Retainer Acquired

Taking a deep breath, she recalled everything that he had done and said so far. From his most minute mannerisms, to every detail which she could infer by 'reading between the lines', nothing managed to escape her.

To say that she had been taken by surprise earlier was an understatement. In retrospect, she had acted far too immaturely and her lack of experience was plain to see. Yet, considering her circumstances, this was to be expected. Only after somehow enduring her confrontation with the undeniable truth did her mind force itself to rapidly adjust, allowing her to grow by an unimaginable extent.

Compared to before, she might as well be a different person. Whether or not this loss of mental innocence and forced development was a good thing, that was impossible to say.

'I only have one option. And whether it be by his design, or due to a cruel twist of fate blessing him, it'll give him exactly what he wants. Not that I can blame him, as I now have the same goal.'

Kneeling respectfully in front of him, she lowered her head and closed her eyes, the words she uttered completely solemn and sincere.

"I promise to loyally and devotedly serve you from this day onward. All I wish for is to see the downfall of the evil plaguing this world with my own eyes. I know their death will be of benefit to you, so I dare not request permission to end them personally. I beg of you to accept me."

Internally sighing at the fact that a pure mind could not easily survive the troublesome nature of reality, Theodore quickly rid himself of this whim. As calm as an immovable mountain, he nodded at the girl in front of him, as ever transparent with those who would enter his entourage.

"Although I do not doubt your sincerity, due to the fact that I will become the murderer of your entire family, it is unavoidable that a part of your subconscious will grow to despise me for it. Originally, if you had not submitted willingly, I would have forced you to become my Slave, however, out of recognition for your genuine change of heart, I will offer you the position of a Retainer instead. While this will put restrictions upon you which will ensure your loyalty, you will keep far more freedom over your thoughts and actions than a mere Slave would. Serve me well, and you shall prosper!"

With a thought of his, a notification popped up in Han Junqiao's field of view.

[ Theodore Winter has offered to become your Master.

Will you accept this offer and become his Retainer?

Warning: Your Heaven's Chosen Level will be transferred to Theodore Winter as a result, causing you to lose the qualifications to be a contestant in the Heavenly Succession. ]

Not one to hesitate once she had made a decision, she accepted, only to get pleasantly surprised by the significant boost in Attributes which followed.

'This 'Coattail Ascension' Talent is truly marvellous! It looks like serving him was the right decision–in more ways than just one.'

Meanwhile, Theodore was also deep in thought, scrutinizing his newly acquired Servant's Status Panel. Contrary to Followers, he was able to inspect any Retainer's detailed information whenever he wished. The relationship between the two sides was far more unequal.

[ General Information ]

[ Name: Han Junqiao ]

[ Age: 21 ]

[ Race: Long's Heir ]

[ Affiliation: Theodore Winter ]

[ Cultivation ]

[ Stage: Energy Refinement ]

[ Realm: Tri-Culmination, 100% ]

[ Technique: Divine Dragon's Supreme Legacy ]

[ Dantian Size: • Upper: 900 km³

• Middle: 900 km³

• Lower: 900 km³ ]

[ Attributes ]

[ Strength: 16,256 ]

[ Dexterity: 15,616 ]

[ Vitality: 16,128 ]

[ Endurance: 16,192 ]

[ Agility: 16,128 ]

[ Energy: 337,500 ]

[ Intelligence: 39 ]

[ Wisdom: 35 ]

[ Mind: 22 ]

[ Luck: 27 ]

[ Talents ]

[ Ancestral Atavism (Mythical), Long's Descendant (Legendary), Cultivation Savant (Legendary), Rational Mind (Epic), Archery Prodigy (Superior) ]

[ Proficiencies ]

[ Bathing (Adept: 99%), Energy Cultivation (Adept: 12%), Literacy (Intermediate: 88%), Cooking (Apprentice: 81%), Deduction (Apprentice: 75%), Tactics (Apprentice: 74%), Soliloquy (Apprentice: 59%), (See More) ]

[ Enhancements ]

[ Coattail Ascension (Mythical) ]

The first thing that came to his mind was that her low background had ruined her initial foundation–after all, the reason for her comparatively tiny Dantians was that she had followed the traditional Body Refinement path of regular mortals. Coming from a fallen branch of the Imperial Han Family, however, that was not too much of a surprise.

