*Author Note*
Goddess Yuna-sama has descended from the sky and has fixed my internet connection, so here is the chapter. Also, she caked me.
*End of Author Note*
Just like that, a few more years passed, and the previously mentioned young man was currently standing alone in a vast courtyard surrounded by nothing but corpses.
“Hahaha, I did it. I finally did it, HAHAHA!!!”
Madness-filled laughter echoes over the courtyard as a sea of blood slowly started covering the ground.
“FINALLY, I GOT REVENGE FOR EVERYTHING YOU PUT ME THROUGH, HAHAHA!!!”
Maddened laughter echoed over the courtyard for a long time, scaring everyone who wanted to investigate it away. The creepy laughter faded away after multiple hours, allowing other people to discover the mountain of corpses the young man had left behind.
Instead of being terrified by the horrific scene in front of them…
“Hahaha, these damn monsters are finally dead.”
“Today, their reign of terror finally ends.
… they were elated. The young man clearly wasn’t the only one these people offended in the past.
The young man returned to Yuna’s sect with empty eyes a few hours later. The fire that had kept him going for a long time was extinguished. He no longer cared about anything else. He briefly considered killing himself, but decided against it. He felt like he still owed Yuna a debt for making his revenge possible. Yes, “possible”, not “accelerate it”.
After finally attacking his enemies, he saw just how many hidden cards they had, making him realize that he would have never gained enough strength to fulfill his desire if he was by himself. Only through the ridiculous amounts of resources he got and the infinite opportunities to fight people stronger than him in a safe environment did he reach the level of power he needed to succeed.
‘Now, my life no longer matters. Even if Yuna-sama asks me to die for her, I will do so without a single regret. I no longer have any purpose, so I will continue to be useful to her as long as possible and then simply fade away into nothingness.’
As soon as the two people guarding the gate, contempt filled their eyes, and one of them approached the young man.
“The sect mistress wants to see you, leech.”
“Hehe, it seems like she finally had enough of you leeching resources from her daughter and has decided to deal with you.”
The young man completely ignored the two guards and walked past them while only registering that Yuna wanted to talk with him.
If it were a few years ago, the two guards would have undoubtedly beaten him up, but they no longer dared to do so after the last beating they received from him.
‘ ‘Damnit, that trash gets fed massive amounts of resources and managed to surpass our strength by now. Just imagen how powerful we would have been if we were if all these cultivation resources were given to us!’ ‘
Obviously, those two guards were delusional. Someone who was only qualified to guard the door was not someone who could endure what the young man went through all these years.
A few minutes later, the young man was back in the throne room, where he accepted Yuna’s offer all these years ago. Without a second of hesitation, he got on his knees and kowtowed toward Yuna.
“Greetings, sectmistress-sama.”
“Mah, there really is no need for all these formalities, is there? You may get up.”
The young man got up when he heard Yuna’s order, and a moment later, their gazes met.
“Oh? How was your revenge? Did you enjoy it?”
The young man couldn’t help but be taken aback when he heard Yuna’s words.
‘How did she find out that I got my revenge with just a glance?’
After seeing the confusion in the young man’s eyes, Yuna chuckled in amusement.
“Boy, I have been sitting on this throne ever since before your great grandparents were born. There is nothing you can hide from me.”
The young man blushed a little at being seen through so easily and at being called “boy”, but didn’t comment any further on it. After all, he was fully aware that Yuna was right. What kind of secret could a youngster like him possibly have in front of a monster like Yuna?
“*Cough* May I ask why you summoned me here, sectmistress-sama?”
Yuna hummed in acknowledgment as a small smile appeared on her face.
“Naturally, it is to cash in on everything you have done so far. You probably expected me to use you as a disposable pawn, but there is no way I would use someone as useful as you like that.”
The young man couldn’t help but be confused by Yuna’s words.
‘Useful? How am I still useful? Less and less people are contacting me in my role as a spy, so my real status is probably more or less known to outside forces. I don’t think I have much use left except for sacrificing my life for something.’
When Yuna saw the confusion in his eyes, she could only shake her head.
‘Although revenged crazed idiots are easy to control, their singlemindedness can make them really annoying.’
“*Sigh* Just where do you think your current strength places you in my sect?”
More and more question marks popped up above the young man’s head as he pondered on Yuna’s question.
‘My current strength? I’m honestly not too sure. I spent most of my time either fighting other people or cultivating, so I still have only a loose understanding of this sect. I regularly get beaten up, so it can’t be that high, right?’
“Errr, I still get defeated rather regularly, so somewhere around the middle?”
“Urgh, you are more oblivious than I thought you would be. The reason you get beaten so often, is because multiple older people are ganging up on you. If I were to compare you to other people of your age, my children are the only ones in my sect who could fight and defeat you in a one-on-one. You have by far surpassed anyone else.”
