I did not know that all my planning was disrupted by a cold-faced man. That man is very powerful. Although he looks like he wouldn't bother about small matters, he was the one who interrupted me again and again from getting close to Stefan.
Otherwise, l wouldn't need to run to an abandoned alley to hide from his men. I don't know why, my spells have no effect on him. But l know that this man is destined to reach greater heights. I can see that power which is hidden in his body. He has great potential as a swordsman.
Alas.. lt's a pity, l don't know anything about swordsmanship, otherwise l could have stolen his potential from him. This person does not know what terrifying potential he has. But that is good for me, I can experiment with him and absorb that potential slowly from him after finding a way.
Some days later, that stupid boy contacted me again while l was reading the forbidden book. He asked if someone was protecting Stefan. I was about to deny it, but, then l remembered, that talented and cold-faced man is protecting Stefan and keeping him away from my reach.
But he must have never expected that l will send a young man to contact Stefan. I did not want the stupid boy to come into that man's contact, because my bewitching spell would then become ineffective. I replied impatiently that he did not need to take care of this matter and l will take care of him.
Since l couldn't do anything to that man himself, l decided to target people that were close to him.
I decided to target his branch company, which has worked under his company for long and is the one he pays the most attention to.
lt was very easy for me to bewitch someone. I just used a low-level spell and he agreed obediently. There was no resistance from him at all. His greed attracted me to him.
Just as l thought, with the combined power of his greed and my spell, the company was soon in a mess. He started selling the confidential documents of the company to their rivals, and that man was so busy solving the problem that he had no time to pay attention to Stefan.
Now all l was waiting for was Stefan's accident, which could allow me to possess his body when his soul was in a weak state.
....
I thought so, but l couldn't achieve it, because when Stefan was in a weak state, l was at a critical juncture to break through, to be a sixth-level magician. I couldn't allow any mishaps on my road to become powerful.
Not even Stefan's special physique could stop me. I should first break through the sixth level and then l can kill Stefan.
Before l went in retreat, l instructed that stupid boy to make sure to successfully injure Stefan seriously. After l gave instructions and went inside a secret room. I drew an array on the ground while chanting a forbidden spell. While chanting, l also drew circles around those people who were brought by me for experimenting with my powers.
Then l connected the circles to the main array. After sitting in the middle of the array, l started absorbing the life force of those people, which according to the forbidden book, could give me a boost while making a breakthrough.
I was now very proficient in doing this. After all, l have been using this method to cultivate till now. My body began to show its true form. I could imagine my already horrible face gaining five more new faces. This time l had to pay the price of my hands. I was feeling a terrible burning sensation in my hand.
lt felt as if all the skin present on my hands was getting peeled. I already knew it would be painful, but, didn't know that it was so painful. I was used to the changes my breakthroughs bought me. Every time l achieved a breakthrough by absorbing the life forces of people, l will lose something.
But this time the pain was too much even for me, who has gone through so many trials. I fainted because my hand couldn't handle so much pain.
I didn't know that, while l passed out, my hands would become so terrifying. I shouldn't call them hands, l should call them claws. My hands became just like a beast's claws, however, l couldn't use them now to draw arrays, because they were just bones.
I regretted it. I shouldn't have used shortcuts in cultivation. Now l couldn't even draw arrays. It was all that book's fault. It made me lose my hands. I couldn't blame anyone for this, though. After all, it was my decision to use this book. I have been clearly warned about this forbidden book, but l still used it to gain powers. I should just burn this book. Anyway, l already memorized the contents of this book.
As if the book knew l was thinking about burning it, it opened by itself and started glowing. A cold humph was heard, and then the book created a new page. It wrote 'Methods to merge two body constitutions into one'.
On that page, it was clearly written that l needed a medium to contain magic power, which could greatly help me merge the two physiques and allow me to merge them without any resistance.
And that medium was a wand. A wand that was made of those people whose vitality l had absorbed to achieve a breakthrough. Because this was the only way the wand would obey my commands, and would be more compatible with my magic power like this.
I decided to create the magic wand immediately. The reason was that l didn't want anyone to know l couldn't make arrays, which helped me greatly in scaring that gang and establishing my authority.
Yes, l defeated that gang with the help of an array only. I created a retribution array to defeat them, which could make them remember the things they fear the most again and again in an endless cycle. It was known as a powerful array even in my previous world, let alone here, where these people haven't seen any magic.