"OFF THE SHIP! NOW!" Shouted Daniel with the loudest tone he could muster, before standing up, and running towards the edge of the deck. He then stomped heavily on it, and jumped directly into space.
Those who recognized Daniel's voice, immediately followed him along with Der, Jerigh, the prisoner, and finally, the family of the second in command of the ship, while those who didn't, worried that Daniel's shout and use of immortal essence could attract the monsters closest to the deck, jumped as well out of fear.
In a matter of seconds, everyone who had survived this horrific voyage had abandoned the ship. The only living person still inside, was the red-robed young man, which was currently being tormented by the monsters.
Just like when a monster erroneously attacked another when one of them made a sound, the young man was forced to defend himself against the attacks quick attacks. At least until they finally managed to realize that it was him, and stopped in their tracks.
This went on for a few long minutes. Long enough for the young man to manage to take the sound sphere off of his clothes, and destroy it. Only after he did that, the monsters finally left him alone, and went back to focus on the surrounding noises.
Unfortunately for them, they would never find one again, as the place was now as quiet as a grave.
At the same time, in the space just a few hundred kilometers from the planet, Daniel and a few hundred cultivators floated in place quietly.
Cultivators were able to naturally emanate their immortal essence out of their bodies, and that would allow them to float, and if they wanted, to direct the ejection on a specific direction in order to propel themselves in the opposite direction. Therefore, everyone that had reached the first stage of immortal cultivation, was able to travel through space.
Unable to land on the isolated planet next to which they were floating. Some of them prepared themselves for the eventuality that they might have had to fly back by themselves, when suddenly..
"Anyone who needs to go back to Mira, you can go through my company building's pocket dimension."
He then opened a large portal through which people could see a big and lively market. Similarly, the thousands of people that were peacefully shopping in the market, suddenly turned towards the big portal that had opened with fear, and on the other side, they saw a relatively small group of people that floated in open space.
"It wouldn't hurt me if you stopped by the shops and bought something.. You know.. For saving your lives." He then added with a casual smile on his face.
Hesitantly, the majority of the people decided to enter the portal, and ended up inside Daniel's market, and unsurprisingly, none of them stopped to buy something.
Of course, that was to be expected. Who would have wanted to shop around after going through such a terrifying experience. After getting out of that predicament, Daniel simply felt like joking.
A few of the most powerful and greedy cultivators looked at Daniel with hesitation. Their eyes were met by a shrug of Daniel's shoulders, and a few words spoken in a matter-of-fact fashion.. "Don't look at me like that.. You will never be able to enter the planet unless I take you with me, and I have no intention of approaching it before everyone has left."
"We could force you to take us in.." Responded a thirty years old looking woman at the seventh stage of cultivation.
A smile appeared on Daniel's face, making him appear carefree and unbothered by her words "I assume that there is going to be somebody to prevent people from entering the planet.. I wonder how will you convince me not to sell you out once he or she will ask me if you are with me." He responded while carefully fixing his clothes.
"Maybe they can't.. But I will." said a voice from the distance.
Daniel, Jerigh, and Der immediately turned to look at the direction where the ship had disappeared, but then, they felt a presence appear right next to them. Once again, they turned around towards the group of greedy cultivators, and in between them, the red-clothed man floated quietly.
Differently from the rest of the cultivators, this young man was looking towards the planet. His expression was pained, and filled with what looked like the sort of apprehension that a mother would feel towards a child.
"So many parasites.. Weakened, and unable to claim this beautiful world for the Parasite King.." He said with a saddened tone, before turning towards Daniel, and adding "But you will help me change this."
Each and every time Daniel had seen this young man, the two had had an extremely quick interaction, or they had met in a dark area which made it impossible for him to see the man's karma clearly. But now that light was shed on him from various angles, Daniel was finally able to see the number that floated on his head.
Daniel had never seen such a big number. So big, that Daniel didn't even bother to read the last twelve digits of it. The fact that the number was as red as venous blood and that it was in the hundreds of trillions, was enough for him to understand that he wasn't dealing with a good person.
At the same time, what surprised Daniel even more, was that the prisoner's karma was still at a perfect zero, which to him, made even less sense than the mind boggling large number above the red-clothed young man. The prisoner had helped them to escape, and technically speaking, he should have had a little bit of positive karma.. But that was not the case.
"Of course, after I take care of him.." Said the young man after turning to look at the prisoner. He then opened his mouth, and let a small insect come out of it. This insect appeared like a worm with hundreds of sharp little teeth on its head, and six extremely long and thin legs that came from its sides. It was different from the one that Der had seen in the ship, and appeared to be much smarter. "Kill them all.. But leave that one alive."
