Chapter 90: Captured!

"Greetings, Lady Ning. My name is Damian Baines, and I am here to take your life!"

The gentlemanly greeting somehow made the declaration considerably worse.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Damian stood alone roughly 15 meters from the ruined Nightmare Corpse Sect rear line, facing three Qi Condensation cultivators who, according to ordinary cultivation logic, should all have possessed the confidence to attack him.

Yet none of them did.

Tang Yuyen trembled like a feather in the wind, Fang Lu sat in the mud with fear on his face, and Ning Ruomei stared at Damian with an expression that had finally lost every trace of her earlier languid amusement.

After all, what exactly were they supposed to believe about this man anymore?

His cultivation said early Qi Condensation, but their eyes had just watched him unleash destructive power at the Foundation Establishment level.

Then, immediately afterward, Damian had vanished and reappeared through space twice!

Spatial traversal!

Something associated with Void Refining cultivators!

Their minds were desperately trying to reconcile three completely incompatible pieces of information while the man responsible for the contradiction stood before them smiling pleasantly.

More importantly...

They wanted to live!

Ning Ruomei felt this more strongly than anyone.

The instant Damian finished speaking, she watched his right hand begin to rise toward her.

Her face changed greatly.

Death!!

For perhaps the first time in Ning Ruomei’s entire life, she felt absolutely certain that death had descended upon her!

Even standing before her father had never felt this way.

After all, Xie Man had beaten and manipulated her all her life, going as far as to control her and occasionally push her body close enough to death that Ning Ruomei understood exactly how little paternal affection protected her from his wrath.

But underneath all of that cruelty sat something important, her usefulness.

Xie Man found her useful.

Even when he abused her, he did not actually want Ning Ruomei dead.

Damian though, was different.

Ning Ruomei’s beauty meant nothing before that slowly rising palm.

Her body, the figure that had made countless men lose reason, the face people remembered years after meeting her, her status as Xie Man’s daughter...

Nothing!

This man had crossed half the battlefield specifically to kill her!

For one horrifying instant, memories actually began flashing through Ning Ruomei’s mind.

She was literally watching her life flash before her eyes!

"Wait! Lord Damian, please wait!"

Damian’s hand stopped.

"Hm?"

He raised an eyebrow and turned his head.

Mu Qingyao was rushing across the battlefield with Shen Xueyi several steps behind her, and that moment was all Fang Lu needed!

The man who had been reduced to a trembling pile of fear suddenly exploded upward like a cornered beast!

His hand disappeared inside his robes and a dark talisman emerged.

"Die, you freak! DIE! DIE!!"

Fang Lu poured his Refined Qi into it with a crazed expression!

The High Grade Two talisman erupted with corpse-green light as a sinister Daoist Art took shape.

<Corpse Scythe>!

A massive crescent of condensed Corpse Qi manifested in front of Fang Lu, shaped like the blade of a monstrous scythe.

The surrounding grass withered merely from its passage, causing even mud to blacken, then the crescent swung toward Damian’s exposed side!

"No matter how powerful you are, you will die here today!" Fang Lu roared hysterically.

"NO!" Mu Qingyao screamed, her face drained of color.

Damian had turned around because of her!

If she had not called to him, had not distracted him...!

Behind her, Shen Xueyi reacted immediately.

Water erupted from the moisture covering the battlefield, condensing into an enormous blue crescent around her hand before she slashed forward.

WHOOOSH!

The attack tore toward Fang Lu, but it was too slow!

Tang Yuyen’s face transformed into one of joy!

"YES!"

Malicious euphoria flooded her aged features.

For the first time since Damian’s arrival, hope exploded through her chest!

Kill him!

Kill this monster!

End everything!

Ning Ruomei alone did not celebrate, because unlike the others...

She could see Damian’s partially turned face, and the tiny smirk upon it.

His lips were already moving.

"Tu Es Forte!"

Golden divine light erupted around Damian!

A radiant barrier manifested in an instant, translucent gold wrapping around his body while brilliant sacred patterns and rotating sigils flashed across its surface.

<Shield of Faith>!

The <Corpse Scythe> struck.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!

A horrific shriek rang across the battlefield.

It sounded less like two magical attacks colliding and more like some inhuman creature being thrown onto a furnace.

The enormous Corpse Qi blade disintegrated!

The green-black energy struck the golden barrier and vaporized like water splashed across red-hot steel.

