Authors Note: Authors Note: Will be in POV so thoughts are just text, and Character: “Moondog” will represent dialogue
4-5,000 Words seems to be the standard chapter length i’ll be going for, so chapters will pretty much always be the same length as this one and the previous one.
I don’t know what time Royalroad goes by but in terms of EST chapters will generally be released around 10 p.m-2 a.m in case anyone cares.
With the next chapter I’ll be posting a compilation of Skills, statuses for the main characters along with achievements, an updated inventory, and stat explanations. Kinda like a character information thing, but since I abhor authors who post a character information thing by itself and trick readers into thinking it's a chapter I’ll post them one after the other.
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**Sandro POV**
I’ve spent 3 weeks working my way up the ladder, working my way up by stealing identities of course, which is harder than you think when so many of the gang members are muscle heads…..
I’m finally in the perfect position, I’ve found the man who disagrees with the Eastern Sun’s philosophy, and I’m his second lieutenant, a 8/9 Qi Realm guy who matches my build, and handles a lot of the finances, which with my Earthen knowledge it’s simple, given what they consider “finances”. I’ve also successfully gathered information on all my chosen targets.
Sun ShiEastern Suns Boss, HonorableProfound Realm 9/9Strength: 1044Intellgience: 9Agility: 871Wisdom: 17Vitality: 988Reaction Speed: 782
Bo YangRed Storm Boss, Weak-WilledProfound Realm 9/9Strength: 1012Intellgience: 11Agility: 921Wisdom: 11Vitality: 988Reaction Speed: 876
Fang FuThe Far Street Boys, ArrogantProfound Realm 9/9Strength: 1155Intellgience: 8Agility: 1023Wisdom: 6Vitality: 1025Reaction Speed: 1021
These three gangs have a quasi alliance so they meet pretty often, and as a semi important member being a follower of the Eastern Son’s second in command:
Sun ShoEastern Suns Second, FlightyProfound Realm 7/9Strength: 721Intellgience: 11Agility: 655Wisdom: 9Vitality: 522Reaction Speed: 821
I’ve already convinced Sun Sho of my plan to get rid of his older brother. Introducing him to my ghoul who’s pretending to be a long lost older sister, she agreed to getting rid of him for ⅓ of his vault(something that greedy ghoul bitch added on, obviously saying it to me as there won’t be anyone to stop us since after we kill Sun Shi at the private meeting we’ll just kill his younger brother.)
During this time I got a quest for the Ghoul evolving:
Quest :Natural Evolutions are pure luck and often just follow similar conditions to rituals. In order to evolve the Ghoul from the Flesh Realm the Ghoul must Devour.
Objective 1: The Ghoul must devour 100 hearts of Profound cultivators, level is irrelevant
Objective 2: The Ghoul must devour 1 heart of a Spirit Realm Cultivator, level is irrelevant
Error: Results unpredictable
I’m getting annoyed at always having to kill those above my realm...though it's probably because under any normal circumstances it's 100% impossible for an undead to get stronger. And whats with the error and unpredictable results..damn this girl.
Of course I didn’t tell the ghoul yet about the spirit cultivator heart, I’d rather not go up against a spirit realm cultivator at this point, I only told I’d be able to help her advance realms once I was advanced and that for now she should eat Profound Cultivator’s hearts. The ghoul’s and vampire’s appearance are becoming more and more different. The Vampire’s hair has become a full black and will likely continue towards the void color of the Ghoul’s claws, The Ghoul’s hair is a shiny white with the same green eyes she had prior to death. I’m not sure if i’d call it a change but her eyes scare me more every time.
I also have a quest for my favorite undead, Reliea.
Quest :As one of a Pure Blooded Vampire Line Reliea’s evolution is guaranteed given enough time, however there is a way to hasten her advancement from the Blood Realm to the Blood Lord Realm.
Objective 1: Must be bled to the point of there being only her blood in her system.
Objective 2: Drink the blood of her sire until she’s satiated.
