Chapter 92
Neal felt completely at ease, their deaths safeguarded his secret.
From now on, however shamelessly he groveled before Soren, word would never leak. He’d remain the lofty, universally respected Great Emperor Neal of the Moonveil Human Domain.
He turned back around, happy.
Just as he was about to speak, a majestic, terrifying force descended and wrapped around him, trapped, Neal couldn’t move at all.
The Myriad Spirits Battle Armor shattered inch by inch, the collective soul power draining fast from his brow.
Under that crushing demonic might, Neal knew a moment of agonizing despair.
His skin split, every bone ground against the next with dull, sickening cracks. In seconds his frame shrank by seven inches.
Blood holes burst across his body, blood pouring out like a fountain, he wailed, and desperate pleas rang out again.
"Ancestor Soren, spare my life! I swear I’ll be obedient! I’m definitely not born a traitor like they claimed!"
"Believe me! I can sign a slave contract! I’m willing to follow you to the death, act as your dog!"
Soren stayed expressionless, stepping through the void toward him, ripples of demonic energy spreading beneath his feet.
The devouring power of the Heavenly Dao Demonic Form activated simultaneously.
All the soul power overflowing from Neal’s brow was swallowed clean, converted into pure, refined soul power that fed straight into Soren’s own.
The volume was massive, Soren was satisfied, then, unhurried, he plucked the Dragon-Piercing Halberd from Neal’s hand.
Unlike past seizures of Emperor-grade weapons, this one produced zero rejection from the blood contract.
The halberd trembled in his grip, emitting a faint, continuous hum, it seemed terrified of him.
Broken through to the Ancestor Realm, Soren could scare off even the Ancestor Tribulation.
A mere Emperor-grade weapon was thoroughly suppressed by his presence.
He sneered and tossed it into his spatial storage, he disdained using it himself.
Others might find a use for it.
Under Neal’s horrified, despairing gaze, Soren reached out and gently squeezed his throat.
With a dull boom, unable to withstand Ancestor Realm power, Neal exploded into fine blood mist.
The pungent crimson scattered across the void, carried off by the wind.
In Soren’s mind, the Strategy Encyclopedia surfaced everything about Neal, including the cultivation technique for the Myriad Spirits Battle Armor.
He had no need for it himself, but it was an impressive technique.
As a human cultivator, Lysara could practice human spiritual techniques, which would greatly amplify her combat strength.
Soren smiled faintly, gaze shifting to the ground below.
The next second he teleported into the center of a massive crater.
The Blood Demon Ancestor lay at the bottom, whole body smoking, breath thin as gossamer.
Lower-Tier Demon Ancestor or not, taking Neal’s Dragon-Piercing Strike point-blank with no preparation had left him critically injured.
By rights his body shouldn’t have been this fragile, but after unleashing his ultimate technique, the energy in the attack had been devoured by Soren, and several tenths of his internal demonic energy had drained away with it, already badly depleted, plus Neal’s treacherous backstab, he’d completely capsized.
Soren set his foot on the Blood Demon Ancestor’s head. With the Strategy Encyclopedia’s prerequisite of direct contact fulfilled, he stomped down hard.
Crack.
The head crushed like a watermelon, zero mercy.
The Blood Demon Ancestor held countless secrets about the Heavenly Demon Alliance, one of their three guarding Demon Ancestors.
Soren would likely find intelligence he cared about within the encyclopedia entry. But he wasn’t in any rush.
His gaze shifted again, landing on Basil beside Lysara.
Basil felt more than a little nervous, he calmed quickly.
For things to reach this point was completely beyond his expectations.
A loosed arrow can’t turn back, too late to regret now.
Neal was dead, all the elite human cultivators who’d come with him were dead.
The Moonveil Human Domain no longer held any Human Emperors, not even Upper-Tier Human Venerables, its overall strength had plummeted to rock bottom.
This territory was now an item in Soren’s pocket.
Lysara dropped to her knees in the void.
"I beg Master, please spare my master!"
"From this day forward, Lysara will be even more obedient to Master’s every command, I’ll do whatever you ask of me!"
Lysara chewed the inside of her lip.
She couldn’t call it, Soren was the sort you could see right through and still not read at all, every time she was sure he’d go one way, he went the other.
Basil hadn’t lifted a finger for Neal, that didn’t mean Soren wouldn’t kill him anyway.
She knew exactly what she was kept around for, handling the human race.
So the nerves weren’t stupid.
Back when they were still at Deep Affection and Righteousness, she’d have refused the order and let Basil cut her down instead, her tier with Soren had lit up Absolute Loyalty since then.
That title changed something in her, tell her to execute Basil today and she wouldn’t take the easy way out on her teacher’s blade.
She’d get it done, crying the whole time.
Soren was busy with his own thinking, Basil had made a decent first impression.
On the Strategy Encyclopedia, the old man’s starting tier wasn’t the usual Strangers Meeting by Chance, ot was Obedient and Submissive.
Hand him a job and he’d take it, then finish it without supervision.
Grant and Neal had treachery in the blood, that father-and-son pair, Basil didn’t.
The Strategy Encyclopedia read:
[Basil holds deep affection for the human race. His greatest wish is to one day guide humanity down the correct path.]
[As long as Master openly displays trust and high regard for him and entrusts him with important responsibilities, Basil’s relationship tier with Master can be continuously elevated.]
Soren shut the panel, a corner of his mouth went up.
Winning this one over was almost too easy.
Same setup as the Jared siblings.
A loop that fed itself, trust him more, the tier climbs, tier climbs, and trusting him costs less.
"Did I say I was going to kill him?" Soren’s face didn’t move, his voice came out cold as deep ice.
Lysara looked up fast. "Master truly won’t kill my master?"
He clasped his hands behind his back and nodded once. "Whether he lives or dies is his own choice."
Soren didn’t feed useless people, but a man who was useful, and who hadn’t crossed him first, could stand under his banner.