Chapter 9: Capture

After exhausting almost all the power in his body, finally eliminating the 'full' feeling from earlier, Cheng Tian saw two of the three beasts dying in his 'hands.'

At first, one of them was pierced by the wooden branches used by its original self, while the flames spat out by one of the clones burned it to death.

On the other hand, the other dead scorpion in that area had its head pierced by the sharp wooden branches summoned by Cheng Tian, while it had been trapped by the tentacles of his third martial soul.

"Hah... Hah... Hah..." He saw one of his clones crumble, while the one with giant tentacles coming out of his body was almost at its limit.

Seeing that, he rushed to approach the last scorpion, which had several cuts across its body caused by earlier Chaotic Wind.

"I hope this works..." He took from his clothes a scroll he had prepared during the week since his transmigration.

As he did that, he put some of his and that beast's blood on the parchment, making a few hand seals necessary to mold an invocation contract.

Finally, he looked into the eyes of that beast with his Sharingan fully activated.

"Obey me!"

After that, that scorpion shook vigorously for a few moments as if it was psychologically struggling against something. But in less than two minutes, such a being ceased its movements, relaxing its previously tense body.

Finally, when Cheng Tian's last clone disappeared, that beast did not attack, nor did it try to flee, having stood completely still there.

'Hmmm...'

'Thousand-year-old spirit beasts are not intelligent enough to withstand the mind control of my Sharingan.' He smiled as he saw the result of his gamble, satisfied that he had entered that beast's mind with some ease.

'The contract is made, so when I need you, I will only have to use a small part of my strength to summon you and my Sharingan to make you obey.'

"Return from whence you came!" He gave his order, not wanting that beast to stay by his side at that moment.

It might seem contradictory to send away his only help when he was already exhausted. But that was for a good reason. That is, that beast was only obeying him because of his Sharingan ability. But the exhausted Cheng Tian had already overworked himself beyond his limits and would not be able to maintain his visual abilities for long.

In this case, it would be dangerous for him to be defenseless next to an out-of-control beast that could easily decide to feed on him!

Considering this possibility, Cheng Tian would rather risk his chances alone than become food for that beast defeated by himself!

'What do I do now? I'm exhausted and feel like I'm going to fall asleep any moment...' He walked in unbalanced steps through his surroundings, seeing blurred and shaky images.

'Shit...' He felt his body plummet into the air, but he could not maintain his consciousness long enough to feel the shock of his body on the ground.

"Oh? This kid's kind of tough, huh?" A voice sounded from among the trees as three men watched Cheng Tian's fallen body.

"The techniques he used before... I've never seen anything like this before. So what do you think it could be, brother Lei? Spirit Bones? Soul Skill?"

The oldest of the three individuals, crouching on one of the branches of a tree, then said. "I don't know, but we'll find out later."

"Let's take this fellow to our camp and interrogate him later..."

"He has shown some interesting skills, even if I don't understand what happened here myself."

The first individual to talk about it nodded to the elder in agreement. "In any case, even if we can't extract good information from him, he can certainly be sold for a good price!"

"A slave with those skills is precious!" He maliciously laughed as a giant bone hand appeared in the surroundings, quickly grabbing Cheng Tian's unconscious body.

The youngest of the three then asked. "What do we do with those two dead beasts?"

The elder replied. "Leave them. Other beasts will devour them and perfectly harness the power remaining in those corpses."

After that, the group disappeared among the trees, with the unconscious Cheng Tian in a deep sleep, with no idea of his situation.

...

After hours since he lost consciousness, Cheng Tian opened his eyes and found himself in a dark cell, where four other people were beside him.

Each of them had chains holding their wrists or heels to the bars. At the same time, their clothes were in tatters, so dirty that Cheng Tian could not help but make an ugly expression when he smelled their odor.

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However, as they watched him, he suddenly remembered what had happened before and raised his face, trying to understand where he was.

"Sigh!"

"Don't bother, young man. These chains block our martial souls..." An old man who was there in that cell, along with Cheng Tian and the others, said this as he saw the futile attempt of this young newcomer to the group.

"What? Are there things capable of doing that?" Cheng Tian said in surprise.

But he soon tried to use his Sharingan, noting that as much as he could not use his martial soul, he still had this powerful possibility!

The old man then gave a brief explanation to Cheng Tian. "I don't know how you were captured, but we are all in captivity by traders or slave hunters..."

"Slaves?" Cheng Tian's eyes widened in astonishment. 'There truly  slaves in Douluo Dalu...'

"I don't know where we are, but in any case, it's best not to hold out much hope in this place. Just try to hang on. Maybe you'll get a good master." He sighed, remembering the poor fellows who arrived there very brave but soon broke down after a few beatings.

However, that black-haired young man did not despair at those words. Instead, he quickly looked around for the options he had.

'I can only rely on my Sharingan. In that case, I have to recover as much energy as possible before I try to escape from this place!'

'Hmm, I think I can get something if...' A smile appeared on Cheng Tian's lips as he put aside the idea he had just had to learn a little more from those cellmates.

"My name is Madara, and you?"

"Madara?" Those people looked at him in doubt, but they soon introduced themselves one after the other.

After learning those people's names, Cheng Tian got straight to the point. "What do you know about this group? Are they powerful?"

The old man named Xiao Yang then shook his head disappointedly and said. "Ah, you don't seem to have listened to anything I said..."

But one of those people laughed and said. "Old Yang, if the boy wants to know, why don't we tell him? Whatever his intentions are, I don't think they will change with just your words."

"Hmm, besides, if no one does anything, we'll never have a chance to escape..." A muscular woman said this with an angry expression in that old man's direction.

They would do nothing to escape the present situation, as they had already seen escape attempts end badly for disobedient captives. But it was undeniable that the only chance for them to escape the fate of slavery was if chaos formed around their captors.

Therefore, she and the man from before were more than willing to give Cheng Tian some encouraging hints.

The only woman there then looked at the young man with black hair and red clothes and said. "Young Madara, we don't know much since our situation is no better than yours." She showed the chains on her wrists.

"But we have been with them longer, which has given us some experiences of seeing and hearing things."

"So, we know that there are at least a dozen people in that group, and one of them has four spirit rings. That's all. We have no idea whether there are stronger people, or that person was the strongest or the weakest of this group."

The man from before nodded and said. "Also, from the places we have passed in the past few days, I can tell we are somewhere in the Star Dou Great Forest."

"Yes, I was in one of the outermost areas north of this place, near Soutuo City." Cheng Tian commented.

"Oh?" That man confirmed his assumptions and said. "Then they are probably heading to this city to sell us."

"It seems that our time is not much..." The old man from before commented in a sighing tone.

The man named Ren Ying then said in a whispering tone. "In any case, young Madara, there are still chances!"

"Those criminals only move the carriage pulling our cell for a few hours a day, always avoiding drawing attention from the beasts in the surroundings."

"Then we still have a few days before we are sold."

Hearing this, Cheng Tian made up his mind about his plan, the only alternative in his mind.

'I'll start this with the person who comes to feed us or simply approaches us...'

'We'll see how susceptible they can be!'

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