Damon pointed his finger towards the woman.

The dragon roared furiously. Lightning gathered from its belly and travelled to its throat. It opened its mouth to reveal a large white light that was growing even larger by the second. In the blackness of the night, it looked like a miniature sun had formed in its throat.

The dark grand mages took Henry and Jin Tong and quickly retreated far away from the cliff, not wanting to become collateral damage.

“Storm dragon breath!” Damon’s voice echoed across the battlefield.

The dragon breathed out, and the huge beam of lightning energy shot towards the woman.

“Water barrier,” the woman whispered.

The water spirit raised its trident with both hands before bashing it into the ground. A large barrier formed that covered the entire cliff. The lightning beam made contact… but it could not even make a scratch. The dragon kept blowing out the lightning beam for a full minute until it ran out of energy, and the barrier stood there completely unscathed.

Everybody watching the scene was shocked, but none more than Damon. He knew exactly how powerful that beam was, so how could she block it so easily?

The dragon spirit stared at the woman coldly as the water spirit undid the barrier. Given the size difference, the woman and her water spirit must have looked like ants in its eyes. However, the fearsome dragon was unable to crush the ants.

Furious, the dragon roared and decided to charge at the woman.

The woman just smiled and raised her arm.

“Water prison!”

In response, the water spirit gripped its trident and raised it high, releasing an enormous aura. The aura was so suffocating that Henry instantly collapsed and the dark grand mages were brought to their knees. Even the demon army which was raiding the village on the ground behind them, felt the aura and went into a panic.

Damon’s eyes widened.

“Mage emperor!” he shouted, finally realising her cultivation realm.

But it was too late.

All the mana in the air gathered and formed a huge, watery dome around the dragon. The dragon crashed heavily against it, but it could not break out.

The woman smiled and clenched her fist. “Implode!”

The dome rapidly shrunk.

Unable to resist, the dragon spirit was crushed by the contracting dome. Within a second, the dome went from being larger than the mountain-sized dragon, to smaller than a coin.

The whole world became silent.

After a few seconds… BOOM!

The water prison exploded and an unbelievable amount of energy was released. A huge dust cloud rose into the sky. Hundreds of trees on the cliff were uprooted and sent flying. The part of the cliff closest to the explosion directly collapsed. Huge winds swept across the battlefield for miles. The dark mages who thought they had retreated far enough, were pushed back several steps by the powerful winds from the deafening explosion.

Damon summoned a defensive spirit to create a barrier just in time to protect himself, or else he would have been sent flying by the explosion as well.

He looked at the woman in terror – he could not win this fight!

Damon decisively turned around and started fleeing.

“Where are you going so fast?” the woman laughed.

The water spirit disappeared and in the next instant, appeared in front of Damon. It raised its trident and charged. Damon knew he couldn’t dodge at this close range given the spirit’s speed. Damon instinctively poured all his mana into the defensive spirit to form the strongest barrier he could.

But it was useless.

The barrier melted like paper upon making contact with the trident and the water spirit pierced into his chest.

Damon slowly looked down, unable to believe his own eyes. But the spirit was ruthless. It rotated its trident and pulled, ripping out his heart, and killing him instantly.

Life faded from his eyes.

His body became limp, and he fell to the ground.

The dark grand mages, who had just recovered from the impact of the winds, were coughing out the dust cloud they inhaled when they spotted their master be killed in an instant and fall lifelessly to the floor.

“Lord Damon!” They both screamed, but before they could react, the water spirit was in front of them. In less than a second, it ripped both of their hearts out. Their eyes also lost their light, and their dead bodies fell limply to the floor.

The only ones left were Henry who had become unconscious from the mage emperor’s aura, and Jin Tong who stood motionless due to not receiving any orders.

The woman arrived next to the duo, carrying Damon’s body. She stared at them curiously.

First, she observed Henry. There is real darkness in this one, she thought to herself.

She then looked at Jin Tong. “Interesting…” she mumbled to herself. “I didn’t expect them to create an undead. And it’s a fine one too.”

Since undead creatures were dead, they didn’t have souls, so she couldn’t use them to power her primal energy core. Hence, she thought that killing Jin Tong would be a waste. If she just left him, then, having no master, the undead would just wander around aimlessly and attack anything and everything that came in its path until it was finally destroyed.

That would also be a waste… she thought.

She looked at the dead bodies, Henry, and Jin Tong, and then came to a decision.

A few minutes later.

