When Asho woke up, he saw Harvey and Igura eating sandwiches.

“Aren’t you afraid of poison?”

“Then I’ll take yours–“

“What I mean is, you should have woken me up to help you test the poison.” Asho quickly picked up the last sandwich and licked it to assert his dominance, making Igura look disgusted.

“How long did we sleep?”

Asho opened the game interface. “It’s 2 a.m. now. We slept for less than an hour.”

Igura muttered, “That means we have to stay here for the whole day…”

“Why?”

“If there’s only 6 hours left in the journey, they wouldn’t bother providing food. We’re already injured and sleep-deprived. If we stop eating for another day, there’s a risk of sudden death. That’s why they specially provided food for us.”

This sandwich couldn’t even fill Asho’s stomach, and it made him even hungrier. He knocked on the padded wall and said with melancholy, “Are we going back to prison again? I’m starting to doubt whether the title of the Sorcerer’s Manual after I die will be ‘Popular Prison Reviews’…”

“Going back to prison is already a good situation.” Igura said softly, “What I’m most afraid of now is a society based on slavery, with sorcerers as the slave-owning class and ordinary people as slaves. Coupled with the sorcerers’ technological system, they forcefully push the slave society into a modern developed country…”

Harvey asked, “Isn’t being a slave better than being a prisoner?”

“Absolutely not. The biggest problem with a slave society is that it’s ruled by people, with an incomplete legal system. When conflicts of interest arise, the first thought of the slave owners is not to solve the problem, but to eliminate the person causing the problem. They love violence, place extreme importance on blood relations, and discriminate against outsiders. Everyone’s social status is predetermined from the day they are born, with no social mobility.” Igura said with disgust, “Even some feudal superstitions are better than slavery.”

Harvey smiled, “So we’ve escaped from the Blood Moon Kingdom to an even worse country. Sigh, come to think of it, the Blood Moon Kingdom was actually not bad. If the church allowed ordinary people to study necromancy, I wouldn’t have bothered to escape. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to go to school back then, and I couldn’t pass the graduate school entrance exam. I couldn’t become a member of the Blood Saint Clan, so naturally, I didn’t have the right to study necromancy…”

“It might not necessarily be a slave society.” Asho stuck out his tongue and licked the water in the bottle. “Maybe this is a more advanced civilized country than the Blood Moon Kingdom, and it’s not the kind that discriminates against refugees from other countries–“

“Which civilized country produces these specialized prisoner carriages?” Igura tapped the padded wall behind him. “Harvey, how would you transport prisoners if you had to?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“Don’t you know?”

“Well, I do know…” Harvey muttered, “I have a friend, a real friend. If it were me, I would turn the person into a corpse first and let them run back by themselves… That friend usually uses drugs to assist in hypnotizing the target with the help of the sorcery spirit, then ties them up and throws them into a small cargo to transport them away.”

“Is there a company in the Blood Moon Kingdom that produces these carriages?”

“Impossible. The closest thing would be a motorhome, but the business of transporting prisoners is considered a low-value sector in society. It’s not possible to customize carriages specifically for this small business.”

Igura looked at Asho and said, “So, Sorcerer Leader, do you understand? People who have these carriages are most likely special professionals whose main business is kidnapping. There’s a high probability that they are slave hunters. If there are slave hunters, then there must be a slave society…”

“Wait a minute.” Asho raised his hand and asked, “Can’t it be human traffickers?”

“Human trafficking is also a form of slavery–“

“It could also be child traffickers.”

“Child trafficking?” Igura and Harvey looked puzzled at the same time. “Why would they traffic children? Who would buy them? What would they do with them?”

It was only now that Asho remembered that the family structure had collapsed in the Blood Moon Kingdom. Since there were no buyers, there naturally wouldn’t be any human traffickers. He took some effort to describe this heinous industry, but Igura and Harvey still couldn’t understand–it was like describing the joy of exercise to someone who never worked out.

Although they had escaped from the Blood Moon Kingdom, the Blood Moon culture was still deeply imprinted in their souls. They found it difficult to understand that someone would go to great lengths to have offspring, even if they were someone else’s, and even give rise to such an evil industry–because in their worldview, offspring might be closer to oneself, but ultimately they were still “others,” not “oneself.”

In a sense, the Blood Moon Kingdom didn’t deliberately suppress their emotions, but rather perfected and catalyzed one of their correct modes of thinking to the extreme–when selfishness became their highest criterion for action, emotional activities that required sacrifice naturally became difficult to understand.

This was also why Asho always remained vigilant towards them, not only because they were death row inmates, but also because the education in the Blood Moon Kingdom had lowered their limits to an extremely low level, to the point where they could be compared to the project manager who would wake Asho up at 3 a.m. to rush a PowerPoint presentation.

Humans are truly limited creatures, unable to comprehend things they have never seen. Only by witnessing everything enough can one comprehend all the truths of the world. Without enough experience, even if a gem is placed in front of them, they would only see it as a stone. Therefore, in order to obtain the gem, one must first witness the rise and fall of all things…

Asho suddenly had a strange thought and shook his head to suppress the sudden chuunibyou. He said, “Even if it really is a slave hunting team, at least it can guarantee our safety, and being a slave can also help us quickly understand this world. If worse comes to worst, we can be runaway slaves. We’re escapees, and when it comes to running away, we’re professionals.”

Igura looked at Asho with some surprise and didn’t speak for a while, making Asho feel uncomfortable under his gaze. “What’s wrong?”

“To be honest, I had a vague feeling in prison,” Igura said, “I don’t know if it’s fearlessness caused by ignorance or blind confidence cultivated by you as the leader of the heresy, but it seems like you’ve never been afraid of the malice of fate.””After all, we barely escaped from the Blood Moon, only to be captured again. Even I can’t help but want to curse the world, yet you seem like a fish with only seven seconds of memory, immediately thinking about ‘how to utilize this slave status’.”

