The rumors started three days after the nomad ship Stellar Wind touched down on Nethys Prime's cracked surface. Whispers in the scavenger camps spoke of a place where the desperate could trade flesh for power, where the dregs of a dying world could buy another day of life with pieces of themselves.
Kael Vorthak followed these whispers into the bowels of what had once been Nethys Prime's primary mining complex. The ancient industrial caverns stretched deep beneath the surface, their fusion-carved walls now home to the desperate and the damned. Here, in the shadows of rusted machinery and abandoned ore processors, the black market of cultivation had taken root.
The air reeked of antiseptic, blood, and the ozone scent of raw essence. Kael moved through the crowd with practiced invisibility, his recently awakened senses cataloging every detail. Three days of intensive Muscle Refining had sharpened his perception beyond human limits, allowing him to distinguish between the various essence signatures that pulsed through the underground bazaar.
Fascinating, he thought, watching a gaunt woman trade a vial of her own blood for a single cultivation pill. Even on a dying world, people find ways to monetize desperation.
The market occupied a vast chamber that had once housed the primary ore processing facility. Makeshift stalls lined the walls, their vendors hawking everything from "essence-infused" bone meal to crude cultivation pills that glowed with unstable energy. Most of the sellers were locals, miners, administrators, and scavengers who had somehow acquired cultivation materials. Most of the buyers were the same, trapped in a cycle of selling pieces of themselves to buy temporary power.
But it was the buyers who weren't local that interested Kael most.
Near the center of the chamber, a group of star-touched nomads examined crystallized bone fragments with the care of jewelers. Their leader, a weathered woman with essence-tattoos spiraling up her arms, negotiated with a seller whose left arm ended in a bandaged stump. The man's cultivation base flickered weakly, Essence Awakening, but barely. He'd traded his own bone marrow for cultivation pills, and his body was failing to compensate.
"This quality won't fetch much off-world," the nomad said, her voice carrying the accent of deep space. "Essence density is too low. Best I can offer is forty standard crystals."
The man's face fell. "Please, I need at least sixty. My daughter. she's trying to break through to Muscle Refining, and without proper pills-"
"Forty," the nomad repeated, her tone final. "Take it, or find another buyer."
Kael filed this interaction away. The nomads weren't just trading with locals,they were systematically harvesting cultivation materials from a dying world. The question was whether they were working independently or as part of a larger operation.
A commotion near the eastern wall drew his attention. A crowd had gathered around a raised platform where a massive figure held court. The man stood nearly seven feet tall, his Foundation Establishment cultivation base radiating power that made the air itself shimmer. Crude metal teeth gleamed in his mouth when he smiled, giving him the appearance of a predatory machine.
"Iron Teeth" Morvak. The name had come up repeatedly in the whispers that led Kael here. The unofficial king of Nethys Prime's underground economy, and the only Foundation Establishment cultivator left on the planet after the imperial withdrawal.
"Friends, neighbors, fellow survivors," Morvak's voice boomed across the chamber, enhanced by his cultivation to carry to every corner. "Another week, another opportunity to improve your miserable lives. Who among you has brought me something worthy of my attention?"
The crowd pressed closer, desperate faces turned upward like flowers seeking sunlight. Kael positioned himself in the middle of the pack, close enough to observe but not close enough to draw attention.
A young man pushed forward, clutching a small vial of glowing liquid. "Master Morvak, I've refined essence from a star-touched crystal fragment. Took me three weeks, but I managed to concentrate it to-"
"Silence." Morvak's voice cut through the air like a blade. The young man's words died in his throat, not from fear but from the literal pressure of the Foundation Establishment cultivator's presence. At that realm, spiritual force could affect physical reality. "Did I give you permission to speak?"
The young man's knees buckled. Around him, other petitioners stepped back, suddenly reluctant to be associated with whatever was about to happen.
