Chapitre 51: Nu Li
*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*
Qing Fang sat on the floor of his house, his head just inches away from the ceiling.
Since he stood at a massive height of seven meters tall, he was still nearly four meters tall even when he sat in the lotus position as he did now. His wings flapped lightly occasionally which shook the door terribly due to the winds they caused.
Qing Fang's bloody eyes looked down on the pathetic dragonman that was embedded halfway into the earth and spluttered miserably. His shoulder and left side of his ribcage and sternum were completely shattered from the blow Qing Fang had dealt him just now.
"Aargh...master, there was no need for that... Nu Li was just joking...heheh." The dragonman managed to say pitifully as blood dripped from his beak-like maw in small rivers of exotic purple blood.
Qing Fang did not respond but instead had his eyes glued onto the purple blood that was spreading on the floor. He twirled a menacing claw and the blood began to rise sustained from the dirt and flowed directly between Qing Fang's dreadful fangs.
He would not cultivate the blood, but use it to nourish his emaciated body. His skin clung weakly to his bones as there was barely any muscle at all. Qing Fang didn't like the feeling nor the sight and he decided that one of his newer priorities was to also put on some muscle.
He then looked back to Nu Li after savouring the taste of his draconic blood, his eyes pulsing in delight at the delicacy and betraying his stale expression.
"You are a slave, my slave. You don't joke, you serve. Do not be mistaken." Qing Fang said in a painfully apathetic voice that made Nu Li almost want to cry. He almost wanted to go back to his cage instead of serving this monster...
"Yes, master..." Nu Li replied in a pitifully small voice. He did not dare to meet his master's gaze any longer once he saw the taste he had for his blood. It would be different if he served a human, however, his master was more monstrous than even him it seemed.
"Good. Now get up." The dark and ethereal voice came from far above and made Nu Li raise his head pleadingly.
"But-" He tried to speak.
However, before he could utter another word, his pupils shrank to pin-size as a needle of thick blood was right before his eyes. He looked up past the needle and saw the stoic face of Qing Fang looking down on him coldly. The cruel behemoth had a face that seemed scarily animalistic and incapable of showing compassion.
Nu Li lowered his head depressingly and moved his broken body and tried to stand. Luckily his spine hadn't broken or he would just have been unable to. As he stood, his completely shattered shoulder sunk into his torso disgustingly and his arm hung dead from it. His ribs that were shattered were obviously not there as an alarming bulge of what could only be internal organs pushed against the scales from the inside since they weren't held in place!
Nu Li, however, managed to stand as a horrified expression filled his eyes as he felt his body falling apart! He looked up to meet Qing Fang's gaze that was still above his even though he was standing, a feeling of woe in his eyes.
Qing Fang just coldly stared at the dragonman suffering just as he stood. He waited for his slave to give up from the pain, however, Nu Li stood there even as more blood fell from his maw and trickled down his body!
Qing Fang lowered his gaze only after a minute and spoke calmly.
"Alright, you may rest."
As soon as the words were spoken, Nu Li collapsed to the floor and breathed heavily and grunts came from his maw. He brought his hand to his stomach and lightly touched where he felt the pain, however, let out a small screech and pulled his hand away. He could feel his guts moving around in his body painfully as his organs were screaming in pain!
As he clawed at the ground and tried to cope, Qing Fang stood up from his place and disappeared instantly with a loud slam and harsh winds that followed. Nu Li only had hollow eyes as the intelligent being imagined his fate, however, he was incapable of betraying his master due to his brands.
And so, the dragonman wept quietly amidst horrifying pain and the terrifying snarls and wails coming from a hole beside him...
...
Qing Fang flew through the dark sky and cast his eyes down on the slums of the night. Right now, he had no cultivation resources as he had just awoken from his breakthrough into Stage 2. He was eager to storm the early Stages as Qing Fang himself knew that it would take years of seclusion for even one step in the future.
And now, his new slave, Nu Li, had a broken body as the result of Qing Fang taming him. Qing Fang saw it as a necessary process to crush his spirit as soon as Nu Li opened his mouth. He demanded absolute obedience from a lowly slave.
Qing Fang was doing what Nu Li would be doing for him in the future: gathering prey. The dragonman was satisfying higher Stage 3, which would greatly help Qing Fang in gathering human resources. And in the very near future, he planned to amass even more imprinted slaves so he could completely focus on cultivating.
Qing Fang stopped thinking as he looked down to see a group of young cultivators on what seemed to be a mission. They were likely from one of the cultivation academies that he had visited before, or maybe even already part of the City Administration.
What Qing Fang found was that nearly every cultivator would end up being in the City Administration, making the city almost unified if not for the Temple and the Freedom Alliance. But, as always, with a force unmatched, there was always bound to be internal strife.
And Qing Fang guessed that all the Barons that were under the so-called City Lord were at each other's necks with their own personal armies of cultivators.
