12 - Chapter 11 - Day 1751 Continued

Adya returned to her carriage. It had been a somewhat productive day. She had identified routes forward, though the financial limitations were frustrating. She would need to look into the black market, and she would need to find out more about the end users of the mana stones.

As they left the city behind, Adya fell into thought. Her mana manipulation skill had evolved, she had not realised that using the mana outside her soul would cause her to get a massive boost. She could now create and control mana in the palm of her hand. She wondered if it was the same for the other energies. She had not received skill relating to their use at all, even in the soul. Was that because she used her mana as a crutch to control the other energies?

As she had nothing better to do, she tried to layer the energies in her hand. She started with only simple shapes, starting with a simple sphere. The mana sphere came naturally, then she tried to switch to stamina, it took her a little while to force the stamina out of her body to create a sphere, finally she started work on will power. It was the energy she had the least of, and it took intense focus to get her to produce will power in a tangible form outside her body. By this point they were outside the city and on the main road.

She continued to toy with the 3 energies trying different shapes and her control and fluidity of control improved step by step. Finally just as they were entering the woods again, she received a system notification.

Mana Manipulation: Level 38 evolves to Energy Manipulation: Level 38

Meditation: Level 11 evolves to Waking Meditation: Level 11

She didn't realise that energy control exercise with her focus counted as waking meditation. She tried and found she could meditate while still somewhat aware of her surroundings. This would be very helpful, it would allow her to train herself to have the mindset while training. That should help her energy control to advance. She also hoped that the two upgrades would get her closer to forming her mana core letting her start on the path to cultivation. The first step, that should have been the easiest for her, was instead turning out to be the hardest, simply due to the volume of her mana. She felt that after the first step, it would actually become easier for her to step through the levels.

As she was lost in thought, the carriage came to a stop. She was surprised as they were still in the woods. She heard sounds of others outside then she heard the typical bandit threats.

Dexter got down from the carriage, and Adya decided to join him. It's not like she felt any threat from anyone who wasn't a cultivator. She hardly expected cultivators to even exist out here, let alone be having to turn bandit.

Adya looked over the men, yes they were all men, and there were about two dozen, with a few remaining further back. Those at the front held a variety of weapons, and the ones at the back had bows. They were clearly no match for a dozen armed and armoured mounted soldiers. Adya couldn't understand why they would be stupid enough to challenge the group. Even with skills and classes, though she didn't expect them to really have any that were good, without good weapons and any armour they were at a significant disadvantage.

“Dexter, something is not right here.” said Adya quietly. “Look for the real ambush, thee fools have been sent to us to die, the real attacker will look to take advantage of the chaos to enact their plan.”

“I agree my lady, I will stay with you with 4 guards.” replied Dexter, “Shall I order the rest to attack.”

“No Dexter, hold all the soldiers back.” replied Adya, “We will need them. I will deal with the bandits.”

“What do you bandits want,” said Adya out loud. “You know whoever hired you to attack us just asked you to die right? How much did they offer to pay you?”

The bandit leader was shocked, not only by the fact that it was the little girl speaking and not all the grown ups, but that she had accurately predicted the situation within a minute of them stopping the carriage. He was starting to get a very bad feeling about the situation. Still he tried to put up a show in front of his men. His reputation would be over if he was cowed by a little girl, no matter how well spoken she was.

“Give us everything you have, and we will let you go.” blustered the bandit leader.

Adya laughed, “You really are that stupid,” she said, “If I wanted you all dead, you would be dead. I don't order people killed for being stupid, but if you keep this nonsense up, you will leave me little choice. Final chance, I want to know who sent you, how much you were offered, and why you would be stupid enough to accept.” As she delivered her threat, she sent a spike of killing intent towards all the bandits, her control was precise enough that her own people didn't even feel anything. They did, however, notice the results.

As Adya’s threat was delivered, half the bandits fell down screaming in fear. Another half of those left standing pissed themselves from fear. Six of the people along with the leader were still standing, though no one managed to keep a hold of their weapons. Adya had not used anywhere near her full killing intent, had she done that no one would still be alive. Her 10,000 plus years of honing her intent was beyond what she expected most in this world to be able to contend with. She may have lost her cultivation and body conditioning, but killing intent was linked to the soul. She didn't have a way to gauge how much stronger her soul was compared to her last lives, so she couldn't gauge just how strong her killing intent had become.

