A knight in a plate armor that shone with the runic engravings of purple light was walking back and fort near one of the pylons of his home building while flipping a coin. Near him sat a red haired teenager, his eyes hanging on the knight's every move, using a chopped trunk of a tree as a chair.
There was a black stone fastened to the knight's forehead, making the minion unique. Karl ordered his minion to flip the coin again and pondered about the details of his plan. His new scheme seemed a bit convoluted, but he considered it a necessary complication. At first, he had intended to send his loyal subordinates into the city to act on his behalf, but it was obvious that their actions were very limited while playing the role of a street beggar or a thief.
Previously, he intended to solve the problem by giving them money, but the teenagers would probably only get killed as soon as someone found out that they were rich. That was why Karl made his revised plan. After the latest update, the devious Karl's plan looked as follows.
His people infiltrate the workforce of the Water Dragon Sect nearby and find a suitable contact. The cultivator contact receives his support and go to the city acting on Karl's behalf. The contact should not get killed, nor be barred from entering the places of interest that Karl needed to infiltrate.
According to his brain preconditioned from reading all sorts of crazy novels, he should be building his kingdom or luring adventurers to kill them in his domain for experience and fun. Instead, reality forced him to do something totally different, to start building a network that would move on his behalf.
A business network moved others using the power of money, a spy network used skill and ruthlessness instead and frankly, he could do both.
He would never even consider to build some expansive kingdom to stand against all the cultivators and other freaks that the cultivation world had to offer. It would become an unending fight against the whole world.
He was not seeking death!
"I entrust you with leading the operation. We can go over the plan once more." Karl addressed his most loyal servant with his writing.
"What if I need to contact you, Lord Gulden?" He asked, not looking particularly enthusiastic about the endeavor his superior was trying to rope him into.
"My goblins will be nearby at all times." Karl tried to reassure Rovan, but his face stayed the same.
"Goblins? What if I cannot see them?" He asked and Karl could see in his eyes that he was already concocting all sorts of plans on how to ditch his master.
"Just call them." Karl said simply, telling himself that everything would work out fine even if the level of his servants' loyalty was questionable.
"How?" Rovan asked and Karl wanted to roll his eyes, but he had to admit that the teenager could not be running around shouting goblin names.
"Just say something that will blend in when said aloud, something that will look natural." Karl proposed and Rovan began to think, the strain of his brain almost visible through his eyes.
"Something like. .. . like. . .. I have it! Something like fuck!" The teenager said and his eyes brightened.
"Eh, why not." It seemed a little unorthodox, but it would be the least conspicuous given the teenager's background.
"Wait, his background!" Karl thought and realized that Rovan was not the best candidate, because Lehaim had spoken to him directly and would surely remember the teenager even if he radically changed his appearance by washing himself.
"Never mind, call the siblings and forget what we have just discussed." Karl suddenly remembered an important detail from a day prior.
"As commanded, Lord Gulden." Rovan brightened the moment he realized he would not be doing any secret missions and quickly disappeared from Karl's presence.
"What a shifty bootlicker." Karl wanted to shake his head, but the result was only a stuck feeling from his phantom neck. "Yet, it is pleasant to be praised from time to time, he is definitely an asset."
It did not take long and a pair of people entered the Void Well, as Karl was still in the room, next to its pair of glowing pillars.
"Sir." Both of them bowed their heads in unison and awaited Karl's words, or rather, letters.
"I have a mission for you, because you seem to be my most loyal and trusted servants." Karl wrote and the hearts of the pair started beating faster.
In truth, the visage of the siblings had changed the most when Karl provided all his people with a bath and the probability that Lehaim would recognize them was low. Their hair was not even gray anymore, but white. Naturally, he could not tell them that they were going on the mission, because they had been the most dirty of the lot and no one would recognize them.
"We will not disappoint you, Lord Gulden." The teenage boy answered, obviously moved by the praise.
Karl thought that the boy was either naive, or a very good actor and proceeded to explain him his mission.
* * * *
A lean figure wearing clothes stitched from pelts moved through the forest with confidence, his face stern. From time to time, a callused hand pushed the white hair aside to reveal blue eyes that seethed with anger.
All that nice talk had ended as it always had, based on his experience from the slums, with blackmail. The so called Lord kept his sister locked in his domain to ensure his loyalty while sending him on a mission outside.
