86 Entering Alone

Both Lucien and the clone returned to the capital and entered at different times, making sure nobody sees them together, even if they were in disguises. The clone went back to the palace and Lucien went started walking towards the inn.

On his way, he heard people gossiping about something that happened in the Empire. Apparently one of the prestigious families disappeared overnight. Not even the dogs were spared, the family mansion was described as a location haunted by ghosts by those servants that went for work in the morning. Nobody dared to get close to a place like that.

Another rumor was floating hand in hand with the first one, it was that the family had offended the Third Prince and were thus executed. The shocking part of the second rumor was the reason they were executed. Since the reputation Lucien had made was incredibly positive, the rumor was somewhat twisting the truth in his favor.

The reason they were executed was that they were disrespectful to the true qilin son of the Empire in public, they were disrespectful to the prince that bled for the Empire on the front while they send at most some servants and went through the motions. It even infuriated some of the commoners, who then spat on the ground while murmuring that such a shameless family deserved what they got.

Lucien smiled wryly when he heard the rumors, he was prepared for his reputation to diminish by a bit when he tried to test Henry, but it was the complete opposite. Putting this small game that he played with Henry at the cost of a noble family behind his back, Lucien went back to the inn and meditated.

He couldn't cultivate at this point as he didn't really have a Manual on any Path and after spending the 10 000 to get the information about Devil Armor, he didn't have 100 000 to get a new Manual, so for the next few month Lucien continued torturing those poor families for more than half of his day.

He went through the whole stock they had, which was nearly 200 families. His progress bar for the Devil Armor Level 1 was already showing 2%. And since he was not converting the Blood, but kept it in the Crimson World, he was getting about 200 Existence Points for their flesh and souls, which build up to a nice bonus of 40 000 Existence Points.

Once he had 100 000, Lucien didn't buy the Soul Devour manual or comprehend another Middle Path, he went for the Lightning Path. He wanted to be able to be in control of his life when facing faster opponents, which happened quite often. And he still remembered that Rank 1 skill, Lightning Steps. It was completely obsolete with his current stats and not to mention the boost from the Devil Armor, but if the could improve it...

He still couldn't create a clone, because that also required 100 000 Existence Points. With nothing left to do, Lucien left the capital and headed towards the Mountain. It was sure to be a dangerous journey, but he was ready for the risks.

Travelling was getting faster and faster, especially when he flew with the Devil Armor, it took him weeks to get to the border before, but now he could do it in a day. Once he was Rank 3 in his Agility he could do it in hours. Rank 5 Agility Practitioners needed a couple of minutes to cross the whole continent.

He chose a random point to enter through, as Beasts moved around no matter how much one considered, danger was everywhere. So he didn't hesitate and picked a point.

Passing through the border, slight tension started developing in the air. He knew that he was in their territory now and even as a Rank 3, he had to be careful.

Lucien easily found a Rank 1 creature and killed it. It was a Python like the one he fought in the war, newly promoted Rank 1, about 10 meters in size. Looking at the enormous body, Lucien frowned.

'Even if I stop the smell of blood spreading, it will take half a day to eat something like this.'

Lucien quickly collected all the blood and stored it in the Crimson World, this was his plan on accumulating enough blood for the Blood Path and maybe even to enhance his own blood.

He couldn't get the Soul as well. Soul Devour only worked on humans. The only place he could get the Existence Points he needed was the flesh of the Beast.

Lucien was not keen on looking for higher ranked creatures, the risks of killing even a Rank 2 rose by a large margin. It was not their strength that would be a problem, but their status. They were already accepted, with high chances of being a subordinate of some Rank 3 Beast. Many of them even resided on the bodies of Rank 3 creatures.

Like how that Rank 3 Beast that joined the war had tons of creatures on it's back. While Rank 1s were like the scrubs of the society Beasts had build, getting only the scraps left behind, with even the possibility of being exiled if they offended someone.

He was not scared of fighting a Rank 3 Beast, even killing it was not out of the question, but he was afraid of attracting a Rank 4 with their fight. He couldn't know if a Rank 4 was roaming around, and by the time he detected something was wrong with his Domain, he would be dead.

Sighing helplessly, Lucien made sure to cover everything that might give their position away, and even created a mist of Darkness that would confuse other Beasts from approaching. The whole process was incredibly easy with his 5 kilometer Domain. Even if a Beast was getting closer he could leave on time.

It took him quite a while to eat the Beast, it weighted at least 300-400 kilograms, and Lucien got around 8000 Existence Points just from this one Beast.

'Profit comes with danger, I will try my best to avoid danger, but if it comes knocking, I'll make sure regret is the only thing it will feel.'

Lucien kept being cautious as he hunted, and he did so only during the day. He knew that many kinds of beasts were much more active at night, and even if they were weak, he was not on his own turf.

Even if he found a Rank 1, he made sure that there were no higher ranked Beasts before killing and eating it. Each Beast he killed provided him with 10s of liters of blood which he then condensed into a liter or two of Rank 2 blood. A red pond kept accumulating as it floated around in the Crimson World.

For the Blood Path it didn't matter if it was Beast or Human blood, he could even enhance his own blood with both types, all the information on the blood was erased before it was put in use, it was like a neutral drop of life that anyone could take.