The Xumu butterfly is a species that is difficult to capture using spiritual sense.
Its scale powder has many unique effects, such as hallucination, confusing people's minds, exploring the origin of human hearts, etc. However, the unrefined scale powder is only effective for cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage and ordinary mortals.
I have already passed the Jindan stage, how come I almost got into trouble today? Mu Xue was a little confused.
In front of you is the largest trading market in Fuwang City, Cargo Street.
There were all kinds of things for sale in the messy streets with several floors. Some sold materials, some sold magic weapons, and there were also many people selling magic weapons, talismans, puppets, and people who bought and sold people, and traded spirit beasts.
The various prison cages and shacks that were built in a haphazard manner made the road even more tortuous and crowded. The golden light of Xumudie flashed a few times, turned into an alley, flashed in front of a small iron window, and disappeared.
This is an area where human beings are traded. Those who voluntarily or forcibly sell themselves into slavery are imprisoned in dim stone houses, waiting to be sold like commodities.
Mu Xue, who had lost the Xumutie, didn't care about anything else. She bent down and moved in through the low iron window, enduring the pungent smell and looked into the house.
There were twenty or thirty people who had sold themselves into slavery sitting in the low stone house. There was no other exit, and the butterfly was obviously in the hands of one of them.
"Excuse me, has anyone seen a golden butterfly? It flew in through this window."
In the dim corner, dozens of unfriendly eyes looked over.
Those eyes were filled with negative emotions such as numbness, hatred and disgust.
The only answer she got was deathly silence.
Although the price of the Xumu butterfly is not expensive, Mu Xue spent a lot of energy and time to get this butterfly that rarely appears in the market, and she doesn't want to give up so easily.
So she begged the slaves in a gentle voice: "That is a butterfly with a lily-like eye. It is useless to most people. But I just need it. Can you give it back to me? Please."
"You can pay me, you can discuss anything you want, and I will never regret it."
A sneer was heard in the darkness, and a man with sunken eyes in the shadows in the corner spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm.
"People like us have no other hope. We have no place to spend our spiritual stones. We don't even want food. The only thing we want is... hehe."
The man looked at the half-smiling face of Furong outside the iron window, slowly stood up, and laughed twice in a very blatant way.
"Girl, come closer and I'll give you the butterfly you want."
Mu Xue stood quietly by the window, waiting for the man to come over by himself, the gentle smile on her face didn't even change.
She just doesn't like to cause trouble, but that doesn't mean she's easy to bully.
Her good friend Ruan Honglian once said: "Xiaoxue, you look gentle and kind, without any temper, but in fact, you are all black when you cut open your body."
Mu Xue didn't care: "Who among us who grew up in Fuwang City is not a little bit dirty? The real white lotus has been buried in the soil long ago."
The wretched man didn't have time to step forward.
A hand stretched out from the low window of the stone house. The hand was thin, pale, and scarred. The skeleton had not fully grown yet, and it still belonged to a young man. However, there was a golden butterfly gently pinched between the index and middle fingers.
The hand was raised in front of Mu Xue, but the owner of the hand was hidden in the shadow inside the wall, and Mu Xue couldn't even see his face.
"Take it." The voice was cold, with a unique boy's voice.
Mu Xue was stunned for a moment, then carefully took the butterfly and said, "Thank you, do you need me to give you anything?"
"No need, leave." There was a sense of boredom and fatigue in his tone.
Mu Xue waited for a moment, and there was silence inside the window. The person inside the window obviously had no intention of continuing the communication.
A few days later,
Mu Xue and her good friend Ruan Honglian were walking side by side on the street of the shopping street. She had just sold her latest magic weapon to the head of the Lei family and earned a considerable sum of money. She was in a very good mood.
The magical instruments produced by Mu Xue have always been of high quality. Boss Lei is also very satisfied and specially sent Liangzi, who is beside him, to escort them out.
"Alian, just two days ago, I almost lost Xumudie here. I chased her across several streets before I caught her back." Mu Xue said.
"You can't even keep an eye on a butterfly, how could you be any more foolish?" Ruan Honglian took the opportunity to insult her without hesitation.
"Xiaoxue, I think it's time for you to buy a servant. Look at how messy your house is. You are becoming less and less like a woman. Go and buy a housekeeper who can cook and take care of the house. Or buy a little girl who can help you buy clothes and tidy up for you."
"Do you need to buy someone? I don't think I really like people messing with my things."
"Don't talk nonsense. A weapon refiner of your level would have a few servants to help run errands and keep up appearances." Ruan Honglian turned around and said to Liangzi with a smile, "Since we are already at the goods street, let's ask Brother Liang to help our Xiaoxue pick a capable one while he is here."
The Demon Spirit Realm does not have the custom of sect inheritance, and most inheritances are continued in families.
The Lei family is a family that makes a living in the business of trading. All the Lei family members are good at speaking polite words.
Sure enough, Liangzi replied readily, "Mrs. Mu and Mr. Ruan are buying people here to give face to my Lei family. This street is full of their businesses. They want all kinds of people, maids, old women, handsome men. You can take away any one you like by signing a contract on the spot. The price must be the most affordable."
Mu Xue thought of the mountains of refining materials at home and the storage bags of various sizes that were difficult to classify, and suddenly felt that Ruan Honglian's suggestion was right.
"Thank you, Brother Liang. I mainly want someone who can help me with refining equipment." She counted on her fingers, "First of all, he must be able to read, and he must be able to distinguish all refining materials below the third level. It would be best if he also knows a little about pharmacology, and at least has some exposure to the basic encyclopedia of monsters. It would be best if he can help me pre-process low-level refining materials. If he is also a cultivator in the foundation-building stage, and can transform things and help control the temperature..."
