Ghu Clan Guest
Yaan's new job started immediately. With his additional corpse trade responsibilities, he would be earning another ten Rank 2 recovery pills each week. Combined with his regular income from the store, this added up to 13 Rank 2 recovery pills every week!
Yaan knew that Ghu Nadda must be earning even more than this; the ten Rank 2 recovery pills that Yaan would be earning was probably only a fraction of what Gu Nadda's clan was paying him. That said, Ghu Nadda's job wasn't easy, he also needed to sort the corpses from the arena, find buyers, and handle the finances.
The following day, Ghu Nadda returned to the store. Yaan was already prepared and gave him a light nod, but he didn't say anything for now. The shopkeeper had told him that if the Ghu Clan youngster showed up, that Yaan should change the sign on the shop to 'closed', then bring him down to the basement below.
The two remained silent as they walked down the stairs side by side, until they reached the basement. At this point, Yaan couldn't help but gasp as he entered this underground world for the first time.
Firstly, this basement was far larger than he had expected! The basement was kept at a freezing temperature to preserve the corpses, whilst it stretched back for a hundred feet, with rows and stacks of bodies lined up like a morgue.
Yaan had wondered why the corpses weren't just kept in spatial rings. As it turned out, spatial rings weren't perfect at preserving corpses, it was better to keep them like this. More importantly though, keeping too many powerful corpses within a spatial ring could cause the space within the ring to collapse. If this were to happen, all of the corpses would be lost into the void.
"Ah, Ghu Nadda, you came. As you can see, Yaan accepted the job." The shopkeeper pulled himself out from a corner where he was arranging a stack of bodies. As always, he got straight to the point, not wasting any time.
"Good." The Ghu Clan young master turned towards Yaan and smiled. Although his smile looked a bit creepy on his sunken and tired face, Yaan somehow wasn't at all bothered by it. It was true that this person looked a bit strange, but Yaan wasn't the judgemental type.
That said, as a Ghu Clansman and corpse trader, he probably wasn't a saint.
Ghu Nadda didn't speak much. After concisely discussing Yaan's new role, Ghu Nadda left the shop with Yaan and they headed towards the nearest battle arena, which was also the young clansman's place of work. He wanted to explain the procedure for collecting corpses to Yaan, and it would be easiest to show him in person.
There were multiple battle arenas in North Ghu City, this one was called the Bloody Arena. It was named as such owing to its reputation as the most bloody arena of all, with the highest death rate out of any of the battle arenas in the city. Yaan had only learned that this was the case very recently, making him feel glad that he didn't enter the arena ignorantly.
A large crowd was gathered outside of the towering circular stadium. Guards were stationed outside to keep everyone in check, ensuring that everyone was queuing up in an orderly fashion.
Ghu Nadda ignored the main entrance and instead led Yaan around the large structure, to the back of the arena. Their destination was a small and inconspicuous door, which was actually guarded just as thoroughly as the main entrance area. The guards seemed to recognise Ghu Nadda, letting him and Yaan pass by without a word.
From the respect these guards showed to Ghu Nadda, Yaan guessed that they were not members of the Ghu Clan, but outside workers.
His assumption was correct. There was no such thing as a Ghu Clansman who worked an ordinary job like this. The only jobs taken on by the Ghu Clansmen, were those pertaining to handling the clan's various businesses. Ghu Nadda's work, selling the corpses from the battle arena, was a perfect example of this.
The Ghu Clan stored their corpses in a similar, but much larger underground basement compared to the store. There was no living person aside from Yaan and Ghu Nadda in this place, giving an eery feeling to the cold dark room.
"This is the basement where we store the corpses. We'll meet here at the same time on the same day of each week…I'll tell the guards to let you pass at this time…you just need to show them this title plate…" He passed Yaan a black metal plate the size of two fingers. The writing across the plate clearly stated, 'Ghu Nadda Guest'.
"This is…your title plate?" Yaan asked curiously.
"When we reach the Qi Temple Realm or equivalent, us Ghu Clansmen can take on some responsibilities and gain a single guest title plate…this plate gives you more authority within the city and will let you come and go from this morgue…"
Yaan stared in shock. Wasn't this really valuable? And Ghu Nadda only possessed a single one of these plates…why was he being so generous? Yaan couldn't help but feel suspicious. His life experiences until now had taught him not to trust anyone so easily.
Not to mention the fact that this person was actually a Qi Temple Realm elder, despite looking like a young man barely in his twenties! Well, actually, Yaan had no idea how old this person truly was, but almost everyone at this realm was an elder…
"No need to look so shocked…" Ghu Nadda smiled wryly. "I'm just trying to establish a relationship with a fellow demon…it's not often that you meet someone from the demonic races…based on your youthful appearance, you must be quite talented…"
Yaan stared blankly for a moment, before his eyes went round in even greater shock.
"Wait, you're a demonic race being?!"
Ghu Nadda showed a blank look in return. He looked lost, and for a moment, he seemed to be unsure about how to reply.
"Uh, yeah…isn't it obvious…?"
"Obvious how?" Yaan frowned, feeling confused. Sure, the pale faced gloomy young man looked a bit odd, but it wasn't so extreme that people would assume that Ghu Nadda wasn't human!
"From the smell, that's how I noticed you…" He replied as if this was only normal, but Yaan felt stumped.
