DISC

Lucius headed into the city by himself, covered in a black cloak and masked by a film of air. The air coat was a tier 1 technique that was focused on masking the smell and sound of a person as they walked. It was a basic stealth technique that Lucius had already mastered. Lucius was able to easily jump the city walls from a side that had no guards and enter silently. The city was built to contain the mortals of Black Rock and because of its remote nature, the security was lax and the walls short. The instant Lucius dropped in, a horrid stench assailed his nose as he looked around, noticing many dead bodies of old men, children, dogs and cats. All the able bodied men and women were forced into monotonous labour so only the weak and undesirables were left for dead. Since Lucius had jumped in from the side of the city walls, he dropped directly into the slum district and saw the current scene. There was nothing much Lucius could do for them since they were already dead so he simply spread some flames over the dead and incinerated them. He waved his hands and dispersed the foul smell with an air technique, a foul smell like this would contain many bacterial diseases so he was attempting to reduce further deaths.

Lucius circled around along the city walls edges and cleaned up all the bodies on the way, he assumed that the guards and king wouldn't care to come check these slums because of the smell and filth so it would be fine if he at least cremated them instead of letting them rot in the open with mice and maggots feeding on them. After cleaning the outskirts, he ventured further in and found that most of the houses were empty since the men and woman were all working right now. There were a few houses he found that were currently occupied since all of the people at home were sick. Lucius attempted to talk to them but it seemed they were in a coma and weren't waking up, so Lucius sent them all back into the Garden. The other two had already returned and began the arrangements for taking care of whoever Lucius sent in.

Lucius noted down the houses of those he sent as he would return later and tell the family members what he did and what he planned. These people would be the 2nd layer of recruits as they would be more accepting of Lucius' help if they saw that he had healed their loved ones. The next step would be for the word to spread from these workers and eventually, the entire workforce would be recruited. The difficult part would be convincing the guards to defect to their side but Lucius already had an idea for that.

The next and more important job that Lucius had was to scout the strength and numbers of the opposition. As the one with the best eyes, Lucius was chosen to be the scout while Johnny's heart warming personality made him perfect for receiving the people that Lucius sent. Delilah was kept behind because of her impulsive nature and rampant anger. She would probably put a hole in the Kings head as soon as she saw him, allowing the rest of the aristocrats and military elites, ample time to run away.

The Black Rock kingdom was around the size of London and was spread in a typical way, the layered society was structured around the king. The Kings palace was in the centre of the city, the nobles and military elites lived at the southern port, adjacent to the sea. The east side was the site of the coliseum that was big enough to take up that entire segment of the city. The west was for the palace attendants, butlers, maids, chefs, tailors, assistants and other miscellaneous workers. It took Lucius a few hours to circle the city and map it out on a A5 landscape sheet. He drew the roads, the houses, the elevation, the drops, the entire city was drawn down in just a few hours. Lucius had high amounts of control and a monstrous eye so his map was far more detailed than the map of the world that they had bought. If Lucius were to draw a map of the world, he could probably sell it at an auction for at least the price of a city!

Along the way Lucius noted down the strength of everyone who had a cultivation and some other people of significance such as the head butler, head maid, head chef and the kings personal tailor. The strength of the west siders was pretty much all mortal with the exception of the head chef who was at the qi refining realm. It seemed that the king had taught him something so he could make his food with greater skill and precision. Apart from him though, the servants were all mortals and Lucius also noticed that most of them had bruises or cuts on them, looking like marks from a whip. It was clear to Lucius that these people were being abused by the king too, which, as horrible as it sounds, was a good thing for their purposes. An abused workforce meant that the potential for an uprising was far higher and their job was far easier.

The next point was the military, they were the main enemy that Lucius was focused on. Lucius reached a high vantage point before scanning the area with his eyes. The way to tell the strength of a cultivator was actually something that normal people at his stage couldn't do but with the Divine Eyes, Lucius could tell their rough strength. He wouldn't be able to tell their level but he could tell their realms for sure. As this part would be more important, Lucius pulled out the DISC, the Database, Intelligence, Scanner, Communications device that was basically a highly advanced piece of technology that Maria had created with her father. The DISC was in the shape of a bracelet that was on Lucius' right wrist, he turned it on and pulled up the data base. He created a file and labelled it as Black Rock Military Personnel, he then began to scan down the men's bodies as he wrote in their respective realms in their profiles. They currently had no names but Lucius was able to input their height, weight and other identifying factors like tattoos. This was the bulk of the job that Lucius had to do and it consequently took him the rest of the day to finish it off.

The final headcount was quite impressive as there was around 6356 soldiers in the qi realm and 5 people at the spirit realm. Their exact strengths varied but the 5 spirit realm soldiers were only spirit gatherers. Seeing this Lucius smiled to himself. They were weak! This was a doable mission that wouldn't take too long!