Slander

"Leave me alone!"

Huan Wei shouted towards the Black Void. He could feel thousands of eyes watching him. He shouted towards them as his feet stepped on the void. "I'm tired of this stupid nightmare!"

The voices mocked him.

"He thinks he's going to get out," they said, laughing.

"He wants a way out."

"His confidence has grown."

"No, he's just a helpless child who still cries in his heart."

Huan Wei did not want to listen to this. He closed his ears, but the voices seemed to echo in his mind. He couldn't stop hearing them.

So he started running. As he ran, the sounds of laughter grew louder. It was getting into his soul. He ran for minutes without seeing ahead, listening to their laughter. But he got nowhere.

"He is trying to run away from the all-encompassing Black Void."

Huan Wei stopped. "You know what," he said. "I don't think you can do anything to me. If you could, you would have done it in the first place."

"Confidence."

"Courage."

"Heart."

"And fear..."

"Nothing is hidden from us."

"We know who you are."

"And what you've done."

Huan Wei suddenly opened his eyes. Sweat beads the size of hazelnuts formed on his forehead. He was breathing in and out deeply. It was late at night. Everyone was asleep.

He had spent almost a week here as a slave. During the day he had gathered herbs and protected those who were bullied. He had a good reputation among the slaves. He had done what Ding Enlai could not.

The bandits also benefited. Instead of whipping people, they now got more herbs because everyone filled their own quota. So no one said anything to Huan Wei.

The bandit group often fought natural monsters. The slaves collected herbs for them and bandits took things from the corpses of the monsters they killed at night. Huan Wei was really curious about this group's earnings for a month.

They didn't need that much money since they were feasting on what they took from him. Considering that the things they had taken off Huan Wei would probably cost 10 or 15 gold coins, they must have been earning very well.

Huan Wei wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve. Every time he slept, he felt more and more trapped. There was something about the dream world that frightened him. People forgot most of the dreams they had. Huan Wei remembered every inch of this place they called the Black Void. And how it made him feel.

"Damn..." he said to himself. He wished he had some water with him. Or to be able to get up and wash his face. Yet the metal collar around his neck wouldn't let him. The cage was already locked.

He turned his head and looked where the bandits were staying. He could see the cage where they kept the women. They were all naked. There were only four of them. Each one cowered in a separate corner. They looked miserable. It was clear they couldn't sleep.

At that moment a bandit came from the forest. There is a woman with him. He grabbed her by the arm, pulled her, pushed her into the cage and locked the door again. He straightened his pants and went to his own tent. He was content. But Huan Wei could see that she was crying.

He turned away. He didn't want to be pathetic. He wanted to get rid of this identity that had been put on him. He wanted people to recognize him as a strong man. He wanted his reputation to reach back to his father. He wanted Huan Chao to see that he was wrong.

If Huan Chao could see him now... He was in a lower state than he'd ever been in his entire life. He couldn't get up and leave even if he had to use the restroom. Yet there was nothing he could do at that moment. He would surely get out of here. He would prove to the world and to fate the opposite of what they believed in. He just needed time. Just a little more time...

He waited in silence until the sun came out. He had already realized that he could not sleep. As much as he wanted to quiet his mind, he couldn't stop thinking about the times he hunted moles in the forest. Huan Chao was his biggest worry then.

The door of the cages opened and all the slaves lined up side by side again. Yun Ying was controlling them again. The slender woman controlled the other half of the slaves. Huan Wei learned that her name was Lan Xifeng. She was at least as cruel as Yun Ying. She enjoyed whipping the slaves even if they had done nothing wrong.

Yun Ying gave Ding Enlai his medicine, as he did every morning. Then he showed them the herb to pick and ordered them to get to work.

Huan Wei noticed a method they used. Yun Ying, Lan Xifeng and Ou Yu would move to different places when the herbs were to be harvested and take out a piece of paper. After the piece of paper with various symbols on it was ignited by their energy and burned away, a strange sensation filled the entire area. But they didn't encounter any natural monsters until the herb gathering was over. The monsters would appear in the evening or during the journey. Huan Wei wondered what those papers were.

He asked Lei Lok while they were picking herbs. "Do you know what these papers are? I've never seen them before."

Lei Lok answered without looking in that direction. "Talismans," he said. "They are quite famous in Broken Mountain Town. Everyone from commoners to powerful cultivators buy them."

"So talismans..." Huan Wei couldn't understand how a piece of paper could keep monsters away. It had to do with the symbols on it. If these things were so famous in Broken Mountain Town, why were there none in Bitter Sea Town?

He threw a few more plants into his bag. Time was passing fast. At that moment, a man came up to him and suddenly hugged him. Huan Wei pushed him away in surprise, but he continued to hug him with all his might.

"Thank you for saving me. Cao Jingguo was bullying me. I haven't even counted how many days I haven't eaten properly."

Huan Wei softened a little. "I understand, you're happy. But don't hug me so suddenly."

This was sometimes annoying. The slaves had come to love Huan Wei too much for protecting them. Cao Jingguo and his friends were now the minority. They could not get close to anyone.

"Now go back to gathering herbs. Otherwise you will be punished."

The man bowed his head and greeted him again. "As you wish," he said, and left and went back to his work.

Lei Lok laughed again. "You are very popular around here now."

Huan Wei continued to pick herbs without answering. It made his blood boil to be used as a farmer. But it would be worth it as long as the plan went ahead.

When evening came, everyone gave the herbs to the leader's men, Yun Ying and Lan Xifeng. As Huan Wei handed them all over, Cao Jingguo called out to Yun Ying.

"Master Yun Ying, I saw Huan Wei put one of the herbs in his pocket."

As Huan Wei looked at him, a lightning bolt flashed in his mind. Of course... Of course Cao Jingguo wasn't going to accept defeat like that. Sometimes it was Huan Wei's fault for forgetting that other people had brains too.

Huan Wei looked at the man hugging him while Cao Jingguo laughed at him. The man turned his head away in fear.

Yun Ying put her hand into Huan Wei's pockets one by one and took out a flower with the stem cut off from one of them.

"This is not mine." Huan Wei tried to explain. "Today that man over there suddenly hugged me. He must have put it in my pocket."

"You need a hug, we get it." Yun Ying took out her whip. "Hanging out with stupid Enlai didn't do you any good."

The other slaves retreated away from him, leaving only Ding Enlai by his side. He was looking at Yun Ying. "The kid said someone else put it there."

Yun Ying gave him a stern look, then signaled to the people behind her. A few men came over, forced Ding Enlai to the ground and began beating him with iron clubs. The man wanted to fight back, yet the effects of the medicine prevented him from reacting in time. Soon he was covered in bruises. He was thrown unconscious into the cage and chained to the bars. Lei Lok and Jiao Bai couldn't even say anything.

Huan Wei was in position to defend himself when two people grabbed him by the arms and turned him around. They tore his clothes open, exposing his back. Yun Ying waved the whip several times and frightened the slaves with its sound.

"The men stole the flower and put it in my pocket! Can't you see that!?"

"I'll tell you what I saw." Yun Ying waved the whip once more. "A thief. And everyone knows what we do to thieves."

As she began to whip Huan Wei, the young man's cry of pain made Cao Jingguo smile.