Mutated Tao

The next morning, Lu Xiucai woke up feeling sore. He had no money to stay in an inn, so he hugged Tao’er and slept underneath the eaves of a house. The two slept hungry and cold.

Lu Xiucai regretted spending all the money he had been earning rather than saving a portion of his earnings. If he had some savings, he wouldn't have to suffer like this today.

To make matters worse, he had nowhere else to go, as he couldn't go to Cowheart Village.

“Husband, why don’t you just rent me out as a concubine?”

“No!” Lu Xiucai firmly refused. “Where would my dignity go if I allow other men to impregnate you?"

Tao’er was sad as well as she said, “I don't want to become someone else's concubine, too, but we'd starve to death without money. My dad sold me off as well for food, as he didn’t have any money.”

Lu Xiucai gnashed his teeth and punched the ground out of frustration. He had just realized that Tao'er's visage was becoming yellow from hunger. If I were as strong as Li Huowang, I wouldn't have ended up like this!

In the end, Lu Xiucai bottled up his frustrations and stood up, pulling Tao’er toward the inn where Bai Lingmiao was staying.

Bai Lingmiao and Chun Xiaoman were preparing to leave when Lu Xiucai appeared in front of them.

Lu Xiucai was unwilling to submit to a woman, but he was even more unwilling to allow his wife to become someone else's concubine in exchange for money. Lu Xiucai gnashed his teeth and stuttered, "I-I'm sorry, Miss Bai. I-I made a mistake. Please let me go back to Cowheart Village.”

“Is that how people are supposed to beg others for their help? How do you address Li Huowang? And how do you think you should address me?” Bai Lingmiao asked.

“I call Li Huowang 'Master,' so I should call you… Mistress!”

“That's right. Aside from your father, no one else has any obligation to treat you nicely in this world. If you need someone to help you, you need to be able to help them as well."

Lu Xiucai nodded profusely. “Yes, I understand!”

“Sure. You can follow us, then. Anyway, where did you get your wife?” Bai Lingmiao asked, peering over Lu Xiucai's shoulder.

“I bought her. Look, they're selling some over there, too.” Lu Xiucai pointed out.

Bai Lingmiao followed Lu Xiucai's gaze and saw several skinny children standing on the streets. They had on collars made out of straws, and the adult standing before them was busy talking to what looked like a customer.

Chun Xiaoman frowned at the appalling sight.

Bai Lingmiao patted Chun Xiaoman’s hand and asked, “How much silver for a person?”

“Depends. I bought Tao’er for five taels of silver.”

Bai Lingmiao squinted. Cowheart Village needs manpower. We don’t have enough people, and we definitely don't have enough talented people capable of cultivating the techniques that my family had left behind for me.

We need more people to become even stronger, so I'll recruit people, just like how my grandfather recruited people in his generation.

Recruiting outsiders was risky, as those outsiders could leak their secrets. However, those who had been sold by their families to become slaves had nowhere else to go, which meant it'd be easier to control them.

Bai Lingmiao had no idea what her family was doing when she was young, but she could still remember how she had never gone hungry. She had meat to eat every day, and she even frequently wore a golden anklet.

The Bai Family also managed to force Li Huowang to burn all his skin. In other words, the Bai Family was a pretty formidable family.

Bai Lingmiao walked over and started haggling with the seller. The seller grinned upon hearing that Bai Lingmiao was going to buy everyone, regardless of gender and looks.

“Are they my slaves now?” Bai Lingmiao asked the seller weighing silvers on a scale.

“Ai~! What are you talking about? We're not like the barbarians in Qing Qiu. The emperor has decreed that we cannot sell slaves within the Liang Kingdom!” the seller retorted with a chuckle.

“They're not your slaves. They're your stepchildren! Everyone, bow down to your stepmother!” the seller exclaimed.

The children had gone numb and obedient from hunger and exhaustion, so they knelt on the ground and greeted Bai Lingmiao as their stepmother.