“Do you have some sort of trump card?”

Trump card? Does the Black and White Witch I just drew count?

Asho scratched his head: “Isn’t this just normal mental fortitude? It’s like when you get off work and your boss suddenly gives you a new task to complete by tomorrow morning. After cursing a bit in your heart, don’t you just order takeout and get to work?”

Harvey said: “I don’t think most people would equate working overtime with being captured by a slave hunting team… Go on.”

Asho and Igura caught the item Harvey tossed over – a Snow White brand Moon Candy.

“When we get off the vehicle, it’s when we’re at our weakest and they’re at their most relaxed.” Harvey calmly said: “This thing can forcibly make you feel excited, overcome the fatigue of not sleeping or resting, and even speed up the recovery of Artificing.”

“After leaving the Blood Moon, you won’t have anywhere to buy Moon Candy.” Igura said: “Physical sugar addiction can be cured with a Sorcery Spirit, but I’ve never heard of anyone who could quit a psychological sugar addiction. In Shattered Lake Prison, too many death row inmates have spent all their contributions to buy Moon Candy.”

“This kingdom should have similar drugs.” Harvey patted the wall cushion: “The more advanced the kingdom, the more popular the drugs to fill the void. All races have a tendency to self-destruct. When survival is no longer a pressure, they will pursue some more dangerous but also more pleasurable activities.”

“Necromancer’s weird judgment.” Igura put it away: “I’ll take it, I won’t eat it, but I’ll cooperate with you.”

“Same here.” Asho also had no interest in challenging his own resistance to poison, but after thinking about it, he still put it in his bag – he could consider giving it to his substitute to see the substitute’s reaction.

Thinking of the substitute first when there’s good food, as expected of me.jpg

……

After a long journey, at 6 o’clock in the evening of the Blood Moon time, Igura finally felt the carriage stop. The three exhausted men looked at each other, knowing that the first hurdle was coming. Harvey silently ate a Moon Candy, and his spirit was instantly lifted.

The carriage opened the side door, “Come out, the three of you.”

At this moment, Asho suddenly realized that he could understand the language of this kingdom. Although there was a strange accent, it was probably the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin, but if he listened carefully, he could understand.

Even if it’s the same language, different cities will cause different accents, so it’s normal for the other party to have an accent. But they crossed into another kingdom, and the basic language is still the same?

Stepping out of the carriage, what caught their eyes was a sky half filled with a setting sun and half filled with stars, and a place that looked like an abandoned industrial park. This was a sight rarely seen in the Blood Moon kingdom – the Blood Moon always couldn’t wait to declare its existence before the sun had even set.

As they had expected, the vehicle transporting them was quite advanced, all silver. Although it still had four wheels, the tires didn’t have the increased friction anti-skid pattern. It seemed that any braking could drift for more than ten meters, it was completely unimaginable how to drive it, it looked like a concept car that only existed in fantasy.

This was a kingdom with very advanced Artificer technology, at least more advanced than the Blood Moon.

Upon seeing this vehicle that could represent the crystallization of industrial production, the three of them made the same judgment.

“These three are the foreigners you need, you can check with the ‘Gospel’.”

Standing in front of Asho were two ordinary people: a young butler and a beautiful girl with purple hair and green eyes.

The latter was holding a luxurious orange velvet folding fan, wearing a purple coat. The moment Asho saw her, he thought of a description that often appeared in gossip news: she outshone everyone else!

Asho subconsciously glanced at Igura – this girl’s beauty was simply on par with Igura’s!

And because Asho was more familiar with Igura, the saying ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’ applied, so the beauty of the unfamiliar girl got extra points in Asho’s heart, completely defeating Igura.

From Asho’s description, these two could hardly be considered ordinary, right? But compared to another group of people, they were indeed ordinary – six black-robed weirdos, staring at Asho and the others ominously.

“Confirmed to be foreigners.” The leading black-robed man nodded, “Let’s not delay, let’s trade immediately.”

The middle-aged butler stepped forward and took out three keys that looked like controllers, and the black-robed man also took out a box. Harvey lowered his eyelids, as if he was about to make a move.

But until the trade was over, none of the three of them made a move.

Because the girl in the purple dress was always smiling at them.

Asho even triggered his ‘beast instinct’, which shows that this girl in the purple dress was even more beastly than Asho, to the point where Asho subconsciously started to fear her.

The butler handed the box to the girl in the purple dress. The girl in the purple dress opened it and took out an octahedral purple crystal from inside. There seemed to be a light source inside the purple crystal, emitting a warm and friendly glow, making the girl in the purple dress even more dazzling, her beauty beating Igura’s to a pulp.

“The trade is complete.” The girl in the purple dress and the young butler made way, “Then, these three are handed over to your Four Pillar God Church.”

Four Pillar God Church?

Four Pillar God Church!

Harvey and Igura instantly turned their heads and stared at Asho, and Asho was also stunned – he did vaguely hear the term Four Pillar God Church before he fell into a stupor, but the speaker had a heavy accent, and he was drowsy, so he thought he had heard wrong.

Before Asho could react, dozens of chains sprang out from the black-robed man’s sleeves, binding the three of them tightly, all stuffed into prepared body bags, and thrown into their car.

He turned to the girl in the purple dress and said: “Then we’ll go back and start the sacrificial ceremony, we look forward to future cooperation, Funeral Parlor.”

The girl in the purple dress nodded slightly: “Ranked ninth on the ‘Asura Task List’, Funeral Parlor is always waiting for your commission.”