“Hello friends, it looks like you recently went through a great battle.”

“A minor scuffle,” Elijah replied. “However, it has put us in a position where we are unable to entertain guests.”

Standing in front of Elijah was a group of people wearing various types of clothing. However, all of their clothing were dirty, worn and damaged. The same could be said for their physical states. All of them looked dirty, exhausted and injured.

When Elijah saw this group, the first thing he did was ask himself a question. Why didn’t he receive a notification about them entering his territory? Perhaps it was because they didn’t come with any hostile intentions. Of course, not arriving with hostile intentions didn’t mean they wouldn’t gain any in the future.

The second thing Elijah did after he saw the group was look at them with his Supreme Eyes. Nobody in the group had more than half of their stamina and mental energy. Also, everybody was missing at least ten percent of their health.

After a few seconds of observation Elijah saw that they were all inflicted with various debuffs. Dehydration, hunger, and sleep deprivation were the most common debuffs he saw. A few of the less common debuffs would be, poisoned, broken bones, and an illness of some kind.

Once Elijah finished examining the group, he was confident that they would be defeated if they fought against his people. However, the groups lack of overall strength didn’t mean they weren’t able to pose a significant threat. That’s why Elijah paid close attention to the three tier one cultivators in the group.

The three tier one cultivators in the group were an old man, a middle-aged, man and a young man. Although Elijah couldn’t obtain much information while he used his Supreme Eyes, he could still see that all three cultivators were in a weakened state. The old man looked the worst, and the young man looked the best.

Currently, Elijah was talking to the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man was a head taller than Elijah with dark eyes, fair skin and shoulder length dark hair. He stood in front of Elijah with a gentle smile on his face and spoke in a polite tone.

“I understand. I’m sorry that you all had to go through such a difficult situation. I’m sure all you want to do right now is close your doors and ignore the rest of the world. However, I must still ask you to provide us with shelter.”

“Huh that’s funny,” Elijah replied with a neutral expression on his face. “You say that you’re sorry. You say you understand. Yet you’re still trying to force your way into our homes.”

“I promise you that we aren’t trying to forcefully enter your homes. We have nothing but respect for you and your territory.”

“Oh, so if I ask you to leave you will walk away and leave us in peace?”

“I-” The middle-aged man froze.

Outwardly, Elijah kept his neutral expression, but on the inside, he was smiling. He was enjoying the confused and conflicted expression on the man’s face. The man fell into the trap Elijah set and would soon be dancing to his tune.

Of course, Elijah wanted the man and his people to enter his village. He needed more people to grow and develop his territory. However, Elijah didn’t think it would be a good idea to let them know how eager he was to obtain more people for his village.

From his first experience with diplomacy Elijah understood there was a certain finesse to the task. If he said the wrong thing, he could have a situation similar to the one with the goblins. On his second attempt, Elijah planned to be a lot more careful with his words.

“Enough of this are you going to let us in or not!” The young man who as at the first tier didn’t hesitate to voice his annoyance. He looked exactly like the middle-aged man except his skin was more youthful, his face had less lines, and his eyes were dark green.

“Ah yes,” Elijah thought to himself. “This should be one of the arrogant young masters from the stories I read. If he thinks his current cultivation level gives him the ability to do whatever he wants, I’ll have no choice but to correct his thinking.”

“Bart, watch your words,” The middle-aged man rebuked.

“Why should I? He’s trying to make us look like beggars. He may treat this place like gold, but to us it isn’t even worth a few copper coins to us. Besides if we wanted to, we could take it by force.”

Elijah smirked after he finished listening to Bart speak. “You think you’re pretty tough, huh? Well, if you’re so powerful then tell me why you’re so desperate to take away what you consider to be worth less than a few copper coins? Why are you injured and dressed in rags? Why do you look so weak?”

“Weak!?” Bart exclaimed. He began to release his presence that he restrained, and a strong wind began to disturb their surroundings.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“That’s enough!” The middle-aged man placed his hand on Bart’s shoulder and released his presence to stop him. This led to Bart restraining his pressure and the middle-aged man aggravating his injury.

Bart’s angry expression morphed into one of worry as he watched the middle-aged man bend over and violently cough. Elijah could see some blood appear on the man’s hand as he coughed. When he finally stopped, his face was pale, and his presence was extremely weak.

Naturally, Elijah was happy to see this. If he was going to let the group in front of him enter his village, he would prefer if they were as weak as possible. The weaker they were the easier it would be to get them to follow his lead.

“Dad are you alright?” Bart asked.

“I’m fine. Allow me to apologize for my son. I hope you don’t hold it against us and allow us to stay.”

“I’m not sure if I should let you in. As the leader of this village, it’s my responsibility to protect it and the people within it. As your son said all of you are very powerful. I’m worried that violence might be inflicted onto my people if I let you in.”