Morvak stepped down from his platform, each footfall echoing in the sudden silence. "The proper protocol is to present your offering first. Then, if I judge it worthy, you may speak. Did you follow the proper protocol?"
"I... no, Master Morvak. I apologize-"
"Apologies are worthless." Morvak's hand shot out, faster than any normal human could track. His fingers wrapped around the young man's throat, lifting him effortlessly from the ground. "Let me explain the rules of my market."
Golden light began to emanate from Morvak's hand, the manifestation of his cultivation base. The light flowed into the young man's body, but rather than empowering him, it began to drain something vital from within.
"Rule one," Morvak said casually, his voice calm despite the violence in his hands. "Respect the hierarchy. I am Foundation Establishment. You're still flailing in Essence Awakening. The gap between us isn't just strength it's structure. I command forces you haven't even begun to comprehend".
The young man's struggle grew weaker as the golden light intensified. Kael watched with clinical detachment, noting how the essence drainage technique worked. Morvak was literally pulling the cultivation base from his victim's body, converting years of advancement into raw energy.
"Rule two," Morvak continued. "Everything has a price. Your disrespect has earned you a debt. Since you cannot pay it with crystals or materials, you will pay it with your cultivation."
The young man's eyes went wide with terror. In this world, losing one's cultivation base was worse than death,it was a return to mortality, to the weakness and brevity of ordinary human existence.
"Please," the young man whispered, his voice barely audible. "I have a family. I need my cultivation to provide for them."
Morvak's smile widened, revealing those infamous metal teeth. "Then you should have thought of that before wasting my time."
The drainage accelerated. The young man's cultivation base, months or possibly years of careful advancement, flowed into Morvak's palm like water. His body began to shrink as the spiritual energy that had enhanced his physical form departed. When Morvak finally released him, he collapsed to the ground as nothing more than an ordinary human.
"Cultivation crippled," Morvak announced to the crowd. "Permanent regression to mortal status. He'll live, but he'll never advance again." He turned to address the assembled crowd. "Let this be a lesson to all of you. In my market, respect is not optional."
The crowd murmured in a mixture of fear and approval. Kael noted the complex dynamic, they were terrified of Morvak, but they also depended on his protection and organization of the market. Without him, there would be no structure, no rules, no way to safely trade in cultivation materials.
A clever solution to the problem of governing desperate people. Morvak had made himself indispensable while simultaneously demonstrating the cost of challenging him.
"Now," Morvak continued, his voice returning to its earlier false joviality, "who would like to try again? Remember, offerings first, then speak only when given permission."
The crowd stirred, and new petitioners began to emerge. Kael watched the process with growing understanding. This wasn't just a market, it was a system. Morvak controlled the flow of cultivation resources on Nethys Prime, taking a percentage of every transaction while providing security and organization. The nomads dealt with him because it was more efficient than trying to navigate dozens of individual sellers.
But it was also unsustainable. Morvak was harvesting from a finite resource pool, the desperate population of a dying world. Eventually, he would run out of people willing to trade pieces of themselves for temporary power. When that happened, he would need to find new sources of cultivation materials.
Or new methods of extracting them from unwilling victims.
Kael spent the next hour observing the market's operations. He watched desperate people trade blood, bone marrow, and even small pieces of their cultivation bases for pills that would grant temporary advancement. He saw nomads negotiate for the highest-quality materials, their payment in star-touched crystals representing wealth beyond the locals' comprehension.
Most importantly, he studied Morvak.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator was powerful, but not invincible. His cultivation base was solid but not exceptional, likely achieved through resource accumulation rather than talent or technique mastery. His control over the market came from being the only advanced cultivator in the area, not from any particular strategic genius.
That made him dangerous but also predictable. He ruled through fear and dependency, classic tactics for someone who had gained power through circumstance rather than merit.
He's a problem, Kael concluded. But not an insurmountable one.
