Chapter 18 (Arc 2 – Chapter 3): The Failed Experiment
The Eastern Sector of the Ash Vein Sect was a slum.
Rickety shacks clung to the edge of the cliff, inhabited by outer disciples who served as menial laborers—or as test subjects for the elders.
Yan Kesh was assigned a slightly more decent hut—formerly a storage shed for coffins.
That very night, Yan Kesh began his work. Not on the fat examiner (that was trivial—just force him onto a diet and prescribe ordinary blood-thinning decoctions), but on assembling the Audit Laboratory.
"He Qiu, bring in the first 'sample,'" Yan Kesh ordered.
He Qiu dragged in a skinny man they had seen earlier in the queue. The man's right arm was rotting from snake venom, and he had been rejected by the sect for being useless.
The man trembled in fear. "Sir… Sir, are you going to heal me? I don't have any money…"
"I don't need your money," Yan Kesh said, sitting on a creaking wooden chair. Before him, The Audit lay wide open. "I need your debt."
Yan Kesh wanted to test a new theory: Negative Asset Transfer.
In Arc 1, he had transferred active wounds (poisons still in effect) to others.
Now, he wanted to attempt transferring passive damage (long-term necrosis) from a living person to… an inanimate object.
"Stretch out your arm," Yan Kesh commanded.
The man extended his rotting limb. The stench was pungent.
Yan Kesh placed his right hand on the wound. With his left, he pressed against a large river stone He Qiu had fetched.
[TRANSACTION INITIATED]
[Source: Necrotic Tissue (Human Arm)]
[Target: Mineral Structure (Stone)]
[Processing Cost: Yan Kesh's Vital Energy (10 Units)]
Zrrrt.
Yan Kesh felt his body weaken instantly. It was as if a massive leech were sucking his blood dry. His face turned pale.
On the man's arm, the blackened flesh slowly shifted to a healthy pink. The pus dried up. Dead tissue peeled away.
On the other side, the solid river stone suddenly softened, blackened, then melted into a repulsive slurry of pitch-black sludge.
"W-What?!" The man's eyes bulged as he stared at his arm. Healed. Scarred and thin, but no longer rotting. "Sir! You're a god! A divine physician!"
The man prostrated himself, smashing his head against the floor again and again.
Yan Kesh did not celebrate. He slumped back against the chair, breathing heavily.
"Failure…" Yan Kesh hissed.
He Qiu was confused. "Failure? Master, you healed him! That was a miracle!"
"The cost is too high." Yan Kesh clutched his chest. His heartbeat was irregular.
To heal a single rotten arm of a nobody, Yan Kesh had to pay with his own vitality—equivalent to three days of life.
Heal ten people like this, and he would drop dead from exhaustion.
The concept of a "Miracle Healer" could not be sustained with this business model. He would go bankrupt—die—before turning a profit.
"This system was never designed for charity," Yan Kesh analyzed coldly. "I'm bleeding losses."
He looked at the man who was still kowtowing.
"What's your name?"
"Gou San, Sir! This one is Gou San!"
"Gou San." Yan Kesh's voice turned icy. "You're healed. But you're in debt to me. From now on, you work for me."
"Anything, Sir! This lowly one's life belongs to you!"
"Good. Your first task…" Yan Kesh flicked a small dagger onto the floor. "…cut off the little finger of your left hand."
Silence.
Gou San looked up, his face going pale again. He Qiu was shocked. "Master Yan?"
"Do it," Yan Kesh said flatly. "That is the down payment. I want to see whether your 'loyalty' gets recorded in the ledger."
Gou San trembled. But he looked at his healed arm. He looked at Yan Kesh's gaze—one that tolerated no refusal.
With shaking hands, he picked up the dagger.
Crack!
Blood sprayed. Gou San swallowed a scream. His little finger was severed.
Within Yan Kesh's mind, The Audit chimed.
[PAYMENT RECEIVED]
[Type: Voluntary Sacrifice]
[Energy Conversion: +15 Vitality Units]
Color returned to Yan Kesh's face. The exhaustion vanished. He even felt slightly stronger than before.
He smiled.
This was his business model.
He spent 10 units to heal.
He demanded a sacrifice that returned 15 units.
Net profit: 5 units.
"Incredible," Yan Kesh thought. "Physical suffering, when offered voluntarily in the name of debt, converts into pure energy for me."
Yan Kesh stood up and patted Gou San's shoulder as the man grimaced while binding his wound.
"Congratulations, Gou San. You are accepted as my first disciple."
Yan Kesh then turned to He Qiu, who was staring in horror at the severed finger on the floor.
"Don't look at me like that, He Qiu," Yan Kesh said gently. "He traded a useless finger for his arm. That's a fair transaction."
"Now… call in the next patient."
That night, within a ramshackle hut of the Ash Vein Sect, a new shadow sect was born.
A sect that did not worship gods—
but worshipped transactions.
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