A slaver raid was like a fish soup. There was a method and recipe to follow, but changes would be made depending on the fish. A slaver raid was meant to be rapidly descending upon the target while isolating the target within the city. The Thousand Li Chain was perfect for this purpose.

The first thing people did as soon as they saw the slavers ride into the city with their horses and bows was to try to run away. The horse and bow was a nearly impossible combination for mere civilians to beat with numbers alone, but the people of Yellow Leaf City simply did not know that the slavers were not enough riders or archers to fully use such tactics. The fear was their goal.
With their hearts full of fear, the people of the Yellow Leaf City ran to the city's main gates, only to push each other into the hot chains in a frenzy. The mass of scared people were not communicating with one another well among the screams, so those at the back kept pushing those at the front.

The Thousand Link Slavers left their youngest and oldest members in front of the chain. They were not all physically fit and they would get the least share from the raid, but their job was way too easy so they had no complaints. They had chains and spears in their hands, and they chained up and dragged the people with the potential to be valuable as slaves while executing the rest with spears.

They killed hundreds of people in a day, so why was their job easy? Well, they only executed the ones that tripped over the chain and were screaming due to their pain and dragged people away from their ankles with chains by putting the other end of the chain on a workhorse. They basically did no real work but we're still getting paid.

Such a filtering method was of course not efficient, that was why the slavers sent parties into the city first. Those parties each had their goals. Some of them were looking for any craftsmen that may have been alive after the war, as good craftsmen would sell for a high price. Some others were picking the finest maidens and women to sell at brothels or simply rape. Of course, the prettiest ones would be kept as concubines by their boss while meek and scared ones would be sold to brothels while still virgins. The raiders were only allowed to rape the fiercer and less ladylike girls, but they were still happy nonetheless.

Appraiser Tong was also part of a party of raiders today. He was 83 years old and had no rush in life. His skinny and tall figure rode atop a large and healthy ox with horns that could break down doors. This ox was the product of Appraiser Tong's hobby of breeding animals. He had bred fierce dogs to be used in hunting parties, fast and fearless horses for Lian Lingzhu, and even cats that would follow their camp from city to city to hunt rats.

Appraiser Tong was truly skilled, and he would be welcomed into many courts as a servant with such varied skills, but his personality was rotten. He was the head servant of a Noble Household in his youth. His skills to train slaves, discern quality products and breed animals were all highly sought after. However, he had been nearly executed when he raped the 15 year old daughter of a Noble. He had only lived thanks to his friend Lian Linghzu, who was only a 17 year old thug at the time, rescuing him at night.

This ox was slow, but it was faster than people expected due to its large size and long legs. Appraiser Tong and his party were searching for a boy who knew how to brew poisons, so Appraiser Tong was carrying some simple cloth masks and clean water with him. Even if he was not knowledgeable enough to brew medicine, he knew protection and cleaning would improve their chances to survive if something went awry.

Luckily for them, Tian Mingyun was less proficient with Poison Arts than they expected. After interrogating a few captured citizens of the Yellow Peak City, Appraiser Tong and his men found the lightning struck tree that the kid was hiding within.

Tian Mingyun woke up from his sleep when he heard strange animals approaching his den. He saw several horses and a large ox, with people riding atop them. He could also vaguely hear the chaos within the city. He knew that he could not do much to defend himself here, so he started running to a place where he thought he might have a chance.

Appraiser Tong had no cause to hurry. He calmed his men down and convinced them not to chase after the boy yet. Children would run to places where other children would go. This was their chance to potentially capture more kids, after all, they had mounts and had all the time in the world. Instead, he got off his ox and started cutting off pieces of the lightning struck tree with a small hatchet.

"You see, younglings, this kind of bark is valuable. Some apothecaries need this to brew potions and medicines." Appraiser Tong spoke while bragging about his knowledge.
"What is this even good for? It is just a burnt tree." One of the slaver thugs could not help but question Appraiser Tong. He was new to the Thousand Link Slavers and could not understand why they had to be so slow for the sake of this one old man, now even stopping to collect bark.

"This tree has been struck by lightning, not once or twice either. Yet, it has stubbornly survived and adapted. The bark of this tree bears a strong vitality. The sap and the roots would be even better, but we have neither the equipment nor the manpower to uproot such a large tree."

The thugs understood as the old men spoke. They were quickly grasping why this man was so high ranked in the Thousand Link Slavers. Yet, there was more Appraiser Tong did not tell them. He was carefully observing the surroundings and noticed all of the blood and ash surrounding the tree. This kid was injured, severely, but clearly managed to heal himself. He would sell for an incredible amount of money.

Forget a 15 year old slave concubine, with such money, Appraiser Tong was having even more disgusting thoughts now. He could give a large sum to a family in a poor village and marry a 12 year old girl with a pretty and youthful face that might keep that youth until the end of his life in a few decades. Being legally wed would also be great as he could manipulate a young mind into giving him more and more misguided love. He was the scum of the Earth, a man driven by his carnal desires with no morality.

