Since he was determined to monopolize this place, he naturally wouldn't leave such an obvious weak point like him alive. He was a ruthless businessman and nothing was going to stand in the way of his fortune. He had no family not because of some tragic accident, nor was he born to a single mother who died after birth.
He had no family because they got in the way.
When he was starting his 'business' he needed capital that he alone didn't have, but his father did. At first he tried to speak with him, but after hearing how his son intended to make money, he was disgusted and exiled him.
Since that was a fruitless effort, Pig was left with no choice but to get rid of him. With his recently gained cultivation he easily overpowered his father and in one fell swoop dealt with him, his mother and his little sister, making off with the money and investing it into his 'business'.
Using that he quickly made massive amounts of money and lived like it. He lived too long like that to suddenly lose it all and something like the life of a beggar wasn't going to stop him.
The two of them made their way through the caves and walked into a giant cavern. It was extremely tall and wide, but with his vision, Pig could see that there was another tunnel on the other side and the both of them made their way to it, seemingly unaware that not too far away from them sat a man, unmoving for who knew how long.
Pig may barely be considered an apprentice, but he was still one. His vision in low light was better than that of ordinary people and if he couldn't see such a massive hole then he would be an even bigger embarrassment.
James followed Pig as they quickly passed through even more caves and numerous caverns. This place was extremely hot, and it only got worse the further down he went, so he had to quickly find the bottom and then get out.
He was sweating like… well a pig, but he was hopeful that whatever it was that was the source of this heat could be used to deal with his little follower, the bags were already full so he served his purpose and Pig would carry the bags up himself. While he should be able to easily overpower such a young child as a cultivator, even if he was the weakest of the weak, he was nowhere near confident enough.
Not for nothing was the boy carrying hundreds of pounds while still carrying a light stick, sometimes scaling down vertical walls tens of meters high with one hand.
Even back then he had to ambush his father to actually deal with him, so one on one combat with this boy was him seeking his death. He was lucky that even though strong, he was still young.
All his life he was warned not to mess with cultivators of any level so after hearing that Pig was one of them he wasn't going to try anything, not that he wasn't going to defend himself if push came to shove.
The two of them traveled for weeks as they finally walked into what they could only describe as hell.
In front of them there was a massive cavern, big enough for even Gandri town to fit inside many times over.
All around this massive space there were many dilapidated houses made out of these mana stones of various sizes, but in the very center there was a massive mountain.
On that mountain there was an enormous temple with a golden depiction of the Sun on the very top, which the two of them couldn't identify as there was no sun in the new world. Just a light source every few hundred million yan that would flicker off and on simulating night and day.
This would have looked like an imposing ancient site, but its majesty was ruined by the hundreds of millions of ants that littered its area.
"Eep"
The young James couldn't help himself and made a noise, attracting the attention of all of them. He had been in a few street fights, but nothing that he had experienced could compare to this.
With absolutely no hesitation, Pig pushed James forward and bolted back into the caves. This was the fastest he had ever run in his entire life and even if his body was begging for help he wouldn't listen to it.
At first he was scared shitless at the sight and decided that he had to abandon this mine unless he wanted to lose his life. But after remembering that the beggar boy would die and there would be no witnesses he immediately gained a cheery attitude.
With no witnesses he could find a few allies and come back one day in the future, with only a few stones from the very surface he could easily convince a few practitioner tier cultivators to help him clear this place out. He would lose out on most of these stones but some was better than nothing.
Even in his wildest dreams he could never imagine that the weakest amongst these ants were at the ascended tier, leagues above him.
He made it through the cave when he encountered another person. It was too dark to properly see who they were, but he had no doubt that they were a normal person. A powerful cultivator would have a very discernible presence that this person didn't have, and they couldn't be a mage because he had no staff or wand with him.
These things and similar magic tools were the mage equivalent of artifacts for cultivators and similarly they couldn't be stored in spatial bags or rings.
Since he determined this to be a normal person, he had no hesitation with his attack. He must have followed them into this place or wandered here by himself, either way he was just another witness that needed to be silenced.
He jumped at him with a palm attack which quickly hit his target.
'Scared shitless.' Is what he would have thought since his target didn't move if his entire arm didn't immediately explode.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Oye, Oye Oye. The f*ck did I do to you?" The man he hit was naturally Ray. He had coincidentally just finished refining his body, even though it took him 6 more months than he expected.
That was much longer than he anticipated, but instead of the original goal of just refining his bones, he completed it all the way to the Empyrean stage. From the crown of his head to the solos of his feet and every single cell in between, all of it was similar to that of a peak stage grandmaster tier artifact.
It was no wonder that Pig's arm exploded. If Ray released the might of his body as an artifact then not only his arm, but his entire being would have simply vanished.
Ray could turn him into ash in less than a second and even if he was the one being attacked, that power difference wouldn't just vanish.
With a wave of a hand, Ray levitated his body and locked it into place. Pig wanted to protest, but a combination of the pain and beast pressure he couldn't even move.
"You wait right here, I have a few questions to ask you."
With another wave of a hand, the mangled body of a boy came flying to him. Grown sun eater chima don't need to eat regular food, and the body of a young boy wouldn't be enough to tempt them to try, but the younger ones that are not big enough to absorb enough of the special mana and light do eat to supplement their diet.
If the larger ones tried, he would be swallowed whole in one go.
Seeing the state of the boy, especially his clothes, he felt sad. He was barely wearing anything and it wasn't the fault of the chima, even when they passed by him a few weeks ago he was only wearing a few cloth scraps around his waist.
Ray's eyes may have been closed, but that didn't mean that he wasn't aware of his surroundings. After the first six months he divided his attention into refining his body as well as keeping a lookout so he naturally saw when the two of them entered, passed by him and even when Pig pushed James into the crowd.
He sympathized with the young boy.
He put two and two together and figured out that his situation must have been similar to his own. Parents were out of the picture and with no family or friends to take care of he was forced to provide for himself.
He healed his body as he turned around to question Pig.