304: Chapter 302 Immortal Ash

The sound of that black long whip, carrying the Law of Thunder, lashing against flesh was particularly ear-piercing.

The old woman let out a shrill scream, and the air was instantly filled with the pungent smell of charred flesh.

That burnt smell mixed with the natural dampness of Liuyun Town, making anyone who smelled it want to vomit.

Her thin, already patched-up garment was completely torn apart by the lightning. On her exposed back, a charred crack over a foot long and deep enough to see bone was seeping blood that emitted a faint spiritual glow.

Her Primordial Spirit, which might have been revered by tens of thousands and capable of summoning wind and rain in the Lower Realm, couldn't even manage to heal her wounds on its own under the lash of this overbearing Upper Realm Law.

She could only twitch futilely on the ground, her throat emitting undignified pleas for mercy.

"My Lord... My Lord, have mercy... This old woman has truly done her best... This Immortal Qi is too violent, my Meridians are nearly withered, and I can no longer condense any more immortal spirit ash..."

The old woman's hands, covered in mud and blood, clawed desperately at the ground, her fingernails even peeling back, yet she still struggled to lift her head to plead bitterly with the guard commander riding the six-legged evil beast.

However, the only response she received was the cold, emotionless eyes of the guard commander and the bloody maw of the evil beast, which constantly dripped corrosive saliva.

On both sides of the long street.

Hundreds of similarly ragged Half-Immortals kept their heads lowered tightly.

They either pressed themselves against the cold walls or huddled in their simple thatched shacks, their bodies trembling slightly from extreme fear.

Once upon a time, which one of them wasn't a peerless Prodigy of the Lower Realm? Which one wasn't an unyielding Old Ancestor of a Sect with a spine of steel?

But in this Taihuang Immortal Domain, in this cage called "Liuyun Town," their dignity had long ago been ground into powder, inch by inch.

Stand out?

Here, standing out meant total annihilation of body and soul, meant being stripped of even the qualification to be a slave, and being thrown into that desolate metallic forest outside to become the feces of Void Realm Yao Beasts.

"Clack."

At the simple tea stall where Su Lin was, the old man pouring tea accidentally bumped the coarse porcelain teapot against the chipped wooden table because his hands were trembling so violently, producing a soft sound.

The old man was so startled that his whole body jolted. He hurriedly used his hand, covered in callouses and chilblains, to tightly cover his mouth, looking at the guards in the middle of the street with extreme terror, fearing his tiny movement would bring about a fatal disaster.

Only after confirming that the guards hadn't noticed this side did the old man slump onto the long bench as if relieved of a heavy burden, gasping for air, his cloudy old eyes filled with the despair of seeing his own fate in another's.

"A sin... truly a sin..."

The old man didn't dare to speak loudly, only using an extremely faint whisper, as if confiding in Su Lin, yet also as if talking to himself.

"That Granny Li was also a brilliant Sword Cultivator when she ascended three hundred years ago.

With that superb water-attribute sword technique, she was so high-spirited when she first arrived... Now, she can't even produce the two mace of immortal spirit ash required each month."

Su Lin sat upright on the long bench, his expression surprisingly calm.

He didn't look at the old woman wailing on the ground, nor did he look at the swaggering guards.

His gaze only fell upon the coarse tea bowl in his hand.

The tea in the bowl was a sickly, murky pale green, with a few broken tea stalks floating on the surface that didn't even count as containing Spiritual Qi.

Su Lin gently swirled the tea bowl, watching the murky tea leave dark yellow water marks on the bowl's walls.

"Old man, what exactly is this immortal spirit ash you all keep mentioning?"

Hearing Su Lin's question, the old man was first stunned, then shook his head bitterly.

"It's normal for a guest who has just ascended to not know the cruelty of this place.

Although the Immortal Qi of this Taihuang Immortal Domain is dense, it is too violent, heavy, and contains high-dimensional chaotic Laws. For us Half-Immortals without immortal registry and without the protective Magic Treasures issued by the main city, our Meridians would be instantly blown apart if we absorbed it directly."

The old man tremblingly fished out a small grey cloth bag from his bosom, only the size of a thumb and covered with countless patches.

He carefully untied the thin string at the bag's mouth and tilted it slightly to show Su Lin what was inside.

It was some extremely fine, greyish-white powder.

