by Pegaz
“What I’ve given him will help his body generate blood faster. You can go to the king now. I’ll teleport to Kelly.”
John prepared to teleport, but before he could, Sarah pulled him close to her. “Thank you for being kind,” she whispered.
Without another word, she stroked his cheek and teleported away.
Chapter 23: Merging Techniques
Arriving outside the capital, John made his nano helmet change into the Nobody Sect’s mask. He used this mask the last time he met with the king and since the king wanted to see him again, he thought he should arrive dressed the way he did last time.
The clothes he wore were still the same brown t-shirt, trousers, and boots that knights wore off-duty. These were the clothes he wore every day to help keep his cover of a retired knight intact.
Inside his Scan, he saw guards lined along the red carpet. The king, of course, was sitting on his throne with two people sitting on both sides of him.
The man John saw last time had a giant hammer and wore the heavy armour; John remembered the king telling this man to stand down during his last visit.
The second person was much younger and looked a little like the king, leaving John to believe he was either the prince or a close relative.
I don’t want to wait until night time to talk to the king in private, but if I go inside and knock all the guards out like I did last time, the king might want more compensation during our trade.
What to do?
A few seconds later, a wicked smile crossed John’s face.
He used the light element to make the wavelengths move around him rather than bounce off him, turning him invisible.
Opening the system’s map again, John teleported behind the throne.
To ensure that he wouldn’t be detected, he stopped his breathing and turned on the Hover option before creating a few threads that were too small for the naked eye to see. He positioned the threads close to the king, setting them up to restrict him at the perfect moment for the rest of his plan.
John floated next to the king and waited for the others to stop talking.
When he saw the perfect time, he leaned in next to the king’s ear and whispered, “Stay calm.”
Just like he thought, the sudden voice in the king’s ear caused the king to jump in fright while trying to move his head towards where the voice was coming from, but John’s threads made it impossible for the king to move at all.
The others were completely oblivious to what was happening, as they couldn’t see or hear John, nor did the king show any signs of distress.
John carried on with his plan. “I received your letter and I’m here to see what it is you’ve got to trade. I’m not sure what you want in return, but let’s discuss this properly. Order your men to leave the throne room and I’ll show myself.”
He removed the threads from pushing against the king as soon as he was finished talking. He then watched the king dismiss everyone, saying he wanted some peace and quiet.
John stopped using his light element when everybody was gone and he could see nobody hiding with his Scan.
“Welcome!” The king stood up and bowed to John. “I didn’t expect you for another month or so. The rider that my son hired must have worked overtime and deserves a promotion when he gets back.”
Chuckling, John shook his head a little. “It wasn’t due to him working hard, but a series of coincidences that led me here.
“I was training my daughter when the prince of Gralux tried to put a crappy plan into action. I didn’t kill them all and wanted to see how my daughter dealt with him and his knights.
“Your daughter recognised that badge you traded with me last time and apologised to my daughter, but because of that, my daughter wanted to know the truth and went along with the prince instead of dealing with him.
“Your messenger met the prince’s men on the road while I was watching. Your man was attacked and almost killed, but I managed to save him and I found your letter.”
John went on to tell the king exactly what happened with Carola and the prince. The king’s face fell when he heard his daughter was near death, but he was relieved to learn that John and Sarah had saved her in time.
Straightening up from his bow, the king replied, “Thank you for saving my Carola. I will forever be grateful and if you need help with anything, then I will help to the best of my abilities.
“As for Roland, the Prince of Gralux, I’m completely fine with you letting your daughter kill him. If, for some reason, she does not follow through, I surely hope that you will secure the kill. Given you fail to do so, I’ll finish him myself, even if it means going to war.”
John nodded and reassured the king that both him and Kelly were more than capable of completing the task.
Returning to his throne, the king continued speaking. “I asked you here because I have something that might interest you.” He opened a small box next to him which contained a page from the ancient book. “My ancestor, the founder of this kingdom, was an immortal. He wrote this book and it’s been handed down for generations. I figured you might be interested in trading for it.”
John eyed the page and asked a few questions about how long ago his ancestor was alive and if the book mentioned what immortal rank they were.
The king answered everything he could before handing the loose page to John.
John had seen the page inside his Scan long ago but didn’t use his Scan to read it because this was a fair trade—only his enemies were worthy of being robbed.
He then read about the killing intent on the page and how it was a mistake trying to control it.
This makes sense.
Every time the killing intent came up before I gained full control, I couldn’t control my emotions.
Fighting Jeremy May and stopping that man from killing Sarah in the tournament caused me to lose my rationality due to anger. Those were just two of the times when the killing intent showed up without me controlling it.