Objective 3: Perform the Tier 2 Raise Undead on her in a sigil drawn of a mix of both your blood.
So it's as i thought, if my skills didn’t advance with me eventually they’d all become useless. I can’t wait to see what skills become available and what I then can do with my new Evil Qi pool.
I love that the quest also calls them by the proper names, that's what you get Ghoul. Not sure why Reliea is considered a Pure Blooded Vampire, if that's what all my Vampires will be or if she’s special. Another one that’ll have to wait until I can advance. I’ll need to gather a ton of living subjects to use Drain Vitality on while she drinks me, plus I’d like to have a high Vitality prior as well. Either way I don’t want her two whole realms ahead of me in case it affects the bond.
The Ghoul and Reliea(when she wasn’t hunting to reach 9/9 Blood Realm) have spent the last 3 weeks training a stealth skill we bought. It won’t be good enough at anywhere near close range, but it's more than enough for them to stay close by during the meeting. And of course with my Conceal Presence it's of no issue. Currently Sun Shi is heading to the meeting point where Sun Sho has claimed he found a valuable High Rank 2 demonic beast's lair and that he needs his brother’s aid.
The reason Sun Sho has never tried ambushing his older brother in the past is because he has a life protection artifact, a profound level one, so it definitely is something my dagger, temporarily in Reliea’s, hand can penetrate. As she’s far faster than the ghoul and Sun Shi, she’ll be dealing the finishing blow as Sun Sho keeps him distracted.
Yu LilyLevel: Flesh Realm 9/9Former Daughter of the Perverted City Lord, GhoulStrength: 1313(+150)Intelligence: 14Agility: 870(-50)Wisdom: 12Vitality: 2723(+2300)Reaction Speed: 765(-50)
Sai ReiliaLevel: Blood Realm 9/9Former Princess of Clan Fey, VampireStrength: 930(+50)Intelligence: 11Agility: 1342(+100)Wisdom: 6Vitality: 2510(+1850)Reaction Speed: 1248(+50)
As the closest one due to my Conceal Presence I give Sun Sho the sign and he immediately swings his sword at his brother. Excellently blocking it, Sun Shi, before he even gets a word out feels the presence of Reliea behind him, immediately activating his life protecting barrier in a time only a hardened warrior could...of course it didn't matter as the dagger penetrates his heart. With Reliea’s superior speed and actual life as a cultivator so long as she isn’t surrounded by multiple members of the profound realm she’s more than capable, but with the dagger, her speed makes it impossible to dodge, and while they could use superior skill or experience to try block it..there's nothing I’ve seen yet that can. Sun Shi doesn’t even have time to be surprised that it wasn’t who he expected that killed his brother as Claws which seem to absorb all light are already through his chest.
Quickly taking the ring and sword from Sun Shi’s body I immediately store him in the Inventory.
Ignoring the Ghoul happily munching on Sun Sho’s heart I take his space ring as well and decide to deal with the contents later..
Reliea: “ahaha master I did really well right, so can master please stop being mad at me??”
Yes I ended up giving my platinum coin to the Ghoul for all the money Reliea spent. I’ve pretended to be mad so she won’t do it in the future and won't question who were killing.
Sandro:”Yes yes you did good but don’t forget we still have two more to kill and these will be a lot more difficult since it won’t be a complete ambush.”
Ghoul: “Hey why’d you take the other body away I didn’t get to eat his heart??”
Sandro: “Oi oi I kind of need the heart you know, I don’t need heartless bodies for my rituals”
Ghoul: “stingy….”
I’m stingy...who's the Ghoul that decided 1 platinum was proper payment when it was “it might as well be about 1,000” fucking ghoul saying it like that, there's no way it was 1,000 gold. There no way you even had a thousand gold….