The young man immediately got dazed when he heard that. Was he really that strong? Frankly, he could hardly believe it. After all, he was just born in a remote region with pretty much no cultivators at all. How in the world did he manage to catch up to geniuses that received plenty of benefits from birth? However, Yuna wasn’t done talking yet.
“Additionally, if I were to order you to die, what would you do?”
“I would die.”
There was not a moment of hesitation in the young man’s answer, making Yuna smile.
“That’s right; you are worthy of me keeping you around. Good talent and high loyalty. I will probably assign you as a guard to one of my younger children soon.”
The young man’s eyes widened in surprise when he heard Yuna’s words. Although it sounded like a relatively simple job, being assigned as a guard for one of Yuna’s children was no joke. After all, that meant that Yuna trusted you to guard her child. A child, that would very likely be targeted by an outside force. It was a hazardous job, but the rewards were on another level as well.
The previously extinguished fire in the young man’s eyes reignited as he swore on his very being that he would protect Yuna’s lineage no matter what happened.
“I live to serve, Yuna-sama!”
“Hahaha, very good. I’m looking forward to what heights you will reach, Jeremy!”
The young man’s face deadpanned when he heard Yuna’s words.
“My name is Jeff.”
“Hahaha, I was just kidding. Obviously, I know your name, Jerome.”
“…”
Right now, some doubts appeared in Jeff’s mind…
A few days later, a large group of disciples and elders gathered in the sect square. While the disciples were standing in front of a large podium, the elders were seated on it.
Most of the disciples were whispering to each other, discussing what might be the occasion for this gathering.
Moments later, Yuna appeared on the stage, immediately silencing all discussions, as the disciples looked at Yuna in awe. Although there were a lot of rumors that she was an insane pervert that constantly caused trouble, none of the disciples would ever believe such outragous rumors. To them, Yuna was a legendary character.
Despite Yuna’s presence, the whispering returned when the people saw Jeff following Yuna on the podest.
“Oh, so we’ll be seeing a public execution, not bad.”
“Pah, this is too much glamor for that leech.”
“True, but I will still enjoy the show.”
One of the elders sent a sharp glare into the crowd, immediately silencing them just as Yuna sat down on her designated seat and Jeff kneeled on one knee a few meters away from her.
“Mah, no need to be so stern, Second Elder~”
The Second Elder rolled his eyes at Yuna but didn’t comment any further. Even before this sect was founded, he and Yuna had been friends, so being called Second Elder instead of his real name annoyed him a little, so Yuna would call him that without fail.
“Well, as most of you have probably expected, today’s gathering is about the young man kneeling in front of me.”
Yuna’s smile broadened when she saw everyone’s eager looks, and it widened even further at the thought of breaking all those expectations they had.
“Today, Je… Ja… this young man will be awarded for his contributions to the sect. His rewards are a promotion to core disciple and the honor of guarding my youngest child. Additionally, he will be allowed to pick one cultivation technique from the library and one artifact from the treasury.”
“”””WHAT!?””””
Although most people managed to reign in their shock, a few couldn’t help but exclaim loudly, causing Yuna to chuckle in amusement.
“Oh my~ seems like quite a few of you are rather surprised by that. Care to elaborate what the problem is.”
As she said that, her eyes landed on one of the disciples who couldn’t keep his mouth shut, causing a shiver to go down his spine.
“T-There n-naturally there is n-no problem, sectmistress-sama. I-I was just surprised since I didn’t know the lee *cough* senior brother made such great achievements.”
Yuna nodded in agreement when she heard the disciple’s words.
“Of course, you didn’t. After all, he was working as a double spy for me for the last few years, selling information I tell him to sell to other sects, while simultaneously reporting the spies that contacted him for information. Over all, over 100 spies were caught due to his contributions, while a total of seven underhanded plots against me, my children, and my sect were prevented due to him. Does anyone dare to compare contributions with him?”
The sound of everyone’s chins hitting the ground simultaneously echoed over the gathering. Even some of the elders couldn’t believe what they had just heard.
Noone could believe that the loser that supposedly was leeching resources from one of Yuna’s children actually had such an important role. Although not everyone got it, after realizing that the dislike for Jeff initially stemmed from Yuna’s children, while even the reason for everyone disliking him was due to Yuna’s children a lot of people started seeing Jeff in a new light.
‘To think he was such a noble person. He was willing to endure years of bullying to help this sect out. Rater than a leech, isn’t he a hero?’
Meanwhile, Jeff was barely following what was going on around him, as he was currently regretting what he had done to his enemies.
‘Damnit, I should have tortured that shithead patriarch longer! And why in the world did I instantly kill that bastard elder? I’m such an idiot.’
Yes, he was obviously a hero.