It got worse as my strength increased, but it got better when I slowed down and went into a closed-door cultivation for almost nine years. Probably because I was asleep for so long and nothing had set me off emotionally, letting me calm down and gain as much control as I did.
I used to think I had full control, but when Kelly was born and I was forced to be on the battlefield, my anger flared up, though no killing intent showed up then.
When my killing intent froze a part of the forest after reading Kelly’s note, it made me realise that there’s no way to completely control emotions—even the system can’t.
This is only one page of the book, and it made me realise how unstable I was when I was weaker.
This changes things, too. I thought gaining control of the killing intent was a good way to train, but now I won’t let Kelly do the same thing when she becomes an immortal.
This book might have many more things that have been lost because the king said his ancestor ran from a war millions of years ago.
The war mentioned was more than likely the beastman war which was the cause of the decline in cultivation methods and other knowledge due to unknown reasons.
John handed the page back to the king. “What is it you want for the book?”
“Immortality for me and my family!” The king’s voice was unwavering, yet timid.
“I can make you and your family immortal,” John explained, “but there’s no Life Power on this planet, so you can’t get any stronger.
“Mortals only call us immortals because we outlive them. If I make you an immortal, you’ll become a Rank 1 immortal with a life span of about two hundred years, but you’ll still die of old age without getting stronger.
“So, here’s my counteroffer—I’ll make you and your immediate family immortal and I’ll provide you with something called Life Stones for you to get stronger, possibly letting you increase your rank and increase your lifespan even further, but… you need to give me the book first so I can see how good it is.
“The better the information in the book, the more Life Stones I’ll give you in return. The only question is, will you trust me enough to give the book first?”
Unexpectedly, the king agreed to the counteroffer immediately after John had finished speaking. He then asked John to follow him to his vault.
Once inside, John saw the king lift up a fake panel. The space inside was airtight when the fake tile was in place.
Whoever set this up was smart. Air and temperature will destroy books over time, but since this was placed in an airtight place, the book survived this long. If it was on a normal bookshelf then it would’ve disintegrated by now.
John watched the king unwrap the book and carefully place it onto the desk not far from him.
He walked over and was about to sit down to read the book when he looked at the king.
The king smiled and walked out, giving John some privacy.
John smiled. He’s a smart man.
He combed through the book, making sure the pages didn't get damaged in the process. He could use his Scan, but he thought it would be better to read it with his own eyes in case there were any hidden runes inside the pages, just like the bounty posters that helped him identify the beastmen for the bounty guild.
It only took him a few minutes to read most of the book.
Unfortunately, just like the information about the killing intent, it was mainly the common knowledge that immortals knew before the beastmen war that was written.
Though when John got to the last page, he found a new absorbing technique that looked ordinary, but the breathing technique that matched it was… unique.
It explained that the user should use a thumb to close one nostril to breath in once, use the index finger to close the other nostril to breath out the mouth once, and a few more actions similar to those that needed specific timing.
After he finished reading it all, he felt one of his skills working.
It was from the skill he bought from the Sinner’s Shop, where it merged all techniques together to create the best cultivation technique.
I can’t use these new techniques because I’ve already filled up both the brain and body’s counter with Toxin Power. I’m going to have to give it to Sarah and ask her how much per minute extra she’s gaining.
Kelly will learn the newest cultivation methods when she turns twenty-one, too, so this is important.
The king should still give me about half an hour of peace before he comes to check on me, so I can teleport there, get Sarah to use the new techniques, and then pay the king the appropriate amount for a fair trade.
John opened up his system map and found Kelly and Sarah’s map icons.
Since he had flown to the capital every two years, the whole area near them was green in the map, making it possible to teleport directly to their location.
He soon disappeared from the castle.
Chapter 24: Kelly’s Note
John arrived high in the air almost directly above Kelly. He saw Kelly running alongside the carriage in his Scan and saw that she was fine, but he couldn’t find Sarah in the Scan like usual.
He looked all around him before finally fixing his gaze on a small dot about a mile higher up than he was. John made his way towards it, being careful not to be seen by anyone.
“Finished already?” Sarah asked as soon as John got closer.
Shaking his head, John created an Information Sphere with the new absorbing and breathing techniques. “I need your help.”
Placing the sphere against her forehead, Sarah soon learned the information John had obtained.
“The king had a book from his immortal ancestor,” John explained. “It was mainly common knowledge, but there were two techniques which my merging skill took. I’ve already gained everything my body and neurons can store, and I can’t use them without using a lot of Toxin Power. I only need to know how much of an increase this gives you per minute so I can pay the king properly.”
Sarah nodded and stopped all mind parts from cultivating. She took note of the number of Toxins inside her system and used two mind parts to cultivate: one part for the absorbing and another for the breathing technique.
