ng Jueyan shook her head slowly.
"We were separated after the first day. I did not see most of them again. But I saw so in the market. They were bought by disciples. So were killed for resisting. So are still in the Slave District being prepared. Many did not survive the conditioning."
Her voice lowered to a whisper.
"For so, dying was better than living."
Han Yu felt his chest tighten painfully. Not just from fear for his friends, but from the horror of what they had all gone through. He almost asked about Wu Shuan. About Duan. About others. But he stopped himself.
ng Jueyan noticing patterns might expose him.
He forced himself to nod coldly.
"Good. You answered well. That is all I needed to know."
She bowed her head again, obedient and quiet. But her remaining eye held a tired, haunted expression.
Xuan Qing remained motionless in the corner, watching without emotion.
Han Yu stood there between them, his heart heavy.
One woman had lost her mind.
The other had kept hers, only to have it drowned in suffering.
And he did not know which fate was worse. But he did know one thing, he would not let either of them remain like this, he owed them both freedom. And he would save the others too.
Even if it cost him everything.
Han Yu forced himself to steady his breathing and shifted the conversation before ng Jueyan began wondering why he cared so much about the past. He let out a faint scoff and spoke in Ju Fan’s flat, cold tone.
"Enough. That is not what I brought you for. From now on, you will help with my work. You will do basic tasks for alchemy and puppetry when needed. If you perform poorly, you will be punished. If you perform well, you will get food and rest. Understand."
ng Jueyan lowered her head quickly.
"This slave understands."
Her voice was a hoarse whisper.
Fear trembled under every word. This ti, Han Yu felt a faint trickle of Grey Fear energy from her, and it punched him in the chest. Even though she still had her mind, she had been conditioned into flinching at authority. He hated it, but he could not break the disguise. Not yet.
He studied her for a mont. Despite the scars, the broken nose, the hollow cheekbones, and the half-healed wounds on her arms, her posture was straight. She was damaged but not destroyed. She was still ng Jueyan inside.
Han Yu cleared his throat lightly.
"Do you know alchemy? Any skill at all?"
ng Jueyan hesitated.
"I know poisons. I studied poisons for assassination work in my sect. I understand the theory behind concoctions, antidotes, counter agents and so on. But I cannot produce anything. I am crippled. I cannot circulate Qi or heat a cauldron. I cannot purify ingredients."
Han Yu frowned. He expected as much, but hearing it out loud irritated him.
Not at her, but at what they had done to her. Her Dantian was damaged. Her body would not recover without extraordinary resources and techniques. He could not even attempt to heal her until he understood more about curse marks and blood seals.
"For now," he said. "Can you sort herbs? Grind them. Peel them. Count them. Keep them organized."
ng Jueyan nodded quickly, nearly stumbling forward.
"Yes, I can. I can do all that. I can morize ingredients. I can identify them by sll and touch. I can prepare them. I can do anything that does not need Qi."
Han Yu felt a wave of relief. That was enough for now. Enough for her to be useful without forcing her to rely on her crippled cultivation.
"Good," he said bluntly. "Follow ."
He walked deeper into the cave, gesturing toward the alchemy area.
The so-called alchemy area was really just half the cave cramd with cauldrons, racks of herbs, boxes of materials, containers, arrays drawn on the ground, and several shelves that Han Yu had constructed on his own.
Xuan Qing sat quietly in her usual corner, expression blank and posture unmoving.
When ng Jueyan saw the variety of materials and tools Han Yu kept lying around, she blinked in surprise. It looked far more like a real alchemist workshop than a cave. She followed him silently as he handed her a stack of dried herbs.
"You will start by organizing the Blood Gooseberries, the Blood Thorn Nettles, and the Spirit Fenugreek Seeds," Han Yu said. "Separate them by quality. Remove impurities. Wash the gooseberries and dry them. Grind the nettles. Put the seeds into small containers. Do not mix anything."
ng Jueyan quickly knelt before the tools and began working. Her movents were clumsy at first, but she was careful. She sorted each herb with a seriousness that surprised Han Yu. Even her ruined eye glimred faintly with concentration.
Han Yu stepped back and watched.
His cave was starting to feel too small.
Between his alchemy equipnt, stacks of materials for puppet crafting, the manuals and scrolls he was collecting, and now two slaves, the space felt suffocating. He had already tripped a few tis on cauldron stands that were too close together.
Xuan Qing barely took any space since she rarely moved, but ng Jueyan was alive and active, and that changed the atmosphere entirely.
’This will get botherso...’ He let out a quiet sigh.
A larger cave would solve all these issues. One with an alchemy room and separate chambers. Maybe even one with an actual bed and not just the stone one with a mattress Ju Fan once slept on.
He had checked the listings. The lowest tier larger caves cost thirty thousand rit points. He could buy that within a few weeks. But it was not much bigger. If he was going to move, he wanted sothing worthwhile.
A cave with two bedrooms. A proper alchemy chamber. A storage room. A clean area for puppet crafting. Enough room that Xuan Qing would not sit in the sa space every day like a forgotten doll.
He wanted that. But it was expensive.
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