Despite his anger, Wu Han knew that the Lord was not mistreating her and he was partially glad that Xin was safe. There was little that could threaten the mysterious person that was able to move under the ground like a fish in the water, summoning terrible monstrosities out of thin air with just a simple command.
He took a deep breath and recalled his mission.
He had to compromise a cultivator of the Water Dragon Sect, something that he would never have dared to do if not for the backing of Lord Gulden, who promised to aid him with his creatures. The most likely services Wu Han could provide as the handler for the future asset was to eliminate someone or to scout the forest as Lord Gulden had told him about the resources assigned to his mission. There were even some creative options, but the hardest part was still ahead of him, he had to find a person ambitious enough to betray their sect.
"Seems like they have already started." He observed from the bushes the construction site for the new fort of the Water Dragon Sect. The construction was in full swing not too far from the ruin of the old fort. They were clearly planning to connect to the route that led to the old fort, as the old road's foundations could be used for further construction.
Wu Han backtracked to look like someone who was desperate enough to walk along the old road all the way from the city to offer his services for food. He looked too clean, but it was probably not something a non-slum dweller like the cultivators would notice.
It did not matter if the cultivators actually gave him anything, the key was to get into their camp and operate there unnoticed.
"Halt! What is your business at the land of the Water Dragon Sect?!" Shortly, he spotted a cultivator guarding the road who shouted at him even before he got close.
"I am looking for work!" He shouted back and hoped for the best.
"How do you know about the construction site?" The cultivator remained suspicious of him, resolutely flapping his long sleeves to add weight to his question.
"The word in the city is that the sects are expanding outside." He shouted again and his throat was becoming sore. "Can I come closer?"
"Only half-way, wait for someone to pick you up." The guarding cultivator responded and fired a few water blades in a sequence up in the air, probably some sort of a signal.
Thinking about signals, Wu remembered his own and had to sigh at Rovan's lack of imagination.
Shortly, two more robed cultivators hurried in their way and the two gestured at him to come closer when they stood next to the guard.
"The pay is food, there will be silver for everyone when the project is finished, maybe even gold if the boss feels good about the result." One of the cultivators said, acting like he was offering Wu Han a treasure worth dying for.
"Yes, sir." Wu Han answered shortly. He knew that cultivators hated to be pestered with thousands of questions from people who in their opinion knew nothing about the sects.
"Fine, go with these two gentlemen, they will tell you the details." The two cultivators just nodded at him and led him further into the construction site.
It was obvious to Wu Han that he was being handled by so many high level cultivators only because of the tight security of the camp. When they checked him out, he would surely work under a foreman that was an ordinary human.
In the understanding of a slum dweller, there were four types of cultivators. First were those with no abilities with only their body strengthened. Second type were those that could use some sort of an ability occasionally. Third were the real deal, those that could actually use good abilities frequently, those were always the types the gangs of the slums were afraid of. None of them had bad abilities, because no sect bothered to nurture a person to that point if their Mojo was something useless. The fourth type were the sky, people to be always avoided.
"The walls are behind the schedule, let's take the kid there." One of the cultivators said and the other just snorted in response.
"Everything is behind schedule, we could not place him wrong if we were blind."
Wu Han could finally see the building site and what the sect was trying to accomplish.
Gone were the opulent gardens, beautiful flowers and scenery bringing peace of mind to help the process of cultivation the sects used to build in the past. Under the pressure of the ever present threat of wild beasts and rogue cultivators, the sect had borrowed the design more fit for a local lord than a sect.
Wide ditch was being made by a small team of cultivators encircling a large fortress that seemed to had gone too far in its ambition, its area being several times larger than that of the previous Fort Orlov. Its foundations were still incomplete, but the rough circular shape could be already seen, two concentric circles making it clear that the fortress would consist of two layers of walls that would be further separated into sections.
Surprisingly, Wu saw that even many cultivators was helping with the work, the large stone blocks being carried on a layer of water from further away. It was obvious that the cultivators had not enough workers, or were quite desperate to have the fortress built quickly.
"Your turn!" A tall cultivator shouted at a shorter one who had his robe stained with dirt, obviously not even caring for his image anymore.
"Are you out of steam again?! Pathetic!" He growled angrily, but switched with the tall cultivator, taking turns in digging the wide ditch. They were using water blades and high pressured streams of water to dig it, sparing the extra workers that could be used for other purposes.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Wu and his escort passed the two while clearly trying to hold back their laughter and headed to the inner section of the wall, nearing a cultivator that was wildly gesticulating with his hands.
