High Martial: I Use Everything as Swords

[Status: Memory Replaced, Divine Soul Imprinted, Identity set to ’miner’, Bound by the rules of Ping’an County.]

It had changed!

It went from "Unbound" to "Bound"!

He watched as the student named Zhou Ping accepted a wooden tablet and two black, coarse buns.

The numbness and fear on his face actually faded slightly, replaced by an almost grateful subservience.

It was as if he had truly become one of the Floating People who had found work and could finally fill his stomach.

A brawny man with a fleshy face and a whip in his hand walked over.

He kicked Zhou Ping in the backside.

"What are you dawdling for? Eat, eat, eat, that’s all you know! Get your ass moving and follow me. If you don’t dig enough today, you won’t be getting any dinner!"

Zhou Ping stumbled from the kick, but instead of resisting, he quickened his pace, wolfing down the coarse buns. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

He fell in line behind the man called "Wang."

Han Feng finished his bitter tea, left without paying a single coin, and silently followed them.

He trailed the newly recruited team of "miners" through most of the county, arriving at the foot of a desolate mountain to the west.

Here, there was a massive mine entrance, pitch-black, with cold wind gusting out from it intermittently.

Over a hundred "miners" were already gathered near the entrance.

Han Feng recognized several familiar faces among them; they were all students who had entered the Secret Realm with him.

Just like real miners, they mechanically received their tools under the supervisors’ harsh shouts and lined up to enter the mine.

Han Feng didn’t get any closer. Instead, he stood behind a distant rock and activated [Spiritual Vision].

In his vision, that was no mine at all.

It was a gigantic vortex of Energy!

Countless grayish-black threads extended from the depths of the mine, wrapping around every "miner" who entered.

Those threads were slowly but surely extracting the Spiritual Energy from their bodies!

Han Feng used [All Things Identification] on the mine again.

[Target: Illusion Realm Trap·Soul·Stripping Mine]

[Information: One of the core Energy nodes of the Illusion Realm. The Divine Souls of ’miners’ who enter this place will be continuously extracted until they are depleted and perish. This process is defined by the rules as ’labor’ and will not generate resentment.]

’What a Soul-Stripping Mine!’

’And what "labor"!’

Han Feng’s knuckles turned white as he clenched his fists.

Inside his newly formed Dao Vein, the silvery-white Sword Essence surged uncontrollably, letting out a low hum.

He finally understood the Blood Feeding Sect’s vicious methods completely.

This "Ping’an County" Illusion Realm was an elaborately designed Soul Farm!

The Blood Feeding Sect used the Illusion Realm’s rules to turn the Spiritual Bodies of all the students dragged into this place into homeless Floating People, living a precarious, hand-to-mouth existence.

Then, in the name of the "Government," they would offer a helping hand, granting them "household registration" and "jobs."

This made them willingly accept their new identities.

Once they accepted, they transformed from "guests" into "slaves" of this Illusion Realm.

They were firmly bound by the rules.

Finally, under the guise of "labor," their every last shred of Divine Soul Power was brazenly drained.

Throughout this entire process, the students wouldn’t resist in the slightest. They would even feel grateful for having food to eat and work to do.

Dust filled the air at the West Mountain Mine.

The CLANG CLANG of pickaxes striking rock, the supervisors’ crude curses, and the miners’ heavy panting all mingled together.

Han Feng hid in the shadow of a giant boulder in the distance, like a leopard lying in wait.

His icy gaze pierced through the clamor, locking onto the mine entrance.

His five senses were completely out of sync with this world.

He couldn’t smell the stench of sweat, nor could he feel the grit of the wind-blown sand.

Everything within the Range of his Divine Sense was just cold Energy.

He activated [Spiritual Vision].

The world before him was instantly stripped of color, transforming into a grayscale tableau composed of countless lines of Energy.

Each of the "miners" he had identified as students had several faint, nearly invisible gray threads wrapped around them.

The other end of these threads was rooted deep in the back of their heads.

