Yang Kai had been living fairly peacefully these past few days, making nothing more than a few secret outings at night.
The guard watching over this place was merely a Qi Movement Realm martial artist who couldn't possibly detect his movements.
After several rounds of probing, Yang Kai discovered that besides the courtyard where he was staying, there were several other similar compounds nearby, all holding quite a few ordinary people who had been captured.
But those people were nothing like the ordinary folks in his courtyard. Many of them had haggard faces and gaunt appearances. Even with lavish meals and medicinal herb treatments every day, they couldn't seem to recover their vitality.
Earth Demon sensed something unusual about these people—they all carried traces of some evil demonic qi on them to varying degrees. This qi hadn't come from their own cultivation; it had been accidentally absorbed. It was this demonic qi that was devouring their life force.
Having uncovered this information, Yang Kai began to form a vague suspicion about what the Cloud Mist Sect was really up to, though he couldn't be completely certain yet.
Half a month after being brought to the Cloud Mist Sect, Yang Kai and the other ordinary people gained a new daily task on top of eating, sleeping, and recuperating.
They had to listen to a Cloud Mist Sect disciple lecture on the subject of medicinal herbs.
Everyone was given a small booklet filled with illustrations and descriptions of all manner of rare spiritual herbs and treasures, along with instructions on how to harvest them. The disciple lectured for one hour each day. Yang Kai studied very diligently—this kind of knowledge would come in handy no matter when or where.
The lectures went on for a full half month.
It had been one month since Yang Kai arrived at the Cloud Mist Sect. In that month, his secret cultivation had actually allowed him to break through once, reaching the second level of the Qi Movement Realm. Without taking any pills, without absorbing any Yang qi—he had achieved this purely on his own. It just went to show how rich and dense the ambient spiritual energy in this place was.
If not for his current unfavorable situation, Yang Kai would have been perfectly happy to stay here and keep cultivating.
One morning, about a month in, the Cloud Mist Sect disciple responsible for guarding this courtyard summoned everyone together.
*Time for the slaughter!* Yang Kai thought to himself.
Piecing together the scattered clues he'd gathered, Yang Kai was certain that the Cloud Mist Sect wanted these ordinary people to go somewhere dangerous to harvest herbs—a place so perilous that even their own sect disciples were unwilling to set foot there.
Sure enough, the Cloud Mist Sect disciple announced in a loud voice: "Everyone, you've all grown much stronger during your month here. This is our sect's gift to you. But there's no such thing as a free meal in this world. If you want to continue enjoying this comfortable life, you'll need to do something for our Cloud Mist Sect. This is also a test for you—as long as you pass, you'll be able to return here and continue living at ease."
The group exchanged uneasy glances, unsure what he was talking about.
"Now follow me." He didn't say much more, and led the whole group outside.
Following the same road they'd taken when first brought to the Cloud Mist Sect, they walked for a full hour before arriving at the seaside, where a large ship was waiting.
Yang Kai noticed that the ship was already crowded with people—these were the ones he'd seen during his nighttime outings. They were all crouching on the deck, and many were trembling, their faces pale with terror.
Once the thirty-some people from their group boarded, the ship held nearly a hundred ordinary people in total. When the ones already aboard looked over at Yang Kai and the others, there was an unmistakable expression of shared misery in their eyes.
"Is everyone here?" asked a middle-aged man whose cultivation had reached the Zhenyuan Realm.
"They're all here."
"Set sail!" The man waved his hand, and the great ship slowly began to move.
At that moment, a voice shrill with terror rang out: "I won't go! I won't go back to that damned place! Please, just let me go! I'll never go there again!"
As he screamed, he stumbled to his feet and charged toward one of the Cloud Mist Sect martial artists, his face twisted in panic while his eyes burned red as if he'd gone mad. When he reached the martial artist, he opened his mouth and lunged to bite him, shouting: "You want me dead? Then I'll kill you first!"
"That man's mind has been consumed by the demonic qi. He's gone insane," Earth Demon's voice echoed in Yang Kai's head.
"Insolent!" The Cloud Mist Sect martial artist clearly had dealt with this kind of thing before. Without even pausing to question the man, he drew the sword at his waist, drove it straight through the man's chest, then kicked him off the ship with one sweeping motion.
From below the ship came the gruesome sounds of demon beasts tearing into a corpse.
Everyone's blood ran cold.
The Cloud Mist Sect martial artist who had killed the man swept a cold gaze across the ordinary people on the ship and barked: "Anyone else who dares cause trouble will be thrown overboard to feed the fish too!"
His killing intent was palpable and his presence overwhelming. Under the weight of his stare, no one dared meet his eyes.
The ship settled into an uneasy silence.
The vessel wasn't heading toward the distant horizon but toward the right peninsula of Cloud Mist Island, hidden behind a veil of clouds and mist. After swinging wide in a large arc, the ship finally reached shore.
While still on board, Yang Kai had already learned what their mission was.
They were to harvest a fruit called the Black Dark Fruit. Yang Kai had heard of it—the Cloud Mist Sect disciple had covered it during one of his lectures two weeks after they'd arrived at Cloud Mist Island. It was on the very first page of the booklet. The fruit was pitch-black, growing in clusters like grapes, and was a specialty found only on Cloud Mist Island. The entire surrounding sea had nowhere else that produced them.
Back when the disciple had lectured on this fruit, he had gone over the information with great gravity, repeating it several times. At the time, Yang Kai hadn't understood why the man was so particular about this particular fruit. Now he finally understood.
The Cloud Mist Sect had captured these ordinary people for one primary purpose: to have them harvest Black Dark Fruit.