"Huff!! Huff!!"

The distance from the cottage, where Shen Yuan lived, to the public square, where he, along with the rest of the servants, was summoned, was close to a kilometer.

Had it been in his previous life, Shen Yuan would have no trouble covering such distance but now with his current frail body, it was just too difficult.

Since it was close to morning, the rays of sun could be seen spreading around the vast sky while the two moons were slowly dipping beyond the horizon.

The public square was a centred land which acted as the boundary between the servants quarter and the sect market. Shen Yuan could see the stalls filled with various good even from the distance.

Stone steps shone under and around the circular wooden stage. In the middle of the stage, there was a steel lever that was attached to a greater mechanism.

Shen Yuan did not have to look through the memories of the former owner to realize that it was a killing platform where people were executed in front of the masses.

There was a popular name for this square among the servants, The Deathly Square.

Nothing good happened in this place, even when the announcements were made.

There were no special decorations or attractive points about the place. It was even more bland than the villages he had seen back on his planet but there was one thing Shen Yuan could not help but notice.

The thick iron like scent surrounding the stage. It was so disgusting and thick that it almost made him vomit.

’Even though I do not like this, what other choice I have.’ Suppressing his revulsion, he tried to force himself to calm down to avoid attracting anyone’s attention.

This was not a normal world, and he was no longer in his office space. This was a demonic sect where someone had just used their voice and almost made his eardrums explode. The worse thing about it was that the man responsible was not even standing close to his shed.

He could not afford to go against such a person in his current state.

"Hey, hey. Look there, it’s that weakling."

"Who is he?"

"Do you really not know? He is Peng Hu’s favourite plaything. He cannot go a day without touching him."

"Oh! Is that him? I never thought Peng Hu had such tastes."

"Huh? What are you talking about? I was just saying that Peng Hu likes messing with him and roughing him up a little, leaving him all red and white."

"Sure, sure. I get it wink~"

Shen Yuan slowed down his breath when he heard the whispers around him. He did not even have to turn to feel their gazes on him.

He could feel all sorts of emotions just from their voices.

Contempt. Disgust. Pity.

Everything molded in those eyes made his skin tingle. But he was no stranger to such emotions. Office life was not so rainbows and sunshine for him, either. Every place was the same; whoever you run to, you will find such lowly people waiting for you there.

’I have to do something about my reputation. It will help me in the long run but for now, I have to keep my head down.’ Shen Yuan ignored the talks about him and found a place to stand and gather information.

"Did you hear? There was a talk going around saying that Shen lost his mind in the middle of the night."

"I heard. Some said, he ran out of his room crying for his mother, looking like he had seen a ghost. It seems he even pissed himself."

"Hahah! You heard correct. Young master Peng really did a number on this bastard."

There was so much useless information, mostly servants bitching about him or someone else. If it had been someone else, they would have lost their composure by now and would have either cried in some corner or confronted those who made fun of him.

But Shen Yuan was different. He was calm, oddly so.

’Ah, looks like some weird rumours might start about me. No wonder they are still servants; all they do is waste their time on this useless shit.’ Shen Yuan recalled how he ran out of the cottage, trying to analyze his situation, but to the rest it looked like he had finally lost it.

There was nothing he could have done about it. He was human too; there were certain emotions that he could feel.

Shaking his head with a resigned look, he moved on to the next conversation. But there was nothing for him to instantly pick on.

Fortunately for him, the commotion did not last long. The thundering voice that he had heard before, came back.

"Ten minutes are... Up."

This time, the voice was closer but quieter, and yet the pain Shen Yuan felt remained the same.

Thud!!

Following the voice, a silhouette appeared on the stage which was empty a second ago. Then there was a faint sound of blades slashing through the air in the distance behind him.

Out of curiosity, Shen Yuan turned his head and regretted almost instantly. Heads, many of them were rolling down the street before the still-running decapitated corpses of the late servants who did not even realize that they were already dead.

