Inside the Stars.h.i.+p power room, the young man who called himself Shen Tu wore a dumbfounded look, seemingly never having expected Yang Kai would frame him by planting stolen goods.

Immediately, he opened his mouth to defend himself, but when he saw the Saint Crystal in his hand, Shen Tu suddenly knew that anything he said would be useless.

With yellow mud smeared on his pants, no one would believe him if he said it wasn’t s.h.i.+t.

Understanding all this, he ignored Ke Meng’s fierce gaze as well as Yang Kai’s sinister behaviour and decisively closed his eyes while tightly gripping the Saint Crystal in his hands, madly circulating his Secret Art to refine the energy within it.

In that instant, he was like a starving beggar who was only concerned about having a last meal before he died.

This time it was Yang Kai’s turn to stare dumbfounded.

“Boy, you dare cause trouble on my watch? Your courage isn’t small!” Ke Meng sneered, rus.h.i.+ng over to Shen Tu and thoroughly beating him.

He used a very heavy hand and the words he spat clearly indicated he didn’t care whether Shen Tu lived or died.

However, Yang Kai was keenly aware that Ke Meng was avoiding any critical damage to Shen Tu and was only causing him a great deal of non-lethal pain.

Obviously, he didn’t want to kill any of the cultivators here powering the Stars.h.i.+p.

Ke Meng sneered as he continued dis.h.i.+ng out this beating, insults and curses flying from his lips the whole time.

Shen Tu didn’t say anything or even attempt to resist, his face distorting in pain but still focusing all his attention on refining the piece of Saint Crystal, seemingly vowing not to surrender until he had absorbed every last bit of energy from it.

Yang Kai’s expression became thoughtful as his impression of Shen Tu underwent some subtle changes.

This guy’s performance a moment ago had thoroughly disgusted Yang Kai, but now it was undeniable that this youth had great fort.i.tude and strength of spirit.

After a while, Ke Meng stopped his attack and after delivering a quick reprimand, turned around and left.

He didn’t take away the Saint Crystal held by Shen Tu, as if he was tacitly approving of him owning it; however, the price Shen Tu had paid for this piece of Saint Crystal was high, Ke Meng had beaten him black and blue, breaking his nose and causing blood to spill from his mouth.

Gazing at Ke Meng’s back which was disappearing into the darkness, Shen Tu wiped his mouth and a cold light flashed across his eyes.

Glancing over at Yang Kai next, he lightly sneered.

The piece of Saint Crystal in his hand, because of his unrestrained absorption just now, had lost much of its energy and grown dim.

A few breaths later, this piece of Saint Crystal directly turned into dust, which slid from Shen Tu’s palms.

Yang Kai narrowed his eyes slightly at this sight.

The energy contained within that Saint Crystal was quite vast, so Shen Tu being able to refine it completely in such a short period of time fully ill.u.s.trated that the Secret Art he cultivated wasn’t simple.

Yang Kai casually threw another piece of Saint Crystal over to him.

This time, Shen Tu didn’t pick it up, instead just directing a cold stare towards Yang Kai, clear vigilance upon his face as he smirked, “Trying to use the same trick twice? You think I’m a fool?”

Yang Kai did not pay attention to him, closed his eyes, and began meditating.

Shen Tu stared at him for a while but soon became bored and decided to no longer waste his energy on this person, turning away and ignoring the piece of Saint Crystal at his feet.

Time pa.s.sed slowly.

The next day, Ke Meng distributed two pieces of Saint Crystal to each of the shackled cultivators, Yang Kai included.

After Shen Tu received these two pieces of Saint Crystal, he immediately began refining them, supplementing the excessive consumption of the previous day.

A short time later, the two Saint Crystals shattered.

Shen Tu let out a sigh, a half-full feeling filling his heart as he licked his lips. At that moment, he took another glance towards the piece of Saint Crystal that Yang Kai had thrown over to him yesterday and inevitably became somewhat tempted.

He desperately wanted to take it, but he was worried that Yang Kai would once again call Ke Meng; struggling between his fears and desires, he couldn’t help cursing Yang Kai for his shamelessness.

Shutting his eyes after a moment, he did his best to ignore this piece of forbidden fruit.

This pattern continued for several days.

As more and more time pa.s.sed, Shen Tu felt that the strength in his body was becoming weaker and weaker. His Saint Qi was constantly being siphoned away and he couldn’t obtain enough resources to make up for the loss. Soon he couldn’t even maintain his healthy condition and gradually began looking like all the others around him.

His image formed a sharp contrast with the nearby Yang Kai.

In addition to the dozen or so pieces of Saint Crystal that Ke Meng had first given to Yang Kai, he also got two more pieces each day. During this time, Yang Kai had also deliberately asked Ke Meng for some more.

Of the Saint Crystal’s he obtained, Yang Kai used less than half to maintain a balance with his consumption while the rest were quietly hidden by him inside the Demon Mystic Tome in case of emergencies.

Ke Meng never rejected his requests; it seemed that because of Yang Kai’s ‘special’ relations.h.i.+p with Bi Ya, Ke Meng didn’t want to make things difficult for him. Not only did Ke Meng supply Yang Kai with a generous amount of Saint Crystals whenever he asked, he even provided a couple of Saint Pills which helped Yang Kai maintain his physical strength and spirit in case Bi Ya suddenly returned.

