“Xumu butterfly” is a species that is difficult to catch with one’s spiritual sense.
Its scales have unique effects such as hallucination, confusion of the mind, exploring the depths of the heart, and more. However, the scales, which have not been refined, are only effective on Qi refining cultivators and ordinary people.
She had already passed the Golden Core stage, so why was she almost tricked today? Mu Xue couldn’t help but feel puzzled.
In front of her was the largest trading market in Fuwang City, the commodity street.
There were various shops selling materials, divine weapons, talismans, puppets, and even those buying and selling human slaves or trading spiritual beasts.
The haphazardly built cages and sheds made the roads even more meandering and crowded. Xumu butterfly’s golden light suddenly flickered and disappeared into a narrow alley, flashing by a small iron window.
This was the area where people were being trafficked. Those who sold themselves willingly or unwillingly as slaves, were locked up in dim stone rooms, waiting to be purchased like goods.
Mu Xue couldn’t care less about this and was only concerned about the lost Xumu butterfly. She crouched in front of the low iron window, enduring the pungent smell and peered inside.
Inside the low stone house, there were thirty or so people who were to be sold as slaves. There was no other way out, and the butterfly was obviously in the hands of one of them.
“Excuse me, has anyone seen a golden butterfly? It flew into this window,” Mu Xue asked.
Dozens of unfriendly eyes looked her way from the dim corners.
Those eyes were filled with numbness, hatred, disgust and other unkind emotions.
Only silence answered her.
Although the Xumu butterfly wasn’t expensive, Mu Xue had spent a lot of effort and time to get it, and she didn’t want to give up so easily.
So she softly and kindly requested, “That’s a Xumu butterfly, which doesn’t have much use for most people. I just happen to need it. Could you please give it back to me? I’ll pay you, and we can negotiate if you want. I won’t go back on my word.”
A sneer came from the darkness. A man with sunken eyes in the corner of the wall spat a thick mucus.
“We don’t have any other hope. We have no place to spend spiritual stones. We don’t even want to eat. The only thing we want is…heh heh,” the man smirked, looking at Mu Xue’s lovely smiling face through the iron window. He stood up slowly with a wide grin on his face.
“Girl, come closer, and I’ll give you the butterfly you want.”
Mu Xue stood calmly by the window, waiting for the man to come over. Her gentle smile didn’t fluctuate. She just didn’t like to cause trouble, but that didn’t mean she was easy to bully.
Her friend, Ruan Honglian, once said to her, “Xiao Xue, you look gentle and without temper, but if you were cut open, you would be all black inside.”
Mu Xue didn’t care, “Those of us who grew up in Fuwang City since childhood, which one of us can avoid having a bit of darkness? The true white lotus has long been buried in the ground.”
Before the sleazy man could come any closer, a hand reached out from the window. The hand was thin, pale, and covered in scars. The bones hadn’t fully grown, so it belonged to a young man. However, his index finger and middle finger were gently holding a golden butterfly.
The hand was held out in front of Mu Xue, but the owner stayed hidden in the shadow behind the wall. Mu Xue couldn’t even see his face.
“Take it,” the voice was cold and indifferent, with a unique timbre of a boy.
Mu Xue was startled for a moment, and carefully took the butterfly, “Thank you. Do you need anything from me?”
“No, leave,” the voice carried a sense of weariness and disinterest.
Mu Xue waited for a moment, but there was no more communication from the person inside the window.
After she had walked a ways away, Mu Xue released her spiritual sense towards that stone room cage.
A man snatched a young boy by the collar and growled, “You annoying little brat. How dare you ruin my good thing?”
“I didn’t ruin anything. Actually, I saved you,” the boy replied. “Maybe you haven’t realized it yet, but that’s not an ordinary person. She’s a cultivator, maybe even an alchemist.”
“Ridiculous… how could you know?” the man huffed.
“You’re asking for death, don’t drag us down with you,” another person added.
It seems that the boy was a clever one, and there was no need to worry about him.
