After Rex finished implanting souls seals in three of them, he walked back and sat near Jiang Qing. He then casually glanced at the three unconscious old men and deactivated both of his abilities.
Old One's body trembled a bit, the second he got conscious, he didn't spare a single look to his other two 'sworn' brothers before he stood up and fled for his life.
Old Two woke up a second after him, he wanted to curse loudly when he saw his so-called big brother escaping without sparing him a single glance but truth should be told, he would have done the same if he was in his place, he too stood up and fled.
When Old Three opened his eyes and saw his two brothers, who were already quite far from him, he was speechless.
Rex sneered as he saw the two fleeing old men.
"Stop," He said in a loud tone.
Suddenly Old One and Old Two stopped in their tracks, they felt like if they moved even a centimeter from their original location then their soul would be shattered and they would die on the spot.
"Come Back," Rex spoke again.
This time whether it was Old One or Old Two, they didn't know what was happening or what were they even doing but they turned around and flew back to Rex with their fastest speed.
When they came back, they could see the fear visible in each other's eyes.
Old Three sneered at them.
It was fine if they died together but how dare you leave me behind to die alone? He thought.
"What did you do?" Old Two gritted his teeth and asked.
Old One didn't speak, he already had an idea what was going on that's why he didn't want to shatter the last removing wisp of hope by asking this question.
"Hehe… What did I do? Nothing much, I just turned three idiot bandits into three obedient slaves who would die if they disobeyed any of my commands, tried to harm me, or escaped to a distance of more than one mile away from me without my permission," Rex said with a smile yet not a smile.
The faces of all three of them became solemn, they didn't doubt his words because they have just experienced it beforehand. A while ago, all three of them were the powerhouses of the Golden Core stage who could walk unhindered and do anything they want in the current lawless continent, until now they had lived their life to the fullest. They had killed and robed without a single worry in the world, they were worried about being implicated, even if some organization got fed up of them and they can't escape, all they had to do was agree to work for them and the problem was solved after all who wouldn't want three Golden Core stage experts added to their force.
Raising such a powerhouse takes resources, efforts, talent, and time so no one would reject them if someone willingly joined them even if they were criminals. At most, they could make them sign a temporary contract for a limited period to work, as for the permanent one, their own people wouldn't do that much less outsiders. The three old men now fully knew understood that their good days have ended.
Now that they have realized that they had become slaves whose lives were in someone else's hands they felt their back growing cold, the more they thought about it the more horrified they became.
Kenery slightly turned her head and looked at three horrified old men from the corner of her eyes. She involuntarily gulped down her saliva, she just realized that her treatment was way better than these fools, although she was now being treated as a mount but she had a limited amount of freedom, she could now sleep without being on guard, she would get food without searching for it and most importantly she was able to breakthrough four times at once. At the same time she decided not to provoke Rex anymore and never think about escaping until she was 100% sure of succeeding, she understood that if she also turned into a slave like these three, her life would be over.
Kenery looked at the boundless sky and sighed.
I need to protect my poor little life, she thought.
Jiang Qing was shocked but she kept silent. If it was before when she used to see Rex as Ye Tian in his base form then she might have retorted but right now he was Shadow Lord. In the organization, his status was no less than her father and even above. The way she was raised, she never retorted her father so how could she retort Shadow Lord?
"Now you three idiots, listen to my permanent orders, You are not allowed to harm the people beside me which, of course, includes this silly bird- no now it's Kenery and this beautiful and innocent looking girl beside me, and…." Rex began to give them some permanent orders to remove the loopholes of the Absolute Slave Seal they might have been able to utilize if they wrack their brain a little.
Jiang Qing's lips twitched.
What does he mean by beautiful and innocent-looking? I am really beautiful and innocent, makeup doesn't have any effect on me… Okay maybe a little but that's all, she thought.
Kenery also snorted inwardly but didn't react in any way. She had to protect her poor little life right now.
"Master Ye, we have long arrived in the range of Alchemist Association. If Kenery speeds up, it would only take a few minutes to reach it," Jiang Qing reminded.
Now that the three strangers were added to the group she refrained herself from calling him Master Rex and used Master Ye because he was in base form.
Rex nodded and signaled Kenery to speed up.
She flapped her wings, increasing her speed by another fold, and flew downwards to get a clear view of the land.
A city filled with towering building came into Rex's vision, the buildings in the city were well-engineered, two-story buildings were common and some were even reaching five-story, the road was paved with black marble-like stones, all people walking down the road were wearing expensive-looking clothes, unexpectedly many buildings were using transparent glass sheets to showcase their shop products. Compared to this city, all the other cities he had visited so far were like villages, of course, not including Frozen Flame City and Corentis, which was going through a complete re-construction.
A big tower was present in the center of the city which was tall as an eight-story building, it was the main headquarters of the Alchemist Association in Golden Bird Continent.
The city was now named Alchemist City.
"Little Qing, you know where to find the Zhu Family here… right?" Rex asked.
"I do but… shouldn't we take a U-turn and enter the city from the main gate," Jiang Qing asked with an expectant look but a bad feeling.
"Entering from the main gate? Hehe… This city isn't worth it," Rex replied almost instantly.
Jiang Qing sighed, indeed the feeling didn't betray her.
