and while covering his eyes stepped across the weapons covering the ground beneath the tree with bald branches.

Unconsciously, the curved blood moon hid behind the clouds. By the time he walked to the edge of the Wuchang Bridge, his vision was already pitch black.

Ahead was a patch of deep silence, yet within the seemingly peaceful darkness crouched countless dangers.

Ji Yunlang lifted his steps to tread onto the bridge head.

Villains blocked the path, and evil ghosts demanded his life. A sound of breaking wind assaulted from the left side, straight toward his forearm. He used a sword to block it back, and groping in the dark, slit that person’s neck.

The blood splattered onto his face, carrying a fishy stench.

Behind him was a heavy sound of breathing. A large hammer delivered a heavy strike toward his spine without any mercy. He tilted his body to dodge, yet crashed straight into a cold blade in the dark. His right arm was ruthlessly cut with a knife, a long whip crossed his shoulder blades, and a flying dart stuck into his lower abdomen.

The red robe shattered, and his double swords wrapped in blood, humming to resist the killing moves from all four directions and eight positions, and then without softening his hand in the slightest, returned them all in full.

Getting onto the bridge for less than a quarter of an hour, he took several dozen lives. In the Bafang Region, fighting was everlasting without ever stopping; he never guaranteed that he himself could walk through this path alive.

Every time it reached this kind of moment he hated Jiang Zhou, wanting to tie him up, torture him, and return all the suffering he himself sustained in the Bafang Region entirely onto his body.

But once he returned home, saw that face, and gathered the person into his embrace, he couldn’t bear to do anything at all. All those wicked thoughts of seeing blood in his brain changed into how many dishes to fry tonight.

Getting off the bridge, the blood moon reappeared, already changing into a half-wheel, no longer a curved hook, reflecting the surroundings to appear much brighter.

“Crawl faster! Slaves! The one who crawls fastest will have a bone to eat!”

Several loud laughs came from ahead, accompanied by the tugging sound of iron chains and rounds of wailing. Several people in tattered garments were kneeling and prostrating on the ground, competing to crawl forward.

Some of them had lost an arm, and some had broken a leg, yet their eyes were red as they exerted all their strength to wiggle their bodies to crawl forward.

The finish line was just ten steps ahead. In that place stood a wooden stick, on which was suspended a large bone stained with bits of meat.

These were the lambs who had entered the Bafang Region and luckily preserved their lives.

The people of the Bafang Region raised them in sheds, treating them as slaves every day for amusement.

Speaking of it, the word “slave” was something they had learned from the Immortal Continent.

Five years ago, the people of the Bafang Region entered the Immortal Continent for the first time, and were pointed at their noses and cursed by several wealthy young masters: When is a lowly slave also worthy to tread foot upon my Immortal Continent.

The people of the Bafang Region were all stupid and didn’t understand what it meant, yet they were not unfamiliar with the spit, knives, and swords falling onto their bodies.

The first person who was cursed as a slave reversed his hand to twist off those young masters’ wrists, jumbling them together in a strange and distorted arc, and then led a rope, tied it to his own waist, and dragged them all the way back to the Bafang Region.

Slaves with broken arms and broken legs naturally couldn’t compare to those with intact limbs. The one who crawled to the finish line first swallowed his saliva greedily, staring dead at that large bone on the wooden stick.

The person leading the iron chain around his neck was called Saguman. Back then, the first person who was cursed as a slave and who tied these few people back was precisely him.

He had a robust build and a vicious countenance. Seeing his own slave win, he burst into loud laughter, ripped down the bone with a hard pull, tossed it to his mouth, and shouted loudly: “Young Master Zhou slave wins!”

Young Master Zhou prostrated on the ground devouring and licking the bits of meat on the bone. Saguman, as if rewarding him, used the sole of his shoe to grind his head. His weight was too massive, and the sole of his shoe was hard; in less than a moment he stamped and pressed the bone along with Young Master Zhou’s head together into the ground.

He burst into loud laughter once more, “Young Master Zhou slave wins!”

