Stolen

Thanks to having an excellent source of information, Edrick had come prepared.

He had brought the necessary equipment to dig up the treasure that was hidden upon the peak of this ancestral mountain.

Surprisingly, it was not hidden that deeply, but it was secured inside a durable vault. Thankfully, Xiao had been kind enough to bring the key for Anoteros to claim, and the noble scion did not hesitate to make use of it.

There was no blinding light or fireworks. The vault simply opened by itself once the key turned in the lock… Edrick had expected some arrays, or for the vault to have been refined into a special protective tool, but it seemed that to hide the treasure of the clan, the Chen had decided to use a completely mundane method.

The only thing that might be special was the material used to create the safe itself, but beyond that... It seemed that they had hoped that using such a basic tactic would pay off by leaving nothing that a cultivator could sense.

By avoiding arrays and refinement, they had essentially made the safe and its contents undetectable by the means typically used by cultivators. Essentially, they had hidden their greatest achievement in plain sight.

‘Weapon Encyclopedia, huh?’ it was quite the mundane-sounding name for what was supposedly a superior manual, but it described the technique just fine.

This manual contained a way to cultivate one's proficiency in wielding all weapons, making it as though you had dedicated years to cultivating several techniques geared toward a single weapon. It was the wet dream of any weapon cultivator.

However, beyond that, it was also an extremely high-quality all-cultivation technique. It allowed the practitioner to develop body, mind, soul, et cetera.

It truly was amongst the pinnacle.

This technique can only be cultivated by Xiao Chen. To be used by others, it will require modifications or the acquisition of the necessary traits to be considered worthy

‘Mmh, that was to be expected. It can’t be that easy… No matter, it’s time to go home and get to work…’

Edrick still needed to grind Xiao’s script into dust–To ensure that the scenario would be unable to go on... And he just so happened to have ideas as to how to do this.

In the end, the black-bandaged corpse he had ordered to be made from the remains of the Chen elder had not been needed too greatly, so Anoteros took it home intact alongside his three new pets…

___

Xiao awoke suddenly, hitting his head against the metal pole he was tightly chained to. The bindings had been done expertly. Even with his physical might, there was no way for him to leverage any strength. He was effectively paralysed without any hope of breaking free.

He quickly noticed that he wasn’t wearing any clothes. The room he found himself in was only dimly lit, but it definitely felt like he was underground, maybe some sort of basement. Apart from this, there wasn’t much to say about the chambers he was stuck in.

The crimson-eyed protagonist could see Ai, naked and bound in the same manner as him–Right in front of his eyes. She seemed conscious, but her eyes were empty. She was just staring at the ground absentmindedly.

“Ai… Are you alright? Did this bastard do anything to you?”

She barely even reacted, simply gazing up at him. Her eyes wet, holding what looked like reproach.

“Xiao… How long?”

“How… How long what?”

“How long have you been having sex with that catfolk whore behind my back?”

The protagonist felt like his throat sealed itself for a few moments.

‘M-Master Chengzhe…? Some assistance, perhaps?’

It was only once he heard the emerald ghost sigh that Xiao realised that the emerald pendant was still around his neck for some reason.

‘Does Edrick know about Master Chengzhe? Why would he leave the pendant on me? There isn’t any reason to let me keep that specific item unless he knows something about it…’

“Xiao, that is a grave that you yourself dug, and frankly, it is quite a deep one. I am afraid that no amount of advice can help you” the green spectre stroked his beard, looking quite despondent himself. This was only natural. Xiao being captured meant that he, too, was held hostage.

“You told me that I would be the only one, and I trusted you! If you had changed your mind, you could have just told me about it… It isn’t so uncommon for a man to have multiple women in his life... But you kept it from me! Was I not enough? Was she that much better than me at making you climax?”

“Ai… I was just an idiot who didn’t dare to speak up after telling you that you were the only one! And… You are the only one that I truly love! That catfolk… She is nothing, I don’t love her in the least! She just- She just hypnotised me with her body!”

That hastily crafted excuse did not seem to convince Ai, and Xiao did not get the time to try again as light poured into the room.

Edrick's large frame appeared in the doorway, and soon, several lanterns were lit inside the chambers.

“Talking about Bedi, are we?”

“How do you-”

“Is it not obvious, Buddy? I arranged for her to be the girl who would take care of you back in Paradiso. A certain voice in my head told me that you were likely to be very interested in a so-called ‘catgirl’. That guess was very correct, as I noticed”

Anoteros crouched down to meet Xiao at eye level.

“Also, she isn’t a prostitute of Paradiso. She’s a genuine inner disciple of Red Mansion. As you can guess, getting her assistance was not a problem for me. I am a young master of the clan that sponsors and gives them their reputation, add to that attractive rewards…”

Edrick chuckled.

“She did a pretty good job, didn’t she? Following you around in plain sight”

Xiao was speechless. Had he really been fooled by such a simple trick? How did he never even come to his mind that Bedi might be after something else? Had she been using dual cultivation techniques from Red Mansion on him since the very beginning?

“Well, it doesn’t matter anymore. You are done for, Mister Protagonist”

“Whether you want it or not… Whether you like it or not… You are going to submit to me”

“I would rather die!”

Anoteros grinned, suddenly grabbing the Chen scion by the throat.

“I’ll make you beg, and it won’t be for death. You can trust me on that”