Ash-Reversal Yard

The lowest tier of 'reception ground' in Qingqi Bazaar. A Rogue Cultivator who suffers Cultivation Deviation, who cannot pay off his debts and has no one to ransom him, is carried in here. Nominally it is a shelter, but in truth—of those who go in, the odds of coming out are zero.

On the notice wall at the east street corner are pasted sheet after sheet of 'reception registries,' said to let one's family come match a name and claim them back. Seventeen or eighteen notices have hung there; in the claim column, 'collected' appears not once.

The two young men who carry people in wear grey-blue short jackets, with 3-foot grey leather cords at their waists. They bind people soundlessly, their feet never dragging. Before they set to work, they always thumb at the spot beneath the victim's left ribs—as if checking for something.