The Samsara Sect was the ruling cultivation sect on Five Lands Star, which was one of ten thousand stars in the star system.
Unlike Khan's original universe, there was no science and technology in this world, only cultivation. The cosmic layout was also different; planets were simple celestial objects almost exclusively inhabited by mortals and weaker cultivators, whilst the bulk of civilisation existed on stars. These stars were unlike the stars in Khan's old universe - they were formed from an energy called 'origin energy'. Although seas of devastating chaos covered most of the surface, there were also islands and continents of land which allowed life to thrive.
This huge scale was beyond Khan's reach for now though.
After he died, he reincarnated into the Samsara Sect, a sect that operated by locating deceased mortals who had reincarnated. Then sect dragged the souls of these people onto Five Lands Star with their memories intact. The sect took these individuals in as disciples.
The sect was covered in mystery, but rumour had it that a massive formation covered the entire 'origin star', assuring that any such reincarnators would only rebirth onto this very origin star.
Again, all of this was far from Khan's reach, he only knew about these things through word of rumour away, so he didn't know how reliable this information was in the first place. All he knew was that after he died, he was reborn as a baby to a poor mortal family who lived within a small village. He spent his first few years of life just trying to work out what the hell had happened, but in the end, he was sought out by the Samsara Sect at the age of five. This was apparently the age that the sect was able to locate the reincarnated mortals from other worlds.
He was taken from his mortal village after his parents were told that he was being taken to become an immortal. They wanted what was best for their child, whilst Khan didn't feel much for these people in the first place. Rather, he was simply curious to find out more about this 'cultivation sect'.
Ten years passed by, and he had established himself within the sect. Whether or not that was a good thing however…
"Look, it's senior disciple Khan!"
"I heard that after cultivating for only ten years, he already reached the Vital Life Realm as a Body Temperer!"
"It's true. He has no talent as a Qi Refiner, but he's cultivating the Primordial Body Tempering Path and reached the Vital Life Realm already! This sort of talent in Body Tempering is basically unheard of!"
"He's a genius for sure, after all, he does possess the legendary 5-Star Samsara Soul that only appears once every 10,000 years, but…"
"Yeah…his personality is a bit…"
"He's a degenerate."
"Right."
Khan overheard these disciples talking about him as he walked past. He paused, then smiled towards them and waved.
"Junior disciples sure know a lot about me, huh?"
"Gah, he heard us!"
The trio immediately sprinted off after realising that they'd attracted Khan's attention. He blinked and shrugged, then went on his way as he continued to whistle happily.
"Word sure spreads fast around here." Khan smiled to himself.
Everything they said was true, he had indeed achieved the Vital Life Realm as a Body Temperer recently. This was the second cultivation realm in the Primordial Body Tempering Path, following on from the Body Transformation Realm.
More importantly, it proved to others that he had definitely increased his Soul Realm to Rank 2. The soul was the foundation of power for a cultivator, one's attainment in Qi Refining or Body Tempering depended on the power of the soul.
To reach the Rank 2 Soul Realm by age 15 was phenomenal, and cultivating his body to reach the equivalent level was even more impressive.
Cultivating from a young age was much slower than cultivating after reaching maturity. However, developing this foundation when young would increase one's future potential.
Body Tempering, this path, commonly abbreviated from its full title, the 'Primordial Body Tempering Path', was much less common than the Qi Refining Path. Almost everyone trained as a Qi Refiner, but only 1% of people would try to become Body Temperers too. Body Tempering was much more difficult than Qi Refining…for most people, anyway. Khan thought that it was pretty easy.
Sure, it was a bit painful since the only affordable Body Tempering technique involved a sort of self-torture, but it didn't require any sort of talent, only endurance and will power. Ever since discovering that he had trash for talent as a Qi Refiner, he immediately gave up and switched to the Body Tempering Path, since it didn't rely on talent, only pure will power and resilience.
And Khan certainly had the will to improve. After coming to this world, he didn't learn much for the first five years in that mortal peasant village. After coming to the 108th Samsara Branch Sect though, he quickly learned all about this world, and about 'cultivation'.
Cultivation was a method that was said to be developed by an ancient mortal race similar to humanity. This practise allowed them to grow more powerful and increase their lifespan by training either their body or their internal energy. Each of these powers could only be developed if the soul was of sufficient strength though. Every stage of improvement in Qi Refining and Body Tempering increased a person's personal power…
In this world, an individual could wipe out an army with a single snap of their fingers if they were strong enough!
At higher cultivation realms, life-span also increased drastically.
A world where he could become powerful and live for longer…wasn't this basically just everything he had ever wanted?!
Cultivation, it was such an interesting way to live!
In his first life, Khan had often lamented the fact that life was only temporary, and that he couldn't truly live 'freely', because his actions would always have consequences. But through cultivation, he could become strong enough to deal with the consequences, and he could live for countless years as he enjoyed even more of this life!