Henry awoke with a headache. He had been knocked unconscious by the enormous aura, and the noise from the huge explosion rang in his ears.

Feeling lightheaded, he looked around with blurry vision, squinting his eyes and trying to remember what happened.

“Lord Damon… was fighting…” The next instant his memories came back to him. At the same time, his vision cleared, and what he saw left him dumbfounded.

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Damon and the dark mages were lying lifeless on the floor. The old woman was standing in front of Jin Tong, with her back facing him.

‘What… the hell… happened!?’

Henry was flabbergasted.

Did she really kill all of them? How was that possible? Damon was so strong! If she killed them all so easily… was she a mage emperor? What the hell! Why was everything always going wrong for him! Was he finally going to meet his end at the hands of this old woman, after everything?

A torrent of thoughts ran through his mind, as he wondered what sort of horrible fate he would meet at her hands. He considered grovelling at her feet and begging her to let him go. If he thought that there was even a one per cent chance of success, he would have done it.

However, he saw how ruthless she was. Given that she hadn’t killed him yet, for all he knew, she had no interest in him and would just let him go naturally, as long as he didn’t do something to make her want to kill him out of annoyance.

Oblivious to his million thoughts, the woman spoke casually while observing Jin Tong.

“Hey!”

Henry was so startled he almost wet himself.

“Yes ma’am!” he shouted in response.

She paused her inspection and turned towards him, amused. Henry was facing the floor, not having the courage to look at her eyes. The woman stepped forward and Henry started to visibly shiver in fear. When she was close enough, she placed her hand on his chin and lifted his face to make eye contact.

“How would you like to become my servant?”

Henry froze.

‘Huh?’

‘What was she talking about? Did she not want to kill me?’ Henry began wondering if it was a trap.

“Do you not want to?” she asked coldly, her smile replaced with a frown.

Henry felt a chill run down his spine.

“No ma’am!” Henry yelled, shivering. “I would love to be your servant! Thank you very much for accepting me as your humble servant!”

“Haha,” the woman laughed, releasing him. “In that case, you should know who I am. I am Dalia Krueger, the one who will become the most powerful immortal in the world!”

She raised her head and started laughing like a maniac, before suddenly stopping and looking at Henry.

“You can just call me Lady Dalia.”

“Yes ma’am, I mean Lady… Lady Dalia!”

“Ha!” she laughed, before turning around and approaching Damon. She fiddled around his body before taking out the soul harvester.

“If you’re going to be a useful servant, you need to become stronger. How about you take this?” she asked, pointing the soul harvester towards him.

Henry was stunned. Was this a test? That soul harvester could let a mage form two additional mana cores! Who wouldn’t want a treasure like that! Was she crazy? No, this must be a test!

“I wouldn’t dare, my Lady. That treasure rightfully belongs to you, I couldn’t possibly accept such a valuable gift!”

“It’s okay,” she laughed, walking closer to Henry. She placed her hands underneath the two glowing spheres. They disconnected from the soul harvester and started floating above her palm. She then walked right up to Henry and whispered loudly, “I’m giving it to you,” before slapping her hand against his stomach.

Henry felt an unbelievable amount of energy wash over him. The two glowing spheres of mana rushed into his inner realm, where two mana cores were already floating around. The new spheres of mana were orbiting around each other as they went close to the other two mana cores. Soon, all four mana cores started moving in one big circle. Every instant that went by, they started rotating faster and faster.

Bam!

Suddenly, they all stopped. A wave of mana flowed out from Henry’s inner realm – inside which now floated four mana cores!

It took a moment for Henry to register what happened.

He actually had four mana cores now!

Under normal circumstances, he would be beyond thrilled. However, he became wary and confused instead - why did she give them to him? He wanted to ask, but she seemed to have lost interest in him and continued to instead observe Jin Tong.

However, Henry’s mind was racing. What did it matter what the reason was? The fact remained that he now had four mana cores! For context, Damon who had three mana cores had cultivated all the way to the peak of the mage king realm before hitting his limit.

With four mana cores, Henry could realistically reach the mage emperor realm within his lifetime!

This was unbelievable. Henry didn’t know if his luck was good or bad. Whenever something good happened to him, it would get taken away, but then be later replaced by something even better.

When he was disowned by his father, he got accepted by the dark mages. When he got pushed out of the mana core formation ritual by Astoria, he had instead received the mage emperor’s inheritance. Knowledge of various cultivation techniques, pill recipes, spells for summoning various spirits and artifacts, from rank one all the way till rank five, and more, all entered his mind. He even obtained several powerful artifacts which he had hidden from Damon and the dark mages so that they wouldn’t take them.

