Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The Pill
"I will leave the rest to you. I have to inform the head advisor on the situation." Once all the servants were present in the room, Elder Jun disappeared from the room like he was not even there in the first place.
"Well then." After Elder Jun left, Overseer Jiang’s presence shifted. If he was suppressing his real self before the elder, he now fully displayed his real colours. "Let’s get started, lowly scums."
After moving back to the first floor with the rest of the servants, Shen Yuan looked around at them.
There were two more of them beside Shen Yuan himself. One of them was a young woman who had a cold look on her face. There was a slight air of arrogance around her that Shen Yan had seen on some of the well-accomplished businesswomen in his previous life.
Beside her stood a young man with a carefree smile on his face. The moment Shen Yuan looked at him, he looked back and smiled.
Just from that alone, Shen Yuan marked him as someone he had to steer clear of. ’To think he noticed my casual glance so easily.’ As expected of someone who can still show such a smile in the demonic sect.’
The smile, however disarming it seemed, flared alarms in Shen Yuan’s mind. Maybe he was being paranoid, but he did not care.
Only the paranoid people lived the longest.
"First of all, move the bodies in one corner. Don’t touch anything else or don’t blame me for what might happen to you." Walking towards an empty table, overseer Jiang causally took a seat and ordered the three of them from afar.
"I am Xin Delun. I am happy to work with you." The young man did not know, but the more he spoke, the more Shen Yuan became wary of him.
"Hmph!" The female servant did not even look at the boy as if he was not worth her attention and said, "I will take that side."
With a look that said not to come near her, she walked away.
"Did I do something?" Xin Delun turned towards Shen Yuan with a sad look on his face, but the boy was no longer in the spot. He looked around and saw Shen Yuan moving bodies in the opposite corner of the room.
With a deflated sigh, he chose a corner of his own and started moving bodies.
As she moved the corpse of a dead young woman, Shen Yuan had a tattoo carved on her cleavage which was barely visible through her clothes, but their loose fit helped. It was not the first time he saw one.
All the dead women had one.
’A mark of a slave?’ Shen Yuan wondered but did not let his thoughts slow him down.
He noticed something else too. The glyphs on the ground were rushed in some places and perfect in others.
It seemed like more than one person was responsible for making them, and they did so in a hurry.
"What’s taking so long?" Overseer Jiang shouted coldly while digging through his ears with his left pinky finger. "We don’t have all day. if you don’t move to the second floor in an hour, your corpses will join the pile too."
Shen Yuan paused and looked over his shoulder and realised that the man was looking directly at him. He also understood the reason; it was because he was the servant with the least amount of bodies piled up in the corner. Even though the difference between him and the others was small, it was there.
’So they had higher cultivation than me.’ He noticed how despite their progress, neither of the two servants seemed to be exhausted.
Shen Yuan himself was not out of breath yet, but he was saving his energy and carefully moving a body to prevent himself from touching danger unknowingly.
Even though he wanted to continue like that, Shen Yuan picked up the speed. In less than an hour he was just about done, still coming up last.
"Before we get any closer to the bodies on the upper floor, take these." Overseer Jiang flicked his hand and sent three pills in the direction of the servants. Each one of them got their share of the pill and inspected them carefully.
Shen Yuan glanced at the reaction of the two from the corner of his eyes. He noticed Xin Delun took the pill without even hesitation, while the female servant looked at the pill with a faint smirk that even Overseer Jiang seemed to have missed.
After a second, she tossed the pill in her mouth.
Shen Yuan looked at overseer Jiang with confusion. He was not sure what the pill was for and why he had to take it.
But that was a mistake.
"Why are you hesitating? Do you think I need a mere pill to take your life?" The maniac supervisor stepped towards Shen Yuan domineeringly, radiating his aura blatantly. Even though his aura was nothing compared to Elder Jun’s sliver of power, Shen Yuan still felt the power behind it.
Before he could reply, Overseer Jiang took away his power and turned, "It’s a poison resistance pill that will allow you to touch the bodies on the upper level without the fear of the poison around them." "Even the poison you have breathed in from before by accident will be expelled by it."
He looked over his shoulder and asked coldly, "if you don’t want it, you can give it back. I can always find a use for it."
"Ahem! You misunderstood me, Overseer Jiang. I was just wondering how to take the pill." With a flimsy excuse Shen Yuan popped the pill in his mouth but did not swallow it.
"Humph!" With a snort, the overseer explained calmly. "Hold the pill between your teeth and slowly suck on it."
"Wait? you don’t eat it?" Xin Delun suddenly looked at the two of them with a bewildered expression from the side.
"The faster you take it, the sooner its effect fades away. " Make sure to go for the poisoned bodies first and move them away as fast as you can. You only have 60 breaths of time." Overseer Jiang did not bother to give the boy another pill and started climbing.
But he did not fail to notice the female servant’s lack of any expression. It seemed like she took the pill the right way, and he noted that detail.
Shen Yuan breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. His moment of clumsiness had saved his life, but he could not allow such a thing to happen again.
The three of them walked to the upper floor and got to work under Overseer’s guidance.
But when everything seemed to be going smoothly, Shen Yuan noticed something that made him regret ever taking the task.