Several days later, Mu Xue and her friend, Ruan Honglian, were walking together on the street of the commodity market. Mu Xue had just sold her latest refined magic weapon to the head of the Hai family, earning a considerable amount of money. She was feeling quite happy.
Mu Xue’s magic weapons were always impeccable, and the master of the Hai family was extremely satisfied, even sending his assistant to see them off.
“Ah Lian, just a few days ago, I almost lost my Xumu butterfly here. I had to chase it for a few blocks before catching it,” Mu Xue said.
“You can’t even keep an eye on a single butterfly. Can you be any more clueless?” Ruan Honglian didn’t hesitate to tease her. “Xiao Xue, I think you should buy a servant. Look at your messy house. It’s becoming less and less like a lady’s place. Go buy an auntie who can cook and clean or a little maid who can help you with shopping and tidying up,” she suggested.
“Do I need to buy someone? I don’t really like having people messing with my things,” Mu Xue replied.
“Don’t be ridiculous. An alchemist like you, who doesn’t have several servants to help with the errands and support the storefront,” Ruan Honglian turned to slave-trader Lei Liang with a grin, “Since we’re already at the commodity market, why don’t we find you a capable one while we’re here?”
In the demon realm, there is no tradition of sect inheritance, so most of the inheritance is continued by families.
The Lei family’s livelihood is in the business of buying and selling, and the members of the Lei family are all eloquent.
Sure enough, Lei Liang readily replied, “If the Mu family and the Ruan family are buying people here, it’s giving face to my Lei family. All the businesses here belong to our family. If you want any type of person- tall, short, fat, thin, beautiful, or handsome, just look around. You can take them away by signing a contract on the spot, and the price will be a most favorable one.”
Mu Xue thought of the mountains of refining materials and the storage bags of various sizes that were already difficult to classify at home. She suddenly felt that Ruan Honglian’s suggestion wasn’t too bad.
“In that case, thank you, Liang. I mainly want someone who can help me in alchemy,” she responded, counting on her fingers. “First of all, they must be literate, able to distinguish all refining materials below the third tier, and preferably have some knowledge of pharmacology. It would be best if they have a basic understanding of monsters and have experience in pre-processing low-tier refining materials. And if they are also a foundational-stage cultivator who can manipulate the fire, that would be great…”
“Stop, stop, are you buying a maid, or are you inviting a grand master alchemist home?” Ruan Honglian looked at Liang’s increasingly dark expression and hurriedly interrupted Mu Xue.
“Is…is that not possible?” Mu Xue suddenly felt disappointed.
“If a lower-level Qi-refining cultivator is willing to sell themselves as a servant, it occasionally happens, but their value is quite high,” Liang coughed and tried to regain some face, “If the Mu family wants such an assistant, you could buy a lower-level cultivator and gradually teach them over time. After many years, they will meet your requirements.”
“It sounds too troublesome. I’ll forget about it for now,” Mu Xue waved her hand.
As they spoke, they were passing through a small courtyard, and from the other end of the corridor, they could hear a commotion.
A boy’s figure rushed out from the corner, jumped over the wooden railing with a single step, landed with bent knees for a softer landing, then quickly ran towards the side door.
He had slender limbs, clean and agile movements, reminding Mu Xue of a little deer running in the forest. Deer in the woods are destined to be captured by jackals, and this boy in front of her is no exception.
Several burly men rushed out from the corridor, chasing after him. They blocked his path and caught him by the ankle, slamming him to the ground before he could escape.
The boy struggled desperately. A large bald man grabbed the boy’s hair, and slapped him hard.
“Don’t…please don’t hit me again, big brother, I won’t run anymore.” The boy immediately began to beg for mercy.
The bald man panted as he held down the boy’s head and scolded him. “Why did you run? Can you even escape?” Seeing that the boy had softened and begged for mercy, the bald man finally relaxed his grip a bit.
“Ah!”
The bald man let out a cry of pain, jumping back and covering his fingers, which were bloody. Caught off guard, the little deer who had bitten him used the opportunity to break free and fell right beside Mu Xue on the steps of the corridor.
