How Much For Your Soul?

Chapter 11

Dominating the Abyss Prison Realm would be exceedingly easy as it would be completely cut off from Glory City once Shen Yue masters the array. There would be no need to hide his identity or strength, as he planned to lock Nie Li out of the array controls. The only obstacle was the mysterious old man.

According to the book, the 'Mysterious Old Man' has an outward appearance that looks deceptively frail, with long grey hair and beard. Dressed in ragged clothes and thin as a rake, his eyes are empty as he staggers while walking, giving off an overwhelming killing intent. He is definitely above legend rank.

The Old Man was enigmatic, and he could only warn his men about it. Told to handle any seemingly feeble old men with respect and not to abuse anyone without reason. Shen Yue ordered his people to escape if they somehow provoked this crazy unknown expert.

With three hundred peak legend experts moving in five-man squads, Shen Yue advanced to the Ten Millennium Spatial Array hopefully without drawing attention to himself. He was of course dressed in a long cloak with the hood up just in case they were noticed.

The array was protected by an origin barrier originating from the Woodland Empire. Surrounding the shield of light was sixteen, six-meter tall dome-like towers, carved with intricate inscription patterns. It apparently needs twenty-three Stones of Light as the power core to transport people to the subsidiary realm known as the Abyss Prison Realm.

Nie Li was able to open up the barrier by inserting a bit of soul force into the correct pattern on each pillar. Shen Yue, on the other hand, just needed his Library of Heaven's Path to scan the array and find its flaws, operating method and history. After having Su Mei fly him around the formation barrier, his library compiled a book for him; the Library really was too overpowered.

Activating the pillars in the correct sequence, his soldiers gathered on the teleportation array once the barrier was down. Shen Yue did not neglect to investigate the flaws of the teleport array with his library, as only activated formations could be scanned. With a flash of light, they were in a dreary place that seemed to be forever stuck at dusk.

Shen Yue had briefed his men on the demon beasts that Nie Li had encountered on his way to the Silverwing Family. The thousands of Scarlet Ghosts, a creature resembling a red monkey, were eradicated with no quarter given. The blood crystals that a few of them had were retrieved.

The Netherlamp Behemoth was a massive slow-moving monstrosity with many tongues that shot out to capture its prey. Its saliva has a mild hallucinatory effect. It was quickly overwhelmed, and its tongues severed, Shen Yue gave orders to capture it alive.

Shen Yue was always curious why demon spirits were so rare. According to the books he read, the demon's spirit was found in its cerebrum, having a minuscule possibility of appearing. Barely one or two were found in tens of thousands of demon beasts killed. This baffled Shen Yue, as just like all humans have a soul, all demons must have a spirit!

After comprehensive research done on demon beasts captured by his people at the Heavenly Fate Plateau, he found the answer, and it was ridiculous that no one had worked it out before.

Maybe it was because he knew that in the novel, the demon beasts had their own faction, or that he was aware of the cause behind the dark age. However, he found it hard to believe that people, as greedy as they are, didn't try to find a way to increase the drop rate.

If all humans have a soul, the equivalent to a demons' spirit, why did they not appear when they were killed? Would one manifest if tens of thousands were killed? Not insane enough to prove his theory, he used his library and knowledge of souls to scan captured demon beasts to find an answer.

The Soul Separating technique that he had upgraded previously ended up being the solution. After being slightly altered, he now had a way to extract the demon spirits of any captured demon beast! Shen Yue was not spending hundreds of thousands merely for a silver ranked demon spirit, he just had his men acquire their own!

The entire market of demon spirit stones was bought out overnight, and Shen Yue now had a team at the plateau concentrating on solely making them. This world-altering discovery was kept exclusively in-house. It was made extremely clear that the harshest of penalties awaited any who leaked this technique, even implicating their families.

With the Netherlamp Behemoth's spirit now in a demon stone, they were free to keep moving towards the Silver Winged Family territory. Shen Yue had thought about it but decided not to reenact the little play he had performed at the Heavenly Fate Plateau. The Abyss Prison Realm Families had spent too long isolated and at war with each other to follow Shen Yue, a foreigner, just because he offered food and techniques.

Other than an alliance against the Silver Winged Family, the thirteen dominant Families fought for resources constantly and had at one time or another clashed with each other. That left only smashing them into obedience and enslaving them. Shen Yue was really on his way to becoming a dictator of a totalitarian regime.

Without any posturing or arrogant speeches, he had his soldiers swoop in and restrain all the hierarchy of the clan, dragging them to the throne room. He didn't forget to personally visit a certain slave chained to a pillar covered in wounds.

"Hey there, you look like you could do with some help." Shen Yue said to the youth, Duan Jian. He just glared back at Shen Yue, not speaking. Being tortured since birth probably wiped out his sense of humour.

"What would it take for you to swear fealty to me?" Shen Yue asked.

"The head of that old bandit Sikong Yi!" Replied Duan Jian immediately.