A minute later, Sarah stopped them all again before checking the number.
“Five million Toxin Power per minute. An increase of one million!” Sarah was shocked at the increase.
John’s eyebrows arched and his mouth opened a little.
It took almost a minute for John to chuckle. “Didn’t expect that. Guess I’ve got to give the king a little extra now.”
“What did he ask for?” Sarah asked.
“What most mortals dream about—Immortality.
“I’ll help him, his son, and his daughter become immortals. I also told him about Life Power and I said that I would give him some Life Stones afterwards, but the amount depended on how good the information in the book was.
“Anyways, I’m going back to finish this deal so you can get back to your hospital sooner.”
After speaking, John teleported back inside the king’s castle. He used his light element to turn invisible again before he walked back into the vault.
Cancelling the light element, John walked out of the vault so the king saw him.
He told the king how good the cultivation techniques were at the back of the book and he would give the king and his family twenty Grade 9 Life Stones each. He then explained how the Life Stones were ranked as well as how to use the cultivation techniques.
After explaining everything, John asked, “You sure about giving your son immortality? I’ve already seen a prince kill the king to claim the throne because he couldn’t wait to be king, but now you’re going to gain more than a hundred years of life which you could be king for the entire time. Can your son wait that long?”
“I planned to retire anyway,” the king responded, shaking his head. “With the extra life expectancy, I can enjoy life more.”
John nodded and asked the king to bring his son to the vault, too.
An hour later, John used his threads to place a single unit of Life Power inside the centre neuron of both the king and his son, turning them immortal. He placed forty Grade 9 Life Stones on the table next to their ancestor’s book before disappearing.
Back at the hospital, John repeated the process on the princess. To bring her back to full health, he transferred a lot of vitality into her before teleporting her back to the capital and giving her twenty Life Stones. When she woke up and got over her initial shock of what happened, he explained part of the deal to her but said that her father would have to explain the rest. She agreed and left to arrange for her knights and the messenger to get back on their own.
John took over looking after Kelly after everything was said and done. He updated Sarah on the situation and, together, they waited to make their next move.
It took another two months and seven days for the prince’s carriage to reach the outskirts of the capital.
When they were only a few miles outside the gates, the knights and carriage veered off the road to their left and travelled for an hour before they reached an abandoned old house in the woods.
Kelly hopped off the carriage to take a look around. Seeing the rundown house made of old wood that was rotting and could collapse at any moment, she knitted her brows as she knew they weren’t in the capital like the prince had promised.
Without giving her a chance to question the prince, one of the knights drew his sword and shouted, “Get inside!”
Kelly was just about to run towards the knight and disarm him, but the rest of the knights drew their weapons and she heard Roland clear his throat. “We have left two knights near your parents’ house and all it takes is for this messenger pigeon to fly to them for your parents to get killed.”
He raised up a bird cage that had the messenger pigeon inside. One of his hands was on the cage’s door, ready to open it and let the pigeon free.
Wringing her hands, Kelly turned around and walked inside the house.
When she entered it, she saw someone sitting on a single sofa in the hallway, about twenty feet away.
He was dressed in a black and silver overcoat and a weird mask. One leg was resting on his knee and his arms on his stomach as he sat there comfortably.
She thought this was the mastermind in whatever the prince had in mind. She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the head knight entering the room. “Who’re you?”
The man ignored the knight and fixed his gaze on Kelly. “You done playing around now?”
When the knight heard the man, he thought the question was directed towards him. Gritting his teeth, the knight charged at the man with his sword as high in the air as he could get it without hitting the ceiling.
Bang!
The knight disappeared right in front of Kelly’s eyes.
Wondering what happened, she crept towards the man while on high alert. As she passed the doorway to the room on her left, she noticed there was more light than she expected and a wind caressed her face.
Turning her head to look inside the room, she saw there was a massive hole in the wall. Outside the house, she could see the grass and dirt were untouched.
That meant that if the knight was hit outside the house and made that hole, the force of the impact was strong enough to make the knight fly through the air for a long distance, too. The knight, however, was nowhere in sight.
“Kelly, I’ll ask you in another way,” the man huffed. “Are you done screwing around with your fishing expedition?”
Kelly turned around as soon as the man had said her name, but she couldn’t figure out how the man knew her or what he meant by screwing around. She didn’t recognise the voice, but it did sound like it was muffled, like the man was trying to change his voice.
She then saw the mask start to move like a liquid and it only took a few seconds for her to recognise the person. “D-dad?”
John smiled at Kelly as he took out a piece of paper and read it. “Dear Mom and Dad, I’ve gone with the prince to help with an investigation, but don’t worry. It’s my turn to protect you now. I’ll be back soon! Love, Kelly.”