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Chapter 255: Eight Rulers of the Northern Region
Listening to Sebastian’s explanation, Sila’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Exactly as Sebastian had said, this butler brooch had the potential to solve his problems. However, to think that Sebastian had forced all Eight Rulers of the Northern Region to submit to Monster Follower pacts...
“They are only under temporary pacts, sir. To make them official, Mister Sila will have to drop your blood on top of the brooch and declare the chant exactly as I prepared.” Sebastian placed the brooch on the table and slid it to Sila.
“Will that be okay? Each of them must be at Lord Rank. They have also been hostile to each other for a long time. It will be difficult to make them cooperate.”
“No need to worry, sir. I will just bluff using Lord Yama’s name and they will have no choice but to comply.”
Though hesitant, Sila admitted that Sebastian’s method was a good solution to his current obstacles. He stabbed his fingertip with a suntetsu and watched as his blood dripped on the brooch. He then recited the words on the paper Sebastian handed him.
“I, Sila, the Monster Emperor, shall make Monster Follower pacts with you, the Eight Rulers of the Northern Region. You shall be above all humans and monsters and under only me. Immediately show yourself if you accept my condition!”
The contents of the pact differed from what Julia had prepared for him when he was making a pact with Rex, emphasising the superiority above the followers instead of equality.
The brooch sucked all the blood on it inside, returning itself to its completely clean state while emitting some kind of dark flash. It blinked eight times before stopping.
Eight dimensional gates opened surrounding Sila, along with a great rumble caused by powerful killing intents. The restaurant heavily shook and some cracks appeared on it.
Sila had to quickly circulate qi in order to protect himself from the pressure when eight Lord-Rank monsters in human forms stepped through the gates.
Sebastian secretly tapped on Sila’s back, informing him that the pacts weren’t yet successful.
The first impression was the most important moment. Sila didn’t remove his gaze from the eight of them. He couldn’t afford to show his weak will if he really intended to reign over them.
“State your names to show me your loyalty!”
The eight monsters stared at the sole human sitting on a chair. Among the eight, the Giant King was the most hot-tempered one. He unleashed his qi and the roof tiles underneath immediately shattered. Seeing the event from afar, some players below quickly rang a bell non-stop.
“Lord Yama is the only one this king fears. Who are you to act so haughty in front of the great me, you tiny human?” The Giant King in human form was a four-meters tall robust man wearing ragged clothing. Around his neck were bones hanging from a thread. He snapped one of the bones to hold in his hand and point at Sila.
“I’m your ruler. State your name at once!” Sila unleashed his qi. The color of his eyes changed into red.
Evil God’s Essence — Transcendent Monster Heir.
Even though Sila’s level was lower, Monster Heir was a skill that directly intimidated monsters. With the Evil God’s Essence he received from Lucifer, the monsters became daunted and were weakened by the pressure.
Sila flicked his wrist as he concentrated his qi into his pinky.
Formless Martial God — Subduing Whip.
Sila’s qi materialized into six metal whips extending from his pinky. He lashed the table in front of him into pieces and invalidated the Giant King’s overbearing might surrounding him. With the same move, he also dealt damage to the Giant King, making the latter retreat a few steps back. Small injuries appeared on the monster’s chest.
‘My Weapon Subduing Hand could deal only that much damage?’ Sila inwardly panicked at how sturdy the Giant King’s physique was.
Weapon Subduing Hand was a concept Sila developed after he received help from Flaming Cloud Qi’s Cloud Part. The idea was inspired by Montra’s Heavenly Destiny Fist which changed his movements into different kinds of weapons. Nevertheless, Sila possessed stronger inner force so he didn’t have to rely on movements alone.
Relying on the hard and soft attributes of Tiger Dragon Qi and his understanding of Formless Martial God, Sila successfully invented his own Yizichan consisting of one martial move for each finger. His thumb represented a spear, his index finger mimicked a saber, his middle finger reproduced a sword, his ring finger was a suntetsu, and his pinky created a whip.
In fact, he wasn’t sure about this idea at first, but the Cloud Part made him see the possibility. He had seen similar moves in Crow’s Dignified Palm Blade and become confident that he could achieve this concept.
Five different weapons were compressed into his hand. This was why Sila named the move Weapon Subduing Hand.
Sila repeated the same words, yet his voice was louder and sounded more tyrannical, causing the hair of any who heard him to stand on end. “State your name!”
The Giant King cancelled his qi and got down on his knee. “I am Karum, the Giant King.” Once he had stated his name, a certain small tattoo appeared on his chest. It was none other than the symbol of Sila’s Lordship.
‘My odds of winning are only 25.6%. I will give up for the time being, then.’ With only a single glance at Sila, a young man with black short hair closed his eyes and kneeled down. The third eye on his forehead remained open, however, and stared straight at Sila. “I am Vogue, the Evil Eye King.”
“I am Margaret, the Vampire Queen.” The female vampire easily kneeled down. Her fearful eyes shot a side glance at Sebastian instead of looking at Sila.
“I am Bul, the Dwarf King.” An elderly man with a short physique simply sat on the roof without tiles. He said nothing more but his eyes showed great interest in Sila’s Mechanical Evil God’s Protection.