"Where the fuck are you going? We do not want to get close to Lehaim!" One of his escorts nearly slapped his companion and began dragging them to a section of the outer wall where heavy stone blocks were being lifted by a dozen men. There, they hastily left him standing near a man who was overseeing the construction. The stone blocks were just enough to be lifted by a few men without the need of any advanced tools.
At least for the moment, when everyone stood with their feet planted firmly on the ground.
"A new worker, good!" The man said with glee and Wu Han looked back at him with trepidation.
After a few days of work, Wu Han was more familiar with the construction site and the camp. It was unfortunate that the camp for workers was separated from the one the cultivators resided in. He knew that a random worker would be thrown out of the cultivators' camp immediately, meaning that the only opportunity to contact a suitable person was at the construction site, where all people mingled under the pressure of tight schedule that was clearly imposed on them by the city.
At times he even welcomed the hard labor, because he was able to vent his anger. It was unpleasant to be blackmailed in a hostage situation and he did not know how tolerant his unusual Lord was to failure. What would happen if he failed the task? Wu Han had to force himself to stop thinking about his precarious situation to keep his sanity.
He overheard much at the construction site and had even some candidates that might be swayed by benefits to join his Lord's cause, but he needed an opportunity to talk to them and something enticing to offer.
"Stupid wall! Everything is heavy like my grandmother's ass!" One of the workers around Wu complained.
"At least the pay is good."
"Even then, do I look like an Earth Elemental or something?" The worker added while glancing at his body, dirty from the mud that was everywhere.
"You sure do look like one." The foremen surprisingly joined the bickering instead of reprimanding the workers.
Wu was lucky that the man was a rather down to earth individual who cared just about the work done and made them do only what was needed to not lag behind the other teams. Wu saw the short cultivator from before who walked near them and stopped to say something about their banter, but then quickly looked at Lehaim in the distance and scurried off to dig the ditch that was nearly complete.
Wu had to smirk when he saw it. It was true that the status of ordinary mortals worsened since the disaster years ago, as mortals had been using money to level the playing field between them and cultivators. That ended some time ago, business was not doing well with the interruption of nearly all major trade routes. However, the culture had not yet degraded enough to plunge the society into a full on mafia mode. There was still some backbone left in those who remembered what people could achieve through cooperation. Lehaim was one of them. Wu had already experienced multiple times that even though Lehaim was not the brightest of leaders, he had no patience for those that hindered the construction in any way, including the gloating poses of some of the less polite cultivators.
In his own words, competent people need not to bully, they prove their superiority with their excellence.
A motto that surely was not shared by the cultivator that was only able to give them a hostile gaze.
"A little man with an itch to prove something. That could work." He whispered under his breath while staring absentmindedly at the dirty worker who had just been called an Earth Elemental.
"And an Earth Elemental that would prove an invaluable asset during the construction." Wu Han connected the dots and a scheme began to take a root in his mind.
* * * *
Ir was dark and Wu Han's whole body ached, the working site slowly emptying after another day of hard work. In spite of it, he took a longer route to his camp around the ditch that had just been finished. He glanced behind his back and saw that his calculations were right, the cultivator he was targeting was guarding the west side of the construction site.
His name was Bei Lin and he was a cultivator that was quite dangerous for the slums' standards, but was definitely not at the top. He was among the usual muscle that the sects relied on, the type that was not completely expendable for the sect, but no one would cry for him either if he had not returned from a mission one day.
"Let's go." Wu Han abruptly dashed out of the construction site in the direction of the forest, his both hands carrying the most expensive tools he could find.
The cultivator noticed his suspicious behavior and began following him into the forest after Wu Han had ignored his shouts. Wu Han was relieved that the little man had not attacked him, but began to pursue him instead.
"Stop, idiotic thief! You will not get far in the forest!" The cultivator was quickly gaining on Wu Han, his better physique of a cultivator showing its worth, until he effortlessly caught his shoulder and stopped his escape.
They were already deeper in the forest, out of sight of anyone who might be watching what was about to happen.
Bei Lin turned the escapee forcefully and looked at him with rage.
"Fuck!" Wu said aloud with joy.
His plan worked!
Yet, the cultivator looked strangely at his bright face.
