章節 20: We just steal them

Alm noticed Bruno's reaction and continued. 'Well... she looks good. It's not like she'll never grow up. But wait a few years.'

'A few years, your ass! I'm just trying to fix your mess!' Bruno mentally shouted.

Ruri, unaware of the argument between the two, looked away.

Bruno calmed down before remembering the little bit he knew about Ruri. It seems like she had a tough life as far as she can remember. Bruno then put that thought on the back of his head and asked about her injuries with a serious expression. "Tell me everything."

Ruri obviously wouldn't refuse an order from Denil. She began to recount how she was bringing the meal in the morning at the correct time when a group of young people approached her. They were the same young people that Alm and Bruno encountered and scared away in the library. For all of them, it happened the day before, but for Alm and Bruno, it had been a week, and they had to force their minds to remember these tiny ants.

"No one has the slightest respect for this whale. We own the body now; let's taste a bit of blood," Alm said calmly.

"Without killing, they just disturbed her a bit. Don't be so extreme," Bruno replied.

Bruno beckoned the young girl closer. She quickly recovered from earlier and stood up, taking trembling steps.

When Ruri was very close, they raised their swollen, heavy-fingered arms and touched her forehead. A gentle Qi penetrated the small body, and immediately, a calm and gentle feeling filled her. Despite having almost no Qi to use, Bruno had a pure Yang soul, and with his experience and precision, it wasn't difficult to make the completely mortal child's body regenerate her wounds more quickly.

In just a few minutes, their vision began to darken. Soon, they were completely out of energy. As for Ruri, she had already fallen asleep peacefully.

Bruno felt the fatigue of his body and couldn't help but complain. "How ridiculous, we had restored 80% of our capacity, but we're already done for."

"Is... is that a slave rune?" Alm asked in surprise.

"Oh-ho! Could it be that now you're interested in something other than yourself?" Bruno replied.

"I'm not going to waste my time on useless things," Alm grumbled. "Now that you've promised to protect her, our word must be kept. Speak up about what you know."

Bruno faintly smiled as he began. "Can't you tell by her different appearance? On Earth, she would be mistaken for someone of Asian descent. However, on this mortal planet, there's only one place where people look like that."

He continued. "Humans like to divide themselves into tribes and wage war as always. Her people are very close to our clan. You don't even know the name of our clan, do you? Have you even checked Denil's memories at all?"

"Just tell me everything," Alm demanded. He truly didn't care about their clan, so he didn't check those memories before they disappeared.

Bruno sighed and continued once again. "Our clan is called Divinestone. Ruri was born in the small clan and nation of Montide, which was located at the entrance to this forest to the west of the planet, a region teeming with wild divine and demonic beasts."

"The Divinestone clan stands as a fortress between the dense western forest and the central neutral zone of the planet. It's one of the oldest clans on the planet, so it is quite surprising how small it is. Anyway, its survival is intertwined with hunting the beasts of these wild lands, somehow thriving."

"As for Ruri's homeland, the Moonlight Clan, it's a place with many traditions and secrets carefully preserved over generations. There, everyone is aware of very powerful techniques. However, if a member of the Moonlight clan were to venture beyond their borders, they would be ruthlessly hunted and considered a traitor. Ultimately, they would killed, and nothing would be leaked."

"Of course, the two clans, Divinestone and Moonlight, were in constant warfare, but about ten years ago, the Moonlight clan was finally subdued by the Divinestone clan."

"During the war, the entire royal family of Moonlight was decimated, leaving the royal family without direct heirs. The king's granddaughter, Ruri, then only two years old, was spared and handed over to the Divinestone clan as a sign of loyalty and a kind of hostage to ensure the compliance of her people, who held the royal blood in high regard. She is the last survivor of that royal bloodline."

"Well, that was all that was in the fat's memory. The rest is speculation, but she must have been isolated somewhere throughout her childhood. It's very likely that the maids were her only company, and after a certain age, she chose to become a servant."

"She obviously can never cultivate, and the patriarch only accepted her as a servant after placing this slave seal on her."

"The seal is quite subtle; ordinary people would never notice it. If it were forcibly placed, the seal would be very apparent to everyone. We only saw it because we searched her entire body to heal her; maybe not even someone else doing the same would notice."

"The patriarch must have plans for her in the future, perhaps marrying her off to someone and controlling her clan... who knows, there are many possibilities," Bruno concluded.

"Greedy and pathetic bastards. Well, it's none of my concern. Just keep her healthy and alive," Alm said gruffly.

"But we still have to deal with the idiots who came knocking at our door. Do you plan to stay in this room forever, cultivating as slowly as a turtle?" Alm asked impatiently. They would need Qi to cultivate both their body and their energy, so they were bound to be much slower than others. The only way to accelerate things was through acquiring resources!

"We could stay here, but it will take a year to reach the second level of the realm. And for the physical technique, there's no possibility of starting training it yet," Bruno said.

"The solution is simple'. We just do as we've always done. If we don't have resources, we steal them," Alm said with a dark laugh.

Bruno sighed, unable to come up with a response. "Well, those idiots attacked first. But don't try anything extreme."

"We can't do something like what we did when we were a skeleton. But the Supreme Collector allows us to absorb even the Qi inside their bodies. They won't die. They'll just suffer something much worse by losing all their cultivation. Hahahaha," Alm laughed like a typical villain.

Bruno sighed, incredulous, but it wasn't direct killing, so it shouldn't be a problem.

"Let's focus on creating the rune tattoos of the Supreme Collector Cultivation Technique. A simplified and usable version should be done quickly," Alm said, having concentrated on studying this method.

The day passed quickly, and during the early evening, Ruri woke up in a panic. When she found herself on the floor, the first thing that came to her mind was the situation of the other maids Denil had abducted. But she quickly realized she wasn't tied up, and her body felt so good that it was almost inexplicable.

When she looked to a corner near the window, she saw the image of her master sitting in a lotus position. The moonlight and starlight seemed to converge on him magically, making a deep impact on her mind.

She stood there for a while in awe; her master seemed like a divine being now... Well, a fat Divine Being... but one nonetheless. Soon, she snapped out of her stupor and ran out of the room clumsily.

A few hours later, Alm and Bruno opened their eyes. They didn't even remember to eat. Instead, Alm's bloodlust was intense, and Bruno didn't want to admit that his primal instincts were equally heightened.