After sharing some of the inheritance with Damon, he had allowed Henry to undergo the ritual again, at which point Henry formed two mana cores. He cultivated for over two years, with a mage king’s guidance and a powerful cultivation technique he received from the inheritance, making his strength quickly rise to the late-stage true mage realm, which was faster than even Astoria.

And then, the dark mages died. He felt like he had lost his biggest pillar of support. However, in place of them, he received a huge boost to his cultivation aptitude and a mage emperor as a backer!

Did he feel sorry for the dark mages? Not really. Although Damon had rescued him from the lowest point in his life, he didn’t really carry about him or the dark mages. What Henry really wanted was power. Previously, the dark mages gave him power so he clung to them. Now Dalia gave him power so he was more than happy to stick with her.

He didn’t know what Dalia was like, whether she would guide him in his cultivation, or help him in any way. However, if she gave him the two mana cores from the soul harvester, she must value him greatly, right?

As for Damon and the dark mages’ death… well that’s just an unfortunate part of life, he thought to himself with a smile.

While Henry was lost in his thoughts, Dalia placed her index finger on Jin Tong’s forehead. Then, she used her nail to carve a weirdly shaped rune into his skin. The moment she finished, the rune glowed a brilliant white, and a wave of mana spread out from Jin Tong. His eyes suddenly sprung to life and he smashed his spear into the ground, before falling to one knee, head bowed low.

“Good!” Dalia mumbled with a smile.

She then looked at Jin Tong and pointed to the dark mage, as if giving him a silent order. Jin Tong stood up, walked over to one of the dark mages, and picked him up by his collar. Then, he bit him. Specifically, he bit his neck, ripping off his flesh, and then started eating it.

As Henry watched in horror, Jin Tong started eating the dark mage’s corpse!

Dalia just had a satisfied smile.

It took around ten minutes for Jin Tong to finish eating him, and during this time, Henry noticed something peculiar.

Jin Tong’s aura actually increased!

He was previously at the pseudo-commander class, but now, he was extremely close to being a commander class undead.

Having consumed every edible piece of the corpse, Jin Tong threw the body away before consuming the other dark mage. By the time he finished him, Jin Tong’s aura grew to commander class!

Henry was shocked once again!

Jin Tong finally approached Damon and picked him up, before consuming him as well. By the time he finished, his aura increased once again, though it was nowhere near that of a tyrant class undead.

Dalia saw Henry’s perplexed face and chuckled, before deciding to explain. “He is an undead. When he consumes the flesh of someone more powerful than him, his strength will increase. It is not unlike how normal demons and onis cultivate.”

Realisation dawned on Henry.

“I see… thank you for explaining Lady Dalia!” Henry replied.

“Good, this has gone very well,” she said.

For a moment, Dalia looked towards the village which was still being raided. Although a large number of demons had fled due to Dalia’s aura, there were still a few left who were killing off the small number of remaining humans.

“There are a lot of souls here,” Dalia said to herself happily. She reached into her robes and pulled out a jade box. Henry was wondering what it was but knew better than to disturb her. So, he decided to silently observe her.

Dalia carefully opened the lid and Henry felt an enormous wave of pure mana emitting from the box. Henry was startled and stepped back, before feeling more and more waves being emitted one after another.

The amount of mana being emitted from the jade box made the soul harvester that Damon had seem like nothing!

She reached into the box and took out a glowing sphere. This was what was emitting all the mana. Dalia carefully took the sphere in her palm and held it up high.

Henry felt a change in the very air around him. The mana in the air seemed to be drawn to the sphere. Specifically, a huge amount of mana from the battlefield was rushing into the sphere. As more mana went in, the waves emitted by the sphere grew slightly stronger.

After what seemed like a long time, mana finally stopped flowing into the sphere. Dalia placed the sphere back into the jade box before tucking it into her robe again. She turned to face Henry again but looked extra happy.

Henry had no idea what had happened but decided to not ask anything. He knew that she’d explain if she wanted to so he didn’t want to ask unnecessary questions and annoy her.

With the same smile, Dalia looked in a different direction.

“It’s time we get moving then,” she announced.

“Yes, my Lady!” Henry replied energetically, standing up. He hesitated for a moment and then decided to ask, “Where exactly are we going?”

She looked at him excitedly, a glint in her eyes.

“Duskville!”