"The soul is the true foundation of a person's cultivation, but it's difficult for others to see through your Soul Realm, whilst just relying on the Soul Realm doesn't provide much of a benefit to one's strength. I reached the Rank 2 Soul Realm years ago, but it's only now that I have also reached the Vital Life Realm in Body Tempering that people have began to pay attention." Khan mused to himself.
"Master!"
"Hmm?" Khan paused for a moment as he heard a familiar voice. He turned towards the young girl running his way and smiled brightly.
"Oh, hey Hui."
"Master, I've been looking for you all day! Hah…you just left without telling me, you didn't give me any jobs to do or anything, so I didn't know what to do!"
Khan looked down at the 15 year old girl. This young girl with an adorable face, fair blonde hair and bright blue eyes. This girl with cat ears and a tail…he couldn't help but smile again.
After being brought to the Samsara Sect, he quickly came to learn that there were other intelligent races in this world. Their statuses varied wildly across different parts of the star, but at least in this land, Crescent Nation, demi-humans were merely slaves to the human ruling class.
The Samsara Sect was the major ruling power on the star, but the branch sects only took on a subsidiary role when it came to ruling over the local lands. Crescent Nation was actually currently ruled by a royal family known as the Ging Dynasty. The law turning demi-humans into slaves was their doing entirely.
The 108th Samsara Branch Sect existed as a sort of untouchable power that was indisputably above the rest, but they didn't interfere with the governance of the nation.
And as a human from modern earth, Khan naturally felt shocked upon seeing slavery being so prevalent and widely accepted here. After all, this sort of thing was highly disdained and regarded as an inhuman practise in his old life.
Khan almost cried from joy, then bought a slave as soon as he could afford to do so.
Slavery, a barbaric and inhumane practise that degraded living intelligent creatures to mere property…
'Slavery is really amazing, I love this world.' Khan thought. He had this exact thought multiple times each week, ever since he bought Hui as his own personal slave.
He made sure to pick out the most adorable slave possible, but that wasn't all. He chose a slave with talent for cultivation. Since he bought her three years ago, Hui had actually reached the 6th Layer Qi Absorption Realm!
Khan cultivated the Body Tempering Path, but this was a rarity. Pretty much everyone else cultivated the Qi Refining Path. After attaining a Rank 1 Soul, Qi Refiners would then aim to step into the Qi Absorption Realm, of which there were nine layers. Following that, they would then try to develop the Rank 2 Soul, which would allow them to pursue the Profound Roots Realm.
Hui's talent was pretty good actually, but this was difficult to assess until she actually began training properly, which was why the slave traders failed to realise the full extent of her talent. Khan felt like he got a really good deal with this girl.
"Master!" Hui whined helplessly. She had been born a slave, raised a slave, and finally sold to Khan as her master, after she became 'ripe'. She lived under the expectation that she would be treated as a possession, and that she should accept her role willingly.
No matter what, she would do whatever Khan said.
However, she was an intelligent being after all. She had her own consciousness, her own desires…in the past, before she met Khan, she even dreamed of freedom occasionally, despite knowing that it was impossible.
The most she could hope for was a kind and caring master…after finding out that Khan was to be her master, and after overhearing the talk surrounding him as she followed him home that day, she was a bit terrified.
Based on the rumours, her master was a complete degenerate, a sadistic lecher with no regard for anyone but himself!
What, he was only 12 years old, yet he'd already slept with 15 different adult women in the sect, including a sect elder's wife?!
What, he actually laughed as he endured through a full month of torturous punishment, then slept with that elder's wife again as soon as he was released?!
What, he was completely unrestrained in his actions, he started fights regularly, he was actually hated by at least one half of the members of the entire outer sect?!
Naturally, Hui had assumed the worst. Would she be toyed with and thrown away? That would be the worst…a slave without her purity was worthless after all.
However, the reality of what came to be was outside of her expectations. Even today, she still didn't really understand it.
Shockingly, Khan had never tried to sleep with her, not even once.
He often teased her, rubbing her head, pinching her cheeks and sometimes more recently slapping her butt when nobody was around to see, but…he was actually very kind to her. Hui was bewildered by this even after being with Khan for three years. He actually seemed to treat her much better than his fellow sect members!
"Hui, how many times have I told you…if I haven't directly asked you to do something, then you just need to cultivate." Khan sighed and patted her head. She blushed slightly but didn't pull away. She was a slave and therefore legally bound to do her master's bidding…and really, she didn't dislike it…
"But master, I can't possibly use those resources you bought for me! They're all so expensive, nobody would waste those treasures on a slave!" She explained as she walked besides him.
It was true, whilst many people allowed their slaves to cultivate, this was only so that they could develop a more powerful slave, one that could become a bit more useful. They wouldn't waste valuable cultivation resources on a slave, the slave would need to rely on their own natural efforts.
"Those things aren't even that valuable, and they're useless to me anyway. I stole them from that fatty's house whilst he was out. If I try to sell them, then he'll probably find out that it was me who robbed him."
Hui paled slightly.
