Chapter 1176
Slave Knights of Heaven City
Ancient Kingdom of Anxi, Heaven City. Twenty miles outside the city.
A scattered group of commoners, clad in long robes and with their heads wrapped in cloth, trekked arduously through the desert.
They were accompanied by only two camels, laden with luggage. This made their progress slow.
“Uncle, I’m so tired…”
A child, dusty and with a young voice, said tiredly, “I want to drink water…”
Neither her appearance nor her voice could distinguish her gender. Her dark skin and emaciated body made her look as ugly as a little monkey.
“Just hold on a little longer, Kasan!”
The man leading the camels said in a low voice, “We’re almost there…”
He glanced around and carefully took a flat, black clay pot about the size of his palm from the camel’s saddlebag. It could hold about a liter of water at most, and now, as it sloshed, he could hear the crisp sound of water like rain—it was clear the water inside had run out.
Eyes from all around them stared at them, subtly. The camel-leading man straightened his back as much as he could, using his own body to block their gazes.
The little girl had only taken a small sip before the man snatched the water jug away. He didn’t dare to drink it himself, merely using the moisture from the bottle’s rim to scrape and moisten his chapped lips before reinserting the stopper.
Having received the water, the girl quieted down.
The caravan continued their silent journey through the swirling sandstorms.
In the desert, it was extremely hot at noon and incredibly cold at night. There was not much time for comfortable travel, and this early morning was one such opportunity. They had gotten up from their camp at four in the morning and had been walking ever since.
“The oasis is just ahead, what a magnificent oasis. An oasis of this scale… Praise the munificent Adler.”
A middle-aged woman muttered to herself, “Everything will be alright once we get to Heaven City.”
Her clothes were the finest among the crowd, and several gold chains could be seen around her neck, along with gold bracelets and rings inlaid with jewels on her hands. Clearly, in another city-state, she was considered a well-off person among the Free People. Even in a new city-state, she was confident she could buy her own fate.
But a gaunt man in the corner of the caravan did not think so.
His name was Jabir, and he was the most humble person in this group.
Of course, he was considered a Free Person, not a slave—they had initially brought slaves with them when they fled their city-state, which had fallen into ruin after defeat. But soon, these slaves had starved and dehydrated, one by one.
Although the price of a slave could buy half a camel, not to mention the food and water. However, in the desert, nothing was more precious than food and drink.
A week ago, when Jabir went out at night, he clearly saw… some people drinking blood in the darkness.
They were thirsty, but there wasn’t much water left. They used blood to wet their mouths.
They soon discovered Jabir, who was watching from the shadows, and invited him to join them.
Jabir agreed.
He dared not refuse.
When they woke up the next day, no one cared about the slaves who had died in their sleep. They continued on their journey.
But at least he woke up alive.
From then on, the surviving slaves were granted a boon: a sip of water, and also urine. However, Jabir knew that this was just fattening the livestock before slaughter.
The number of slaves decreased by two to three per day, and occasionally he was allowed a sip to quench his thirst. It was then that he learned… blood was salty, and the more you drank, the thirstier you became.
It was a curse hidden within the blood. He became even thirstier.
There was bad news… as of yesterday, all the slaves were dead. Once the slaves were all dead, he became the lowest in status within the team.
Jabir had no work. He was a beggar, or rather, a con artist. He used a set of oracle bones passed down from his grandfather to divine for people, but in reality, he couldn’t divine at all because his grandfather had died young, and he hadn’t learned it. Moreover, people almost all knew that he couldn’t divine.
Because of this, Jabir’s divinations were less of divinations and more like performances—as he progressed, he incorporated more and more performances. For instance, spitting out a sharpened stone to pierce a cake he tossed into the air; or shooting an arrow backward to shatter pottery jars containing different oracle bones.
But Jabir was clever. Regardless of the divination’s outcome, he would interpret it as ambiguous good news. Because of this, people enjoyed listening to his divinations, and his business grew.
One day, he felt inspired. He excitedly told the thirtieth person the same thing, earnestly assuring them that they would be safe.
After that, their city-state was suddenly overrun.
It was the Arid Water Army!
Some of the benevolent lords of their own city-state, after being killed by rebels and permanently losing their water sources, retaliated by attacking and looting nomadic bandits from other city-states!
They hated the commoners and slaves who lived in the oases. Although they would capture and kidnap some slaves to trade with Goblins for supplies, they otherwise tried to kill everyone they saw. This was because they were jealous that these people could live in the oases, and also because the rebels who dared to resist the benevolent lords were born from these people.