Mai noticed the use of killing intent as a weapon and made a note to ask Adya about it after the altercation was over. It would be an excellent addition to Mai’s capabilities.

The bandit leader was literally shaking where he stood. He had no idea who this girl was, but he knew with certainty that if they tried to escape, none of them would live. He had gotten greedy, he shouldn't have accepted this job, it had sounded too dodgy.

“I was hired by a man in the city, he noticed you spending money and mana stones. He paid me to hold you up and take what remained of the mana stones from you.” said the badly shaken bandit leader. “I was offered 1 gold, plus 10% of anything we could get from you.”

“Well is that enough to be worth all your lives?” asked Adya “What was the rest of the plan?”

“That was it I swear,” replied the man “He told me you only had two guards, and that it would be easy.”

“Truely disposable.” replied Adya. “He didnt even trust you to tell you the whole plan, just sent you as a distraction, did he at least pay you before he sent you to die?

The bandit leader shook his head. Adya thought about what to do with them, then remembered the list of formations she had memorised from the book at the mana artificers shop. She had an idea of how she could use these men.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Sai, she thought, get to work on understanding the formation to create oaths of loyalty linked to the system. Create it as a tattoo for now, we can look at enhancing it later.

Sai: I will start processing. Estimated time to initial prototype 12 hours.

“So now you have two choices,” said Adya out loud. “You can all be under arrest, taken back to our estate and I will decide your fates, but will let you live. Or you can challenge me, and will kill you where you stand. If you try to run, you will die.”

The stark threat from such a young girl shocked everyone, including her own retainers. The effect on the bandits was even more pronounced. They were left gobsmacked, She literally had not left them a choice.

As the bandit leader looked lost at the stark choice he had been left, Adya continued. “In fact, i am getting both bored and annoyed by this, so anything other than acceptance of my generous offer will lead you to be executed. You two” said Adya pointing at two of her newest guards, “ go and collect their weapons, then secure their hands with rope. If anyone even twitches wrong, I will be able to execute them, so have no fear.”

Realising they really had no choice, most of the bandits dropped their weapons and waited to be collected and bound. However, in every group there is the idiot who thinks he knows better. The designated idiot of this group pulled out a knife and attempted to either kill or take a guard hostage. His reasoning went unknown because as soon as he moved, Adya used a precise amount of killing intent to completely suppress him. The guard he had attempted to attack took off his head in one slice. Watching him collapse twitching then be decapitated destroyed any fight that might have been left in the rest of the group.

The guards made quick work of binding the rest of the bandits and soon they were securely attached to each other in two columns. The ropes were then secured to the back of the carriage.

Still the second attack had not materialised. Was Adya wrong about the second attack, was it only a test to see her response? No, they were out there watching, and Adya had no patience for dragging this out even longer. She would have to expose more of her abilities than she wanted, however was that really an issue here. The guards and her retainers were already oath bound not to reveal her secrets. She would just assign them as her personal guards going forward. The bandits would be dealt with via the formation soon enough, and she could keep them confined until then. She had no intention of leaving anyone else alive. She just had to risk that there wasn't a cultivator versed in soul techniques out there targeting her, but there would be no reason for anyone to send such an asset after her. She had not displayed any such abilities before. The risk was minimal.

“I am going to do something to identify the remaining threat,” said Adya. “Anyone revealing my technique to anyone, including to my own family will be killed. Dexter get ready to retrieve our pursuers at my command. Bring them back for questioning, but you don't have to be gentle.”

Adya released her divine sense for the first time in this life. Her soul was able to project the technique, it was just hell on her body. Thankfully she would have time to heal before returning home. The divine sense belloweed out and identified a group of 6 spaced out in a ring around their position. Not wanting to take any chances, Adya pushed her divine sense out to cover a much larger distance, but still found no one. She didnt feel like anyone strong enough to conceal themselves from her divine sense would just be skulking around. Anyone that strong would have been able to kill her whole group without breaking a sweat.