'She should have started out with around 300 cubic kilometres, tripling it during the Dantian Transformation Realm. Alas, what a pity. While her aptitude is clearly a notch below regular Named Family members, if she had experienced more realms during the Body Refinement Stage, then she could have made up for a large part of the difference.'

But there was nothing that could be done about this for quite a few cultivation stages to come. If she managed to persevere for long enough, however, then opportunities to refashion her very foundation would open their doors to her. As the newest person under his banner, she would have to try considerably hard to fall before then.

Her Attributes were nothing out of the ordinary–as he displayed them without the enhancements obtained via his Coattail Ascension, he could get a good grasp on her exact situation. She clearly surpassed what a regular cultivator of this world would have managed to accomplish, but such a level of achievement simply couldn't enter his eyes.

Her Talents, on the other hand, were another story.

[ Ancestral Atavism (Mythical):

• Unearths the potential buried deep within one's bloodline.

• Negative effects resulting from this will be alleviated to a large extent. ]

[ Long's Descendant (Legendary):

• Majestic bearing and divine appearance.

• Immune to all negative or controlling effects at or below Legendary-grade.

• Long-related Affinities: +99,900%

• Long-related Technique cultivation difficulty: -99.9%

• Long-related Technique cultivation speed: +99,900%

• Long-related Proficiencies improvement efficiency: +90% ]

[ Rational Mind (Epic):

• Completely immune to all mental attacks, interferences and illusions at or below Epic-grade.

• Partially resistant to all mental attacks, interferences and illusions at Legendary-grade.

• Minutely resistant to all mental attacks, interferences and illusions at Mythical-grade.

• Improved concentration. ]

[ Archery Prodigy (Superior):

• Archery studies difficulty: -90%

• Archery efficiency: +90%

• Daily: 1% chance to enter a state of enlightenment ]

'Ancestral Atavism', her highest-grade Talent, could be considered a complete wild card. If she hadn't been a somewhat distant descendant of a rather impressive lineage, what she would have unearthed might not even have allowed her to make it to the top of this world. Fortunately for her, she hadn't been that unlucky.

Likely due to the aforementioned Talent, she also managed to advance the grade of her 'Long's Descendant' far more than the vast majority of her family. After all, countless generations had been born and died ever since Long's glory days. The purity of their bloodline had been plummeting for ages, despite their best efforts.

'But in all seriousness, did the description have to say 'Long-related'? Without delving into historic records, it would be hard for anyone to figure out what exactly that is supposed to mean. Still, I suppose it's a lot more succinct than listing out dozens of terms one by one...'

Another thing which he took note of was that both Ancestral Atavism and 'Rational Mind' served to alleviate negative mental effects–and that was exactly the issue almost every single member of the Imperial Han Family was suffering from. Yet, the Status Panel did not display any abnormalities related to this in the Long's Descendant Talent.

'That's highly unusual. If it had been purified of its negative effects, then those would still at least get mentioned. Something very suspicious is going on with these Long's Heirs...'

For a while, he couldn't help but think back on everything that he had ever heard about the self-proclaimed Divine Dragon–as well as to a specific theory. Many had come to the conclusion that something unknown had to have happened to Long for him to suddenly act in such a delusional, self-destructive manner. Therefore, it was not out of the realm of possibility for an enemy from beyond the Heavenly Dao to be responsible for this–especially considering that nobody had been able to track the cause of this tragedy. And if the Heavenly Empress knew, then she had never publicised the related intel.

'I have scarcely any knowledge in regards to what lies beyond. Father has never spoken about it much, telling me that it was far too early for me to worry about these matters. And while I do not disagree with this, if someone messed with Long all that time ago, even before Huang Xian's fall... then I fear the Heavenly Succession won't be able to escape from outside interference either.'

