Chương 91: Sealed evil

Another month, another batch of healed disciples... by the grace of my Consolidation pills, and lots of milk being internally injected for my pleasure. I could tolerate work, but only if I felt so rewarded that it didn't seem like work at all. Hana Sarong was the best example for it. In two months, she went from a tragic young woman who got a bad Foundation and basically zero chance of forming her Core, to a radiant ice fairy with a smile on her face, and a mouth full of milk as well.

And gained a couple of new levels in Foundation Realm too, not to mention tempered meridians and increased control over her Yin, to the point that Hana could direct her Yin Meridian almost like a spell, but without using qi at all. Purely conceptual stuff, similar to my sword intent I inherited from Tian. The last feat made Hana the poster girl of the new generation, with several Venerables and a dozen Elders trying to understand and copy this feature.

I suspected this was my fault too, a kind of Yin and Yang convergence, but why did it happen only with Hana? Was the Dao playing favorites? I mean, it usually did. 99% of cultivators never formed the Core, including those who died before and during establishing their Foundation. On the other hand, the number of such deaths had decreased to under 1% since I began forming the star groups, both to train and allow for some resource gains for spirit fruits and additional tempering.

Yes, the value of a Qi Gathering disciple was minimal, or possibly negative, since even these young women had to eat, drink, sleep somewhere, wear robes, and so on. Before getting to Foundation, a cultivator was mostly useless, to be fair. But then, so was everyone at some point. Babies were useless too, plus a net drain in time and resources. Should we exterminate them for that? In Pef's world, the rich countries actually did that, sponsoring mass murdering of babies, preferably before birth.

The poor countries did that too, but mostly by starving the kids after they got born. Anyway. Who cares about that copy world? They got deleted once Pef moved here, as a flower in my soul. The price of turning Fenghue back into a virgin ice fairy was a bag with 1 million spirit stones, but I was sneaky and included Sakura in that deal too. Just because I could and I wanted more pure Yin for my cultivation.

Nana and Zhen remained my go-to women to sate my lust whenever it got too high, which was about once a week now. So many pregnant women, got me very horny. Suna, the desert girl, has begun leaking milk a bit, making her my instant favorite, as milk can also make a boy grow strong. If it's from a woman. Sexy thoughts, go away now! I have to focus on my mission! Shadow talisman on! And glide carefully towards the Gu clan fortress.

Not like those in Pef's memories, and quite simplistic from those seen by Tian, but still. Pagoda towers, silk lines for trips and traps. A moat with crocodiles! Or Flood Dragons as they are called now. Marco Polo first saw this kind of water dragons when the Emperor of China invited him to see his pet dragons. They looked terribly similar to the regular crocodiles on the Nile, but Marco was a decent scammer and didn't spill the beans.

He wanted to steal silk worms, gunpowder formula, paper making, the compass and a few other local inventions. And he did. There must be an infinite number of worlds where Marco failed, and Europe never ruled the world for centuries. I had such a perfect role model in that man!

"Helloooooo! People from the Gu clan! Anyone home?" I yelled from the gate. A pair for arrogant Foundation guys flew on their swords to sneer at me.

"What do you want?" The speaker lost his head, and his storage bag. I was curious to see what the basic equipment was in this clan. No blood pills, no summoning altar, not even a normal torture hammer and nails. Pathetic.

"I can guess already that your clan doesn't get many visitors. Any normal Venerable would have killed you both. See how merciful and kind I am?" I asked with a teasing voice, and kicked the fresh corpse into the moat to feed the starving Flood Dragons. The other clansman paled at the proof of my mercy, and bowed immediately.

"A thousand apologies, Venerable! My cousin had eyes but didn't see Mount Tai!"

"That's a very common problem in this world. Mount Tai is hard to see, being so far away." I allowed in a kind tone.

"... or too close. Please follow me Venerable. The Clan Elders will want to talk to you." the guy said very politely, and flew to a grand building covered in gold tiles, and flanked by marble lions with jade eyes. I stopped for a second to scan this Formation. Spirit Suppressing, Tier 4. Must have cost a lot of money to make. I should take it with me, when I leave. Skipping happily, I excluded myself from the newbie Formation and entered the Clan Hall, where three old men, looking really old were having a drink.

Only one of them had blood wine in his blue porcelain bottle, the others having regular tea or wine. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I waved at the old men, and looked around for arrow slits, gas nozzles or any similar greeting implements. There was only a revolving floor tile which led to an early death via a spike trap, but who would fall into that... unless their spirit was suppressed and couldn't fly. So... 99% of most visitors then.

I kept going and stopped perfectly on said tile, which was marked by a red carpet which people weren't supposed to step on, unless invited to come close.

"Clan Gu, I presume?" I presumed aloud. Best make sure I reached the right place. Killing the wrong clan would be... awkward.

"Indeed, Venerable. You look awfully young and confident for a new Nascent Soul. Why did you come?" the old man with a beard asked with mild annoyance. I mean, they couldn't care less about a Foundation guy, but still had to protect their face.

"Right! Directly to the point! There is this girl named Yuma Gu. One of yours, possibly distant descendant. Me and her, we got together, talked for a month or two, and reached an agreement. So, here I am!" I explained cheerfully.

