How Much For Your Soul?

Chapter 8

Today was Shen Yue's eighth birthday, and he was quite chuffed with himself. Just over a year ago he had sowed the seeds of three organizations, and they have now grown into dominant powers within Glory City. Of course, as with all things, there will be a few 'bad apples'. But these were simple enough to take care of.

One of the blacksmiths tried to sell the enchanting inscriptions to the Secret Treasure Pavilion, thinking that because he had reached the black-gold rank, his mysterious employer would be unable to touch him.

Regrettably, when the meeting was taking place, fifteen powerful masters annihilated everyone in the room and vanished after looting them. The only thing the city guard found at the gruesome scene, was a Dark Guild mark! Shen Yue had no problem throwing the blame onto others.

The remaining two blacksmiths knew that it was not the work of the Dark Guild, as the traitorous smith's head had been left in there workshop. Next to the head was a pile of coins and the instructions to keep up the good work! Safe to say, they were remarkably diligent in making the Heavenly Crafting Guild, the most prestigious guild in the city.

Shen Yue had obtained fifty young adults from the poor population, pumping them full of techniques, equipment, and resources. When he recruited for his Heavenly Crafting Guild, he also found a worthy family to be his personal smith. With countless resources, they rose to the black-gold rank before any of the members of the Celestial Brotherhood.

When those four brothers rebelled, it was these fifty youths that tracked them down, a different team for each of the four targets. This was to show the group what betrayal delivers.

Yang Xin had not disappointed him, and after nine months of preparation, she walked into Saint Judgement Hall to register her guild and pills. That single move was the first blow to the inevitable downfall of the Alchemy Association.

Shen Yue had given her enough demon spirit coins to train up twenty youths into capable apprentices. They did not have the knowledge required to pass the tests of the association, but they were trained in refining the different pills sold by their guild. Their cultivation had also been promoted to the gold rank making refining easier.

The Celestial Brotherhood was recognised as the dominant presence in Glory City, with its original twenty-one members at peak black-gold. For some weird reason, they could not advance to legendary rank, almost as if something was stopping them! The most popular opinion was that the legend rank was just too difficult to achieve with their red soul realm.

After their first successful hunt, they were directed to take squires. They could choose anyone, but if the squire betrayed the guild, it was their duty to put them down and place the severed head of the traitor in the Hall of Villains!

Shen Yue really was quite satisfied with how his projects had turned out. His mercenary company practically ran itself, with Su Qiang there to resolve the major problems. Yang Xin was recruiting only the cream of the crop from the Alchemy Association and promising youths from the commoners.

Yang Xin still hadn't found any reliable subordinates with enough ability to help manage the guild, so she was run a bit ragged. The Heavenly Crafting Guild only supplied the market with quality bronze and silver rank weapons and armour. The exception was the Celestial Brotherhood, they received the highest quality black-gold equipment the smiths' could make.

This blatant favouritism and the sudden emergence of three major organisations with peak masters raised many questions. Even Blind Freddy could see the relation between them, but there was no link beside the exclusive deal between the Celestial Brotherhood and the Heavenly Crafting Guild.

The patriarchs of the most influential Families in Glory City had been on high alert since these groups had suddenly appeared. Yet only the mercenary group had an unknown leader, everyone else had been recognised as a citizen of Glory City. They had all emerged with too much strength, even if they had desired to do something it was far too late now.

If a Family produces a gold rank demon spiritualist, they can become an Aristocrat Family. Similarly, a black-gold rank can become a Noble Family, and if they produce three black-gold or a legend rank expert, they can become a dominant Family.

Before Shen Yue disrupted the balance of Glory City, there had only been three primary Families, seven Noble Families and twenty Aristocratic Families. Anyone of his three companies could rival a dominant Family.

There was also his own Family. Shen Yue had not publically announced his Nemesis Family, but its members already dwarfed his other businesses' might. He had gone through three recruitment drives, each time selecting fifty guards.

-Su Qiang - Lord Chamberlain, 1- star Legend

-Zhang Jing - Master of the Household, 3-star Legend

-Su Mei - Maid, 2-star Legend

Guards rank:

- 1 x 3-star Legend

- 4 x 2-star Legend

- 45 x 1-star Legend

- 50 x Gold

- 50 x Bronze

Other than Yang Xin and his Family servants, he had placed a seal on his other minions to prevent them from reaching legend rank. It was quite an ingenious design in its simplicity. It was a switch fused into their loyalty mark and cultivation technique, that activated when they reached the 5-star black-gold rank. It made them unable to absorb Qi as if they were back using their original cultivation technique.

Even though it was his birthday, he still finished his morning training. Since he couldn't absorb any soul force without becoming a bronze rank, he did the next best thing, focusing on control and strength of his soul force. This was done by using his upgraded version of Secret Soul Technique. Other than this, he kept his fitness levels up and did some mild bodybuilding without damaging his young body.

But now it was time for his birthday present, treasure! It was time to raid the Ancient Orchid City Ruins for loot. Su Mei had already arranged everything and was just waiting on him. Stepping out of his private courtyard, he looked around his compound, please with what he saw.

Immediately after the Su family reached the black-gold rank, he had used his substantial fortune to create a massive compound in the poor section of Glory City. It was easy enough with the money he threw around, from relocating families to paying workers, he made sure to compensate them well, keeping his public sentiment high.

He had a tempory house constructed first and moved in straight away, giving the explanation when asked, that it was to oversee construction. But it was to be close to his newly recruited guards, disguised as workers. Even after his mansion was built, thanks to the massive amount of cheap labour available, he just used the excuse of retaining some of the workers as guards. This baffled everyone as they assumed he only had bronze fighters protecting him.