Under Jiang Qing's directions, Kenery landed in front of a four-story mansion, the outer wall of the mansion had a big nameplate with the word 'Zhu Family' written on it. The main gate of the mansion was guarded by two guards at Human Venerable early stage, the whole mansion further had a stone wall around it with a thick iron gate as its entrance door.
After they landed, Kenery's size changed, her body shrunk until she was only a little bigger than an adult parrot. She flapped her wings and sat on Rex's shoulder, now that her secret ability was already on display then she didn't bother to hide it anymore.
"So this is the place… Number One, Number Two, I will give you your first task today, go and bring me the head of the Zhu family and… alive. If your performance is not good enough then I will turn you three brothers into two brothers and if it's really worse then I can also consider wiping out your memories and teaching you from the very start on how to be a good obedient slave," Rex said in a very polite tone.
Old One and Old Two didn't say any word and quickly rushed towards the mansion. The words 'wiping out your memory' seriously scared them.
"Old fellow, who are you? What do you want?" One of the guards lazily shouted when he saw Old one effortlessly breaking the main gate.
"Impudent! how dare you enter Zhu Family residence like that?" The other guard was not that polite, he took out his spear and pointed it at the Old Two.
Old One exchanged glances with Old Two, they were both angry and scared because of Rex and now these guards at the Human Venerable stage were blocking their way, their anger exploded.
Old Two punched the guard on the left, turning him into a puddle of blood before he realized what was happening.
"Whaa..t," The other guard felt like something was stuck in his throat, he was having a hard time breathing, he fearfully turned towards Old One only to see a fist zooming in his vision and met his end.
"Tch Tch… How violent, people these days why can't they be peace-loving like me," Rex thought.
Jiang Qing gave him a long look. The words he said to her father before leaving were still echoing in her head.
Negotiations? Negotiation my foot, you are just attacking someone in the broad daylight, she thought.
[Killing those guards wasn't useful in any way, even if they had let them go it wouldn't have changed anything. I don't understand this kind of psychology at all,]
'My psychology or theirs? They killed those guards without thinking because they live in a delusion where they think that their lives are way more valuable compared to the other peoples with a low cultivation base.
As for why I didn't interfere. When a soldier takes action for their country whether it's their achievement or failure, they all become their country's achievement or failure. You can replace country here with the commander, clan leader, sect master, and a soldier with clan member or sect member, it's simple as that.
Zhu Family is corrupt, these guards are guarding their family, they are raised by them do you really think they are honest or are forced to work here? It's not the earth, they had too many chances to go to a different place change themselves but they didn't, if they want to sail with Zhu Family then they have to sink with Zhu Family too, letting them go in the name of sympathy is not what I would like to do or someone else will have to pay the price of my negligence,' Rex said without any change in emotion.
"What's going on here, you people dare to make trouble in Alchemist City," A group of city guards came running from the side.
Rex looked at them.
They didn't wait to ask what was happening, why they were doing it, or anything else, they just took out their swords and rushed towards them.
'Just as Sung Lee mentioned, Alchemist City is now just a Bandit City that robs people in the name of Alchemy,' Rex thought, he didn't talk either, he raised his hand and a silver Ray Gun appeared in his hand.
"I will count to 3, those who love their life, leave right now as fast as possible," Rex spun the gun in his head as he spoke.
"Threatening us in the city, you got gut…" One of the guards shouted but before he could complete his sentence he fell to the ground with a thumb-size hole in his head. All the guards stopped in their tracks.
…Fiiissss…
"3," Rex said as he fired two more shots, two more guards fell to the ground.
…Fiiissss… x 2
"You maniac, do you have any ide.." A guard shouted in horror.
…Fiiissss…
"I give you a chan…"
…Fiiissss…
After that, no one dared to spoke and ran for their life. but even while escaping they used sound transmission talisman to alert the guard captain.
Rex reloaded the battery in the gun, then raised his hand to look at the upcoming soldiers.
"Why I am even fighting? Old Three takes care of anyone who shit talks here," Rex said lazily.
"You people, you should surrender when you..." A new soldier shouted, but was greeted with a punch in the abdomen.
Old Three started his punching barrage, he didn't even need to use his saber against these people at such a low cultivation base, it was a walk in the park for him.
"You mo**er fuu**kkers! what are you doing at my..." A tall young man with an oval face came running with two women and three men behind him. He had just begun cursing at Rex and had yet to finish his sentence when a white light was shot at him, leaving a bloody hole on his forehead.
...Fiiissss...
..Pu Tong...
'What a blunt slander, I don't even know his mother,' Rex thought.
[...]
The two girls and a man behind him ran away in fear, as for the remaining two men, who were just about to begin their crushing and shit talk session, they too faced the light ray like the dead man but in advance.
...Fiiissss... x 2
Rex retracted his pistol and blew at the smoke coming out of the muzzle. He suddenly felt something wrong and turn to look at Jiang Qing, she had her eyes wide open ad she looked at the corpse of the man Rex just killed.
"Yo...Young Master Zhu?" Jiang Qing said in a hesitant tone.
Rex turned to look at the fresh corpse then at his gun, he blinked his eyes a few times before quietly putting away the gun and giving an 'innocent' look to her.
"..." (Jiang Qing)