.
Nightfall descended upon the capital of the Phoenix Kingdom, and the bustling streets began to quiet down.
While many retreated to their hos, others awoke to enjoy the nightlife in taverns and other establishnts.
Inside a nondescript building, a young man was unceremoniously thrown into a cell.
Thud
With a sound reminiscent of a sack of potatoes hitting the ground, the boy landed hard on the cell floor.
"Ouch, my backside," he groaned, his voice tinged with pain.
The two individuals who had thrown him in paid no heed to his complaints. They simply shut the cell door and walked away without a word.
Ethan, after finishing rubbing his sore rear, listened as the guards' footsteps faded into the distance. Once the sounds disappeared, he cald down and began to survey his surroundings.
The room he had been thrown into was filled with cells. So were occupied, others empty.
Ethan quickly noticed that the prisoners were of various types, from n of different ages and builds to won, and even a few animals.
From the conversations he had overheard during the journey here, he had deduced that they were slave traders transporting him and the others to an auction that would be held in this place.
All he knew about this location was that it was sowhere in the capital of the Phoenix Kingdom, a place he had not expected to visit anyti soon.
He was frustrated by the whole situation.
"F*ck," he muttered, frustrated as he thought about how he had ended up in this predicant.
A few days ago, while he was selling his goods to Garret, he had been knocked out by the latter after entering the warehouse.
Apparently, Garret was a cultivator, and as such, Ethan, who was still a mortal, had no chance against him.
Ethan had the feeling that all this had been orchestrated by Lina and Garret.
'I knew there was sothing off about her,' he thought, further frustrated by the situation he found himself in.
He knew he had to find a way to escape from here as soon as possible because if he were sold, they would put a restriction seal on him that would prevent him from escaping in the future.
While Ethan was imrsed in his thoughts of escape, a weak and hoarse voice sounded from behind him.
"Boy, it's all useless. Whatever you're thinking, rest assured it won't work."
"Aaah!"
Startled by the voice, Ethan turned abruptly, raising his hands defensively.
In a corner of the cell, crouched on a pile of dirty straw, was a middle-aged man who looked like he hadn't eaten in who knows how long.
His skeletal figure was wrapped in tattered rags, and every bone protruded under his taut and pale skin.
His eyes, sunken and dark-ringed, moved slowly, observing Ethan with a mixture of suspicion and resignation.
His face, lined with deep wrinkles, was covered by a scraggly, gray beard, a sign of weeks, if not months, of neglect.
The man, seeing Ethan jump, laughed.
"Hehehe... cough," but the laugh quickly turned into a cough.
After he finished coughing, he addressed Ethan.
"Don't be afraid, boy, just like you, I was also captured," he said, raising his arms in a gesture of surrender.
Ethan noticed that, unlike him, the man had iron shackles bound to both his hands.
The man, noticing Ethan's gaze on the shackles, laughed.
"Oh, these? Don't worry about them."
He said to Ethan, but Ethan didn't respond, continuing to watch him warily.
"These are enchanted shackles with restriction runes on them. In other words, they are used to seal my cultivation," the man said, glaring at the shackles.
"You're a cultivator?" Ethan asked, sowhat surprised.
Since ending up in this world, Ethan had rarely interacted with any cultivators.
He lived among ordinary people and, although he knew of the existence of cultivators, he had never t one in person.
He knew that the boy old Wei's daughter was seeing was also a cultivator, and a talented one at that, according to what she claid while teasing him.
"Yes, why, surprised?" the man asked, but before Ethan could open his mouth, he continued:
"Well, I can't bla you. From what I see, you're not a cultivator, so you probably haven't had much interaction with other cultivators, right?"
Ethan nodded and then, a bit hesitantly, asked:
"You don't seem to be in good shape. If you're a cultivator, how did you end up here?" he asked.
"You know, even cultivators can fall victim to slave traders. In fact, even more powerful cultivators than can be captured for the right price."
"In my case, I'm doing it to repay a debt," he said, and then fell silent.
Ethan could tell that the man didn't seem inclined to elaborate, so he didn't press further.
Not that he was particularly interested, as he was more concerned with his own situation.
Silence fell in the cell, with neither of them speaking.
After a few seconds, the middle-aged man spoke again.
"By the way, my na is Yang Wei, and you?"
"Ethan," he said without adding anything else.
"Ethan? That's quite a strange na. Are you a foreigner?" Yang Wei asked, sowhat intrigued by the unusual na.
"Sothing like that," Ethan replied.
Once again, silence fell between the two.
Yang Wei didn't know what to do. He had spent a lot of ti in this cell alone, without much interaction with the other prisoners.
Seeing a new arrival, he thought that conversing a bit might help pass the ti and distract him from his impending future, but it seed the new arrival wasn't very talkative.
And so, two days passed.
During this ti, Ethan and his cellmate didn't have many interactions. Yang Wei tried to start a few conversations, but each attempt failed.
After a while, he gave up and stopped trying.
All the while, Ethan thought of various ways to escape from here, but none of them were feasible.
He even considered helping the middle-aged man remove his shackles, hoping he could assist in the escape, but this idea was also discarded.
The man told him that even a third-stage body refining cultivator couldn't break these chains, let alone Ethan, who wasn't even a cultivator.
He also said that even if he sohow managed to free him from the chains, it was impossible for him to help as he didn't have the strength to attempt an escape, having been in this condition for too long.
With this, even Ethan's last hopes were dashed.
A few more days passed, and Ethan, having found no way to escape, had resigned himself to his fate.
Finally, after nearly a week of imprisonnt, the two n who had thrown him into the cell arrived. One of the n opened the cell door and said with a smile:
"Get up, today is the big day."
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