"She and I" another man corrected my English, offended by my poor grammar. I took note and smiled. I will stab this guy so fast, his mama won't even know she had a child!

"Her poison tooth was the key point. Who even installs a suicide tooth into a teenage girl? Only a freak, right? A callous, murdering, bastard. Of course, it could have been her mother, but I doubt it. A real, loving mother would have ensured her girl got married well, not be sent to die." I answered just as offended.

"... After murdering that little guy outside, you can't sustain that argument, Venerable. So, what do you want? A maid, a concubine? Easily done." the third old man offered in a peaceful voice. So this guy was the mastermind. Good to know. I opened my palm, to show a Tier 4 pill in a jade box.

"Yuma aside, I came for a trade. But I need to see your treasury. Slave traders are rich, right?" That got their attention, all right. The Venerables exchanged greedy glances. The bearded guy glanced at my feet.

"One Tier 4 pill is valuable, but access to the Clan treasury is not possible. Plus, we can just take the pill for free..." he grinned and flipped the tile. I remained in place, and instead 6 blood guardians flew from my Yang ring, 2 from Mei's inheritance and 4 more I collected for free in the Zhan citadel.

"I like free things too, Gu clan. Those who have eyes, should use them to see..." I whispered and vanished in shadows. Although I had 99% chances against only 3 Venerables, why risk anything? My third life was precious. A second later, I snatched the Formation control plate from the mastermind, and in a few seconds changed the spirit suppression target on the 3 Venerables. My war puppets weren't very good fighters, being dead and poorly made, but with larger numbers buying a bit of time wasn't that hard.

And anyway, only the blood magic guy was actually dangerous. I had to use my new Tier 4 sword to chop off his limbs, then stabbed the other two guys in the heart to collect puppet replacement corpses for my wife Mei. The two burned puppets were kinda toast. Hellfire was nasty. I held a piece of paper floating in front of the disarmed mastermind.

"Be so kind and take this oath, Venerable. Limbs can be re-attached, but a life is a bit hard." A slavery oath wasn't fun, and I didn't intend to keep slaves, but I came here for the treasury, not useless things. Storage bags are useful, right?

"Pef Tian, the fairy alchemist! That explains why you know Yuma! If you want, I can give you 50 more like her. Hell, even 100!" the guy yelled with an interesting proposal.

"Nice! I might be interested in that. But take the oath first. People who drink blood wine are generally not trustworthy, so I must make sure." I asked with a faint smile. Suppressed, alone and lacking limbs, the last Venerable had no choice. He spoke the words of the oath, and a blast of lightning shattered the blood shadow in his chest.

"See? Now you are no longer bound by blood. Let's go see that treasury first, then we can meet the girls. If only you had agreed to let me pick a treasure for that pill..." I said with an apologetic tone. My new slave groaned, and swallowed his insults before the oath triggered. A minute later, we entered the fantastic Gu treasury, lined with rare books, weaponry, crates of precious herbs, gold and silver, and of course millions of spirit stones! Yoink! I should do this more often.

Robbing slaver clans was quite profitable.

"Any special room, maybe demon altar? Teleport formation, perhaps?" I asked my old slave. His eyes glared in silence, and we took a different tunnel under the fortress, where a hundred rape beds were lined up with involuntary baby mamas. Damn. This seems to be a regular feature everywhere I go. And no, those 100 pregnant fairies in the Frozen Pavilion were not the same. They weren't even tied up, unless they begged me for it.

Sadly, decades of abuse, rape drugs and continous impregnations made these tied women mind-broken. I could try to save a few, but I wasn't that kind of a hero. Reincarnation worked well for me, may they get more luck in the next life. A single flick of Sword Intent, and the broken women died. Another tunnel and I reached priceless room, holding a 10-meter-wide stone circle with metal runes used for spatial transport. Slice, slice... and yoink! I could use the teleport formation for my own use.

"Anything else of value in this fortress?" I asked on a whim. The limbless slave grit his teeth, and placed his forehead on a stone wall. We passed though that wall, and reached a cave system. But not just a collection of caves, but also more crates of goods, a cultivation array that used spirit stones or fresh blood, several herb gardens, an alchemy room with a list of 100 recipes, and lastly a metal monolith with a horned demon basrelief. Or perhaps not a basrelief at all. A demon gate?

"That demon is Shaggoth?" I asked to make sure. Trapped in metal, before it could cross over.

"Yes, Master. We call him Lord Shaggoth, those of us who... follow the True Belief." he muttered as blood seeped from his eyes. The oath wasn't perfect, I already knew that. Demons had ways to avoid the Heavens. I thought for a moment, then burried the monolith undergound. I wasn't going to carry a demon with me. Sealed evil in a can was risky. But the rest? Much better! Herbs, money, new arrays? Pretty good loot. Another short trip, and we entered the women compound, clan girls that is.

The slaves had a shanty town of their own.

"Be so kind and order all these women to be my loyal women from now on. No suicides." I told my slave Venerable. In a minute, I had 235 women taking a loyaly and slave oath, and scanned them for traps and painted arrays. One of them also had the Jade Eyelids, and died soon after discovery. Even spies had other spies spying on them? What a crazy world!