With every swing of a pickaxe, with every breath, a tiny stream of Spiritual Energy—thinner than a strand of hair—was siphoned away along the gray threads.

It flowed into the massive Energy vortex deep within the mine.

The process was slow and subtle.

If not for his [Spiritual Vision] combined with his Spiritual Strength of over seven hundred, it would have been completely undetectable.

There was no pain on the "miners’" faces, only the numbness that came from day after day of hard labor.

They would even look grateful when a supervisor occasionally tossed them a black, coarse bun.

Han Feng’s heart grew colder than the rock beneath his feet.

’This is even crueler than killing them outright.’

’It’s grinding away their Will, draining their souls, and finally letting them fade into nothingness in a state of "peace." ’

His gaze didn’t linger on the miners. Instead, he followed the extracted Spiritual Energy, tracing its path.

He discovered that this Energy wasn’t being directly consumed by the mine.

It was silently channeled through the pickaxes in the miners’ hands and infused into the ore they were digging.

Most of the ore would only glow for a moment before the Energy dissipated.

But there were always a few pieces that locked the Spiritual Energy firmly inside, turning a deep gray.

Under his [Spiritual Vision], they emitted an ominous light.

Just then, the supervisor known as "Wang" came swaggering over, whip in hand.

He kicked at the pile of ore by a miner’s feet, as if sorting through it.

Soon, he bent down, picked up a deep gray piece of ore, weighed it in his hand, and a satisfied smile spread across his face.

A thought flashed through Han Feng’s mind.

[All Things Identification]!

[Target: Soul Essence Ore]

[Information: An Illusionary Creation containing pure Divine Soul Power.]

Wang carefully placed the piece of Soul Essence Ore into a leather pouch hanging at his waist.

Over the next half-hour, he proceeded to pick out a dozen more similar pieces of ore from the output of over a hundred miners.

That ore was the Divine Soul Power siphoned from a hundred students in half an hour!

As noon approached, Wang emptied the dozen or so pieces of Soul Essence Ore from his pouch into a lead-gray metal box that was about a foot square.

[Target: Spirit-Blocking Lead Box]

[Information: Forged from high-purity Illusionary Lead. Can block internal Energy detection and prevent the dissipation of Divine Soul Power.]

Han Feng suddenly understood. No wonder he hadn’t sensed such immense Divine Soul Power in the city earlier—it had been blocked by this thing.

Before long, two Government Officials on horseback, with broadswords at their waists, arrived at the mine.

Wang immediately put on a fawning expression, bowing and scraping as he handed over the lead box.

One of the Government Officials opened the lid, glanced inside, and nodded in satisfaction.

He then locked the box and hung it by his saddle.

The two of them turned their horses around and, without a word, rode straight for the county.

Their final destination was, once again, the County Magistrate’s Office.

Watching the backs of the two departing Government Officials, the killing intent in Han Feng’s eyes became almost tangible.

He had finally pieced together the entire murderous chain of this Illusion Realm.

Intimidation using the "Floating People" identity.

Bestowing favors in the name of the "Government."

Binding them with "household registration" documents.

And finally, brazenly harvesting their souls under the guise of "labor."

’What a Ping’an County!’

Han Feng stepped out from behind the rock, not sparing the mine another glance.

He knew that to break this trap, the key wasn’t the deluded miners, nor was it the mine itself.

It was the all-consuming County Magistrate’s Office, and the person hiding behind the scenes who had created all the rules!

He had to get inside the County Magistrate’s Office.

But he couldn’t get captured as one of the "Floating People" like Wang Meng and the others.

Once he was registered in their records, it would be like putting a yoke around his own neck.

He returned to the county and once again stood before the imposing government estate.

This time, he used his Spiritual Vision.

Han Feng could clearly "see" an invisible Power of Rules.

It was like a gigantic, transparent dome, covering the entire Government Office and the surrounding area for several hundred meters.

This power was exclusionary in nature.

Any life form that did not belong to this "rule" would be suppressed the moment it set foot inside.