There was total silence for a few minutes and no brave soul tried to break the stalemate between rest and motion.
Not even the select group of people who remained standing alone amidst a sea of kneeling people.
There were perhaps 60 or so old men and women in the courtyard.
But around the encirclement, there were only 8 silent black garbed cultivators that showed only their cold eyes behind the covers of their masks.
On the side, the corpse that was losing precious life blood from its sorry location was quickly emptied out of sympathizers.
The people nearby the fallen Duan Ru were smart enough to vacate its vicinity and afterwards, did not even care as much as glance to the slowly decaying body of the dead.
The cold carcass of the Emissary was left there in plain sight in the midst of everyone. And yet it was ignored like it never existed in the first place.
Only the stench of blood filled the scene in slow dramatic fashion but no one flinched because not one amongst them were free and innocent of murder in the first place.
Their hands were filled by it in one way or another.
'I'm sorry. May you be reincarnated and be a good man in your next life.' Clark said a silent prayer to the nameless man he just slaughtered.
He would have liked to let this loud mouth keep a complete corpse in his passing but the violent tendencies inside him surged without his notice.
'And i feel very guilty because it felt pretty good to do so. To just let it be and release my baser instincts. I just hope that i won't kill someone innocent because of this negative buff hanging over my head.'
Clark shook his head because he knew deep inside that that was a tall order to accomplish.
Most especially now that he had already jumped several realms in just the span of one single day of playing games.
'I can control this power. I must!' Clark encouraged himself and after a few breaths of calming his excited emotions, he finally greeted his Elders.
"Good morning, Patriarch! I am glad that you and the four great elders of the clan have safely arrived for this momentous day of Nexus City."
Clark threw a friendly smile towards the elders of Lu and was not the least bit ashamed to say these words in front of the others that could only grovel with their knees mercilessly kissing the ground for today's event.
Clark did not invite the crew of defeated cultivators to get into a more comfortable position because he was letting them know firsthand how drastically their lives would change from now on.�
These men and women knew only one eternal truth in this world. The bigger fist always commanded absolute obedience in its fold.
Defy this golden rule of the age and one would certainly end up deader than dead in the aftermath.
"I am happy to be here, Elder Lu Chen. And you have the complete support of the Lu Family behind you!"
Patriarch Lu Jian raised his voice loudly to announce to everyone in attendance that this was a man of their clan.
The very person who had captured a city of a hundred million people in just the span of a single night. He was of course not that stupid to think that Elder Lu Chen had nothing to do with all of this.
Not after he'd seen the confidence that this man of Lu had exuded at his very entrance.
But more than that, Lu Jian could not believe his eyes on the way Elder Lu Chen had easily dispatched Emissary Duan Ru as if he was nothing more but dirt in the earth.
'A 4th Stage Mortal Shedding Realm simply could not do that! What kind of fortuitous encounter did you find yesterday, Elder Lu Chen?' Patriarch Lu Jian could not help but wonder inside.
Even if Emissary Duan Ru was kneeling on the ground when the attack happened, he could have simply dodge or take the attack directly without incurring any damage at all from a 4th Stage Expert.
One should know that Emissary Duan Ru was already at the 6th Stage of Mortal Shedding Realm!
But what happened was beyond that. Elder Lu Chen had not even left his spot near the entrance of his house when the curious tragedy occurred.�
'Elemental Force?!' In the end, Patriarch Lu Jian deduced the move that Elder Lu Chen had employed to kill Emissary Duan Ru with just one strike alone.
Along this certain realization, the rest of the group also determined for themselves what had really taken place about the same time as Lu Jian did.
They were not foolish people and were obviously not blind yet to miss the clear evidence that slapped their faces even as they breathed today. But there was only one problem with this assumption.
'Elder Lu Chen was only at the 4th Stage of Mortal Shedding Realm and not someone who has already stepped in the next realm of cultivation. The Foundation Establishment Realm!'
Each had this single thought right now and even tried again and again to determine Elder Lu Chen's present cultivation with their supernatural senses.
