“I’ll kill you!”
Hearing her voice at his back, Jason smirked and muttered, “Somehow I doubt that.” Finding comfort in the idea that such a villain would spend her final moments in shame and indecency, he continued onward without looking back, his conscience bereft of a single shred of remorse.
Jason believed that someone like that girl deserved to be humiliated before they died, which he was positive would be the case. He had captured her within a nursery where she had refined seven newborns—sources of energy that were so miniscule that she likely expended more inner essence merely activating and maintaining her core cultivation method than what she received for absorbing their life energies—along with their caretakers. The way the little corpses had been spaced around the room had told him that she’d simply flung them aside as soon as she’d finished refining them.
Yes, he thought as he reflected on his decision to leave behind that group of disciples in particular. That was definitely the right thing to do.Despite the fact that they represented a very large amount of harvestable energies, the people of Calmer deserved some sort of retribution. From start to finish the invasion of the city had taken less than an hour, yet in that time the locals had been forced to endure countless tragedies regardless of age, gender, or physical and mental health.
I hope she dies for at least a day.
After ordering the great elder to escort the war band to the site that he’d designated earlier, he found a large clearing within a nearby copse of woods that showed signs of previous occupation. This would be a good spot to refine some of the disciples that he’d captured from Calmer, out of the way and obscured from distant eyes.
About ten seconds each person, let’s say 500 people. That’s like, two hours? Recalling Nolan’s instant calculations, he found himself missing the prudence and intelligence of his old friend and so decided to give things a little more thought. So, a little less than an hour and a half. And that’s if there’re no interruptions…
Turning his gaze on the frightened disciples that he’d trapped in place within the clearing, Jason surely struck a frightening figure as he proceeded to methodically refine the strongest of the bunch without acknowledging any of their final words.
***
Jason tore himself away from the shrivelled remains of a young man, his entire body shaking as he did his best to crawl as far away from the corpse, eventually winding up behind a nearby tree. After refining several hundred people within the space of a little over an hour, it was almost impossible to control his bloodlust.
I—I need to…stop for a while…
If he slipped up and refined even one more person, then he would likely lose control over the energies that bound his captives in place. If that were to happen, then not only would most of them seize the opportunity to flee, but some might even attempt to kill him while he was unable to properly control his body. He could see it in the eyes of those that remained, their faces pale and covered in cold sweat after watching him select people from the large crowd in a seemingly random manner for thousands of long, heart-palpitating seconds.
I should probably get back. He was very close to making a minor breakthrough to the late phase of Integration’s seventh level. Just one more breakthrough after that and I’ll be at the peak of this level. Then I should be able to beat people like that red-eyed lady without falling back on arrayments. Looking at the silent disciples that filled the clearing—which was dotted all throughout with mummified-looking corpses that scarcely filled out their robes—he wondered how many more of them he would have to refine in order to reach said milestone. How many more people I’ll have to kill, he sighed, doing his best to still his shaking arms. To a passerby, he probably looked like a hardcore drug addict in the height of a terrible fit of withdrawals.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Yeah, this…I need to take a break.
He would continue to cultivate tomorrow, he decided, belatedly strengthening the aura that blanketed his captives when he noticed several twitching hands and fingers. Reaching into his robes, he summoned a few medicinal pellets from his spatial bag and hurriedly swallowed them down. His limbs steadied and his breathing became measured within a matter of minutes. Although Actius hadn’t been interested in alchemy, he had learned how to concoct several types of pellets over the course of a handful of afternoons on a whim, memories that Jason had wholly inherited from him. Relying on these experiences, Jason had refined a very useful medicine that almost entirely lessened the fallout of his core cultivation method within a minute or two of consumption. He was surprised that none of them had similar medicines in their stock piles, as disciples of the Bloodhand Sect tended to carry around a large amount of wealth comparative to ordinary people of this world that didn’t actively attempt to raise their cultivation.
Speaking of which…
Jason summoned every spatial bag in the clearing and then stowed them away within his own with a smirk. Indifferent to the anger of those present, he leapt onto a tree branch about twenty-five metres above the ground and then quietly settled down to meditate.
After half an hour or so, he had successfully consolidated his cultivation and calmed the abundant energies within him.
“Now,” he said confidently, standing up and then summoning a large serpent in front of the branch where he’d been sitting. “I guess I’ll go to our main camp first. Then I’ll meet up with that elder.”
There were still several thousand people that he needed to enslave, which would require just as many master-slave contracts. These wouldn’t take too long to make, but he didn’t want to complicate things by showing up to the yet-to-be-conquered war band with hundreds upon hundreds of their disciples openly held captive. The last thing he needed was to have to subjugate so many people with force, even if he could order the elder to act on his behalf.
Soaring above the yawning landscape, which appeared grey in the encroaching gloaming, Jason hurried back to the section of forest where he and his group had set up camp. Although it was so early in the morning, none of his underlings were asleep. All were in the midst of making breakfast from their individual stores of food—some stealing coercing food from others—most of them silent and solemn in expression. The only noise to spill out of the encampment came from those that he’d enslaved earliest, who had had more time to acclimate to their new conditions. Still, their conversations were all grim and hopeless, though admittedly this was an improvement from the constant quiet that they’d showcased before.
He appeared in the air above the main clearing, willing his mount to circle around the area above like a hungry vulture on the lookout for prey. Wow, he thought as he took in the sight of hundreds of tents and sensed the thousands more that sat hidden beneath the forest’s upper canopy. I’m about to have a big-ass army, aren’t I?
Sersa appeared at his side after a few laps in the air, quickly followed by Havel and Angelica. He spotted Brud handing out blankets to recently captured disciples, particularly female ones, which caused one of his eyebrows to raise. What was that rat up to? Come to think of it, Jason had noticed that the only time he treated others with even a modicum of respect was when he was dealing with other disciples of his sect. He’d been surprisingly kind to some of the girls in certain instances, which made zero sense to Jason as he’d personally seen the boy kill female disciples as young as twelve in cold blood after Jason had allowed them to flee.
“I trust everything went well?” said Havel, who was carefully inspecting the cultivation levels of the captives with keen eyes.
“As good as it could have.” Nodding down at those below, he said, “I’ve got somewhere else to be, so get these guys organized into groups of one hundred so I can go ahead with the contracts.”
Havel nodded and lowered himself so that he was only about ten metres above the ground. Raising his voice, he threw an arm out and addressed those below in an authoritative tone. “Stop eating and listen. We will now undergo the signing of the master-slave contracts. As soon as I finish speaking, gather together into the groups that you were designated into earlier and await further instruction!” As a wave of hesitancy washed over those below, Havel exerted his aura upon them and yelled with booming words. “Now!” As soon as he adopted a forceful tone, everyone below sprang into action.