"Found you, traitor," a male voice that Shen hadn't heard in a long time said from behind the thunderlords.

The thunderlords gave way to a red orc whose incarnation Shen had seen in the tutorial. The orc's drop of blood essence was currently in the cultivator's body.

Uk'Gaar.

| Orc (B) — 10,000 / 10,000 HP

The orc was as big and wide as his incarnation. His thick muscles were on full display. Instead of armor, he wore leather-padded metal plates scattered throughout his skin, except on his chest and legs up to his knees. There, he was covered by what looked like a lizard's hide: countless intertwined small black plates. He wore boots of the same material. Two huge sabers rested on his back.

His menacing smiles revealed massive fangs that promised pain.

Uk'Gaar's words revealed he had been looking for Shen. Unfortunately, the cultivator had nowhere to hide.

Suddenly, two lights flashed in the skies. Shen turned to see two people in drow armor fighting four red orcs in medieval plate armor. All six were C-rank. Shen guessed the drow had tried to help but were intercepted by the enemy.

"Don't think about getting any help," Uk'Gaar said as he kept coming closer. "We paid a lot to guarantee your little ant helpers can't do anything. You're mine, Feng Shen."

"Leave at once," Shen commanded his squad and rushed toward the orc.

He couldn't escape. The B-rank gave out the kind of pressure he had only felt from the drow Triarchy, except much weaker. Shen had almost died against a weak C-rank and knew his limits.

So, the best he could do was try to distract the orc. Maybe, just maybe, that would give the few troops under him a chance to escape.

The six drow obeyed. He felt nothing but admiration for their decisiveness. There was no wasting time second-guessing their commander, only obedience.

His life as drow had been short but fulfilling.

The orc's smile widened as the cultivator rushed at him. "I see the rumors were true. You were brainwashed. The dark elves won't survive when we present you as evidence."

Shen had barely moved a dozen yards when an invisible force covered him. His aura was pushed into his body by willpower at least ten times stronger than his. He became dazed for a few moments from the mental impact, and when he recovered, he was frozen in place.

A strong violet light flashed then, covering the whole world, coming from the skies. A loud explosion followed, making the entire planet tremble. The drow had likely tried something.

But Shen still couldn't move his head to see what was happening. He was still captured. The drow had failed.

A few moments later, he felt Uk'Gaar's mana. The orc was using a novel stealth technique, but Shen's training was just barely enough to feel the energy when it touched his skin.

And touch him it did; the mana penetrated his armor, tore it open as if it were made of paper, and discarded it like garbage. Shen was left with the black robe he wore underneath. Mana also tried to pry his spear from him, but he held it firmly.

Rather than insisting, the orc's magic outright cut Shen's hand off.

The cultivator shut off his pain receptors so as to not give the orc any satisfaction in seeing him suffer. He just stared emotionlessly at Uk'Gaar. He wouldn't let the orc see through his emotions at all.

Internally, he was fuming in absolute rage, even with his muted feelings.

Shen could point fingers at the drow for this situation, at the orc, or even at past Shen for making bad decisions. But in the end, it all came to a simple truth: he was weak. If he were stronger, he wouldn't have needed to leave Earth because of an item or give himself to the drow in gratitude for their protection.

He could blame nothing but his uselessness.

"Say something, puppet," Uk'Gaar provoked. "Or do they even remove your strings when they aren't using you? Can you move by yourself?"

Shen barely felt when the mana holding his head in place went away. He could speak now.

He didn't.

Uk'Gaar's smile never withered. Instead, it widened even more, and he extended his arm sideways. "I wonder if you see yourself as drow enough to also sacrifice yourself for weaklings?"

He clenched his fist, and six blurs shot at him, stopping six yards away from his hand. Shen's squad was there, floating, frozen like him. Their armor was all bent and crooked, as if a huge fist had really crushed them, but not enough to kill.

"Please, parley," Shen said at last.

This was likely only a kind of torture; the cultivator probably couldn't save the drow no matter what. But he had to try. He didn't feel anything other than professional respect and admiration for them, but they didn't need to die because of him.

He even used the Eternal Empire's language instead of Syron to appease the orc.

Uk'Gaar's arrogant smile widened even more, turning his face into a distorted mess. "What can you offer me, traitor?"

The Maiden hadn't taught Shen how to speak humbly. In hindsight, she obviously would rather he expressed his ire so she could more easily notice it than try to hide. Yet, he had lived as a cultivator. He had witnessed juniors, servants, and subdued enemies pleading for their lives.

