"You plan to do what, good sir!?" The Merchant asked with a panicky tone.
Azmodeus passed by the jittery merchant and walked up to the tied-up people. "I told you that I'm going to add to the number of heads that I'll claim when we make it to that store of yours," he said as he shot out a few beams of sharp energy and cut off the ropes binding the commonfolk.
"Thank you very much, great savior!" They all shouted in unison as they bowed to the ground in reverence. "We will engrave this good deed in our hearts and keep it there for the rest of our lives!"
Azmodeus ignored their pradling and instead focused on the tipped-over carriages and the dead thieves. He first put the carriages back up right, restored the damage done to them, and then pulled the thieves toward him through the air.
"Although I cannot destroy your bodies, that does not mean I'll leave your previous cultivation to its own devices," he said coldly. "Your cultivation is now my cultivation."
BLING!
A bright flash of crimson light erupted from his figure and shot into the thieves corpses'. The light absorbed all their cultivation essence before escaping the bodies and returning to their user.
OOOM!
Under the bewildered eyes of all the freed immortals, Azmodeus's aura lightly fluctuated and did what looked like a demonic increase in cultivation!
"!!!"
The Merchant saw the badge of the red-haired man and confirmed that he was, in fact, a 3rd Generation Knight Apprentice of the famous Omega Dome Organization.
But how could a 3rd Generation Knight Apprentice practice demonic arts!?
On their way, their caravan's personal guardian slaughtered countless thieves and even took out a few Thief Syndicates with Immortal Kings heading them.
As thousands of corpses and storage rings were stacked up on an additional carriage to the very end of the caravan line, the Azureflask Empire finally came into view. To say the least, it was a mystical sight, far different from the more isolated Riverserpent Empire.
"So this is the great Azureflask Empire, an Empire said to surpass even the Riverserpent Empire in terms of top-level military force," Azmodeus said as he looked at the circular enclosure ahead of him.
The enclosure itself stretched in a circle for countless miles as a very hard and tall wall lined its borders every step of the way. Atop these walls were sentaris, towers, and other forms of security. Inside some of the towers were powerful presences within and exceeding the Immortal King Realm!
Azmodeus could even feel a couple Almighty auras in the background, all of whom were at least in the Immortal Emperor Realm. If he were stronger, he might be able to delve even further into the limits of the Azureflask Empire, but unfortunately that was not the case.
However, above all else, the most eyecatching part about the Azureflask Empire had to be the many different layers of the territory.
Starting from the outer layer with the protective walls and inner farmlands and then extending to the second, slightly higher elevated layer. This layer was similar to the first layer as it had the same expansive fieldlands, but there were a few differences, such as the higher density of stone buildings and active carriages.
Then there was the third layer, which began at a distance a few tens of thousands of miles away from the beginning of the second layer. It had a similar topography to the first two layers and also had a higher population, but there was also a clear difference in opulence. As in, everyone that walked back and forth in this area dressed like more of a nobleman than a commoner.
They wore nicer things, spoke in a more refined manner, and even had a higher cultivation base average.
For the first two layers, the common inhabitants, not the guardsmen, had cultivations ranging from the Human Immortal Realm to the All-Encompassing Immortal Realm. On the other hand, those of the third layer started out at the Celestial Immortal Realm, with the adults averaging in the Prime Immortal Realm.
And finally, there was the fourth layer of the ascending cake-like Empire. It stood far higher off the ground than the first three layers, and it also had a populus that was few in number but high in value.
....