The Avatars popped like fragile soap bubbles. It was not entirely unexpected, considering how shaky the foundations of most Cultivators were, but I expected at least some resistance. Instead, there was nothing. They just collapsed.

  Those guys working for the Drow really were the bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. Didn’t they have anyone better? Well, the thing is, they had, and they killed them. Yep. That’s just how they were. Couldn’t have competent people working for them. That would not sit well with their overinflated egos.

  At least not all of the Drow thralls were completely stupid. Most of them attacked on sight, but one of them didn’t. It was because he was afraid, but we can skip that part. Let’s instead say that he was wise. Yes, he was a wise man.

  Well, that wise man named Eros was doing his best not to tremble as I stared into his Soul, probing his mind. Some curious memories came to the surface.

  [Well now… Isn’t that interesting?]

  “What is it?” John asked. I looked at him with a grin. The way he dealt with the Slob completely traumatized our opponents, and I’m sure he did it on purpose. It was a good way to bring down their morale.

  [Do me a favor and round up the other ones. This all just got a lot more exciting.]

  “Oh, now I’m curious. Give me a moment, I’ll be right back.”

  While he went after the Cultivators I previously blew away, I continued staring at my new plaything, drilling deeper into his subconscious mind. The things I was discovering were… curious.

  John soon came back after having captured the other Cultivators and bound them with his energy.

  “Okay, so what did you find?” He asked after setting up a simple prison for them.

  [Haha, man, the Drow are crazy.] I said and pointed at the captured men. [These guys are all infected with some kind of weird parasite that’s trying to devour them from the inside. It's some kind of small worm that burrows through your flesh and attacks the Dantian. They force them to fight to get the cure while keeping the parasite at bay.]

  “Wow, really?” John’s expression wrinkled in disgust. “That sounds horrible.”

  [Isn’t it? What do you say, Eris? Is it as bad as it sounds? Why don’t you explain it to us?] I turned to the guy. The man visibly twitched at the mention of his name, but he quickly recovered, nodding aggressively.

  “It’s true as you say, Senior. Only a small fraction of those infected survive in the first place, only those that manage to resist the parasite. Those who manage to free themselves from the creature instead are quickly eliminated. In the end only those too strong to die and too weak to fight are left. That’s us.” He lowered his head in defeat.

  [But that’s not all there is, am I right?] I urged him to continue.

  “No. Apart from attacking the Dantian, this parasite also produces a poison that weakens a person over time. If we do not get the antidote, eventually we will all succumb to the poison and die. We have to fight for the Drow to get the medicine once every week. But then, as we are at our strongest, we are kept under observation for a day for the poison to start accumulating again. That way even those that manage to escape and remove the parasite would die before long.” He sighed. “We have no choice but to fight for the Drow or die. I am not proud of it, but I chose life. However, after this failure, we will not live for long.”

  “Can’t you make the antidote? Surely it can’t be that hard.” John suggested.

  Eris shrugged. “I never was any good with Alchemy so I can’t say how hard it would be. I just know that the recipe is kept secret and we are forced to drink the potion under strict observation. None of us had any opportunity to examine the brew.”

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  [And if we began now, without an example, synthesizing a cure would probably take months. Maybe years. Certainly, more time than you lot have.] I nodded, speaking to myself more than anything.

  “Yes. That’s why I ask you to do me a favor and kill me swiftly. Please. While I do not wish to die, I have seen the agony of those who got devoured. I do not want to experience it myself. Please.” He lowered his head and kowtowed.

  John nodded. “Fair. If I had a choice, I’d also rather go out quickly. Shall I do it, or…?” He looked at me.

  I looked at him like he was crazy.

  “What? What did I say?”

  I just shook my head and lifted the kneeling guy up. [Come on, man, what’s with this depression? You are barely over two centuries old. You still have at least a century left in you. Maybe two. Now is not the time to be giving up.]

  Eris looked up with renewed hope in his eyes. “Do you perhaps know a way to neutralize the poison, Senior?”

