Chapter 563 - Seizing prizes at all costs.

The look of shocked fury upon all three cultivator’s faces was absolutely priceless.

So much so that Eric couldn’t help but pull out his tablet and record it.

Recording the furious flicker of a half dozen emotions racing across Mid’s countenance, the others as well, homicidal fury and supreme frustration the most prevalent, before Mid burst out in bitter laughter.

“You wish to make an enemy of the Toyo clan? So be it, Eric Carpenter. Take your prize free of all taint or bane. Clean as the day it was torn free from a divine raven’s beak!”

The man’s eyes were such a priceless expression of helpless fury as Eric, intently gazing at the pristinely valuable jade talisman, sensed every last iota of the man’s blood-tinged imprint drain completely out of the artifact.

“Your prize.” Mid’s words were a deadly hiss.

Han’s silent keen as the air grew thick with killing pressure did nothing to dissuade Eric as he gave an infinitesimal dip of his head. “Good. Now, how do I imprint it so it is mine, free and clear?”

Eric smirked as Shorty roared a promise to see Eric castrated and strung up in the Toyo dueling hall.

“As you swore to do… honored cultivator.”

Mid clenched fists suddenly filled with cracking lightning.

“You need but place a single drop of blood, and will the connection. It is now free of all past influence. All the work I did preparing it for—” Mid gave an angry shake of his head. “It would be effortless for any true cultivator to bond to it. A foul netherworld abomination like yourself has no hope of—”

His hopeful glare turned to a look of pristine dismay when the jade talisman abruptly flashed a fiery crimson hue.

“What manner of twisted blood magic is this?” Shorty hissed. “He imprinted it fully, the moment he touched it? Impossible!”

You have successfully claimed Jade Syndicate Talisman in a culturally approved duel!

Talisman has been cleansed of all former ties of ownership and claimance.

Do you wish to bond Jade Syndicate Talisman to your soul?

You have chosen: YES!

NOTE! Soul Reserves of 1823, Level 74 Master Necromancer and Rank 38 Blood Mastery has allowed you to bond and Soul-Bind this artifact at ZERO cost! (With no need to master Gold-tier complexity!)

Eric took a shuddering breath, smiling coldly into the eyes of three newly sworn foes even as he reveled in his newly seized prize, understanding so exquisitely that it opened up a whole new world to him even as common sense crashed its way past fury, adrenaline, and the wild ups and downs of the most violent day he had experienced since slicing an ICBM in half before it could obliterate millions, then slaughtering a hidden bunker full of corrupt administrators.

Because he had just made enemies of three Energy Storage tier cultivators who knew his name.

Cultivators who had just sworn to make him pay for humiliating them… for forcing them to keep their word.

And the one thing he refused to have at his back, with a fragile family counting on him, were bloodthirsty jackals eager to tear out his hamstrings, liver, and heart, the moment his back was turned.

He cleared his throat as a furious Mid stormed back to the flying rug.

“You know we’re not finished, right?”

Mid stiffened at those words, spinning around with killing fury in his eyes.

“How dare he!” Shorty roared, stomping off the rug. He unsheathed a jian that froze the very air with howling gales of bitter cold winds.

Tall’s hanfu attire billowed as he glided upon the air currents, now hovering over Eric with black lightning crackling between his hands.

Han Li sobbed. “Eric, please! Surrender your prize and beg for forgiveness! These are highland cultivators! You can never win against them. It’s not permitted! Not ever!”

“Too late for that, girl!” Shorty sneered his contempt, preparing himself to strike.

Eric smiled. “I think you’re right there, Shorty. I was a fool to bargain. Peace was never an option.” His blade lit with crimson fire.

Mid held up a single clenched fist, glaring at Eric’s blazing dachi for long seconds, as were his companions. Perhaps the only thing giving them pause, the tension so thick that a single comment could shatter it in a storm of blood and tears.

Surprisingly, it was Tall who spoke. “Clarify what you mean, Outlander, if you wish for any other path, save death.”

Eric chuckled coldly. “You three made it clear that there would be repercussions for my claiming the jade talisman… after I won it, fair and square.”