The moment this insect appeared, Der wondered if this young man had an insect for every occasion.
Once the words of the young man reached the insect, the long-legged worm turned towards the closest of the strong cultivators in the surrounding space, and jumped on him with lightning fast speed. It then crawled over his clothes, and the moment he ended up on a visible patch of skin, it used its sharp teeth to drill a hole into the man's body and crawled in.
Visible from the outside, a small lump moved up towards the man's neck, and kept going until it reached its head.
The man did not even have the time to panic, before the parasite reached his brain, and took complete control over his body.. turning him into a moving puppet.
This man was the most powerful amongst those that had remained behind, and therefore, even after becoming a puppet, he was still the most powerful after the prisoner, and the red-robed young man. So, with as much power as the man could originally muster, he dashed towards a second person right next to him, and grabbed him tightly. With one arm wrapped around the person's chest and arms, he used the other to keep the man's eyes opened. He then spit on his eyes, before letting him go.
The second man quickly panicked as he felt something crawl behind his eyeball, and reach his brain. In a matter of seconds, he too became a simple puppet.
At the same time, just a few dozen meters next to them, the young man looked at the prisoner with an odd smile. "Show me yours, and I will show you mine." He said with a taunting tone.
The prisoner did not respond, and instead, he simply closed his naturally red eyes. When he reopened them, they once again shone through the eye holes of the mask he was wearing like a couple of green beacons.
"Spare me your mind tricks. We both know they are nothing more than a surprise attack.." Said the red-clothed man with an irritated tone. His face lost the smile that seemed to be a permanent characteristic of his face, and became extremely serious. He then said with a blood freezingly cold tone "Fine.. Let's do it your way."
The young man's skin suddenly started to tremble, and swell. Large veins appeared on every bit of skin that was visible, and soon enough, the color started to change as well. From a healthy rosy color, the young man's skin turned into a greyish green. The young man's body quickly started to morph, and expand bit by bit.
The very clothes on the young man's body expanded along with his body, and when normal clothes were supposed to rip, his turned identical to modified skin instead, which now looked like that of an earthworm.
The human features quickly started to disappear from the young man's body, and in a matter of a seconds, he turned in what was a massive clump of intertwined worms which looked like it could weight dozens of tons.
In response, the prisoner's eyes started to shine of a brighter shade of green.
The back of his clothes suddenly burst as a green luminescent shadow came out of his body, and after becoming as big as the young man's monster form, it took a humanoid shape, and stood behind him like a protective giant.
This giant had amazingly handsome features, and was clad in a magnificent full plate armor. In his hand, was a greatsword that looked like it could cut a mountain in two.
What surprised Daniel the most about this giant, was that while its owner did not possess karma, this green transparent giant did. The number above his head was not too high, and reached only about two hundred thousands. Nonetheless, it was still positive karma.
Once the red-clothed young man and the prisoner showed their true power, they prepared to engage in battle, but something unexpected happened.
The most destructive and unlucky moments of the red-robed young man's life, was about to appear in the shape of a ten meters large meteoroid which traveled at a speed hardly observable with the naked eye.
This meteoroid impacted directly against what, before, would have been the back of the young man, and that now looked like a large cluster of moving worms.
The impact was so powerful, that the young man exploded in hundreds of tiny pieces, which flew all over the surrounding space.
While everybody else looked at the scene with shock, Daniel looked in enjoyment. He had activated Karmic Retribution at the cost of half of his karmic points the very moment he had seen the young man reappear. This enjoyment was, of course, bittersweet.. After all, he had spent as much as forty billion karmic points in order to trigger this young man's karmic retribution.
That, was half of the total karma he had received from sparing the planet from the fate of being destroyed by the invasion of monsters.
Just as the young man exploded in thousands of pieces, the prisoner did not wait for him to get himself back together, and instead, he moved his fist in front of his chest. The green giant made exactly the same movement as the prisoner.
"HAA!" Shouted the prisoner, causing a powerful green wave to expand from the giant's fist in a spherical-shaped wave.
As soon as this green wave touched the infected men, or each of the pieces of the red-robed young man, they would instantly burn into green flames.
"OUTCAST!! YOU CAN'T KILL ME! JUDGE!!" Shouted the young man in panic just before the last few floating worms could be turned into dust.
Suddenly.. The surrounding time and space stopped.. And a portal opened. From it, what looked like a ten years old kid that was holding four big books, came out with a casual pace.
"What is the matter?" said he kid with a calm tone which instantly dissipated the prisoner's attack. "This is my first regulation.. Go easy on me." He then added with an embarrassed expression.