"M-master, are you talking about Yusef?!"
"Was that his name? Yeah, it might've been something like that." Khan nodded casually.
"B-b-but Yusef is the number 1 ranked disciple in the outer sect! M-master, you, you can't keep robbing people like this!" Hui whispered and looked around fearfully. This master of hers really gave her a headache sometimes, he was like a cleptomaniac, obsessed with robbing people!
And he never chose reasonable targets, it was often someone stronger than himself!
"The outer sect rules don't ban disciples from stealing from each other, which means that it's fine." Khan said with confidence.
'As if master would be stopped just because of some rules…' Hui thought wryly.
"That's not what I mean master. Yusef is at the mid stage of the Profound Roots Realm! There's nobody at this level in the entire outer sect! I heard that he could have entered the inner sect last year, but he hung around just so that he could lord over everyone!" She quickly explained.
Profound Roots Realm…the Profound Roots Realm was the Qi Refining equivalent of Khan's Vital Life Realm. But, Yusef was at the mid stage of his realm, whilst Khan was only at the initial stage.
What Hui said about Yusef staying in the outer sect to lord over others was true, and many people looked down on him for doing this, but nobody dared to call him out on it.
"Yeah, and in doing so he managed to accumulate a lot of resources from all the other disciples. It's a decent plan." Khan laughed. "Only, that fatty actually accumulated so much that he couldn't fit it all into his storage ring…but he's such a cheapskate that he ended up keeping the excess resources under his bed rather than buying a better storage ring, hahaha!"
"Shhh! Master, please try to keep your voice down!" Hui pleaded and grabbed his wrist anxiously. She looked around and only relaxed after confirming that nobody was nearby.
"Aww, is Hui worried about me?" Khan laughed and pinched her cheek.
"M-maybe…" She turned away with a blush. Khan smiled lightly when he saw this adorable reaction.
If he really had made this girl into his sex slave from the first day they met, then there's no way that they would have this sort of relationship. She would probably be mentally traumatised and scarred, becoming a shell of her true self.
Khan didn't want that. To him, having a cute female slave was more than just having an object to release his lust onto…it was about having a companion that he could trust and spend time with pleasantly.
One of the side effects of Khan's sinful personality and lifestyle, was that it caused him to always assume the worst of people. He would never trust another person, because he was all too aware of the extent of human depravity.
The slaves in this world, or at least across Crescent Nation, were bound by more than the law. Slaves were raised and brainwashed from the moment that they were able to understand speech. They were taught their role in the world as if it was simply a fact.
This sort of brainwashing was sufficient to thoroughly suppress most slaves and removed any possibility of rebellious thought or actions, but this wasn't the end. The slaves were branded with a special formation, a formation that bound their body and soul. When someone placed a drop of their blood onto this formation, the slave came under the absolute control of that person.
The formation only had two functions; paralyse or kill. With a simple thought, the master could force the slave to freeze, ceasing all movement immediately. With another thought, the slave could be killed instantly. The paralysing effect would also activate automatically if the slave held any killing intent towards their master. This protected the master from any potential rebellion from their slave, and assured that they could not be killed in their sleep.
It was an absolute control mechanism that all but guaranteed that a slave wouldn't rebel. Khan had heard that there were other, even more strict slavery formations, but they could only be activated by a Qi Refiners using their Profound Qi. The formation on Hui was created by a formations master, a Qi Refiner who specialised in formations, but even a mortal could gain control over the slave with a single drop of blood.
This formation was permanent and couldn't be erased unless Khan died. Until then, Hui was his slave, she was his property by law, both the law of the nation and the law of the formation. Khan could feel the connection between himself and Hui, giving him absolute peace of mind around her. He trusted her, or more accurately, he trusted the formation that restrained her.
Well, looking at this girl right now, he was pretty certain that even without the formation, she would still be a willing slave. The brainwashing from birth was generally enough to train the slaves properly, the formation was just absolute assurance.
"Don't worry Hui, that fatty might not be the number 1 outer sect disciple for much longer." Khan revealed a grin.
"Huh?" She looked up at him blankly, unable to guess the meaning behind his words. However, before she could ask what he meant, they were rudely interrupted.
"Little bastard!"
Hui suddenly stiffened and trembled slightly as a terrifying aura swept past them both.
Khan looked ahead and narrowed his eyes.
"M-master, do you know this woman?" Hui asked anxiously, tightening her grip on his wrist subconsciously.
Khan stared ahead and furrowed his brows.
"I don't think so, but it's hard to keep up sometimes…" He pondered for a moment and racked his brain. He certainly hadn't slept with this woman, she was clearly very powerful, too powerful for him to subdue with his current strength. So then…
"Do you remember Fu Rian?! Because I am her elder sister, Fu Bian, current young leader of the Fu Clan!"
"Master, what did you do to this girl from the Fu Clan?!" Hui cried out. The Fu Clan…was a big deal! They were one of the four major clans in this province, they carried significant influence, even within the inner sect!