Within seconds, nothing of it remained, and the <Shield of Faith> had not even flickered!

Fang Lu’s manic laughter stopped while Tang Yuyen’s euphoric expression froze upon her face.

Mu Qingyao stumbled to a stop as a weak sound escaped her throat.

"H-Hah..."

It was... a relieved sob.

Shen Xueyi’s eyes narrowed before she immediately dispersed the water crescent she had launched, turning it into harmless rain before it reached the group.

Damian slowly turned around, his smile remaining on his face.

Fang Lu began trembling terribly, the man’s entire body shaking like a boat caught inside a torrential storm.

His teeth chattered.

"I... please... no... I..."

He could not even form a proper apology nor could he beg coherently, a wet stain spreading beneath his robes.

Damian looked downward, then back at him, and immediately, his expression filled with disgust.

"Flagra!"

Golden radiance exploded from Damian’s palm as <Guiding Bolt> crossed the distance faster than Fang Lu could react!

BOOM!

The divine projectile struck him squarely in the chest, but there was no explosion of blood nor any burning flesh.

Instead...

Fang Lu’s body began collapsing inward.

"Wh—"

His Corpse Qi disappeared first, years of refined death energy vanished beneath the Holy power as though it had never belonged within a living body.

Then came everything that Corpse Qi had sustained.

His cultivated flesh withered as muscle shrank against bone and blood seemed to disappear from beneath his skin.

His face aged decades in seconds as cheeks hollowed and skin sagged around a suddenly skeletal frame.

The previously powerful Qi Condensation Level 8 cultivator became a dried husk standing inside oversized robes.

One trembling arm rose.

"G-Give me..."

His voice sounded like dried leather dragged over stone.

"...back my... cultivation..."

Plop!

Fang Lu collapsed to the ground, then his corpse began turning grey, crumbling into ash as a gust of battlefield wind scattered him across the mud.

Tang Yuyen stared in horror, her pupils becoming pinpoints.

Damian looked at her.

"No! Wait!" Tang Yuyen immediately tore open the front of her robes.

Damian paused. "...?"

The older woman exposed far more of herself than anyone present had requested before desperately arranging her body into what she apparently believed was a seductive pose.

"Lord Damian, spare me! I can serve you! I will become your slave! I-I possess many techniques, and when I reach Foundation Establishment my youth will return! I can satisfy whatever desires you possess!"

Mu Qingyao’s mouth fell open while Shen Xueyi slowly looked away in disgust.

Even Ning Ruomei appeared mildly embarrassed for her.

Damian stared at Tang Yuyen, but surprisingly, there was no disgust on his face.

Rather, there was just... pity.

"Please respect yourself, Ma’am." Damian scolded coldly.

Tang Yuyen’s expression collapsed as Damian raised both hands.

"Arde!"

WHOOOOM!

<Burning Hands> erupted forward, the cone of natural Valorian fire swallowing Tang Yuyen before she could defend herself properly.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

Her scream became almost immediately unnatural as ordinary fire was bad enough, but the special flames of Damian’s magic meeting the Corpse Qi of a Qi Condensation Level 9 cultivator?

Terrible fucking combination, I tell you.

Tang Yuyen thrashed wildly as fire rushed across her robes and entered her body through her corrupted energy.

She managed three desperate steps then collapsed.

Her screaming lasted several seconds longer before the burning figure finally stopped moving and silence returned.

Now...

Only Ning Ruomei remained.

Damian turned toward her, and his killing intent had not diminished whatsoever.

Fortunately for Ning Ruomei, Mu Qingyao and Shen Xueyi finally reached them.

Damian glanced toward Mu Qingyao.

"So, why did you want me to wait?"

Mu Qingyao swallowed.

After nearly getting him killed, even accidentally, asking for something now felt far more uncomfortable than she had expected.

Still...

"Lord Damian... please don’t kill Ning Ruomei. Capture her instead."

"No." Damian responded almost immediately.

Mu Qingyao blinked.

"...Eh?"

Damian folded his arms. "Not happening. Keeping her alive is unnecessarily dangerous."

"She infiltrated your side for years under another identity, tried to have me killed, understands more about my goods than almost anyone in the Nightmare Corpse Sect, deliberately came here as part of an obvious trap, and happens to be the daughter of the strongest enemy leader in this entire conflict."

He glanced toward Ning Ruomei.