Though the powder was tiny, it emitted an extremely pure and soft glow under the dim light.

"This is immortal spirit ash."

The old man's voice carried an unspeakable sorrow.

"To survive and pay the tribute stipulated by Earth Immortal Xuan Tian, we Half-Immortals can only use the stupidest and most tragic method."

"And that is to use our own bodies as filters."

"We forcibly inhale that violent Immortal Qi into our bodies, using the Dao foundations we cultivated in the Lower Realm, our blood essence, and even our Divine Souls to stubbornly resist and neutralize those violent Laws."

"After being filtered and purified by our flesh and blood, a tiny portion of the gentle energy from the Immortal Qi is carefully forced out of our bodies to condense into this powder... This is immortal spirit ash."

The old man clutched the small bag tightly in his palm, as if it were his very lifeblood.

"The condensed immortal spirit ash has gentle medicinal properties and can be directly absorbed by those high-and-mighty Earth Immortals and Heavenly Immortals to risklessly increase their cultivation or refine high-grade Immortal Pills."

"And as for us..."

The old man pointed to his own old face, which looked like withered tree bark, and then to the sallow and emaciated Cultivators on the long street.

"During this filtering process, our internal organs are repeatedly torn apart by the violent Immortal Qi, and our Divine Souls are constantly worn away.

For every mace of immortal spirit ash condensed, our Immortal foundation withers a bit more."

"Granny Li... it's because she has used her body to filter too much Immortal Qi over these three hundred years that the Meridians in her body have become a broken net full of holes, and her blood essence has dried up.

Now, she even has difficulty maintaining her human form, so how could she have the life left to filter immortal spirit ash..."

After hearing the old man's narration, a flicker of emotion finally appeared in Su Lin's eyes.

He looked up, his eyes deep as the Universe, slowly scanning this massive refugee camp known as Liuyun Town.

Turning living high-level Cultivators into human meat filters for purifying energy?

Draining their Lifespan, Dao foundations, and Divine Souls just to condense so-called immortal spirit ash to supply those high-and-mighty Immortals?

In the Lower Realm, they used the Immortal Transformation Pool to directly strip away the Dao fruits of ascenders.

In this so-called bottom tier of the Upper Realm, they used this slow-boil exploitation system to squeeze every last drop of surplus value out of those ascenders who were lucky enough to survive.

"What a fine Taihuang Immortal Domain."

Su Lin gave a cold laugh and gently placed the tea bowl in his hand onto the wooden table.

With a soft "clink," the tea bowl didn't break, but the wooden table—which had weathered countless storms and was made of some unknown low-quality wood—instantly turned into fine wood powder and drifted to the ground.

The old man was so scared his breathing stopped.

He hadn't even seen what kind of spiritual power this young guest had used, yet a sturdy wooden table had just vanished into thin air!

"Revered Master~"

Chu Weiwei, who had been sitting obediently by Su Lin's side, now leaned her upper body over as naturally as a boneless kitten.

She gently rested her pure and beautiful, yet lethally enchanting little face against Su Lin's shoulder.

Beneath her moon-white gauze dress, that Half-Immortal Body which had just completed its transformation from mortal to Immortal in the tree hollow emitted an intoxicating, extremely clean fragrance. That was the body fragrance produced after she used her own Medicine Immortal Origin to completely domesticate the violent Immortal Qi of this Upper Realm.

Chu Weiwei didn't look at the old woman wailing on the ground, nor did she show any sympathy for this cruel exploitation system.

In her world, other than her Revered Master, the life and death of other living beings were no different from the weeds by the roadside.

In her amethyst-like eyes, her two heart-shaped pupils flickered slightly as her gaze fell somewhat boredly on the black long whip in the guard commander's hand.

"Revered Master, look at that whip."

Chu Weiwei leaned into Su Lin's ear, her warm breath carrying a sweet fragrance as it brushed against the side of Su Lin's neck. Her voice was kept extremely low, as if she were sharing an interesting secret.

"The forging technique is truly crude and unbearable. Because they don't understand how to harmonize medicinal principles with Formations, they forcibly used the blood of a third-rank Yao Beast to carve lightning runes."

"Not only did they waste Materials, but the lightning Law also appears mixed and unstable. Such trash wouldn't even be qualified to be a fire poker in Weiwei's old medicine furnace."

She reached out a jade-white finger and gently drew circles on Su Lin's arm.

