by RustFlowerBlade 12345
"What? This slave is only worth ten Source Stones?" A roar of laughter erupted from the crowd. The air in the slave market was thick with the stench of unwashed bodies and sour wine. "My hounds eat better than this wretch! Ten stones? You’re insulting the stones!" Ma Yu lay on the cold, damp stone floor, his body barely covered by strips of coarse black gauze. He felt a dull ache in his lower abdomen—a phantom pain from a life he thought he had escaped. He remembered the cold night, the silent struggle, and how he had disposed of his so-called 'wife' in the wilderness. But time had folded. The world had reset. [Ding! Mood of the Traveler detected. Time-reversal confirmed.] [Compensating... Upgrading Identity: Mortal → Gu Master.] A warmth bloomed in his gut. A Gu Master? He had heard tales of those who walked the path of Refinement, the demons who shook the world. But before he could savor the power, a shadow fell over him. A towering figure, eight feet tall, stood looking down. She wore a wide-brimmed sun hat, but Ma Yu didn't need to see her face to know who she was. It was her. Guo Dangxian. The woman he had killed last night. "Husband," she whispered, her voice like honeyed poison. "You've suffered enough. I’ll take you home." As she hoisted him up like a fragile doll, a newspaper fluttered onto Ma Yu’s face. The headline screamed in bold ink: WANTED: MA YU. SURVIVOR OF THE RESET. BOUNTY: 10 SOURCE STONES. Ten stones. In this market, you couldn't even buy a cup of clean water for ten stones. Ma Yu looked at the bounty, then at the 'wife' who held him tight. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The world wanted his head for the price of a cheap meal, and the woman who should be a corpse was now his only savior
