Chapter 209: Punishment and Guidance

A small, pristine white, and adorable cub suddenly ‘poofed’ in front of me, appearing amidst a ‘poof’ of smoke as if I farted it out of my system. Needless to say, its appearance was rather benign so the impact it had on the Fourth Battalion was abysmal. I could tell that the Fourth Battalion was incredibly frightened upon hearing the name ‘Astral Lion’ but now, they just stared at it as if it was the cutest thing in the world.

The Astral Lion stared at me with its googly eyes as it licked its paws. I’ll be honest, it really did look very adorable. I even had the urge to squeeze it and hug it in my sleep. It resembled a newly-bought stuffed toy or something like that.

“Yongrui, how could you perceive a mythical beast like that? Did you just call it cute?” Hui-ying lightly reprimanded me inside my head. “You do know that that adorable little cub is more powerful than you, right?”

I nodded.

“As long as you understand, don’t underestimate the Astral Lion. Even if it’s just a cub, for now, it’s still stronger than this Fourth something something.”

“What kind of bad joke is this?” Rutgard pointed at the Astral Lion Cub, sneering at it, trying to rile it up. “Hey kiddo, are we supposed to be afraid of this petty little creature? It looks so fragile I think I could step on it and it would die.”

“Try it then.” I dared him. “Just so you know, this summon is the one and only Astral Lion. Consider yourself warned.”

“Hey, let’s throw rocks at it! Maybe it will run behind its master!” Rutgard suggested.

“Good idea! If that’s what it did, then we can just stone its master along with it! What’d you say?”

No one agreed, leaving Rutgard hanging in the air.

“Guys, who’s with me?”

Before he could finish his persuasion, a meek man wearing glasses approached him, he was slouching as if cowering in fear, and his black hair and small stature were not helping his overall image at all. “Rutgard, stop it!”

I digress, he wasn’t cowering in fear, he’s a gutsy one, I’ll tell you that.

“Hah?! Did you just order me to do something?” Rutgard snapped, approaching the thin, frail-looking man in front of him and grabbing him by the neck. Since he was a few inches smaller than Rutgard, Rutgard easily carried him off his feet, making him crawl in mid-air as he tried to breathe.

It was the most painful thing to watch that Yongrui couldn’t handle it anymore.

“Hui-ying, is it safe to activate my Space Skill here? Won’t it cause any disturbances in this dimension?” I asked.

“Since Middle Plane is one of the most stable dimensions out there, you’re free to use your Space Element any time you want, Yongrui,” Hui-ying responded in a split second.

I didn’t need telling twice. Before Rutgard could spit another word out of his mouth, I was already lifting my hands, controlling the space where he was standing. In an instant, there was no oxygen in his space and he started collapsing in asphyxiation. Adding to that, the gravity on which he was standing was multiplied by 50, but as he was strong enough to stay standing.

It wouldn’t be long before he runs out of oxygen though. But knowing that he’s in the Heavenly Plain Realm, it’s safe to assume that he can survive an hour inside that space.

“Rutgard, as the leader of the Fourth Battalion, I would want to tell you something.” I calmly walked towards him.

For a better presentation, I ordered my Astral Lion Cub to increase its size. Before they could react, the Astral Lion was already as tall as the valley where the Settlement was built. He quietly eyed the Fourth Battalion as I told him to not make any move yet.

“One, I can tolerate you badmouthing and threatening me and my Mythical Beast. Heck, I can even tolerate you looking down on me. But do you know what I cannot tolerate?”

Rutgard shook his head.

“What I can’t tolerate is your intentional destruction of your camaraderie.” I began, suppressing my wrath which is about to come out. “You’re the Fourth Battalion for a reason! Out on the battlefield, you got each other’s backs. When there’s no one to trust, you got each other. As part of the army, you’ll be separated from your family and even your children. In other words, your very lives are dependent on each other. If you don’t have the strong bonds together, you’ll be courting death as soon as you step out of the walls of this settlement.”

