Byeon Min-Hee had no reason to be a courtesan.
She's a cultivator with beauty that nobles would desire in a wife or concubine and she has enough money to live comfortably for a hundred years and still have some coins left over.
Yet, she was working as a lowly courtesan where most women here were either sold off by their parents or were raised in the red light district since birth.
Why? What could her circumstances possibly be?
To answer that, we'd have to go back 8 years ago.
This story takes place a few weeks after she reaches the Early-stage Qi Condensation, marking the beginning of her journey as a cultivator.
Only 23 years of age, although she wasn't like those talented kids who awakened in their teens or even as a child, she was still relatively young and had a bright future ahead of her.
But just as her journey was starting, it ended almost immediately.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, bowing and slamming her forehead into the ground so many times that it cracked open and started to bleed.
She looked like a lunatic but at the moment, it was better for her to look like a lunatic than to be complacent with her apology.
Standing in front of her with her shirt stained with noodles and noodle soup was Yi Xiaodan, the (at the time) 4-year-old daughter of Yi Pengfei, the great hero.
Feeling humiliated, disgusted by the way her wet clothes were touching her skin, and angry at what just happened to her, Yi Xiaodan started wailing as a kid her age would.
Before she could beg the child to stop crying, the edge of two spears lightly touched her neck.
"Don't approach the girl," was what the spears were saying to her.
Gulp.
She couldn't move a single centimeter.
She knew that if she moved, she'd die right then and there.
"Young miss, what would you like us to do with this woman? Should I kill her for the crime of assaulting you?" the leader of the group of bodyguards asked the 4-year-old child.
'Assault!? What assault!? All I did was spill my bowl of noodles on her by accident!'
Byeon Min-Hee wanted to scream her thoughts out loud but bit her own tongue and held back.
Silence was her only option for survival.
"Waaaaa! Waaah! My-my shirt! Waaaa!" Yi Xiaodan cried loudly and obnoxiously, grabbing even more attention from the bystanders on the street.
The crowd of a few dozen who had been in the vicinity when the incident initially occurred quickly grew to over a hundred people.
Byeon Min-Hee felt like she was being watched and judged by strangers which made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
Some looked sympathetic to her situation but weren't willing to put their life on the line to help her. Others were more heartless, treating the situation like a play.
'Is this nothing more than entertainment to you people!? I swear... if I get out of this alive, I'm going to become so powerful that all of you will have to bow and kiss my feet!' she pledged to herself.
"What's going on?" asked a deep voice belonging to someone who suddenly appeared out of thin air.
'Yi Pengfei!' Byeon Min-Hee panicked; she didn't know whether to feel relieved or to be terrified because she had never encountered the man before.
She only knew the stories of his heroism that occurred a decade ago.
Was he a kind-hearted cultivator or was he the type of person who didn't care about the lives of others?
'He's a hero so surely... surely he'll forgive my mistake... right?'
She didn't know that his title merely described his achievements and not his personality.
This lack of knowledge was partially on her part. Everyone else in the crowd knew that now that he was here, any chance of getting away scot-free or with minimal loss was gone.
Byeon Min-Hee was clueless about this "common knowledge" because she had been so absorbed in her training, research, and work to fund her training the past few years that any gossip and news came in one ear and out the other ear.
"Daddy!" Yi Xiaodan cried as she ran into her father's legs.
Weeping and turning his pants wet as her tears poured onto him, she was unable to speak at the moment so Yi Pengfei turned to one of the bodyguards.
He already knew what happened because he could hear everything the crowd was whispering but was asking to make sure their words were true.
"The young miss was walking along the street when that girl ran into her, splashing her bowl of cold noodles onto the young miss."
It sounded like an innocent story, a mistake that should've been forgiven with an apology and maybe some financial compensation.
Yi Pengfei picked up his daughter and soothed her tears away by stroking her hair.
Once she gathered herself, he asked her, "Is that true?"
Yi Xiaodan nodded to confirm the bodyguard's story.
"What would you like me to do to that person kneeling over there?"
'!!!'
'He's leaving the decision to his daughter!?'
Byeon Min-Hee felt like someone had grabbed her heart and squeezed it.
She was praying to the heavens and to the little girl that her decision was a benevolent one.
'She's a child... surely she wouldn't—'
Before she could finish her thought, Yi Xiaodan responded to her father, "Daddy, I heard that there's a place called the red light district."
'Red light district? No!' Byeon Min-Hee picked up her body in shock at what she just heard and was about to stand up when a pressure suddenly appeared and pressed her back to the ground.
"I won't question where you heard of the place but why are you mentioning it?" Yi Pengfei asked.
Compared to a few seconds ago when she resembled any other child who was easy to tears, Yi Xiaodan responded and looked like someone years more mature beyond their age.
"I heard that it's a place where the lowest women and slaves work. Daddy, could you send her there?"
At that moment, it felt like her world had just shattered into a million pieces.
Her aspirations, dreams of being someone, even her childish desire to get revenge on everyone in the crowd — all of that disappeared in a snap.
"Okay," Yi Pengfei said.
"Wait I—" Byeon Min-Hee was unable to open her mouth any further as if someone had stitched it shut.
'No no no! No, please! Please let this be a dream! No! Noooooooo!'
She was unable to resist as she was dragged by her hair and was brought to the red light district in the span of mere moments.
Yi Pengfei released her hair and removed the restraints he placed on her body and mouth.
Immediately, Byeon Min-Hee slammed her head to the floor.
Even though she felt stunned, she begged, "Please don't do this. Please, please! I'm sorry! I'm sorry that I committed a sin against your daughter! I'm sorry for my lowly existence! Please, just forgive this foolish one once and I promise I'll repay the favor."
"..."
Nothing. Yi Pengfei didn't say a single word.
She looked up amid the silence and felt chills crawl up her spine.
The look in Yi Pengfei's eyes was almost emotionless. She had noticed it before when he was inquiring about what happened but shook it off because there were other priorities at that time.
He didn't look angry, offended, or seemed to care much about what he was doing.
It was almost as if he was doing something for the sake of doing it rather than because he wanted to do it.
"Choose. Die... or make a soul-binding contract with me," Yi Pengfei told her.
"...W-What? No I-I can't do—"
He began counting down, each number sounding more ominous than the last, "5, 4, 3, 2—"
Left with no option as she could already feel her head about to come off her neck, she shouted in desperation, "Soul-binding contract! That option! I'll... I'll do it!"
That's the story of how Byeon Min-Hee became a slave bonded to Yi Pengfei and the only command he gave her before disappearing from her life forever was to serve as a courtesan at the red light district until the day she died.
So although Byeon Min-Hee had no reason to work at the courtesan, she didn't have a choice.
The instant she even has the thought of leaving, the feeling of her head being split and her organs being eaten from the inside knocked her down to her knees.
She was completely helpless to the command and had no way of disobeying it let alone removing the soul-binding contract.
Her only option was to wait for the owner of the contract to die.
But it was a million times more likely for her to kick the bucket first before that powerful cultivator whose lifespan was numerous times longer than hers.