Mu Xue looked down at him, a thin and petite child of no more than ten years old. His messy hair covered his eyes, obscuring his face.
The boy looked up and saw Mu Xue, suddenly kneeling in front of her. “Are you here to buy slaves? Can you buy me?”
As he spoke, he wiped his face with his sleeve, parting his long bangs and revealing a pair of beautiful eyes.
It could be said that this skinny boy’s entire features were delicate, but his eyes were particularly striking. He had long and soft eyelashes, pure-colored irises, and beautifully contoured eyelids.
When he used these eyes to look up at people from below, it was captivating. It made it hard not to feel a little soft-hearted towards him. Perhaps he knew his own strengths well, as he typically covered his face with his bangs and only revealed them when necessary.
Mu Xue noticed that in the short span of his seconds, he had adjusted his disordered breath, straightened his back, and even began introducing himself.
“My name is Xiaoshan.”
The boy spoke as he secretly sized up Mu Xue, starting with her hand. It was a palm that had been soaking in a refining room for years, refining monsters and creating magical instruments, with a unique callus and flesh tone.
Then he looked at the several rings on her fingers used to manipulate puppets, and saw the monster bones she had just bought from the market that she was still holding. He continued to speak smoothly.
“I know how to read, and I can identify all refining materials below the fourth tier. I have studied books such as ‘Compendium of Monsters’, ‘Foundational Alchemy’, and ‘Treatise on Creatures’.”
He said this, lifting his eyelashes and looking at Mu Xue with wet eyes.
Mu Xue admitted that she had been moved since she heard the words Compendium of Monsters.
Looking at him like this, she was almost ready to agree.
“No, it’s not possible.” Ruan Honglian whispered in her ear as a reminder, “He’s too smart. He has already figured us out with just one glance. If we raise him at home, he will become a wolf when he grows up. He might even eat you and not leave a single bone.”
Mu Xue hesitated for a moment.
“What’s wrong?” Liang frowned and asked.
“Liang Ge, just a small accident,” the bald man said as he saw Liang in the room. Although he hated him in his heart, he didn’t dare to directly drag him away, and instead explained in a low voice, “Tonight, we arranged for him to serve in Room Three on the fourth floor. This little brat doesn’t know what’s good for him and wants to run away.”
“That’s unacceptable. Drag him away now,” Liang signaled with his eyes.
When the words “Room Three” came out, Xiaoshan visibly trembled. That was the filthiest place here, and slaves sent in to serve customers rarely survived.
He quickly grabbed Mu Xue’s clothes and pleaded urgently, “Please buy me, sister. I can do anything; I can make money and eat very little. I can earn back my value in spirit stones.”
Although he was extremely smart, he was still just a child.
When the bald man tried to drag him away, he held onto Mu Xue’s clothes tightly and spoke without the same calmness and logic as before.
“I really can do anything, please buy me. I can wash clothes, clean the yard, and I…I’m also very strong. Please buy me, I won’t go to Room Three, I’d rather die than go there.”
“Stop talking nonsense, with your skinny arms, you have no strength. Let go, or I’ll make you regret it,” the bald man threatened.
The bald man’s hand was about to strike down like a gust of wind, but was stopped in midair by a cold mechanical arm that wrapped around his wrist.
“Master said not to touch this person,” a metallic puppet that had appeared at some unknown time, whispered mechanically.
The bald man was HUGE, tall, and muscular with a physique like a mountain. Among the thugs in the goods street, he had a high cultivation level and was already a foundation stage cultivator.
But the small puppet, which was no higher than a teacup, extended its long, flexible arms and easily held the bald man’s arm, completely immobilizing him.
Mu Xue even had her hands behind her back, not even using any spells, just one of her casually used magical instruments.
Liang and the bald man exchanged glances, truly understanding the weight of “Miss Mu” and her title.
How I imagine Xiaoshan looks at Mu Xue with “wet” eyes.
