n

n

nThe maze opened. The maze that trapped the strongest of this realm and some other realms nearby opened.

nWhen it was opened, only two people remained alive.

nThe Saber Monarch and the third family head. But they didn't come out of the valley. Instead, Sam went into the valley to do something.

nAs soon as he landed, he started collecting the dead bodies of people and brought them all towards the center of the valley, where The Saber Monarch is currently sitting along with the third family head.

nSam called Specter out and both of them started performing a large ritual of soul necromancy.

nAfter Sam laid out an inscribed formation, he walked to the Saber monarch and the Third family head and gestured them to go inside the formation.

nAnd then the ritual started.

nBoth Specter and Sam carefully carried out the ritual to link the soul of the third family head to the Saber Monarch. The Link they are establishing is one of the servants and the master. This is actually one of the Soul Necromancer tricks, where he marks and creates a forced link with one of the souls of people who are still alive.

nHe might not be able to kill that person directly, but he can at least control them about some fundamental things and make them stay loyal and if by any chance the marked person is dead, the soul wouldn't vanish into nothingness.

nInstead, it uses the soul realm as a means to travel and reaches the master's location directly and becomes a servant soul undead.

nThe advantage of this is that the souls would be in their purest and strongest form.

nThe disadvantage is the ritual itself. If not for the Presence of Specter, Sam wouldn't have dared to perform the ritual on himself or to even perform at all, much less performing it on another person which is ten times more difficult.

nEven with his vampire bloodline activated, Sam is not exactly sure that he would be able to do it. But with Specter it is a whole different story as he is a complete natural at the soul necromancy.

nAnd this natural talent was bound to be put to good use.

nAfter the ritual is completed and forcefully linking the souls, the Saber Monarch stepped back and after going above and beyond to stop him from using his new power to play with this family head, Sam started drawing another circle and this time, it is much larger and more complicated.

nThe Specter separated itself from the maze formation and entered this formation circle directly and within no time it started glowing. Sam threw the family head into this circle and then threw the dead bodies of all the Peak-stage Pre-transcendent stage cultivators into the circle one by one.

nAfter that, he started channeling his dark elemental energy and mental energy into the formation circle letting the specter do the rest.

nThe dark energy casts a gloom all over the valley and it almost seemed like night has arrived earlier. It felt like they are walking through a haunted cemetery.

nAs the spectators watched the spectacles, the souls slowly appeared out of the dead bodies. They are coming so slowly that it made the whole scene much eerier.

nAfter the souls were completely extracted, the soul from the third family head even though he is already alive was forcefully extracted outside as he screamed on top of his lungs.

n

"AHHHHHHHHHHH…

"

nNot caring about his pain, the specter continued with the ritual. One after another each soul extracted from the dead bodies was forcefully attached to the soul of the third family head.

nThe ritual is so painful that this might be the first time that he ever wished to be passed out so that he wouldn't be feeling any pain.

nBut some wishes are just that, wishes. They don't mean anything more and anything less.

nIf it was pure physical pain, he would have surely passed out, but the pain is to his soul so he cannot pass out even if he wanted to.

nIt took an hour to finish the ritual. Even five elemental King and the Saber Monarch felt extremely sorry for this guy. It was that torturous just to watch, one could only imagine the pain of the one who is inside.

nAfter the ritual was over, the family head passed out. But Sam didn't let him rest, he woke him up and said.

n

"There are around fifteen strong souls that you could access to any time. Try and see if you can get them out.

"

nThe family head nodded and closed his eyes, he could indeed feel a few extra presences in his sea of consciousness.

nHe tried to access these presences and the souls came out. They are the souls of the comrades who he fought together for the past few days. He was stunned for a second.

n

"They obey all your commands and they will be helpful in the battle. They will grow along with you and become powerful. But you have to cultivate your soul, your mental energy. As long as you keep it up, these souls will get stronger and you would be able to fend off all your peers alone.

nFrom now on, you will take over the operation of the Crimson Lightning families and Blood lightning families.

nYou will be taking thirty percent of both families' income and give twenty percent to my subordinates that I would be leaving here, the remaining fifty will go to my friends.

nYou better leave it aside and keep a proper account for all the money so that they could come and collect whenever they want.

nDo you understand?

"

nSam asked, but the third family head is still in a daze. To be honest this is the first time he even had a proper look at Sam. So, he is a bit lost. But as he was lost in that daze, a glare fell on his eyes and he looked at the shining saber nearby held by the smiling saber monarch, he immediately agreed to all of it.

nAfter this was taken care of, Sam sent them back to the planets of the two families to settle the issues there along with the Saber Monarch.

nHe would settle the issues wherever the force was needed.

nAfter that, Sam erased the two ritual formations and activated the maze once again and added some extra inscriptions, and finally detonated it.

n*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

nLarge explosions happened continuously and the cliffs surrounding the valley are destroyed along with the valley itself.

nThe spectators ran as far as they could.

nBut when the dust settled a string of words could be seen.

n

"This Maze is cracked by Sam. And he is going to look for the one who made it.

"

nThese words are carved out of the cliff walls around the valley and Sam couldn't help but smirk as he looked at it.

nThis is the result of the last set of inscriptions he drew inside the valley. They managed the explosion on the cliff walls so that they could create these words.

nSince the other party left a message. He felt that it would be rude to not leave a message after he cracked it open.

nAfter this, he waited for the things to settle down in the realm so that they can move to the next adventure.

nSam took a look at the list to find his next target.

nAt first, he wanted to finish the late-stage Pre-transcendent cultivators earlier. And he started with Five- elemental king for the same reason. Luckily he broke through to the Peak stage. Anyway, there are still two Peak Stage Pre-transcendent stage cultivators and one of them is going to be their next target.

nHe looked at the details of the two people.

nSam got some more information from the Five elemental King and Saber Monarch and compiled it with the already existing data given by Agar and got some decent information.

nFirst one is s thief.

nHe wouldn't steal for himself as he didn't find any happiness in increasing his collection. Rather he enjoys the process.

nIn fact, he even managed to steal something from Five elemental King.

nEverybody knows the way how he works.

nHe always plans ahead for days, weeks, and sometimes months.

nOnce he confirmed that the other party has the item he wanted, he would target that person and create circumstances and scenarios that would force the other party to use the said item. It might be a herb, a potion, pill, weapon, formation disc, defensive artifact. It doesn't matter what it is, he could think of a scenario to use it and once the other party uses it, he would appear out of nowhere and steal it before disappearing.

nAnd he does this for money and resources. He would take assignments from anyone, big or small. But they have to pay the money suitable for that assignment.

nThere are some people who acted smart and tried to ditch the payment, but they realized that this master thief can be a master assassin if he wanted to.

n