The core members of the Red Salamander Gang were once eradicated by Leon, but stability was never returned to the Lower North District. Whether the tumor was rid from the district or not, the damage was already done. The Lower North District was like a long-term ill patient. Even if the illness was cured, they still required time to be nursed back to health. 

While the core members were gone, the outer members still plagued the district like a pack of headless cockroaches without their leaders. Not all the Red Salamander Gang’s outer members were wicked beyond redemption. There were also good people among them, but for the sake of their own survival, they were forced to join.

However, throughout the years of servicing the gang, the blood on their hands and crimes piled on their heads were enough to condemn them to death like any other wicked members of the gang. It was not easy to revert to their normal lives.

Within a seemingly large abandoned warehouse, many innocent commoners were held and locked behind ironwood cages. There was no discrimination among the people kept inside the ironwood cages as they came from all ages and genders; young and old, men and women. The smell within the cage was especially nauseating.

They were the merchandise of the Red Salamander Gang. No one knew when or how the organ harvesting business started, but it was a lucrative business and there was always a demand, they find it hard to extricate themselves from the business. Although what they gain was dirty and bloodstained money, it was the least of their worries. They moment they entered the gang, they had already been prepared to leave their morality behind.

In recent days, their manpower had been on the short side and with the Lower West District controlled by the Golden Lion Gang applying pressure on their territory, they did not have much time to manage the ‘merchandise’ in their warehouse.  

Since the fate of these captive commoners were to have their 5 organs harvested and become  cold corpses, they were barely fed to begin with. They have gone a few days without food now that no one was assigned to feed them. They were still fortunate to have some drinking water from the rain that seeped through the cracks of the worn-out building, otherwise they would not even have the strength to move.

While these poor souls still had the strength to move, there were no movements within the cage. A gloomy and bleak mood filled the cage. These people knew what fate had in store for them, but they still choose to refrain from wasting any energy as every bit of energy saved was every extra second of life gained. They only move when they need to drink from the rainwater puddles around them.

Their situation was precarious and could even be considered hopeless, but they had not given up on living as they cling to their life tightly. Death was easy, but living was not. Death was also the end, while there was still hope if they were alive, no matter how grim it seems.

On this one fine evening, their efforts and stubbornness were finally rewarded. As if the divinities in heaven had noticed and took pity on them, a divine object was shot down from the high heavens, tearing straight through the building and smashed apart the cage that kept them in captivity.

Surprisingly, no one was injured. The people had the illusion that they had received divine protection. The divine object had dropped down before them with incredible force and heat. The puddles of rainwater were vaporized by the heat and the area was engulfed in thick dust and water vapors.

“W-What happened?”

Everyone’s eyes were snapped open in shock and panic following the sound of the explosive crash. With their vision impaired, nothing could be seen afar. Only the closest parts of themselves could be seen.

“Where did all this mist come from? I can’t see anything.”

“Oh no… w-where did all the water go? How can we go on without the water to drink?” A person noticed the disappearance of the rainwater they relied on.

“Does the heavens also want to doom us all?” An old lady despaired

Amidst the panic and confusion, despair gripped everyone’s heart as the last trace of their hope started diminishing.

However, the panic and confusion did not last long as the dust and vapors started to disperse, and the surroundings became clear. The ironwood cage was destroyed.

“Oh, my Freya… the divinities above must have finally answered our pleas. The cage is no more, we are free! We can escape!” Light shined from a frail woman’s eyes.

“Yes! We need to quickly escape before those fiends return!” A middle-aged man added.

The crowd exclaimed with excitement. They were suddenly brimming with hope and vigor despite their thin frames from a lack of nutrition. It was surprising how much energy they still had left in them after being kept captive like livestock for so long.

“Wait! There’s something over there!” Someone suddenly exclaimed.

Near the area where the locked door on the ironwood cage use to be, there was a round object glowing with five different sparkling colors amidst the dispersing dust and vapor. The round object especially looked holy and divine. Their curiosity to understand what the divine object was,  superseded their own desire to escape at first notice.

“What is this object? It kinda looks like a lid for something… but it feels very holy.” A young girl was enamored by the beauty of the glowing object.

“This has to be a divine object! It must have been sent down by the divinity above to free us!” A religious person assumed with great faith. His blind confidence was like a virus, infecting everyone else into taking his words as the truth.

There were no churches erected in the present era, but people use to worship many gods and goddess before the cataclysm. Almost every person worshipped at least one god or goddess and their churches spanned the entire continent.

However, the lack of divine intervention during the great cataclysm had caused them to lose their faith in their gods and the Hero King became their new source of belief and worship.

“We have to take it with us. We can’t leave behind. It would only be tainted by those fiends if they come back and find it.” A person picked up the divine object carelessly.

He was fortunate that the object was no longer scathing hot after being dipped in rainwater. It was gleaming with redness when it shot down from the skies like a meteor, but now its former silvery look returned and was just warm to the touch.

 “That goes without saying. We leave now, before it is too late. Those fiends might have realize something from the commotion and could be coming back in time soon.” A person suggested with caution.  

The crowd quickly agreed to the idea favorably and left the warehouse in tow. They did not want to spend another second in that dastardly and filthy place.

The crowd did not part ways after leaving the warehouse but continued moving together as a group. They have been through much together and have bonded. They felt it was safer to stick together as there was strength in numbers, despite being too weak to put up a real fight in their present state. They also wished to stay close to the divine object as they believe it would be able to protect them from whatever harm comes their way.

The same day, a new church was established within a large abandoned building within the Lower North District. Whether gods truly existed or not, they did not know. But the divine object was very real and became their source of worship. People needed something to believe in, even if it was just an inanimate object.

The divine object was precisely the cauldron lid that went missing after being blasted into the high heavens after Leon failed to refine his 5-Element Enhancing Pill. However, it was no longer the same cauldron lid as before.

It was hard to understand what the cauldron lid had experienced above but it had undergone a complete transformation and already reached the spirit treasure grade. A seed had been inadvertently planted inside after the people started to worship it.

The cauldron lid had freed the people from captivity and a fate with no future, thus they were very grateful to the cauldron lid. They have decided to devote themselves to worshipping the cauldron lid every day.

What they do not know is that their faith was also a type of energy and this type of faith energy was able to nourish the cauldron lid.

One day the seed will eventually sprout and grow sentient, become a treasure spirit for the cauldron lid.

It was unknown what Leon would think, if he knew that his failed pill concoction had resulted in the upgrade of the cauldron lid instead.