“You won nothing!” Shorty roared. “You’re unclean. Impure. A lowland scrub! Oaths have no standing with your kind!”

“Not true,” Tall said calmly. “Word was given. Word will be kept.” He glared at the trembling Han Li and her grimly staring grandfather. “We assured the young Contender before us that the Li clan would not pay for his transgressions. And our word will be kept. But that does not hold for your own family, Eric Carpenter. For you have committed a grievous transgression, conniving a valued clan artifact from my foolish compatriot.”

Mid stiffened and flushed with humiliated fury… but clearly knew better than to contradict the obvious wujen among them.

Eric flashed a bitter smile. “And if I wish to avoid such a fate?”

“Too late for that, filth!” Shorty sneered.

Eric kept his gaze on the coolly smiling wujen.

“You will surrender your prizes and swear fealty to us.”

“As the lowest of servants!” Shorty sneered. “I know I’ll have fun finding all sorts of nasty assignments to remind you of your place!”

“I have a counter-proposal.”

Mid chuckled coldly. “And what would that be, Contender?”

He pulled out the kraken’s beast core once more, silently delighting in the looks of awe and avarice this inspired in their unwanted guests… and his friends.

“You would surrender your prize freely?” Tall said in a carefully controlled voice, though not so controlled that Eric couldn’t sense the desperate avarice in the man.

Eric chuckled coldly. “Of course not.”

Tall’s features stiffened with cool contempt. But before he could make a pronouncement that would doom him and his kung fu brothers to death, Eric spoke on.

“This is a rematch. Only this time, I’ll let all three of you fight me as one. Same rules as before. We fight till disarmament or surrender. If you’ve disarmed me or I’ve disarmed you… if you surrender to me or I surrender to you… it’s over. Should you defeat me? Claim your prize and go, with the understanding that it will be as if we had never crossed paths. My family means nothing to you, and you will have no interest or desire in coming after them now, or in the future. But should I win…”

Mid snorted. “You truly think you can best all three of us at once, outsider?”

“Should I win, you give me your cultivator’s oaths that you will never reveal what you know or suspect you know about me. You swear that you will never attempt to do harm to me or my family, directly or indirectly, personally or by proxy, save if we are directly attacking you, of course.”

“We owe this trash nothing!” Shorty snarled. “Let’s seize this prize and claim his head!”

“He already soulbound the talisman. Killing him does nothing!” Mid hissed in their dialect.

Tall frowned. “Acceptable. But if we defeat you, you will surrender the Jade Consortium talisman as well.”

Eric dipped his head. “Agreed. Shall we do this, then?”

Tall’s laughter filled the air, he actually deigned to give Eric a condescending nod. “Very well, outsider. You have our oaths, and our word.” Shorty and Mid sneered and spat… but both gave grudging nods of their head under Tall’s cold glare.

Tall smiled coldly. “If nothing else, you’ve shown loyalty to your family. For that reason alone, I shall try not to kill you. But as for my brothers…”

Eric’s laughter was a mirror of Tall’s own, the air already ringing with the sounds of mithril casually deflecting furiously swung steel. “I know,” Eric said, not giving an inch as Mid and Shorty both sought to pressure him and box him in.

Weapons crackling with brilliant white lightning and the howling cold of the storm flashed, the air filled with laughter chillier even than Shorty’s dao as the snarling man’s sword failed to find his target, always knocked off-line as he desperately strove to control the center line between him and his smirking foe. Yet Eric never gave up an inch. Not until Shorty traded looks with his kung fu brother, the pair charging forward as one, furious thrusts becoming cleaving moulinets that struck nothing at all, as Eric abruptly weaved past their joined assault and spun free of their trap.

A heartbeat before the air filled with the crack and boom of black lightning.

“Where is he?” Mid roared, glaring and panting, his left hand steaming where his brother’s imperfectly controlled blade had kissed him with a poor shadow of eternal winter, more than enough to turn two of his fingers pale white. And neither paid it any mind, eyes glaring for the laughing jester daring to mock them still.

“Where is he, brother?”

“Nowhere. He’s a ghost!”