"There will be serious consequences, not that your brain can understand it. Hand over the tools!" The cultivator doubted Wu Han's thinking ability when he saw his weird reaction. His confusion had not yet fully transformed into anger, when shadows around them morphed into twisted silhouettes armed with sharp claws that glowed with purple light.
The monsters had no exceptional stealth abilities, but to hide in a dense forest after dusk was not hard for anyone.
"Impossible." Bei Lin's eyes widened, when he saw the stone expression of the apprehended thief. It was obvious that Wu Han was either brain dead, or was working with the enemy. His hand fell off Wu Han's shoulder and he stumbled a step back.
"Do not move, this is an ambush." Wu Han said while his heart was racing, in his wildest dreams he would not have imagined that he, a pathetic slum dweller, had just ambushed a cultivator only a short distance from his sect. Luckily, everything went as he had planned so far.
"Show yourself!" Bei Lin looked frantically around at the encirclement of Void monsters around him. He had obviously arrived at the conclusion that Wu Han was being controlled by some master mind. The thought of a simple worker at the construction site being the master mind of the scheme had never even crossed his mind.
"I am here. I have a proposition for you." Wu Han was confused himself by the cultivator's reaction, but continued to say what he had prepared to say.
"So be it, I will talk to your mouthpiece. What do you want?" Bei Lin focused again on Wu Han, watching him with his narrowed eyes, while warily observing the Void monsters around him that were just standing there, doubtlessly under the control of the same person who controlled the construction worker in front of him.
"I want to buy your services, from now on, you will be under my command."
"Bah!" The cultivator snorted disdainfully, spit flying everywhere around him. "How dare you?!"
"I might be a lowly peasant, but you do not want to anger those that I serve, as they command the might beyond anything even your sect can muster." Wu Han tried to grow a spine and look fearless, his courage nurtured by the sheer number of the Void Horrors the Lord had assigned to his mission.
"Do you think I can be scared off by a few Void monsters, brat? Think again!" The enraged cultivator was about to do something unwise, when thankfully, Lord Gulden that was doubtlessly watching the confrontation through the eyes of his minions intervened and more Void Horrors appeared at the edge of their vision, accompanied by numerous Void Knights that were even more imposing.
Given the eerie darkness of the forest, the emerging forces scared even Wu Han himself, despite the fact that they were his reinforcements. He mustered all his courage and tried to look imposing again, he knew what was at stake and he surprised himself by his firm tone.
"Enough games lowly scum, I act in the name of Lord Karl Gulden, Emperor of The Night, The Void Demon of Oblivion, The Terror of The Deepest Depths. You will bow before his name, or I will summon his legions to encircle and destroy your feeble existence along with your meager sect!" Wu Han thundered with voice he had never heard from himself before, while his long, white hair fluttered in the gentle night breeze.
"Kneel before his name, or perish!" Wu Han roared while looking at the cultivator.
Thud.
All Void Knights knelt on one knee with the tips of their swords propped against the ground.
All Void Horrors bowed deeply, for their bodily constructions made kneeling impossible.
Bei Lin watched the spectacle and felt something in him snap. The dread he felt was beyond any of his past experiences, even Lehaim's famous Desertification did not compare.
Thud.
His both knees gave up and he fell in front of the lowly rubble from the slums, when he thought about it, the peasant was somewhat different from ordinary slum dwellers. It had to be the power of his master showing through him.
Why not to serve a Lord that could make a pathetic dirt from the slums into a general of Void legions?
The Water Dragon Sect was nothing special, they had already failed once. He looked at the purple glow gathering around him and stopped seeing a threat and started to view it as an opportunity.
"Command me, Emperor Night Gulden, The Void Demon of The Deepest Karl, I will serve and in return, show me the power beyond the Heavens!" He addressed the mastermind behind Wu Han, as he had considered him a mindless puppet from the start. In his stress he was unsure if he got all the long titles right, but the puppeteer did not seem to mind.
"So be it. Here, under the light of the full moon, your orders will be delivered to you written in blood. Now go!" Wu Han said in a domineering tone, because he had just run off the script and did not know how to continue. He had not anticipated Bei Lin's reaction.
"It will be done, Emperor!" Bei Lin bowed his head and hurried off, back to the construction site. His figure quickly disappeared in the darkness of the forest, leaving Wu Han accompanied only by the ominously glowing minions of his Lord.
"I have done it." Wu Han crumbled to the ground and began to laugh like mad, ignoring all the Void monsters around him. He had completed the mission and his sister was safe. It was time to return home.
