Karl stared at the group that was surprised by his sudden introduction. Even Karl was, given he had no plan for the unexpected turn of events. He was playing it by heart and hoped for the best. The logic of his plan dictated that he should continue with his schemes without change, as his relationship with Tyrn was based mostly on regrets and bad conscience towards Riven. He knew that it was not good to live in the past and he should throw away all what he was unable to change anymore.
When he thought about it more, he felt like a heavy stone fell off of his heart when he looked at Tyrn's body. It may be ruthless of him, but it was the truth. All the trouble he had been prepared to undertake only to feed a relationship that would have most likely always been just a way for his conscience to compensate for his past actions.
Along with the guy had died his guilt and the Riven family became history that he might reminiscent about, but it would always remain just that, history. It would take a while for the bitter feeling to fade away, but Karl was clear that he would be able to better move forward from this point onward.
"That's it, let's hope that we will find a new path forward after I have shown a bit of honesty and introduced myself to them." He thought and awaited the reaction of the eight people.
"Go fuck yourself, you monster! Let us out!" He received the awaited response shortly. The speaker was a boy with freckles and ginger hair who seemed to be too courageous for his own good. It was a miracle that he had survived in the slums with his attitude.
Karl thought about what his reaction should be, but he had found a fitting response shortly.
"Fine, go." He wrote and gestured to one of his minions nearby who began leading the foul mouthed person out of the dungeon. Hysterical shouts had been heard a moment later when the teenager realized what he had actually achieved, but the decision had been made and Karl had no patience to babysit anyone.
"My name is Rovan Goln, I would be honored to be accepted into your service, Lord Gulden." The redhead fell to his knees and Karl nearly dropped his sword due to his surprise. The speaker's attitude could not contrast more with the previous person.
"What is wrong with this guy? Have I hired him or something? I have not paid him anything!" Karl thought, confused, he had no clue where the enthusiasm was coming from, but it was certainly better than more swear words being thrown his way.
He instructed his minion to nod and the introductions continued promptly.
"Wu Han and Xin Han paying respect to Lord Gulden!" The siblings fell to their knees, following the example of the redhead. The boy clearly dragged his sister down without her having any room to react. They both had grey hair and blue eyes, their figures as frail as the rest because of the general state of affairs in the city slums.
Karl urged his servant to nod again, he liked the siblings from the start.
"Kou Linhai, name Kou Linhai." The teenage boy next to them said immediately after without moving a muscle. Karl did not know if it was due to his pride or just because he was too stiff or nervous to do anything else. He was the youngest of the lot and had long black hair that seemed like it had never been cut.
Karl did not react in any way, just continued to act serious and menacing. In fact, that was his default behavior. He did not even dare to imagine what would happen if he ordered the Void Knight to smile and look friendly.
Menacing had to do.
"Wei Ming greets the Lord." Next, a person with short black hair did the position that Karl very well knew as the know-how position and he began to feel more like he was in the cultivation world again.
"Uh, it was about time." He thought for himself before his eyes rested on the last two people that had not introduced themselves yet.
"Mei Gon von Herrmause greets Lord Gulden." A girl clasped her hands together and bowed politely. Karl had to wonder why she possessed the name that should belong to high society. There was defiance in her green eyes, but her hair was a mix of green and black, something he had not seen in the Thunder God Sect where the green hair and eyes were as common as fish in the ocean.
If he had to guess, he expected her to be some sort of a mixed blood bastard child that had been born in the slums and she had not been accepted into the sect due to her tainted pedigree. He would have time to probe into the details of her origin later.
"Hasuf." The last one simply nodded, an action that could be barely seen through the unnatural number of clothing items the person was wearing and Karl was glad that it was over, because he had total mess in his head regarding all the names he had just heard. He had still no idea why some names sounded similar to each other as if from a single culture and the other names were completely different. It was a little mystery he might try to solve some day, but the day was far off as he had more important problems that called for his attention.
