It was now the morning of three days after Daniel had sent Gai'ha to deliver the letter to the Helvha family, and yet, he had already received the notice of the completion of the mission, as the Helvha couple had, in fact, already taken revenge against the culprits of their daughter's death.
The bodies of the three Killshot Brothers had been found hanging by their necks right in front of the mansion of the Gath family, which was situated just a few dozen kilometers away from their own. Their hands had been cut, their eyes had been removed, and they had been fully emasculated. A trained eye would notice that they had suffered these tortures before the time of their deaths, which had happened in less than a day after the Helvha couple had received the letter from Daniel.
The very next day, the daughter of the Gath family had disappeared, and her body had been found just hours after Daniel had received the notice. Oddly enough, she hadn't been brutalized, and instead, she had been killed quickly and painlessly with a swift stab through her heart. Her makeup was a mess, and it was clear that she had felt a deep sense of fear and desperation before her death.
Of course, Daniel could not be possibly aware of who did it or what had been done to her, but he could not possibly care less about it. He had no compassion to spare for vicious people like her. But if he had to take a guess, he would probably say that the Helvha couple had been clear to the girl before killing her, as a form of psychological torture, and he would have been right.
Daniel was aware of the fact that the Helvha family had another daughter, and now that the family viewed Daniel in a positive way, he was inclined on sending an invitation for her other child to join his academy, promising safety and an unparalleled chance in education in multiple paths, but now it wasn't the moment..
Daniel was now in a room with Ligart, Serf, Emelnie, and Edmund. He was looking intently at Serf, who looked back at him in silence. "After this, it's all out war against my company and your family.. Are you sure you want to be here?" Daniel asked to a serious looking Serf. He appreciated his help, but despite how awful his family was, he could not force him to stand against them.
Serf remained quiet for a few moments.. Then, an expression which Daniel had never seen on his face before, appeared. It was disgust. "I should have fought my family when my sister followed me, and killed every person that I tried to help.. When my mother killed my father because as a rule, the inheritor of the leading position of our family cannot be distracted by a relationship.. Or when my mother created multiple laboratories to test failing products of a cure for my great grandmother's poison.." He then said with pure anger.
Daniel did not say anything else to Serf, and instead, he turned to look at Ligart, and said "Lig, prepare the auction." He then turned to look at Emelnie, who was in charge of the relationships between the Golden Karma and the other groups, and said "Spread the rumor that our company has made a groundbreakin, and that we will be selling our product in our first auction."
"Should I tell people what it is?" Asked Emelnie with a perplexed face.
What appeared on Daniel's face could only be described as a smile filled with a sense of schadenfreude "Only say that it is a groundbreaking discovery in the alchemical field.. Exaggerate in praising ut.." Daniel's plan was clear. He wanted people to be curious enough to visit the auction, and yet, he wanted the expectations to be so incredibly high, that nobody would really believe that they could live up to them. Only then, would people be shocked the most by what Daniel had to offer.
"Should I notify the groups of the poisonous rose as well?" Emelnie then asked. She could more or less guess Daniel's plan, but unfortunately, he had demonstrated to be an extremely cunning and unpredictable person, so she wasn't willing to assume any part of it.
"No. They know that we were up to something lately.. They will be curious and will want to send somebody to check what is going on.." Said Daniel before turning to look at Ligart, and added "Limit the number of participants, and make sure that none of the spots will go to the Navi family.. Let them find out that their family's most prized weapon is worth nothing anymore."
What Daniel intended to do specifically, was to allow the other families and groups that were part of the poisonous rose into the auction, let them see that Daniel hadn't died of the poison of the Navi family, and if that wasn't enough, he had created a pill that could render people immune to a vast number of poisons. The poisonous rose would then investigate the relationship between Daniel and the Navi family, and in the end, they would start to put things together.
The second reason why he wanted to use this method, was to avoid giving a chance to the Navi family to fabricate any sort of false story about the pills. Like claiming that they had found a cure, and that it had been stolen from them. If they did that after Daniel had presented it like a pill that could grant a permanent immunity from a certain level of poisons, nobody would believe that the Navi family was its rightful owner. At the same time, the various families would report the news to the poisonous rose, and the Navi family would lose face.
After receiving their orders, Emelnie and Ligart left the room, and along with Daniel, only Edmund and Serf remained.
Serf was looking at Daniel with renewed surprise. He was currently remembering of the first time he had met him, of how he had knocked on his door to invite him to lunch, of how he had scored first in their first alchemic assignment.. And now, he was going to ruin his family. That a person at his age could do something like that, was something unbelievable in the very least.