The masters of the other slaves lost face, pulling their iron chains in a violent rage to drag their slaves close. Some delivered two slaps with a pa pa sound, and some lost their amusement, using the force of both hands directly to twist off their necks, throwing them onto the ground like garbage, for a time cries of sorrow and pleading for mercy never stopping.

Ji Yunlang’s interest was lacking. Just as he was preparing to pass over them, a slave suddenly broke free from his chain, darted out, and used both arms to forcefully bind his leg.

“Ji Yunlang! You dog bastard!”

Ji Yunlang’s footsteps paused, and he lowered his gaze, meeting a pair of black eyes containing deep malice.

That slave’s face was full of blood and filth, mixed with dirty mud, his appearance long since unrecognizable. His voice was hoarse, and his fingernails were ground flat due to crawling on the ground all year round. At this moment, through the fabric of the clothing, he pinched Ji Yunlang’s leg dead, as if hating him to the absolute extreme.

The surroundings became silent for a moment, everyone stopping the movements in their hands and slowing their breathing, waiting for Ji Yunlang to flare up.

The slave’s master hadn’t tugged the chain well, and at this moment was so terrified that he knelt straight onto the ground, his head heavily crashing into the dirt.

That man was still pinching his leg. Ji Yunlang narrowed his eyes, stared at him to look closely for a bit, rested his sword against his shoulder to exert force, and pushed him outward from his leg unhurriedly.

The tip of the sword sank into his flesh inch by inch, almost about to smash into the flesh and blood inside, piercing through his shoulder.

That slave’s lips trembled, holding him dead without letting go, his glaring eyes steeped full of hatred, “Dog bastard! White-eyed wolf! You are only worthy to display your majesty in a place where brutes stay, being an exact duplicate of cheapness with your Master—”

Ji Yunlang withdrew his sword, and delivered a kick to his chest. That slave’s torso crashed heavily onto the ground, flying out very far, prostrating on the ground to spit out a large mouthful of blood.

“I wondered who it was, so it turns out to be Officer Song,” Ji Yunlang patted the dust off his clothes, giving him a glance that was neither salty nor sweet. “I thought you were dead, but seeing you now, you look quite alive and kicking.” Pausing, he raised his eyes, “Whose person?”

Hearing this, Song Yang’s master crawled over rapidly, an iron chain still dragging on his wrist, his head knocking against the ground without raising it, saying with a trembling voice: “Lead… Leader.”

“Xin Shi?” Ji Yunlang raised his eyebrows in surprise, stepping onto his head to ponder. “I remember you only killed the Third Domain Lord the day before yesterday and occupied his territory. Having finally made it to the top, yet you are still this careless?”

“The chain aged, the slave… force was too massive. Leader spare my life.”

Xin Shi didn’t make another sound after finishing speaking, his robust torso trembling as he grovelled at his feet.

The people of the Bafang Region had no contents inside their brains; they couldn’t speak any beautiful words of pleading for mercy. When winning, they would laugh loudly with their heads held high, and when encountering disaster, they would shake like chaff in a sieve, shrinking themselves into the most cowardly wild brute.

Ji Yunlang withdrew his foot, the tip of his sword tapping the iron chain on the ground.

Xin Shi’s torso trembled even more violently. Closing his eyes, he slowly wrapped the iron chain onto his own neck, picked up the other end of the chain, turned his body around, and knelt facing the crowd of slaves and masters behind him.

“The Third Domain Lord doesn’t understand how to discipline slaves, so he has decided to be a slave himself for a few days, to seek advice from you all. Who has interest?”

Everyone looked at each other. A huge sound came from within the crowd; Saguman stamped Young Master Zhou’s head heavily into the ground, and walked out with a sullen face, “Xin Shi is the Third Domain Lord. These pieces of trash, who dares?”

Ji Yunlang understood, “True, then it can only be you, his former master, to do it on his behalf.” Finishing speaking, he delivered a kick to Xin Shi. Xin Shi hurriedly dragged up the iron chain, crawling to the side of Saguman’s feet.

