The bodies of men and women, children and elderly, were piled like garbage in front of Kadyn. He dashed towards the corpses and looked at them with wide eyes. His face twitching with rage and anger

None of them had a peaceful expression on their faces. All of them had horrified looks before they died. Their expressions seemed as if they had seen a devil from hell at the last moment of their life. However this wasn't the most terrifying thing about those corpses. The most unsettling thing was — all of them looked mummified as if someone had sucked their energy and blood from their bodies.

No wound or blood mark could be seen on their bodies. No trace of resistance. It looked as if someone had frozen them on the spot and then extracted their energy. The poor people couldn't even resist before they died.

Kadyn examined those corpses and found many children less than 10 years old. However, they were in a similar condition, looking the same as others, mummified and shrunken.

"Anyone who did this deserves to die a horrible death," Kadyn said as he clenched his teeth. His heart was bubbling with a raging fire, but he could not do anything even he wanted as he had no idea who did this to them.

"Though plundering and killing are normal in the Magic Association," Khrom said from the side as he stared at the corpses. "But I have never seen someone killing people in such a way. It seems…" he was about to say something but then he shook his head.

"If you know something just say it," Kadyn said.

"I'm not sure," Khrom said. "But I have heard that Necromancers sometimes kill people to practice their evil spells. Some people would just extract the soul, some would extract blood, some would just turn them into undead."

As he mentioned them, and what they do to others for just the sake of learning a few spells, a fearful look appeared inside his eyes. He paused and collected his thoughts and went on. "Though I'm not sure that they are the ones who slaughtered this village."

"Why did you say necromance?" Kadyn asked. "Can't they be Vampires? After all, there is no blood inside these people's bodies."

"It can't be vampires," Khrom shook his head. "When vampires hunt their prey they don't care about spilling blood on the ground and even if they want to make it clean they would still leave a few traces of blood here and there. However, we saw not a single drop of blood anywhere, did we? Furthermore, there are no bite marks on their necks."

Kadyn pondered for a moment and realised that Khrom's explanation seemed reasonable — if the murderers were vampires, they would definitely find traces of the blood all around them.

"Alright, we need to go now," Kadyn sighed and stood up. He stared at the corpses of the villagers and then waved his hand; then a ball of fire emerged from his hand burning those mummified bodies. Kadyn turned around and walked out of the village.

——

A few miles away in a dark valley that looked eerie in the gloomy weather, and covered with tall mountains from all sides, hundreds of people had gathered in dark robes. The group was mixed with men and women. However, they looked rather young, around the age of twenty-twenty five years old.

At the front of the group was a man, wearing a purple robe, different from others. He had broad shoulders and red hair. At this moment, his eyes were closed, and he was meditating — everyone was looking at him with a respectful gaze and no one dared to make a noise. They continued to stand, waiting for him to open his eyes.

Suddenly a light flashed on the body of the man, wearing a purple robe, and a white spear that looked as if it was made of bones emerged from the centre of his brows. It was long like a normal spear and its tip was sharp. However the entire shaft was covered in white spikes — leaving only a small portion where the owner of the spear could hold it — and it was gleaming with a sinister light that made everyone's heart tremble in terror as they stared at the spear.

Then the man in purple opened his eyes and a peal of thunderous laughter escaped his mouth. "Hahaha, I have finally succeeded in practising Bone Spear Magic Rune. Who would dare to stop me from becoming a core disciple of the Bone Spear Tower? I have slaughtered thousands of people; I've extracted their blood; I have extracted their souls and finally — finally I have reached a Rank 3 mage. The Creation Rank!"

"Congratulations Senior Brother Staurious," all of the disciples that were standing behind him bowed hurriedly as soon as they heard his words. They were just lowly outer disciples of the Bone Spear Tower, and the man in front of them was already qualified to become a core disciple, a height that only few would be able to do.

All of them were aware that the status of Staurious would skyrocket when he returned to the tower— it would benefit them greatly if they could build a good relationship with him. After all, the core disciples were the real prodigies in the Bone Spear Tower. They had the same authority as the elders of the tower.

Staurious looked at everyone in satisfaction and a smile appeared on his face. However if a normal person had seen that smile he would have been scared shitless as it looked too ugly and sinister — the long scar on his right cheek made his expression only more ugly. He rubbed the scar on his face as if remembering a painful memory from his past. Soon I would have my revenge, just you wait. He thought.

Afterwards, he waved his hand towards them and said, "Don't worry, I would not destroy the boat after crossing the river. You have helped me greatly all this time, I would also help you when we are in the tower. You will be under my protection from now on."

"Thank you, Senior Brother Staurious," everyone hurriedly bowed at him once again and an excited look appeared on their faces. Who would dare to bully them if they tell them that a core disciple is their boss? This would bring them endless benefits for sure.

However at this moment the man in purple curled his lips and waved his bone spear towards the bowing people — a sinister grey light appeared from the spear in the form of threads and entangled around everyone.

It didn't take much longer for everyone to realise what was happening. They tried to struggle with horrified gazes, but soon they realised that they could not do anything, except standing and letting him extract their soul, mana, and blood. They played in terror as soon as the realisation dawned upon them.

"Senior brother, what are you…"

"Hahaha, did you morons think I would let you all escape that easily?" the man in purple cackled. "Do you think I would let such a vast amount of energy go just like that? Naive! You are no different than those villagers in my eyes, but with a larger amount of energy as compared to them."

"How could you do this to your fellow disciples?" one of the disciples said with an angry expression. "The Bone Spear Tower won't let you go if you kill us! They will hunt you down!"

"Yes, elders would find it eventually and you will have to face the consequences of killing us." Another disciple said. "Let us go this instant!"

"Fellow disciples? Elders? Hunt me down?" He looked at all those disciples as if he was looking at idiots. "You morons, Bone Spear Tower only cares about strong. They only value who could bring them the highest benefit. I'm now at the Creation Rank, who would care about a bunch of idiots like you?

"They won't do anything even if I kill you, even a few outer disciples in the tower. On the contrary, they would praise me for being such a talented individual. This is a world where strong rules and weaks are nothing but prey for the likes of us."

"Now, die, and let me increase my strength!" as he said, the bodies of those disciples started to shrink and their blood essence and soul power and mana — everything was extracted by the bone spear.

"No!"

The miserable screams echoed all around. Some were cursing and some were pleading. A few writhing on the group in pain and agony while a few of them shrieking, holding their heads in both of their hands — in just a few minutes everything became silent, dead, and silent.

Staurious looked at the mummified bodies and said. "Thank you very much, junior brothers and sisters. I would never be able to repay the help you have provided me all this time. I'm really sad that you have left me. What would I do without you? The heaven is cruel to the kind peoples."

He made a sad expression and wiped non-existing tears from his eyes. Then he once more looked at the bodies and said with a sinister smile. "I hope you will live happily after in hell, fellow disciples."