“Young master, can you please let me down?” Zhen’er felt her skin graze by a sharp breeze passing through her. The sensation seemed soothing due to the presence of warmth nearby, though she didn’t know exactly what it was.
“Don’t open your eyes until I say otherwise,” Ryuk firmly stated as he glanced down from a height of approximately 73 meters above the ground. His hands held the woman in a princess carry, his body showing the remnants of orange or a while he stood on the highest pagoda near the auction house.
Even being near it was a still half a kilometer away, yet his narrowed eyes searched for a particular individual, looking in the direction where a massacre had started.
“Kughh!—HELP!”
“NO! Someone help me!”
“D-don’t come near, I am your master!”
Several individuals wearing different kinds of robes cried out as beasts with red eyes attacked them.
The sheer intensity of the violent nature coming from those creatures sent a ripple throughout the place, making it hard for the soldiers or bodyguards, who held enough strength to stop them, to handle them instantly.
The situation was due to the beasts eating a poisonous herb, which made them target weak individuals with violent intent, causing several to attack at once, clearly preventing the soldiers from managing the situation.
Ignoring the bloodbath on the ground, Ryuk’s eyes searched for a particular individual before finally discovering him, a visible smile forming.
“Young Master, are we at some height?” Zhen’er inquired, her eyes tightly shut, feeling the abnormality of the air around her, signifying that she was at some height. It was unbelievable to think that someone could climb such a height while carrying her.
“Will you move if I place you down?” Ryuk, whose eyes were fixed on the young man stumbling on the road and passing through several beasts with a metal sword, inquired, ignoring Zhen’er. She felt slightly confused but nodded, knowing she had no other option.
“Fine, we are at the top of a pagoda. If you fall, you’re a goner,” he warned her as he placed her down, her legs flailing through the railing while she was set on a platform slightly coming outward out of the building.
‘?!’
Her hands clenched the railing tightly while her legs hung in the air. The fast wind clearly indicated she was indeed at a great height.
“W-wait, you’ll come back soon, right?” Zhen’er composed herself despite knowing she was in danger. Her instinct told her that if she moved, she would fall, but she gathered her courage.
After coming this far in life—a gift from her mother, she wasn’t going to die in vain. She inquired, her voice steady.
“Yes,” Ryuk answered as he disappeared from the place, leaving behind a blind woman all alone at such a height.
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Bam!
“Kughh! Where are they coming from?” Liu Wei cried out, exhausted from a whole hour of battling several skeletal creatures that appeared malnourished.
While he had killed many, a few had escaped and were biting him, leaving small injuries on his skin, which was normally hard due to his strength.
Grrrrhhhh!
Suddenly, a small animal that looked like a malnourished dog with crimson eyes and a body filled with stones emerging from its flesh appeared in front of him. It growled at Liu Wei, saliva dripping from its mouth.
“Get out of my way!” he shouted, hurling himself towards the animal and swinging his sword at it, though his body didn’t seem to be fully aligned for a clear flow of internal energy.
‘?!’
In mid-attack, he suddenly felt a horrifying sensation engulf his mind and swiftly jumped back, distancing himself from the animal. His eyes caught a strange anomaly in the air, as it seemed the beast had just disappeared, leaving a sensation that filled the space.
“Who’s there?” Liu Wei demanded, feeling someone’s presence nearby. His pupils contracted as he tried to sense the individual or threat, but found no one.
“Run! An Arcinide has escaped the auction house!” A voice boomed throughout the place, making an announcement with a tone infused with internal energy, trying to warn everyone. Unbeknownst to the announcer, the area was already in chaos due to the lower beasts, and now even an Arcinide was on the loose.
‘No, I need to save Zhen’er!’ Liu Wei thought, hearing the announcement. He instantly ignored the unsettling sensation he’d felt and dashed towards the auction house, gripping his sword tightly.
As Liu Wei disappeared down the path, sprinting towards the auction house, a figure began to materialize where he had been. It held a faint orange glow.
‘System, what did you find from this blood?’ Ryuk asked, ignoring the vanishing young man. He focused on his hand, where a small shard of glass carried a trace of red fluid, appearing to be blood extracted without its owner knowing.
DING!
[Host, there are very minor traces of slow poison, drugs, and added healing stimulants.]
‘Who could be that person?’ Ryuk wondered, standing there and gazing in the direction Liu Wei had gone. He pondered about the one who had healed Liu Wei enough to make him appear this active.
Indeed, it was true that the luck of the Son of Heaven always favored them, but it was not some miracle.
It was through a series of mediums, and this was why Ryuk had personally instructed those sidekicks to deliver a heavy blow to an area that would require a large amount of healing potion.