The group of youths before him comprised four Stage 2s and they seemed to be out to kill. Qing Fang didn't bother waiting around to find out their goal. If only Stage 2s were sent, it was nothing of importance.
With a flash of speed, Qing Fang used his immensely stronger middle Stage 5 body to direct land on two of the cultivators and crush their bodies into two pieces under his weight. Blood and intestines splattered everywhere from the immense force, even onto the two remaining cultivators.
Following that, Qing Fang plucked a screaming youth from the ground and bit off his entire upper torso and chewed it before swallowing. The legs soon followed as Qing Fang ate the entire youth in less than a minute as the headless body of the last cultivator had fallen in the dirty mud.
The only reason Qing Fang ate the flesh was to nourish his emaciated body, the blood of the Stage 2 would later be used in seclusion. The other three bodies were held in only a single hand of Qing Fang's and not a drop of blood was left behind as he started flying back to the house.
He didn't care when Nu Li would heal, he had enough blood to cultivate for two weeks and the slave would surely be healthy by then. At that time, Qing Fang would make him do this sort of grunt work while he tried to maximise his time cultivating.
He would even leave the managing of future slaves to Nu Li if he didn't disappoint Qing Fang's expectations. But that was something that he would have to sit back and observe to find out. The imprinting on the slaves wasn't as intricate as Qing Fang originally thought, it merely prevented the slave from betraying him or his orders. The slave still had a free will which is why he had to discipline Nu Li as he did.
Qing Fang felt the body in his stomach twitch and spasm which made him regret he didn't chew it a bit more, however, the strong stomach acid of his Stage 5 body dissolved the Stage 2 flesh in moments.
He arrived back at the house in moments and promptly crawled through the tiny door, reminded of his need for a new place to live, maybe deeper in the huge chasm where even the city didn't stretch to.
He crawled over the sprawled Nu Li and sat cross-legged in the depression that his first tribulation had caused. The three malformed bodies that were made from five different chunks of bloodied and crushed flesh were thrown into the corner.
However, while the bodies carried on and crashed into the pile of bones that kept on growing, the blood from the flesh seemed to stay in the air and leave the body before flowing neatly towards Qing Fang's maw which opened nearly two-foot-wide!
Nu Li watched on in horror as his master carelessly threw the bodies of young boys and girls, still teenagers, onto a huge pile of bones that he didn't seem to notice before. Flesh that was once worshipped by its owner became useless trash in the hands of a monster. It was chilling. And even though Nu Li was a demi-human as well as a slave, he was not prepared for such cruelty.
Qing Fang drank all the blood that flowed from the three Stage 2's bodies apathetically, his huge throat heaving as most of it was gone in a few mouthfuls.
He felt that all the blood in his stomach was enough for him to cultivate for two weeks restlessly, while the flesh of the boy would nourish his body back to a normal state. As he fixed his posture and began breathing steadily, he glared at Nu Li that happened to be sneaking a glance at him.
Qing Fang spoke to the dragonman after he quickly averted his gaze and focused on healing his shattered body. "I will cultivate now, Nu Li. Wake me if you manage to heal before I wake." After that, Qing Fang closed his eyes and began to shift his focus to the World of Laws.
"Y-yes, master!" Nu Li managed to grunt between his breathless pain.
But what he didn't expect was that Qing Fang would speak without even opening his eyes. "Watch over your master now, I will be trusting you." Once he spoke, a hideous grin crept across Qing Fang's face, baring his sharp jagged canines that were four inches long as well as his four pronounced fangs that were nearly double that.
Seeing the beastly teeth that dwarfed his own draconic ones, Nu Li felt his heart quicken as he felt nervous. He watched his master fall into meditation as his attention left this plane, leaving Nu Li alone.
His tears had long dried and now he only focused on healing his poor body. Since the injuries were not immediately mortal, he would heal just fine given time. With the silence of the night and the roars from the hole quieter than usual, Nu Li felt himself drift into slumber.
...
Qing Fang focused on the World of Laws and let time freely pass him with no regard. He had almost absorbed all of the Stage 2 blood that he had gotten from those youths, and he felt close to breaking through a minor realm already.
His Dao Body which was comprised of the Stage 2 Law of Blood was a lot stronger than when it was Stage 1, and it was much more glamorous. However, the middle Stage 5 Law of Strength coursing through his Dao Body still out-shone the Law of Blood by a huge margin.
Qing Fang kept on absorbing the ownerless Blood Laws that sat in his stomach and, a few days later when there were only a few drops left, Qing Fang felt his Dao Body churn massively as it seemed to cross a boundary of power and breakthrough!
Despite reaching middle Stage 2 successfully, Qing Fang didn't wake from his cultivation and continued to absorb the blood until it was no more, however, a voice called to him before he could reach that point.
Nu Li had watched on in awe as Qing Fang cultivated at a speed that he had never seen before and broken through a minor realm in a little under two weeks! Speed like this was simply monstrous and he could only imagine the amount of affinity that his master had for his path!
