The next day was the morning break, and Mo Xi took Gu Mang to become a slave.
In most countries, slaves are despicable, unable to cultivate and read, and are also called "untouchables".
Although the Chonghua Kingdom has no essential difference with them, at least its attitude is slightly more moderate.
Since the first emperor inherited the great power, Chonghua has abolished the harsh term of "untouchables", and allowed slaves with acceptable qualifications to enter the Xiuzhen Academy to repair spiritual cores. The emperor even made slave-born people generals, allowing them to form an army and serve the country.
These things once caused an uproar in Chonghua Kingdom, and the old nobles died one after another, saying that this move was a lesson in the past, and the wolf's ambition was unpredictable. If the emperor gave slave power, they would desire more.
The implication is that if the slaves are allowed to practice and establish their careers, it is impossible to guarantee that they will not covet the throne and overthrow the government - who wants to be trampled under their feet
But Lao Jun didn't listen. He felt that the wars between countries were becoming more and more fierce in Kyushu, and anyone who had the ability could use it, otherwise the internal affairs would be stable, but external worries would be unavoidable.
Gu Mang and his Wang Bajun arose under such circumstances.
However, once a monarch and a courtier, after the new monarch took the throne, he felt that "internal affairs" was more important than "external worries", so he took Gu Mang to cut his power and demoted him, in order to calm the heart of the old gentry.
That's how it is today.
"We're here." The carriage stopped outside a small shop next to the Xiuzhen Academy, and Mo Xi stepped forward and knocked on the door that was hidden.
This is an old shop with a cramped entrance and a long disrepair. Outside the shop, there is only a piece of wooden board that was lazily lost. paint.
Gu Mang asked, "Where is this?"
Mo Xi didn't answer, he just pushed open the rickety old wooden door and led Gu Mang inside.
The shop was poorly lit, the sunlight outside could not come in for a long time, and the house was filled with a strong smell of rotten wood. In order to save money, the shopkeeper refused to light the lamp, only relying on the light of the smelting furnace.
A rickety old man was sitting in front of the smelting furnace, slowly blowing air into the furnace, and when he blew it, red stars scattered purple smoke, and orange-red dazzling molten iron flowed out of the groove, like lava flowing out of the ground.
Mo Xi said, "Uncle Song."
The old smelter was engrossed in creation, and he was still a little deaf, so he didn't hear the movement behind him at all.
Mo Xi raised his voice and called again: "Old man."
Only then did the old man react, and he turned back leisurely, the firelight reflected on his gulky old face, making him look like an overexposed orange, shriveled and yellow.
He looked at Mo Xi, was stunned for a moment, then looked at Gu Mang again, and then showed a stunned look, he quickly stood up and saluted tremblingly, murmuring, "Oh, oh... it's Gu Shuai..."
Gu Mang stood in the same place without knowing why, and watched the old man bow to him, so he also bowed to the old man like a gourd.
Mo Xi was silent for a while and said, "He is no longer Gu Shuai."
The confused old uncle Song said in confusion: "Really? What is he now?"
"Prisoner."
Uncle Song was very surprised and stared at Gu Mang for a while.
"Prisoner... Prisoner..."
He walked over slowly, his wrinkled hand grabbed Gu Mang's, and after a while, he suddenly smiled again and started talking nonsense, "Aiya, Xiao Gu, you have good luck, look Look, the old man didn't lie to you, right? There are still many good people in the world, and from now on, you will no longer be a slave of Wangshu Mansion."
As he spoke, he patted the back of Gu Mang's hand happily: "Come on, old man will melt the slave ring around your neck for you."
Hearing the confused words of the old man, Mo Xi's eyes flashed with deep pain.
He closed his eyes, his Adam's apple twitched slightly, and was about to say something when he heard a muffled sound from upstairs and the wooden ladder creaked. A gentle voice sounded:
"Xi Hejun, why are you here?"
Mo Xi turned his head and saw a man wearing a plain white robe and leaning on wooden crutches struggling up and down the escalator.