The most pressing of them being what next.
His attention shifted away from the heap of clothes named Hasuf and wandered to the dead body of Tyrn, who had still not moved a muscle due to being dead.
"Take that body and bury it outside." He wrote the only sensible sentence he could come up with. He could not tell them that they had come here to accompany Tyrn who had unfortunately died in the meantime.
He was still in the dark regarding the cause of death, but he had not found any external wounds and guessed it had to be an illness or internal injury. There was the possibility that the previous intruder poisoned him, but he doubted anyone had the time to go around poisoning people if they could have killed him directly without any schemes and fuss. Tyrn had been defenseless behind bars, poisoning him made no sense.
Some of the teenagers seemed to be in shock from handling a dead body, but there were those like the redhead who acted as if it was as natural as taking out the trash. The group swiftly took the body and walked away while accompanied by some of his minions.
"In a way, it simplifies things." Karl thought morbidly. He wanted to chastise himself for thinking that way, but he knew that it was partially in his nature. In a way, a part of him was glad that the past was finally fully behind him with no lingering attachments.
Continuing his original plan, he still intended to use the seven people at his disposal in a constructive way. He had a foundation to solidify and places to explore. He also should train some of them to be able to get into the city's library or some other place holding historical records. He would have places to see when his foundation was rock solid.
Thinking about the future, the time passed quickly and when he shifted his attention to the surface where his new subordinates were burying Tyrn, an unexpected sight appeared in front of him.
"No Kidding, I might be using my special backup plan sooner than I have expected. I should at least test some of my toys in real combat."
* * * *
"Identify yourself, you are on the property of the Water Dragon Sect! Is this disgusting monster your summon? Put it away at once!" A bearded middle aged man with light blue hair dressed in a white and blue robe demanded from Rovan who happened to be considered the leader of the bunch of teenagers. From his posture, it was obvious that the stranger was used to giving orders, his beak-like nose and sharp cheek bones were giving him a menacing air the slum dwellers were used to see from gang bosses and military officers.
Rovan was obviously out of his depth and had no clue how to react to the man's demands.
"This is the property of the city of Jinsheng, it is not a territory of a clan." He managed to say the most sensible argument he could come up with.
"Naturally, we are a sect that belongs to Jinsheng and we have been given the right to this territory by the Council of Elders and the three immortals that rule the city." The speaker laughed haughtily, enjoying the confusion of his counterparts.
"There is only one Immortal!" Kou Linhai said immediately and made the man of the Water Dragon Sect shake his head.
"Your knowledge is outdated! The city has accepted new forces and this region has been taken by our sect. There is no reason for me to explain anything more, the ones with the legal right to this land, the Riven clan, are extinct and there can be no complications. Cease any unauthorized actions on this land or accept the consequences." The man stated firmly and more and more people in similar robes as his began to trickle out of the nearby forest. The imposing man watched with the corner of his eyes as the forces belonging to him continued to fill the half-ruined fort that had no functioning gate to speak off and his smile continued to widen gradually.
He stepped closer to Rovan who stood dumbfounded in place and whispered into his ear an obvious threat.
"Get out."
There was tension in the air and Karl observed everything thought the eyes of his Warped Flesh servant, unsure how to deal with the threat to his human followers.
"But it will stink, you know." Wei Ming scratched his head while pointing at the body of Tyrn.
A strange expression appeared on the face of the Water Dragon Sect's representative.
"It won't and my men can take care of this trifling matter. Now, you can go." He gestured with his hand and gradually, all water from Tyrn's body seemed to evaporate, leaving him in a mummified state. The eyes of the teenagers widened in horror and their reaction pleased the man who did the trick.
"Sir . .Blue Hair, but there is a situation underground." The redhead said tentatively and the said person seemed to bristle the moment he had heard the improvised nickname.
"Call me Elder, if you must, brat. " The man responded hastily, quickly losing patience with the group. "What underground situation? Have you been drinking in the wine cellar? Do you want to take some wine with you?"
