The rustling of chains could be heard.
In front of the chained young boy that is merely 15 years old was a large lady. She had jewelry that covered her entire body as if to tell everyone how shallow she was. However, Soru knew how much wealth truly didn't matter in this world. After all, in a world of cultivation, where there are people with the strength of titans, what power did money give you in the face of actual power?
"Ara ara~" The lady's voice was grating to the hear no matter how sexy she tried to muster. "Such a pretty face," She licked her lips in anticipation, "I can't wait until you grow up Soru."
Soru shivered in discomfort feeling like his body was being violated with her wandering gaze.
He looked up to the woman with a fierce and unwavering expression. It was as if he was a completely different person than the shy and cute boy she bought at the auction.
The woman couldn't help but freeze in fear feeling like she was getting stabbed by his gaze alone.
That only lasted for a second. By the next second, she was disguised at herself for showing fear to this deaf brat and immediately slapped him across the face. She hit him with all her strength fueled by anger. A red mark emerged from his cheek but he didn't give her any satisfaction by flinching in pain.
"Know your place scum! I only bought you for the potential of your face! If you don't behave, it looks like I will have another eager visitor to my torture chamber!"
Despite knowing that the boy could not hear her, she kept yelling her ears off. But she was indeed true, his face was the epitome of youthful vigor. He had black silky hair and brown eyes that seemed to pierce the soul. If it weren't for the fact that he was crippled from birth, his life would have been smoother than a sail.
He wasn't born in a wealthy family and because he was deaf at birth, his family mainly ignored him giving him basic necessities while pouring all their hope in his younger brother. He was their only hope in a competent successor to their family.
At first, the two brothers were close as brothers could be. With the younger one translating and teaching the other what he has been learning, Soru didn't lag behind in his studies at all. Once his parents found out about their close relationship, however, they filled the younger child to the brim with lies and deceit to stew hatred for his brother's disability.
"Why do you have to teach your brother something that you already know? It will just slow you down!
"I don't even think he had said thank you once! Look at how ungrateful he is that you are doing your best to help him!"
Being in this world, unless one paid an enormous sum to fix his injury, he would stay like that forever. With a barrier of sound limiting him, it was hard for him to cultivate properly and gain recognition.
However, even after giving all their resources to his younger brother, he was barely able to stay ahead of his peers. Sometimes, you can only do so much only to get limited by your talent. And that was what was happening to him.
At the time, Soru chuckled at the situation. After so long of him being ignored and abused, it looked like God was giving him some satisfaction in his shitty situation. Even towards his brother who over the few recent years mocked and harmed him completely changing from the cute, innocent boy he knew. It looked like that didn't go unnoticed to his parents who caught him laughing at their blight.
His parent's emotions finally exploded showing their true natures. Before this, it wasn't as if they hated Soru but lamented his uselessness. It was this pent-up feeling that made his parents come to the rash decision to sell him off as a slave.
In their eyes, this was him finally doing something useful. With his rather enticing face, his value rose encouraging the scum of the city to bid higher. His parents didn't look at the buyers raising the price consecutively in disgust but with joy. In their eyes, this money would be put in his younger brother's resource fund. Maybe it would even help him over his wall and ahead of the curve.
Until the end, when he was bought, they had no regrets. Any leftover feelings were quickly erased when the bag of money was placed in their lap.
It was quite a pitiful situation but Soru could do nothing about it. Normally, only people in debt, prisoners of war, or the like were slaves. The city would interfere when a child was put in an auction but didn't this time. Why? It was quite obvious. It was because he was a cripple. If a person can't even voice their gratitude, why even bother?
Even normal humans who didn't follow the path of cultivation had a purpose. As someone who struggled both with regular life and cultivation, he was labeled as a subhuman. With no real outstanding quality that would save him, the city ignored what happened to him in the auction house.
The rarity of being a cripple was great. Sometimes, slaves were as rotten as the people who buy them. As he was spending a night before he would get picked up by his buyer, the slave in the cage next to him heard about his condition.
Slaves naturally didn't want to get sold and be used, but the veterans would do anything to leave their slime-filled cages. Fueled with jealously that Soru was bought swiftly and was going to be ushered to his rich buyer's manor to be used as a boy toy, the person in the cage next to him grabbed him by the neck.
He choked him out, grinning insanely as he did, until Soru's limp body stopped struggling. The other slaves watched the fight happen with lifeless eyes, not caring that someone was going to die right before them. The guards finally checked on the ruckus and escorted the assailant out, likely putting him down like the dog he was.
During this time, Soru actually died and was replaced by a new soul. One that admonished Soru's timidness and swore to use Soru's body to reach the top despite his crippleness.
---
They soon arrived at the mansion where multiple people dressed in formal attire greeted them at the entrance. One can tell they didn't respect this lady but kept the image up by joyfully greeting her return. She ate all of that up like a sponge.
"Welcome Madam Cherry, I see you got another catch!"
"Madam Cherry, we missed your return!"
His new master, which was appropriately named Madam Cherry, instantly went up the stairs and into what could be assumed to be her bedroom.
"Come with me."
A handsome male with blue hair beckoned out to him. A notable feature was his slave collar on his neck matching his own. A red light was beeping on the front indicating that the bomb in the collar was armed and ready to explode whenever the master decided.
"This will be your quarters, get settled in and tomorrow, report to the Madam so she can inspect you."
The butler showed him a piece of paper as if he was ready for his arrival and condition. Leaving him in the room he was staying in, he promptly left to assumingly attend to his Master in another room.
'I will use this place to my advantage and somehow figure out how to reverse my condition. Then I will break out and gain strength in this limitless world!'
'...'
'God I sound like a loser. I swear I will never think something like that again.'
The soul that resided in Soru's body clenched his fist in anticipation. A brand new world! How could one not get excited? But this wasn't like rainbows and sunshine like other fantasy worlds people like to portray. A glint flashed in his eyes as he remembered Soru's memories.
'The first step is to adapt to the world around you or get left behind. Since this world does not care about me, I will take the same approach.'
Being deaf was a new experience for him. Losing one of his five senses was something he had to get used to but after noticing how his other senses were enhanced, he didn't think too bad of it. He particularly liked how with his slightly enhanced eyes, he could see places and people in much better detail.
However as he was thinking this, he noticed that a particular wooden plank was shrouded in an emptiness that sucked in all light. The plank was pitch black, like the emptiness of space was concentrated on that one plank.
'Was that there before?'
Soru pulled on the plank, surprised at how easy it was. When he looked at the plank in his hands, his face was full of confusion.
The plank broke! In his hands was half of the mystical plank and he started sweating. Soon the plank's unique disposition started to dissipate like it never was there.
He wanted to speak to whoever was playing a prank on him before he saw that the other plank still was radiating the unique emptiness as before. Hurriedly, he picked it up like it was jade and started to rub it along his face.
'Surely this plank is a mystic item of some sort! With this plank, I shall face the world! I can imagine it now, whacking people on the face with a plank. Ah, the bliss...'
However, as to his dismay, the plank started to revert to its original color like the previous half.
Thinking about it a little more, he threw the two halves of a plank into a corner and started to investigate the floor below the plank.
Much to his delight, there he found a piece of golden metal beckoning him with familiarity. Feeling a strange connection to the metal, he picked it up and started to study it.
It had a smooth round edge until it hit a jagged line that ripped through to the other side of it. Like a coin but was somehow ripped apart like a piece of paper.
On one side of the coin where it was smooth, the letter Y could be seen clearly. Like the plank it was hiding under, it was devouring light around it displaying its pitch darkness to his eyes.
Soon, his vision also faded into darkness.