16: Richard Charles

On the withered yellow plain,

Some scattered, small wooden houses huddled together crookedly,

With occasional wisps of cooking smoke rising from their roofs.

Several ragged women sat at the village entrance, washing clothes in wooden basins, as grayish-white sewage snaked across the ground.

The entire village was permeated with the strong stench of cow and sheep dung.

Li Ke’s face was expressionless.

He lightly stepped over the turbid sewage flowing on the ground and entered the small village named “Graystone Village”.

His dark red hair immediately caught the eyes of several villagers.

They raised their heads, a hint of curiosity in their eyes, secretly sizing up this unfamiliar young man.

Li Ke paid no attention to their gazes.

He walked straight to a relatively flat open space in the center of the village.

From his In arms, he took out an exquisitely crafted brass badge,

Carved with an iris pattern, it was precisely Charles's noble badge.

Li Ke held the badge high.

“I am Li Ke Charles.”

“Your new master.”

His voice was not loud, but it clearly reached the ears of every villager.

As his words fell, the surroundings instantly fell into a deathly silence.

Those gazes that had originally held a hint of curiosity instantly transformed into deep fear and timidity.

Thud! Thud!

The villagers around the open space, as if whipped by an invisible lash,

Scrambled to their knees, their foreheads pressed tightly against the dirty soil, their bodies trembling slightly.

“Now, twenty men come out and follow me back to the Charles Manor to rebuild my castle.”

The villagers kneeling on the ground prostrated themselves even lower in terror,

No one dared to look up, and no one responded.

Seeing this, Li Ke’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Just then,

An old man with white hair and a hunched back, trembling, spoke with a pleading voice.

“Respected Charles, it is the honor of all the commoners in Graystone Village to serve you.”

“It’s just… could you grant us a few more days? There aren’t many young and strong men in the village. If we suddenly stop farming and hunting, I’m afraid many people will starve to death…”

The old man chose his words carefully, fearing to anger this noble lord.

Apparently, in their perception,

Nobles summoning laborers was always unpaid, and they wouldn't even provide a meal.

Li Ke frowned. He didn't want to waste time on such trivial matters,

So he coldly added, “Eight hours of work a day, with enough food to eat.”

This fully displayed the ruthlessness of a Demonic Path Cultivator.

The villagers froze, their bodies prostrate on the ground stiffening.

The old man looked up in astonishment, his cloudy eyes filled with disbelief.

“My lord… what you said… is it true?”

“Of course, and bring two people who can cook as well.”

There was some commotion among the crowd, as they exchanged glances.

A moment later,

“I’ll go!”

A scrawny young man, who looked only thirteen or fourteen,

Was the first to scramble up from the ground and rush to Li Ke’s front.

With the first, there were second, third…

The fear of hunger instantly overwhelmed the fear of the nobles.

Soon, a large group of people stood on the open ground,

Men, women, old and young, their eyes filled with a longing to eat their fill.

Li Ke’s gaze swept over the crowd,

From it, he selected twenty men with relatively decent physiques,

And then casually pointed to two women who looked nimble.

Afterward, he went to two other villages nearby that belonged to Charles’s territory.

Using the same method, he conscripted another batch of laborers.

Finally, he returned to Charles Manor with fifty or sixty emaciated villagers,

In a mighty procession.

......

When the villagers entered the Charles Manor,

Most of the hope on their faces instantly faded.

Inside the Charles Manor, there were collapsed building ruins everywhere, inexplicable severed limbs, and congealed black blood,

The tall main body of the castle was also badly damaged,

With a large hole broken in its side, as if attacked by some kind of giant monster.

“What… what exactly happened here?”

Many people began to feel uneasy,

Regretting their impulsive agreement just now.

But at this point, it was clearly too late to go back on their word.

Under Li Ke’s expressionless gaze,

They could only brace themselves,

And, trembling with fear, began to clear the ruins and move usable stones and wood.

Li Ke had not deceived them.

Although the disaster at Charles Manor was tragic,

It came too suddenly and ended quickly.

Those mutated demons had no interest in gold or treasures.

Most of the grain and wine stored in the Charles Manor’s cellar, as well as the gold and treasures Charles had hidden in a secret compartment, were intact.

A few days ago,

Li Ke had already plundered all these valuables and hidden them,

Leaving only some irrelevant items to create the illusion of having been robbed.

With the wealth accumulated by Charles Manor over the years, feeding dozens of servants was effortless.

Moreover, he was indeed in a state of disrepair now,

And needed a large number of people to rebuild the Charles Manor and restore production, so that he could solidify his position as a Baron.

After all the tasks were arranged.

Li Ke, alone, once again walked into the study on the second floor of the castle.

The study had been simply tidied,

But the hole in the wall was still letting in wind.

Li Ke sat down cross-legged,

Dispelling distracting thoughts, his mind sinking into his body.

The [Summoning Demon Scripture] slowly circulated.

As time passed, wisps of faint black Qi began to slowly rise from Li Ke’s body.

These black Qi twisted and changed in the air, gradually forming blurry and painful humanoid outlines,

They held hands, dancing a bizarre dance around Li Ke, as if performing some kind of ritual.

Suddenly,

The humanoids each pounced on Li Ke, all the black Qi entering his body and disappearing.

Li Ke opened his eyes, his pupils completely black.

In his Dantian Qi Sea, the fourth drop of Devilish Qi quietly condensed into form.

“Finally, I’ve reached the fourth layer of Qi Condensation.”

He felt the increasing power within his body, but there was not much joy on his face.

The concentration of energy particles in this world was not high,

Compared to the ridiculously dense Death Qi in the previous field domain, it could be said to be quite sparse.

In such an environment,

His Cultivation speed naturally could not be compared to his previous speed in the field domain.

Fortunately, he had the ability of [Myriad Things Demonized],

As long as he continued to Cultivate here, the energy environment of this area would eventually be gradually assimilated and transformed by him, becoming more and more suitable for Demonic Path Cultivation.

Li Ke collected his thoughts.

The [Summoning Demon Scripture] was the fundamental Cultivation Technique,

It couldn't be rushed, only slowly accumulated over time.

What was more important at the moment was to improve his Dao-protecting methods.

The corpse of Charles, which he had hidden, was still buried underground behind the castle,

That was a top-grade Material for refining corpses,

It should be put to use as soon as possible.

Li Ke’s consciousness sank into his mind,

On the pitch-black stele body of the [demon-referencing tablet],

Countless dark golden mysterious patterns slowly lit up.

He skipped over a large amount of information,

And directly found an area emanating a chilling Corpse Qi.

The [Yin Corpse Secret Canon]

The supreme Legacy of the Corpse Driving Sect, representing the top-tier mysteries of the corpse refining lineage…

In his previous life, he had suffered so many losses from zombies,

Now, he wanted to see just how many methods there truly were.