"This little one doesn't mean any disrespect or contest Your Eminence's words, exalted one," Shen said with evident fear, "but why does Your Eminence consider this one a traitor? This one wants to understand how extreme this one's sins are. That way, this one may better think of ways to repent."

He didn't even need to pretend to be scared. He had no regrets except for his weakness, and was ready for death, but facing it like this instead of in a fight meant he couldn't drown himself in battle lust.

The orc's smile died for the first time, and Swordy was instantly crushed into a pulp. No threat, no warning, just a twist of the orc's will, and the drow was gone.

Blood dripped from the ball of metal and flash that the drow became.

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Shen felt terrible for seeing such an outstanding talent die like that. He felt Swordy was his squad's greatest genius, even if he didn't specialize in anything. And just like that, he was gone.

The cultivator knew the orc was just trying to manipulate his emotions. Knowing that didn't change anything. He still felt guilty because Uk'Gaar was there for him.

An innocent had died because they dared to help him in his mission.

Fortunately, he had perfect emotional control and wouldn't despair. Moreover, he didn't believe that the death was exclusively his fault. His weakness was one thing, but Swordy's blood was primarily on the drow race's hands. They had a much faster and wiser mind than his and were infinitely more experienced. If they didn't predict this situation, they were to blame for it before anyone else.

Of course, they might have expected it. Maybe this was the whole point of Shen's mission: smoking Uk'Gaar out of his hiding spot. But the enemy had smelled something and prepared better than the drow, hence the words about paying a lot go guarantee no one would interfere.

The orcs had won this skirmish.

"I hate cultivator hypocritical speech the most," the orc said. "Speak normally."

"Why are you calling me a traitor?" Shen asked at once.

"I gave you a drop of my blood essence. I acknowledged you. But you allied yourself with my enemies instead."

As Shen had said, he wasn't interested in arguing with the orc. The logic was absurd. From what he knew, Uk'Gaar himself had given Shen to the Maiden to get rid of his politically inconvenient connection to Shen.

But instead of pointing that out, he said, "As thanks for even talking to me, I want to return the blood drop." Uk'Gaar frowned slightly, and Shen added quickly, "I'm not being hypocritical! I truly appreciate being allowed to speak at all! I want to return the blood drop as a token of goodwill! To please you, who has all the power here!"

Uk'Gaar kept frowning for a while. The legs of all five drow were ripped off and thrown away, but they lived.

"Very well," he said. "Give it to me."

"I don't know how," Shen admitted. "I can't even feel it. You're welcome to rip my body apart to take it away."

The orc cut off the five drow's arms this time.

"You want me to work to receive the gift you're offering?" Uk'Gaar said unbelievingly. "Not to mention that the blood drop is already mine. It's inside you, and you can't escape, so you and everything inside you naturally belong to me. Were you always that stupid, or is it also the drow's doing?"

"I was always this stupid," Shen confessed quickly to keep the conversation going.

Shen had already considered the things the orc had pointed out when he made the offer. However, the only other stuff he could offer, information, would be a betrayal to the drow or endanger his friends on Earth.

His offer had been a show of submission, and the orc knew that unless he was absolutely stupid. Uk'Gaar was only putting on a show of parley. As expected, he had never intended to let the squad go.

The orc said, "I'm patient. Don't rush. Think harder this time and tell me: what can you offer me in exchange for these ants?"

Shen didn't think about it at all. He was now sure his squad would die. He could only attempt something else:

Breaking through to the next cultivation realm.

He wasn't ready. He was supposed to complete the Qi Saturation stage of his Fate Origin realm before becoming an Ethereal Harmonizing realm cultivator. The Immortal Emperor had shared with him that it was impossible to survive the Ethereal Tribulation before reaching that stage. He would die.

But the tribulation might give his troops a chance to live.

Shen had learned some humbleness in the face of overwhelming power, but one thing was still impossible for him: betrayal. He had accepted the drow. He wouldn't betray them and join the orcs.

That didn't mean he had to kill himself, but he also didn't like the idea of being tortured and spilling his secrets. He was humble enough to know that with enough time, he would talk—and that if they didn't break the rules and read his mind. But even if that didn't happen, if the orcs only planned on locking him away, he would rather not live the rest of his days isolated and awaiting death.

Perhaps he could cultivate patiently in a prison cell, but he doubted it. Only absolute imbeciles would let prisoners grow stronger in jail. He bet they would even have a way to prevent him from breaking through.

If his Path had reached an end either way, he would die fighting for it.

