Demonic Plan

Henry had his mouth open, he never realized that his son knew what he wanted from him, his deduction abilities were scary, and his determination to walk through rivers of blood to obtain power was even scarier, if a person like him didn't fall early, he was destined for glory.

"It seems I am still underestimating you, Lucien."

"You changed the way you call me, father."

"This is a respect I will show you from now on, calling you son is a bit degrading, you are nothing like those good for nothing runts, even Vlad in nowhere near you. You deserve it."

Lucien looked at his father a bit more seriously, a person that was countless times stronger was willing to show respect to a being that was like an ant in comparison.

"It seem I have been underestimating you as well."

Henry was shocked again, he would have never expected someone to speak to him like this. But thinking again, he knew that this was still within the limits of what he would tolerate on the account of Lucien.

"You know your limits quite well."

"I'll allow you to do as you wish, I won't assign someone to guard you, you don't need it."

"With your intelligence, you can deal with a lot of situations, and you didn't die in that year when you were younger, so now it's probably easier for you to survive."

"Another thing that will change compared to then, now you can rely on the imperial influence, I don't mind you using some of the powers that would lend you a hand as a prince of the Empire, but don't go overboard, stay inside the Scarlet Empire."

"I understand. I'll leave now."

"May your Path remain unobstructed, Lucien."

Lucien didn't respond, but remembered the phrase, it was a really good wish.

'Even if something tries to obstruct it, my Path will not crumble, it will continue leading to eternity.'

After returning to the hotel, he meditated a little bit to prepare himself.

Not long after, Elena came back with a giant bag full of meat.

"Who do you even need this, you only need blood to improve."

"Heh, you don't need to know about it, don't be too curious or you might hurt yourself, my beautiful maid."

'All Existence, I'll eat all the meat on the first chance, but don't convert it, just keep the flesh energy isolated in the Crimson World.'

-Affirmed-

Lucien couldn't store that much energy in his body, but carrying the bag around would be a big inconvenience.

"I'm leaving the capital for some time, so make sure everything runs properly, use my name if your family gives you trouble."

Lucien was using the fact they misunderstood his background to the fullest, he even lend it to his maid.

"Sure, be careful."

Lucien didn't kiss her or say something romantic which disappointed her a little bit, he just walked towards the sunset with that big bag over his shoulder, passerby looked at him and felt that he was not carrying a big bag but a feather.

Leaving the premises of the capital, Lucien sped up, his walking speed was already 125km/h he was incredibly fast.

He entered the Dusky Woods for an hour, where he devoured all the meat and discarded the bag.

After than he continued following the main road that led away from the capital, it's end was a split road, one of them went towards a passage channel that connected to the Holy Empire, while the other led to a passage channel that connected to the Barbarian Empire.

Lucien didn't really care which one he took, he just wanted to be as far as possible from the capital.

It took him days, but he reached the borders of the Scarlet Empire. He could already see the Myriad Beast Mountain in the distance.

'This is the place.'

'This is the place where small villages are spread around.'

'I just need to find a village that is led by a Rank 1, even a peak Rank 1 is not a problem. Sizable population is a bonus.'

'I can't hunt bandits, it would be inefficient. A mysterious Rank 2 attacking their interests would attract those Rank 2 bandits, they might even hide in one of the branches and ambush me.'

'No Rank 2 would care about these villages, it's a miracle they even have a Rank 1 looking over them, it was probably some territory expansion plan by a noble family that is trying their luck.'

'Even if they send a Rank 2 to investigate, he won't even try. He will just go through the motions of coming to check, he won't be in a hurry to get over.'

'I won't be ending crime, so getting exposed would have some consequences, but the speed of gathering points should make up for the trouble.'

'I'll make up for quality with quantity.'

The Beasts that rushed out of the Mountain were mostly Rank 0 and Rank 1, higher Ranks remained within, they didn't want to leave the Mountain voluntarily, they were just the weakest and once there were too many Beasts, it was either leave or die. Some of the Rank 1s were even targeted and expelled, because they offended a higher rank Beast.

Once a common animal reached Rank 0 and became a Beast, their intelligence was not worse than a teenager and it improved alongside their power. So they also had internal conflicts and bad blood. Above Rank 2 the punishments for offenses were different, they didn't get expelled.

These border villages needed at least a Rank 1 Practitioner to be able to fend off the random attack from a Beast, they wouldn't be able to exist otherwise.

Humans saw Beast meat as a source of energy that helped them improve, but it was the same for Beasts, they saw Humans as a good tonic.

Lucien had planned to bathe the border of the Empire in blood, he would remove all traces of the battle and make it look like the Beasts have done it.

Even if he got exposed, he was disguised, once he escaped, nobody would connect the event with the third prince, after all he had a good reputation, nobody would even think about such a ridiculous idea.

Lucien got off the main road and followed one of the small human made roads, it was nothing special, just someone walking over the same place many times, thus forming a small trail.

'It will be commoners mostly, with some amount of Rank 0s and one Rank 1, I don't know the exact population of one such village, but...'

'I wonder how many villages will I need to go through for those 100 000 existence points.'