Driven by hatred and jealousy, these commoners, who had seized the benevolent lords’ property and were armed, mercilessly swung their cleavers at the commoners of another city.
On the escape route, he saw a ground full of corpses. The thirty people he had blessed were all lying on the ground, not a single one alive.
When they regrouped outside the city, this event spread—everyone knew that Jabir had promised safety to thirty people, and all of them had died.
Thus, he became a con artist. Jabir the con artist… and some people even called him a curse. It was because his curse had attracted the Arid Water Army, causing their families to be destroyed and them to become refugees here.
The only path they could choose was to go to other city-states.
And almost all city-states would capture refugees from other city-states as slaves.
Every Anxi person knew this truth in the world—those who were Free People today could become new slaves tomorrow. And once one became a slave, they would always be a slave.
Few city-states accepted outsiders, and Heaven City was one of them.
Many travelers and itinerant merchants passing through Heaven City praised its divine splendor. Many Free People came from other city-states, living peacefully in cities full of trees, clear springs, and beautiful cleanliness, enjoying endless gourmet food. All they had to do was offer praise.
—Can money buy divinity?
This question might be debated in other countries: Money might buy happiness, peace, success, or prestige… but can it buy true divinity? Can a rich person become a saint truly worshipped by people?
In Anxi, the answer was self-evident—only money could buy divinity.
Anything that did not bring them a good life was considered “fake divinity” in the eyes of the Anxi people.
Jabir couldn’t help but have a simple question in his heart—
…Where did Heaven City’s benevolent lord get his money from?
He was good to everyone, so why couldn’t other benevolent lords do the same?
Did he really do these things without any cost?
And at this moment.
From the oasis ahead, a troop of camel cavalry suddenly charged out.
Dust billowed behind them, and joyful shouts rose from the crowd: “He’s here to pick us up!”
“No!”
The man leading the camels had better eyesight, so he noticed the details and his expression changed drastically: “It’s a slave-catching team!”
Chaos erupted among the crowd, and the muttering middle-aged woman said resolutely, “This is to welcome us! Praise the munificent Adler—you all praise Adler, he won’t attack us!”
As soon as she finished speaking, the cavalry charged towards them at an extraordinary speed.
The middle-aged woman immediately yelled at the top of her lungs, “Praise the munificent Adler! Praise the benevolent Adler! We are here to…”
Before she could finish, a transparent, dim yellow shackle wrapped directly around her neck!
—It was a Soul Shackle.
A spell used by slave-catchers when capturing slaves or performing sacrifices—it could directly bind the soul, thereby suppressing and sealing the opponent’s Mana Pool. Even Extraordinary individuals were as fragile as mortals when unable to use their magic.
She grabbed the shackle in terror with both hands, being dragged violently across the desert. Her mouth was filled with sand, choking back all her words.
“Hahaha! I’m a rich kid!”
The man who grabbed her, clad in exquisite leather armor, shouted boastfully to another person, “The sheep fat is all mine!”
“Sir, we are all Free People!”
The camel-leading man shouted, “We’ve come to seek the munificent Adler’s protection!”
“Oh,” the man said lazily, like a fisherman hauling in his net, he violently dragged the middle-aged woman back, a cruel smile on his face, “Who knows.”
“The munificent Adler protects Free People—”
The man felt intense unease and fear, yet he still stood protectively in front of the little girl, puffing out his chest.
The next moment, he was caught by a chain flying from the hand of another slave knight.
“I didn’t see any Free People.”
The dark-skinned slave knight showed his white teeth, “Aren’t these all slaves we’ve captured?”
The slave knights weaved rapidly through the crowd, chains flying amid screams and shrieks.
Soon, they gathered around the slave knight who had led the charge.
“Ho, so rich. Look at all these gold chains.”
“This fat woman can’t be sold for much anyway, let’s kill her.”
“No hurry, we’ll discuss it back in the city. It’d be a waste of all this mutton—help me out and chop off her finger. She’s too fat to get the ring off.”
“Hahaha, then you have to share some with us!”
“We’re all brothers, do you really think I meant it when I said it’s all mine!”
The slave knights erupted in laughter, accompanied by the clang of swords and the flying of severed fingers and gold rings, stained with blood, into the yellow sand.
As Jabir was bound by the chains, his heart became incredibly calm.
He finally understood why so many people rushed to seek Adler’s protection, yet Heaven City hadn’t exploded…
If Free People reached Heaven City, they would naturally enjoy Adler’s protection and favor.
But the problem was… could they reach it?
They couldn’t.
(End of this chapter)
