Lin Yuan sat silently outside the market, eyes fixed on the drifting clouds above.
The image of the pregnant woman—skin stretched over bone, breath shallow—haunted him.
His hands trembled.
> "I'm too weak," he whispered to himself. "Mother isn't here. Grandmaster isn't here. I should be thinking of survival..."
But still, he stood up.
Turning to the Holy Son beside him, Lin Yuan said quietly,
> "Please... come with me again. I can't leave them behind."
The Holy Son looked at him for a long moment, then nodded.
They returned to the slave market.
This time, Lin Yuan didn't move like a boy caught in horror.
He walked with grim focus. Eyes calculating.
He approached the sellers and asked for the ones least valuable—the crippled, the sick, the dying.Each only one or two mid grade stone.
Old women. Pregnant cultivators. Malnourished demon children. Elves with cracked spirit roots."Each two or three "
> "These won't even last a month," Each only one mid grade sprit sotne.One merchant said, laughing. "Take them. You're doing me a favor."
Lin Yuan's hands shook. But he kept his voice calm.
He bought hundreds. Then more.
The Holy Son summoned his massive spirit boat. Once a merchant vessel, it was now filled with silence and sufferings.
They arrived at the Holy Son's private estate—an expansive land on the sect's edge.Lin Yuan ask to drop them to his house.
The stench was unbearable. The moans of the sick filled the air.
Some couldn't even stand.
Lin Yuan ran to the outer sect library and used what little spirit stones he had left to buy emergency medical scrolls, low-spirit nourishing guides, and hut-building blueprints.
When he returned, Sect Leader Yuexian stood at the gate.
> "What have you done?" she asked, arms folded.
> "I… I couldn't leave them," Lin Yuan whispered.
> "How will you feed over a thousand people?" she snapped. "Do you even have a plan?"
Lin Yuan shook his head.
> "I gave them strawberries… water…"
> "You can't give spiritual food to people in this state. Their bodies will reject it." She sighed, then softened slightly. "I'll send laborers to build latrines. But don't ask for more."
Desperate, Lin Yuan went to the sect city.
He found his four mothers in a small noodle shop, happily eating steamed buns.
When they saw his face, pale and overwhelmed, Lady An gently patted his head.
> "You didn't ruin everything," she said. "You just have a kind heart."
Lady Mingyan rolled her eyes.
> "Idiot. You're literally in a restaurant. Order steam buns. That bottle of water? Too slow. See that shop? Buy pots. Bulk order. Use your head."
> "But I only have seven mid-grade stones left…"
> "Then we'll go see how bad the mess is."
In his house
People lay scattered, moaning in pain. Children clung to each other.
Lady Mingyan say "Give them some hope"
> "Ask if anyone has a home."
Lin Yuan did. Hands went up.
> "Now ask who wants to return. Give them paper. Have them write names, sects, addresses. You can't help everyone—but you can try."
He obeyed.
> "Also," she added coldly, "make them understand the rules. If they betray you—sell them back."
Lin Yuan flinched… but nodded.
> "Understood."
Lady Mingyan crossed her arms.
> "Now go. Make a Qi-gathering formation. Even if they're crippled, they're still cultivators. Take Xiao Hu's spirit stones."
> "I… I can't without asking."
> "Oh? Growing a spine, are we?"
> "S-Sorry! I will take without telling him"
> "Good boy."
"Go buy the largest sprit ship"
Lin Yuan went to Sect Leader Yuexian's office.
> "I want your largest spirit ship."
> "One thousand high-grade spirit stones."
He gave her almost everything he had.
> "I'm poor again..."
> "You did this to yourself," she replied. "Don't complain."
Lin Yuan took the people to the river.
Groups bathed in shifts. For some, it was the first water they'd felt in weeks.
Children cried. Women laughed softly.
Some of them—just a few—smiled.
Lin Yuan stood in the river, clothes soaked, lips trembling.
> "Even if I'm weak… even if I don't have strength or power… I won't walk away.