He threw the shrivelled corpse into the pit where the woman was still trying to fight off his martial skill, the body disintegrating beneath the force that was bearing down upon the area. Any longer and the corpse would have simply landed atop his martial skill, which had pressed its counterpart so far down into the ground that only about a hand’s length of space remained through which he could see her expression of heavy concentration.

“I’ll try to leave you with a whole corpse,” he yelled over the din. “Though I can’t promise anything.” He was just trolling her, of course, his words made all the more menacing by the fact that he’d just destroyed the body of one of her companions mere seconds before.

Suddenly fueling the spear in his right hand, it expanded from the size of a forearm to about three metres in length. Keeping track of the tiny window of opportunity that remained, he hurled the spear through the now finger’s length of space between the ground and her martial skill, her right leg exploding into bits of flesh and bone from the knee downward. She fell to the ground immediately, though rather than crush her to death beneath the might of his martial skill, he cancelled it out at the same time that she lost hold of her technique due to the paralyzing effects of the Life-Severing Spear. Without skipping a beat, he pulled a master-slave contract out of his spatial bag—which he had both protected and kept tacked to his hip with spiritual energy throughout the battle—and hurriedly appeared at her side.

Her red eyes widened from both pain and alarm as he unfurled the enchanted parchment and stared down at her without sympathy. Summoning a tiny rendition of the Life-Severing Spear at the tip of his finger and prickling one of the woman’s pale forearms with it so as to maintain the skill’s paralyzing effects, he grasped one of her thumbs, dabbed it in the pool of gore that was slowly spreading around her leg, and then pressed it to the parchment. He vomited out another mouthful of blood at that moment, which he used to create a thumb imprint on the contract. Once he activated it with a wisp of energy, the woman winced in pain as a black ring appeared around her neck before it disappeared a few moments later.

“Stop struggling and heal your wounds. If you go against my words, then kill yourself in the most painful way you can think of. Also, don’t kill or hurt me or any of my allies. If you try to, then kill yourself before you can make your move.”

She gave him a long, livid stare before her arms drooped and the bleeding around her mutilated knee began to stop.

He subconsciously dipped his hand into the small puddle of blood at his feet and refined some with delight, recouping a great deal of inner essence from the energy within. Of the thousands of people that he’d refined to date, none had given him such satisfaction. Blinded by the unrivalled sensation of ecstasy that overtook him, he seriously contemplated killing the woman and simply harvesting all of her internal energies, but he quickly came back to his senses and drove the thought from his mind. Such a powerful person would prove indispensable in the coming conflicts, to the extent that it would simply be a waste to refine her.

Slipping several medicinal pellets into his mouth, Jason realized that both he and the woman were still naked, and that the aftereffects of the Blood Burning Heart Technique had left him with a vigorous erection.

My life is so fucked, he thought, sighing as he took out two spare sets of robes and then quickly dressed himself. He threw the other set at her and then said, “Put those on. Whether you do or don’t, you’ll be speaking to all your subordinates in less than a minute. Continue tending to your wounds after that.”

The body enhancement and body reinforcement arrayments that he had used boasted a life expectancy of about five hours, so he saw no need to dismiss them just yet. Instead, he allowed his body to continue to give off subtle amounts of silver and golden light, engulfing the silent elder in spiritual energy before he summoned a sizeable serpent and hopped atop its crimson back. He arrived at the main conflict a few moments later and was pleased to see that around half of his forces were still alive, most having been protected by Brud, Renay, Angelica, Havel and Sersa.

He immediately set about erecting another barrier around his allies, who were still bunched together in a large group amidst the corpses of some of their fallen companions. The battle had taken all of those involved about three kilometres away from where it had initially started, with nearly a thousand dead lying in between the two locations.

Thankfully, Sersa had killed the two more powerful cultivators on the enemy’s side with the help of Havel, which had intimidated the thousands of surrounding disciples into avoiding close combat wherever possible. Since they were now keeping their distance—knowing full well that an attack from someone like her could kill hundreds of them at once—it was easy to surround his allies in a sturdy barrier like the one that he had summoned before.

“I don’t like doing things like this,” he said quietly, the woman glaring at him from where she floated under the support of his spiritual energy. Her right pant leg drooped at the knee as if she were the veteran of a fearsome war. “But it needs to happen.” He willed the energy around her to bring her closer, at which point he had his energies turn her around so that he could clamp his left hand around her neck in an intimidating manner. Dismissing the energy around her, he drew out a quick illumination arrayment with his right hand and gave life to hundreds of bright lights that shone like rays of sunshine reflected off of a mirror’s face. In doing so, he perfectly illuminated the scene of him standing casually atop the back of his summoned serpent while dangling the enemy leader by the neck from hundreds of metres above the ground.

“Order them to stand down.”

Whether she wanted to or not, the woman poured inner essence into her vocal cords and spoke out in a loud, echoing voice.

“All of you, stand down.”

After a moment’s hesitation, countless martial skills were cancelled out as quiet returned to the battle-scarred countryside.

“As you can see,” he said sternly, his voice echoing across the hill-pocked plains, “Even your leader didn’t stand a chance against me. Now, I could just kill all of you with a few martial skills, but I’m not evil like you people. So, I’ll give you a choice.” Staring down at the illuminated mass of disciples, he motioned toward a few dozen people that Sersa had recently turned into corpses. “Accept a master-slave contract with me, and live to see another day. Or be refined by me and any of your friends that choose to accept my offer.”

Nobody made an immediate decision, most disciples looking to and fro amongst their companions with looks of worry and wariness. After about thirty seconds of this, Sersa spoke up from about a hundred metres above those that she had been protecting.

“Be honest with yourselves. Most of you have always wanted nothing more than to refine your juniors to achieve quick boosts in strength. Since our main enemy is the sect itself, you’ll have unlimited access to Integration-staged cultivation resources if you join us.”

“Yes,” said Havel, who let his aura bear down upon those in the area. “A month ago, I was only at the peak of Integration. After accepting Master’s proposal and taking part in countless raids alongside him, I’m at the third level of Genesis. Let that sink in.”

“Hey,” said a distant disciple under her breath. “Isn’t that the Lord of Castle Marshide’s son? He wasn’t even at the Integration stage before this Acquisition!”

“Perhaps it won’t be so bad,” muttered a friend of the first speaker. “Deacon Rose is already as strong as a great elder, and that rogue disciple just defeated the seventh seated elder. They don’t seem to be lying to us.” Looking contemplative, the girl’s eyes became distant with thought.

“I’d rather die than become someone’s slave,” spat the man at their side. He went to say something else, but abruptly painted the two girls in gore as he exploded into a bloody mist beneath Sersa’s unbound aura, which she had only focused on him.

“As I was saying,” said Jason, his tone firm. “Anyone who agrees will gain untold opportunities to increase their strength. It’ll be dangerous, but living with the possibility of death is better than definitely dying, at least to me.” Releasing the great elder and catching her with some spiritual energy, he let out a long yawn and then stretched his arms in a tired manner. “You have two minutes to make your decision. If you still don’t agree to my terms by then, well…you’ve all refined people before. You know how it goes.”