I resurrected Sun Sho to use him gather the two allied clans for a meeting they often have...huh...it only took 400 Qi?? Maybe its about potential? I mean I doubt this guy was ever going to reach anything beyond the Profound Realm, but the girls were actually talented…
He also doesn’t really have a personality, I mean he can understand more complex commands and even hold a proper conversation as if he’s completely alive, no monotone regurgitation of information, but in the end he isn’t that much different from a zombie when it comes to obeying me. Then again my Raise Undead skill definitely said the higher level it is the easier they should be to control….fucking hell how did I end up with those two pain in the necks.
I head back to the Eastern Sun’s base and easily use my new, economic, Vampire to kill off the other 2 Profound Cultivators of the gang and raise them as Vampires.
I’m now at a pitiful 50 Evil Qi remaining….I’m really hoping my advancement gives me a fuck-ton of Evil Qi, at the very least I can put stat points into my evil qi control.
Now to prepare for the gang meeting tomorrow night….in this case it’ll be the Ghoul, Reliea and my 3 Vampires Versus 2 9/9 Profound Cultivators and likely 4 more Profound Cultivators between the two gangs. The thing I’m most worried about is me getting attacked. While i do have an extra life from my Soul Trade skill dying is not something I wanna experience. According to the Ghoul it's quite awful.
The easiest plan will being having my vampires just do a suicidal rush towards the side while the Ghoul and Reliea enter through the direction the other gangs did. There will unlikely anyone capable of stopping them from entering even if they do post guards. I’ll pretend like I’m unrelated and hopefully leave the room nice and easily, I have to be there at first to make sure it's time for the Ghoul and Reliea to act. I may not know much about battle but I know the one who’s willing to die(or forced to by my order) has the advantage over the one who values their lives.
After spending another fun night with my vampire we scope out the venue ahead of time and plan where the Ghoul and Reliea will be waiting for my signal. I gave Reliea my dagger again and put on my Beguilement Cloak, hopefully Conceal Presence is enough, even though they can see me, to avoid being attacked when shit goes down.
Taking my time cleaning out the Eastern Sun’s Vault and looking through all my vampires space rings we head towards the meeting place at the assigned time, I tell the Ghoul and Reliea to get into their assigned positions.
When the gang leaders of Red Storm and Far Street Boys start complaining about being dragged here and Sun Shi not even showing up I immediately order my vampires to rush forward and for the Ghoul and Reliea to to enter through the back.
Quickly leaving the room seeing Sun Shu basically biting into one of the lower profound cultivators I decide to…
Bo Yang: “Singing Blade!”
AHHHH FUCK FUCK FUCK what the hell is that noise...shit….the fuck is even a singing blade? Fuck these fucking cultivators…. Struggling to stand up I leave the room while the fighting is going on….and I’m met with one of the lower profound cultivators chasing me from behind… oi oi that damn singing blade got rid of my Conceal Presence…
Sandro: “ahahah wait my brother I promise if you spare me I’ll lead you to the Eastern Sun’s Vault, huh huh good deal right brother?”
Removing the blade around my neck he simply nods and I as I turn around I then feel the blade slightly pushing in my back…
Dammit...how the hell does a blade even sing what that does even...ow ow ow alright alright I’m walking I’m walking.
Even though only one of my vampires are left with the Ghoul and Reliea just now joining the fight it should be fine they managed to kill 2 of the Mid Profound Cultivators and heavily injured the other two, obviously they didn't do anything agaisnt the two main targets...really the problem here is if I call the Ghoul for help, Reliea might die or one of them might get away and if I call Reliea for help the damn gluttonous Ghoul will probably eat the hearts of the bodies I need.
Taking a slightly longer way around to the now empty Eastern Sun’s base, this guy is a quiet one doesn’t even comment on all the bodies lying around, huh the quiet ones are usually all honorable and never greedy, or psychopathic murders not that I'm one to talk….guess you can never tell with cultivators….
Heading down into the base I can feel that the fight is over I call the ghoul over to help me..can’t trust her with those bodies.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
As she swiftly arrives behind us the man quickly grabs me in front of him and puts the blade around my neck….and is about to say something when…...
