Abigail pulled her rope, dragging Tiara mercilessly. The cold and aloof princess lost her charm; she was bruised and scarred from torture. Ken felt angry at the gesture; Tiara was his companion and he decided to groom her, and she was in this situation now only to taunt him.
"What's the point of capturing those two?"
"We heard you were very powerful and had many dangerous tricks. We were offered the Inheritor Protection Talisman when we passed the former challenge, but we couldn't afford it. However, those two little things here told us you were rich, and we don't want to risk fighting you if you have it."
Mason explained to Ken the situation, and Ken could guess their objective. They planned to use the captives to extort him.
"Get to the point."
"Haha, don't be so impatient. You only need to give us your storage rings, and we will let those two go after we kill you."
"No."
The two furrowed their eyebrows in annoyance. They thought Ken wasn't taking their threat seriously enough.
"We will wait 10 seconds. If you don't give us the rings, we will kill the pretty girl first."
Abigail pushed Tiara onto the floor and placed her right foot on the ice princess' face, pressing it down against the hard stone floor.
"10… 9… 8…"
She started the countdown, but Ken only looked at them with a murderous stare, uncaring of their threat. He didn't attack yet because he had a strong feeling that he shouldn't attack, and it held him back.
"3…"
Tiara raised her head in difficulty, looking straight into Ken's eyes.
"Please Ken, don't let me die. We are friends, save me! Please!"
She begged as tears ran down her eyes, proving her unwillingness to die young by getting caught in the dispute of others.
"I'm sorry, Tiara, for dragging you into in my mess. I will make sure to avenge your death."
Ken felt a strong desire to help his companion, but he ignored it, nonetheless. Just like he told himself in the previous challenge, he wasn't courageous in the heroic sense of the word, and he'd never put the lives of others before his.
"1…"
Abigail raised her tone in a menacing manner, trying to convey the consequences of Ken's lack of cooperation with this single word.
"0."
She waved her hand as she performed a simple Fire Qi technique and Tiara's body caught fire.
"AHHHH! IT HURTS!!!"
Tiara screamed in agony as she got ignited. Ken watched in silence as the flames devour his teammate, listening to her screams echo in the room.
"You are quite the monster, willing to sacrifice your friends just so you won't have to lose a bit of money."
Mason said with a mocking tone as he pulled Alaric with a swift motion, making the young man grovel at his feet. Just like his sister, Mason placed his foot on Alaric's face to humiliate the man.
"Will you betray another friend, or will you give us your storage rings now?"
The man asked as a spear materialized in his hand. He placed the tip against Alaric's throat and looked at Ken with a cruel smile.
Ken's heart was beating loudly, his emotions were a mess from Tiara's death. He saw Alaric's eyes turn dark as the man lost hope of ever surviving the ordeal.
"Please, Team Leader, save my life. I thought you'd never backstab a teammate and admired you this whole time."
Despite Alaric's quiet voice, Ken heard him loud and clear. His guilt over Tiara's death intensified, and he played with the rings with his fingers, considering taking them off and doing as the Han siblings ordered him.
"I will start counting then, take your time thinking. 10… 9… 8…"
Mason teased Ken as he pressed Alaric's face against the ground viciously.
"3… 2… 1…"
"Wait!"
Ken shouted when Mason raised his spear, ready to thrust it and kill Alaric on the spot.
"What is it? Ready to give up your rings yet?"
"No. I want to offer a different deal."
"Oh? I'm listening."
Ken took a deep breath. Something was pushing him to keep his moral code and save his underling. He knew that Alaric trusted him with his whole heart, and he didn't want to fail him.
"I will throw the storage rings to the corner behind me, this way I won't be able to use their contents during our fights."
"And we won't either. Fine, we don't need your belongings to kill a fourth-stage cultivator. Do it, and we won't kill him."
"Fine."
Ken took off his rings one by one. He had five of them. Once they were all in his palm, he threw them to the corner of the room, out of reach.
"Good boy. We will let him go after we kill you."
Abigail said with a ridiculing smile and motioned to Mason to throw the prisoner behind them for now. Mason followed her lead and held Alaric from his robes and threw the injured man away.
"Do you think you can survive now?"
Ken asked them coldly. He didn't doubt his abilities to defeat two cultivators in their stage, and they weren't even from a top 5 sect.
"Yes. After all, we also want you to give up this dangerous-looking belt you keep there on your waist."
"Keep dreaming."
Ken frowned when Abigail revealed they knew he held his weapon on his body and not in his storage ring, but he had his bottom line, and giving up his weapon was it. Even if they threatened to kill Alaric, he wouldn't give up his weapon.
"Don't be too hasty to decline. Look, we still have a surprise for you. Connor, bring them in!"
Ken clenched his teeth in anger when a new young man entered the room, pulling a middle-aged man by his neck with the rope wrapped around it. Ken could see the man was hugging something close to his chest and protecting it with his body.
He recognized Connor Han, a cousin of the siblings, and another fifth-stage cultivator of the young generation of the Han Clan. What made him angry wasn't Connor but the identity of the man he was dragging, Haoran Sue.
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