It was Jiang Yexue.
Jiang Yexue is the owner of this smelting shop, and Old Man Song used to be a smelting master in Yuefu, and he can be regarded as Jiang Yexue's enlightenment teacher. After Jiang Yexue was expelled from the Yue family, the only one who was willing to accompany him was this old Yue family man.
Mo Xi said, "I'll bring him here to become a slave."
Jiang Yexue was startled: "Who?"
Mo Xi turned his tall and straight body to the side, revealing Gu Mang who was looking east and west from behind.
Jiang Yexue murmured, "...it's Gu Shuai..."
The old man Song next to him was unwilling to be lonely, stretched out his hand like a dead branch and patted his apprentice's back, and said cheerfully: "Today is really a good day, Ye Xue, look, our little Gu has a bright future, he is an important one. Was Hua the first person to be a slave? It's not easy."
"..." Jiang Yexue sighed, "Master, what you're talking about is something that happened many years ago."
Old Man Song asked in confusion, "Did I remember wrong again?"
"Yes. At that time, I could still run and walk." Jiang Yexue lowered her eyelashes and smiled at the old man, "Master, you are tired, go and rest."
Jiang Yexue calmed the old man and went back to the two of them: "I'm sorry, Xihe-jun, Master has always talked in a different way over the years, and I hope you don't blame me."
Mo Xi said, "It's okay."
Gu Mang blinked, and followed suit: "It's okay."
Mo Xi glanced at him. The look he looked at Gu Mang today was not fierce, but a little strange, as if it was shrouded in the shadows of the past.
Jiang Yexue had a panoramic view of all this, sighed lowly, and said, "If you want to become a slave, please ask the two of you to go upstairs with me."
Mo Xi asked, "But your legs..."
"Stand on crutches." Jiang Yexue smiled, "It's alright, I can go."
They went upstairs, and the second floor of the smelting shop was much brighter, with all kinds of weapons and armors condensed from spiritual power hanging on the shelves.
In this world, most of the weapons used by monks are made of spiritual bodies. They will go to various smelting shops to select the weapons they like, and let the smelters fuse the forged weapons with their own spiritual cores. When you just need to recite the mantra, the weapon will be called out.
Although these weapons are not as powerful as Shenwu, their casting principles are similar, and their power is also amazing.
Moreover, in order to create a powerful weapon, the smelters will go out to hunt all kinds of spiritual bodies - the beak of the fire phoenix, the claws of the green dragon, the teeth of the white elephant... The more ferocious the spirit beast, the more powerful it is. Spiritual power, the power of the weapon that was refined became more and more terrifying.
Some smelters even use grievances to enter the weapon, and the blades they create can summon grievances to help fight. The most typical example is the water ghost talisman handed down by Wang Shujun's family. Ruthless. The same is true for Sword Spirit Li Qingqian.
But Jiang Yexue's smelting shop was different, and the old man was so confused that he would die. As for himself, he is a very kind person with a soft heart, and even an ant is reluctant to trample to death. Let him go to fight the phoenix and slay the dragon, that is simply a fool's dream.
"The spiritual power I use to refine my tools comes from some flowers and plants."
He turned his head and saw Mo Xi was looking at his windowsill, which made him feel a little embarrassed. What he was drying on the windowsill were all soft spiritual bodies, which were of no use at first glance.
"The children of the Xiuzhen Academy... will come to me to buy some weapons, and it is not easy to hurt people."
Mo Xi said, "There's nothing wrong with that."
Jiang Yexue smiled.
Although his art of refining tools came from the Yue family, his way of doing things was completely different from that of the Yue family. Yue Juntian always pursues domineering, and Murong Chuyi doesn't care whether he is cruel or not, so when he was young, Jiang Yexue often had conflicts and disputes with his father because of different ideas.
It is very difficult to change a person's mind unless it experiences unbearable pain.
In fact, even without the incident of his deceased wife, Mo Xi felt that Jiang Yexue would definitely part ways with the Yue family in the end.