Without even pausing the Ghoul puts one clawed hand through my chest and straight into the man’s heart...oi oi fucking hell Ghoul I know you were told I could revive once in preparation for a situation like this but dammit you didn’t even pretend to care….as I'm watching myself bleed out..ahh fuck there's the pain it's a fire is burning directly in my chest...oh holy shit please just die already.
I wake up already in the room where the battle took place, it looks like Reliea was watching over the bodies properly and the Ghoul is only taking the unneeded hearts. She also tried to eat Sun Shi now twice dead regrown heart but apparently it tasted rotten and awful…
Sandro: “I didn’t realize a ghoul could have such a sensitive palate.”
Ignoring my wit she just continued eating.
Preparing for any events I decided it’d be best to head back into the Beast Forest. After Three days of travel with my trusty undead horse we find a deep enough cave free of any beasts.
Having both of them(asking in the Ghoul’s case….hehehe just you wait…)
Earlier when I put the three bodies in my inventory I got a prompt asking me which realm I wanted the blood sigil for. Obviously picking Blood Soul Realm, I now prepare the sigil as per my memory and place the three bodies in the appropriate places. Taking some time to get steady from my blood loss I say Turn In Quest in my mind and…..
**Yu Lily, The Ghoul, Undead Horse, Glutton POV**
The wind...This Evil Qi.. no wonder he wanted to get away from the city the inside of the cave its practically a maelstrom of death. This realm advancement it's obviously not normal, not normal by a longshot...if he gets strong enough will I be his again??
Giving a glancing look back towards the cave I feel a dagger now pressed to my throat….
Reliea: “You really think i’d let anything happen to Sandro?, I knew a little country bumpkin like you couldn’t understand how powerful and wonderful Sandro truly is and would become afraid”
She’s not calling him master??
Reliea: “What surprised? You think I can’t resist his Evil Qi anymore than you can?? It's the opposite I let it take me and it was fantastic. The powerful Evil Qi coursing thru my veins strangling and tugging me at the slightest resistance even now when I called him Sandro it….…*cough*cough*
Her atmosphere grew even more dangerous during that tangent….
“Think about it even if we got free of him what's left for monsters like us? Hell we might not even be able to get any stronger without being connected to him, we’ll just be stagnant undead forced to suffer through our free will and coming eternity, but with him I can finally have my revenge on those bastard parents for taking my aunt and everything from me for their damn clan.”
”You truly think your above him? Just look at this fucking dagger, it absorbs souls you damn ghoul, it cut thru a protection artifact like it didn’t exist. I can feel it getting stronger with every life I take, I doubt there's even a rank that can be attributed to an artifact like this.”
“And what about those boots you're wearing right now? He gave you a fucking artifact of legends just so you’ll carry him, what does that say about how little value it has to him?”
“Your own city, he raised your city into an undead army as a passing thought and he’s only in the Qi Realm.”
“I don’t care if you continue to act like an obstinate bitch but if you so much as look at him the wrong way I’ll tear out your heart and feed to you. Though knowing your disgusting self you'll probably love that”
Removing the dagger from my throat her dangerous atmosphere goes back to her usual ditzyness.
Hearing Sandro’s scream from the cave and seeing the Vampire not even react I assume everything is normal and turn my attention back out into the forest…
**Sandro POV**
So...much...pain….the Evil Qi...it infusing into my blood, my soul, my very existence is being mixed with the Evil Qi…..
Passing out i wake up with my head on Reliea’s lap...opening up Status
Player Name: Sandro
Evil Qi: 48,000/48,000(-2000)Level: Blood Soul Realm 1/9
Exp: 50,000/100,000Stat Points: -125
Skill Points: 3Title: Evil Qi Cultivator, Necromancer, Undead KingStrength: 30+30=85Intellgience: 18Agility: 175Wisdom: 15Vitality: 123Reaction Speed: 164Evil Qi Control: 76+70 =146SkillsIdentify: Level 3Inventory: Level 1Drain Vitality: Level 6Soul Trade: Level 1 MaxAlter Stats and Skills: Level 1 MaxChose Skill: Level 1 MaxRaise Undead Tier 2 Level 1Raise Undead Level 10 MaxConceal Presence: Level 10, MaxWindWeaver: Level 2Mimic Qi Signature: Level 1 MaxEmpty
Oh damn that's enough more Qi than expected and now with more Evil Qi Control my Reliea and the Ghoul only take up 2,000 passive, which is now relatively nothing.
