As all of the disciples hurried to heed the woman’s order, Jason found himself wondering after the temperaments of the Bloodhand Sect’s other great elders. Were they all similarly erratic and prone to violence? Surely there were some intelligent, capable people among their ranks, considering that their sect boasted several million members and an entire kingdom’s worth of infrastructure and territory.
As the disciples finished sectioning off into groups of six hundred, Jason decided that he would get as much information about the sect as possible from the red-eyed elder, who would surely know much more than any of the disciples that he had forcefully absorbed into his ranks. Key individuals and important locations, valuable logistical information as well as analysis of the sect’s leaders and allies—come to think of it, all such things were likely known to the woman at his side, as she was effectively seventh in charge within the entire Bloodhand Sect.
“You all,” said Jason, who approached the first group to form and addressed them in a lofty manner. “From here on out, I’ll be in charge of this war party, so as long as you guys do what I say then we won’t have any problems.” Summoning a sizeable serpent and hopping onto its back with a light movement, he motioned for the others to follow suit. “We’ll be heading about ten kilometres west, where we’ll find a suitable place to set up camp. Easy enough, right?”
He could tell that many in the group were reluctant to follow him, none having heard of him or interacted with him at any time in the Acquisition. Still, they fell into loose ranks after a moment’s pause, many sending wary glances at their leader before running after Jason with rapid steps.
Jason led the disciples a fair distance away from the other war parties, his group defined by a distinct silence as they flitted throughout the countryside like an army of ghosts. He stopped the group about five kilometres from a sizeable town, all of them glancing at the distant walls with poorly-hidden excitement and a perverse sort of eagerness that left no questions as to what sort of thoughts were running through the heads of the disciples in his company.
As all of those before him awaited his commands, Jason allowed them to stand around in confusion for a short time, reveling in the fact that his plan would work out without any hitches.
“Forgive me, senior brother,” said a young man with sharp, discerning eyes and a head of short black hair, “but aren’t we supposed to set up camp? The longer we stay in the open like this, the greater the chances that the lessers in that town will try to flee.”
“We are going to take the town, right senior brother?” said another girl with rosy cheeks and long, blonde curls, one of the few who were visibly uneasy. “What exactly is our plan, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Jason stared down at the group with passive eyes, though Jason abruptly donned a satisfied smile and a penetrating stare that didn’t miss a single one of those present as it calmly swept over the crowd. His sudden change in disposition tipped the more oblivious youths off to the fact that something was amiss, though they couldn’t so much as take a step when faced with the dawning realization that Jason was no friend to them. He had already trapped them in his aura, isolating it so that it only bore down upon those within his immediate vicinity.
Ignoring the sudden barrage of shouts—which were filled with a mixture of anger, confusion and worry—Jason produced 605 master-slave contracts and quickly set about prickling the fingers of everyone present in order to harvest a drop of blood from each disciple. Since he had to manually draw blood from each of them, it took around ten minutes to do so for everyone in the group, with Jason hurrying about while accurately pricking skin with a fingernail only to collect the resultant drops of blood with his spiritual sense which then directed said droplets onto their own individual master-slave contracts.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The disciples watched on in hapless shock as their freedoms were stolen from them with the simultaneous activation of every contract that was currently floating in the air, the slips of parchment disintegrating after a large flash of golden light.
Screams, grunts, coughs; the disciples showed all sorts of reactions as every neck within sight was briefly stained with the black rings that signified slavery, rings that would always be present regardless if they were visible to the naked eye.
The young man from earlier was among the first to find their feet, as almost all of the disciples had collapsed in pain from the process of being branded as a slave.
“You…don’t tell me—did you do this to the great elder as well?”
Jason willed his serpent to slither through the air, stopping just above the young man in question.
“What’s your name?”
“Dael.”
Looking at the girl from earlier, whose rosy face was even more flushed than before, he said, “And your name?”
“Alea.”
“Dael and Alea, you guys seem pretty sharp. For now, I’ll leave you two in charge of this group.”
“This shouldn’t be possible,” said Dael, more to himself than to Jason. “How can someone at the seventh level of Integration have such a powerful aura? Only the great elders could make me feel such a feeling…”
Clearing his throat, he abruptly yelled out the series of orders that had become common practice whenever he enslaved someone, essentially ensuring their utmost compliance and cooperation. Afterwards, he ordered Dael and Alea to head to the location of his force’s main camp, at which point he contacted Havel with a sound transference talisman and informed him of the newcomers’ eventual arrival. He then ordered the young man to oversee the expansion of the camp and to also delegate the consolidation of their logistics to Renay, one of the more capable people in his growing army of Integration-staged cultivators.
“Now then,” he said, suppressing a surge of excitement as he expanded his spiritual sense to its maximum reach and honed in on the nearest of the groups that the red-eyed woman had dispersed throughout the region at his command. “Let’s recruit some more grunts.”
Now that all of the war parties had been isolated from one another, it was quite easy for Jason to show up unannounced, trap everyone in place with his aura and then forcibly enslave them in the same manner as he had done with the first group. In this manner, he was able to completely subjugate all six thousand disciples before the sun reached its zenith in the now cloudless sky.
Once he’d finished enslaving the last group and directing them to the main camp, he contacted the red-eyed woman and ordered her to follow after him at a distance, the two eventually arriving in the woodland where he’d left 155 disciples trapped within a sizeable clearing under the effects of a gravity-altering arrayment that kept them pressed against the ground in a spread-eagle position.
He called the red-eyed woman over and gave her a curt order. “Guard me while I cultivate.”
The disciples appeared to be in terrible pain as he showed up in their midst, none sparing the energy to look up at him while a few began to whimper and plead in the weakest and most submissive of voices. In the time since he’d left them here, five youths had died under the effects of his arrayment, from unhealthy alterations to their blood pressure. Seeing this, he lightened the effects of the technique just a bit, not out of care of those suffering under its strain, but to ensure that they didn’t expend too much of their inner energies while trying to preserve their lives and comfort.
Okay, he thought, singling out a young man and summoning his body over like a magnet with an opposing pole. Let’s get to the peak of the seventh level. Grasping the man’s neck with his left hand, he pierced the whimpering captive’s chest with his right and then activated his secondary cultivation method, which was the original and more advanced version of the technique that served as the bedrock of the Bloodhand Sect’s foundation.
Euphoria washed over Jason as he harvested the young man’s energies within fifteen or so seconds. This left the elder with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, since even she needed at least twice that much time to refine someone at the peak of Integration. He paid her no mind, however, for he immediately moved on to the next unfortunate disciple to catch his eye.
A young man, a young woman, three boys in their preteens, six girls around his age, another young man, another two boys…
Jason killed all sorts of people in the hour and a half that followed, though he felt neither sympathy for the deceased nor remorse for his actions. These were serial killers and rapists, the sort that would have had a bad reputation even among their peers within the sect. After the things he’d seen these people do, their sufferings were the last thing that he was concerned with.