  [No.] I frankly admitted.

  “Oh…” The guy lowered his head again.

  [But I have something better.] I said and punched my hand through his stomach.

  “Ah…” The man gasped and clutched my hand, but I just yanked it out, holding a small black wriggling thing in my hand.

  “Ew! What the fuck is that!” John exclaimed. That was so unlike him to be so freaked out by a small, finger-sized worm with teeth. I would have expected him to be more resilient, but I guess everyone had their weaknesses.

  “Oh, my god, it's wriggling!” He turned around, clutching his mouth and stomach.

  [Hmm…] I examined the worm up close. [So you are the one responsible for all of this, huh?] The worm was honestly not all that much. It was surprisingly strong for its size and absolutely stuffed with Essence, but that was to be expected from a parasite that could take down a Spirit Realm Cultivator. Apart from that, it was nothing special.

  Its mind was extremely chaotic though and I couldn’t get a read on it at all. Utterly useless.

  With a bit of exerted pressure between my fingers, the creature exploded, and I absorbed the Essence and Soul, discarding the remains.

  [Right. Now, as for you…] I looked at Eris, who was clutching his stomach, the blood soaking into his clothes. I made a hand gesture towards him, and his entire body froze, the poison getting forcefully extracted from his flesh. I condensed it into a small sphere and stored it away in a small glass vial. It had a dark greenish hue that brightened considerably in the presence of concentrated Qi. A small novelty in the world of poisons.

  I sent some energy coated in my Intent toward Eris and healed him right up. He had no hope of resisting, so in my presence, he couldn’t die even if he wanted to.

  [There. Good as new.]

  “I… I’m healed?” The man was beside himself. “Thank you, Senior, I-”

  [Yes, yes, you are very grateful to me, I’m such a good guy, yada yada… I know, now piss off. You are way too much trouble for my liking.] I waved him off. [Same goes for you, freaks!] I turned to the rest of the Cultivators. [I’ll be blunt. I know what you all did, and honestly, you all deserve what has happened to you. The world would be better if you were all dead.]

  Many faces changed when I said that.

  [However, you are lucky as I am a generous man. Everyone deserves a second chance. Not to be a hypocrite, as I did some bad things too, so I’ll look the other way this once. Now, those who want to live, step forward!]

  They all did, which was hardly surprising.

  “Are you sure, Gerald?” John asked cautiously. He didn’t know what I did, and that was fine. There was a reason I was doing all that after all.

  [Certain. Let it be known that the Black Onyx Brotherhood does not discriminate. Everyone makes mistakes. Criminal or saint, everyone deserves a second chance. After that, however…] I punched the first guy in line, extracting a bloody hand holding a parasite. [No mercy.] I crushed the creature and absorbed it before moving on to the next.

  [Let this be a lesson to you all.]

  Soon everyone was freed from the parasite and healed while having the poison extracted. I collected a decent amount, filling the vial.

  “That’s one way of spreading our fame.” John chuckled while shaking his head as he watched the last Cultivator run out of his detection range.

  [Mhm…] I absentmindedly hummed while watching the color-changing liquid sloshing around in the vial.

  “Got a plan for that?” He asked.

  [Hmm. Kind of.] I opened the cork and downed the contents.

  “What the-?! What… What are you doing…?” John questioned, with mild panic at first but then that morphed into bewildered confusion as he remembered who he was dealing with.

  [Upgrading my blood, hopefully.] I answered truthfully. It had been a long time since I used my poisonous blood for combat. The main reason being that those in the Spirit Realm and above could resist its toxic effects. Not fully, but enough to not make it viable anymore.

  I was hoping that by assimilating the parasite poison, my blood could gain the same weakening effects.

  “Right. Of course. Of course, you would want to have toxic blood on top of an impenetrable defense and limitless strength. Because, why not, right?”

  [One can never be too prepared.] I wisely stated. John just shook his head and sighed.