They found out the hard way when none of the people sent returned. Shen Hong was especially pissed off as he lost a black-gold expert! The Sacred Family only had four of them including Shen Hong! All up, they had exterminated twenty-four experts sent to capture the young genius, with the majority from the Dark Guild. Shen Yue had made sure to scan the defeated enemies for books, but nothing impressive was discovered. There was one captured enemy that caused great regret to the Su family.

The bronze fighter that had refused his service, to keep living his life had been recruited to help kidnap Shen Yue. Su Dong had been quickly captured by his own father. If it didn't pain his trusted servants, Shen Yue would have found the situation extremely funny.

Believing his family to have no cultivation, he had ordered them to move out the way so he could do his job. When they had refused, clichd lines like 'don't blame me' and, 'you don't know the power of who I work for' were thrown out. Su Dong was promptly knocked out, and Shen Yue told them to throw him out on the street and give the idiot a second chance. If he tried again, then he would be crippled.

It was hard to keep a straight face through the entire event, as he really did appreciate the Su family. Su Qiang practically ran his empire, Zhang Jing ran his compound with an iron fist, and Su Mei was super cute. Cultivation really did improve appearances. Su Mei had been easy on the eyes before, but now she rivalled supermodels!

As Shen Yue walked to the gates of his compound, he noticed Su Mei addressing a group of twenty teenagers wearing cloaks.

"Young master, we are ready when you are." Informed Su Mei, handing a child-sized cloak to him.

"Then let's head out!" Shen Yue was excited, everybody loves treasure!

Travelling to the ruins was a simple affair, the only difficulty was not being seen using their abilities. Once assured they wouldn't be observed, Su Mei picked Shen Yue up, and the group made legendary speed towards the Ancient Orchid City Ruins.

It took Nie Li and his group six days of walking to get there. Their group did it two. They could have made it there in one day, but they were not in a rush since a few of the boys wanted to fight some demon beasts. They didn't get many chances at live combat exposure.

Finding where Nie Li entered the underground palace didn't take long. With legend experts eliminating anything that came too close, the ruined statue was located quite quickly.

Shen Yue touched the statue, letting his library work its magic. The ancient text was quickly interpreted and password obtained. Best cheat system ever! With Su Mei holding him, and his assembly of legendary experts gathered around, he read out the words to activate the pitfall. Floating down to the underground palace, they had a much smoother descent than Nie Li and Ye Ziyun.

Plundering anything of value on their trip to Emperor Kong Ming's tomb, it was almost pleasant walking through the underground maze. With twenty legend-ranked guards, the traps were quickly found and disarmed. Without too many delays, they reached the great hall that held Kong Ming's stone coffin.

The hall was full of bones from people that sheltered here when the city was destroyed. Shen Yue immediately ordered his men to plunder the shit out of the room, every skeleton was to be checked thoroughly.

The coffin gave off a great pressure that with Shen Yue's lack of cultivation would have been impossible to approach if he was by himself. With his guards dealing with the coffin's aura, he cautiously approached an touched the ancient stone coffin.

And just like that, the problem disappeared!

[ Fake Emperor Kong Ming Coffin,

"Flaws, No 1, Didn't account for a young master with expert guards and a cheat system... ]

The text on the coffin ended up being a riddle that needed the answer spoken aloud to unlock. Shen Yue retreated to a safe distance and ordered his guards to gather in one area. When the sarcophagus was activated, they were waiting to absorb the expert's un-dissipated soul force. Ten minutes later, the coffin was unlocked, and his guards had gained a boost to their cultivation.

Inside was one of the Temporal Demon Spirit Book's missing pages and the abstruse gemstone. Lending the necklace to Su Mei until he could cultivate, he scanned the page with his library. Unfortunately, it was not considered a book or scroll, but instead an artifact. By pouring one's soul force into the page, if it was strong enough to resonate with the pattern, they could activate the ability of the page.

Not a total loss, he would be collecting them all anyway, so he was rather pleased instead. With this area cleared, it was time to find the treasury, and two days later, the secret door leading there was found and opened. There were mounds of gold coins piled high and littered with weapons, armour, scrolls, and materials.

"Why would someone do that? A treasury should be well organised with everything labelled. How else would you find anything?" Said Shen Yue to his cute maid.

Su Mei could only shake her head, she also wondered why people regularly threw their treasure together in piles carelessly.

"Maybe it is a countermeasure against theft; If they can not find what they seek quickly, it will increase the chance of being caught?" She speculated. It sounded as good as any reason to store valuable possessions on the floor in an unorganised heap.

"Well, lets only take a quarter of this vast pile of riches and leave the rest for someone else... said no one sane! Honestly, you would have to be an absolute retard to give this away!" Yelled Shen Yue mockingly, remembering some of the fan-fictions he had read.

Nie Li had reached the pinnacle of cultivation to battle the Sage-Emperor with little to no resources. Did they really think that with his future knowledge and skills, he couldn't do it again? It was ludicrous, Shen Yue would be keeping everything for himself to use on his subordinates.

The guards had looked at him like he was a fool when he was talking about abandoning the find of a lifetime. 'Even if he has awesome skills, he is still an eight-year-old!' they laughed to themselves as they began to sort the loot into piles of the same type.

Five hours later, and there wasn't even mouse shit left on the floor. Shen Yue had pillaged everything, paying particular attention to the Shadow Devil Spirit Lamp. Too bad he didn't find the Nightmare Demon Pot, he would have to loot the Dark Ruins to get that bad boy.

It was a pity his plot armour no Jutsu didn't activate, it would have saved him some time. But that would be absurd, expecting there to be two heavens-defying artifacts around the same city was laughable.

With everything packed away, it was finally time to check out his own land.

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