“As you can see all of us are injured and in a very weakened state. None of us have the ability to harm your people and we don’t have the desire to either.”

“Your words make a lot of sense, but I will still have to ask you to swear a heavenly oath before you enter the village. I ask that you swear that you will accept me as your leader and follow my commands for as long as you’re a resident of my village.”

A flash of understanding appeared in the middle-aged man’s eyes. As for the young man, Bart, his eyes became full of disdain. Immediately, he opened his mouth to ridicule Elijah.

“Accept YOU as OUR leader? Why in the world would we follow a weakling like you? You’re not even the strongest person in your village.”

Bart waved his hand toward the goblin leader, Elder Jeb, and Elder Jamal that were beside Elijah to prove his point. Elder Jeb and Elder Jamal were about to speak up to defend Elijah, but Elijah held up a hand to stop them. He looked at Bart and responded to him with an arrogant smirk on his face.

“You’re right I’m not the strongest. However, being the strongest was never my job. My job is to guide my people and help them develop and use their abilities to their fullest potential. So far, my performance has been decent in doing my job.”

Elder Jamal and Elder Jeb both gave a nod of approval. Elijah may not have done the most work or played the most important role. However, it couldn’t be argued that Elijah did his job well.

“Hmph, all you said are some meaningless words,” Bart said with a sneer on his face. “The only thing a leader needs to do is be strong. Once you’re strong enough, everything else falls into place.”

Elijah nodded as if he agreed with what he said. “Perhaps you’re right. I’m sure your leader is someone you would consider strong, right?”

“Of course,” Bart replied before he turned to look at the old man who was a first tier. “My grandfather was the strongest in our clan before he got injured.” The old man was currently unconscious in a stretcher made of leaves, branches and vines.

“If he so strong than why are you all wandering through the forest without a home?”

Bart’s face twisted into a grimace after he heard Elijah’s question. “A powerful enemy attacked our home. We had no choice but to flee for…”

Elijah began shaking his head as he listened to Bart. “All I’m hearing is that your grandfather is a shitty leader?”

“Watch your mouth!” Bart roared in anger and released his presence again. This time his father didn’t do anything to stop him and silently stared at Elijah with a slightly cold expression.

“What? I can’t comment on your grandfather’s ability to lead, but you can comment on mine. We faced a powerful enemy as well. They had more than three times the people we did and there was one cultivator in a higher realm. However, we still found a way to defeat them and walk away from the battle with our home intact. Could you do the same thing?”

Bart opened his mouth to respond, but Elijah quickly spoke over him. “Of course, you can’t. Otherwise, wouldn’t you be sitting in the comfort of your homes right now. A leader doesn’t have to be the strongest. A leader doesn’t have to be the smartest. These aren’t the responsibilities of a leader.”

Raising his voice Elijah addressed Bart and the people he came with. “A ruler is the fire that ignites the will of the people! A ruler is the light that illuminates the people’s path! And above all else, a ruler gets shit done!”

Elijah slammed his fist onto his chest and fiercely gazed at Bart. “Do you want to know why I’m the leader? Do you want to know why you should follow me? It’s because I. GET. SHIT. DONE”

Behind Elijah, Elder Jeb and Elder Jamal listened to Elijah with smiles full of pride. The goblin leader was moved by Elijah’s words as well, and there was a slight change in the way he looked at Elijah. Most importantly, the people behind Bart were moved by what Elijah said.

At some point during his speech, Elijah activated his Supreme Speech skill. It was an instinctive activation, that happened because Elijah poured his heart into his words. Elijah’s use of his skill led to nobody doubting or arguing against the words that he spoke.

“No matter what threat comes our way, I will always do my best to lead my people to victory. If it’s a powerful cultivator, then I will figure out a way to kill that cultivator! If it’s a mighty dragon I will figure out a way to slay that dragon.”

Of course, Elijah was saying nonsense. Logically, there was no way he would be able to kill a dragon. However, his mind was currently overflowing with arrogance, and he wasn’t able to think logically. Thankfully the middle-aged man spoke up before Elijah could say something even more ridiculous.

“You’re right. It was wrong for us to criticize you as a leader. We are willing to follow you, but we won’t agree to commands that require us to throw away our lives.”

“That’s fine,” Elijah answered. “I would never force my people to their deaths.”

“I believe you.” The man replied with a nod of his head. “A few of your people freed some of my people from goblins and it was because of their positive experience that we decided to approach you.”

Elijah eyes lit up. “So that’s how these random people found the village,” Elijah thought to himself. His eyes immediately began to search the crowd for familiar faces.

The middle-aged man raised his hand to swear an oath but froze right as he was about to speak. “Right, I forgot to ask for your name. What should we call you?”

“Me,” Elijah replied with an arrogant grin on his face. Activating his Supreme Will Elijah said three words. “I’m the Supreme.”