Happy that it was only the six that were out there, Adya used the killing intent to forcefully suppress them. She then pointed to the six directions. The pressure on her body was growing from the use of a technique that her body was just not ready for. As six of her soldiers went out to get the six hidden watchers, the pressure started to have a visible effect. The pressure caused her to start bleeding from her eyes, nose and ears. Still Adya kept it up until she felt the six be bound, then as her soldiers started to drag them back, she finally let the technique drop.

Her body started to recover, and she figured it would take around an hour to let her body recover. She took out a handkerchief and cleaned up the blood. The display of the technique, the toll on her body, and the way she simply withstood it left an indelible mark on all those present. Her retainers were aware that she was strong, but they were all left asking themselves if they would be able to work though what had to be excruciating pain through the force of sheer will power. This young lady was something else entirely.

The soldiers dragged back the six bound captives. Adya ordered them stripped down to their small clothes. There were five men and one woman amongst the captives.

By the time they returned to their senses, they were practically naked and bound hand and foot. They were still in shock at the viciousness of the attack they had endured, and they were still suffering from the aftereffects of the shock. As they looked around they saw the bandits that were supposed to be a distraction, tied behind the carriage. Only one was dead. They couldn't understand how the guards had subdued all the bandits without any sound, and with no apparent effort. They saw their target, a small girl step forward.

“So you have two choices,” said Adya, “Tell me everything, and I might let you live, but you won't be free. Or be difficult and I will have my men remove limbs one by one till one of you talks then everyone dies. I am not in the mood to waste more of my time. I don't want to hear any begging or pleading or pleas of innocence. I want only my answers.”

“Question one, who are you? Question two, who sent you? Question 3 what were your exact orders?” asked Adya. She directed a short killing intent burst at the captives to punctuate each question.

One of the group, already trembling before, pissed himself, then answered. “ We are members of the shadows hand. We can't tell you who hired us. We literally can't.” he continued showing off a tattoo on his upper forearm. “We were hired to wait until you were distracted by the attacking bandits, then sweep in and kidnap you. I think the idea was to ransom you back to your family.”

Adya stepped up close and examined the tattoo in detail. Sai also joined in on the analysis. It seemed like he was telling the truth, the formation would kill them if broken or if they tried to betray the organisation. Not only did the tattoo force compliance, but also saved Sai some time by confirming that Adya’s idea was possible. Adya used mana to scan the structure of the tattoo to get as much information as possible. When she was done, she realised her understanding was not even close to enough to start deciphering the whole structure yet.

That left the problem of what to do with the group. She could let them live, they were of no use to her right now, and there was no point keeping them captive, or was there. If she took over their organisation, would they then have to answer to her? How long would it take for her to find the people, and take over the organisation. No that would be for the future, they would not be useful to her right now. The risk of her secrets leaking was too great if she let them live.

She would kill them, now what was the best way. It would be best if the organisation thought they had died betraying them, so she sent tendrils of mana into each of the tattoos, and pulled on one strand. Slowly she snapped the tendril causing the tattoo to think it was being removed. The tattoos attacked the lifeforce of the six and slowly drained them till there was nothing left. Interestingly, the death was not designed to be painful, it just put them to sleep and then drained their life until they were dead in truth. There was so much to unpack there.

Her retainers and the captured bandits watched her examine the one man, then watched them all pass out and die. They had no idea how she had done it. None of them noticed the broken fine line in the tattoo.

“Does anyone have a fire skill? I want these 6 and the idiot from earlier burned to ash. I dont want to leave any evidence behind.” asked Adya.

Two of her guards put their hands up, still shaken up at the utter ruthlessness displayed by such a young girl. At a command from her the bodies were dragged away piled up and then burned to ash.

It really was a pity, thought Adya, that seeing a skill in use didn't let anyone identify the design of the spell, thought that would leave a massive weakness to be exploited, so she guessed it did make sense.

Once they were ready, they made their way back to the estate. Now, thought Adya, just how am I going to explain this all to my mother. She wanted to keep the bandits for her own experiments, and also didn't want to be limited to the estate once again.

She decided to go with a simple, I caught these bandits, and decided to capture them as the right thing to do and pretend it was the guards who did all the capturing. Hopefully mother would believe the story.