However, the dragonman clearly felt that his body had finally healed a few hours after his master broke through. He wasn't overly afraid of waking the slumbering giant as his master had strictly instructed him to wake him once his body had healed. However, as he stood before the white-skinned monster that was still three heads taller than him even when seated, he couldn't help but dryly gulp.
Nu Li was ten feet tall in his own right but his master was just a giant!
"Master!" Nu Li lowly shouted with his head lowered and awaited signs of waking from Qing Fang.
"What is it?" Qing Fang sharply replied, naturally wanting to cultivate for longer if he could. His eyelids slowly slipped back to reveal his huge blood-red irises that looked down maliciously at the slave.
"My body is healed, I awoke you as you ordered." Nu Li said with his head still lowered, showing his loyalty and subservience.
"Hmmm, good. I have a task for you, Nu Li." Qing Fang spoke slowly and gratingly, obviously getting more annoyed with the human tongue as time went on. He had thought of making a new language based on the human tongue, however, it wasn't as simple as that.
"Master." Nu Li responded affirmatively to show he was listening as the deep hellish voice came from above him.
"I want you to go to a black market and purchase some more dragonmen slaves on my behalf. Bring them here to me unimprinted and I will reward you accordingly. Do you understand?" Qing Fang said as his pronounced fangs peeked through his abyssal maw when he spoke.
"I understand, master." Nu Li replied without hesitation. He did not even think about the motives of his master and only acted as a slave should: obediently.
"Good. Take these to use as payment." Qing Fang said as he took his right hand and gripped it onto his black claws before pulling. The claw started moving painfully slowly until it was completely pulled from Qing Fang's finger. However, Nu Li was stupefied as before he looked away, he could see another start to protrude from the wound!
'What healing speed is this?! First, my master injures my body with a swipe of his hand and now his healing speed is hundreds of times more than mine! Is he really a Stage 2 cultivator?!' Nu Li exclaimed in his head as he watched Qing Fang pull three more claws from other fingers and drop them into Nu Li's scaly hands.
'Heavy!!' Nu Li thought as he suddenly felt the aura of the claws assault his senses! The middle Stage 5 strength in them and their cumulative weight of more than eighty kilograms stunned Nu Li into silence as he struggled to think for a moment!
But he seemed to only be able to think one thing once he finally recovered.
'Stage 5! Master is a Stage 5! But how?! He is clearly Stage 2!' Nu Li thought when he was suddenly snapped out of his reverie by Qing Fang's gaze that was only much scarier now.
"Yes, master. Nu Li will leave now." The dragonman said meekly under the behemoth's gaze after which he quickly walked away.
However, he was suddenly stopped when he felt his shoulder grab. Turning around, he saw an arm longer than his body reaching over to grab him.
"Before you go, avoid the black market where you were bought." Qing Fang said and then retracted his arm to continue cultivating what blood remained of those four youths that had disappeared from their families days ago.
...
Nu Li walked quickly away from the house where his master lay and ran to the outskirts of the city. He knew the locations of other black markets as he was moved between them all his life.
With only his master's goal in his mind, Nu Li quickly entered a large slave trade and quickly stated his demands.
"I want unimprinted Stage 3 dragonmen slaves on behalf of my master."
The cultivator behind the desk looked strangely at the towering dragonman. After all, it was not often you see slaves buying slaves.
"Alright, I will need to see proof of wealth so that-" The cultivator was cut off as his jaw dropped when a handful of Stage 5 treasures were dropped onto the desk with a huge thud worthy of their weight.
"This...this..." The cultivator stammered. There were tens of thousands of bronzes worth of treasures before him! He had never seen such wealth in person!
"Right away!" The cultivator screamed before jumping to find someone capable of appraising the worth of the claws.
Nu Li looked around and saw beasts baring their fangs at him menacingly. In response, he opened his maw wide and an orange flame roared from deep within his throat! The sound alone caused the other beasts to avoid eye contact with him, making him smirk.
Soon after, an aged man with dark rings around his eyes came and looked at the claws separately for a few minutes before stating a price to Nu Li.
"I will give you forty thousand for the lot!"
Nu Li smiled as he nodded his head before speaking. "Perfect!"
...
As the night receded and the sun started to break, Nu Li returned to Qing Fang with four unimprinted dragonmen following him obediently. They were all higher Stage 3 slaves and Qing Fang had a wide grin as he looked at Nu Li in a new light. Rewarding him, he tossed the dragon a black claw for him to keep. Nu Li took it graciously and stowed it away.
Imprinting each one of his new slaves, he spoke to them all.
"I have a new task for you. Bring me the blood of as many cultivators as you can! Be sure to stay undetected and only target Stage 2s and lower. Steer clear of danger and prioritise staying hidden."
He looked at their serious faces before speaking once more while exposing his huge and monstrous teeth. "Whoever brings his master the most blood will be given authority as a head slave!"
""Yes, master!""
*3,189/3,000 words*
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