“Hehe. Miss, take these. These documents prove that you've bought them. They're yours now,” the seller said, chuckling in delight. He failed to notice the cold glint in Bai Lingmiao’s eyes.

Dum-dum-da-da-dum~

Bai Lingmiao chanted under her breath as the Second Deity slowly slipped into a dark alleyway while beating a drum.

“I know you hate people like him, so don’t worry. He won’t live to see tomorrow,” Bai Lingmiao said, patting Chun Xiaoman’s hand.

“Thank you,” Chun Xiaoman said, putting away the bell into her sleeve.

“No need to thank me,” replied Bai Lingmiao. Then, she turned around and swept her gaze across the hungry children. They weren’t exactly good-looking, and they were of bad health as well, with crooked teeth and swollen wounds here and there.

The stronger ones among them had already been sold. These children were the remaining weaker ones among the seller's recent batch of slaves. Thankfully, Bai Lingmiao didn’t really care about their looks; she just needed people.

“Everyone, don’t be scared. I’ve decided to buy you because my village has many plots of land, and I need more farmers to work for me. You just have to give me forty percent of the harvest; you can keep the sixty percent."

The children’s eyes lit up. They were mere stepchildren, so they weren't supposed to be qualified to obtain even a tenth of a harvest, much less sixty percent. It seemed that they were lucky enough to stumble upon a kind stepmother.

"Let's go. Cowheart Mountain is far, so we still have a long journey ahead of us," Bai Lingmiao said, hopping onto the carriage directly. The children followed closely behind her.

One of the girls with a mole at the corner of her lips could no longer endure her hunger and said, "S-stepmother, can you provide us with some food before we continue? We only had a sip of porridge yesterday. We just need a bit of food—a small handful of rice will do."

The seller was truly unscrupulous and had provided them only with the minimum amount of food to save money.

"What do you mean 'a small handful of rice'? If you're going to eat, anyway, you'd best eat until you're full!" Bai Lingmiao replied, tossing a big bag of dry rations.

Chun Xiaoman smiled. Miaomiao had become fierce and hot-tempered, but she was still as kind as ever.

The children couldn't contain their excitement upon seeing the guokui and the meat inside the bag. They wasted no time and started eating with relish.

"Hey, move! Let me eat first!" Lu Xiucai exclaimed, squeezing in among the children and stuffing four guokuis into Tao'er's arms before grabbing a handful of meat jerky for himself.

While chewing his food, Lu Xiucai turned to Bai Lingmiao inside the carriage and said, "Mistress, these children are quite the unruly bunch. How about you let me teach them manners along the way?"

Lu Xiucai had long gotten used to calling Bai Lingmiao "Mistress" after calling her that a few times earlier in the day.

Lu Xiucai had truly learned a valuable lesson from Bai Lingmiao. Without enough strength, there wasn't anything he could do. Lu Xiucai had learned to act weak whenever necessary to profit. It wasn't like he'd die if he pretended like he was weak.

"No, you're useless. You can't even hide your dissatisfaction toward me."

Lu Xiucai panicked and hurriedly said, "Mistress! How could I be dissatisfied with you? You're my master's wife as well, so there's no way I'd do anything untoward to you."

"Makes sense. Li Huowang will make you wish for death if you dare to do anything to me."

Lu Xiucai felt a shiver down his spine at Bai Lingmiao's remark, and the bloody scenes that popped up in his mind made it impossible for him to swallow the jerky in his mouth.

Bai Lingmiao leaned against the carriage window and looked down. "Are you content with staying useless forever? If not, then I have some techniques for you to learn. Do you want to give them a try?"

Lu Xiucai looked up at Bai Lingmiao and recalled the fateful night when that blind killed those men as if taking candy from a baby. Lu Xiucai soon found himself nodding profusely. Hmph! How dare she look down on me. She even called me "useless" not knowing that the reason I'm so weak is that I'm just unlucky. If given a chance, however, I can definitely become stronger than Li Huowang!

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