"Are you sure? You will need to have a loyalty inscription mark, but I promise to make you a legend rank expert."

"Yes, if you give me Sikong Yi, then my life is yours! If you want me to live, then I will live, if you want me to die then I shall die!" Came the resolute response.

Smiling, and telling his guards to unchain Duan Jian, they proceeded to the throne room. What waited for them, was approximately two hundred disarmed royal guards confined in the corner of the room, and fifty or so noble personages kneeling with one of his men behind them. Sikong Yi had three.

Duan Jian had a smile on his face and hope in his eyes, the only thing he lived for was right in front of him. She Yue walked to the throne and sat down to the outraged cries of the captured Silver Winged Family members.

"Oh, you have some complaints about me sitting here?" Shen Yue asked provocatively. Even if he promised himself not to act out another two-bit play, it was hard not to follow the prompts.

"You dare! Human trash, that seat is only for the glorious Silver Winged people!" Called out one of the nobles, earning himself a beating after the nod Shen Yue gave his warrior.

"I fail to see why such a nice chair should be for slaves! Much more appropriate for the master to sit here, no?" He replied, kicking himself mentally for sounding like a stereotype villain.

"The Silver Winged Family are nobodies slaves! We are the rulers of the sky! Above all other Families, we are the true rulers of this realm, all races live to be our slaves!" Shouted Sikong Yi, trying to throw off his guards, finally having enough of kneeling and being insulted.

Unfortunately, they were demon spiritualists and ready for him, and after a short beating, he was laying on the floor with a booted foot on his face. There could be no more of an insult than to have a peoples ruler underfoot.

"It certainly doesn't look like it, you look like the king of nothing as you lay there with one of my men's boot on your face, prostrating to a ten-year-old human child. I fail to see your superiority, slave!" Shen Yue said mockingly, it was too easy to speak the words a despot would say when sitting on a throne belittling the former ruler.

"There is a saying I once read; those that live by the sword, die by the sword! Your people have treated others as slaves because you had superior might and thought it your privilege. Now that I have come and have proven myself stronger than you, by your logic you must now become my slaves!"

"But you are weak! You are not even bronze rank!" Yelled out a fourteen-year-old girl, a young Sikong Hongyue.

"Why must everyone give me shit about that! I am waiting for an ultimate technique that will allow me to contract a demon spirit for all attributes! Seriously, just shut up about it!" Shen Yue has had this argument many times with his followers, and it had become a sore spot for him. After calming down from his rant and ignoring the weird looks he received, Shen Yue continued on with his plans for the angel-like beings.

"The agreement I have with Duan Jian, an innocent that has only known torture at your hands, Sikong Yi will be his do with as he pleases. Sikong Hongyue, you have the choice of being my maid and serving me, or being crippled and given to the soldiers as a camp follower. Know that you will be marked with an inscription to tell if you have thoughts of betrayal. The rest of you will also have a choice to make. Serve me, or the men will be slaves to work the mines and the women camp followers." Shen Yue was not gentle with a race that looked down on all others. To do so only invited treachery.

What followed really steeled Shen Yue's heart toward future conquests. With a population of nearly ten thousand, eighty percent of the nobles and sixty percent of the commoners had their cultivations crippled and sent to the mines or to an area designated for the women. He was not sure who would have a harder life.

After seeing they could not bluff the loyalty mark while the first ten to receive it were subsequently crippled when the seal stone turned red, they chose to hurl insults and threats as more than half their race was crippled and enslaved.

The ex-slaves were given the same choice with the majority choosing to join him and only a few accepting nothing but freedom. They were told that the entire realm would soon be under Shen Yue's control and to make their choice wisely, but it was no use.

After seeing the fate of the other women, Sikong Hongyue chose to take the maid position. Surprisingly the seal stone didn't turn red as he was expecting, it appeared that having the flaws of her race exposed and then humiliated by being branded like animals, really opened her eyes. Shen Yue was delighted, as the green-eyed beauty would make an excellent addition to his growing maid/protector team.

Two months later and the Silver Winged Family was no more, in its place was the Seraphim Clan, a vassal of the Nemesis Family. All techniques, equipment and life necessities were provided to them in exchange for their personal possessions. Like the Heavenly Fate Plateau, all they owned belonged to Shen Yue.

Over the next three years, Shen Yue would make periodic trips back to Glory City to keep up appearances and visit Ye Ziyun. She was really a little cutie, and with her mother alive, her personality was entirely different from the lonely, aloof character she was in the novel.

The rest of his time was spent conquering, looting and enslaving. Luckily, they had yet to encounter the Mysterious Old Man. He must have been content to sit back and watch as the Abyss Prison Realm was systematically being dismantled and turned into one kingdom under Shen Yue. It may have also been because he did not go to Kong Ming's monument, he did not want to give the old man a reason to appear.

As long as he stayed silent, this realm could now be named the Nemesis Abyss Realm!

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