Chapter 183: 183

When Alexander walked out of the palace, he didn’t even need to do anything before a shadow guard appeared next to him, kneeling in respect. “My Lord.”

“Any news from the lower realm?” Alexander asked coldly, staring at the horizon far in front of him.

Unlucien remembered his talk with Noctis. But that wasn’t considered news, so he shook his head. “No, My Lord!”

“That means everything is going well down there…” Something cold flashed in Alexander’s eyes. Because of the old fogies, he couldn’t be present in the lower realm when he wanted to.

The sudden urge to murder brewed wildly in his chest, but he suppressed it and tore a rift in space, walking in. Unlucien wanted to follow behind him silently, but Alexander’s voice rang out, carrying an order: “Go clean up the place of any pests! Make sure this doesn’t happen again!”

“Yes, My Lord!” Unlucien bowed his head as the rift closed in front of him.

Then, he turned around and walked into the palace. Instantly, the scent of blood hit his nose, reminding him of the times he used to fight on the battlefield with the rest of the shadow guards. But his face under the mask remained stoic and unfazed.

When Unlucien walked through the gate Alexander smashed down, the elders looked at him in respect.

Unlucien walked through the hall and stopped behind the seat atop the staircase. It was basically a throne. He didn’t sit down in it.

Because although the one supposed to sit there was the most powerful person in the palace—and that was Unlucien at the moment—it was also the seat where Alexander, the Dark Lord, had sat. So a shadow guard such as himself could only stand behind the seat out of respect for his master.

That also showed that he was the representative of someone almighty.

The elders remained silent. That wasn’t the first time they had been met with a shadow guard from the Dark Palace. They were perfectly aware of what they were capable of, so they didn’t dare anger him.

Unlucien moved his gaze over them one by one before speaking. “My Lord has decided to be generous today and let you live.” That made the elders sigh in relief. But Unlucien’s next words were hard to swallow. “But for the crime of daring to covet what is His, you shall be punished!”

The elders trembled in terror. Alexander had already personally killed all the people except the elders within the palace. And he was planning to do more?

But not a single one dared to complain. The man in front of them had a small black gem on the forehead part of his black mask. It was hardly noticeable, but it showed his identity. He was the general of the shadow guards. The most cruel and ruthless one of them all.

No one knew where the Dark Lord found people to form a force such as his shadow guards, but everyone feared them. The shadow guards were like an order of assassins, which didn’t even have a name. Only the black masks and clothes set them apart from others.

Naturally, a group like that would get named by people. And the shadow guards of the Dark Palace ended up with two nicknames. Either “Shadows” or “The Inhumans.”

Unlucien used to laugh at it. Especially the second nickname. It was accurate, and yet so inaccurate.

All the shadow guards were monsters taken in by Alexander. They all gave vows of absolute respect and obedience to him, and he let them grow by exposing them to his power.

So it was true. They were inhuman. They weren’t humans in the first place, but sometimes, they acted more human than humans. Because as monsters with their vows given to their master, they didn’t know betrayal. While humans made and broke promises, and then made up excuses to not feel guilty about it.

But that was only half of the shadow guards—the part under Alexander. There was a second squad, who looked exactly the same, but was under the command of David Elether.

For them, the first nickname was more suitable. They were all humans who cultivated Shadow Essence. All Shadow Masters. Just like Alexander.

It was quite the paradox that in the Dark Palace, Shadow Masters were under the command of the sole Spirit Master there, David, who cultivated the wind element spirit energy. And the top Shadow Master had monsters under his control, when monsters were creatures which relied on spirit energy to cultivate.

Unlucien stayed in the hall with the elders for a long time, his overbearing aura pressing on them harshly. His power was around the same as the most powerful elder, who was still kneeling on the ground in the middle of the hall.

He didn’t dare move an inch since Alexander threw him there.

As for the rest, Unlucien could easily defeat them at once if they tried to rebel against him. Monsters at the same rank and level as humans were naturally stronger and some even faster, so taking care of the elders would have been no problem.

And the elders were already warned by Alexander before he left, so there was no need to worry about their retaliation.

Still, Unlucien had to carry out the task he was given—to give the elders a warning they would never forget. A punishment that would get engraved into their souls.

Alexander had killed all their servants and disciples, but that was far from enough. The elders, the old fogies, were greedy. They could easily get new servants and train new disciples. So the ultimate punishment had to be taking away something they could never replace.

An idea sprouted within Unlucien’s mind. And it grew into a nasty plan. It was easy and crude. And the mark it would leave behind was just what he needed.

Summoning his monster bloodline, under the black mask, Unlucien’s skin started showing golden marks. And then, the black gem atop the mask shimmered with a golden gleam.

Seeing that, the elders wanted to beg for mercy.

But it was already too late.

Unlucien fully activated his bloodline and golden liquid started dripping down his fingers. It soaked through his gloves and fell to the ground with soft clicking.

Instantly, a sour scent filled the hall, making the elders wriggle their noses.

But they knew the worst was only about to come.

When the golden puddle grew into a small pool and some started falling over the staircase, Unlucien flexed his fingers and all the liquid flew up, forming a ball in front of him.

Then, under his control, it exploded in all directions, except his, and flew at the elders.

Just a drop was enough to make an elder faint, but every elder received a ball of the golden liquid straight into their face.

There, it seeped into their eyes, nose, and mouth.

Before fainting, not a single elder noticed the purple hue hidden in the golden liquid.

With his work done, Unlucien opened a rift in space and went to follow Alexander.

If Noctis was with him, he would have frowned in disgust at the way Unlucien executed it. He had already said it many times, every time he had seen the technique: “Waste of potential in flashy techniques.”

It was partially true. Unlucien was one of the rarer types of monsters who possessed two elements: Light and Poison.

Poison element spirit energy usually came in liquid form while light was just light. But if mixed correctly, they turned into the golden liquid that Unlucien used on the elders.

With the size of his dantian and his pool of spirit energy, Unlucien was able to produce floods of liquid like that, but he wasted time by letting the liquid flow down his hands and drip slowly.

It was a good way to scare an enemy who had heard tales of the golden liquid. But Noctis still saw it as a waste of time.

It would have had the same effect if Unlucien had just summoned a flood of the golden liquid in front of him and let the elders see it for a moment before sending it at them.

The technique was actually quite cruel and very efficient for tormenting. Light element was usually used for healing because it could easily seep into living bodies. And poison element lacked this advantage. To get into the body of its victim, it usually needed an open wound.

But the light element could compensate for it.

So by mixing the two elements into the golden liquid, Unlucien could easily send poison into someone’s body without needing to come into direct contact with them. And the light element could be good for another thing, but Unlucien hadn’t achieved such proficiency with it yet.

Theoretically, it was possible to use light element spirit energy to not only heal and send things into someone’s body—it could be used to stop the regeneration of someone’s wounds, or even cause one’s cells to start slowly dying. But for that, the user would need to reverse the flow of the light element spirit energy, which was impossible without godlike proficiency.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep