Chapter 730 Life Cauldron (2)
In reputable organizations pill slaves were dressed up pretty in the form of volunteering, gaining merit points, a chance to earn a living, and maybe, even maybe changing their fortunes. Those organizations chose their subjects well, it was those with nothing, down on their luck or desperate, those whose only chance at making anything or just surviving, was to use their bodies as currency. A mortal who hoped maybe those potions and recipes would awaken their talent in cultivation, that shunned outer sect disciple with no talent or background hoping that by selling his /her services as pill slave they could curry favor with their superior and change their fortune, that surviving clan member from a succession dispute who opts to become a pill slave to guarantee their life.
As bad as it was to be a pill slave, half of the pill slaves around the world become that by choice or at least the illusion of it given the circumstances half the time which is why the Order can never do anything about it most of the time whenever pill slaves come to court to file accusations against their employers when their bodies and minds can no longer endure the demands of the occupation. Their hands are tied due to the binding agreement between the two parties, which most nowadays are so thorough that even third-party witnesses and binding scrolls are used in the agreement.
With such rock-solid agreements, the Order's hands get tied, but when it came to life cauldrons, it was a different matter altogether. Using life cauldrons was no different than practicing fiend arts that siphon someone's life force.
A cultivator's body down to its base could be considered a natural treasure, and a special one at that, irrespective if one was in the body refinement realm or the soul formation realm, a cultivator's body was packed full of countless treasures and mysteries some unbeknownst even to the cultivator themselves. It was the exploration of those mysteries that led to the realization of great feats such as the diamond body, the peerless jade physique, the perfect qi circulation stage, the gold and purple pillars, and countless others.
A cultivator's body was considered a world in and of itself, and it was in the spirit of that thought that others sought to exploit it for more, for example with life cauldrons. Life cauldrons were cultivators who just like the name itself, their entire being was to be a cauldron. Their bodies would be packed with specific herbs and they would be provided with a particular cultivation art that would merge their bodies with those herbs to create a unique potion.
Said potions had wondrous benefits that made countless willing enough to risk the infamy that would come from such a venture.
Yang Qing had read about an alchemist who once sacrificed 100 foundation establishment cultivators and used them as life cauldrons. Most were unable to survive the entire process, with some dying while trying to escape, and others unable to survive its demands, in the end, only 12 were able to be converted into potions. The resultant potion was combined and consumed by the alchemist.
At the time he had been a core formation cultivator with an orange core, however, when he consumed the resultant potion from combining the 12 potions, his orange core was elevated to a blue-grade core, and it did not just stop there as he gained two more cores that were at the quasi blue grade giving him a full total of three cores.
Having more than one core though rare, wasn't surprising, as there have been records of cultivators having multiple cores when breaking through to the core formation realm most had something to do with their physique, with others it was as a result of some special cultivation art accompanied with a special ground, and even then the feat couldn't be replicated.
In both these instances, one had been born with it, with the other cultivating bitterly to acquire it, which was why that alchemist replicating such a feat with life cauldron potions took the world by storm. Yang Qing didn't know what happened to the alchemist, he no doubt died under the banner of ' meting justice on behalf of the heavens and his recipe stolen in the midst of it, but what that alchemist did, lived on as he planted countless seeds on the possibilities of life cauldrons.
To date, the Order handled countless cases on life cauldrons, though Yang Qing had the fortune of never having one come across his desk, up until now.
Pausing on the matter of the blood fiend cultivator aside, Yang Qing asked,
"How long were they dealing in them?"
"From what we were able to gather from the leader of the Flying Serpents gang, they have been providing them for at least 30 years.." answered Wang Siyi.
"30, huh.." Yang Qing muttered as he drummed his finger on the table.
"In your years, of living there, you must have had some interactions, is this something that you could see them do?"
Its benefits aside, dealing in life cauldrons wasn't something that anyone would easily engage in, but then again that was from his judgment, other cultivators might think and see things differently.
Wang Siyi took a sip of the tea he had on the table and sighed after his breath filled with a certain level of heaviness.
"If it was 1,000 years ago, I would have said they would never do something like that, but now.."Wang Siyi paused as he took another sigh.
"I don't know. A human's greed is insatiable, nothing is impossible, and over the years I've seen it in countless eyes from my men to the nobles down to the royal family itself. I don't know maybe I too have fallen to it.." Wang Siyi said with a sorrowful tone.
Back then when he and his wife had successfully assassinated the general of the Five Clover Kingdom, some from within the Red Maple Empire had been tempted to send them over to the Five Clover Kingdom in exchange for a few benefits, it was only thanks to one general, one of the palace realm experts of the Empire, staunchly speaking up for them, to the point that he vowed to desert the kingdom, did the idea die down, but even then, with the amount of assassinations attempts they suffered from the kingdom, there had to be someone feeding them information.
Before Yang Qing made the offer, they had contemplated a few times on whether to move away or not, but their attachment to the Empire they loved so deeply made them stay, and they would have likely continued to stay until their last had the siblings not asked them to move with them.
"Whatever happens, it's up to them, I already gave them everything I could. I have nothing else to give other than hope the rot doesn't destroy it.."thought Wang Siyi.
"The investigations showed that only a few elders of the Chen were involved with the patriarch completely in the dark about the happenings. However, strangely enough, when news about the life cauldron started circulating, those elders all died.. Evidence shows they took their own lives...
As it stands, I honestly can't say the Chen patriarch or any of the other families including the royal family itself wouldn't be involved in such a matter. I truly cannot.." said Wang Siyi as he took another sip.
"I think wine would be better.." he added after the sip.
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