The conversation after that turned extremely emotional and Byeon Min-Hee poured her eyes out.
All the pressure that had been building up inside her heart over the years, it released all at once as she expressed her feelings of gratitude to Yi Tian who she began seeing differently.
It felt facetious of her, admittedly, but she couldn't help but feel like the man sitting on the couch beside her, comforting her as she struggled to gather her emotions who was an absolute wreck at the moment, was a hundred times more handsome than he was before.
It wasn't a conscious thought but in the back of her mind, she had already placed this man on a pedestal that only gods were meant to be on.
Yi Tian who was allowing her to pour her tears onto his shoulder, wettening his shirt, wasn't being the kind-hearted person she was starting to believe him to be.
He was just calculative and understood what was the best way to approach his goals.
Byeon Min-Hee was now his slave, unable to disobey any of his orders or have any thoughts of harming him.
But he didn't want a mindless slave that was forced to do things.
He understood that as a cultivator, the most growth she would experience was if she felt so indebted to him that she felt obligated to pay him back by not disappointing him.
His first step to doing that would be to reveal the truth to her.
Once she calmed down, wiping her tears, she looked at him with a bright smile on her face that reached her ears.
[Love Points: 65 (Like)]
'It's not as high as I thought it would be but as to be expected of someone who has been caged all these years.'
"Byeon Min-Hee," he called her name.
Sensing that he had something to tell her by the look on his face, she nodded.
"I feel like it's only right I inform you before you misunderstand, what I did just now, helping you, I didn't do that expecting nothing in return."
Her eyebrows raised but she nodded again.
It wasn't a surprising revelation. This world wasn't a place where people helped out others for free.
But she didn't feel terrible hearing this because for starters, he still helped her out of a hole that she was unable to climb out of, and secondly, it reassured her knowing that there was a way for her to pay him back.
If he truly helped her out with no intentions of receiving something in return, that selfless gesture would become a weight on her shoulders over time.
"I also must inform you that you were slightly off about your previous statement."
"Which one?"
"The one where you said, 'I'm free'," he responded.
Confused about what he meant because she no longer felt the restraints of the soul-binding contract, she said, "Elaborate, please."
"It's best I just show you. Byeon Min-Hee, kneel."
She was even more confused by his words but before she could utter a sound, her body began moving on its own and before she realized it, she was kneeling before him.
[Love Points: 53 (Interested)]
Her Love Points dropped by more than 10 in an instant as she realized that having escaped one soul-binding contract, she had fallen victim to another.
"Release," said Yi Tian, freeing her from his command.
Sweat dripping down her forehead, she glared at Yi Tian with murderous eyes and asked, "What did you do to me?"
"It was the only way for me to remove the soul-binding contract that my father placed on you. I had to override it with something stronger."
"...Does that mean everything was simply a ploy to make me... your slave?" she asked while grinding her teeth.
She wanted to punch him but was unable to move her fist in his direction.
At least it didn't hurt like when she thought about killing Yi Pengfei. It just felt like there was an invisible force holding her back.
Yi Tian shook his head.
"I'm not my father," he said, making sure to emphasize the last word.
[Love Points: 54 (Interested)]
[Love Points: 55 (Interested)]
"Yes, you are technically my slave who I can command to do anything. However, that doesn't mean I will be doing that."
"...And how can I trust that you mean what you're saying?" she asked.
"Because of the reason why I helped you," he responded.
There was a reason why he went through all the efforts of freeing this poor woman and taking the friendly route instead of commanding her around like a puppet which he was fully capable of doing.
"Which is?"
"Revenge," he answered, turning and meeting her eyes which flickered at his intensive gaze.
"...Against who?" she asked, feeling a little uncomfortable with the expression on his face.
He looked away from her and she let out a breath of relief.
"The man responsible for eight years of your life being stolen."
"..."
"My father. That's who I plan on getting revenge against." And some more people but he didn't feel like it was necessary to mention them at the moment.
His father was more than enough; anything else might decrease the impact of his words.
[Love Points: 61 (Like)]
"Haven't you ever dreamed about the day you can make that man kneel before you? Haven't you wondered what it would be like if you could make him suffer for all the hurt he's put you through?"
[Love Points: 63 (Like)]
"Byeon Min-Hee, be my person. Be my sword and someday, when the time is right, you will help me in my mission to leave that man as wounded as he left you... and I."
[Love Points: 71 (Love)]
Byeon Min-Hee got down on her knees, this time willingly.
She bowed her head and said only one word.
"Master."
* * *
Although the owner of Golden Hour was one of the few people who Byeon Min-Hee didn't mind, that didn't mean she was free from exploiting Byeon Min-Hee.
Over the years, the amount of wealth the owner had accumulated from the soul-binded cultivator was enough to buy the building multiple times.
Suppose she was treated like other high-class courtesans in the red-light district. In that case, most of the wealth should've been handed to her but because she was forced to be a courtesan regardless of her feelings, the owner was able to take a large portion of her income without fear of losing a worker as there was no way for her to leave.
At least, that was supposed to be the case.
Byeon Min-Hee, now a "free" woman, went to the owner who had bilked her of a ton of money.
It just took a few words and a dagger to their neck for Byeon Min-Hee to receive the wealth she had rightfully desired.
As the owner watched Byeon Min-Hee leap across the roofs of the buildings, she wondered out loud, "How was she able to escape the soul-binding contract? Did Yi Pengfei break it off for her?"
She didn't even consider for a second that Yi Pengfei died which would automatically cancel all his soul-binding contracts.
There was no way that the great hero of the Yi clan would ever die.
Not for a couple more thousands of years at least.
Byeon Min-Hee, with the money that was inside her interspatial ring, went and bought herself a new house in Qiao City.
There was the chance that Yi Pengfei might find it suspicious that one of his contracted slaves had managed to break free.
But that chance was extremely low.
He was a busy and important man who must definitely have forgotten about her existence by now.
It was best that she remained inside the city, agreed by both herself and her new master, Yi Tian.
That way, she could be an arm length's away from him at any time.
Other than the money, some other things were in her ring.
In it were three manuals that Yi Tian had written down for her with the help of his system which had analyzed and memorized the content of every manual he had ever laid a finger on.
As she didn't have the system to upgrade Common and Uncommon ranked manuals/techniques, Yi Tian handed her the highest-ranked ones that he had touched the day before.
One manual was a new cultivation method, another was a new martial art, and the last was a fire technique.
"Thank you, Master," she said as she hugged the manuals.
Even with all the wealth in her ring combined, she wouldn't have been able to afford a single one of those manuals.
Most people couldn't.
That's how impressive the Yi clan is because their personal library contains enough high-graded manuals to buy the entire city.
Lastly, she took out a pill that Yi Tian had given her.
He said it was a pill that would remove all her cultivation including her knowledge of the martial arts she had trained in, her cultivation method, and the techniques she had acquired over the years.
It would essentially return her to a regular human, but in exchange, it would upgrade her spiritual roots into something new entirely.
A few hours ago.
"I've never heard of such a pill before," she said. "Are you sure this pill won't kill me instead?
"Don't worry and trust me about this," Yi Tian responded. "If you don't believe me, just think about it. I could force you to take it if I wanted to but... I mean it when I say that the pill will do what I said it would."
"...Okay, if you say so."
Back to the present.
"Here goes nothing," she said as she tossed the pill into her mouth and swallowed it without hesitation.