Chapter 812: The Time Loop
Behind the mountain.
Large groups of strapping men were toiling shirtless under the sun, their sweat pouring down.
This was the daily training regimen required for the "Yang materials" kept within the Yin-Yang Sect.
Only with proper exercise and abundant nutrition could they endure the endless harvesting for a sufficiently long time.
After all, the famished, emaciated, and listless commoners were entirely unappealing to the women of the Yin-Yang Sect.
However, the pronounced dark circles under the eyes of some of these men, and their occasionally trembling thighs, clearly indicated that their lives were not as pleasant as one might imagine.
"Number 9527."
"Here!"
"Go to Spring Welcoming Hall, private room 3. An Immortal Master has called for you."
Not just at night, but truly, at any time, they faced the risk of being taken away for harvesting.
...
When Bai Mo and Mu Zi Qing arrived at the Spring Welcoming Hall, they happened upon Number 9527, who had just finished having his vital essence harvested. He looked half-dead and had collapsed unconscious by the corridor of the main hall.
The surrounding sounds, sometimes high-pitched, sometimes low, filled the hall with a voluptuous ambiance.
Coupled with the faint, arousing incense, it was easy to get lost in the moment.
Mo Feng Wu and the other women who had followed Bai Mo to the Spring Welcoming Hall couldn't help but blush.
"Someone! Get this useless lump out of here, lest he sully the eyes of our esteemed guest." Mu Zi Qing's brow furrowed slightly as she saw the man in a Yang material uniform sprawled against a pillar, looking like a pile of mud.
"Hmph, Yang material? If I, Lin Fan, can escape alive, I swear, one day I will destroy your Yin-Yang Sect, and dig out the hearts, livers, spleens, and lungs of you demonesses to see how black they truly are!"
Lin Fan, the Yang material Number 9527, still feigning unconsciousness, squinted slightly. His eyes were filled with the flames of hatred, yet he meticulously concealed them.
It was just that he had been tormented too terribly, encountering an Immortal Master with sadistic tendencies, who used both "happy fireballs" and "wire whisks."
After more than an hour of hellish torture, not only were his physical strength and vital essence completely drained, but his entire body ached so much he couldn't get up.
If not for a ghostly girl who had suddenly appeared a few incense sticks ago, placing a jade lock on his chest, and this jade lock continuously injecting streams of cool air into Lin Fan's broken body, he would have already perished on the spot, just like many predecessors who had been ruined by over-harvesting.
It was truly miraculous; this ghostly girl came and went without a trace. When Lin Fan tried to find her again, there was nothing left but the jade lock hanging around his neck. Only a distant silhouette, seemingly that of a paper crane, could be vaguely seen.
...
"Yes, Sect Master!" Two brawny, eight-foot-tall stout women responded to the command and walked towards Number 9527, who looked like a heap of mud.
They were well-practiced in clearing such scenes. On average, every ten to fifteen days, an Immortal Master in the Spring Welcoming Hall would play a few of the attending Yang materials to death.
Especially some who preferred more stimulating forms of play, nearly every time, someone would die.
According to the Yin-Yang Sect's rules, causing the death of one of the sect's captive Yang materials required compensation of ten Contribution Points, which was equivalent to half a month's stipend for a Qi Refinement cultivator in the sect...
Cultivators had always held common mortals in little regard, and demonic sects like the Yin-Yang Sect were even more so. These Yang materials were merely a part of the sect's assets.
"A man? And standing above the Yin-Yang Sect's Master?" With his swollen eyes, Lin Fan struggled to make out this fact.
That white-robed young man, without a doubt, had a man's face.
Unfortunately, his foggy brain couldn't support much more thought. Lin Fan quickly closed his eyes completely, ready to play dead and let the two stout women carry him away.
Near the Yin-Yang Sect was a mass grave, specifically for burying various common mortals who died within the sect. As long as one could feign death and deceive the burial staff, there was a chance to escape to freedom.
...
"Wait." Bai Mo stopped the two stout women who were about to carry the "corpse."
"Listen to the Senior in everything." Mu Zi Qing, worried that the two stout women, who had long lived in a female-dominated environment, might offend this white-robed young man, specifically reminded them.
"Yes, Sect Master."
"It seems to be precisely this person. Put him down."
When Bai Mo first obtained the Yin-Yang Sect's Ascension Token, a profound, almost mystical sensation had surged within him.
The closer he got to the Yin-Yang Sect, the stronger this feeling became.
Upon entering the Yin-Yang Sect's mountain gate, that feeling had directed him to the back of the mountain.
Now, having followed that sensation all the way, Bai Mo finally confirmed the existence that had brought him this mysterious feeling.
"Thump."
"Thump."
"..."
As Bai Mo approached, Lin Fan's heart pounded wildly in warning, alerting him that something extremely dangerous was about to happen.
Having been feigning death all this time, he increasingly felt like he couldn't keep up the act any longer.
"The Ancient Chaos Immortal Venerable's Yin-Yang Lock?" Bai Mo grabbed the jade lock on Lin Fan's chest and, after a few breaths, finally confirmed the jade lock's identity.
The Yin-Yang Lock, a divine artifact, naturally concealed its true nature, appearing nonexistent under divine sense, making it easy to deceive cultivators who relied on divine sense to observe the world.
The Ancient Chaos Immortal Venerable, in Bai Mo's memories, was also one of the enemies who had participated in the siege against him when he was the Demonic Yang Immortal Venerable in his previous life.
Now, his legacy had appeared within this small Yin-Yang Sect.
"That's mine!!!"
Seeing Bai Mo seemingly about to take the Yin-Yang Lock, Lin Fan could no longer feign death, for at this moment, the jade lock seemed to have become one with his body.
Taking the jade lock was tantamount to digging out his heart.
Especially when Bai Mo's hand touched the jade lock, the cool airflow that had originally emanated from within the lock, slowly repairing Lin Fan's body, suddenly transformed entirely into white light, continuously surging towards Bai Mo's palm.
"A treasure?" The shimmering light immediately caught Mu Zi Qing's attention, and greed began to grow within her heart.
Especially when she discovered that the young man, who had previously been radiating the late Golden Core stage aura, was continuously losing power into the jade lock...
"The second fragment of the Historical Text?"
Lost in thought, Bai Mo at this moment was focusing all his attention on the numerous, extremely important pieces of information within the Historical Text.
Even Lin Fan, who continuously tried to choke him, only to be blocked by the body-protecting spiritual light, couldn't snap him out of his absorption in the Historical Text.
"...
I am not sure which iteration of me you are.
If the me of the previous life and the me of this life have not deduced incorrectly,
I seem to be caught in a Time Loop, continuously reincarnating and being reborn.
Time Loop is the name the me of the previous life gave to this reincarnation seal.
Generation after generation, this world will always, under the prevailing circumstances, allow me to be reborn.
And with each rebirth, I will lose something.
Perhaps memories, perhaps power.
When the cycle has repeated enough times,
Perhaps 'I', Bai Mo, will cease to exist.
..."
Comments