Jiang Yexue took out an iron box from the shelf with a pile of refining materials, brushed the dust off it, and came to the two of them.
Mo Xi had accompanied Gu Mang to take off the lock slave ring, so he was all too familiar with this iron box. Jiang Yexue glanced at him hesitantly, and said, "Xihe-Jun, I'm going to cast a spell, do you want to avoid it?"
Mo Xi's face was very calm. He looked at the black box without any extra expression: "No need."
"Okay, then I'll start."
He put the box on the ground, then said to Gu Mang, "Gu..." The words came to his lips, but he didn't know what to call him, so he could only sigh, "Please sit down."
"Close your eyes."
"Put your hand on the box."
Gu Mang did the first two indifferently, but he refused the last one. He reopened his eyes, stared at the box for a while, and muttered, "...I don't like this thing."
After speaking, he looked up at Mo Xi: "I'm leaving."
"sit down."
"gone."
Mo Xi said, "If you still want to stay in Xihe Mansion, you must do what he said."
Gu Mang had no choice but to curl his lips, looking a little aggrieved and alert, but after hesitating for a while, he still put his hand on the box.
Mo Xi said to Jiang Yexue, "Cast a spell."
Jiang Yexue nodded. The operation like Murong Lian did back then was actually wrong. The lock slave ring itself had a lot of mana. If it was just buckled and worn at will, it might cause the wearer to run wild or die unexpectedly.
But this truth, the group of teenagers at that time, actually no one understood.
Refiner Jiang Yexue lowered his eyes and silently recited the mantra. Soon, a dark black spiritual current flowed out of the hole in the iron box. The spiritual current climbed up Gu Mang's arm like a snake, from the forearm, to the shoulder, to the collarbone... around his neck... , and finally condensed into a black black iron iron ring, and the aftertaste of the smoke turned into a small card hanging on the iron ring.
"All right."
Gu Mang opened his eyes and touched his neck, but he didn't speak after the first touch. But soon he touched it a second time, and this time he spoke. He turned his head and murmured thoughtfully: "...the necklace..."
Mo Xi leaned against the window with long legs and narrow waist. Hearing what he said, he was startled: "What?"
Gu Mang said in surprise, "Did you give me a necklace?"
"… "
Mo Xi didn't answer, but Jiang Yexue couldn't bear it, and nodded to him.
Gu Mang was confirmed, and there was a shimmering light in his blue eyes. He repeatedly touched his slave collar, and there was some cautious joy on his face that looked as gentle and kind as before.
Then he actually turned his head and said to Mo Xi, "Thank you."
There was a moist wind blowing in from outside the window, blowing bits and pieces around Mo Xi's temples. He stood not far away with his arms folded, looking at Gu Mang's silhouette without saying a word.
Today's Gu Mang is like a fragment of Gu Shuai in the past. He wanted to see the shadow of his old friend in him, but in the end, only one eye socket was pierced with pain and reddened by this fragment.
Almost when no one was paying attention, he closed his eyes in embarrassment and his throat twitched—
Many years ago, it was also on the second floor of the Cixin Smelting Shop. It was also in this room that the young Gu Mang also touched a slave neck ring with a bright smile on his face.
That neck ring was picked by Uncle Song at that time.
"It's over, Senior Brother Gu, you will no longer belong to Murong Lian." At that time, Mo Xi looked at Gu Mang's face and said solemnly, "You are free."
That time, it was the neck ring that fell. Gu Mang was smiling.
Time flies, and times change.
This time, it was the neck ring that was fastened, while Gu Mang was still laughing, nothing seemed to have changed much.
But Mo Xi felt that there was a bitter olive in his throat, and he couldn't swallow it no matter how much he swallowed.
This bitterness seemed to haunt him for the rest of his life.
"Wait." Jiang Yexue was talking to Gu Mang, "It's not over yet. I still need to put a few words on this... necklace."
"What word?"
"Your name, according to your body number." He flipped through the records of slavery in China, and found out that Gu Mang was the first slave in this country to be locked up. "Yes, seven hundred and nine."
