Chapter 55 55 – The Bloodlust Scheme



Annie wanted to replace her usual pills with those special Qi Absorption Pills. She had a lot of money and could easily purchase them at the price Ken named earlier, 300 Qi Stones.

"Anyway, can you make enough to sell to me?"

"Of course. Thank you for keeping my secret. I can sell you 30 every time we meet, would that be enough?"

Although Ken shared some of his secrets with her, he didn't plan to let her know everything about him. Letting her know he could manufacture hundreds of them daily wasn't part of his plan.

Ken revealed the secret about him being a fourth-rank alchemist on purpose to create something special between them and a bond of trust. All his movements and words were with one final purpose in mind, poisoning Annie's mind.

"That means I can consume two of them every day, it's plenty. Thank you. Here are 9,000 Qi Stones."

A large pile of Qi Stones floated toward him. Luckily there were stones with a value higher than a single stone, or else it was a small hill of Qi Stones. 

What determined the grade of the Qi Stone wasn't its size, but the purity of the Qi stored in it. No matter how big the medium Qi Stone was or how condensed the Qi inside it was, it'd still be considered a medium Qi Stone.

"Each bottle contains 5 pills."

Ken sent her 6 jade bottles that contained the pills and took the Qi Stones inside his storage ring. He didn't plan to talk too much with her; he knew she wasn't the type to be into talkative narcissistic men. 

"Did your mother talk to you about training with me?"

·ƈθm "Yes, she told me to cease training with you."

Ken scoffed at the thought of Krone rationalizing her hate speech against him with righteous arguments.

"Did she explain why you shouldn't train with me?"

"Yes, after I asked her. She said you're a young cultivator and a genius, so I should allow you all the time you need to develop and cultivate instead of wasting your training time for my selfish desires."

"What did you say?"

"I said I would pay you to train with me so you can have more resources. This way it would be a win-win situation. But she said you don't need my money because you get enough resources from the training grounds you earned, and it will come out rude if I offer money to my cousin."

Ken stifled a chuckle when he heard Krone's words. She could turn every part of her hatred into a noble cause. What she truly wanted was to deprive him of any resources.

"Argh, she ticks me off so much lately."

Annie groaned with a rare display of emotion. She felt comfortable with Ken. He was different from the rest of the clan; he didn't pretend to be someone else just to get face all the time.

Recently, she had been feeling a slight impulse to kill those who irritated her. Because she didn't have many sparring sessions with Ken yet, she didn't notice it was especially strong after her meetings with him.

He kept activating the effect of his Mind-Poisoning Domain – Frenzy Mode mildly on Annie during their training. He did it extremely subtly so she wouldn't go insane. It only raised her anger levels and made her more prone to murderous thoughts.

Unfortunately, it didn't have a permanent effect, and although it was working, the effect would fade slowly every time. That's where the job of the Qi Absorption Pills came into play.

He made them while using a bit of Bloodlust Qi, and they had a similar side effect to the Frenzy Mode of his domain skill. Although it wouldn't turn her crazy instantly, she would definitely think a lot about killing others after consuming them regularly.

He used a very small amount, making it harmless to the consumers. A high-stage cultivator wouldn't be able to sense any danger from it since it really wasn't dangerous.

This type of specialized Qi was extremely difficult to cultivate, so nobody would recognize it. 

If someone broke down his pill for reverse engineering, they'd just think the alchemist of this pill had a weird second specialization. They most likely wouldn't recognize it or know its part in the pill.

"I replenished my Qi, let's continue."

Annie stood up and prepared to spar with Ken again.

"Sure, be careful."

-------------

A few weeks passed and it was time for Ken to meet with his subordinate, Nick. He liked the idea of having lackeys at his beck and call and decided to check his luck and try to get another subordinate.

He chose another mission of exterminating evil cultivators who were hunting lone cultivators and traveling disciples of the sect in a certain area. 

The recommended force for the quest was 5 disciples at the Core Formation Stage, while at least one of them should be at the High Core Formation Stage.

Ken was sure he was far stronger than that despite being at the Low Core Formation Stage, so he didn't have any worries.

"Young Master, I think taking this mission is overdoing it. It's too difficult and beyond your current power."

The receptionist in the Mission Hall told Ken worriedly. Because of his overly young age, she easily remembered him from his past visits to the Mission Hall. 

In her mind, she called him "The Snotty Kid" with bitterness for always picking missions above his stage. She believed he used his family's guards to complete the missions for him.

She thought it was a coincidence she was always the one to take care of him, but he actually went to her on purpose every time because she was easy to bully. 

"Don't question the Sue Family. Since I took it, I obviously can complete it safely without any risks."

'Does The Snotty Kid have a fifth-stage guard or something? He is too overconfident!'

The girl thought to herself. However, on the outside, she only forced a smile while begging Ken to change his mind.

"Young Master, it's better to pick a mission you can complete by yourself, this way you will feel a better sense of accomplishment. Would you like me to show you the interesting missions for the third-stage disciples?"

"No. Just do your damn job and let me accept it, or my Sue Family will mess with you for going against my will."

"No, no, Young Master, I only wanted the best for you. Let me register this mission as yours."

She said with apparent panic and grabbed Ken's token from the counter to register the mission with his name.

"All done. Good luck, Young Master. May you come back safely."

She was cursing him in her mind, but her wish was genuine; she believed she would get killed if a young master of the Sue Clan died because she gave him a mission beyond his power. 

She knew it wouldn't matter that it wasn't her fault; might makes right, and she had no background to save her from an elite clan whatsoever.

Ken left the Mission Hall and went to the forest. He wanted a change of pace and to go to the mountains in the east, but his subordinate wasn't there. He decided to tell him to wait in the mountains next time.

"Nick, come meet me at the coordinates I'm sending you."

Ken talked into the communication device and sent the coordinates. He always picked the place randomly right before the meeting out of worry that Nick will set an ambush for him. Although he was powerful, he wasn't the type to take risks that could be easily avoided.

"Here, take this pill."

As soon as Nick arrived, Ken gave him the Chill Pill with the truth drug. Nick looked at him with grievousness and swallowed the pill. Nick wasn't an idiot; he already figured out that Ken fed him with truth drug.

When the effect was over last time and he thought of the way the meeting went, he understood it after a few minutes of thinking.

There were things he planned to hide from Ken, yet he couldn't stop himself from telling everything when Ken asked about them. For example, the fact that he planned to embezzle 10% of the profits.

After waiting a few minutes to let Nick digest the pill and suppress the poison again, Ken spoke again.

"How much money did you make from selling those thousands of pills?"

"I sold each pill for 200 Qi Stones. Overall, I made 200,000. I didn't take the 100 pills you allowed me to take, please forgive me for my greed, Young Master."

"Good, give me the Qi Stones."

Nick looked at him hesitantly. It was a huge fortune he could only dream about before. When Ken defeated him, he took around 50,000 Qi Stones from him, which was his savings after years.

Eventually, he sighed and gave away the ring with all the stones. He knew he had no choice since his life was already in the palm of the kid in front of him.

'I guess I'm his slave at this point and my only shot at surviving is being obedient. I hope he will allow me to get stronger and won't oppress me completely.'

Nick thought dejectedly as he sighed quietly to himself. He was losing hope of improving and thought he could only live as a slave now until he dies. 

"Good. For your service, I will give you 5% of the revenues."