Be The Icy Beauty: A Xianxia/Cultivation Tale

Zhang Yi stood still, shakily inhaling as he stared at the broken pile of blood, bone and organ that had once been a living, breathing human being.

A horrible metallic stench permeated the air, filling his nostrils. It was as if the very oxygen he inhaled was reminding him of the blood spilt here.

He had been in fights, martial arts matches and violet brawls on the street. He had even seen dead bodies before. Yet somehow, when Zhang Yi stared at the bloody, broken corpse of the man whose life he had personally taken, his stomach squirmed in disgust he had never felt before.

"Killing is agasint the Dao!" Zhang Yi's grandfather, Zhang Lu, would often tell him. "The scriptures say all living beings contain the Uncreated Energy and one should not kill them."

Zhang Yi turned his head away from the body, bending over as he began to vomit. After a few minutes of dry heaving, he wiped the fluids from his mouth with his blood-stained sleeve before shakily straightening himself up.

Around him, he could see the other boys standing in solemn silence, save for their heavy breathing.

The silence sat unbroken, until Jiang Fang slowly bent over, grabbing the Immortal's copper shortsword. It still glistened with the blood of the boy he had killed.

Jiang Fang took an unsteady step towards the corpse of the Immortal, a strangely focused expression covering his face. He raised the sword high before slicing it down on the throat of the Immortal. The blade cleaved done through the neck's flesh, tearing through bone and tendon to slam into the wooden floor beneath.

The heavy crack of the metal blade against the ground seemed to cut through the air like a knife, and all the boys visibly flinched.

"...Hua Zi was avenged," Jiang Fang stated, after a moment, his voice low. "Now, if we want to stand a chance of getting home to Jiang City, we need to leave with the utmost haste."

Zhang Yi turned to look a the fallen body of the boy the Immortal had killed, Hua Zi. He had not known each other well by any standard but had worked alongside him occasionally whenever Zhang Yi did errands for the boy's father, a local leather-worker. Zhang Yi idly wondered how Hua Zi's father would react to news of his son's death. Would he cry and mourn as Zhang Yi had when his own grandfather died?

"Let's go!" Jiang Fang ordered, turning away from the Immortal's corpse to face the wooden door of the cage-room.

He began to walk forward, ignoring the boys behind him. After a moment of stillness, the other boys followed after him. Three stopped to gingerly retrieve Hua Zi's body and head, carrying him along with them. If Zhang Yi's memory served him, they were Hua Zi's friends. One had tears visibly dripping down his face, and the other two seemed close to reaching that point.

At the door, Jiang Fang stopped, leaning down to pick up a large iron ring that held a dozen keys.

'The Immortal must have dropped it when he entered the room.' Zhang Yi thought to himself

Jiang Fang pushed past the door, entering a small hallway beyond it. The hallway was built from yellow wood, oil lamps hanging from the ceiling to illuminate it. Two large pillars held up the roof, indicating to Zhang Yi that they were probably underground. There were two other doors inside the hallway, one that led to a staircase, and the other that presumably held the girls.

Jiang Fang walked over to the door. Instead of unlocking it with the keys he had taken from the floor, he raised a leg and smashed it into the door, ripping it off its hinges. Stepping over the fallen door, he entered the room.

As they followed after Jiang Fang, the other boys were greeted by the fear-ridden faces of the Jiang City girls. There were nineteen of them, all tied to a long fence with white rope and mouths gagged.

Upon catching sight of the bloodstained visages of their fellow villagers, several of the girls shouted through their gags, though Zhang Yi could not make out what they were saying.

Jiang Fang walked over to the closest girl, pulling the gag from her mouth. Immediately she began to yell.

"Young Master Jiang! The Immortal! H-He said he was gonna sell us as slaves!" the woman shouted.

"I know," Jiang Fang said, raising a finger to stop her from continuing. "We managed to escape from him. I'm going to untie all of you, and let's hurry out of here."

Jiang Fang raised the Immortals sword, slashing through the first woman's binding in a single swipe. She fell away from the fence, landing on her hand and knees, before pushing herself up to her feet.

Quickly, Jiang Fang walked forward, slashing and cutting through the women's bindings. Many of the boys ran over, hugging and greeting their sisters, fiancees and friends.

Of course, Zhang Yi did not have any friends, and his former fiancee had long since torn up their engaged marriage agreement, so he didn't have anyone to greet. Instead, he stood by the door of the room, glancing over at the one other boy who had remained there. It was He Zhao, the tall and tanned blacksmith's son.