Gu Mang didn't know what it meant either, he just listened to him like he didn't understand.
Jiang Yexue used his spiritual power to inscribe it for him, and after he finished engraving this side, he turned to the back. He raised his head again, but this time instead of looking at Gu Mang, he looked at Mo Xi, who was standing by the window against the light with an indiscernible expression.
"Xi Hejun, look at this side..."
Mo Xi said, "No need to engrave."
"But I'm afraid it's illegal. Even if it's not a personal name, it should be a family name, or the name of the mansion."
"No need." Mo Xi paused and turned his face away.
Jiang Yexue sighed, "But..."
"Do you still want to carve the other side?" Gu Mang suddenly asked, "What do you want to carve?"
"Yes." Jiang Yexue said to him, "I want to engrave your Lord's name."
Gu Mang frowned and thought for a while. Just when Mo Xi was impatient and was about to come over and tell him to leave, he suddenly said, "I know who to engrave."
He turned his head to look at Mo Xi: "I engrave you."
Mo Xi: "...What nonsense."
"You are the Lord, and many people call you that."
Mo Xi closed his eyes and frowned, "You are too long-winded, get up quickly and follow me."
"Can't you engrave your name?"
Mo Xi said sternly, "No."
For some reason, he just thought about Gu Mang's neck with the collar engraved with his name on it, and he felt a restless blood heat. He shook his head irritably, as if to shake off a mosquito that was disturbing his cleanliness, then grabbed Gu Mang by the back collar, lifted him up, and said to Jiang Yexue:
"Elder Qingxu, farewell."
Jiang Yexue said, "I'll send you off."
"You have inconvenient legs, no need."
Jiang Yexue smiled and said, "It's nothing, I've already gotten used to it. And I happened to be going to West Street to buy some pine oil. Wait for me, I'll get some money..."
Mo Xi said, "What about your wheelchair? I'll push it for you."
"It's not good to sit all the time, just have a wooden crutch." Jiang Yexue put some broken coins into the Qiankun bag, "Let's go."
The three arrived at the grocery store on the west side of the street. Jiang Yexue asked the shopkeeper to fill him with two pots of pine oil, and was waiting for the boss to come back. : "The shopkeeper! Has all the things ordered by my house arrived last time?"
Then there was another cold and dignified voice: "Yue Chenqing, don't be ridiculous."
They turned around and saw that the person who came in with the wind wrapped in snow was Yue Chenqing, and the one who stepped in was Murong Chuyi in a white robe.
The two groups of people slammed into each other's faces, and they were both a little surprised and stunned.
Especially Murong Chuyi, his fierce phoenix eyes fell on Jiang Yexue, and then narrowed slightly.
Murong Chuyi: "..."
Jiang Yexue: "..."
The atmosphere was quite weird for a while.
You must know that Murong Chuyi's sister is Yue Juntian's main room, and Jiang Yexue's mother is Yue Juntian's concubine. Now both women have passed away, but their two juniors have not shared all kinds of past events. Forget.
Jiang Yexue whispered, "Chu Yi..."
Murong Chuyi said nothing, suddenly turned around and left.
Yue Chenqing hurriedly persuaded: "Fourth Uncle..."
But Murong Chuyi had already lifted the curtain and went out, and a cold and frosty voice came from outside, with a thin anger: "Yue Chenqing, every time I go out with you, nothing good happens."
Yue Chenqing was in a hurry, but she ignored Jiang Yexue's presence and hurriedly stomped her feet and shouted, "Fourth Uncle! I didn't know he was here... Don't go, wait for me..."
Murong Chuyi said, "Don't follow me!"
He said don't follow, Yue Chenqing didn't dare not to listen, so she could only stay on the spot in frustration, looked at each other in dismay, and the atmosphere fell into silence for a while.
Jiang Yexue sighed, and finally decided to break the suffocation first: "...Chen Qing, Chu Yi, he... Has he always treated you like this?"