The Science of Cultivation-Chapter 227: Kidnapped

Cold winds battering against his cheeks. That was the feeling that Wei Ping woke up to. However, it was only when he opened his eyes that he began to realize the situation he was in.

He was being carried on someone’s shoulder, like a sack of potatoes. The dense foliage rapidly passed below him. It only took a few moments for Wei Ping to go through the last things he remembered. He had been caught in some sturdy vines and had fallen off the Skyrunner in his struggle to break free.

While the fall had hurt, he was still conscious after it. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t all he had to deal with. A large group of deviators lurked around the nearby trees, and one of them noticed his descent. While they didn’t dare to carelessly approach their targets, as they’d proven their strength, a lone straggler was a different story.

It didn’t take long for this deviator to notice Wei Ping was still a mortal, and they hastened their actions because of it. To them, he was easy pickings! They threw caution to the wind and whisked the poor man away. The kidnapper wasn’t going to share his spoils with his companions, so he immediately summoned his Skyrunner and escaped from the area.

“It must be my lucky day,” the man muttered. “It appears this feed practices orthodox techniques! What a pleasant surprise.”

It was these words that had roused Wei Ping. He soon realized he had been captured by a deviator and not a weak one, so he judged it too dangerous to take any arbitrary action. Instead, he faked unconsciousness while focusing on the Tracing Origin Art he implanted on his friends to gauge their location.

His kidnapper was in the Foundation Establishment Realm, albeit in the early stage, but he still had to play his cards carefully. The best-case scenario was to wait for his companions. Mortals were just too weak in the face of a true cultivator.

They’re moving towards me!

After some time, Wei Ping finally relaxed a little when he noticed his companions had started to head in his direction. It meant they had overcome their ordeal and were now in hot pursuit.

He calmly waited and waited, but unfortunately, before they could arrive, his captor arrived at his destination. They went into some underground cave and the presence of many other cultivators could be felt. In order not to risk discovery, Wei Ping didn’t even dare to open his eyes.

He allowed himself to be carried around until he was thrown into a cell. He waited until his captor had left before he dared to scour his surroundings.

A musty wooden smell hijacked his senses, and it only took one glance for him to know he was placed in a cell. The wooden bars appeared sturdy thanks to its enchantment, blocking his only escape path.

Beside him were other cells, but they were all empty.

Just as he was getting comfortable, two sets of footsteps could be heard. He immediately got back on the ground, assuming the same position he had been left in.

“Is this it? Just one?” a soprano-like voice rang out from one of the men.

“Yuan Kai, I know you’re in desperate need of human feed. Just this one may be enough for you to finally break through. Just because I’ve known your master for so long, I’m willing to transfer him to you for the price of two Earth-grade feeds with a wood affinity.”

“Listen to yourself. You want to trade this meager Mortal-grade feed for two Earth-grade ones? Have you lost your mind?”

“I don’t haggle. We both know human feed has become increasingly hard to come by in recent times thanks to those sword freaks. You either take the deal or I go find other buyers.”

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“That—I’ll have to ask my master first.”

“Ha! I know him well enough to know he won’t mind if you make a decision on such a small transaction like this. If you need more time to think, then I’d rather negotiate with someone more willing.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll let you rob me this one time, but I don’t think we have two Earth-grade feeds with such a specific affinity on hand. I’ll pay you back in a few days. In fact, I should be able to pay you back tomorrow as long as my breakthrough succeeds.”

The man with a soprano-like voice walked toward Wei Ping’s cell with a perverted look on his face. He was literally salivating as he approached his next victim.

“Leave me one of your artifacts as collateral, then,” the other man said as he pulled his customer back.

“So stingy. Will my Skyrunner do? This way, you can be sure I won’t be escaping, right? Just give me the key already!”

“Here. He’s all yours.”

Wei Ping tensed, struggling with an inner turmoil between the ideas of fighting back or continuing to feign unconsciousness. He knew his allies were on their way, so taking action now may thwart their plans, but he also didn’t want to allow this demonic cultivator to have free rein over his life.

Eventually, his logical side won, and he remained still as a rock. Instead of being directly carried this time, the man took out a sack from somewhere and threw him into it. He then slung the bag over his shoulders and got on his way.

They didn’t go far. Through the tiny gaps in the sack, Wei Ping was able to make out a few things. A rough layout of this underground settlement and the position of various people they came across, and they weren’t few in numbers.

His new captor soon arrived at one of the many side tunnels, where a door curtain was used in place of a door.

Inside, he passed by a messy bedroom and was forced through a small hatch in the ground. Despite only being a level down, the putrid smell of decay was overwhelming. It wasn’t long before he was thrown out of the sack.

However, his new captor was much more thorough than his predecessor. He patted Wei Ping down for his possessions with well-practiced movements. He smoothly snatched the space ring off Wei Ping’s finger. He then used some sturdy rope to tie up Wei Ping’s limbs together. Once he was satisfied, he brought his new trophy, Wei Ping’s space ring, up for a closer look.

“Hmm, it’s going to cost a lot to get someone to open this,” he grumbled.

Wei Ping didn’t dare react to this blatant act of thievery or turn his head around to survey his new surroundings. The only thing he saw was the rotten hay lying in front of him. From what he saw, the layout wasn’t all that much different from the dungeon he had just come from, except with worse conditions. One other thing soon stood out to him. He could hear people nearby! Someone was coughing up a storm in one of the nearby cells.

Whoever his captor was, it appeared he heard it as well, and he wasn’t a fan of it. He charged out of Wei Ping’s cell and yelled loudly at his other captives.

“I told you people to be quiet. Do you think you get to choose which of my words you get to follow? No! You follow them or you follow them.”

He had sensed his new owner was only in the Energy Gathering Realm, like him, but from their conversations, there was a more powerful master that was lurking around. That was why he obediently allowed the man to restrain him instead of trying to break free.

Unable to move his limbs freely, Wei Ping carefully rolled his body around to sneak a peek at his new surroundings. There were a few silhouettes in the other cells.

How many people did this Yuan Kai capture or buy? There must be at least a dozen people down here.

He turned just in time to witness the man in question enter the cell a few cells down, where a scruffy man lay on his side. His captor proceeded to mercilessly kick the man again and again until he quieted down. He then grabbed hold of his forehead, causing his victim to scream out in agony. After some time, the man went completely limp as streams of blood leaked out from his orifices.

The man had evidently passed out, or worse!

The horrific scene matched the stories Wei Ping had heard since childhood about how evil demonic cultivators would suck their victims dry of their cultivation. It made him break out in a cold sweat as he realized he could be the next victim.

He was confident in being able to resist this Yuan Kai, but not while restrained like this. Even if he could move freely, he knew there was no way he was escaping from all the people he spotted along the way here. The gap between mortals and true cultivators was just too large for him to even consider the possibility of outrunning these demonic brutes.

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This—Boss and the group better hurry up, Wei Ping thought as he sighed to himself. There’s nothing a pathetic mortal like me can do in this situation but wait.