“Soonkook’s Deathbolt should have obliterated him! Soonkook—”

“Reveal no names, fool!” Mid hissed, before lurching back with a cry when an unconscious Soonkook crashed to the ground, eyes wide as he wheezed with agony, both of his arms cruelly wrenched out of their shoulder sockets.

Mid and Shorty looked up before blanching in surprise to see Eric smiling down at both of them. Standing on air as opposed to riding the currents like Soonkook.

“No, impossible! He’s no wujen!” Shorty roared.

Mid spun around, feeling the gentlest whisper of death behind him, his desperately parrying jian ringing against mithril peril.

“Now, brother!”

His eyes flared with desperate focus, shouting and stomping his feet as he let loose a killing flurry of lightning-infused strikes once more, the ground exploding with more granite spikes as the a dismembering shout tore through the air.

All in the very instant that Shorty, no fool, struck at ninety degrees to his compatriot, dodging the area effect Qi attacks while lashing out with his blade, the space where Eric had been standing filled with frigid winter that might freeze even spirit beasts to a block of inert ice.

Only for their eyes to widen, seeing no trace of their prey at all.

Just mocking laughter as they turned around once more, jian in midguard that was wrenched aside as fingers were twisted and fleshed pierced, Shorty crying out when he crashed to the ground, whimpering as he gazed upon his shattered knee cap, Mid crying out when his trembling hands cradled his own cleaved off ear, bare of any trace of his blade.

Eric cleared his throat, smiling down at the three wounded cultivators. “You’ve been disarmed. Now do you yield, or do I literally need to tear your arms off?”

He crouched down, glaring into a trembling Tall’s or Soonkook’s features, stretching his lips impossibly wide, truly meaning every word he said.

“Because I will, you know. If we can’t come to an accord, if you won’t swear an oath upon your very foundations… then we’re at war, you’re a threat, and this little spat can have only one ending.”

“We yield!” Soonkook screamed, his brothers nodding quick accord, before all three wore expressions of absolute horror as Eric howled with triumph and sweetest ecstasy, ascending yet another level as a portion of his opponent’s endless potential became his own in what was definitely a life or death match. For Eric had deliberately avoided using any exotic arts or more Quickness than what the fastest of them had, misdirection and martial mastery all that had been needed for him to take advantage of their momentary squinting whenever their lightning flashed.

A weakness he doubted they realized they even had.

Making it a fair enough challenge that he had ascended once more.

Congratulations! You have successfully faced 3 Energy Storage cultivators in your first lethal duel against cultivators of a completely different paradigm.

They have capitulated, well aware that their lives are now utterly in your hands, and they utterly at your mercy.

A portion of their endless potential is now forever your own.

You have earned 1 additional Rank as an Elite Disciple!

Strength, Vitality, Finesse, Quickness, Perception, and Spiritual Energy have all increased. (Note! All attribute enhancing modifiers are in FULL effect!)

And to Eric’s wonder and dismay, the three somehow understood what had happened.

“My destiny, it’s fading!” Shorty sobbed.

Mid grimaced through his pain. “Why do I taste such bitter despair lingering about me?”

Soonkook stared up at Eric in genuine horror. “You monster. You have devoured our futures!”

Eric coldly shook his head. “Wrong. Only in death, are your futures truly devoured. I spared all three of you in a fight where you struck to kill. And I expect all three of you to hold to your oaths.”

He glared down at all of them. “For if you feel such bitter sting at losing a simple match… deluded enough to think that your potential’s somehow been crippled, imagine how you’ll feel if you actually break oaths surrendered to a fairy prince!”

All three visibly paled at that as Eric darted low like a serpent, his hot gaze meeting their own. “Remember your oaths. Not a whisper or a word of my nature or triumph to ANYONE! And I will claim no more from you than I already have.”

“You’re a Contender. You shouldn’t even be here!” Shorty angrily sobbed, glaring helplessly at Eric as he slithered back, whimpering as he strove to keep the weight off his shattered kneecap.

For a second, Eric thought of offering to use his arts to mitigate the damage, then thought better of it. He had already revealed far too much… and profited mightily from it. And it was worth it, utterly worth it, if his Jade Consortium gambit paid off.

