100X Returns System: I Dominate the Age of Gods

Chapter 389: 389. Supressing Rebels - 4

William sighed as he looked down at the tribal chief. No matter how he thought about it, the amount of resistance this man was showing made very little sense.

The chief had already been completely overpowered, yet he continued to fight with a determination that bordered on madness.

There had to be a reason for it. William had not even moved from his position during the confrontation, but the moment the chief’s children had stepped out from among the crowd, the emotional fluctuations radiating from him had changed completely. What had once been stubborn defiance had transformed into desperate protectiveness.

That abrupt shift immediately caught William’s attention.

After a moment of consideration, he loosened his grip around the chief’s neck and allowed the man to collapse onto the ground.

In the next instant, William leaped out of the crater and appeared directly in front of the children. His gaze moved carefully over them as he tried to determine what was so special about these kids that their father was willing to risk everything to protect them.

Before he could inspect them further, a series of metallic sounds echoed through the settlement.

William’s eyes widened slightly.

He could understand the chief’s reaction. Any parent would naturally try to protect their children. What surprised him was the reaction of everyone else.

The villagers who had previously been frozen with fear, even after William stopped using his ability, had suddenly armed themselves. Men and women alike had drawn weapons and positioned themselves between William and the children. Even the younger members of the tribe, who could not have understood the situation completely, were staring at him with open hostility.

"Holy hell..."

William muttered under his breath as he noticed several children gripping small daggers with trembling hands while glaring at him as though he were some invading monster.

For a moment, he simply rubbed the back of his head and considered the situation.

Things had become unnecessarily complicated. He had come here to either make the chief submit or replace the previous leader with a new one, but antagonizing the whole tribe was not in his mind; that would just make the whole tribe the empire’s enemy, which was completely unnecessary.

Looking around at the villagers, William began to feel that killing the tribal chief might not be the best course of action after all.

Eliminating a leader was one thing, but completely destabilizing an entire community was another matter altogether. Whatever secret these people were hiding, it was clearly important enough for the entire tribe to unite against him.

In the end, William decided that it would be better to leave for now and return later with Dereck.

However, before departing, he appeared once again in front of the fallen chief and grabbed him by the head.

"Submit."

The single word left his mouth calmly.

At the same moment, Solar Authority Pressure descended upon the area.

An overwhelming force crashed down on the tribal chief like a mountain. William simultaneously activated his emotional manipulation abilities, targeting every remaining fragment of resistance within the man’s mind. He carefully stripped away the chief’s determination and replaced it with a crushing sense of hopelessness.

The chief’s body trembled violently beneath the immense pressure.

He struggled, resisted, and fought with everything he had.

Yet there was only so much that sheer willpower could accomplish in the face of absolute power.

[Ding!! A slave mark has been placed on Mistwalker Chief Jun.]

The moment the slave mark settled into place, the frantic struggle disappeared entirely.

Jun’s body relaxed, and the defiance in his eyes faded.

What remained was a defeated expression filled with exhaustion. William released his grip and looked down at him.

"I will visit again tomorrow, and I expect a much warmer welcome when I return."

After delivering those words, William turned around and left the Mistwalker settlement. Before departing, he also took the strange staff that belonged to Chief Jun, storing it away for later examination.

Once he was outside the tribe’s territory, he took off into the sky and accelerated toward his next destination.

Only a few minutes later, he arrived above another section of the forest.

Unlike the previous region, this area appeared considerably drier. The vegetation was thinner, and the terrain lacked the dense moisture present elsewhere.

From hundreds of miles away, William spotted another settlement.

Massive tusks decorated the entrances and perimeter walls. The people moving throughout the settlement had vivid red boar tattoos covering large portions of their bodies.

"This should be the Iron Tusk Tribe."

Without wasting any more time, William descended toward the settlement. The process unfolded much like before.

After activating his Moon Sovereign Transformation, he released a wave of suppression that forced nearly everyone in the settlement to their knees. Once everyone was suppressed and the thoughts of attacking him needlessly disappeared from their minds, he calmly walked through the village until he arrived at a large open area near its center.

There, seated atop an elaborate ivory throne, was the tribal chief of the Iron Tusk tribe.

Several women surrounded him while he lounged comfortably in his seat.

Just as William had observed with Jun, this tribal chief seemed strangely unaffected by the suppression. After studying him more closely, William eventually noticed an unremarkable necklace hanging around the man’s neck. Attached to it was a small tusk-shaped pendant.

William immediately suspected that it was another artifact.

Already growing tired of endless explanations and pointless conversations, he decided to keep things simple.

"Why did you reject the Empress’s summons?" The question was straightforward.

The chief did not even bother acknowledging him; he looked at him with a side eye and then ignored him as if he was not even present.

Despite witnessing his entire tribe kneeling before a stranger, the man continued acting as though nothing unusual had happened. His attention remained focused entirely on indulging himself with the women surrounding his throne.

William stared at him for several seconds.

"You have five seconds to answer." The warning was delivered calmly.

Yet the chief ignored it. His arrogance seemed limitless.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Not a single response came. The moment the final second passed, William moved.

A thunderous explosion echoed throughout the settlement; the air compressed, and the land under everyone churned with heat. A draconic roar echoed across the settlement, making the frozen population horrified. A horrifying crack on the ground followed immediately afterward.

Then came a shrill, ear-piercing scream. The sound that erupted from the chief’s throat was so agonized that it sent chills through the entire settlement.

The reason was obvious. All four of his limbs had been ripped from his body.

Not sliced cleanly, but they had been violently torn away.

William stood nearby with dragon claws extending from his hands while fresh blood dripped from their edges. With a casual flick of his wrist, he shook off the excess blood from his hands.

The entire display of arrogance had irritated him more than he cared to admit.

For some reason, this man seemed convinced that he was untouchable.

"Arghhhh! You fool! I am blessed by the World-Eating Boar!"

The chief screamed at the top of his lungs despite his catastrophic injuries. William ignored him completely, just like he had done.

Instead, he focused his attention on the tusk pendant.

Using Variance Energy, he had shattered the protective barriers made by this artifact and snatched it away before the chief could react.

The man’s screams grew even louder.

"How dare you ignore me!"

At that point, the women who had been surrounding him moments earlier were nowhere to be seen. The instant his power and status had vanished, they had abandoned him without hesitation.

William casually grabbed the screaming chief by the hair and dragged him away from the throne before tossing his mutilated body aside.

The blood-covered ivory throne now sat empty.

Without the slightest hesitation, William walked forward and claimed the seat for himself.

Crossing one leg over the other, he settled comfortably into the throne and surveyed the gathered tribe.

"Now then." A faint smile appeared on his face.

"Let’s see what we’ve got here."

His eyes began to glow.

William activated his Omniscient Eyes and carefully scanned every person present before him.