Saguman stayed completely still, his face cold and heavy as he stared at Ji Yunlang.

Xin Shi used to be a person of his Second Domain. He had managed with great difficulty to design the killing of the Third Domain Lord to let his own person ascend the position, which was equivalent to him single-handedly possessing two territories and two forces within the Bafang Region.

The resources of the Bafang Region were impoverished and the environment was harsh, yet its area was extremely vast. Extending outward from the central Senro Beast-Bone Palace, it precisely divided into eight domains of territory.

All people who wanted to survive in the Bafang Region had to choose a domain to join, following their own Domain Lord to compete for resources in battle, killing people together, and eating meat together.

Here, there was no advantage of birth or family background; they emulated wild beasts, their fists deciding their status.

Xin Shi was now the Third Domain Lord. Once he became a slave and was played with by people for a few days, other people would enjoy the pleasure of oppressing him. When that time came, even if he restored his identity, his majesty would be entirely lost.

At that time, the people who were unresigned and who would challenge him would multiply. Given Xin Shi’s ability, he couldn’t hold it out for long at all; Saguman couldn’t guarantee that he himself could settle it for him every single time.

Thinking up to this point, he spoke in a deep voice, “A lowly slave makes a mistake, yet you want to punish the Domain Lord. Like this, nobody will submit to you.”

Ji Yunlang gave a cool laugh, “When did I ever need you all to submit?”

Saguman stared at him tightly, “Xin Shi is already no longer my person; I have no right to discipline him. Requesting the Leader to bring him back to the Senro Beast-Bone Palace to vent your anger to your heart’s content.”

Being brought away by the Leader to be tortured, even if in the end only one breath remained, nobody would look down upon him; Xin Shi’s majesty could then barely be preserved.

Hearing this, Xin Shi went directly limp on the ground.

When Ji Yunlang had first entered the Bafang Region, Xin Shi had once cut bloody gashes all over this little tender lamb’s body, tied him up, stuffed him into the black sand, and dragged him for three whole days to use him to attract wild beasts.

In the end, since they truly couldn’t be enticed out, he threw him outside carelessly, going off to toy with a new lamb.

He hadn’t expected that when they met again later, this little lamb had already moved into the Senro Beast-Bone Palace, becoming the new Leader of the Bafang Region.

Every time he saw Ji Yunlang his heart beat like a drum, but Ji Yunlang had never looked for trouble with him, so Xin Shi luckily felt he certainly didn’t remember him. The people who had tortured him were too many; what did those small bickerings of his count for?

Ji Yunlang looked at the sky, barely nodded, turned his body, and said: “Fine, at the full moon the Third Domain Lord shall come to my palace; I will personally teach you the rules.”

Xin Shi braced himself to turn around, bowing and praying toward his direction.

Ji Yunlang ignored him, glanced at the dust on his shoes, lifted his steps to leave, and soliloquized: “This dirty, disgusting to death.”

With half an hour left until the full moon, Xin Shi ripped down the chain on his neck, stood up abruptly, rushed in front of Song Yang who was paralyzed on the ground unable to move, and delivered a round of kicks toward his head. Extracting a knife from the side, he roared loudly: “What kind of thing dares to pounce onto the Leader’s body, I will strip your skin right now to wipe the Leader’s shoes!”

He held the large knife high up, about to chop down toward Song Yang’s head. Saguman came over, flung his hand away with a hard pull, and said in a cold voice: “The person has walked far away, don’t waste your energy.”

Xin Shi’s knife was flung away. He glared at Saguman with rage, “It’s all to blame on this dirty thing! I want to strip his skin!”

Saguman delivered a kick to knock him away, “Fool, roll away!”

“You”

Xin Shi had made Domain Lord himself and had long since stopped taking Saguman—his former boss seriously, yet he still harbored dread toward him. Even if his heart was unresigned, he could only give him a fierce glare, and stand to the side.

Saguman narrowed his eyes looking at Song Yang on the ground, waved his hand, and gestured for the people beside him to come over, “Drag him away, wake him up.”