Chapter 60 60 – Maria Joins The Crew



"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."

"Does it mean I have to meet you every three months?"

"No, I will give you 2 more pills, so you will have to see me in 9 months. Take the antidote."

Maria looked at it doubtfully but swallowed it anyway. She was already at the mercy of the kid in front of her, so it was pointless to resist. She didn't want to go through that experience of extreme fear again.

"Now what?"

"Go get me something to drink."

"I will make you tea, Young Master."

Maria left and returned shortly later with a cup of tea. She dropped to her knees and served the cup to Ken who was sitting on the ground.

"Did you poison it?"

"Yes, Young Master."

She immediately opened her eyes in horror when she realized what she had just said.

"I mean, yes, Young Master. I poisoned it."

She started panicking when found out that words came out of her mouth without her control. 

'It was supposed to be "I mean, no, Young Master. I didn't poison it." So why did I tell the truth instead?!'

But Ken just looked at her with an amused look. He obviously mixed a truth drug in the antidote before, he wouldn't trust a woman who worked as a bandit boss.

"Why?"

"To set me free. I don't want to be someone's slave for the rest of my life."

She said truthfully.

"What about the poison I gave you? You'll die if I don't supply you with the antidote, you know?"

"I felt it earlier, it was just a fourth-grade pill. With the money I can get from everyone's rings, the loot, and your storage ring, I will be able to commission a fifth-rank alchemist to get me the permanent antidote. You must have loads of money as a rich kid, and I have 9 months to find a cure."

"I see. Well, I'm sorry. Despite it being a fourth-rank pill, you'd need a sixth-rank alchemist to crack this pill. My alchemy skills are higher than any fifth-rank alchemist, and this poison is my invention."

He wasn't bragging for no reason. His understanding of Alchemy was extremely deep, and he probably knew many things that sixth-rank alchemists didn't know.

"I doubt it, Young Master."

Maria spoke too much again and swore herself inwardly. She already understood she was under the effect of a truth drug; she just didn't understand how it could be so potent. She couldn't even resist it.

"Let me show you then."

Ken took out his cauldron and started creating pills. There were pills from the first grade to the fourth grade. The first three grades were made in batches of 18 every 3 minutes, while the fourth-grade pills took him 6 minutes to complete, and he only made 9 every time.

Maria watched him in wonder while he pumped pills out at a rapid pace. She was regretting again that he wasn't a desperate man that spared her because of her looks. Forget killing him, she'd make him fall in love with her and supply her with pills forever.

She didn't want to bother him, so she just remained quiet for one hour until he finished.

Ken returned the cauldron back to his storage ring and looked at the bottles on the ground in front of him. Each bottle contained a set of 3-5 pills, depending on the type of pill.

"Those pills are for you. Your foundation is complete trash, so you will be a bad subordinate. You can take those pills to improve your foundation little by little until you're good enough to work for me."

He pointed at the bottles on the ground and talked to Maria. She just looked at him back with confusion.

"Young Master, I'm already at the peak of the fourth stage. I purchased all the fourth-grade pills that could help me improve myself. I even saved as much as I could to buy some pills for my spear affinity."

With her poor foundation, she could only get one affinity for her core. Ken didn't mind; as long as that affinity was strong enough, it wouldn't matter.

"Yeah, first take this. It's my personal fourth-grade Impurities Discharging Pill. It will clean your body from all the trash you've been taking. Take one every day for two weeks until you're clean."

Although cultivators dispelled the impurities from their bodies after consuming imperfect pills, they couldn't remove them all. There would always be 0.1% impurities that the cultivator couldn't get rid of.

Maria just nodded absentmindedly as she thought about what the point of all this was. She was just fine as she was, and it was pointless to consume pills she already used before.

"You're doubting my pills. Try this Body Strengthening Pill. You need to first take the first grade and slowly take the higher grades until you finish them all."

Maria took it with a dubious gaze and absorbed the pill. To her astonishment, it actually had an effect on her body, and she could feel it strengthening and tempering her muscles, organs, skin, blood vessels, and everything else.

She barely stopped herself from grabbing the pills and consuming them one by one. It wasn't the time for that; Ken was still there.

"Thank you, Young Master. They really work."

"Good. But first, clean your body of impurities as I told you before."

She nodded before asking a question that has been bugging her since he told her his age.

"Young Master, are you really six years old? You speak too maturely, you are too powerful, and above all, you're too tall for a six-year-old."

Ken just removed his mask in response so she can see his face. She looked in surprise at the beautiful child in front of her. 

'What bullied, I bet everyone spoils him rotten with this face.'

"My body matured faster than normal because of all the pills I've taken as well as my cultivation level. You can't tell anyone about either my identity or my real age."

Although she planned to kill him, he knew she would come around if he offered her more resources than she could get on her own. 

Without her bandit group, she wouldn't be able to gather money as well as before, and if she does it again, someone else will come to hunt her.

"Maria, do you want to poison me or work under me? You can enjoy such resources all the time under me, but without me, your foundation isn't enough even to reach the fifth stage."

"I want to work under you, Young Master."

She was under the influence of the truth drug, so he knew she wasn't lying. 

"Good. Work on your foundation until we meet again in 9 months. Here, you can have this communication device, it will allow me to contact you when I want to. Do you know any black markets?"

"Yes, I know two. The nearest one is the black market under the Shang Clan from Divine Sword Sect. The second one is a bit far and belongs to the Long Clan from Four Seasons Sect."

Four Seasons Sect was ranked 3 in the continent and was extremely powerful. Ken smiled as soon as he heard that and gave her a ring with 30,000 pills inside.

"Go and sell it to the Long Clan. Don't let them know the source of the pills, just sell them anonymously. Don't take any pills from here. I will know if you do. Besides, they aren't as good as the pills I made for you anyway. Don't sell them all at once; do it 10,000 every few months."

It had two purposes; the first was to make sure they understood they had a long-term trading relationship with each other. The second was to always have a steady supply, but not a too big supply. This way they will keep the pills for themselves rather than selling them.

"Isn't it better to go to the Shang Clan? They are nearer."

"No. And you can promise them you will only sell those pills to them."

She pouted but remained silent. Since he directly said no, there was nothing she could do about it.

"Young Master, traveling so much would take months away from my cultivation time."

"What cultivation time? if not for me you'd be stuck at your current stage forever anyway."

Ken mocked her but stood up anyway. He whistled loudly and hoped the tiger will understand it was meant for it.

The tiger didn't fail him. It probably waited for Ken to call it to act as its mount on the way back and receive another payment.

Ken stroke its fur and smiled at the obedient tiger in front of him. It really wanted another pill.

"I have an offer for you. Act as this woman's mount for the next 9 months and you can have 2 more pills. In 9 months, I will give you something even better."

The tiger lowered its head as if it was thinking about the offer and soon pushed its nose against Maria to show its consent to the deal, eliciting Maria to take a step backward in surprise.

"All right, now your troubles are solved. It can run much faster than humans and you won't be exhausted at the end of your travel, allowing you to cultivate. Just don't use it for fighting and don't abuse it, it's a fragile creature."