Tian Mingyun did not know why he was not being chased, but he did not slow down. He had taken the Venom of Ascension book with him as well as a shiv and left behind everything else. He could see the situation in the city as he was running now. Thousands were being rounded up, only for some of them to suddenly get executed with bows and spears. People were being flayed alive for resisting and girls were getting raped all around the city.

Tian Mingyun really wanted to help Huo Lan after seeing such scenes, but he hoped that she and her family were already at the place he was running towards. Dark Mountain County's soldiers were here, Tian Mingyun did not quite understand what this meant, but he hoped that thugs would be afraid of the soldiers and not go there.

Huh, Ai was running while holding the hands of both of her children. She knew that the soldiers were her best chance now. Huo Zheng was wearing his straw clothes as well as cheap shoes and Huo Lan only had torn clothes on and was barefoot. Yet, Huo Zheng was the one getting tired. Huo Lan had been born with high stamina, so she did not mind running like this and did not feel the least bit tired. However, she was really scared.

Huo Ai picked Huo Zheng on her shoulders and ran like a madwoman for about 4 Li before finally reaching the soldiers. Huo Zheng was the one that yelled while waving his hand.

"Soldier brothers! We need help! Help us!"

The two Dark Mountain County soldiers were a bit experienced and were ranked higher than foot soldiers, so they knew that they had no business interfering with the slavers with only two of them. However, they wanted to still protect as many people as they could and had already picked up a few kids with good potential to join the army into their camp. Their top prospect was Huo Zheng, so they were glad to see him.

"Surnamed Huo, come here! Come on!"

Yet, this was when fates collided. Tian Mingyun jumped out from the bushes, and there were men on horses behind him. One of those men quickly threw a lasso around one of Tian Mingyun's legs, while another man lassoed Huo Lan by the neck.

The situation was chaotic, but when it all settled down the soldiers were holding their spears out to the slavers, while the slavers had their swords around Huo Lan and Tian Mingyun's neck. Nobody was shouting, everybody was there with bated breath until Huo Zheng spoke.

"Let my sister go. Some nobody thugs like you can not mess with the army! Let my precious sister go!"

He was still a kid, so his screams were intense. He was crying and shouting until a tall old man with a long beard came closer while riding a large ox.
"Now now, no need to shout. Let the adults do the discussion."

Behind that Appraiser Tong were 6 more slavers. They clearly held the numbers advantage. But their side was the one that got tense once one of the soldiers spoke.
"Mere slavers have become bold enough to ride up to army camps now! Leave if you value your lives!"

The soldiers were trained and cultivated, but there were only two of them and an unknown number of slavers in the city. They could kill those few in front of them, but even a hawk would die in an ant's nest. Just two of them would not suffice, and they were afraid that the leader of the slavers might be a cultivator, it was not unheard of that a Skin Refinement Realm cultivator would turn to banditry and slaver work to live a rich life.

The two soldiers were impatient, but they did not show it. They simply did their best to look strong to turn away these slavers without a fight. After all, once blood was spilled, other slavers would flock here one after another to get rid of them.

Appraiser Tong had been in such a situation many times before in his long life. He was calm while the other slavers were so tense that they would swallow their tongues if they heard thunder. He spoke atop his ox while snacking on dry fruits.

"I say we take the kids we have caught with lasso. You may keep the rest. We will turn away now and nobody will come to this horrid place reeking of death after us."
Appraiser Tong already knew the real thing these soldiers were guarding here. It was a pit of the dead and the dying, the smell of sickly rotten flesh was sharp after all. But he could not turn back without capturing Tian Mingyun.

Well, Tian Mingyun was precious but he had become second rate goods the moment Appraiser Tong saw the little girl in that was now tied by the neck. She had the eyes of a beast, and the rough rope lasso was not even turning her skin red. He did not have enough knowledge to know what kind of physique this was, but he was certain that she was special. He had come looking for silver and found gold. Today he would be earning well.

Their main customer recently was a Demonic Sects that only purchased kids. They paid extremely well for talented or special kids. Maidens, beautiful women, and craftsmen, those would be sold to slave markets or brothels for good prices. However, that Demonic Sect would gladly pay as much as 20 silver taels for a kid with decent martial talent, and 80 silver taels for a special kid like Tian Mingyun. However, this little girl with a special physique was easily worth 3 gold taels, certainly more since she was so young.

Appraiser Tong did his best not to show his greed on his face and focused on hiding his grin by eating dry fruits. This was a good deal for the soldiers, their deaths would probably be avenged if their commander liked them, but a human would rather live than be avenged.

Huo Zheng was not yet a soldier though, he screamed to save his sister while his mother held him back.