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"There is a .. " Rovan was obviously conflicted about his loyalties and to add oil to the fire, he had no clue what situation would be more advantageous to him, as his ability to estimate the strength of the involved parties was limited. "The underground has already been claimed by a foreign sect."
"What?! What is the sect's name brat? Speak! Quick!" The blue haired Elder's face turned grim and the people behind him began to arrange into defensive formations, their clothes clean and bright, leagues away from the dirty group they were interacting with.
"It is. .. " Rovan could obviously not know the name of Karl's sect, because it was not a sect in the first place and had none, but he still tried to figure it out. All he knew was that the supposed sect's minions were inhuman and some of them used purple flames often." Flaming. . purple. .. "
"What purple? Is it the Purple Lotus Sect?" The Elder immediately jumped to a conclusion and steam seemed to start gathering at the surface of his clothes without damping it at all.
Rovan stared back at the Elder with opened mouth and the man seemed to take it as yes.
"Cursed snakes! They should have taken the river! How have they found out about our plans?!" A man next to the Elder barked angrily, but the previous speaker silenced him with a gesture and continued himself.
"What rank do you have in the sect? You are our hostages!" The man said and gestured to one of the units that had formed behind his back. "Take the hostages and make them show you the way into their hideout! Kill every unauthorized person that refuses to leave our property. Kill the summons."
"Yes, Water Dragon Lehaim!" Two dozens of people jumped forth and hurled all sorts of water spells at the minion through which Karl had been observing the situation up until now.
Karl observed through the eyes of his fleshy minion all the attacks that flew against him accompanied by flashy moves and sometimes even shouts of the attacking cultivators. Knowing their own numerical superiority, their moves were more to catch the attention of their superiors than to carefully approach their enemy. Even then, the minion was overwhelmed and cut into pieces before it could do anything other than observe some basic moves.
The minion valiantly withstood a few strikes made up of water blades and ice spikes, but soon crumbled to the ground when a considerably larger water blade cut it vertically in half.
"Pf, rude people. I have no longer eyes on the ground, but I can guess the situation." Karl ordered his minion to make haste to the secret passage that led to the private part of the dungeon.
"I can test my minions while they cover my retreat." Karl decided to assign the group that had been rounding up the kids to defend the dungeon and see how it went. At the same time, he began deactivating all the traps to prevent anyone from even guessing his true nature. The traps would not win the battle anyway and he was too oblivious to the situation in the city.
If he wanted to go against Jinsheng, he needed to play into the city's politics, not to kill everyone who came his way. That was a recipe to make an enemy out of the whole city, something he could not afford.
"I will make this sect my cover, they will never know that they are not alone in their precious base." Karl wanted to laugh, but in his mind he was readying a backup plan in case someone had the bright idea to expand on the tunnels and accidentally connected to the private part of his dungeon.
Despite his optimistic attitude, he needed eyes on the situation to not be left in the dark. It was something he would need to think about from the safety of dozens of meters of rock that would protect him from the intruding cultivators.
"Oh, they are here, let's see how they fight." Karl rushed into the secret passage and ordered the elemental there to close it behind him immediately.
It was time to watch the show.
Using his twenty Goblins, he took advantage of their small, filthy figures to blend into the dark tunnels and corners of his domain and commanded them to be his eyes and ears. He prepared four units of Warped Flesh for the cultivators on their way to the cellar and hid one Void Horror behind a corroded plate armor that stood in the tunnel leading into the cellar, where he had built his public dungeon's entrance.
The cultivators searched the fort and quickly started going in the direction of the only resistance, using the Warped Flesh minions as punching bags. They were able to exterminate all four without sustaining a single injury, because the minions were not trying to hide and had no chance of reaching the fighters of the Water Dragon Sect before being torn to shreds by their powers. Realistically, they would have had it though if they tried to hide because of their large and bulky frames.
