Shen told Valentina everything she wanted to know, holding nothing back. The Eternal Empire was laid bare before her. He also told her everything about his meeting with Achr.

Valentina kept throwing demeaning comments at everything he said.

"Calling it Eternal Empire is a joke, correct?"

"An Immortal Emperor who was afraid of the Alliance doesn't deserve that name."

"Really? In human language, you call it 'cultivation'? I thought you were ants, but I was wrong. You're more akin to weeds."

Anger grew inside him, but the more furious he became, the greater the feeling of terror became, and it helped him control himself.

He couldn't tell if someone wanted him to survive or simply didn't want him to attack their protege. He continued talking nonetheless. It didn't take long for Valentina to say she was satisfied with what she had heard.

"That's enough," she said, then looked at Shen from head to toe as if examining a curious bug. "I have decided on your reward." She made a pause, then smiled wickedly. "You already developed a Conceptual Bond, but you don't have an aura yet. I'll help you with that."

Shen raised an eyebrow. That sounded actually helpful, but it didn't reflect her twisted smile at all.

"I know you like fighting," she continued, "so you should focus on that. But what is a battle without a little spilled blood? So, go kill, and don't stop until you've developed your aura."

Valentina simply disappeared as soon as she said that.

Shen, however, didn't notice it. He was focusing inwards.

Something was invading him. He couldn't feel any energy or anything of the kind, but his Battle Sense made it clear that his physical integrity had been breached somehow. What he could feel was what happened after the breach.

His brain was changed and twisted to ensure Valentine's orders would be obeyed.

The Alliance had made him extra aggressive, but now? Now, any part of his brain that could regulate his killing instincts disappeared. Moreover, he received an unquenchable desire to kill and kill and kill without stopping, forever and ever. That was just who he was. He felt that if he stopped, he would die. He had to kill, and he had to do it right now.

He looked around and saw a girl. He almost attacked her, but an echo of a thought came from his soul and made him stop. It told her she was not a target. He should not kill her.

Somehow, he knew the invader had only affected his brain. However, his mind had partially merged with his soul when he ranked up. That was the reason he retained a tiny part of his previous self.

Yet, he didn't delve into those thoughts. He had people to kill, a Concept to master, and an aura to develop. He had no time to waste thinking about anything else.

His desire not to waste time was also what saved the girl nearby. Part of him wanted to kill her; the other part was against it. Reaching a conclusion would be a waste of time. So, he would instead use that time looking for prey that both sides of him agreed with killing.

He didn't even have to look too far. He felt targets nearby with his Battle Sense.

He turned to the door and rushed at his actual targets.

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Alicia jumped on top of the half-broken temple as Shen killed everyone inside.

Istanbul was relatively intact. Many buildings had holes on them or were half-collapsed, but compared to Florence, they might as well be considered brand new.

It had many fewer corpses too.

Shen had brutalized Italy; there was no other way of putting it. While they had been in hiding, he had ignored the pro-Maiden troops even when attacked. After Valentina changed him, he started cutting down everyone who showed him any hostility except Alicia.

All troops withdrew from Florence after only a few hours of nonstop carnage. Shen didn't murder those who surrendered, but he cut their vehicles and equipment into pieces and screamed provocatively in front of their faces. Those who tried to do something about it were killed. Those who didn't rise to meet his challenge survived. Then, he went looking for other people.

Half a day later, he had rediscovered the Bounty System and then traveled away from Italy, looking for those who would fight for their lives.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Now, two days later, and only a few hours away from the Human Maiden's arrival, they were in Istanbul. Alicia was glad Shen had been going East at least. It made them closer to Sai.

As for the Maiden, Alicia didn't really care too much about it. She also definitely didn't want to be there when Marzia learned that Shen had killed her father.

All she did these days was follow him, hoping he would find a way to heal himself. Despite his state, she was the safest close to him. Not only did he not attack her, but he also came to her assistance if she was threatened.

Alicia wasn't sure for how long she would keep following though. All that killing was getting to her. He hadn't stopped for a single minute ever since he had started, and she was beginning to wonder if it was reversible at all.

Maybe he would just keep on killing forever—or until put to rest by someone stronger than him.

Valentina's words had talked about developing an aura. Alicia had no idea what that was or how difficult it was. What if only A-ranks could do it? Then it would be an impossible task without end.

One thing that made her continue was a visible improvement in his movements. She wouldn't have noticed if she weren't E-rank or had E+ agility because it was so minute, but she was sure of what she was seeing. His spear cut a little bit deeper, his movements were slightly more effective, and even his speed increased. Shen was becoming a more effective meat grinder.