For backup, he even sealed Liu Wei’s Qi points, but…
Liu Wei was completely fine, his body healed from all the wounds. This clearly meant that either someone very strong and undetectable by Ryuk’s senses was present, a rich person had provided Liu Wei with a very high-quality healing potion or someone whom Liu knew very well had helped him.
But after hearing the system’s words about traces of poison and stimulants, it was clear that whoever this person was, their intention was definitely to harm Liu Wei.
Not that Ryuk cared about Liu Wei, but the issue was if someone was after this guy’s life, then there was a chance that the person could be from the Wei family.
And among all this, Ryuk saw an opportunity.
An opportunity to directly enter the Wei family before Drishti arrived.
In the end, battleships were not allowed, but it wasn’t as if several warriors from the Devereaux family would be treated as mere passerbys by Celestial pheonix order.
So before Regina and the others returned, Ryuk needed to gather information about those who acted behind his back and continued the slave trade with Heindal.
‘System, purchase the most lethal poison you have,’ Ryuk commanded, his eyes observing the scene with a clear intent to turn the situation in his favor.
[Host, you have acquired Nightshade Venom.]
‘Let’s meet that Arcinide first,’ Ryuk thought, turning his attention away and focusing his senses on a beast, about 8 feet tall, rampaging near the auction house’s entrance.
SWISH
He disappeared once again.
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Hsssshhh!
A large black snake-like beast, its fangs large enough to devour a whole man, revealed sharp canines as it thrashed about, striking several humans with its tail. Those hit died instantly from fractured ribs and broken skulls.
Given that it was a lower town populated mostly by slave traders or servants from the middle or higher towns coming to purchase slaves, there wasn’t anyone strong enough to stop such a beast.
The creature had been stimulated by the intense smell of poisonous herbs—something that wouldn’t have been possible since the herbs couldn’t emit more aroma on their own. However, due to a tweak from the System’s energy, a strong smell filled the entire area for miles.
“Aghh!”
“Run away! We need to stay out of range of its tail!” One experienced soldier cried out, stepping forward with a spear pointed at the beast. He rushed at it, gritting his teeth, trying to protect the rich merchants who were being slaughtered like pigs.
“Zhen’er!” Liu Wei cried out, rushing towards the chaos with his sword gripped tightly. His eyes were red with anger and the effects of poison, which he wasn’t even aware of. He quickly scanned the area for Zhen’er but found no one. Clenching his grip, he charged towards the entrance of the auction house.
“STOP! Don’t act recklessly!” The soldier, seeing a young man in fallen nobleman attire rushing forward, stretched out his hand to stop him from taking any foolish actions, but it was too late.
HSSSSHHH!
The beast locked its eyes on the lone young man holding a sword, rushing beside it. The crimson hue in the beast’s eyes sharpened as its tail instantly lashed towards Liu Wei, who had just entered its range.
“Don’t get in the way of this master!” Liu Wei cried, jumping and piercing his sword through the creature’s tail in one swift motion. Miraculously, the force behind the sword caused it to penetrate the hard shell of the Arcinide.
HSSS-REEEE!
The beast, feeling the sudden pain, cried out, its fangs wide open as its instincts took over. It vomited a dense, poisonous smoke all around, shrouding the area. The smoke caused instant corrosion of human skin on contact. Ignoring the lethal poison, Liu Wei tried to pull his sword back.
“I can’t waste my time—?!” Before Liu Wei could think of ignoring the beast and sprinting inside the auction house, a sudden pain coursed through his head. His hands instinctively reached behind his neck, where he felt something sharp piercing his skin.
“Huh?” His mind swirled, struggling to balance as he looked at the glass piece he pulled from his neck. “What’s with this numbness?”
Liu’s head swirled before his body stumbled backward, the whole world appearing to turn upside down. In that falling position, his eyes darkened as a clear realization hit him.
THUD
With a resounding thud, Liu Wei’s body hit the ground, showing his position as dead.
DING!
[Host, Liu Wei’s death is confirmed.]
‘…It can’t be this easy,’ Ryuk thought. Even though he heard the system confirm Liu Wei’s death, his experience with the so-called sons of heaven made him more than sure that if this guy was truly the chosen one, dying just from some super deadly poison from the system was impossible.
[…]
‘Ah, here it is,’ Ryuk smiled as Liu Wei’s body began to be shrouded in a translucent aura, glowing mildly before the glow vanished and everything returned to normal.
‘Now, tell me the location of that soul,’ Ryuk inquired, standing with his hands folded behind his back, a smile adorning his face as he gazed at the dead body lying beside the rampaging snake beast.
[Host, Liu Wei has escaped using a spirit preservation talisman. His present location is Upper Town.]