"Wait, home? That blackmailing scum will never be present wherever my home will be." He corrected himself angrily, but could not get the thought out of his mind.
* * * *
Lord Gulden watched a scared, white-haired girl playing near a pillar of his Void Well absentmindedly with pebbles. He had nearly burst into tears at the sight. In her eyes, there was a longing for her absent kin that was fighting against all odds on a dangerous mission. Fighting for their freedom, for their lives.
How could someone be heartless enough to force her into that position?
It was the stone in him! It was his stone-hearted part that was to blame!
Karl failed to ignore Xin Han and his conscience gnawed on him. He always tried to imagine himself being the hero who fought evil and protected all good people, but that was obviously not what he was currently doing.
He felt like a selfish, psychopathic stone at times and what scared him the most was, that sometimes, he did not even mind to admit it.
"No, no, that is not the case. I need to keep in mind that all of them are basically starved corpses walking. I gave them a new life and it will get better when we will have finally arrived to the city, where all my plans come into fruition." Karl Gulden persuaded himself and kept staring at Xin while waiting to see if the cultivator named Bei Lin, who had been contracted by Xin's brother, returned to bite the bait.
He had no eyes or ears in the city and could only hope that the man was as capable and ambitious as he looked. However, something was telling him that there would be some complications. He could have tunneled to the city from below, but even then, he needed some cover for his operations. A notion that he would have dozens of people entering and exiting sewers without anyone noticing was naive. A cover was necessary if he was to have at least a little freedom inside of the city.
He felt like a drug lord trying to find a shop for his money laundering scheme.
"Why the full moon?! I have to wait like two weeks!" Karl thought to himself, but there was nothing he could do. For the sake of theatrics, Wu Han had promised a full moon and they had to wait.
He switched to the eyes of one of his Void Horrors to reread a message written on a huge tree in deer blood. Wu Han had already prepared it in advance and they only needed to guard the site against unwanted visitors, something completely trivial. In two weeks, Bei Lin would come and read their deal.
After speaking the names of two Earth spirits, they will be under your command. Use them to acquire the land of the old fort. Further instructions at the site.
The names are Sauberer and Bauchspeicheldrüse.
Karl revised the message he had written in deer blood. The names of the spirits just came to him, the first should mean a wizard in a foreign language and the second was simply the most difficult foreign word he could remember. He never had too much talent for learning languages, but the names were inconsequential anyway, the Earth Elementals would naturally lay in wait and appear on his command. Bei Lin would not be in control of anything.
"Right, I will built some sort of an exchange, a trading company at the old ruin and make some money by selling materials in the city. The resulting connections should serve as a good source of information." Karl thought about his updated plan. At first, he had intended to stuff his servants' pockets with gold and send them on a mission, but it might be better to simply start doing business with the city.
Where money flowed, information flowed as well and he would be able to leverage the profit to make people do what he wanted from the shadows. He had to think more on the exact structure of his trading company, but he liked the idea. The money making engine of the company would be his minions and his extraordinary abilities, he would need a layer of the initiated, inner disciples who would be in the know, a layer between his minions and the oblivious trading partners.
The region would still remain under the jurisdiction of the Water Dragon Sect, who would certainly milk Bei Lin, the face of the operation, for money, but that was of little consequence. Karl was prepared to give up all the money, as he cared only for information. Those who might try to take his business over completely by force would quickly learn that destroying him was not a simple task.
Overall, he liked the direction all was going and soon, he would have a lot of information about the region and the city, enabling him to better fit in and to scout for more useful buildings that might grant him more amazing powers and minions. He still felt the itch in him to build, to grow, to construct wonders towering to the sky and burying themselves to the deepest chasms.
"Lord, mission accomplished." A voice surprised him, he had been engrossed into his thoughts enough to overlook Wu Han that had just returned from his mission.
"Wu Han!" The heap of misfortune playing with pebbles immediately jumped up and ran to hug her brother, who accepted her hug and still tensely looked in the direction of the Void Knight that was currently in care of the seemingly ordinary black stone.
"You have done well. Enjoy your free time for now." The knight wrote with Void into the air and the man smiled and bowed his head slightly.
Karl thought about whose turn was next, he needed his inner sect disciples ready when the time came.
And he desperately, desperately needed to officially present his titles. He did not want to be called The Deepest Karl ever again.