As the market session began to wind down, Kael positioned himself near the exit route he'd identified earlier. He'd learned what he needed to know, and staying longer would only increase his chances of being noticed.
But as he moved toward the shadows, a hand fell on his shoulder.
"You." The voice came from one of Morvak's lieutenants a scarred woman radiating the dense, pulsing aura of Organ Crystallization, just a step below true Foundation. "New face. Haven't seen you in the market before."
Kael turned slowly, his mind racing through possible responses. The lieutenant was examining him with the keen eye of someone accustomed to spotting threats and opportunities.
"First time," Kael replied, keeping his voice neutral. "Heard rumors about this place from the scavenger camps."
"Mmm." The lieutenant's eyes narrowed. "You're cultivating. Essence Awakening, Muscle Refining stage. Recent breakthrough, from the look of your base. Question is, where did a scavenger boy get access to cultivation resources?"
The attention of nearby crowd members turned toward them. Kael sensed the shift in the atmosphere, suspicion, curiosity, and the ever-present hunger for entertainment that came with desperate circumstances.
"Salvage," Kael said simply. "Found some damaged essence crystals in the deep mines. Traded them for basic pills from a passing merchant."
It was a plausible lie, close enough to the truth to be believable. The lieutenant studied him for a long moment, then nodded.
"Smart boy. Most people would have tried to use raw crystals and ended up with deviation." She gestured toward the crowd. "You here to trade or to buy?"
"Observe," Kael answered honestly. "Want to understand the market before I risk my resources."
The lieutenant's expression shifted to something approaching approval. "Cautious. Good. Most of these idiots rush in and get themselves killed or worse." She paused, then added, "Master Morvak appreciates careful people. Might be worth your while to speak with him directly."
Kael's analytical mind immediately began calculating the implications. Direct contact with Morvak would provide valuable intelligence, but it would also put him on the Foundation Establishment cultivator's radar. Too early in his plan for that level of exposure.
"I appreciate the suggestion," he said carefully. "But I prefer to establish my position in the market before approaching someone of Master Morvak's stature. Don't want to waste his time."
The lieutenant's grin revealed teeth stained with cultivation pill residue. "Like I said, smart boy. Take your time, learn the rules. But remember, in this market, hesitation can be as dangerous as haste."
She melted back into the crowd, leaving Kael alone with his thoughts. The interaction had provided valuable information about the market's power structure, but it had also marked him as someone worth watching.
Time to accelerate his timeline.
As he finally made his way out of the underground chamber, Kael's mind was already working through the complexities of the situation. Morvak controlled the local cultivation economy, but he was vulnerable to anyone who could disrupt his monopoly. The nomads represented an external factor that could be leveraged. The desperate population provided both a resource and a potential weapon.
Most importantly, everyone in the system, from Morvak down to the lowest scavenger, was acting on short-term thinking. They were all focused on immediate survival and advancement, not long-term strategy.
That was their weakness, and his advantage.
By the time he reached the surface, Kael had the outline of a plan. It would require careful timing, precise manipulation of multiple parties, and a willingness to sacrifice anyone who became inconvenient. But if successful, it would eliminate a major threat while providing him with access to the cultivation resources he needed for his next advancement.
Iron Teeth Morvak had made one critical error in his demonstration of power. He had shown Kael exactly how the cultivation base drainage technique worked. And in a universe where information was the most valuable currency of all, that knowledge was worth more than all the essence crystals in the market.
Kael had found his first major target.
Glossary:
Essence Awakening: First cultivation realm, divided into four stages: Bone Forging, Muscle Refining, Blood Boiling, and Organ Crystallization.
Foundation Establishment: Second cultivation realm, marking the beginning of true immortality.
Star-touched Crystals: Essence crystals formed in space, more valuable than planetary varieties.
Golden Elixir: Advanced cultivation realm beyond Foundation Establishment.
Cultivation Deviation: When advancement goes wrong, often resulting in permanent damage or regression.