"I'm summoning here a promising youth, Young Master, please knock him out and throw him into the coffin. There are two of them since they're a pair, so please leave the man alive."
Despite bringing over a couple of elites, Edmund didn't doubt Ken's ability to overpower them both effortlessly. He already bore witness to Ken's prowess as the young cultivator slaughtered enemies a whole stage above him.
After declaring his intentions, a portal was opened in the room, and soon a pair of young cultivators entered. One of them was a young man with brown hair and dark eyes, his body fit, and his height was impressive. The other was a young woman with black hair and green eyes, her high cheekbones adding to her face's sharpness and beauty.
"Honey, did you hear that? We won a lottery of a million Qi Stones, we are so lucky!"
"Yes, I can't believe we won it! Let's hurry up and take the reward!"
The two talked loudly, and Ken's concentration on the ambush almost faltered from the excuse Edmund used to lure them.
Before the two took another step, he already appeared next to them and swung his sword, cutting through the woman's throat and killing her on the spot.
"Maya!"
The man shouted in fear when he realized what happened. However, his raised hands were swept to the side and a hilt of a sword crashed into his temple, sending him into unconsciousness.
"Thank you, Young Master. Now please, put him inside the coffin so I can take over his body."
Edmund's way of addressing Ken also changed when he decided to grovel at the teen's feet until he somehow finds a way to get freed.
"Let me check the contents of that ring first," However, Ken didn't hurry. Ken, who had been interrupted earlier while trying to claim the ring, first went to do that before fulfilling the elder's request.
Paying two million BP for the Immortal Qi Stones, he imprinted the storage ring with his Qi and investigated its contents. Inside, he found a number he estimated as a few hundred or slightly under a thousand.
"Only that many stones? That's all they could mine from the Qi Stone vein?"
Ken asked suspiciously when he saw the meager amount inside. He used his access to Medium Qi Stones as a reference to the amount of Immortal Qi Stones the elders should have.
"Young Master, there's no mine of Immortal Qi Stones. They are never formed naturally in the Mortal Realm. When a cultivator at the top of the ninth stage ascends, he goes through a tribulation to test his right to ascend. During the tribulation, Immortal Qi washes over his surroundings, giving many objects immortal attributes."
"Sounds like a great opportunity," Ken imagined the number of immortal treasures each of the top 5 sects must have under their possession but soon understood that the immortals probably took most of the treasures with them.
"It is. That's why elders who are about to break through always cultivate surrounded by a pile of treasures and High Qi Stones. Most objects just shatter upon being pervaded by the Immortal Qi, so it's not exactly a 100% success rate."
"And that's why there are so few Immortal Qi Stones?"
"Yes. The supreme elders took with them most of the mutated objects as they didn't want to enter the new realm without any belongings. It'd be very hard to survive as new immortals in a realm they know nothing about. We don't even know the average strength in the Immortal Realm. Each elder left 100 Immortal Qi Stones behind for inheritors."
His explanation made sense and Ken didn't find any faulty with them. If all the Immortal Qi was used for is helping elders ascend, then mortals probably didn't require many stones anyway.
"Young Master, are you satisfied?" The elder asked hesitantly. He was extremely uneasy about the possibility that Ken will renege on his word and not let him take control of the body he chose.
"I am. Here's your reward, I will open the coffin and throw the man in."
"Thank you, Young Master!" Edmund's excitement was evident in his tone, making Ken smile in amusement.
The young child grabbed the cultivator on the floor by the collar of his shirt and dragged him toward the coffin. He opened the lid and threw the man inside.
"Hahaha! I will be free of this cage at last, and I will be alive!"
Edmund laughed before the room turned silent, hinting to Ken that the elder was in the process of assaulting the young man's soul. With an impish smile, Ken pulled the lid back, closing the coffin.
"Wait, what happened? Young Master, did you close the coffin?"
Edmund's anxious voice reverberated inside the room. The old man feared the worst had happened, and he was betrayed by Ken.
"Of course, did you think I'd let an old monster out? You know too much about me, and the cons of freeing you overweighs the benefits. Anyway, open a portal for me to a safe location near a spot where a portal to the outside will be opened when the secret realm is collapsing."
"No, you can't do this to me! You promised to let me out! I swear to the heavens, I will always serve under you for the rest of my life, please! Don't leave me here alone!"
Edmund screamed desperately as he opened a portal against his will due to his master's command.
"For the next 24 hours, you are not allowed to speak and talk anymore, you're not allowed to take any action, give any further rewards or information to anyone, or communicate with any person. You must enter a meditation where you neither hear nor interact with anything. Don't hinder anyone from getting out of the secret realm and don't try to open less portals than originally planned."
Ken instructed indifferently and only bent down to take the storage ring off the dead girl's finger.
"I'm not cruel enough to leave you alone in a collapsed realm. Didn't I gift you with a companion?"
Ken smirked and entered the portal, disappearing from the stone room. Only a dead body, a coffin, and silent despair remained behind.
Updat𝒆d fr𝑜m fr𝒆ewebnove(l).com