Seeing this every day caused Shen Tu’s eyes to go red with envy. The look he gave Yang Kai was also quite disdainful now. In his mind, the latter was a gigolo who was depending on a woman to eat.

A few more days later, Shen Tu’s condition deteriorated.

He felt that if he couldn’t obtain more resources soon, his current realm would be in danger of falling.

When he realized just how critical the situation was, Shen Tu couldn’t bother worrying anymore and, after refining his daily supply of two Saint Crystals, finally reached out and took the one Yang Kai had tossed over to him.

After picking this piece of Saint Crystal up, Shen Tu carefully observed Yang Kai’s reaction, but what surprised him was that even after he finished refining it, Yang Kai didn’t say a word, much less try to frame him like he had the first time.

Just as Shen Tu’s tense expression finally relaxed, another piece of Saint Crystal flew over and landed in front of him.

Shen Tu frowned, reaching out to take it while shooting Yang Kai a questioning look and whispering, “What are you up to?”

“Nothing much. In any case, I have a lot of Saint Crystals, more than I can use up,” Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders.

Shen Tu’s mouth twitched as he sneered, “Even if you give this to me, I won’t thank you. I’ve already suffered a loss at your hands, this just makes us even.”

“If I wanted someone to be grateful to me, there are many other choices here, there’s no need for me to intentionally give these to you.”

“Then what do you want?” Shen Tu looked at Yang Kai vigilantly.

One bite from a snake would cause ten years of fear towards ropes, Shen Tu obviously did not trust Yang Kai.

“An ally!” Yang Kai whispered lightly.

“An ally?” Shen Tu’s eyes narrowed and after waiting a moment to make sure no one was paying attention to them, he meaningfully said, “You have some dangerous ideas.”

“And you don’t?”

Shen Tu was at a loss for words and remained silent.

“I set you up before because you wouldn’t shut up, I didn’t want to have anything to do with such a boisterous person, but right now you’re the only one who is even slightly energetic. You’re the only one I can work with.”

“Oh? What a great honour for me,” Shen Tu snickered, “But even you have some kind of idea, it won’t necessarily work.”

“One step at a time. It’s better than just sitting here, waiting for death.”

Shen Tu’s eyes flashed as a grin formed on his face, silently observing Yang Kai for a while before once again putting on a carefree look, rubbing his nose as he said, “If you can give me a piece of Saint Crystal every day, I’ll consider our previous grievances settled.”

“Deal!” Yang Kai nodded generously.

Shen Tu chuckled, “I suddenly found that you’re quite pleasing to the eye.”

Saying so, he quietly stuffed his newly acquired Saint Crystal into his sleeve, preparing to use it tomorrow. With his current cultivation, he only needed three pieces of Saint Crystal each day to maintain his strength every day, which was also why Ke Meng only gave him two, it was to prevent him from having enough energy to consider making trouble.

“Let me re-introduce myself, my name is Shen Tu.”

“Yang Kai!”

The two exchanged a glance and grinned.

Bi Ya had gone out to perform some kind of task and it was uncertain when she would return, but Yang Kai estimated that once she did, his luck would run out, so he had to make some preparations before that happened.

However, inside this power room, basically everyone had become weak and useless. Just as Yang Kai had said, besides Shen Tu, who had some trace of vitality, everyone else was like a walking corpse without even the spare strength to talk to him.

Yang Kai knew he wouldn’t be able to obtain the information he wanted from those people.

Regardless of Shen Tu’s personality or whether he would be useful when the time came, right now he was the only suitable candidate to work with.

“How much do you know about this s.h.i.+p?” Yang Kai quietly released his Divine Sense to communicate with Shen Tu.

“How much do you know?” Shen Tu asked.

“I only know that there is a master at the Saint King Realm in command and that it belongs to a force called Purple Star.”

“Then I know more than you,” Shen Tu grinned, “They didn’t hesitate to deploy a Saint King Grade High-Rank Stars.h.i.+p to this crisis-filled Chaotic Abyss for two women, so there’s no doubt those two have something they desperately want.”

“I’ve met those two women,” Yang Kai interrupted him.

“You’ve met them?” Shen Tu’s eyes flashed.

“En, a Second Order Saint and a Third Order Saint from a force called Sword Union. But what could they possibly have on them that would make Purple Star go this far to catch them?”

“I don’t know,” Shen Tu also looked confused, “d.a.m.n it, I just accidentally b.u.mped into them outside the Chaotic Abyss and ended up being caught. When this father gets out of here, I swear one day I’ll destroy their entire Purple Star.”

Yang Kai shot him a surprised look.

“This is my one lifelong wis.h.!.+” Shen Tu added.

“What about the other people in here?”

“They should all be from forces hostile to Purple Star. After being captured, they were placed in this power room and used until they expired from exhaustion! All forces act like this, therefore one needs to be careful not to be easily captured, otherwise their ending will be very pitiful. Some who are captured are sent to dangerous places to serve as miners or to gather medicinal herbs… The feeling of not being in control of one’s own life is even worse than those imprisoned here.”

Shen Tu’s expression was quite miserable when he spoke these words, as if he had suffered such experiences before, once again stunning Yang Kai.

After saying so though, he shot Yang Kai a look of sympathy, “But the most pitiful one is definitely you, actually catching that the woman Bi Ya’s eye, hahaha!”

Seeing Shen Tu taking pleasure in his misfortune, Yang Kai was rendered speechless.