At first pensive, he soon showed an intrigued, amused smile.

'But if I can think of this, then my father and those on his level can easily do so as well. They were aware of all of this when they sent me into the fray. Heh. I welcome this additional layer of challenge! I cannot guarantee my success, but so what? In due time, and with enough accumulation, I will be the final, sole victor. Except for whoever will become the next Heavenly Empress, I suppose.'

He knew that his real chances were drastically lower than even the most pessimistic estimates which he had made before, but this didn't dissuade him in the slightest. All that this meant for him was that he would have to acquire more fail-safes and think outside of the box which was the Heavenly Court.

Returning to Han Junqiao's Status Panel, he glanced at her Proficiencies at last, suddenly pausing in a mixture of speechlessness and amusement.

'Bathing and Soliloquy? Seriously? That's both impressive and depressing. But on the bright side, if I get her to prepare baths in the future, they'll certainly be far more effective.'

Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, he showed a slight smirk.

"Alright, get up. While in public, you may refer to me as Theo, as that is the name I chose to go by here. As for in private, I'll leave that up to your own discretion. For now, let's go back to your home. I will be collecting the Energy Veins underneath."

Obeying his instructions, she soon found herself teleported back to the place that she had grown up in, which now tormented her with a plethora of complex feelings. Still, she didn't make a sound and stood aside, waiting for any potential orders that she might receive. No matter what, she would not get into her Master's way if she could help it.

Ignoring her, Theodore walked to the centre of the massive cavern, right next to Han Junqiao's beloved bath. There on the ground was the very core of the Energy Gathering Array, which had been placed right above the Energy Veins beneath.

'The craftsmanship is quite decent. It shouldn't be difficult to repurpose it.'

Nodding in approval, as he had expected to see worse, he searched through one of the bags that he was carrying with him, eventually pulling out various odds and ends which the observing Han Junqiao couldn't make any sense of.

'They seem like... Array components? But very crude ones?'

Her questions were soon answered once Theodore inserted the items into various parts of the Energy Gathering Array with practised ease, transforming it into an Array that was entirely unrecognizable to her. She felt a deep, instinctive fear when looking at it, as if her body was screaming at her to avoid it at all costs!

'What kind of Array is that!? Or... is it just one? Are there multiple?!'

Utterly flabbergasted at what she was witnessing, she chose to not interrupt her Master. Very quickly, the exact purpose of the combined Arrays was revealed to her.

The ground began to tremble, almost to the extent that she feared the Alarm Array might get triggered. Fortunately, that one had also been taken over by Theodore.

A few seconds after the tremors began, 'snakes' of unfathomably pure and terrifying Energy over dozens of meters long burrowed their way out of the ground, contracting further in the process of doing so. Before she knew it, they had turned as tiny and thin as strands of hair, no longer exuding the primal power which she had managed to sense for a short time earlier.

'Just how massive were they before this shrinking process? A few kilometres? Or even bigger?'

Wondering about this, she curiously took a few cautious steps closer, scrutinizing the few handfuls of Energy Vein strands which were now lying atop her Master's palm.

"Feel free to look. These are the Energy Veins that were powering your Energy Gathering Array and provided the majority of this region with its Energy. I'll be taking them with me. In the future, I'll have to collect countless more of these, so for a time, huge parts of this world will be cut off from the path of cultivation."

Turning around, there was a unperturbed, yet confident smile on his face.

"In due time, new Energy Veins will appear, but nobody knows how long that might take. If this world's Energy Veins won't be enough, then other worlds will have to part with some of theirs as well. As the event venues of the Heavenly Succession, their main purpose is to provide the contestants with resources to advance. And I... just so happen to be in need of a lot of these."

Walking closer, he patted her shoulder in an encouraging manner.

"You should prepare everything you'd like to bring with you. I'll be taking you with me once you're finished. Oh, and you'll be meeting my first Follower, as well. So prepare yourself."