In the end, everyone of them arrived at an immovable conclusion. Elder Lu Chen was really indeed only at 4th Stage of the Mortal Shedding Realm!
After this solid determination came about, stunned expressions of varying degrees were exhibited on the scene from all the wrinkled faces of this special group of old goats.
'How is this possible?'
'Is he really a Foundation Establishment Senior and has only used a secret technique to hide his true realm?'
'This is not anymore Lu Chen! He's been possessed by a demon!'
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..
...
The collected Elders and Patriarchs of the 12 remaining most powerful clans of Nexus all had different thoughts but there was one thing that each one of them knew in their hearts without question.
Elder Lu Chen was not a man to be trifled with.
"Hmmm..." Clark nodded a few times after he heard and witnessed how shameless a man could be given the right chance and opportunity.
Not that he blamed the Patriarch of Lu for grabbing a hold of his thick and big thigh at the moment.
If this had happened by any other sane person in the field, there was no doubt that 10 out of 10, that man would have done exactly the same as this wise Patriarch Lu Jian.
'Hehehe. I would never have thought that I could see the day when all these powerful men and women of Nexus would kneel before my presence.'
Clark smiled and he started walking towards the central part of the courtyard.
The crowd of aged cultivators were unsettled by this action and visibly leaned back in their miserable and shameful positions.
Others could only bow their heads even lower as they all dreaded to invite the interest of this mysterious Elder of Lu that had just miraculously gained power and had the audacity to offend the Demonic Sword Sect in full.
"You need not fear me. I am not one who punishes and murders without cause." Clark said when he arrived at the throng of people around him.
Only a handful of people were raising their heads to meet his gaze and the majority of these were of course the 12 Patriarchs of the other clans.
The 13th, Patriarch Lu Jian could breathe easy because he had nothing to fear of any repercussions from one of his own Elders. He and the 4 Elders of Lu stood there with heads up high and proud.�
"I only need your obedience and cooperation. Do that and you shall live. Plot in the dark and you would never see the light of day again. Are my words clear enough?"
Clark asked playfully unto the caged cultivators in his midst.
"Yes, Senior Lu Chen! I hear you just fine!" A brave voice started the fire and the rest was like falling dominoes in perfect and synchronized reaction.
This courageous soul did not even use the Elder as designation but rose ways above that to wisely call Lu Chen as a lofty Senior. An impregnable status that he earned through sheer force alone.
"I pledge my life to you, Senior Lu Chen!"
"If you tell me to swim in an ocean of fire, I will bath upon it happily together with the rest of my House with me!"
"I belong to you now, Senior Lu Chen! I will face a thousand enemies and will never falter even if death takes me as consequence!"
"Senior Lu Chen, I..."
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..
...
And not one missed this epic gamble to change allegiance away from the Demonic Sword Sect's grasp.
Ten minutes of shouting flamboyant praises left and right, Clark has finally issued his first decree as the official ruler in the city of Nexus.
"From now on, Patriarch Lu Jian shall be my Spokesperson. You shall get my orders and wishes through him."
"Yes, Master!" the people were allowed to stand right now and they went with the flow to honor the name of their new owner.
There was no stupid person among this group of old bones and so they could only keep any dissatisfaction they held inside deeply hidden within their hearts.
Unbeknownst to these people, they would be the first pioneers of an Empire that would sweep through every continent of this known world.
* * *
Three days quickly passed in peace. In these 3 days, Clark made use of both Cresa and Nexus to help him get more exp in their own little ways.
He set up hunting parties to bring him the heads of magical beasts in exchange for some generous reward of silver and of gold.
Since the cities housed more or less 103 million mortals, making use of these vast manpower to get some drops of endless exp did not hurt at all.
It did not matter if they were small and inconsequential at best but what mattered was how he was allocating resources to the best possible way he can think of.
"Hmmm... Next stop, The Demonic Sword Sect. I can finally see you again, Tang Xinyue."
"And I'm also coming for you, Evil Boy! Wait for me!"