"You don't have any friends or fiancees to greet?" Zhang Yi asked, idly curious.

"Not really," He Zhao shrugged. "I've always focused more on my blacksmithing than mingling with others. I mean, when bread is so expensive, who can afford to waste time socializing on when they can be working?"

The tall, bronze-skinned teen chuckled at his own joke slightly, while Zhang Yi grinned wryly.

"As for a fiancee, I don't have one yet. My parents would never marry me to a northern girl," He Zhao continued. "My mother wants to find me a good Usveri girl who'll keep the bloodline pure."

"Usveri?" Zhang Yi asked, having never the term before.

"It's an island off the coast of Bluewing Prefecture," He Zhao replied, shrugging. "It's where my family is from."

"Why'd you come to the north?"

"Most Usveri live on the mainland nowadays," He Zhao replied. "It's much safer than the ocean where Sea Demons can attack at any moment. But we still head back every now and then to meet up with our kin."

"I see," Zhang Yi commented, nodding slightly.

He had never really thought about He Zhao's ethnicity, but the young blacksmith did indeed look different from most people in Jiang City. he had darker, brownish skin and a taller build than the paler people that made up most of the north of the Bird Talon Continent.

"What about you, huh?" He Zhao asked. "You don't have a fiancees either?"

"I did once, but our engagement was annulled after my grandfather died and the Jiang Clan stole my family's property," Zhang Yi replied bluntly. "They didn't want to marry a poor, penniless orphan into their family."

He could see her in the corner of the room, hugging her older brother Li Renlong. Zhang Yi had never really known Li Mingming well, so he had not been particularly sad when she declared she wouldn't be marrying him.

"Hmm. That sucks," He Zhao responded. "But look on the bright side. If her family abandoned you the moment you lost your wealth, then they wouldn't have made good inlaws in the first place. It's more like you dodged an arrow."

"I guess," Zhang Yi shrugged.

Finally, Jiang Fang reached the last girl. It was a teenage girl with long brown hair that Zhang Yi vaguely remembered.

The moment the white rope binding her was broken, she ran, stumbling over to the boys who held Hua Zi's body, tears dripping from her face. As she began to loudly cry, Zhang Yi recalled her identity. It was Hua Zi's sister.

Staring at the young girl crying over the dead body of her sibling, Zhang Yi realized something.

He didn't want to die.

He didn't want to ever die.

He wanted to become Immortal.

He wanted to live forever.

As the thought passed through his mind, the copper coin on Zhang Yi's neck gently shook.

But... the so-called Immortal who had said he would be recruiting for the Copper Egg sect ended up being nothing more than a slave-trader. Would Zhang Yi ever really have the chance to join an Immortal sect of cultivation.

'Probably not,' the orphan thought to himself, sighing bitterly.

By now, all the girls had been untied and Jiang Fang loudly cleared his throat, grabbing everyone's attention and snapping Zhang Yi out of his internal thoughts.

"Let's go everyone, follow me! The women and the youngest boys stay in the back. I and the older boys will be at the front in case of any danger!" Jiang Fang said, walking over to the door of the room.

Zhang Yi, He Zhao and the other boys who had fought the Immortal slowly walked to the front of the group of children and teens. The three who held Hua Zi's body handed it off to some of the younger boys as they took their place at the front as well. By now everyone had pretty much accepted Jiang Fang as the 'leader' of their group and no one had any thoughts of disobeying him.

Jiang Fang slowly led the large group out of the room and back into the hallway, before walking over to the third door. behind it lay a short staircase that led upwards. Jiang Fang began to quickly run up it, holding his copper sword in a ready position.

The group packed into the staircase, slowly making their way up it and towards the room beyond. As they walked, a loud female voice called out to them.

"Bother Xi, have you grabbed the first product? The auction will start soon and I need to prepare!"

Zhang Yi froze upon hearing the voice. A second person? Was she also an Immortal? Would they have to fight her too?

Images flashed in Zhang Yi's mind, of the moment when the Immortal had blurred towards him with a sword in hand. It had only been for a rare spot of luck that he had survived. If he fought a second Immortal, would that luck still hold up? Or would he lose his life as Hua Zi had?

Some of the others froze as well, causing those running up the staircase to stumble and smack into each other a little, before straightening up.

"What was that sound? Brother Xi, are you alright? If you're having trouble wrangling the merchandise I can grab the spiked whip to keep them docile!" the woman called out again.