"The smell? I…I don't think that my sense of smell is so amazing that I can tell apart different races." Yaan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Was he a dog?
"Huh, so that's how it is…? I guess this is just a characteristic of my ghoul race…oh, I'm pretty sure that the vampiric race is the same as me, though…" Ghu Nadda seemed to come to a realisation at this moment.
Yaan understood now that despite being from such a renowned clan, this person was also a bit in the dark regarding the demonic races, just like himself.
They shared a bitter smile of mutual understanding in this dark, corpse filled basement. The image of the zombie-like Ghu Nadda and Yaan, a child, surrounded by all these corpses as they stood there amicably, was quite something.
"Yaan…which of the demonic races do you belong to…? You don't need to answer if you don't want to, it's just that I try to learn more about the demonic races whenever I can…" Ghu Nadda asked with a gleam in his deathly cold eyes.
Yaan showed a struggling expression, but in the end, he decided to just tell him. Since this person already knew that he was a demon, it didn't really matter if he knew the specifics.
"I'm a fiend. And you're the first demon I've met." Yaan stated truthfully.
Well, Rui was technically a demon too, but she didn't have a body right now.
"Fiend, I see…that's unexpected…" Ghu Nadda looked a little bit surprised.
"Are fiends uncommon?" Yaan asked curiously.
"Well, I think there should be fiends within the Ghu Clan, since the clan definitely has the Fiend Transformation Technique…usually though, only those mortal clansmen who are on the verge of death attempt to use this technique, since it can bring them back from that brink if they succeed…I didn't realise that anyone outside of the Ghu Clan knew this technique…I guess my world view is still too narrow…"
Yaan thought about his introduction to the Fiend Transformation Technique and subconsciously nodded. Indeed, he had been in a state of near death when he underwent the Fiend Transformation.
After Ghu Nadda mentioned this, Yaan couldn't help but recall something shocking that he had learned about the Ghu Clan during the past month.
This clan would take 1,000 of their young mortal clansmen, place them into a massive arena, and have them fight to the death until there were only 100 remaining. The Ghu Clan was unified through fear and greed, there were no good feelings between the clansmen.
With this in mind, it made sense to teach everyone the Fiend Transformation Technique beforehand. Using this technique was dangerous, but it could actually help one to survive if they had suffered from a mortal wound. Of course, just using a decent recovery pill was a better method with a higher rate of success.
"Your Ghu Clan…no, sorry, I shouldn't-"
"It's fine." Ghu Nadda shook his head slowly. "There are some things I can't speak about, but feel free to at least ask if you're curious…since we know one another's secrets, we can have a sort of trust between us…"
A trust based on the possibility of mutual destruction somehow made Yaan feel more comfortable. He nodded slowly and decided to ask.
"Is your Ghu Clan entirely made up of demonic races?"
"Only partially…the techniques to become a fiend, ghoul and vampiric race member exist within the clan…typically, only the clansmen with no talent attempt these transformations though…in the first place, the demonic transformation techniques were created to provide humans with no cultivation talent the chance to cultivate…if you have talent, it's better to just cultivate normally…"
Yaan understood this point, since Rui had explained it to him clearly. Normal human Qi refining cultivators relied on their talent in refining Spiritual Energy. Without this talent, they would never progress far. The demonic races on the other hand, used alternative methods to cultivate. Because of this, they didn't care about their 'talent'.
As the room descended into silence and Yaan subconsciously sifted through his knowledge regarding the demonic races, he stumbled upon a memory from years ago, when Rui had briefly mentioned a few different races. This memory was about the ghoul race…
"Your ghoul race…" As Yaan spoke, he glanced around the room, before his gaze settled on Ghu Nadda once more. "You eat human flesh to cultivate?"
Ghu Nadda blinked in surprise. He didn't expect Yaan to know this. He scratched his head and laughed wryly as he nodded.
"Right…that's the main reason I took this job…I have so many human cultivator corpses, it's the best free help for my cultivation…truthfully, this is also the reason I took an interest in you…"
Yaan's expression became severe as he stepped back in fright. Ghu Nadda looked confused for a moment, but then waved his hands in front of him and laughed, correcting Yaan's mistake.
"Don't worry, I don't mean that I want to try eating demon flesh…only human flesh is useful to ghouls.…"
Yaan calmed down and nodded lightly.
"Then you mean…?"
"Humans are the natural food source to us ghouls, but this means that humans smell delicious to me…it's impossible for me to take humans seriously, or to form any sort of relationship with them when they smell like food…it's like a wolf trying to get along with sheep…if I spend more than an hour around a human, I'll start to salivate and get the desire to bite down on them…"
His words were somewhat eery, but Yaan could hear the loneliness in his voice. This feeling was one that he was all too familiar with.
This feeling had always been with him, but the longer Yaan lived, the deeper this feeling grew…
Seeing that familiar emotion flash through Yaan's eyes, Ghu Nadda sighed, showing an expression of understanding.
"Ghu Clansmen are unable to trust one another until we reach the Spirit Core Realm or Demon Core Realm, at which point we're banned from killing one another…before this point though, killing each other is actually encouraged, so we tend to keep our distance for the most part…such is the life of a demon…"
Demonic path cultivators were not immune to loneliness, in fact, they would often be the most lonely people in this world. To walk the path of a demon was to embrace loneliness as your resolve. Of course, knowing this didn't make it any easier.