Chapter 40 40 – Subordinate



Something clicked and Ken's Cloud Running affected his entire body. His body turned flexible, and attacking it felt like swinging at a feather.

Ken barely took any steps at this point. He dodged their strikes from his place by simply bending and tilting his body. He only took a step when the attacks were too wide, but it still helped to minimize his movements.

When he felt that his Cloud Running got to the Advanced mastery realm, Ken switched back to the offense.

He released his bloodlust, and the cultivators froze in fear the moment they felt it. They were completely overwhelmed, and they could almost sense the touch of God of Death on their skin.

The moment Ken saw his three enemies freezing for a short second, he performed Slash again, yet with a difference. Instead of sending three slashes one next to the other, he made the last two slashes deviate.

Three slashes for three different opponents. The evil cultivators watched the slashes reach them as they struggled to move their bodies despite the fear enveloping them.

Two of them ultimately failed and died on the spot when the slash cut through their bodies, while the third managed to perform one of his techniques to harden his body and raise up his weapon.

He was still pushed back by Ken's sword move yet held his ground against a single slash. This cultivator was at the peak of the third stage with a better foundation than his friends.

At that moment Ken jumped in the air and rolled, performing Slash again. He was still enlightened by his usage of Slash with killing intent against humans. Next, one extremely powerful slash came out of his sword.

The evil cultivator spent as much Qi as he could, trying to harden his body with his hardening technique while blocking Ken's sword with his saber, yet Ken's sword went through his saber like a hot knife through butter.

Ken's sword kept its course to cut the man's chest from just under the neck all the way to the stomach, killing him on the spot.

'Amazing, I achieved the Advanced mastery realm of Slash. Now instead of shooting three straight slashes in one move, I can either split them in three different directions or combine them into one extremely powerful slash.'

He quickly took the storage rings from all the dead ones, grabbed the wounded leader, and ran with him into the forest out of prying eyes.

The leader was barely alive, and Ken quickly shoved into his mouth a perfect healing fourth-grade pill he had concocted himself. The pill's formula was improved and had a much better effect than the normal pill that circulated in the sect.

Ken used his Qi to help the half-dead man to absorb the medical effects of the pill and his injury got significantly better in a short time as his condition turned stable and the possibility of death was avoided.

Ken remained in the forest for three days during which he concocted a few pills and helped the man recover from his grave injury.

When the man finally woke up, he was feeling much better. He looked around in wonder when he found out he was still alive.

'Did the others kill the kid who landed a sneak attack on me and took care of me? I never expected them to be so nice.'

Evil cultivators didn't have many feelings of loyalty and friendship. They only stuck together because they believed they had a better chance of survival and that they could collect more resources this way. 

Given the fact he had more resources than all four of them combined, he didn't expect them to save him and resist the temptation to steal his storage ring. He could even still feel the storage ring on his finger.

"Good morning, you've slept for a long time."

This voice was young, even childish. It didn't belong to any of the coarse men in his team. He quickly turned his head to see the source of this voice, but a sharp pain assaulted his neck.

"Don't move too fast, although you're almost completely recovered, you're still not right there."

The man didn't listen. He jumped on his feet despite the pain and took out a saber from the storage ring, aiming it at Ken.

"Did you kill everyone?"

"I did."

"Why am I alive?"

He would already attack and interrogate the kid under force, but he was still dizzy from getting up too quickly.

"Because I want you to become my subordinate."

"Do you think you bought my loyalty by keeping me alive? I can tell from your earlier attack that you're only at the third stage. I have no reason to obey you. In fact, I might just kill you right now."

"Go ahead and try."

Ken stood up and returned his cauldron to his storage ring. Since the man was already aware of his flexible sword, he placed his hand directly on the hint.

Ken released his bloodlust aura completely, and even the man felt a strong tinge of fear. He was sure of it; if he tried to move, he'd die instantly!

"What do you want me to do, and what do you have to offer me?"

"Oh, the second part is easy. I can give you this pill every month if you serve under me."

Ken threw a blue pill that radiated a chilling sensation, and the man caught it with his hand.

"This is…?"

"It's a fourth-grade Chill Pill. It helps to keep your body colder, so you don't burn in hot places."

"And this should buy my loyalty? I never needed this type of pill in my life."

"Well, from now on you will have a dire need for it every month. I fed you with a Heart Burning Pill. If you don't take it at least once a month, you will die."

"You! How dare you poison me?!"

"You were lying there unconscious while I was treating you, what reason did I have to not dare poison you?"

The man clenched his teeth in anger when he understood he had no choice but to obey.

"Remove the thought to find another alchemist to concoct it for you. You'd need at least a fifth-rank or even sixth-rank alchemist to do reverse engineering to my pill. After all, I made a lot of changes compared to the original pill. I doubt you can find one, and if you can, I doubt you can pay him the required fees. Besides, he'd need a few months to solve it."

The man attacked a mortal village for resources, he was obviously not a rich man. Ken probably would be unable to find a worse level of destitution even if searched for it.

"Even if you poison me to death, I won't be your slave."

"Who said anything about being my slave? I'm a fourth-rank alchemist before being in the fourth stage, and I'm not even 7 years old yet. serve me now that I'm in the beginning of my way to the top, and you can enjoy endless resources later."

The man gaped when he heard Ken's words. Despite Ken's appearance as a child, he convinced himself that Ken achieved it through pills and weird techniques. And now Ken said he was even younger than he looked.

"How can I know you won't cast me aside when you're strong enough to no longer need me?"

"You can't, but I will reward you with my original pills and resources now. Since you needed to raid a mortal village, you probably can't afford much."

"Are those really your original pills? Can you provide them limitlessly?"

"Those are really my original pills. You know the severeness of your injury; can normal fourth-grade pills heal them?"

"No… I'd normally need peak fifth-grade pills to heal them."

Ken took out his cauldron from his storage ring and concocted a few pills.

'He does it so… fast!'

The man watched Ken with shock while Ken pumped out pills.

"Take it, it's the Qi Absorbing Pill. I'm sure you took at least one of those in the past."

It was a fourth-grade pill that almost everyone used to form their core when they broke through the third stage into the fourth stage. It helped the body absorb more Qi in a short time, which could support the core forming process.

The man scrutinized at the pill and swallowed it. The pill had almost the same white color of the pill he took, but not only it had no blemishes on it, meaning it was perfect, it had a slight cream-color undertone.

He didn't worry about being poisoned; Ken already poisoned him when he was unconscious and went through the trouble of healing his injury.

He also didn't feel resentment toward Ken for killing his teammates since he only took them to be his meat shield in case he had to run away and as a tool to collect the resources during their robberies faster.

He felt it was underneath him to do the dirty work after advancing to the Core Formation Stage and preferred to only oversee weaker people do it for him.

The pill took effect quickly and he started absorbing Qi into his body. To his astonishment, the effect was amazing! The difference between this one and those he took made him feel like he was taking third-grade pills all this time. he almost suspected the other alchemists scammed him.

"Its effect is really much stronger than normal."

"Indeed, it's at least 150% better. So, what do you think, want to work under me?"