System Message: Having obtained both Blood Soul Realm and Raise Undead Level 10 Max, the skill has evolved to Raise Undead Tier 2 level 1.
Raise Undead Level 10 MAX: A skill that allows you to raise recently deceased and control their souls. The type of undead and intelligence will be based on the species and cultivation level of the deceased. The skill allow for the raising of 10 above your own. Mortals and Qi Realm cultivators = Zombies, Low intelligence, easy to control. Profound Realm Cultivators = Vampires, Normal intelligence, difficult to control when skill is at low levels. Rank 1 and 2 Demonic Beasts = Zombies. Spirit Realm Cultivators = Wraiths, Can switch between Corporeal and Incorporeal at will. Normal Intelligence, medium control difficulty, error further information is unknown.
Raise Undead Tier 2 Level 1 MAX: Upgrade on Raise Undead Skill. Allows the user various options on enhancing his undead. Allows user to share a single skill with an undead. Allows user to Resurrect Profound Cultivators as Zombies. When used on a undead that retained their consciousness it can allow the target access to the System a single time per Realm including 6 Skill Points and 100 Stat points for use, applies retroactively. Increased levels of this skills will reduce Evil Qi cost to heal undead and make undead more resilient and faster healing in general.
I decide to head back to sleep and choose my new skills another time……
**Sandro POV 2 Months Later**
It’s been 2 months since I’ve advanced my Realm and I’ve decided to do things a bit more relaxing than I have before during this time...it's nice being the Undead King. I’ve been having the Ghoul and Reliea regularly capture and bring me back Profound Realm and Qi Realm cultivators for a variety of reasons. First I need to increase my Vitality in preparation of advancing Reliea’s realm, second I let the Ghoul eat the Hearts before I completely drain them for her advancement.
Speaking of the Ghoul I’ve decided once I help her advance realms I’ll tell her to go her separate way. It’ll be far too stressful having to order her around or watch my back even with my new Qi pool. Did they think I couldn’t hear what happened outside the cave?? The Bond ended up getting stronger during the advancement. The Ghoul can still somehow resist it and is probably getting better at it. Still I trust Reliea to the point where she’ll at least never kill me prior to getting her revenge and there’s also the fact the Evil Qi is having some sort of mental effect on her, so I’ve been having use my dagger on a more regular basis.
An interesting thing about lending skills to the Ghoul or to Reliea is that they can explain to me how they work with their years of cultivator experience. I’ve even managed to practice a very basic form of Conceal Presence without actually using the skill. This opens up a whole new possibility of naturally improving the skills.
Currently Reliea is in one of the rooms of the Mansion I purchased with the massive amount of gold we got from the 3 vaults and spare rings of the gangs. They weren't exactly hard to deal with when they no longer had their strongest cultivators.
She’s hanging upside as I bleed her out in preparation for her advancement, she’s in a half lucid state so it doesn’t seem to be too uncomfortable. Of course I wouldn’t let all her blood go to waste I’ve been testing stereotypical methods of raising a vampire on the subjects the Ghoul brings in. Feeding them blood and then killing them is effective but there's a major issue, they become some form of ghoul. They’re connected to me in the same way infected zombies are and they're just as mad. Their constitution is more similar to a ghoul where they have semblance of consciousness but it's nothing like THE Ghoul. They all become batshit insane and just talk about how much they want to eat human flesh. Their strength also gets a huge boost. I used a second subject to check if they give me Exp when they kill, which they do….if I could use her blood with a poison into the water supply I wonder what would happen...I’ve also confirmed even a diluted drink of her blood followed by instant death is enough, stuff’s fucking potent.