"Looks like we lost some servants today. Oh well, who cares we can always get new ones." The man responsible for this only shrugged before coldly warning the rest. "You have to be prepared for such outcomes when you don’t listen to your seniors in the sect."

"Ten minutes means ’Ten Minutes’."

Shen Yuan stared at the bloody sight with a trance like look on his face. It was not clear if he was too stunned to show a reaction or he did not even feel anything seeing the heads rolling on the ground.

Then with his hands clenched into a fist, he slowly turned back to the man whose voice was still ringing in his head. He did not let out a whimper and only showed an emotionless face.

Shen Yuan did not want to show any signs of weakness before his peers who were already painting him as an easy target. Only by showing a strong front can he make them leave him alone.

No one, including Shen Yuan, noticed how his lips had curled a little upwards for a fraction of a second when he saw the heads rolling.

Now he was just one of many servants who acted like they had seen nothing out of the ordinary.

Sadly, there were some who were not as composed as them.

Many failed to control themselves from emptying their stomach right there and then. Some even soiled their pants, wet and brown.

Only those who had gotten used to the bloody life within the demonic sect appeared to fine with it. Some of them even looked pleased and aroused at the sight of blood.

They did not even realised that they who were once the victim of the Bloody Moon Sect were now willingly enjoying being a part of them.

’No matter the world, humans are all the same. Some are good and some are demonic like them.’ Shen Yuan’s ears started ringing, he could not hear anything else but that pitched tone in his ears. ’All I have to do now is survive and live on my terms.’

Soon, his pounding heart calmed down and he could hear once more.

"How filthy." The supervisor standing on the stage spoke loudly. His voice made everyone tremble in fear. Yet despite his words, there was a grin on his face.

He loved the despairing looks on the faces of the remaining servants. The helplessness in their eyes. But it was his voice that oddly settled Shen Yuan’s roaring heart.

He opened his eyes and took a good look at the man for the first time. ’I may not be prepared for this world, but now that I am here, there is no way I will let people like him dictate the fate of my life. I will survive, no matter what it takes.’

The unknown man who was clearly their superior had square face and big eyes. His hands were rested on his bare torso as he flashed a irritating grin.

Just as he looked at the man, a name popped in Shen Yuan’s head.

Overseer Jiang.

The man was in charge of all the servants. From distributing resources to checking their progress, he handled all the work.

Since it was not the first date of the month yet, the day they usually received resource, Shen Yuan had no idea why they were called in the deathly square.

When silence landed the area and everyone had stopped shitting themselves either by will or from fear, Overseer Jiang opened his mouth once more.

"The reason you are here is because we allowed it. You should be thankful to the Blood Moon Sect and repay us by doing our bidding."

Saying this he paused. A look of contempt appeared in his eyes as he scanned the crowd.

"And yet, even after all that we have done for you, you trash have nothing to show for it. almost an year is about to go by and none of you have managed to collect a strand of qi within your dantian and awaken it."

Shen Yuan clenched his hands into fists. ’These bastards. Not only did they kidnap innocent children, but they are acting like they did us some favor by making them slaves for the disciples of the sect.’

His thoughts drifted towards the cultivation manual they were given. If he wanted to survive, he had to become a cultivator.

After everyone was brought back to the sect, they were given a booklet for cultivation and a set of robes marking their identities as the servants of the demonic sect.

Even though most of the kids could not read, no one thought them anything and expected results from them. They did not even explain what the meridian points in the texts were and what to do if they made a mistake.

It had been a year since the original Shen Yuan was captured along with the rest but he was still unable to awaken his dantian.

"So instead of wasting our resources on talentless bastards like you, the sect has decided to replace the stock."

Picking his nose with nonchalant attitude, Supervisor Jiang who was the embodiment of power and crudeness ruthlessly announced their death sentence.

"If you do not manage to produce results we want within three months, be prepared to loose some weight from your shoulder." The demonic grin resurfaced on his lips as his gaze drifted to the heads on the ground which had stopped rolling at some point.