The King looked at Sam who is falling. His fall is too high. It would take at least thirty seconds for him to reach the point.
He decided to take care of the twins in these thirty seconds before he shifted his focus to Sam.
But as soon as he decided and was about to make a move, the twins lunged towards him directly and they held his hands with their bodies. Agar held the hand that held the staff and started heating the whole arm directly and Argan who is holding the hand with excess muscle which is being rejected by the rest of the flesh did the same.
The King was caught off guard. There is a reason why people don't usually make these kinds of moves. They might be easily executed once the opponent was caught off guard, but it was also dangerous for the ones who made the move and might backfire big time.
Particularly when the opponent is too strong.
And in this case that is how the situation should have turned out. But the pain receptors are at their most sensitive state which made the King almost pass out.
At this moment Argan canceled his fire elemental fusion and activated the light elemental fusion and injected the light elemental energy into the arm.
The muscle tissue that was being rejected finally found its backer it started absorbing the vitality from the light elemental energy and when the King tried to inject his own spiritual energy to numb the pain, he felt an even more soul-searing pain out of nowhere which almost wanted him to die. This is the most painful situation he has ever been in.
He couldn't even move his arms much less attack the targets that are right under his arms. While he tried to calm himself down, he remembered something and looked upwards.
Sam almost neared the ground and is only a few feet away.
He is in the merged state of shadow fusion and Space fusion and held the shadow sword in his hands.
As he moved towards the ground, he used the shadow sword to slash right behind the King and before he could touch the ground, he used the shadow and space elemental energies to turn into a puff of smoke and reappearing in front king.
The spatial tear to the Shadow world opened up and Sam's shadows hugged the King from the rear and the corrosive shadow energy started coming out of the tear crazily.
Sam used a spatial barrier shield combined with the shadow elemental energy to cover himself and the twins as they slowly pushed the King into the portal.
His pain didn't allow him to move the arm. His instincts are completely taking over and didn't let him try to do anything that increased the pain.
Agar held onto the staff tightly, but the King held on to it even tighter and didn't show any signs of losing it.
The staff is his life. There is no way he would give it up that easily.
But as he struggled the shadow's corrosive energy is seeping into his body which felt like a bug gnawing into his flesh. He felt exasperated as all his life revolved around and for the first time in the past few days, he has a moment of clarity.
When he remembered all the things that are happening to him. His obsession, his addiction, his debauchery, his arrogance, his Queen. All of the things that came to his mind. He understood that something is wrong. All of it cannot be a coincidence. If he was going to die, he at least needs some answer. He struggled with all the remaining energy.
But the twins and Sam are not worried. The King is already halfway through the tear. Now they waited for the spatial tear to close down.
Sam and King had eye contact and the King who knew that his demise is almost inevitable asked.
"Who are you?"
"I am your killer."
"Why are you trying to kill me? I don't think we have any enmity."
"Well, I would have told you to go and ask Hel. But it seems like it has been a long time since you guys contacted her. I don't know if you got the message or not, but I am Sam and I got a mission to get this staff."
"Would you leave me if I give up the staff?"
"I am sorry, I also made a deal that I would kill you if someone helped me set you up. And this is the end for you. It is not good to lose yourself in debauchery. Things wouldn't turn out properly when you indulge yourself too much. Now goodbye."
With that, the three of them kicked the King who gave up all the hope.
The space crack closed itself and the arm which held the staff was cut off there.
Sam took the staff from it and burned the rest of the arm.
The three of them then went back to the meeting spot where Arona is waiting.
They made the camp there and decided to stay for the night and leave the next day.
"If you are going to target powers like this, you need to increase your manpower. We wasted over a month for this guy, we cannot spend that long time."
"I wanted to do that too. In fact I wanted to recruit some of the guys from this race, but from the looks of it, they are not suitable for me."
"Why? Just because they are having sex openly?"
"No, they are having too much of it. Even though most of it is genetic and for the reasons unknown, it is still a problem for me. Did you see how easy we got that guy? All that took was time and for cultivators, time is not exactly a tight resource. We live for centuries and a month for killing a guy who is probably ten times stronger than me is not exactly a bad deal. Don't you agree?"
"But the list of the powers you are going after is quite long. You would need more people to do it faster."
"I know, all I am saying is the current situation is not as bad. But I would really like to recruit new members. In fact, you are going to do that from the rest of the powers you are about to raid. What I am going to lack is someone powerful. I need someone at your power level. Do you have any recommendations?"
The twins fell silent for a moment and after some thought Argan replied.
"It is hard for people at our level to deliberately accept someone's dominance over us. Even though we are not exactly some big deal in higher realms we can still do well for ourselves in the current realms, it is nigh impossible to convince that when you cannot give them something."
But Agar has different thoughts.
"That is generally true, but there are always anomalies. I have heard of some legends. Some solo cultivators do not belong to any organization or a power. There are quite a few of them with a power level equal to us or even powerful than us. I made a list of them a year ago when we hit a roadblock in our cultivation."
"Roadblock?"
"We thought we couldn't break through into the Late-stage, we were completely stuck. It is almost like we were caged. So, I wanted to find someone to take revenge. I was content with killing my brother and sending the news to our father."
"So, you brokethrough and the list became obsolete. I will take it. How many are there?"
"Ten, out of which three of them are in Late-stage Pre-transcendence. Four of them are in the peak stage of Pre-transcendence and the last three are in the Transcendent stage. One in Middle-stage and two in the Initial stage.
The list you made as your plan can be cleared by anyone of us. But these guys can go after the second phase of the plan easily on their own and if you can get them together, you will have an ultimate team that could sweep through the third phase of your plans and they would be a great help to the fourth phase."
She passed a scroll to Sam and he looked into it.
There is a list of names along with some general details. The realm, planet, and their possible location.
The ten members are indeed a great bunch. They will be extremely useful. And Sam went through their names before saying.
"Argan, you will go with my team and Raiju Elder to start the first phase of the list. The approach has simple steps, you go there. Make a big announcement. Tell them you are offering a deal for their heirloom and an offer for the strongest person on the planet, buy both of them if you can. If not raid the home, kill a few and capture the strongest and torture him with the pain drug until they sign a soul contract or anything equivalent to that. But find an assurance that they would be faithful and only bring one from one place.
Then bring them back with the heirloom. Keep them close, take them to the next spot, use them to make the announcement, and repeat.
I and Agar will go on a recruitment drive.
Oh, by the way, destroy every Hou Yi statue, you come across."