Right now I’m just casually advancing levels and draining vitality while the Ghoul is out searching for more prey with my Identity skill. She was pretty freaked out when she saw the blue screen for the second time. Apparently it had happened before except it was a massive amount of blue screens constantly popping in front of her saying “Error Error Error” when she was still a zombie...she got pretty mad at me asking who an Error was, when I couldn’t stop laughing, but come on she got a real life blue screen crash.
Status
Player Name: Sandro
Evil Qi: 108,000/108,000(-1000)Level: Blood Soul Realm 6/9
Exp: 357,000/400,000Stat Points: -2500
Skill Points: 13Title: Evil Qi Cultivator, Necromancer, Undead KingStrength: 585Intellgience: 18Agility: 675Wisdom: 15Vitality: 1728Reaction Speed: 664Evil Qi Control: 1146SkillsIdentify: Level 3Inventory: Level 1Drain Vitality: Level 10 MaxSoul Trade: Level 1 MaxAlter Stats and Skills: Level 1 MaxChose Skill: Level 1 MaxRaise Undead Level 10 MaxRaise Undead Tier 2 Level 1Conceal Presence: Level 10, MaxWindWeaver: Level 2Mimic Qi Signature: Level 1 MaxEvil Qi Barrier Level 10 MAXEvil Qi Construction Level 2
Apart from my new skills, Drain Vitality received an upgrade when I advanced realms, Evil QI Transformation and Windweaver only received an upgraded cost. Though with both Evil Qi Transformation and Windweaver I become pretty fucking strong...at least strong enough to win a fight with my ridiculous skills and enough distance between me and my opponent.
Drain Vitality: Drains a target's Vitality using your own Qi to heal wounds and improve own Vitality permanently. 20(10)Vitality drained per second. .10(Level) Meter Distance. 5 to 1 improvement ratio. QI Cost: 500 Evil Qi per second
Evil Qi Construction: Allows the user to create Temporary Constructs of Evil Qi in the Area around him and exert force on them. Can be imbued with attributes relating to decay. The stronger the image and the more it relates to the purpose the stronger the attack, and the stronger the Construct the higher the Evil Qi cost. Damage increases with level
A fantastic skill, lets me pretend I’m a certain red head lad without all the justice constraints. Hey just cause he’d probably hate to me his core doesn’t mean I can’t dream.
Its also extremely strong, the Ghoul was Barely able to block some of my attacks with her claws, one even got through and tore her leg straight off. I was tempted to finish her off but in the end she’s my former favorite zombie….I might even miss her. Isn’t to say I’m her match she was purposefully standing far from me and only blocking or dodging.
Evil Qi Barrier: Allows the user to create a Barrier of Qi around him. The Evil Qi focused can be move around the surface of the barrier to prepare for certain attacks. Qi Cost relates to strength and size
Pretty powerful to normal weapons but I’m just not experienced enough to properly block attacks, plus when the Ghouls hits it full force with her claws even if I concentrate fully on the spot it can only take a single hit before breaking on the second. To the dagger it might as well not even exist...which just makes me happy really, ahhh beautiful dagger we've been through so much together.
Profound Cultivators give some decent exp and in a city of 500,000 there's more than enough for the taking so leveling wasn’t too hard though it could've been faster if our targets weren't picked so carefully.
With my new now rising fast stats I’ll be able to create a significant army and march it back to that rank 9 school. Its really the safest place to get the heart of a Spirit Cultivator with no relation and I’ll have Reliea take on the Spirit Cultivator, according to her the elder of the school is only at the low Spirit Realm. So once she advances I can finally have my original goal of removing that place. Its a rank 9 school so I doubt there’ll be anyone truly important to care about its downfall. Then I can give that spirit cultivators heart to the Ghoul and send her on her way. It may not be the best decision to invade that school but I can’t ignore the itch of raising another undead army and seeing it ravage across the place….