"Stop, stop. Are you buying a maid or inviting a weapon-refining master home?" Ruan Honglian looked at Brother Liang's increasingly dark face and interrupted Mu Xue in a hurry.
"No, there is no such thing?" Mu Xue was immediately very disappointed.
"If a low-level cultivator in the Qi Refining Stage is willing to sell himself as a servant, there are still some occasionally, but the price is quite high." Brother Liang coughed, trying to save some face for himself. "If Master Mu wants such an assistant, you can buy a low-level cultivator and bring him by your side to teach him slowly. Over the years, he will always meet your requirements."
"It would be too troublesome if there is any, so let's forget it for now." Mu Xue waved her hand.
As they were talking, they were walking through a small courtyard when they heard a loud shouting coming from the other end of the corridor.
A boy's figure flashed out from the corner. He stepped on the wooden railing with one foot, jumped over the railing and jumped down. When he landed, he squatted down to reduce the impact, and then quickly slipped towards the side door.
Slender limbs, clean and agile movements.
It was like a little deer running in the forest. This thought suddenly crossed Mu Xue's mind.
The elk in the forest was destined to be captured by jackals, and so was the boy in front of him.
Several burly men rushed out from behind the corridor, shouting. They blocked the fleeing little slave and grabbed his ankles before he could escape, pinning him to the ground.
The boy struggled desperately, and a bald man grabbed his hair and hit him hard several times.
“Stop… stop hitting me, brother. I won’t run away anymore.” The boy immediately began to beg for mercy.
The panting bald man pressed his head and cursed: "Why are you running? Can you run away?"
Seeing that the other party had surrendered and begged for mercy, he finally relaxed his strength a little.
"ah!"
The bald man screamed, jumped away and covered his bloody fingers.
The deer that had bitten someone with its teeth bared took the opportunity to break free, rolled down the steps of the corridor, and happened to land next to Mu Xue.
Mu Xue looked down at him. He was thin and small, no older than ten years old. His messy hair covered his eyebrows and eyes, so his face could not be seen clearly.
The boy also looked up and saw Mu Xue, and suddenly knelt in front of Mu Xue, "Are you here to buy a slave? How about buying me?"
As he spoke, he wiped his face and parted his long bangs, revealing a pair of very beautiful eyes.
It should be said that the skinny boy in front of me has very delicate facial features, but his eyes are particularly brilliant. He has long and soft eyelashes, pure eyes and beautiful eyelids.
When he looks up at people with these eyes, he is so charming that it is hard not to feel a little soft-hearted towards him.
He himself may be aware of his own strengths, as he usually covers his face with bangs and only shows them when necessary.
Mu Xue noticed that he even adjusted his disordered breathing, straightened his back, and began to introduce himself in just a few short movements.
"My name is Xiaoshan."
As the boy spoke, he quietly looked at Mu Xue. He first looked at Mu Xue's hands. Those were hands that had been immersed in the refining room for years, smelting chemicals, and making magical instruments. They had unique calluses and skin color.
Then he looked at the rings she wore on her fingers to control the puppets, and then saw the monster bones she had just bought from the market and was still holding in her hand, so his next words came smoothly.
"I can read. I can identify all refining materials below the fourth level. I have studied the "Comprehensive Examination of Monsters", "Elementary Smelting" and "Catalogue of Chemical Materials".
When he said this, he raised his eyelashes and looked at Mu Xue with his wet eyes.
Mu Xue admitted that she had been attracted since she heard the words "Demon Beast General Examination".
Being looked at by him like this, I almost agreed.
"No," Ruan Honglian leaned over her ear to remind her, "He's too smart. He knows everything about us with just one look. If you raise a kid like this at home, he'll grow up to be a wolf. He'll eat you up without even spitting out a bone."
Mu Xue hesitated.
"What's going on?" Liangzi asked with a frown.
"Brother Liang, it was just a small accident." The bald man saw Liangzi's presence. Although he hated him very much, he didn't dare to pull him directly. He just bent over and explained in a low voice, "He was scheduled to be sent to Room 3 on the fourth floor tonight. This kid didn't know what was good for him and actually wanted to run away."
"This is outrageous. Drag him away quickly." Liangzi winked.
When the words "Room 3" came out, Xiaoshan shuddered. That was the filthiest place here, and few slaves who were sent in to serve the guests could come out alive.
He quickly grabbed the corner of Mu Xue's clothes and said anxiously: "Buy me, sister. I can do everything, I can make money, and I don't eat much. I can earn back my worth in spirit stones."
Although he is extremely smart, he is just a child after all.
When the bald man reached out to pull him, he held on to Mu Xue's collar tightly, his tone no longer calm and logical.
"Really, I can do everything. I can wash clothes and clean the yard. I... I'm strong too. Buy me. I don't want to go to room three."
"You are talking nonsense. You have such a thin arm, but you are so strong. Let go! If you don't let go, I will kill you."
The bald man's slap came down with the sound of wind.
But in mid-air, his wrist was grabbed by a cold mechanical arm.
"The master said that this person cannot be touched." An iron puppet that appeared out of nowhere spoke with a grunting sound.
The bald man is tall and strong, with a build as big as a mountain. His cultivation is considered very high among the thugs in the shopping street, and he is already a cultivator in the foundation-building stage.
But this little puppet, which was not even as tall as a teacup, stretched out its thin arms as long as pipes and effortlessly held up the bald man's arms, clamping him so that he could not move at all.
Mu Xue even had her hands behind her back and didn't even chant any spells. She just casually used one of her magic weapons.
Liangzi and Guangtou exchanged glances and truly understood the significance of the title "Mu Dajia".