It was all a ploy on Karl's part to make the invaders more confident and careless, as he would test their professionalism with the prepared ambush.
Even then, he noticed that some cultivators were not as flashy as before and began hiding behind others, a clear sign of their exhaustion.
Karl knew based on his experience from his time spent on the surface that the first stage cultivators had no visible soul powers, no matter what Mojo they cultivated, the first stage affecting only their fitness. A standard cultivator could use his powers only since the second stage, but those cultivators tended to tire fast and the number of uses of their abilities was extremely limited. Only on the third stage, the Mojo Crystallization Stage, could cultivators use their powers for extended periods of time without being too tired.
"A Good third of them are not even the third stage. That is as expected." Karl switched his attention to the lurking Void Horror and awaited the intruders.
Emboldened by their easy progress, the cultivators were not paying as much attention to their surroundings as when they had began their search and the Void Horror was able to stay hidden to the last moment. The monster's ever present purple glow emanated mainly from its eyes and sharp claws and Karl had ordered it to carefully hide both behind the rusty piece of armor.
When the time was right, the Void monster rushed out from behind the armor and swiped with its both clawed hands in a wide arc, leaving trails of eerie purple light in their wake. The cultivators of the Water Dragon Sect were not expecting an ambush and most of them could see only the claws and two shiny dots in the darkness of the tunnel. They had brought light stones that illuminated the space to same degree, but the long shadows had been hiding the attacker perfectly.
In a second, several of the cultivators had their bellies stuck with the vicious slice, suffering from serious injuries. Karl noticed that their robes glowed brightly when the trails of purple light stuck them, the defensive enchantments trying to prevent the claws from tearing the sect members apart. It was most likely thanks to those enchantments that the cultivators had not been bisected by the attack and only had their bellies torn open.
Before his minion could do any more damage, it was stuck by a surge of steam that pushed the monster far back into the tunnel while some people jumped forth to put themselves in between the injured and the threat. Karl decided to fight seriously this time and ordered his minion to hide in the back of this tunnel, it was crystal clear that a direct charge through the long tunnel would give the cultivators more than enough time to turn it into shreds.
"It fled! What is this? It should keep attacking!" Karl heard distant shouts via his minion that was hidden behind a corner, waiting for cultivators' next action.
"An ambush and now it is not attacking? This is suspicious."
Shortly, the brightness of light stones coming from the direction of the cultivators turned dim blue and when Karl ordered his minion to look behind the corner to see what was going on, he was puzzled when he saw a solid blue wall of thick ice.
"They blocked the tunnel." He stated, startled by the fact.
However, it had some logic behind it. The cultivators must have evaluated the Void Horror's behavior as irregular and were unwilling to fight it in the dark, unexplored tunnels where it had the advantage.
"It might be for the best, the casualties might attract too much attention if they decided to go all in." It was obvious that many cultivators would have died before they would manage to conquer just the public part of his dungeon.
"But I have still not solved the situation with the kids." Karl quickly began to mobilize his minions to go around the exit at the Fort Orlov to assist the teenagers in case they needed it. He had his goblins on the surface who could surveil the situation, but they were too weak to do anything about it.
Karl mobilized his minions and created a temporary exit from the private part of his dungeon that unleashed them upon the surface. When he was done, he shifted his consciousness into one of the goblins that still followed the situation on the surface, right in time to see Water Dragon Lehaim holding Rovan by his neck.The poor teenager had to stand on his tiptoes to prevent himself from choking.
"What sort of an ambush has the Purple Lotus Sect prepared here? Talk, filth, or you will share the fate of your friend here!" The man pointed at Tyrn's corpse that had not yet been fully buried, its paper-like mummified skin peeking through piles of dirt.
"What sect? There is this nuts demonic cultivator!" Rovan was sweating profusely in the Elder's hand, his act of a perfect subordinate obviously not covering extreme situations.
"I am losing time with you." Water Dragon Lehaim released Rovan who crumbled down onto the ground while coughing violently. It was obvious what would happen next.