Zhang Yi clenched his fist upon hearing the words. It was a stark reminder of what exactly they were trying to escape. The horrible, painful fate of being sold as a slave. Slaves weren't considered people, they were property. Objects that could be broken or beaten with the same impunity one might break a doll or kill a pig.

From the front of the group, Jiang Fang motioned with his hand for everyone to keep silent. He continued up the staircase and they quickly reached the top. Jiang Fang pushed open the door at the end of the stairs and the group of children spiled past it.

Beyond the door lay a brightly lit lounge. A beautiful woman clad in a tightly fit red dress lay upon a couch, drinking a glass of wine. Her long, glossy black hair spilled messily over the side of the couch as she drank.

Upon hearing the door to her lounge open, the woman turned her head towards it. Then, her eyes widened and she dropped her glass.

"W-what? Who the hell are you?" she asked in shock and fear.

Then, a woman blinked and the fear on her face redoubled. Her face seemed to visibly drop from an alcohol-induced red-flush to bone-white in a matter of moments. It really was as if all the blood drained from her face.

'She probably realized who we are,' Zhang Yi thought darkly. I'd be pretty frightened as well if the slaves I'd been planning on selling broke out of the basement and entered my room covered in blood.'

However, the earlier fear Zhang Yi had felt seemed to fade away upon the sight of the woman's fear. That look of genuine terror wasn't from some Immortal. She was probably just an ordinary human. An ordinary human who would stand no chance against thirty or forty others, even if they were children and teens.

Zhang Yi was not the only one to realize this. Jiang Fang noticed it as well and he immediately capitalized.

"Surround her!" the noble barked.

Zhang Yi, He Zhao and the other older boys instantly sprung forward, circling around the woman so she had no path of escape.

If it was possible, her face seemed to become even paler.

"W-wait!" she shouted, raising her hands up. "Please, don't hurt me!"

From nearby, Zhang Yi could hear He Zhao angrily respond.

"Oh? Don't hurt you? The way you were going to 'not hurt' us with that 'spiked whip'?" the tall boy spat. "Didn't think we'd hear that, did you?"

"P-please-"

"Silence," Jiang Fang barked at the woman, stepping towards her. "I don't remember allowing you to speak."

He raised the copper blade into the air, raising it to be flat with the woman's face. Her eyes widened and she froze, lips closing.

"Now, I have a few questions for you," Jiang Fang said, sighing. "And you will answer them. First, you will tell me where exactly we are at the moment. Then, you will tell me exactly what is going on here."

"I-I don't know anything-" the woman stammered, only for Jiang Fang to whip his fist forward, slamming it against the side of the woman's head.

The woman screamed, hands flying up to cover her face. She curled away from Jiang Fang, starting to sob.

"I am not really a violent person by nature," Jiang Fang stated tiredly, only a hint of annoyance flavouring his voice. "I would rather spend my time resting in the shade or reading a good book than beating and killing people. However, I have always been very good at those things. So for your own sake, answer my questions so I won't have to hurt you."

The woman's shoulders shook as she suppressed her tears and nodded, terror blanketing her face.

"I-i'll do it, pl-please, just don't hurt me. I'll answer your questions," she sobbed. "We're at a house on the edge of Copper Lake City. Brother Xi runs a slave auction here. He kidnaps kids from rural areas that no one will miss and sells them. I'm just the auctioneer."

"Are there any other members of this 'auction house'?" Jiang Fang asked, stepping towards the woman.

"No, it was just me and him," the woman cried, shaking her head.

"Hmm. Well, what about the Copper Egg Sect. Is it real? Was he really a member?"

"H-he was, but just an outer disciple," the woman answered tearfully. "No one important."

"You know, he said that he was recruiting for the Copper Egg Sect," Jiang Fang mused. "How exactly would you really join the Copper Egg?"

"As long as you can afford an exam ticket and pass it, anyone can join," the woman responded through her tears.

"And when do you expect people to begin arriving for the next auction?"

"P-probably ten or fifteen minutes," the woman replied.

"Good," Jiang Fang muttered. "We have a little bit of leeway then."

Jiang Fang suddenly slammed his left arm forward, driving his copper sword straight through the woman's throat. Behind him, several of the girls screamed at the unexpected violence.

"Sorry about that," Jiang Fang said to the rapidly bleeding out woman. "But I can't really take the risk of you telling anyone about us."

Jiang Fang ripped the sword from her throat, watching as blood spurted from the hole he bored in her windpipe. The woman's body collapsed, falling still.

Jiang Fang then turned around to face the other villagers loudly speaking.

"Everyone, search this place. Grab any valuables you see! Especially changes of clothes!"