"However, the residual lightning-fire toxins on that whip are somewhat interesting. Long-term contact will cause a dependent paralysis in one's Meridians. No wonder those who are hit heal so slowly."

Chu Weiwei tilted her head slightly, looking at Su Lin's cold profile so close at hand, the obsession in her eyes almost overflowing.

"If Revered Master finds them noisy, Weiwei only needs to prepare a bit of Bone-Melting Clear Wind powder to ensure they disappear from this street completely, without leaving even a speck of dust. It definitely won't dirty Revered Master's eyes, okay?"

She said these words nonchalantly.

But they made the trembling old man's scalp go numb, and he almost passed out from being unable to catch his breath.

This delicate, heavenly-looking young girl spoke of making people vanish into thin air without even leaving ash?!

Just where did these two heralds of death come from!

"There's no need for you to act."

Su Lin turned his head slightly, avoiding Chu Weiwei's intensely aggressive breath.

He felt the slight throb from the purple-gold Life-and-Death Fate-Binding Gu bloodline at his wrist, knowing this girl was in an extremely active and release-hungry state of excitement because her Medicine Immortal Origin had just been reshaped along with her Immortal body.

"We have just arrived and are not yet clear on the distribution of forces in this world. This is, after all, the territory of an Earth Immortal. If we act rashly and draw higher-level attention before fully recovering our strength, it will be very troublesome."

Su Lin's voice was steady and rational.

He wasn't cold-blooded, nor was he afraid of that so-called Earth Immortal Xuan Tian. With the foundation of the world tree sapling inside him and the vision of a Mahayana Stage Perfection Cultivator, even in this Upper Realm with its strong Law suppression, an Earth Immortal might not necessarily be able to keep him if he truly fought.

But it wasn't a wise move.

They had just escaped the death trap of the Heavenly Court's Great Harvest, and they still carried a Heaven-Defying treasure like the world core, which was enough to drive the entire Upper Realm mad.

What they needed most now was to keep a low profile, to lie low, to quickly figure out the rules of this Taihuang Immortal Domain, and then completely convert the power within their bodies into immortal essence recognized by this world.

"Oh... Weiwei will listen to Revered Master."

Although Chu Weiwei curled her lips in disappointment, she still obediently withdrew her finger. However, she didn't move her head an inch from Su Lin's shoulder, instead pressing even closer as if declaring her sovereignty.

In the short time the Revered Master and apprentice were conversing in low voices, the team of guards on the street had already finished their "harvest" of the first few shops and Loose Cultivators.

Accompanied by several muffled beast roars and heavy hoofbeats, the guard commander rode the six-legged evil beast and, surrounded by his subordinates, swaggered over to the simple tea stall where Su Lin was.

"Old thing! Where is this month's tribute? Hand it over quickly! Don't dawdle and waste our time!"

A guard wearing dark red armor stepped forward and unceremoniously kicked over a long bench in front of the tea stall.

The massive force sent the long bench tumbling through the air, finally smashing into several pieces on the ground less than half a foot from Su Lin with a "bang."

Wood splinters flew, but an inch before they reached Su Lin and Chu Weiwei, they seemed to hit an invisible wall and silently slid down.

The old man shuddered all over and hurriedly scrambled up from the ground, tremblingly taking out that patched grey cloth bag from his bosom.

"Please, appease your anger! This is the immortal spirit ash this old man risked his life to condense this month... a total of three mace and two cents... please have a look..."

The old man held the small bag high with both hands, his body hunched almost to the ground, his tone full of humility and fawning.

The guard snatched the cloth bag, weighed it in his hand, took a peek inside, and then immediately let out a contemptuous sneer.

"Three mace and two cents? Old thing, are you deaf? The commander has already announced that Lord Xuan Tian is about to enter seclusion, and everyone's tribute quota for this month has been increased by twenty percent! This bit of trash ash of yours isn't even four mace, it's far from enough!"

"Please be reasonable!" Hearing this, the old man was instantly so anxious that old tears streamed down his face. He flopped onto his knees and kowtowed repeatedly.

"This old man's body is already about to rot away... these three mace and two cents were already filtered by draining the last of my heart's blood! If I'm forced to absorb more Immortal Qi... this old man... this old man's worthless life really won't be saved! I beg you, sir, give me a few more days... just a few days..."