“You’re not ready to face the Black Spirit Sect, let alone avenge those whom you want to avenge. You may be one of the most promising battalions in this settlement but to me, you’re just cannon fodder in the upcoming war. If you don’t work on bettering your relationship with one another, you’re not going to make it.”

“And what’s this about stoning a cute Spirit Beast? How about I stone you to death, let’s see if you’d want that, huh.” I said.

Since Rutgard couldn’t move, I quickly summoned my rare rabid human Feng and gave it a couple of rocks. Those who wanted to stone my Astral Lion became a victim to my Space Element and pretty soon, they were stoned by Feng. It was a well-deserved punishment. I hope that this would keep their egos in check.

“As for the rest of you, I hope you learned a lesson from these three members of the Fourth Battalion. I don’t want to hear a single word about having bad blood against each other. As long as you don’t fully depend on each other, I won’t bring you out of this settlement to hunt rabid humans.”

At that point, I already asserted enough dominance to make them agree to my conditions. Five minutes later, I called off the punishment I gave Rutgard and the others. They were considerate enough to apologize and assure me that they won’t do it again. Just for security reasons, however, I decided to assign one of my weakest rabid human subordinates behind their barracks so I could eavesdrop on them all the time. It wasn’t a special skill or anything, I can just perceive something that my subordinates could perceive, that’s about it.

“And you, come with me,” I called out to the thin, black-haired guy with the glasses. He was the one whom Rutgard grabbed by the neck a few minutes ago. “I have something for you. What’s your name?”

“Rembrandt.” He stated.

“Rembrandt? Just Rembrandt?”

“When I was a kid, I was abandoned by my parents, a name tag was placed on top of me and it bore the name ‘Rembrandt’. An old couple took me in but they never told me what their surnames were, and then they died. So now I just go with the name Rembrandt.”

“That’s pretty dark, you know. Do you tell everyone you meet that story?” I casually asked him. “In any case, I noticed that you have the Poison Element… how many poisons do you currently know?”

“I know about 100 of the most common poisons and about 10 High-Grade Poisons.” He replied. “How did you know that I have the Poison Element?”

“Because I also have it. I have a special skill that allows me to detect those who have the same element as me.”

“But you have the Summoning Element and the Space Element? Do you have Three Elements?” Rembrandt stared at me, wide-eyed.

I gave him a mysterious nod before responding. “You’ll know soon enough. For now, I want you to take a look at this poison. Do you know what kind of poison this is?”

“Yes, that’s one of the most expensive Poison to ever exist in the Middle Plane. It’s called the Bloodborne Poison.” This time, Rembrandt answered as if the poison I was holding was common knowledge… when in fact, only the chosen few could concoct such a high-quality poison.

“Tell me of its uses.” For now, I’ll try testing him a little bit.

“First it’s used on High-Level Monsters or Beasts with high health. The Bloodborne Poison specializes in slowly reducing the health of a monster, giving the one fighting it an advantage the longer the fight drags on. Aside from that, it also reduces the Qi Energy of the monster, making it weaker and weaker… but it doesn’t work on monsters with the Berserk Mode.”

“Okay, you know about half of its effects… now let’s proceed to the next question… can you prepare a BloodBorne Poison of this quality? This is the one I made myself and I only got introduced to this Poison a few days ago.”

“Yes, I think I can do it, given enough time.” Rembrandt confidently answered.

“Good, now for the last question… can you make this type of BloodBorne Poison?” I told him, showing him a different vial of liquid.

Rembrandt got the vial from me and examined the liquid. His pupils dilating from shock. “T-this… how do you know this poison?” Rembrandt was too shocked that he became jittery, almost dropping the vial on the process.

“Be careful, you do know how dangerous it is, right?”

“Of course!” Rembrandt hissed. “This is the Human BloodBorne Poison for Pete’s sake!”

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