"Damn! My most promising follower, I have to do something!" Karl began to panic, but what might a group of goblins do? He had only around ten of them encircling the cultivators and their strength was as pathetic as always. He needed to buy a few minutes before his other minions arrived from the temporary exit.
The next second, every goblin along with two Warped Flesh minions that had been separated by the ice wall, trapped on the surface, received a once in their lifetime command.
"Sing!"
And they sang.
Naturally, the minions' ability to execute commands with creativity and initiative was quite limited, meaning they began with a silly moan that in Karl's opinion was not puzzling enough to delay the cultivator's in their sinister actions. Karl quickly scrambled in his brain for a melody and words of something that would do the trick and shortly, he became the lead singer for his minions. His monsters interpreted the melody and words the best they could and soon, the immortal rock stars of Earth had their first cover song sang in the forest of the cultivation world.
Karl had to admit that his Warped Flesh minions might have some level of talent for heavy metal songs, their performance reaching more than acceptable levels of raspiness.
The cultivators heard it all and when the inarticulate shouts of Karl's monsters turned into a song, their wary expressions turned into something indescribable.
"This place is cursed! Let's get out of here!" Some of the weaker cultivators that were here to gain experience were more than ready to pull their tails in between their legs and run back to the city.
The Elder seemed determined to continue in his actions despite the strange song, but calming down the unsettled members of the sect and listening to the song delayed him enough and the cavalry had already arrived.
To the horror of all the cultivators present, multitude of the very same monster that had ambushed them in the cellar had emerged from the forest and stood there motionless. In addition to the known foe, ten hulking figures armored to the teeth stepped heavily out of the shade of the trees and made some of the less courageous members of the Water Dragon Sect gasp for air.
Both cultivators and the monsters stood in their place without moving, as if the slightest motion would start a bloodbath.
"Prepare for battle, but let's make an example first. I hate liars." The Elder took out an ornate dagger and its blade reached towards Rovan's next, who was still lying on the ground.
The moment Elder Lehaim placed the blade against the poor teenager's neck, the ten metal monstrosities swiftly gripped their swords and drew them halfway out of their scabbards, the meaning of their action obvious.
"Elder, I do not think that his execution is a good idea." A man whispered into Lehaim's ear urgently and the Water Dragon Sect's leader suppressed an impulse to punch him.
"I do have eyes, idiot." The Elder growled, thinking about their next course of action.
He put back the dagger and the Void monsters sheathed their swords again, the message clear to all who saw it.
"What are your orders, Elder? Will we fight?" The same man asked while warily watching the encirclement.
"Begin a tactical retreat, be prepared for an ambush. We know too little about the enemy." The Elder ordered after a long pause and the cultivators started to move in a loose formation in the direction of the city, leaving the teenagers to their devices for obvious reasons.
"This is not the end." Water Dragon Lehaim spat out angrily before the forces of his sect disappeared into the forest after a careful retreat.
Karl almost melted with relief, because he was not sure how the confrontation might have ended, he had noticed that the cultivators had not suffered a single casualty due to their enchanted robes and pills they had taken afterwards. He was not afraid of losing his minions, but a too serious of a confrontation might provoke a united action of Jinsheng, something Karl wanted to prevent.
In the crumbled courtyard only a handful of teenagers remained, encircled by the now closing mob of Void monsters. One of them in particular had an uneasy expression plastered on his face.
"Hello, Your Majesty Karl Gulden. Nice save!" Rovan showed the incoming minions thumbs up, hoping that it would make up for his dubious conduct.
"Just bury the corpse already." Karl wrote in the usual manner in the air and Rovan was holding a shovel even before the letters' purple outlines fully faded into the wind.
A huge stone fell off everyone's heart when they realized their master was not going to punish any of them, but the uneasy feeling returned when Karl accidentally wrote his following thought for all of them to see.
"I need eyes in the city, this will not simply fizzle out."