If his host family remained safe.

So, he would let his foes think him a deadly faerie capable of binding their cultivation foundations and souls to terrible oaths they dare not ever break.

Because it was true that he could. Yet he wasn’t so foolish as to use any soul-binding sigils in this time and place.

Han Li and her grandfather, quite wisely, no matter all the oaths given, kept themselves in abject dogeza, refusing even to raise their heads to peer at the three wounded and frightened cultivators as they scurried up on their rug and flew away.

“Numbing and healing powder. I can’t take the pain!”

“You’ll feel better just as soon as I pop your arms into their sockets, brother. And we dare not return to the sect until our wounds are healed.”

“Transcendant mercy, that hurts!” Soonkook screamed.

“But you can move your left arm now, can’t you? Now let’s work on the right. Then, you can sow my ear back on.”

Eric knew he was smiling a bit more than he should.

A bit wider than he should.

And he probably shouldn’t have filmed the entire encounter and their ignoble retreat on his tablet. But he seriously doubted those arrogant asswipes even understood its significance. And even if they had… so be it. Earlier fury had transformed to fierce satisfaction, his ears picking up conversational snippets he doubted the tablet itself could pick up, and now Han Li was gazing his way with horrified dismay.

As was her grandfather.

Eric sighed and put away his tablet.

Then fell into dogeza before the stunned pair.

“I fear I have brought trouble to your house. Please tell this fool how he may make amends?”

For long moments, there was nothing but strained silence. Eric refusing even to look up, cheeks blazing with shame he would hide with anger no longer, now that peril had past. Now that cold anxiety replaced the hot killing glee that had carried him so far for so long, and forever threatened to make a monster of him. A darkness he knew damn well he had inherited from both of his parents.

A darkness that made him so good at tapping into his Wrath and dishing out righteous vengeance… and ruthless slaughter.

A darkness he constantly fought to overcome.

Because the bottom line was that, no matter how cleverly he wanted to think that he had maneuvered things, how utterly he had bested and intimidated his foes… three powerful Energy Storage Cultivators had been humiliated and humbled in front of a clan fallen on hard times, just a half-step above mortal farmers, themselves. At least in the eyes of the plateu’s elite.

And they had all witnessed arrogant assholes being soundly put in their place.

“You were wise enough to bind them to their word. They will pay a price if they come after my clan, it’s true,” The grandfather sighed. “Just as it’s true that a single perceived misstep will cost us dearly. I do not doubt that the Toya clan will use any pretext they can to put us in our place, if those three challengers are unable to forget this night as easily as you seem to think they can.”

Eric winced internally. Because the man was absolutely right.

The air filled with sharp laughter. “Nor are you completely to blame, faerie child and Contender, obviously caught up in destiny’s tale where idiots and fools who would normally not pay you any mind somehow cross your path, to their folly and perhaps all our peril. And it certainly was sweet to see the arrogant sneers wiped from all three of their faces… even if I fear the cost we will eventually be forced to pay.”

Han Li sighed. “You truly do live in interesting times, Eric Carpenter.”

Eric swallowed. “I know.”

“Perhaps it would be best if you found a new sparring partner, Contender?” Her grandfather softly suggested.

Han Li flashed an apologetic smile. “As beautiful as I find the shape of your soul… I fear I’ll drown in currents violent and treacherous, if I dare to admire it any closer than I already have.”

Eric swallowed the stupid lump in his throat, bowing his head as he slowly rose. “You’re right. Of course you're right.” He gazed longingly into beautiful grey eyes staring back at him with solemn resolve.

Her bow was just as low as his own had been. “Thank you again for all the pointers, honored cultivator.”

Eric swallowed, opened his mouth to say something cute and witty and get a final farewell smile… but instead turned around and heading back the way he came.

When he dared to steal a quick glance behind him a few seconds later, both Han Li and her grandfather had already raced off to help settle and care for the terrified farmers who had been placed in such jeopardy in a contest they should never have been anywhere near.

Eric left with the taste of victory turning bittersweet, his ears pained by the sounds of despondent families and crying children wanting to know what had happened to their homes.