The way to break through to the Ethereal Harmonization realm was by touching four or more Laws at once. Touching seven was safer, but would take longer. He would decide after reaching four.

Now, he only had to figure out how to touch four Laws simultaneously.

He kept his eyes open, but they weren't seeing anything. He also stopped paying attention to what the orc said. Shen focused inwards, on his Path's Concepts, on—

Suddenly, he was looking at Uk'Gaar, and his mind was blank. He couldn't even recall what he had been thinking about just a moment ago. There was only the orc and a sense of fear in his mind.

The orc smiled widely. "You—" he started.

And then seven thick spears made of pure Darkness materialized out of nowhere a few feet away from him. They moved faster than Shen could glimpse, and in the next moment, they occupied the place the orc had just been. Uk'Gaar himself was gone, and the spears dissipated.

"Found you," the Maiden whispered, but her voice came from the entire world.

In the next instant, Darkness covered the planet and the skies around it.

The force holding Shen in place disappeared, and his mind came back to his control. He could barely believe what had happened. The ability to control his focus and empty his thoughts...

It had been terrifying.

Was that the power of the B-rank?

He didn't dwell on it; he had to get to safety. Despite knowing the Maiden could prevent him from seeing inside her domain, she hadn't done it this time. He located his cut hand and tried to deploy his aura to pick it up but failed. The Maiden was suppressing all auras within her domain, and he didn't warrant special dispensation.

So, he ran to his hand instead, grabbed it, and connected it to his arm. Qi tendrils kept the limb in place.

His hand was still holding his spear. He tried to put it into his spatial ring but failed. The Maiden's domain was also preventing that.

Keeping the weapon in his hand, he approached his squad and said, "Teleport me and the five drow nearby to Tar'Shalon."

The system didn't reply.

Shen swore to himself. Of course, the drow would cut the system off to prevent Uk'Gaar from leaving. He would have to take his troops away the usual way: carrying them away.

He ignored their limbs, took a deep breath, steeled himself, and pushed some qi out of his body to grab the drow—

His qi touched the domain's mana, and he was forced into a willpower battle against the Maiden.

He had expected a willpower battle to start, but the Maiden had been capable of holding back during his training, so he hoped she would do the same now. She didn't. Overwhelming willpower, beyond his ability to measure or comprehend, slammed against him before he could even realize what was happening. The world turned white, and he fainted.

When Shen came back to himself, he was lying on the ground.

Obviously, the Maiden's current battle didn't leave her any room to pamper him. It was still going on, too, because her domain was still deployed. He didn't know how long he had been down, but it didn't feel like too long. A couple minutes at most.

Still, he was in danger. He stood quickly, prepared for combat, but all enemies were gone. The thunderlords were nowhere in sight, and neither were the C-rank red orcs that had been fighting the drow C-rank on the skies.

Only he, five living drow, and a corpse remained.

Without aura or qi, he could either pile the drow and balance them as he left or skewer them with his spear. The former would slow him down, so he picked the latter.

Shen had expected their armor to be D+ instead of C- like his. He was proven right as his spearhead, moving at his peak speed, pierced the armor. He faced enough resistance that he took two thrusts to trespass each drow.

Still, soon enough, five limbless humanoids hung from his spear, which he lay over his shoulders like a fisherman.

Shen glanced at Swordy's remains and decided to bring them with him. Who knows, maybe the drow was alive. Shen's senses told otherwise, but Swordy or the drow race might have some lifesaving treasure he didn't know about.

He didn't skewer the malformed fleshy ball, though. He picked it up with his empty arm, half-hugged it, and ran to Zone A-B-44.

The cultivator felt anxious. He found no signs of combat. No ground tremors, unexpected winds, strange air vibrations, artificial magnetism, abnormal environmental energy levels, or mana ripples. Only the Maiden's domain filled his senses.

Wherever the battle was happening, it was very far away from him and probably in space.

What surprised him the most was that the Maiden had attacked the B-rank orc. Her domain was precisely as he recalled it, so he guessed she hadn't ranked up.

Could a C-rank fight a B-rank? She had told him she had C+++ stats, but how did they compare to B-? Could she win if Uk'Gaar only had one B- stat—the best scenario possible?

Shen anticipated the result.

The Maiden had also told him she had mastered three Laws—Darkness, Annihilation, and Spear—but not how a C-rank's mastered laws compared to a B-rank's. She had also left him guessing how her domain would match against a B-rank's.

Could she win? Would drow B-ranks help her? Would the orcs send another B-rank?

Shen started feeling hopeful.

Maybe he wouldn't die today, after all.