Chapter 59 59 – Second Subordinate



"You, stay here as hostage. You, go kill the injured men."

The man nodded eagerly and ran off to complete his assignment while Ken waited with the other two.

"Young Master, would you like anything to drink while we wait?"

"Not really, wait quietly for the man to return."

She shut up and waited. She was intrigued about many aspects of this young master, such as his real age and the grade of his fighting arts, but she didn't speak after he instructed her to shut up. 

One of the reasons that Ken overpowered the four of them despite the stage gap was that they barely had one Lower Earth-grade technique while the rest of their skills were only Sky grade. Besides affecting their core's affinities, they just had weaker attacks. Even that one Earth-grade technique was gained only after they formed their cores.

On the black market, Earth-grade techniques cost a fortune, especially the orthodox ones. The unorthodox techniques and manuals cost much less as they were all sketchy and full of side effects, not to mention they will turn the users into outcasts of the cultivation society.

Meanwhile, Thomas, the bandit who went to kill the injured men, quickly ran to the usual hiding spot.

"Marco, Anzu, are you there? We managed to kill him, you can come out."

"Great, we were just about to come to help you guys. Glad to see you're fine, Thomas."

Marco and Anzu jumped and descended slowly from their hiding spot in amidst the dense branches.

"Did anyone get hurt?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, everyone died other than my little brother and Maria."

"At least we will be able to divide the loot much more easily now. With the amount we can get now, we might be able to buy an Earth-grade technique."

Anzu said with clear greed in his voice. The other two just smiled at the thought, although Thomas' smile was mainly bitter. He thought about how amazing it was if it was true, but sadly, the damned kid planned to take everything for himself.

He didn't plan to rely on a crippled archer and a severely wounded swordsman to fight back against Ken, so the money's loss was final.

*Slash*

His saber shined under the sun as it cleaved the necks of the two men in one slash. He waited for them to completely relax before attacking, and when he did, they couldn't react in time to a sneak attack from so close.

He grabbed their heads and ran back to meet Ken. He didn't take their storage rings on purpose; he planned on taking them later after Ken left. He could just say he moved their belongings to his ring and Ken wouldn't know it was a lie since he didn't know what was there originally.

"Young Master, here are their heads."

Thomas bowed and presented the two heads with his hands. When he saw Ken nodding, he threw them away and waited for Ken to speak. Ken was standing right next to his little brother, so he was just bowing nervously without moving.

"Good. Now, I need only one of you."

With a quick motion, he chopped Thomas' brother with his palm, cutting it through and killing him on the spot. When his hand was coated with Sword Qi, he didn't need an actual sword to cut through flesh.

Of course, it cost more Qi and would be less lethal than using a real sword fitting for his stage.

"No! you said you will leave us alive!"

"No, I didn't. I said I can't let too many of you remain alive, you just assumed I meant I can let three of you live. I chose to let the woman live."

He already planned to recruit Maria, so he didn't want her to know his word didn't worth much. Otherwise, she'd be in constant fear he might go against his word and kill her. Instead, he preferred to claim that the three should've paid more attention to the wording.

"Maria, let's fight him together. He isn't planning to let any of us live, it's better to die fighting than letting him butcher us like cattle!"

·ƈθm Thomas shouted and unsheathed his saber quickly. He didn't charge forward yet as he waited for Maria to make up her mind and hold her spear before going to fight alone.

Ken didn't attack him either; it's not like he needed to expend any effort to kill Thomas whenever he wanted.

'Blood-Poisoning Domain, Paralyzing Mode.'

Ken's bloodlust flooded the two's minds, shocking them to their cores. He didn't hold back, and the two shook on the spot intensely while saliva came out from the corner of their mouth and their eyes opened in terror.

Ken just walked slowly toward Thomas who dropped on his knees and raised his head to look at Ken walking toward him.

"Young Master, please have mercy! I'm sorry!"

He begged in screams while choking on his words. He didn't even notice he spat while screaming and that his saliva dripped on his chin.

Ken only raised his hand and brought it down, ignoring the stench of piss emitted from the lower part of Thomas' body. His hand cut through Thomas' chest, piercing his heart.

He then switched his attention to Maria who quivered uncontrollably as she became the only target of his bloodlust.

When he reached the Small Success mastery realm of his domain in both modes, he gained the ability to choose how to distribute the bloodlust in his domain instead of just letting everyone share the burden equally.

Earlier he channeled 75% of his bloodlust to Thomas, making him unable to move. The 25% was enough to make Maria unwilling to move and grasped at the straws he might keep his word and let her live.

Now, with 100% channeled to Maria, she lost her control over her bladder and exuded the same stench as Thomas before he died.

Ken wrinkled his nose in disgust for a moment, but then let it go. It was just piss; some people beg their partners to do it in front of them anyway.

"Take this pill."

It was a similar pill to the one he fed Nick in his sleep. A poisonous pill that would make her feel strong heat in her body every few months if she didn't take the antidote on time. 

The difference was the length of time until she started feeling the heat. While it was 1 month for Nick, it was 3 months for her. 

He didn't feel like having to meet her every 3 months, it would become a nuisance if he got more subordinates in the future and had to go on a trip to give them antidotes every 3 months.

Without thinking, Maria instantly took the pill and swallowed it, and Ken removed his domain. He only did it as a display of power, he didn't mean to torture her forever.

Maria heaved in relief as soon as the pressure was gone, still thinking in horror about the colossal amount of people her new master had to kill to develop such an intense bloodlust.

She killed a few dozen humans by now, and her bloodlust barely took shape. It couldn't compare to Ken's bloodlust. He killed over 100,000 people by reliving his memories and it was enhanced even further when he executed his Heaven-grade skill using Bloodlust Qi.

"Clean yourself and come back. don't try to run, you're poisoned."

Ken sat on the ground and started browsing everyone's storage rings. Maria just looked at him in uneasiness and went to change her dirty clothes.

He noticed there were 2 rings missing since there were only 11, but he didn't care enough to search for them. Maria can enjoy those if she wants, he didn't mind leaving leftovers for his subordinates.

Including the loot that was in the room where he started his onslaught, he found 400,000 Qi Stones. There were many other goods that he estimated to have 600,000-700,000 Qi Stones.

'Seems like bandits have to find a way to sell their stolen goods, probably at a much lower price than they are worth.'

Ken figured they'd only make around 300,000 of all those goods. He took all the herbs and materials he could work with while leaving behind goods he didn't have use for. Maria could sell them and earn some money if she wants to. 

Meanwhile, Maria already returned, dressed in a short red qipao that accentuated her curves. She was quite pretty, now that Ken took a good look at her. However, his child's body didn't react.

"I'm 6 years old, why are you trying to seduce me?"

"Si… Six?!"

He was still wearing a mask, so she couldn't tell his age. His height was fitting someone between ages 10-12, depending on how tall or short the individual was. 

However, she already convinced herself he was at least 20 and was simply very short. After all, she didn't want to believe her whole group was destroyed by a 10-year-old.

She told herself a story about how he was bullied in his family for his height and grew to be the twisted kid he was today. Amusing herself with such a story was the best she could do as revenge. 

She even imagined fixing his broken heart with her body and sweet words until she could finally plunge a knife into it when it healed, setting herself free. Now she had to recalculate her future path.

Ken, unaware of her dark inner thoughts, just spoke again.

"This is the antidote for the poison I gave you earlier. It will be enough for three months before you have to take another pill."