"Oooooh, so that’s what you ant by edge lord... it’s incredibly out of character."
"Right???"
Having spent several weeks by Zhen Liu’s side at this point, Rianna had gotten used to thinking of Zhen Liu less as an enigmatic force of nature capable of controlling monsters that defied reality on the regular, and more as a sowhat dorky, glum young man that she also wanted to mount due to his impeccable singing ability.
But now, seeing him act like so sort of enigmatic villain, she discovered a whole new side of him.
A side that reminded her of those caterpillars that pretended to be much bigger and significantly more dangerous than how they actually were.
It was honestly kind of adorable.
However, as she continued to watch Zhen Liu put on airs, she recalled a comnt Jin Fang had made earlier.
"Wait...you ntioned that you’ve seen him do this before, right? Was he as edgy as he is now?"
"Uhh..."
Jin Fang racked her brain, trying to find the right words to describe the last ti she saw Zhen Liu intimidate the hell out of soone. While none of it was disparaging, she couldn’t really think of anything that fit either.
"Not...exactly? Although, he didn’t have a weapon on hand to use as intimidation."
"Wait, he didn’t have a weapon? How are you supposed to intimidate and threaten without a weapon?"
"That’s what I said!"
_____________________________________________
"Ah, there it is~," the masked man said in a lodic tone, "that look of panic that occurs when soone ets their source of trauma is always...amusing. How delightful."
"No, no, no, it can’t be!" Zhen Li exclaid in alarm as he found himself face to face with the guy who had almost killed him with a literal squad of demons. Evidently, he was so shocked about being face to face with the man who had not only threatened his life once, but also trained the guy who almost took it, that he failed to think about sensing the cultivation level of the guy in front of him.
If he had, he might’ve panicked a little less as a result.
Not by much, but it would’ve helped.
"We’re doing exactly what grandfather and I promised you, Overlord," Zhen Li quickly said, "there’s no reason for you to keep locked up or... do whatever the hell you’re planning."
"Oh no no, my little friend, that’s where you’re wrong," the Overlord said with a chuckle as he began to walk around the bound Zhen Li, "while you may be doing sothing we had promised to the letter, there is actually a good reason why I summoned you here."
Zhen Li was silent as the Overlord continued to walk and talk, trying to keep his eyes on him as they did the latter. Unfortunately, the Overlord eventually stopped at a spot directly behind Zhen Li, making it impossible for him to keep watching. It was at this point that the Overlord, creepily, placed his own head next to Zhen Li’s ear in order to whisper into it.
"You want to know what that reason is?"
"I’m going to be honest, I don’t, but I think you’re going to tell regardless."
"Hmm. Good lad," the Overlord complinted as he lightly patted the man’s cheek in a condescending manner before returning to standing directly in front of him and pacing once more.
Zhen Li couldn’t help but notice how unusually young the palm patting his face felt. Then again, Aether Overlords had all sorts of ways to maintain their youthfulness so it wasn’t too weird.
"To explain it in simple terms, you, my young friend, witnessed sothing you shouldn’t have re monts ago. And well, I can’t have my secrets spilling out. Not without so assurances anyways."
At this statent, Zhen Li beca confused.
’Secrets? What secrets? I didn’t see anything...hold up..."
Zhen Li began to think harder about the monts up until now, trying to piece together what the fuck this crazy masked weirdo was talking about until, finally, sothing in his mind clicked and the mories all ca flowing back to him.
’Uh oh...’
Monts ago, he had witnessed Zhen Liu, the Fourth Young Master of the branch clan, recall one of his puppets, turn it into a strange form of energy, load it into so strange contraption and then fire it into the back of one of his elders.
Zhen Li didn’t know the na of this particular elder, he just knew that the man had a penchant for snakes and was an unassuming fellow.
However, the mont Zhen Liu’s strange projectile made contact with this elder, it had rged with him seamlessly and caused the man’s aether and personality to undergo a drastic change in a matter of seconds.