"She’s intelligent, manipulative, connected and already demonstrated that ordinary restraints don’t mean much when you’re dealing with someone who specializes in infiltration. Keeping her alive creates rescue attempts, escape risks and another person constantly looking for a chance to put a knife in my back."

Damian shrugged.

"Why would I do that when killing her solves all those problems immediately?"

Mu Qingyao opened her mouth, then closed it.

She looked strangely miffed as she had not expected him to reject her!

It was such a relatively minor request too!

Before she could properly formulate another argument, Shen Xueyi stepped forward.

"Because killing her wastes several advantages."

Damian’s gaze moved toward her.

"Oh?"

Shen Xueyi continued immediately.

"Ning Ruomei is Xie Man’s daughter and has operated extensively inside the Nightmare Corpse Sect’s intelligence structure. She possesses information regarding their forces, personnel, resources, battlefront deployments and perhaps even internal weaknesses unavailable to ordinary prisoners."

Damian’s expression became thoughtful.

"Secondly, she is leverage. Xie Man may be cruel, but he has invested significant resources into her. Her life possesses political value whether affection exists or not."

Hmm... that was fair.

"And third?" Damian asked.

"Misdirection." Shen Xueyi replied.

Damian’s eyes sharpened.

Shen Xueyi continued, "If the Nightmare Corpse Sect does not immediately learn whether she is dead, captured or still operating independently, her disappearance creates uncertainty. Depending upon what information we extract from her, that uncertainty can later be exploited."

Damian stared at Shen Xueyi, then slowly nodded.

"That’s actually a good point."

Mu Qingyao’s eyebrow twitched.

What was that supposed to mean?!

She asked him first!

Damian rejected her immediately, yet Shen Xueyi walked over, gave him a few arguments and suddenly he was considering it?

A faint, extremely unpleasant emotion sprouted inside Mu Qingyao’s chest.

Jealousy.

Which was ridiculous!

Completely ridiculous!

Especially because Shen Xueyi was her competitor and, worse, a woman Damian did not even appear to favor romantically nearly as much as her!

Mu Qingyao glanced at Shen Xueyi then at Damian, her lips thinning.

Damian did not notice as he was looking at Ning Ruomei.

The woman had completely surrendered by now.

There was no smug smile, no seductive teasing, nor any attempt to run.

She simply waited for the verdict of her life and death.

Damian hesitated, then closed his eyes and released a long breath.

"...Fine."

Mu Qingyao should have been relieved.

Instead, for one tiny shameful instant...

She felt disappointed.

’He should have killed her!’ She thought viciously.

Mu Qingyao froze.

Huh?

Where had that thought come from?

She stared at Ning Ruomei and suddenly became deeply uncomfortable with herself.

Damian, thankfully, remained completely unaware of the small moral crisis occurring behind him.

He raised his hand toward Ning Ruomei.

"Non Movere!"

Golden-red divine power wrapped around Ning Ruomei’s body as <Hold Person> activated, and her muscles instantly locked in place.

Her Wisdom was lower than Damian’s own, and the divine restraint seized her without difficulty.

Ning Ruomei froze completely, held upright by a glowing golden-red outline that wrapped around her limbs and torso.

Only her eyes remained capable of conveying what she felt.

Damian stepped closer and spoke slowly.

"Don’t resist when I release enough of this spell for movement later. If you try anything clever, I kill you immediately. Understood?"

Ning Ruomei’s eyes moved, showing acceptance.

"Good."

Damian turned toward the 4 Peak Body Tempering snakemen who had carried her palanquin.

"Put her inside and bring her back to our base camp. Cooperate, and once we arrive, I’ll free you."

The four snakemen looked at one another, then bowed.

Well... what choice did they have?

Besides...

They already belonged to somebody.

If Damian broke their existing chains after reaching camp, then from their perspective this was merely exchanging one slave master for another and potentially ending up free afterward.

That sounded considerably better than becoming ash.

Ning Ruomei was placed back inside the palanquin.

Heh, how appropriate!

She had arrived lounging inside it like a queen, and now she was leaving as cargo.

............

Cleanup took time.

The Evergreen disciples collected weapons, Storage Bags, intact talismans and anything else worth recovering while Jian Rui reorganized the formation and confirmed casualties.

The surviving Nightmare Corpse Sect disciples were disarmed and secured.

Eventually, the Evergreen Sect began its victorious return.

