"BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG"
One hundred teenagers wielding hammers were striking furiously at pieces of metals in front of them. Beads of sweat poured from their entire bodies, but their eyes remained focused on their tasks.
"Faster!" A stout man yelled, exuding a fearsome aura. The bodies of the workers near him shook, and their strikes became even faster.
A savage grin permeated his face as he noticed their docile expressions. His hands suddenly gripped the whip strewn across his shoulders and flung forward.
It landed on one of the boys, squarely across his back. He didn't make a sound and just continued striking away. Nobody paid any attention to him as the man continued to fling his whip at him again and again as if intent on making him beg for mercy.
"PA, PA, PA" Old whip marks that were partially healed burst open, making his back a complete mess. Some of the blood stained the ground.
"You have stained this king's floor with your filthy blood?" A cold chuckle escaped his lips. The boy still continued striking with the hammer, his whole body quivering with each strike. Beside him, the other boys did their best to avoid coming in close proximity with the supervisor. It was a well-known fact that once a month, he came to supervise in person and always handpicked an unlucky victim. Signs of defiance would only warrant more punishments, so they put in more effort in their work.
The unfortunate boy was whipped heavily and blood gushed from his wounds. At some point, the force from the whip threw him to the floor. This action seemed to send the whip wielder into a frenzy, making him whip him even more heavily. Finally, the stout supervisor took one last look and left.
After he left, the boys continued their work in silence. Only one person went to meet him.
"Kong Xiang!" The person tried to help him up. Surprisingly, it was a girl dressed as a boy worker. She gave off a sharp and domineering aura.
Kong Xiang lay on the floor, next to his fellow workers. He could hear Li Luo's worried voice and struggled to get up but his whole body was limb and heavy and refused to obey his commands.
Li Luo lifted him up and placed him near a heap of rocks and metal pieces. She took over his portion and hammered for two, telling him to recuperate and gain some energy first.
Feeling his malnourished body lose blood, Kong Xiang worriedly calculated today's wages and concluded it wouldn't be able to cover the cost of getting proper nutritious meals for recuperation.
The puddle of blood which flowed from Kong Xiang's back happened to flow to a particular stone which gleamed for the briefest second. Almost immediately, a terrifying aura spread out from the stone and enveloped everyone else.
An unremarkable rock, all bloody and jagged cracked open, revealing a smaller sphere shimmering in golden lights that enveloped Kong Xiang. Under the lights, all the injuries on his back from the whip lashing closed up. Contrarily, under the suppression of that aura, everyone else was frozen on the spot.
The lights pervaded Kong Xiang's body thoroughly, and his previously sickly body seemed to regain vitality and became robust and healthy. If a cultivator had been present to see the scene, they would have been very surprised to see a mortal undergo a full body cleansing in an instant.
Humans are born with a pure body, but start to gain impurities immediately after. For mortals, these impurities accumulate and shorten lifespan at best, but for cultivators of the Divine way, impurities reduce cultivation speed and the quality of talent.
Although breaking through new realms expel these impurities bit by bit, those with lower impurities have a higher starting point than others with higher bodily impurities. Of course, this could be remedied by consuming the legendary cleansing pill, but these were rare and usually reserved for core geniuses in sects.
Kong Xiang opened his eyes just as the golden lights receded and stretched his hand in time to catch the falling sphere.
Li Luo and the others were now released from the previous suppression. They stared at Kong Xiang and their eyes widened in shock.
"How is this possible?" The voice came from one of the boys. His fervent gaze made Kong Xiang nervous and he gripped the sphere more tightly. Even as a mortal, he knew that the existence of treasures only invited trouble and nothing else.
The other boys moved closer to Kong Xiang as if he was a wild beast. Kong Xiang felt this was strange, as their gazes had never reached the sphere, not even once.
'Could it be they can't see it?' he thought. The sphere was still shining with a golden light but it seemed none of the other people present could see it. He looked at the sphere and wondered if it was possible to hide it. As if perceiving his intentions, the solid sphere turned into a beam of light and vanished into his glabella.
"ARGHH" he held his head a beat later. Subconsciously, he fell down on the metal pile. In his pain, he didn't notice that the sharp pieces failed to pierce his skin. Li Luo was moving to reach him when he stood up again.
At this point, all the workers were confused at the series of events. Firstly, Kong Xiang was whipped and beaten by their evil supervisor. Next, he was left bleeding and on the floor. Suddenly, he was on his feet with all his wounds healed up and his shrivelled body now somehow robust with vitality. Next thing, he held his head, fell to the ground and stood up again. Everybody felt something was amiss.
"Why do you look so different?" the same boy queried, asking the question on everyone's mind.
Kong Xiang was no fool and figured none of them knew what had happened, so the secret of the sphere was known to him only. His mind whirled to come up with a satisfactory reply.
"He ate a blood fruit." Li Luo said. Everybody turned to her, Kong Xiang included. "I was fortunate to come across three of those fruits, and I gave him one to eat the day before yesterday."
She continued calmly, "The fruit is supposed to show effects and replenish the consumer's blood and vitality over a couple of days, but I guess it showed a hastened effect just now under the stimulation of the whipping."
"Where are the other two fruits?" an older worker asked excitedly.He took a menacing step forward.
"I ate one."
"Uh...Did you eat the last one?"
"No."
"Give it to me."
"Why should I?"
"Because.." The boy froze. Indeed, she had no reason to give it to him. The boy resorted to public support. "Consuming a blood fruit can make the previously malnourished Kong Xiang robust just like that, Even if all of us are able to get just a tiny piece to eat..." he smacked his lips, a cunning glint in his eyes.
The other boys took the bait and were all riled up. Soon, they were all clamouring for Li Luo to give them the other fruit to consume. She looked at them in disdain. Behind her, Kong Xiang's abnormality was totally ignored.
"What is going on here?" the boys turned to see Old Man Ba's frowning countenance. They all scrambled back to work. Kong Xiang and Li Luo followed suit. Old Man Ba frowned and wrinkled his nose at the blood on the ground.
"Half wages for everyone today."
Everyone shot a murderous look at Kong Xiang who they thought to be the calamitous star of today's unfortunate wage reduction. Kong Xiang, on the other hand, was lost in his own thoughts about the mysterious sphere.