"Did you finish?" Asked Daniel to Edmund, who was currently standing in wait next to him.
Edmund did not respond, and instead, he walked towards the table, and once in front of it, he waved his hand, causing hundreds of identical talismans to appear on it. These talismans had a simple scale carved on one of their sides, and were made out of real gold. Carved on the edges of one side, was the name 'Academy of the Golden Karma', while on the other side, was the phrase 'We Pay and We Earn Based on Our Actions.'
Daniel could feel a very faint connection between the pocket dimension and these talismans, after all, he owned the pocket dimension. These were the talismans that they had created in order to grant entrance to the students of the academy, and they were made in a way that would render 'stealing' or 'forging' them, impossible. That was because the connection between the talisman and the pocket dimension would disappear right after being bound to a specific immortal essence, and a new one would be opened only when the immortal essence of the owner was injected into it.
"They are perfect. What about the bank?" Asked Daniel with curiosity. The whole point of allowing people into the pocket dimension was to allow an additional method for money to reach the pocket of his people. If he didn't have enough money to open a bank, that would be completely pointless.
Edmund used his immortal essence to, once again, insert all of these talismans into his spatial ring. Then, he said "If we do lower our prices, we will have enough. We might have to use a bit of our money to cover for it in the beginning, but we will gain in the long run."
"Excellent." Responded Daniel calmly before standing up from his chair, and teleporting out of the room and in front of a set of hundreds of small caves.
These caves were man-made, and were placed orderly on a wall, right at the bottom of a cliff. The majority of these small caves were locked, and not a sound could be heard in the surrounding. This place was called 'The Cultivation Hive', and it was the area that Daniel had asked Buriath to create for Daniel's group members to cultivate.
After observing quietly, Daniel found an empty cave, and walked in. Then, he took control over the large slab of stone that was right next to the entrance, and locked it completely.
-----
Two weeks had passed since Daniel had entrusted to Ligart and Emelnie the job of advertising their new discovery, and the buzz of conversation could be heard everywhere in the capital.
"That is a lot of bragging.."
"I don't even believe it's true, their company barely deals in alchemy!"
".. Boasting this loudly will do nothing but harm their reputation."
Daniel's plan had worked, and the news that the Golden Karma company had made a groundbreaking discovery, and that they were going to present it to the public during an auction, had become one of the most discussed rumors in the entire region.
Many people had started to pay attention to their actions, and the moment that Emelnie announced that only a small amount of people would have been allowed to participate, the attention of the most curious and powerful groups was attracted.
Before starting to cultivate, Daniel had left a large numbers of letter to Gai'ha, which he would tell her to send whenever he would receive the notification of the completion of the previous one. For the rest of the time, he focused solely on his cultivation, which he could barely sustain thanks to the large amounts of karma that he received from indirectly helping the groups in taking revenge for the wrongs they had suffered.
Back within the hall of the Navi family, Serf's grandma, along with her daughter, and the many elders of their family, were currently circling Alana. They were looking at her with dubious eyes, which caused to her no small amount of discomfort.
"Why isn't he dead?" Asked the old woman with a slightly angered tone, which scared her granddaughter out of her wits.
"I-I don't k-know.. I felt our p-poison in his body.. He should be by dead now." Said Alana nervously. It wouldn't have been the first time that an inheritor of the Navi family was killed for disappointing their elders, after all, she was not an only child, and their mother was not too old to marry again, and have more children.
"What about the auction? Did you manage to secure a few spots for us? Or at least place someone." The old lady with annoyance. It was clear that she was losing her temper.
"N-no.. they kept making us wait.. And now, they are not allowing anyone else in." Responded Alana before a sound slap hit her squarely on her face. This slap was not powerful, and yet, the girl fell on her knees, and in panic, she touched her cheek, trying to find or feel any sort of indication of poisoning. Luckily for her, there were none. Her grandmother had simply slapped her out of anger, and didn't mean to kill her.
"Find Serf and bring him here." The old lady then said, before walking out of the hall.
-----
Back to The Cultivation Hive, Daniel had just finished absorbing five perfect crystals, and he could feel the strong power of an early sixth stage cultivator run through his body. The speed in which he advanced was so high, that he could literally feel his power increase while he cultivated.
Once again out of karmic points, Daniel decided to interrupt his cultivation, so, he walked out of the cave, turning the large slab of stone into dust the moment the surface reached a certain distance from his body, as if there was an invisible shield around him which could pulverize anything that came too close to his body.