Gone was the quiet man desperately trying to save his family, replaced by a very loud, attention grabbing one that sohow changed his aether affinity entirely, even increasing the strength of it altogether.
At the ti, Zhen Li had wanted to report this strange occurrence to his grandfather, informing him that the Fourth Young Master could apparently turn aether puppets into power-ups. However, just as he was about to go and do so, he was rendered unconscious by...soone.
All he could recall about that mont was soone very tall locking his neck in a chokehold, slamming into the ground and then another person proceeded to shove a dicine soaked rag into their face.
Normally such tactics wouldn’t work against an Aether Master of his level, but the dicine they had used to knock his ass out was surprisingly potent.
If they were direct subordinates of this crazy Aether Overlord, it would make sense for them to have access to such dicine.
Regardless, now that Zhen Li realized what he had seen, he imdiately went into groveling mode.
He had learned from last ti he interacted with this crazy guy that negotiations and flattery wouldn’t get him anywhere.
"Please oh rciful Overlord, I swear upon my honor as a mber of the Zhen Clan that I won’t say a word of what I saw to anyone, not even to my parents or teachers! Just spare my life, please."
"Oh no no no, you misunderstand , little Zhen Li. I am not threatening your life."
"You... you’re not?"
"No, no! If I wanted to hide my secrets, I could easily just scramble your mories to the point that not even the most vaunted alchemists wouldn’t be able to concoct a dicine to fix it all," the Overlord gloated while making gestures with his hands, indicating just how scrambled the poor boy’s head would beco, "it would be quite easy too."
"Then...then why am I here?," Zhen Li asked with a shaky tone of voice.
At this question, the Overlord stopped pacing and leaned towards Zhen Li, so his masked face could be leveled with his.
"I...want to make a deal with you."
"You...you want to do what?"
"You heard , young man," the Overlord repeated, "I wish to make a deal of sorts."
For added dramatic effect, the Overlord proceeded to summon the sa strange tool Zhen Li had seen Zhen Liu summon.
While he didn’t know what he planned to do with it, the sight of the thing still caused him to feel nervous.
"Now then, Master Zhen Li, you strike as soone who wants to go above and beyond his peers, right? You desire prestige, power, privilege and respect from all of those around you, yes?"
"That’s not…entirely…true…," Zhen Li attempted to say with humility.
One of the earliest lessons of the Zhen Clan’s martial training is to understand that the world is much bigger than themselves, and to always be humble in the face of it.
Of course, not everyone took this lesson to heart.
"Do be honest with , Master Zhen Li, otherwise I will have to scramble your mories to the point where you think everyone has seen you run naked across at least three city blocks while a drunken snail bloodliner chased after you calling you ’baby girl’ while hold a suspiciously you sized maid dress," the Overlord retorted.
"...Okay, fine, yes, I do want power and respect, but who wouldn’t? This is a world where only the strong have any real power."
"Precisely my point," the Overlord answered while casually spinning the weird treasure in his hand. As he did, Zhen Li swore he could feel a strange energy radiating off of it, one that was getting stronger with every spin.
"Now then, you saw firsthand exactly what this treasure of mine could do, via the hands of my young apprentice. How he was able to sohow provide a significant boost in power to his uncle and even change his personality dramatically, yes?"
"Yes…," Zhen Li hesitantly agreed.
"Keeping this in mind, what would you say if I were to inform you that that temporary boost wasn’t so…temporary. That in reality, it had strengthened the man’s foundation and that it had significantly shrunk the gap between him being an Aether Master and an Aether Grandmaster by a full step?"
"That…that’s impossible!," Zhen Li couldn’t help but to shout, "such a thing is only possible with high tier aether pills, made by equally high tiered alchemists. There’s no way a simple energy projectile can do the sa thing!"
The Overlord took on a bemused stance as he heard Zhen Li’s statent.
"Are you sure about that?"
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