"A family member, Valer has failed," a ninth-rank swordsman reported to a burly middle-aged man in front of him. He was Kristin, the current patriarch of the Kres family.
"Where are they now?"
"They're all dead."
With a bang, the corner of the table in front of Kristin deeply indented the ground, yet the table remained unscathed. The man below broke out in a cold sweat.
Back at the hotel, Ye Han, who had changed into a new black robe, sat cross-legged in his room, refining the essence blood of the eighth-rank swordsman he had just acquired. A strand of soul energy merged into his own soul, and the refined blood energy remained in his body.
"Sigh, there is too little soul force contained in the essence blood," Ye Han said with a hint of disappointment upon waking.
Essence blood is scarce, with a person only having a few dozen drops in their lifetime. The longer one lives, the more essence blood they produce, but it's not always useful for a zombie. It's only beneficial when the person is filled with emotions like fear, reluctance, and anger at the time of extraction. Essence blood taken under calm circumstances contains very little soul force, barely enough to be refined.
That's why zombies only appear during wars or natural disasters. That's when people are filled with fear of war, disaster, and death. And on the battlefield, where blood and hatred for the enemy infuse the blood with strong negative emotions.
Suddenly, Ye Han felt a violent fluctuation of magical elements around him. All the air elements in the sky surged upward. "Magic," Ye Han frowned slightly. Just then, the magical elements around him abruptly paused.
Ye Han immediately understood that someone was casting a large-scale spell, targeting the hotel. Reacting swiftly, he dashed out the window and sped away into the distance.
"O winds of flight, show the noble ones your rage. Let the world fear, let the world tremble — Death Storm!"
As Ye Han ran less than five zhang from the hotel, the spellcasting of the mage outside was complete. With the end of the incantation, what was once clear skies suddenly filled with dark clouds, among which lightning flickered and thunder roared.
The bustling streets fell silent. Merchants hawking their goods and swordsmen and magicians busy with their errands all stopped and looked up at the sky's anomaly.
Feeling the overwhelming oppression filling the air, Ye Han's face was struck with shock. "This is not the effect of an eighth-rank spell." He didn't stop, knowing that he had to get out of the center of the spell's area of effect before it landed, or even his zombie body would suffer grave damage.
The immense pressure was felt throughout Miatt City. Countless civilians ran home, taking their families to hide in cellars.
Miatt City, as one of the Frost Empire's largest cities, saw countless powerful individuals come and go daily. Where there are people, there will be conflict, so the homes of civilians all have cellars for refuge.
"A ninth-rank wind spell, Death Storm," a mage on the street swallowed hard.
A breeze began to build above the tavern, growing into a howling wind that became a wild gale, spreading wildly. Buildings weakened by the wind collapsed in its wake.
The unrestrained gale quickly gathered into a massive tornado in the sky. A colossal tornado rose, piercing into the cloud-covered sky like a soaring dragon, awe-inspiring as a fierce beast, wreaking havoc on everything in its path.
Running Ye Han felt the energy climbing higher and higher, his heart shocked, and his speed increased. When the storm struck the ground, Ye Han had already reached a spot a hundred zhang from the storm's center, outside its attack range.
As the storm struck, countless bolts of lightning began to fall from the sky, striking the ground around the hotel and creating blackened pits. Those who couldn't escape the storm's range were either sucked into the maelstrom, torn to shreds by the immense tearing force before they could reach it, or turned into charred remains by the dense lightning.
Every building covered by the storm was annihilated in the explosion.
Standing a hundred zhang away, Ye Han, with his black robe flapping in the storm and his eyes flashing like lightning, looked at the sky a hundred zhang away where two figures stood in the air, with two people in mage robes standing on the ground beneath them, one holding a magic staff.
"Saint-rank, and two of them," Ye Han was greatly alarmed.
The storm's energy gradually depleted, dissipating into nothingness, leaving a trail of devastation like a missile strike. All buildings and life forms in its path were reduced to nothingness.
"Hmph, that's the fate of those who offend the Kres family," one of the figures in the
sky, a middle-aged man filled with killing intent, declared loudly. His voice echoed throughout Miatt City.
"That's enough, Kristin. With my peak ninth-rank strength, releasing a ninth-rank spell, no ordinary ninth-rank could evade it," a woman's beautiful voice chimed in.
"Kres," the somewhat familiar name made Ye Han frown. "Rich, the fourth son of Kristin, the head of the Kres family." Connecting the dots with the four individuals he killed today and the attack on his lodging, the timing fit perfectly. Ye Han quickly realized the target of the magic attack was himself.
"The Kres family," Ye Han's eyes grew cold as he looked at the two in the sky and the two on the ground.
In his anger, Ye Han forgot how sensitive the Saint-ranks were to energy fluctuations. His intense killing intent startled the two Saint-ranks in the air, and they looked in Ye Han's direction. "He's not dead," Kristin said in surprise when he saw Ye Han in the black robe, and the other three looked at him in shock.
"I'll kill him," the female peak ninth-rank wind mage said angrily as she flew rapidly towards Ye Han. A ninth-rank spell cast by a peak ninth-rank mage couldn't kill a swordsman who was suspected to be ninth-rank. That was a humiliation, a mockery to her.
"Wait, don't forget the empire's rules," an older man, much older than Kristin and the female mage, stopped her.
"Are we just supposed to let him go? How can I stay on this continent after this?" the female mage said angrily.
The older man didn't pay attention to the female mage's roar and calmly addressed Ye Han, "Young man, you are a rare talent. You have a choice. Join the Kres family."
"Ha!" Ye Han laughed, realizing too late that he was already caught. "What if I refuse?"
The elder didn't get angry, standing upright in the air, and said quietly, "You've crippled a scion of our family, killed our guards, and shamed us in Miatt City. You should be killed, but seeing your talent, being close to ninth-rank at such a young age, I'm offering you a way out."
The elder and the other three came within ten zhang of Ye Han, two in the air and two on the ground, surrounding him. Ye Han looked at their movements and smiled slightly. "Major families are indeed extraordinary, leaving no room for mercy, being so thorough even against someone with so much less power than themselves."
Kristin said fiercely, "You'd better agree, or else I'll wash away the humiliation you brought upon our family with your blood." Anyone who could cross the ninth-rank threshold to become a Saint was incredibly intelligent. Kristin and the two on the ground understood the elder's meaning immediately.
Which was more worthwhile, a useless family scion or a subordinate with boundless potential? It was obvious even without thinking.
"Ha, the younger generation is incapable, yet the older generation has to step in. Two Saint-rank powerhouses and two peak ninth-rank mages come to kill me, a mere ninth-rank. How shameless," Ye Han sneered. Now, he no longer hid his true power.
The elder's face changed drastically, and he said ominously, "How my Kres family handles affairs is not up for your judgment. Will you agree or not?"
"Agree? I would not want to serve a shameless family, nor do I want to bear the name of someone who fears death," Ye Han said disdainfully.
Being so disrespected and humiliated by a junior, the people of the Kres family were enraged and wanted to kill Ye Han on the spot.
"Moreover, I would not want to be the guarantor for someone who wets themselves in front of power, so, I refuse," Ye Han laughed boldly.