There might be hope for him to accomplish that aura thing yet.

Alicia felt guilty for feeling more hopeful the better he became at wanton slaughter, but it helped that he was getting rid of people with big Bounties on their heads.

Shen killed the last person with a Bounty in the temple and stopped for a moment. Alicia jumped from the point she had climbed and waited a second. As expected, he had just stopped to check the next Bounty and was now running toward his new target.

Alicia followed to the best of her ability. She would lose sight of him, but the desperate cries of his foes would lead her to him again.

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He felt the thousands of people underground and established a course to kill them as effectively as possible.

Then he acted.

No one could stop him. Whenever an obstacle appeared, he assessed the cost of crushing it versus going around it and took the path of least resistance. He wanted to kill more and more; wasting time made him feel physically ill.

Through killing, he improved. He was War at war, and Combat in combat. He experimented with his limits and overcame himself repeatedly in all things.

His Skills hadn't evolved yet, but they had gotten more refined—or maybe, it would be fitting to say they had gotten more personal. If before they were like a mass-produced spear he had bought at a random store, they were starting to feel like a spear crafted by a master artisan just for him.

The Windstorm Spear Art was benefiting the most from his unique state. He had been so very wrong about being unable to improve without a challenge. By fighting any person, he could test new theories, see how they reacted, and extrapolate how stronger people would fare.

It was the same with his Zephyr-Gale Footwork. He got creative, saw how his foes reacted, and estimated how stronger beings would've reacted.

That extrapolation was accurate thanks to his Battle Sense. He was a master of War and Combat. He had said so before, yet he had never truly understood what that meant.

The Concept of War contained the wisdom of all types of war in all of Reality. The Concept of Combat was the same. They were pieces of the big puzzle of existence that held everything together and working.

By mastering those Concepts, he had become a master of those pieces of the very universe.

The shift in perspective and his pursuit of excellence no matter the cost in human lives had helped him improve his Battle Sense the most. He connected to everyone in a thousand yards range now; that was the least a war master should do. He was still trying to push it further, but he felt a piece was missing.

Sharpness.

He had called his Path the Path of the Spear previously. While it was a bit off, it showed how deeply connected to the Spear his Path was.

Yet, he had almost shifted from it by mastering War and Combat first. Both Concepts, alone, were more closely concepts to the Laws of Conflict than the Spear. He needed an anchoring element amid his mastered Concepts to bring them back to track.

That was directly relevant to his desire to develop an aura. He knew little about the subject, most of it thanks to the information given to him when he leveled his footwork to 6. However, he instinctively knew that his foundational Concepts had to produce an aura first, or something would go wrong.

So, everything pushed him toward mastering Sharpness first, and he did everything he could to accomplish it.

That involved a lot of cutting different things. He had found he couldn't cut through a war tank's gun barrel, but most thinner vehicles were fair game. Concrete felt like butter. And flesh...

Cutting flesh was an art.

There was a Flow of veins and blood, a pattern to the way muscles were interwoven together. By following it, he could cut with maximum efficacy. His spear was currently dexterous enough to separate a vein from muscle on a living, moving person.

His Concept of Sharpness sat at 93%. Only the final step remained.

Yet, he was more excited about another insight he had gotten: all his Concepts were connected.

War, Combat, and Sharpness were obviously connected as Concepts of the same Law, but Flow was also present in all three. Zephyr gave him a subtly to his movements and attention to minute details that also pervaded everything. Arc Flashes happened on arc faults and gave him insights on the aspects of continuity and how to capitalize on any failure—or even purposefully break his Flow for a greater effect.

And Boundless pushed every Concept beyond its limits.

He knew he was in a singular state of existence. It wasn't Boundlessness, not entirely, but it was much closer than he had been in the past. He truly touched on the Concept now, understood it on an intrinsic level he had never before.

Whispers of honor and morals, ethics and fairness, responsibility and duty kept coming from somewhere deep in his mind, yet he brushed it all aside with ease.

He had the freedom to be his Path in a way he had never before, all parts of it, without a controlling, limiting will.

Not killing the annoying woman following him around was still restricting though. To make things worse, every time he saw her, he felt the depths of his mind rein him in a little bit more. He was already not as Boundless as he had been initially. He was changing.

Yet, the realization that his marvelous state would not be eternal as he wanted, not Boundless in itself, only pushed him to strive more and better. He killed more, faster, better. He improved.

He had long forgotten his name, but he knew himself as War, Combat, Sharpness, Zephyr, Flow, Arc Flash, and Boundlessness.

He selected a new Bounty and rushed its way.