lesson

A few dozen hundred metres away, Ji Li was eating relaxedly with his brother as he was discussing and teaching them "Shixuan, Qianyu, we will be going back soon. I am sure that there won't be much to do, the recruitment has been finished, we earned someone that is pretty talented in jewellery. 

Rong Xi is a nice extra… his ability is to accumulate minerals in an area, which is pretty good considering his clan, it will probably call forth many good things for the city, and I expect that it will only take three years for the small city to become a medium sized. That should be around the time a large competition will be held again here.

We should come back for the large competition and announce the city to be medium sized. Rong Xi won't be advancing anytime soon, and we are also too far away from being able to take over the town as the lord, so we will be needing to look for a compatible person.

So, since most things have been fixed for now, and there is nothing for us to do, I want you both to advance. I know that you have been working hard in your cultivation, but you slacked off in the training of several arts. We will have to work on that."

Both brothers shivered when they thought of how their big brother would normally teach them, and they could only see the fault in themselves, as they truly neglected many studies and thought they would pass the exam anyways. That was the truth, but the judgement of their big bro was much more important than the exam. If he said they needed to learn, then they needed to learn.

The trio spend some more time enjoying the local food, which was pretty greasy and full of nutrition, apparently fit to the style of smiths that could only take some time to eat and spend most of their day inside a heating chamber that exhausted a lot of their energy.

…

Rong Xi visited the next day, wanting to report. He originally wanted to go prior, but the Yi family young master had only left in the evening, and he didn't want to disturb his lord so late. The issue came when he arrived at the Branch Yard and the one that greeted him was a servant.

The servant had sweat drenching his back and he didn't dare talk recklessly while also being very obedient as he said that the lords weren't to be disturbed until they left seclusion. Truthfully, all three just went to sleep and relax for some more time while they cultivate their temperament.

Rong Xi understood that the diligent eunuchs had much to do and weren't too interested in usual happenings, as he understood that he was just too excited. But now that he was there, he wondered as he asked "Where is the steward? I have not seen him for some time. Is he doing something under the order of the lords? Shouldn't he be the one to greet me?"

The servant sweated even heavier, and his forehead soon became a mirror while he stared at the ground, not daring to look up, which made Rong Xi even more confused. Rong Xi saw that the servant couldn't wake up and move from his position, as if he was just a stone statue of a bowing man.

The town chief went around and asked other servants, until one finally managed to point at the direction of the servant building before also freezing from the internal stress. It was very abnormal for humans to be in such a state, even more if they were servants of the Eunuch Palace, that never treated its servants bad, so they shouldn't have too bad of an experience.

Rong Xi just moved towards the servant building, thinking that there might be something scary, or that the steward was currently cultivating there, which caused the non-cultivating servants to think that gods and demons descended or something like that.

He couldn't have been more right, gods and demons truly had descended, but not in the form one would think they would, but in the form of gruesome ice statues. There were several ice statues that just stood in the middle of the servant buildings ground floor.

There was a tall man in the middle with two flowers blooming from his hands that were stretched into to different directions, he was in a running motion that seemed very hurried, while his face was full of shock. His eyes wide open as they looked sideways while his mouth was slightly open, as if whispering something. If one didn't see the barely visible ice, they would think that the man was running in front of you and telling you that there was a monster just behind them.

The scene would have shocked Rong Xi, because the person was the steward, but he would have calmed down after just a few moments. He would have been able to do so, if there weren't ten other shorter figures that had the tip of their fingers each touch the peak of a thorn of the flower's vines.

They had the form of trying to push themselves away from the statue by stomping at the ground, they back curled to pull away the upper body with the help of the lower body. But alas, their fists were curled and crushed as if a force was pressing down on it, while the fingers were straight.

The fingers that touched the thorns seemed to have forcefully been placed there. Together, the ten figures surrounding the one taller made them look like a beautiful flower in itself from above, but alas… to Rong Xi, it only made his skin crawl and have the urge to run away.

There was residue energy in the air that made the room cold, and no servant was in sight, seemingly to hide away from the statues. These were the quarters, and the servants had to live in them, or they'd stay on the streets, which they absolutely couldn't as servants of the Eunuch Palace.

But because of their education, they had to go by the statue's day in day out, seeing the harrowing scene again and again, being reminded of the mistakes they did. It seemed that it was a warning to all of them – the Eunuch Palace's generosity came at a price, and everyone that went against their rules would understand that fact very well.

Rong Xi needed several minutes to calm down his fast-beating heart, telling it that he wasn't in danger, although the scene made it seem like he was in a desert alone on the verge of dying. He calmed down, brave as he still had to protect his clan.

After some time, he finally managed to do so and went out. He looked for the servant that pointed him the way earlier and found that the servant had a pretty high fortitude, for he was sitting on the ground, calming down himself, reminding himself that it was over.

Seeing this, Rong Xi waited, as he knew that the situation that brought him to feel such dread, would be even worse for those that were of lower cultivation. But he also knew that they should slowly be used to it, so he couldn't stop himself.

He asked solemnly "Who did that to the steward… and those servants?"

The servant looked up and spoke slowly "We do not know; all we know is that the Steward was carried out of the main building by the esteemed lord eunuch. He was positioned in the middle of the servant hall, and then all servants were called to gather.

Everyone saw the steward and felt dreadful, some even tried to run away, which was futile because the other guards stopped them. One of the esteemed Junior Eunuchs that came with the lord eunuch told us that the steward made a grave mistake, which was taking bribes.

He asked for all servants that helped the steward and didn't report to the lord steward, to which none answered. They took the servants that tried to flee and started beating them, threatening them that those that didn't talk up would experience even worse torture."

The servant had a hard time breathing, so he stopped shortly before he continued "All servants were shocked, no one could answer to the question. But in the end, after more beating, seven stepped up and said that they went out, together with the three servants that were being beaten.

The guards took all ten of them and forced them to touch the statue that gave a weird and cold energy after the esteemed Junior Eunuch put small Essence Crystals amid the flowers. The energy emitted made the breath of everyone freeze, making all servants shiver.

Slowly, as the servants' fingers were pierced by the thorn, they lost the energy to move and slumped down slightly, still being held up by the guards. The freezing was made one after another, and all the servants tried to run away and defend themselves, but it was futile."

The servant took another break, continuing only after his eyes stopped webbing "The esteemed Junior Eunuch said finally that it was our fault for not seeing who the leader was. The steward was only a hand to the body, while the servants that followed him were the fingers. No matter what, when the finger freezes and falls off, the fingers naturally follow.

He told us that there were thousands of hands the Eunuch Palace had, and all of them were treated well, but there were even more hands that fell off because they didn't know their position. He told us to understand that we were but servants, and servants were treated as such, no more no less."