Only then did Damian finally turn his attention toward the enormous stack of System notifications waiting for him.

"Oh boy."

First came the Valorian simulation.

[Valorian Overworld System unavailable within current realm.]

[Beginning compatible Experience simulation...]

[Combat evaluation complete.]

[Battlefield-scale magical elimination of multiple CR 3 to CR 5 targets: +9 EXP.]

[First Adept level offensive output while below equivalent individual class stage: +4 EXP.]

[First CR 9 enemy slain: +7 EXP.]

[13th consecutive battle without suffering bodily harm: +1 EXP.]

[Experience Points: 21/132.]

21 EXP.

Damian nodded with satisfaction.

Considering Valoria had previously looked at 7 human kills and thrown him a handful of points like a stingy grandmother distributing candy?

This was excellent!

Besides with the rise in Exp requirements, if it gave out one or two points, then forget Masters, there would probably be less than five Grandmasters across the whole continent!

After the EXP distribution came the fun part, the <Skill Upgrade System>!

The Fireball had killed 82 Body Tempering cultivators in total.

Their individual levels varied widely, but once summed together...

[Valid Souls processed.]

[Fireball Mass Elimination:

Body Tempering Cultivators Slain: 82.

Skill Points Acquired: 517.]

Then the 2 new kills appeared.

[Fang Lu — Qi Condensation Level 8 slain.]

[Soul converted: +18 Skill Points.]

[Tang Yuyen — Qi Condensation Level 9 slain.]

[Soul converted: +19 Skill Points.]

[Current Skill Points: 554.]

Damian’s footsteps stopped.

"...Five hundred and fifty-four?"

Hohohoho!

His previous Willowbank hunting spree had given him 242 Skill Points and felt like striking oil.

This?

This was finding the fucking Middle East beneath his backyard!

And <Battle God> was even more enthusiastic.

[Battle God — Qualifying Kill Contribution Increased.]

[Uninterrupted Victories: 6.]

[Future Kill Experience Increase: 24.2% → 79.6%.]

Damian nearly stumbled.

79.6%?!

His future kills were rapidly approaching double their ordinary Experience value!

The Battle Aura inside him had also changed dramatically.

Previously, it felt like a faint pressure hidden beneath his normal presence.

Now though?

There was a new weight there, while not enough to make powerful cultivators collapse merely because Damian entered a room, it was enough that weaker people might instinctively realize this friendly-looking fellow had killed a rather disturbing number of people recently.

Finally came <Demonic Plundering Dao Body> with 84 compatible remnants.

Damian chose exactly what he had chosen every previous time.

"Attributes."

The harvest descended, and for several seconds, Damian almost stopped walking again.

His body changed continuously as dozens upon dozens of stolen fragments were refined and integrated.

The System eventually condensed the ridiculous mess into something readable.

[Attribute Plunder Complete.]

[Compatible Remnants Devoured: 84.]

[Attribute Gains:

STR: +12.6.

DEX: +17.8.

AGI: +15.1.

CON: +16.9.

INT: +4.0.

WIS: +5.3.

SPI: +4.1.

PER: +3.6.

CHA: +4.7.

LCK: +1.2.]

Damian went completely silent.

Then the final values appeared.

[Current Attributes:

STR: 25.0.

DEX: 34.4.

AGI: 28.2.

CON: 31.3.

INT: 15.5.

WIS: 16.8.

SPI: 19.5.

PER: 7.5.

CHA: 12.4.

LCK: 4.2.]

"..."

Good heavens.

The sheer physical change alone was ridiculous!

His Dexterity and Constitution had broken 30!

Even mental Attributes that had once been extremely difficult to increase had surged!

Damian slowly flexed his fingers, and the motion felt frighteningly precise.

And the most hilarious part?

He did not even need to keep all of it!

<Qi Transfer> existed.

If Damian eventually decided his personal Attributes had become unnecessarily bloated in certain areas, he could literally carve pieces off and start feeding them into his faction.

Damian looked ahead toward Willowbank Front, then smiled.

"Okay..."

This battle had been extremely profitable!

Behind him, Ning Ruomei remained completely immobilized inside her palanquin while ahead waited the base camp.

And somewhere beyond all of this, the Nightmare Corpse Sect had just lost an army, 2 Qi Condensation Elders and the daughter of their Ancestor in a single afternoon.

Damian’s smile widened.

Things were about to get interesting!