“I am Alex, the Sheep King.” A gentle young man politely bowed his head while pushing his glasses up with a finger.
The same tattoo also appeared on the other four. With just a single move, Sila managed to gain respect from five of the eight rulers. It was one thing for Karum who personally took action, but the other four were not stubborn. Seeing that even Karum—the most impatient one among them—had stepped down, they followed his choice despite them having yet to show their own strengths. Well, to be fair, it was mainly due to their lingering fear toward Lord Yama.
Still on his chair, Sila swept his gaze over the remaining three. “What about you three?”
“This king prefers personally taking action rather than relying on someone else.” The man with braided hair in a Kung Fu uniform directed his sharp eyes at Sila. He pressed his foot on the roof before rotating his body and kicking a lighting strike toward the young man.
Apparently, his psychic power materialized into a bolt of lightning. His movements were sharp and speedy. Sila couldn’t help but express words of admiration.
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“What a great move!” Sila exclaimed as he raised his hand to use one of his martial moves, Moon-Catcher. Instead of catching the attack, he opted for parrying it away in order to save his strength.
However, the lightning strike in a shape of a javelin submerged into Sila’s body upon contact, briefly electrocuting him.
The braided man didn’t perform another attack though. He stopped and looked down at his chest, where a suntetsu had gone half an inch into him. It had stabbed him before he saw it coming. It turned out that Sila had counterattacked him the moment an opening was made when he attacked. The gap should have only been visible for an instant, yet Sila could precisely seize the timing.
“I am Kuroha, the Manta Ray King,” Kuroha declared as he sat down. Sila nodded at him while staring at the last two monsters.
One of them was a man with puffy hair covering half of his face. A playful smile emerged on his lips. As for the other one, he was a middle-aged man, seemingly a serious and silent type. In his hand was a fire red fan.
Aside from Lomyok, this was the first time Sila had seen someone using a fan as their weapon.
“Wind King, let’s cooperate,” said the middle-aged man. He folded his fan and pointed it at Sila with a motion as if he was thrusting a spear. His footstep was unusually calm. A cluster of flames ignited on the tip of his fan.
“Hehe~ So sly~ As I expected from you, Firebird King. But nope~ I will be playing my own game.” The playful man’s tone of voice was childish. He raised his hand up and a mini cyclone appeared on his palm. Apparently, the wind around the place was absorbed into his hand. Sila felt like he was being sucked into the center of the cyclone even though the man had yet to make any further moves.
The two of them were different from the others. They didn’t make their moves with the intention of gauging Sila’s strength, but to actually kill him if they had a chance.
The Firebird King’s personality was sly and cunning while the Wind King was extremely self-centered. No one could predict their behaviors.
Formless Martial God — Subduing Saber.
A saber was materialized on each of Sila’s index fingers. He mimicked how to use a saber from Sangdao. His knowledge about the saber might be incredibly lacking, but his attack was supplemented by his qi.
Several sword waves appeared and flew at the Firebird King from all directions. However, the result was far different from Sila’s expectations.
The Firebird King didn’t even try to evade Sila’s attacks. The sword waves hit him and caused injuries, yet the wounds were healed instantly. Moreover, the flame power on the tip of his fan seemed to get a boost in strength.
The Firebird King’s Immortal Bird Qi was renowned for its healing ability. It was even known as “the qi which subdues other qi.”
When the user was preparing an attack, the opponent’s incoming qi attack would be rendered useless and instead added to his own attack power. Witnessing Sila’s moves so far, the Firebird King was sure that Sila was qi-type. With the exception of Lucifer, the Firebird King was confident in his ability against most qi-type beings.
Noticing that his qi had strengthened the opponent’s attack, Sila was secretly worried. He realized in an instant that the Firebird King’s mastery over Flame of Torturing and Worlds Crossing Bridge was beyond his own.
In any case, since qi was weak against magic, Sila switched to using Element-Changing Nightmare Magical Qi. He fired a materialized hidden weapon through his ring finger, imbuing it with the magic power of the dark water element.
The magical hidden weapon crashed against the tip of the Firebird King’s fan and splashed into droplets of black rain, extinguishing his qi.
The Firebird King was overconfident in his qi and took the attack head-on. As Sila’s attack held an elemental advantage, the attack pushed him back five steps. The magic power also entered his body and harmed his veins, leaving him no choice but to sit down and circulate qi to drive Sila’s magical qi out.
“I am Gigan, the Firebird King,” Gigan slowly stated his name as blood dripped from a corner of his mouth.
Sila removed his gaze from Gigan and shifted his attention to the Wind King. Seeing what was in front of him, Sila furrowed his brows. There were three Wind Kings, and not one of them was a mere silhouette. Based on his qi perception, all three bodies were tangible.
“Hehe~ You are qi-type, yet you can use magic power? What an interesting fellow you are. Though, can you guess which one of me is real~?”
His words were of a teasing kind, but his actions suggested otherwise. The three bodies jumped off in different directions and ran through the air as fast as the wind. Sila might be able to handle one of them. However, against three, it was like facing off against three Zeros. Even worse, their actions were harmonious.
