Inside Underground Spirit-Vein Slag Pit Number Four, the air was so thick with burning sulfur dust and roasted coal ash that an ordinary mortal would have coughed up blood after three breaths.
Thirty feet above the cavern floor, the exposed underside of the Supreme Sword Sect’s primary spirit vein hung like a jagged crystal stalactite. Dripping foul black mineral slag where Holy Son Chu Tian’s illegal extraction pipes had tapped straight into the mountain’s marrow.
Beneath that dripping black pipe sat a spiked cage of Rank 5 Cold-Marrow Steel no larger than a dog crate.
Two men in the black-and-white Yin-Yang robes of the Supreme Sword Beast-Taming Hall stood outside the cage door around a glowing charcoal brazier.
The tall, gaunt man with a scar across his nose was Elder Hei , at Rank 5 Early. The short, fat man drinking spiced wine from a silver flask while holding a coiled barbed whip was Elder Bai , at Rank 5 Early.
“Bah, look at this lazy little beast,” Elder Bai spat a mouthful of wine onto the stone floor. Kicked the iron bars of the cage with his steel-toed boot, making the whole crate rattle violently. “Three years ago when the Sect Master bought her from the border slave-traders for ten spirit stones, she could still chew through five thousand pounds of raw sulfur slag a night.