The three Wind Kings sliced their hands through the air toward Sila. At a glance the three palms looked absolutely identical, but Sila could sense that imbued in each of the palms were different attributes of magic power. One was sharp, one was heavy, and one was light. He would easily be defeated if he didn’t handle each of them carefully.
The Wind Kings’ moves were complicated despite seeming simple. Circulating qi into his brain according to the Cloud Part, Sila finally came up with a countermeasure. He decided to use the second stage’s overwhelming cycle of Five-Attributed Cloud Qi.
Dual Overwhelming Attributes — Earth Absorbs Water, Steel Sage.
Sila’s speed greatly increased to be half a level above the Wind Kings’. He blocked the three different palms with his left fist, his right palm, and his elbow.
He didn’t stop with just that and unleashed Dark Psychic Corrosion, generating a mass of black dots. His psychic power ran through both of his arms.
Witnessing a creepy psychic power that traveled like a swarm of locusts, the Wind Kings quickly stepped back, though the black mass had already made contact with every one of them.
“Uwah~? What is this?” The three looked at each other. Soon, two of them placed their hands, the side which came into contact with Sila’s psychic power, on the body of the other one.
Dark Psychic Corrosion was sent into the third Wind King. With the power combined, its devouring speed accelerated, corroding his body.
The first two bodies waved their hands as if they were saying goodbye while the last one, whose body was mostly disintegrated, wiped the tears from his eyes. In the end, the third became one with the wind while the remaining two also fell apart in the same manner. All the wind fused together before transforming into one Wind King.
“Oof. That was close~ By the way, I’m the Wind King,” said the Wind King but nothing happened. He scratched his head a few times before snapping his fingers. “Oh, right. I forgot. I am Saki, the Wind King.”
The symbol finally formed on his neck, which Saki scratched three times.
Sila stood up from his chair, which immediately turned to dust as soon as he stopped using his power to protect it. “You may stand. I just summoned you here today in order to make a pact. I have work for you all to complete over the days to come. This person here is Sebastian. He will be responsible for instructing you in my place. Just consult him if you have any questions.”
Sebastian stepped forward. “We have already met, so I don’t think an introduction will be necessary. Please take your time, Mister Sila. I will take charge from here on out.”
“Julia, please stay here and lend Sebastian a hand. I think I will go and check on Burapha.”
Sila turned to nod at the eight rulers once before leaping toward the shopping area, which had been transformed into a temporary fight club where people challenged each other. Most of the players in Belacia City, including Burapha, were there.
Going from Indigo’s restaurant to the shopping area was a straightforward trip, yet Sila took a detour mid-way. He traversed through the remains of a building while looking left and right to make sure that no one was following him. He then transformed himself into a slime and crawled underneath the wreckage. It wasn’t until he reached a small space inside did he revert to his normal form.
“Urgh!” Sila vomited blood to release the pressure he had been holding in.
If he had to pick a cause, it would be Kuroha’s lightning psychic power which had disturbed the flow of his power from the inside. After that, he continued to exert his power and even used a Dual Overwhelming Attributes move, which was usually too powerful.
“They were all so strong. It was a difficult fight even though they came at me one at a time. To think that they were still so fearful despite their wills to fight being dominated by Monster Heir...”
Sila started that fight with the Transcendent Rank Monster Heir in order to intimidate them. The skill dealt them temporary physiological damage, which was supposed to greatly weaken their overall strengths and make them unable to gauge the bottom of his fighting ability.
With how things went, Sila believed that the time for him to train the Flame Part would be near. If things were going this well, he would be able to kill many birds with one stone.
“Release Mamon.”
The purple light came out of the armor. The boy looked left and right, feeling confused.
“Where the hell is the place? It’s so cramped, like a rat hole. Why did you call me out?”
Sila simply took a certain invitation card out and handed it to Mamon. “Can you modify this invitation card to make it allow more people to pass through?”
Mamon took a look at the Invitation Card to the Dragon Kingdom and replied, “I can. However, just so you know, there exists a law of equivalent exchange in alchemy when altering most kinds of items. If you intend to use it that way, it may become an item with one use.”
This invitation card was what Sila had obtained from the hands of the dragons of light and darkness. It was a high-grade invitation card similar to what dragon-race players would have. The number of times it could be used was supposed to be infinite.
“It’s fine. One time is enough. How long do you need to make it happen?”
“This is a high-grade item. I probably need an entire day,” Mamon estimated.
“Good. Please take care of it, and also prepare for combat. I will host an event in the next three days, and the people in Belacia City will have to participate.”
Mamon spun the invitation card on the tip of his finger. He grinned as he could guess Sila’s intentions. “Kiekkiekkiek. You plan to use others as pawns while doing your personal mission, I take it? Your idea is to my liking.”
‘Dragons drop good materials. I’ll take this chance to add some high-grade items into my collection,’ thought Mamon.
“Seal Mamon.” Sila sent Mamon back into his armor. He remained within the wreckage until his injuries were fully healed before breaking through the rubble and going to his original destination—the temporary fight club.